André Oliver & Pierre Cardin

Andre Oliver, Pierre Cardin's main assistant for more than 40 years, died at the Laennec Hospital in Paris on April 22, 1993. He was 61 and lived in Paris. (P: Pierre Cardin's assistant Andre Oliver with a model wearing a black and red outfit from the Pierre Cardin Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 1972 collection in his Paris studio. _ Image by © Condé Nast Archive/Corbis)

His friends said he died of AIDS.

Born in Toulouse, he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and joined Cardin in 1952 after serving in the French Army. He worked on the designer's first men's-wear collection, which was a big success in Europe and this country.

In the early 1960's, he and Cardin showed men's clothes based on the Edwardian look and caused a major revolution in the style of men's clothes in England and the United States. Later, it influenced the Japanese and is still a factor in avant-garde designs.

From the beginning, he worked on the couture collection as well, later adding ready-to-wear that was sold widely in the United States. For years he stepped on stage along with Cardin to acknowledge the applause at the end of a show, a rare case of an assistant receiving public acknowledgment.

While Cardin's great skill was tailoring, Oliver developed a facility for soft, fluid clothes. He was responsible for many of the evening dresses worn by Claude Pompidou, the wife of the late President of France; Bernadette Chirac, and other fans. He also was a popular host, entertaining prominent social figures like Lady Grace Dudley, Marie-Helene de Rothschild and Gianni Agnelli at dinner at his home on the Rue du Cherche-Midi.


Fashion designer Pierre Cardin being interviewed with Andre Oliver and Nicole Alphand at a room in The Hotel Pierre
There was a crisis when Pierre Cardin and Jeanne Moreau fell in love, depressing Andre Oliver, who announced he was considering suicide. So Cardin found him a better apartment, gave him a charge account at restaurants and discos and told Andre to select a valuable painting at the Galleries. "There are three I must have," Andre announced. He got all three. Andre died in 1993, at 61, after 41 years together with Pierre Cardin.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/24/obituaries/andre-oliver-61-clothing-designer-for-pierre-cardin.html

Pierre Cardin, born Pietro Cardin, is an Italian-born French fashion designer who was born on 2 July 1922, at San Biagio di Callalta near Treviso. Cardin was known for his avant-garde style and his Space Age designs. He prefers geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical. He introduced the "bubble dress" in 1954.

The Algerian war was on, and when Pierre Cardin's handsome young aide Andre Oliver was drafted into the army as a private, Cardin designed his uniform. Then, when Andre was shipped out to the war, Cardin flew him home to Paris every weekend to work on the new collection. There was a crisis when Cardin and movie star Jeanne Moreau somehow, and inexplicably, fell in love, depressing Andre, who promptly announced he was considering suicide. So Cardin found him a better apartment, gave him a charge account at restaurants and discos and told Andre to select a valuable painting at the Galleries. "There are three I must have," Andre announced. He got all three. Andre died in 1993, at 61, after 41 years together with Pierre Cardin.

Pierre Cardin was also designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1991.

On 16 October 2009, Pierre Cardin was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Cardin was educated in central France. Beginning his career early, Cardin, aged 14, worked as a clothier’s apprentice, learning the basics of fashion design and construction. In 1939, he left home to work for a tailor in Vichy, where he began making suits for women. During World War II, he worked in the Red Cross, launching humanitarian interests that continue to this day.


Mini-dress, 1967-1968
Cardin was born in Venice to French parents and educated in France. After training as a tailor, he worked for two Paris design houses, Paquin and Schiaparelli. Dior then employed him during the era of the New Look.
This A-line mini dress is of stiff crepe material. It is decorated only with a relief pattern of geometric shapes at the neck and hem. It zips up at the centre back. Cardin's bold, futuristic clothes were designed for active young people. This fabric allows free movement, yet is stiff enough to maintain a clear-cut shape. This dress is from his ready-to-wear collection in 1968.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Cardin

( Further Readings )

More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Donald Windham & Sandy Campbell

Sandy Campbell was born in New York City, April 22, 1922. His father owned a chemical manufacturing company that provided for the family. After attending the Kent School in Connecticut, Campbell studied at Princeton University, where he nourished his two abiding passions: acting and literature.

