J.L. Langley (born July 9)

J.L. Langley writes M/M erotic romance, among other things, and is fortunate to live with four of the most gorgeous males to walk the earth...ok, so one of those males is canine, but he is quite beautiful for a German Shepherd. J.L. was born and raised in Texas. Which is a good thing considering that Texas is full of cowboys and there is nothing better than a man in a pair of tight Wranglers and a cowboy hat as far as J.L. is concerned.

"Without Reservations is a story about werewolf mates. With my other pen name I explored the idea of werewolf mates of the same sex. But because my readers for that pen name expect male/female romance, I was fearful that a gay romance wouldn't go over well with them. So unfortunately, I never got to fully delve into the two male mates the way I wanted to and I yearned to do so. In an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity, I developed Chay and Keaton. While their story is different from the mates in the other series, I found that it did satisfy my muse, so to speak, and took on a life of its own." (J.L. Langley on her With or Without series)

"I love Regency Romance. Well, I should clarify, I love the Historical Romances set in the Regency time period. I can't say that I've actually read a traditional Regency with no sex. Some of my favorites are: Julia Quinn, Suzanne Enoch, Karen Hawkins, Johanna Lindsey and Eloisa James. I also love Teresa Medeiros; she doesn't write strictly Regency though, she has other historical periods she does as well. It is one of my favorite genres aside from M/M, mystery and paranormal. There are very few Regency M/M books out there, but while good, they are traditional where the men are rakes and rogues and a homosexual relationship is against the law. I thought it would be neat to see a man in the role of "husband/title seeking virgin," so I came up with the concept of the Sci-Regency Series. I took some of the traditional regency themes and played off of them. For example, the first one (My Fair Captain) uses the old theme of the heroine being compromised and forced to marry, only instead of a heroine it is a hero. If nothing else is fun to write and I hope humorous to read." (J.L. Langley on her Sci-Regency series)

My Fair Captain won a 2009 Rainbow Award as Best LGBT Futuristic.

Source: http://www.jllangley.com/

Further Readings:

The Tin Star by J. L. Langley
Publisher Loose Id, LLC (August 6, 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10 1596323272
ISBN-13 978-1596323278
Amazon: The Tin Star
Amazon Kindle: The Tin Star

When James Killian comes out to his father, he finds himself banished from his home and fired from his job. His savior comes in the unlikely form of Ethan Whitehall, his older brother's best friend. Ethan has always had a soft spot where Jamie Killian was concerned, and he will do whatever it takes to keep his new lover safe.

My Fair Captain by J. L. Langley
Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (April 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599987619
ISBN-13: 978-1599987613
Amazon: My Fair Captain
Amazon Kindle: My Fair Captain

Talk about a compromising situation!

Swarthy Intergalactic Navy Captain Nathaniel Hawkins ran from a past he had no intention of ever reliving. But when his Admiral asks him to use his peerage, as an earl and the heir to a dukedom, to investigate a missing weapons stash, he’s forced to do just that. As if being undercover on a Regency planet where the young men are supposed to remain pure until marriage isn’t bad enough, Nate finds himself attracted to the king’s unmarried son.

All Prince Aiden Townsend has ever wanted was to be an artist. He has no interest in a marriage of political fortune or becoming a societal paragon. Until he lands in the arms of the mysterious Earl of Deverell. One look at Nate’s handsome face has Aiden reconsidering his future. Not only does Nate make a virile subject for Aiden’s art, but the great war hero awakens feelings in Aiden he has never felt, feelings he can’t ignore.

After a momentous dance at a season ball, Aiden and Nate find themselves exchanging important information and working closely together. They have to fight their growing attraction long enough to find out who stole the weapons and keep themselves from a compromising situation and certain scandal.

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

More Rainbow Awards at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2009

Christa Winsloe, Dorothy Thompson & Simone Gentet

The German novelist, dramatist, and screenwriter Christa Winsloe reflected her lesbianism in works that treat sexual identity within societies stratified according to gender roles. In October 1939, in Nice, she met the Swiss writer Simone Gentet, ten years younger, who became her partner.

Winsloe led a life in opposition to the expectations of her family and her society and created from it a body of fiction that portrays the difficulties felt by a woman who does not wish to conform. Her role was to have been that of an army officer's wife; instead, she pursued a career as a sculptress. In 1913, however, she did fulfill her family's desire by marrying the Hungarian Baron Ludwig Hatvany.