He soon made his way to the Broadway stage, where he landed roles in Life with Father, the revival of Spring Awakening, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Over two decades in the theater, he shared the stage with Marlon Brando, Spencer Tracy, Jessica Tandy, Tallullah Bankhead, Lynne Fontaine, Alfred Lunt, Lois Smith and many others.

A chance meeting at the studio of Paul Cadmus, where Campbell was modeling for one of the artist’s paintings, brought him together with Donald Windham. The two remained romantic partners for the rest of Campbell’s life.

Alongside his acting ambitions, Campbell was a devoted reader, book collector, writer, and publisher. He began collecting at an early age and maintained the habit of finding the home address of an author, and writing to ask if he could send along his book to be signed.

His library included signed first editions by Graham Green, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, and E.M. Forster as well as books personally annotated by authors such as Katherine Anne Porter, Isak Dinesen, Alice B. Toklas, and Marianne Moore. Most of these are housed in the Windham-Campbell collection at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.


Donald Windham & Sandy Campbell by Carl Van Vechten
Donald Windham was an American novelist and memoirist. He is perhaps best known for his close friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. In 1943 Windham met Sandy Campbell, an undergraduate student at Princeton University. They began a relationship that would last until Campbell's death in 1988. Campbell helped Windham publish books through the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona. Partially because Windham was influenced by his life, homosexuality is one of many themes treated in his work.


Reflection by Paul Cadmus, 1944. Donald Windham is dancer in foreground, Fidelma Cadmus is dancer against wall, and Sandy Campbell is dancer on bench.

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Source: http://windhamcampbell.org/sandy-campbell#sthash.wlqyyf6t.dpuf

Donald Windham (July 2, 1920, Atlanta – May 31, 2010) was raised by his mother and aunt, alongside his brother Fred, in a large Victorian home that served mostly as a painful reminder of the family’s prosperous past. By the time Windham had reached adolescence, even the house was gone. (Picture: Donald Windham by Carl Van Vechten)

After high school, his mother found him a job in a Coca-Cola factory, where he rolled barrels through the warehouse and harbored dreams of becoming a writer. During his off hours, he fell in with a group of local artists and writers, including Fred Melton. The two became lovers and before long left together for New York.

Windham and Melton shared several Manhattan apartments in the late 1930s and early '40s. It was during this period that they befriended another young writer who would have a substantial impact on Windham’s life: Tennessee Williams. After meeting Williams, Windham was swept into the upper echelons of New York artistic society, becoming friends with W.H. Auden, Tony Smith, Glenway Wescott, Paul Cadmus, and Truman Capote. Capote and Windham met in the forties and remained friends throughout their lives.

Williams, already an experienced writer, also provided professional inspiration to Windham, who began writing short stories about his early years in Georgia. In the decades that followed, the two developed a friendship that included a co-written play, decades of correspondence, a novel by Windham about Williams, and a very public dissolution of their friendship in the 1970s.


Donald Windham & Tennessee Williams
Donald Windham was an American novelist and memoirist. He is perhaps best known for his friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Windham became estranged from Williams in the Seventies after Williams published his Memoirs. Windham later published a volume of their correspondence, which Williams claimed was done without permission. Windham remained a friend of Capote until Capote's death. Lost Friendships, a memoir of his friendship with Capote and Williams, was published in 1987.

( Read more... )

Source: http://windhamcampbell.org/donald-windham#sthash.ZXRtyBLU.dpuf

I first came to know of Donald Windham through his association with the great gay American playwright Tennessee Williams, who was Windham‘s friend and literary mentor for 25 years. In 1977, Windham published the correspondence he had received from 10, as Williams often signed his letters, under the title Tennessee Williams’ Letters to Donald Windham: 1940-1965, a book I devoured. [...] Windham and Williams had met in New York in January, 1940. Windham, then 19 and practically penniless, had recently fled Atlanta with his 21-year-old boyfriend. They were living in a single furnished room. The romance of all that delighted me. As I read the letters, Windham seemed like the writer-in-training and literary acolyte I longed to be. Nevertheless, I didn‘t feel any strong desire to delve into his novels. Perhaps that‘s because Windham‘s books were hard to find, mostly out of print; or perhaps because, in the last years of the 70s, newer gay voices — Andrew Holleran, Ed White, Joseph Hansen, Larry Kramer, Armistead Maupin — had begun to appear. Whatever the reason, it was 30 years later that I finally got around to reading one of Donald Windham‘s novels. It happened, really, quite by chance.
One day, browsing in one of my favorite used bookstores in downtown Boston, I came across a copy of Windham‘s novel (his third, it turns out), Two People. I might have easily passed it by but for the author‘s name, which triggered happy memories of reading the Williams-Windham correspondence so many years before. I pulled it off the shelf. The dust jacket — a sketch of the Spanish Steps in Rome, a few people lolling about — seemed innocuous, even old fashioned. And the title, such a generic one, seemed innocuous as well, promising little more than a safe plot, a pleasant read. But the book — its heft, its sheer physicality —piqued my curiosity. It was an immaculate copy, not a mark or tear, and the pages, creamy white, had the soft, thick, luxurious texture that hardback paper used to have. I checked the publication date: 1965. A quick glance at the dust jacket blurb — The story of an American man and an Italian boy in Rome . . . a situation that another author might have made melodramatic or sensational — clinched it. Code for a gay story! That night, curled up in bed, I began to read. -- extract from the essay of Philip Gambone for The Lost Library

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Joe Babcock (born July 2, 1984)

Joe Babcock is the author of The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers. The author lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Further Readings:

The Boys and the Bees by Joe Babcock
Paperback: 137 pages
Publisher: Carroll & Graf (December 21, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786716479
ISBN-13: 978-0786716470
Amazon: The Boys and the Bees

A gay 12 year old boy begins his first year of junior high with the vow that this will be the year that he kisses a boy. Like The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers—only lighter, brighter and more youthful—The Boys and the Bees is set in Minneapolis and involves a confused but sweet adolescent kid coming to grips with growing up gay and feeling completely lost about it.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

Édouard Roditi & Richard Bruce Nugent

Charles Aufderheide (November 30, 1920 - February 1984) was an American technician, from the Midwest. Aufderheide came to Los Angeles with Ruby Bell and the From twins. He began working on cameras at Technicolor soon after he arrived, and he continued there for about thirty years.

According to a friend, Alvin Novak, Aufderheide's personal qualities were largely responsible for the longterm harmony of The Benton Way Group: he had quick insight into the needs and motives of his circle of acquaintances and friends, liked to entertain, and was able to talk practically on a wide range of sophisticated subjects.

The Benton Way Group became a special haven for certain intellectuals who belonged neither to the Hollywood film world, not to the continental high culture of the refugee community. The Benton Way Group were almost exclusively Americans, apart from the Egyptian-born scholar and intellectual Edouard Roditi (who was evidently attracted to them precisely because they were unlike himself).

Aufderheide also wrote poetry, and after he died his friends collected some of his verses in a book.

Eddie (1918 - June 27, 1994) and Sam From (1918-1956) were twin brothers at the center of The Benton Way Group, they were both gay.

Eddie's real name was Isadore, and some of his friends called him Isad. The Benton Way Group began when Ruby Bell, a librarian from the Midwest, inherited some money and encouraged a group of her friends, mostly homosexuals and including the Froms and Charles Aufderheide, to move with her to Los Angeles. There she used her inheritance to acquire the house in Benton Way where they settled together. The house was called The Palazzo because it looked like an Italian villa, and the name later accompanied the household to other settings.

Some of the group were able to find work in the film industry, and Eddie From worked for Technicolor before taking up psychotherapy. According to Alvin Novak, Eddie was once picked up by the police for an offense related to his homosexuality, and Christopher Isherwood made a lasting impression by coming to his aid. There are many passages about the Froms in Isherwood's Diaries.

Isadore From was one of the formulators of the innovative approach to psychotherapy called Gestalt therapy.

From died of a stroke during treatment for cancer on June 27, 1994, said Hunt Cole, his companion for 34 years.

( Read more... )

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/02/us/isadore-from-main-theorizer-of-gestalt-therapy-dies-at-75.html

Édouard Roditi (1910–1992) was an American poet, short-story writer and translator. He was born in Paris and subsequently studied in France, England, Germany and the USA. He published several volumes of poetry, short stories, and art criticism. He was also well regarded as a translator, and translated into English original works from French, German, Spanish, Danish and Turkish. He had an affair with African-American Harlem Renaissance poet and artist Richard Bruce Nugent.