Her first literary effort, Das schwarze Schaf (The Black Sheep), dates from the early years of her marriage. The unpublished novel portrays a girl who is a social outsider, both at school and in her career as an artist. She gains acceptance only through marriage to the right man.

Her real life took a different turn. Owing to her husband's numerous affairs, Winsloe went to Munich where she returned to sculpting and also began to write professionally.

Her novella Männer kehren heim (Men Return Home; date unknown) voices the concern that would motivate her fiction, namely, the question of sexual identity within a society stratified according to gender roles. During World War I, a girl is attacked by several soldiers and, to maintain her safety, she dresses in her brother's clothes for the rest of the war.

( Read more... )

Citation Information
Author: Jones, James W.
Entry Title: Winsloe, Christa
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2002
Date Last Updated November 23, 2002
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/winsloe_c.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date June 10, 2013
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 1995, 2002 New England Publishing Associates

Dorothy Thompson (9 July 1893 – 30 January 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential woman in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s. Many fondly referred to her as the “First Lady of American Journalism.”

Thompson had a number of affairs with women, including German writer Christa Winsloe (Winsloe joined the French Resistance and with a woman companion, she was shot and killed by four Frenchmen in a forest near the country town of Cluny on June 10, 1944) and Gertrude Van Vranken Franchot Tone (16 Nov 1876, Titusville, Crawford, PA - 16 Apr 1953, Los Angeles Co, CA), mother of actor Franchot Tone.

She was married three times, most famously to second husband and Nobel Prize in literature winner Sinclair Lewis. Thompson married Sinclair Lewis in 1928 and acquired a house in Vermont. They had one son, Michael Lewis, born in 1930. The couple divorced in 1942. In 1923 she married her first husband, Hungarian Joseph Bard; they divorced in 1927. She married her third husband, the artist Maxim Kopf, in 1945, and they were married until Kopf's death in 1958.

Dorothy Thompson was born in Lancaster, New York, in 1894 to Margaret and Peter Thompson. Margaret died when Dorothy was seven (in 1901), leaving Peter, a Methodist preacher, to raise his daughter alone. Peter soon remarried, but Dorothy did not get along with his new wife, Elizabeth Abbott Thompson. In 1908, Peter sent Dorothy to Chicago to live with his two sisters to avoid further conflict. Here, she attended Lewis Institute for two years before transferring to Syracuse University as a junior. At Syracuse, she studied politics and economics and graduated with a degree in 1914. Because she had the opportunity to be educated, unlike many women of the time, Thompson felt strongly that she had a social obligation to fight for women's suffrage in the United States, which would become the base of her ardent political beliefs. Shortly after graduation, Thompson moved to Buffalo, New York and became involved in the women's suffrage campaign. She worked there until 1920, when she went abroad to pursue her journalism career.

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

( Further Readings )

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

David Hockney & John Fitzherbert

David Hockney, OM, CH, RA, (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He lives in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, and Kensington, London. Hockney maintains two residences in California, where he lived on and off for over 30 years: one in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, and an office and archives on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Britain’s greatest living artist, David Hockney—who wore a gold lamé jacket to receive an award from the queen in 1963 and has never been coy about his sexuality—met his partner, John Fitzherbert, at a lunch in London in 1990. Fitzherbert, a professional chef, wrote to Hockney asking if he could join him as a cook in Los Angeles, where the two began a relationship that continues today. In a rare concession, the couple—who lived mainly in the Yorkshire, England, home that Hockney bought for his mother in 1990—allowed themselves to be photographed with their dog for Out.

An important contributor to the Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

Hockney was born in Bradford, England, on 9 July 1937 to Laura Beth and Kenneth Hockney (a conscientious objector in the First World War), the fourth of five children. He was educated at Wellington Primary School, Bradford Grammar School, Bradford College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, where he met R. B. Kitaj. While there, Hockney said he felt at home and took pride in his work. At the Royal College of Art, Hockney featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries—alongside Peter Blake—that announced the arrival of British Pop art. He was associated with the movement, but his early works display expressionist elements, not dissimilar to some works by Francis Bacon. When the RCA said it would not let him graduate in 1962, Hockney drew the sketch The Diploma in protest. He had refused to write an essay required for the final examination, saying he should be assessed solely on his artworks. Recognising his talent and growing reputation, the RCA changed its regulations and awarded the diploma.