In 1961, Roditi translated Yaşar Kemal's epic novel Ince Memed (1955) under the English title Memed, My Hawk. This book was instrumental in introducing the famed Turkish writer to the English-speaking world. Memed, My Hawk is still in print.

In addition to his poetry and translations, Roditi is perhaps best remembered for the numerous interviews he conducted with modernist artists, including Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Oskar Kokoschka, Philippe Derome and Hannah Höch. Several of these have been assembled in the collection Dialogues on Art.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Roditi

Richard Bruce Nugent (July 2, 1906 – May 27, 1987), aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Washington, DC to a middle-class African American family. He was the oldest child of Richard H. Nugent, Jr., a train porter, by his wife, Pauline. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 1926 Nugent published "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade," a short story regarded by many scholars as the first publication by an African American to depict homosexuality openly. The story, on which he collaborated with other authors, appeared in the only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer Wallace Thurman at 267 W 136th Street in Harlem, New York. The apartment complex in which they stayed was known as "Niggeratti Manor," and the walls were decorated by Nugent with murals representing homoerotic scenes.

Many of his illustrations were featured in publications, such as "Fire!!", "Opportunity" and "Palms". Also, four of Nugent’s works were included in the Harmon Foundation’s exhibition of Negro artist, which was one of the few venues available for black artists to show their work in 1931.

Nugent’s only stand-alone publication, Beyond Where the Stars Stood Still, was issued in a limited edition by Warren Marr II in 1945. He later married Marr's sister, Grace on December 5, 1952. This marriage however was never consummated since Nugent was openly gay, but she insisted they marry with the notion that she could change him. It was not seen as a ploy to hide his homosexuality, but rather they were just very close.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bruce_Nugent

( Further Readings )

More LGBT History at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Gay Classics

Euro Pride Con: Rebecca Cohen

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the Euro Pride in Munich, July 11-12, 2015, today author is Rebecca Cohen (Rebecca Cohen will also attend UK Meet in Bristol): "I'm a Brit abroad. Having swapped the Thames for the Rhine, I have left London behind and now live with my husband and toddler son in Basel, Switzerland. I can often be found with a pen in one hand and a cup of Darjeeling in the other.

'Under Glass' (sci fi romance novel) was released 10 April 2015.

My next release will be 'Overly Dramatic' (a rom-com novella) in summer 2015.

Current WIP is the final novella in the 'Treading the Boards' series - a contemporary rom-com series set around a London based amateur dramatics group... that should keep me busy for a while!"

Further Readings:

Under Glass by Rebecca Cohen
Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (April 10, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1634760409
ISBN-13: 978-1634760409
Amazon: Under Glass
Amazon Kindle: Under Glass

Creating planets and guarding the stars leaves novice planet builder Kai Faewiva lonely. For members of Kai’s species who are born with an organ called a caerellon, their true love, their Sun or Moon, is identified at birth. But the novices are people who have lost their perfect love, and Kai’s Sun is long dead, killed in an accident when he was five years old. Or so everyone thought.

After recovering from another bout of the unidentified illness he has battled for years, Kai returns to work. But his quiet day at the planetarium is thrown into chaos when scans of Goka Prime, one of the planets in the Sol-Alpha2 system, picks up a life-form that shouldn’t be there. Kai’s Sun, Oliver Gyin, is alive and well, but how he got to be on Goka Prime, no one knows. Now he needs to be brought home.

Ollie has lived most of his life in the City of Harrea, never guessing he is from another planet. Surprised to find a stranger means the world to him, Ollie wrestles with his loyalties and the drive to return with Kai. To leave Goka Prime, he must give up everything and everyone he knows. But twenty years apart means Kai and Ollie face a fight to secure their destined future.

&

GRL: L.C. Chase

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is L.C. Chase: Cover artist by day, author by night, L.C. Chase is a hopeless romantic, free spirit, and adventure seeker who loves hitting the open road just to see where it takes her. When not road tripping or writing about beautiful men falling love, L.C. can be found designing book covers featuring said beautiful men, drawing, horseback riding, or hiking the trails with her goofy four-legged buddy.