David Hockney & John Fitzherbert, The artist and his partner pose for a portrait at their London home, Photography by M. Sharkey, September 26, 2012
David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. Britain’s greatest living artist, David Hockney—who wore a gold lamé jacket to receive an award from the queen in 1963 and has never been coy about his sexuality—met his partner, John Fitzherbert, at a lunch in London in 1990. Fitzherbert, a professional chef, wrote to Hockney asking if he could join him as a cook in Los Angeles, where the two began a relationship that lasted until 2013.


Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968


Domestic Scene, Los Angeles, 1963

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

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

Christopher Scott & Henry Geldzahler

Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a modern art art historian and art critic. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and for his social role in the art world with a close relationship with contemporary artists. (Picture: Henry Geldzahler by Andy Warhol)

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Geldzahler's Jewish family emigrated to the United States in 1940. He graduated from Yale University in 1957, where he was a member of Manuscript Society.

In 1960, Geldzahler left graduate school at Harvard University to join the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He became the Curator for American Art there, and later the first Curator for 20th Century Art. His time at the Met is most known for his landmark 1969 exhibition, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, which included his favorite contemporary work and became the talk of the town.

Unlike most curators at the time, he befriended many of the artists he was interested in, and socialized with them as part of the same art world. Artists he associated with included Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Larry Stanton, and later Jean-Michel Basquiat. Geldzahler is also noted for his recognition of the first Chinese contemporary artist in America, Ching Ho Cheng.


Henry Geldzahler was a curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a modern art art historian and art critic. Geldzahler is the subject of a documentary called Who Gets to Call It Art?, by Peter Rosen. He is depicted in portraits by several of his artist friends, including a famous 1969 double portrait by David Hockney of Geldzahler with his then partner, painter Christopher Scott. Geldzahler is depicted in a 1964 movie, Henry Geldzahler, by Andy Warhol, smoking a cigar.




Andy Warhol, Henry Geldzahler, David Hockney and Jeff Goodman by Dennis Hopper

( Read more... )

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

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

Matthew Lewis & William Kelly

Matthew Lewis's scandalous masterpiece, The Monk, is one of the great works in the gay and lesbian literary tradition. (P: ©Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875)/NPG 421. Matthew Gregory Lewis, 1876 (©4))

Matthew "Monk" Lewis was born to a fairly prosperous family of some distinction. His father, who deeply loved his son, was England's Deputy Secretary at War; and his mother, also deeply loving, was literary, musical, and in all things encouraging to her son. Lewis's parents divorced when the boy was six years old, and throughout his life he acted as emissary between them.

He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and after leaving university, at eighteen, he went to The Hague to pursue a diplomatic career, at the same time convinced that he had a future as a writer. During his six months in The Hague, he composed his scandalous masterpiece The Monk (1795), which earned him the nickname that lasted until his death.

After that "succès de scandale," Lewis was appointed to Parliament, and he served as a member of the House of Commons from 1796 to 1802. As a member of Parliament, he received special censure for his novel, but his heart was not in politics, and he spent most of the time after the publication of The Monk working on other literary products, one of which, The Castle Spectre (1797), was a huge success on the stage.

( Read more... )

Citation Information
Author: Haggerty, George E.
Entry Title: Lewis, Matthew G.
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2002
Date Last Updated November 12, 2002
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/lewis_mg.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date May 14, 2013
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 1995, 2002 New England Publishing Associates

Further Readings:

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

Paul Lisicky (born July 9, 1959)

Paul Lisicky (born July 9, 1959) is an American novelist and memoirist. From 1995 until 2010, his partner was the writer Mark Doty. They were married in 2008 and divorced in 2013. As Paul told me in 2012: "Mark and I have separated after 16 years together. We're still close, of course, and maybe there's something to say about all that. Maybe one could have a real life romance, and there could be more life to come beyond that"

Paul Lisicky grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in English from Rutgers University, then received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. While a student at Iowa, he won a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He also received awards from the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he was twice a winter Fellow. He is the author of the novel "Lawnboy," the memoir "Famous Builder" and two forthcoming books: "The Burning House" (a novel, 2011) and "Unbuilt Projects" (short prose pieces, 2012). (Picture: Mark Doty)

He has taught creative writing at Cornell University, The University of Houston, Antioch University, Sarah Lawrence College, Rutgers–Newark and New York University, in addition to summer writing programs including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Indiana Summer Writers Conference.