Further Readings:

Riding with Heaven by L.C. Chase
Paperback: 130 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 20, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500375926
ISBN-13: 978-1500375928
Amazon: Riding with Heaven
Amazon Kindle: Riding with Heaven

When his flight home for his brother’s birthday is canceled due to a Category 5 hurricane on the Eastern seaboard, art major Evan McGrath places an ad on Craigslist for a rideshare from Colorado to South Carolina. He hadn’t expected an immediate reply, nor had he expected to fall head-over-heels for the handsome and mysterious driver, Lucas Briscoe.

As the miles disappear behind them Evan grows more and more attracted to the enigmatic Lucas, and the desire is mutual. The only problem is that a serial killer dubbed “The Domino Slasher” has just escaped a federal prison transfer, and funny little coincidences keep pointing toward Lucas--who looks like Heaven incarnate, but who could be the Devil in disguise.

2012 Rainbow Awards, Honorable Mention - Best Gay Mystery/Thriller

UK Meet & Blog Tour: Played! by J. L. Merrow

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the UK Meet in Bristol, September 11-13, 2015, today author is J. L. Merrow. Moreover I'm hosting the Blog Tour for Played!:

Played! (The Shamwell Tales) by JL Merrow
Paperback: 218 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (June 30, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1619229722
ISBN-13: 978-1619229723
Amazon: Played! (The Shamwell Tales)
Amazon Kindle: Played! (The Shamwell Tales)

All the world’s a stage…but real-life lessons are hidden in the heart
Though Tristan must join his family’s New York firm at summer’s end—no more farting around on stage, as his father so bluntly puts it—he can’t resist when Shamwell’s local amateur dramatics society begs him to take a role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The bonus: giving private acting lessons to a local handyman who’s been curiously resistant to Tristan’s advances. Not only is Con delicious, there’s fifty pounds riding on Tristan getting him in his bed.

A late-diagnosed dyslexic, Con’s never dared to act, convinced he’d never be able to learn his lines. But with Tristan’s help, he takes the chance. Trouble is, the last time Con fell for a guy, he ended up getting his heart broken. And with Tristan due to leave the country soon, Con is determined not to start anything that’s bound to finish badly.
Just as Tristan thinks he’s finally won Con’s heart—and given his own in return—disaster strikes. And the curtain may have fallen forever on their chance for happiness.
Warning: contains a surfeit of Bottoms and asses, together with enough mangled quotations to have the Bard of Avon gyrating in his grave.

( Exclusive Excerpt )

About the Author: JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.

She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy, and her novella Muscling Through and novel Relief Valve were both EPIC Awards finalists.

JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers’ Circle and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow

Giveaway:
Prizes! I’m offering a prize of an ebook of the winner’s choice from my backlist to one lucky commenter at EVERY stop on the tour, plus a grand prize of a signed copy of Caught!, the first Shamwell Tale, which comes out in paperback on 4th August. I’m happy to ship worldwide, and I’ll throw in some small goodies as well.
Please remember to leave an email addy in your comment so I can get in touch with you if you win.
I’ll be making the draws around teatime on Friday 10th July, GMT.
Good luck! :D

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Fated (Shadow Mountain 1) by Indra Vaughn

Fated (Shadow Mountain 1) by Indra Vaughn
Gay Mystery / Thriller
Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 31, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1632163721
ISBN-13: 978-1632163721
Amazon: Fated (Shadow Mountain 1)
Amazon Kindle: Fated (Shadow Mountain 1)

Shadow Mountain: Book One

Two towns flank the looming Shadow Mountain. A dark myth of the Predator drifts through the dense trees, a tale Police Lieutenant Hart never paid much attention to. When one unresolved death follows another—some people dying without discernible cause while others are clearly, and often brutally, murdered—he can't ignore it any longer. Truth may lie in myth, but this one is spread to deceive everyone. The Predator exists, but he's not entirely human. Hart will have to find the connection between the mysterious figure and victims with only one thing in common: a faint tattoo on the backs of their necks, a mark left when someone healed their incurable diseases.

Isaac Lasko has been in love with Hart since he moved in across the street seven years ago. He’s been helping Hart renovate his home, and their friendship grows more intense with the years, but Isaac can't help wishing for a deeper bond. When he finally breaks through the lieutenant's armor, the mystery surrounding the Predator threatens them both. Help will come, but at a price.

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html