He currently lives in New York City.


Mark Doty, at far left, and Paul Lisicky on a boardwalk near their Fire Island Pines home. Doug Kuntz for The New York Times
Paul Lisicky is an American novelist and memoirist. From 1995 until 2010, his partner was the writer Mark Doty. Doty is an American poet and memoirist, and the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. They were married in 2008 and divorced in 2013. "Mark and I have separated after 16 years together. We're still close, of course, and maybe there's something to say about all that. Maybe one could have a real life romance, and there could be more life to come beyond that"

( Read more... )

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

Further Readings:

Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky
Publisher Graywolf Press (June 27, 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10 1555974481
ASIN B005M4VJGS
Amazon: Lawnboy

"Lawnboy is, quite simply, the real thing, a novel of mystery and great beauty." --Michael Cunningham

They all thought I was good-natured, upright and responsible, generous, affectionate, and kind, and of course I could be those things, but there was much more to me than that, a side that unnerved even myself, and this side included William.

Seventeen-year-old Evan's adventure begins with mowing a neighbor's lawn, a summer job that leads him into an unpredictable world of desire and betrayal. Estranged from his parents and his older brother, he moves in with forty-one-year-old William and begins a disastrous series of attempts to make a new home. Must he make a choice between his family and desire? First published to wide acclaim in 1999, Lawnboy wanders the lush and tumultuous landscape of the early 1990s, its south Florida setting as fertile and troubling as Evan's inner life.

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

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

Kelly McGillis & Melanie Leis

Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress. Her breakthrough role came in 1985's Witness for which she was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Her subsequent films include Top Gun and The Accused. In 2010, Kelly McGillis entered into a civil union with Melanie Leis, a Philadelphia based sales executive; she and McGillis met in 2000 when Leis was a bartender at the restaurant she owned with her then-husband. Leis and McGillis broke up in 2012.

McGillis was born in Newport Beach, California, the daughter of Virginia Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Donald Manson McGillis, a general practitioner of medicine.

She attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California. In 1979, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School, where she graduated in 1983. While at Juilliard she performed in William Congreve's Love for Love, directed by John Blatchley.

Her breakout role was that of an Amish mother in the 1985 film Witness with Harrison Ford, for which she received a Golden Globe award nomination. Her next high profile role was that of flight instructor, Charlie, in the 1986 fighter-pilot film Top Gun with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. After 1988's The Accused, she appeared in Cat Chaser with Peter Weller, a film she despised and which discouraged her from pursuing an acting career. McGillis appeared in dozens of television and film roles throughout the 1990s before taking a break from acting for a few years.


Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress. Her breakthrough role came in 1985's Witness for which she was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Her subsequent films include Top Gun and The Accused. In 2010, Kelly McGillis entered into a civil union with Melanie Leis, a Philadelphia based sales executive; she and McGillis met in 2000 when Leis was a bartender at the restaurant she owned with her then-husband. She and Leis shared a home in Collingswood, New Jersey. Leis and McGillis broke up in 2012.

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

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

Marco Pennette & Steve Rabiner

Marco Pennette (born July 9, 1966) is an American television producer and screenwriter. Openly gay, Pennette was outed by a colleague network executive on the People's Choice Awards red carpet when asked about his boyfriend in front of his family members, who were unaware of his sexuality. Since 1997 his long-time partner is television talent manager Steve Rabiner, with whom he has two daughters, Ally (born January 8, 2004) and Chelsea, both born by surrogate pregnancy, the inspiration for his medical drama Inconceivable. His own family experiences were the basis for his sitcom Crumbs; his brother's drowning, his mother's institutionalization and his father's impregnation of another woman.

Pennette was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut where he grew up loving theatre: "I want to go into theatre; TV sort of lured me away." He attended New York University where he studied at the Tisch School of the Arts and as a student was a finalist in the Young Playwrights Festival. He intended to pursue a career in Broadway theatre but sold his first television script to Kate & Allie and dropped out of university and moved to Los Angeles to pursue television writing.

Pennette's career began on the sitcom Kate & Allie from where he moved on to other projects including Dave's World and Dear John. He went on to create and write for many of his own series: Caroline in the City, Union Square, Conrad Bloom and All About the Andersons. Most notably, though, were the short-lived medical drama Inconceivable co-created with Oliver Goldstick, inspired by both of their surrogate pregnancy experiences, and the short-lived midseason sitcom Crumbs, an autobiographical portrayal of his family experiences and closeted young adulthood. His other writing and producing work from 2003 onwards includes serving as executive producer and co-executive producer on the television series I'm with Her and the sitcom What I Like About You, for both of which he also wrote a number of episodes. He also wrote the script for and an the executive producer of the 2007 Football Wives pilot, which was originally intended to be a television series but was later declined by the American Broadcasting Company in favour of seven other pilots with lower budgets, as the ABC claimed that the pitched budget for Football Wives was too high for a midseason pick-up. The series was set to be a U.S. version of the popular British soap opera Footballers' Wives.


Marco Pennette is an American television producer and screenwriter. Since 1997 his long-time partner is television talent manager Steve Rabiner, with whom he has two daughters, Ally (born January 8, 2004) and Chelsea, both born by surrogate pregnancy, the inspiration for his medical drama Inconceivable. His own family experiences were the basis for his sitcom Crumbs; his brother's drowning, his mother's institutionalization and his father's impregnation of another woman.

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

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

Euro Pride Con: T.J. Masters

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 T.J. Masters (T.J. Masters will also attend UK Meet in Bristol): T.J. Masters is a fifty-six-year-old author and life coach living in Hertfordshire just to the north of London, England. T.J. has shared thirty years of suburban life with his civil partner Ian, and they enjoy the love and support of T.J’s large Irish family who all live nearby. In 2009 T.J. took early retirement from a thirty-three-year school teaching career and decided to follow a new path. After qualifying as a life coach, T.J. found that he was coaching a couple of authors who were going through the process of giving birth to the book which “had always been inside them.” This rekindled T.J’s long-held desire to write and get published.

With a lifelong passion for books, learning, and the sharing of knowledge, T.J. woke up to the realization that he had stories to tell, books to write, and less than half a lifetime left to do it in. As for the kind of books he is writing… well, let’s just say that he decided to channel over thirty years of experience in the gay BDSM lifestyle into a genre where it would be most appreciated!

Alongside this passion for books and writing, T.J. also found an outlet for his inner geek and has become a great advocate for social media in various forms. Blogging has become a great outlet for T.J’s many interests including the writerly ones.

Further Readings:

Window Cleaner's View (Working Hard. Loving Harder Book 4) by T. J. Masters
Publication Date: April 30, 2014
Amazon Kindle: Window Cleaner's View (Working Hard. Loving Harder Book 4)

Young James Cooper is cleaning windows to cover for the regular guy who is in hospital. James has also been receiving therapy following his troubled early retirement from the Army. Whilst cleaning a customer’s windows James spies a sexy young guy indulging in some solo fun watching a gay porn movie in his bedroom. Soon the two guys get together and horny student Steve no longer needs porn to stimulate him. The attraction is purely physical at first but as the two men learn more about each other it appears that the connection is more than skin deep.

&

UK Meet: L. M. Somerton

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 L. M. Somerton: "I live in a small village in the English countryside, surrounded by rolling hills, cows and sheep. I started writing to fill time between jobs and am now firmly and unashamedly addicted.

I love the English weather, especially the rain, and adore a thunderstorm. I love good food, warm company and a crackling fire. I'm fascinated by the psychology of relationships, especially between men, and my stories contain some subtle (and not so subtle) leanings towards BDSM.

L M Somerton's first book, The Portrait, was the winner of the 2012 National Leather Association: International, Pauline Reage Award for Best Novel."

Further Readings:

Reaching the Edge (Tales from The Edge Book 1) by L.M. Somerton
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing (December 1, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: Reaching the Edge (Tales from The Edge Book 1)

Tales from The Edge

The Edge is a training company with a difference. Its weekend clients come for classes in bondage and domination, not team building and problem solving.

The management, staff and customers of The Edge do not lead boring lives. In fact they have a habit of getting themselves into all kinds of trouble. Put Dominant, possessive alpha males together with bratty, loveable submissives and sparks are bound to fly. These Tales from The Edge are their stories.

Reaching the Edge by L.M. Somerton

Book One in the Tales from The Edge series.

When you reach the edge, you can’t avoid taking a leap of faith.

Joe Dexter leads a complicated life. In one world he is a consultant criminal psychologist—in another he runs The Edge, a successful corporate training company. He’s also an active Dom in the London BDSM scene.

A social call to The Underground, a club owned by an old friend, turns into much more when Joe is introduced to a prospective sub. Falling hard for the boy’s tumbling blonde curls, huge blue eyes and desperate need for protection, Joe carefully coaxes him out of his shell. By the end of an intense weekend, unbreakable bonds have been forged and Joe is well on the way to becoming Olly’s Master.

Joe knows that there is trauma in Olly’s past, but it is not until his professional and private lives collide that Joe discovers the truth. He knows he shouldn’t have let Olly out of his sight but it’s too late—Olly’s old Master is back on the scene and he’s not in the mood to forgive and forget.

With Olly’s life on the line, Joe risks everything to save him. Has Joe found his perfect submissive only to lose him in a horrible twist of fate, or will love win the day? They’ve reached the edge and there’s no avoiding a leap of faith.

GRL: Poppy Dennison

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 Poppy Dennison: A sassy southern lady, Poppy Dennison developed an obsession with things that go bump in the night in her early years after a barn door flew off its hinges and nearly squashed her. Convinced it was a ghost trying to get her attention, she started looking for other strange and mysterious happenings around her. Not satisfied with what she found, Poppy has traveled to Greece, Malaysia and England to find inspiration for the burly bears and silver foxes that melt her butter. Her love of paranormal continues to flourish nearly thirty years later, and she writes steamy love stories about the very things that used to keep her up all night. If her childhood ghost is lucky, maybe one day she’ll give him his own happily ever after.

Further Readings:

Creature Feature 2 by Rhys Ford and Poppy Dennison
Paperback: 204 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 29, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1632163837
ISBN-13: 978-1632163837
Amazon: Creature Feature 2
Amazon Kindle: Creature Feature 2

Volume Two

Two Men. One Apocalypse.

Rise of the Revenants by Poppy Dennison

Vampyres are on the loose in Detroit, and novice hunter Taz Cohen is on the job. The mission seems simple: stop the vamps. But Taz knows nothing about the mythical creatures, so he’s in for the fight of his life. Then he meets insanely attractive construction worker Darren Foster, who jumps into the battle with both feet. Sparks and bullets fly as they struggle against the vampyre horde and their attraction to each other. Avoiding gruesome death from the undead might be easier than shielding their hearts from each other.

Legacy of Blood and Death by Rhys Ford

For Javi Navarro, Detroit will become another blood-splattered city in his rearview mirror after he puts its dead back into the ground. Expecting an easy hunting job, Javi instead finds a kiss of ancient vampyres on the hunt for a descendant of their long-dead creator.

Reclusive Ciarnan Mac Gerailt abandoned his family legacy of blood and death magic after it nearly destroyed him. Unfortunately for Ciarnan, the Motor City can only be saved if he resumes his dark arts and joins forces with Javi Navarro, the hunter who brought the vampyre apocalypse—and hope for the future—straight to Ciarnan’s front door.

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: What He Left Behind by L.A. Witt

What He Left Behind by L.A. Witt
Gay Erotic Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (August 18, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: What He Left Behind

Can you ever have a second first time?

Josh Carver thinks it’s just another lunch with his best friend, Michael—until Michael confesses he just turned down a date with his hot veterinarian crush. It seems Michael’s abusive ex left him more scarred than Josh realized.

Josh and his husband, Ian, have done their best to help Michael leave his horrific past behind, but even Josh is stunned when Ian suggests that Josh help Michael with his fear of physical intimacy. After all, it isn’t like it would be the first time—Josh and Michael were once each other’s firsts.

A hesitant first kiss, and Josh and Michael’s natural attraction eases the way. But with Michael still balking at the prospect of sex with someone new, Ian steps into the breach.

Everything is fine and dandy until emotions become so entangled, their friendship—and a marriage—could be at risk.

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

Euro Pride Con in Munich, July 11-12, 2015

Starting from June 1, 2015, I daily featured authors attending the Euro Pride in Munich, July 11-12, 2015. Today was the last post, and from tomorrow I will be on a 4 days leave from the blog for the duration of the convention. See you all there is Munich!



Below all the authors I featured: