Bill Konigsberg & Chuck Cahoy

Bill Konigsberg (born November 11) lives just outside Phoenix, AZ, with his longtime partner, Chuck Cahoy. They have an Australian Labradoodle named Mabel, who completes them. She also can jump very high and head a ball like a champion soccer player. In 2005, Konigsberg earned a masters of fine arts in creative writing from Arizona State University. In the three years he wrote three books, taught and met Chuck there, “so it was a good time in my life.” Openly Straight, his last novel, was released in 2013.

Their anniversary is on December 24, 2003. On September 16, 2006, Bill and Chuck had a civil union in Stowe, Vermont. Seven years later, on November 16, 2013, they married.

Bill is now a full-time writer of fiction, which is his dream job. Except when it makes him crazy and impossible to live with, which is about 36 percent of the time.

Before Bill was a fiction writer (and long before he ever referred to himself in the third person), he was a sports writer. As a sports writer and editor for The Associated Press from 2005-08, he covered the New York Mets and his weekly fantasy baseball column appeared in newspapers across the country, from the New York Daily News to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In May of 2001, while working for ESPN.com, he came out on the front page of the website in an article entitled “Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays.” That article won him a GLAAD Media Award the following year.

Since then, he has spoken at numerous venues across the country on what it’s like to be a gay person in the world of sports. He has written for The New York Times, New York Daily News, North Jersey Herald and News and Denver Post, to name a few. His work has also appeared in Out Magazine. In 2011, his coming out was named the #64 moment in gay sports history by the website Outsports.com. His story was included as a chapter in the book “Jocks 2: Coming Out to Play” by Dan Woog.


Bill Konigsberg and Chuck Cahoy married in New York City on November 16, 2013, two months and seven years after their civil union in Stowe, Vermont (September 16, 2006). At the time of their marriage, they were coming up on 10 years together as a couple. Their anniversary is December 24, 2003. Bill is the award-winning author of Out of the Pocket and Openly Straight. Chuck is deputy city attorney for the city of Tempe, Arizona. The couple lives in Chandler, Arizona, with their Australian Labradoodle, Mabel.

Openly Straight won a 2013 Rainbow Award as Best LGBT Young Adult.

Source: http://billkonigsberg.com/about/

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
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

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

James Merrill, David Jackson & Peter Hooten

James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist (if deeply emotional) lyric poetry of his early career, and the epic narrative of occult communication with spirits and angels, titled The Changing Light at Sandover, which dominated his later career.

James Ingram Merrill was born in New York City to Hellen Ingram Merrill and Charles E. Merrill, founding partner of the Merrill Lynch investment firm. He had two older half siblings (a brother and a sister) from his father's first marriage. As a boy, Merrill enjoyed a highly privileged upbringing in economic and educational terms. Merrill's childhood governess taught him French and German, an experience Merrill wrote about in his 1974 poem "Lost in Translation." His parents separated when he was eleven, then divorced when he was thirteen years old. As a teenager, Merrill attended the Lawrenceville School, where he befriended future novelist Frederick Buechner. When Merrill was 16 years old, his father collected his short stories and poems and published them as a surprise under the name Jim's Book. Initially pleased, Merrill would later regard the precocious book as an embarrassment.

Merrill was drafted in 1944 into the United States Army and served for eight months. His studies interrupted by war and military service, Merrill returned to Amherst College in 1945 and graduated in 1947. The Black Swan, a collection of poems Merrill's Amherst professor (and lover) Kimon Friar published privately in Athens, Greece in 1946, was printed in just one hundred copies when Merrill was 20 years old. Merrill's first mature work, The Black Swan is Merrill's scarcest title and considered one of the 20th century's most collectible literary rarities. Merrill's first commercially published volume was First Poems, issued in 990 numbered copies by Alfred A. Knopf in 1951.


James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 - February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. His father was Charles E. Merrill, founding partner of the Merrill Lynch investment firm. James Merrill's partner of more than three decades was David Jackson, also a writer. Merrill and Jackson met in New York City after a performance of Merrill's "The Bait" in 1953. Together, they moved to Stonington, Connecticut in 1955. For two decades, the couple spent part of each year in Athens, Greece.



David Jackson & James Merrill are both buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, Connecticut.


James Merrill & Peter Hooten
In his 1993 memoir A Different Person, Merrill painted a candid portrait in his memoir of gay life in the early 50s, describing friendships and relationships with several men including poet Hans Lodeizen, journalist Umberto Morra, writer Claude Fredericks, art dealer Robert Isaacson, and his partner, actor Peter Hooten. The Inner Room is dedicated to Hooten. Includes the celebrated cycle of poems called "Prose of Departure", which describes a visit to Japan while a friend in NYC is dying of AIDS.

( Read more... )

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

David Noyes Jackson (September 16, 1922 – July 13, 2001) was the life partner of poet James Merrill (1926–1995). A writer and artist, Jackson is remembered today primarily for his literary collaboration with Merrill. (P: James Merrill (1926-1995) and David Jackson (1922-2001) in Athens, 14 October 1973, Judith Moffett)

The two men met in May 1953 in New York City, after a performance of Merrill's play, "The Bait." They shared homes in Stonington, CT, Athens, and Key West. "It was, I often thought, the happiest marriage I knew," wrote Alison Lurie, who got to know both men in the 1950s and thought enough of the relationship to write a memoir about it more than forty years later, Familiar Spirits (2001).

Over the course of decades conducting séances with a Ouija board, Merrill and Jackson took down supernatural transcriptions and messages from otherworldly entities. Merrill's and Jackson's ouija transcriptions were first published in verse form in The Book of Ephraim (printed for the first time in Divine Comedies, 1976, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977).

Many critics consider David Jackson to be a kind of co-writer, certainly the catalyst if not the medium, for much of James Merrill's most significant poetic output. The Book of Ephraim (1976), Mirabell: Books of Number (1978), and Scripts for the Pageant (1980) were all written with Jackson's assistance. Together, they constitute the epic trilogy The Changing Light at Sandover, a 560-page apocalyptic poem published in its entirety in 1982.

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

Peter Hooten (born November 29, 1950 as John Peter Hooten in Clermont, Florida); is an American actor and producer. Hooten attended Ithaca College in upstate New York. He first started acting in 1969 when he guest-starred on the TV drama Marcus Welby, M.D. and worked his way up from there. Since then his other acting credits have included playing the Marvel character of the same name in the TV film Dr. Strange from 1978, and guest starring in various Movies and Television series like The Waltons, Mod Squad and Mannix.

After 16 years in New York City, and some time in Connecticut, he moved to St. Augustine, FL. Hooten currently resides in Sarasota where he lives in a modest 1924 Indian Beach cottage.

"I felt really good and I worked a long time on it," Hooten says, lingering over a double espresso and chocolate cake in the dining room at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton. "And I got really good people together. And we shot it in Cambridge; it was the right atmosphere. … It's not mainstream, but God, it was a labor of love. So who's going to see that? But it will be in the libraries when Inglorious Bastards goes bye-bye. Nobody's going to remember anybody for that." http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2009/08/19/a-spaghetti-war-film-classic-sarasotas-peter-hooten-on-his-role-in-the-original-inglorious-bastards#.U8ENrtEg_4h

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

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
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

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

Freda Du Faur & Muriel Cadogan

Emmeline Freda Du Faur (16 September 1882 - 11 September 1935) was the first female mountaineer to climb New Zealand's tallest mountain, Aoraki / Mount Cook. Freda Du Faur proved to be a trendsetter in her chosen vocation, not only for similarly motivated women, but for other guided climbers of the Edwardian era. She was celebrated for her rock-climbing expertise, perseverance, and athleticism. Muriel Cadogan trained her for three months at the Dupain Institute of Physical Education in Sydney, before she travelled to New Zealand in November 1910.

Du Faur was born in Croydon, Sydney, Australia. She was the daughter of Frederick Eccleston Du Faur, a stock, station and land agent, and patron of the arts, and his second wife, Blanche Mary Elizabeth Woolley (daughter of professor John Woolley).

She was educated at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School. Du Faur probably developed her passion for mountaineering when she lived with her family near the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. As a young woman, she explored the area and taught herself to rock-climb. She did not finish nursing training due to the stress and demands of the work. Due to the interests of her parents, and an inheritance from an aunt, Emmeline Woolley, she had an independent income that enabled her to travel and climb.

Freda Du Faur summered in New Zealand, but did not visit the South Island until she journeyed there in late 1906. At the time, she saw photographs of Mount Cook at the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. This experience inspired her to travel to the Hermitage where she decided that she wanted to climb to the summits of the Southern Alps of the South Island. She visited the area twice. On her second visit in 1908, she investigated the mountains in more detail, and met the chief guide at the Hermitage, Peter Graham.


For 40 years from the mid-1890s alpine climbing was dominated by professional guides. Alec (left) was based at Franz Josef Glacier and Peter (right) became chief guide at the Hermitage in 1906. Guides like the Grahams would take clients on expeditions through the central Southern Alps. The Australian Freda Du Faur (centre) was often guided by the Grahams. Alec and Peter were with her when she became the first woman to climb Aoraki/Mt Cook in 1910. Peter also guided her on the first traverse of Aoraki/Mt Cook’s three peaks in 1913. (http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.it/2010/11/freda-du-faur-100-year-celebration.html)
Freda Du Faur was the first female mountaineer to climb the Aoraki / Mount Cook. Freda Du Faur proved to be a trendsetter in her chosen vocation, not only for similarly motivated women, but for other guided climbers of the Edwardian era. Muriel Cadogan trained her at the Dupain Institute of Physical Education. Cadogan died in June 1929. Freda suffering from depression at the loss of her beloved friend and her inability to get answers as to why she died, killed herself on 11 September 1935.

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freda_Du_Faur

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
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

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

Hannah Höch & Til Brugman

Hannah Höch (November 1, 1889 – May 31, 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. (P: Hannah Höch self-portrait, c.1926)

Hannah Höch was born Anna Therese Johanne Höch in Gotha, Germany. In 1912 she began classes at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin under the guidance of glass designer Harold Bergen. She chose the curriculum glass design and graphic arts, rather than fine arts, to please her father. In 1914, at the start of World War I, she left the school and returned home to Gotha to work with the Red Cross. In 1915 she returned to school, entering the graphics class of Emil Orlik at the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Also in 1915, Höch began an influential friendship with Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement. Höch's involvement with the Berlin Dadaists began in earnest in 1919. After her schooling, she worked in the handicrafts department for Ullstein Verlag (The Ullstein Press), designing dress and embroidery patterns for Die Dame (The Lady) and Die Praktische Berlinerin (The Practical Berlin Woman). The influence of this early work and training can be seen in her later work involving references to dress patterns and textiles. From 1926 to 1929 she lived and worked in the Netherlands. Höch made many influential friendships over the years, with Kurt Schwitters and Piet Mondrian among others. Höch, along with Hausmann, was one of the first pioneers of the art form that would come to be known as photomontage.


Hannah Höch and Til Brugman with their cat Ninn, 1928 (©24)
Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist. In 1926, she began a relationship with the Dutch writer and linguist Mathilda ('Til') Brugman, whom Höch met through mutual friends Kurt and Helma Schwitters. By autumn of 1926, Höch moved to Hague to live with Brugman, where they lived until 1929, at which time they moved to Berlin. Höch and Brugman's relationship lasted nine years, until 1935. They chose to refer to their relationship as a private love relationship.


Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90 x 144 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_H%C3%B6ch

Mathilda (Til) Brugman (16 September 1888, Amsterdam - 24 July 1958, Gouda) was a Dutch author, poet and linguist.

Born in Amsterdam in 1888, Mathilda Maria Petronella Brugman, or Til, was the oldest of nine children in a Roman Catholic family. Her father dealt in wine and spirits and owned vineyards in the South of France and Spain. Brugman’s parents encouraged their daughter’s gift for languages from an early age. Her mother taught her to read, and Til’s father taught her to speak French by the time she was three. Til’s father was Hermanus Johannes Brugman (1852-1931), and her mother was Adriana Geertruida Johanna Zoons (1859-1939). In contrast to her father’s easy going cosmopolitanism, Brugman’s mother was close minded, which Til attributed to her mother’s staunch Catholicism. This alienated the young Brugman and caused her to leave home in anger. In 1911, Til rented a room in Amsterdam and supported herself as a secretary and translator. In 1917, Brugman moved to Den Haag and set up residence with her first lesbian partner, the Dutch concert singer Sienna Mastoff (1892-1959). Brugman lived with Mastoff until she met the German Dada artist Hannah Höch in 1926. Her last partner was Hans Mertineit-Schnabel.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Til_Brugman

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
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

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

Dom Palange & Travis Wall

Travis Michael Wall (born September 16, 1987) is an American dancer and dance instructor, specializing in contemporary dance and jazz dance. He is best known for his 2007 appearance as a competitor on the second season of the television show So You Think You Can Dance, which airs on the Fox Network. In 2011, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the show's seventh season. In 2012, he starred in the reality show All The Right Moves on Oxygen, where he, Teddy Forance, Nick Lazzarini and Kyle Robinson attempt to launch their own dance company called Shaping Sound. Since beginning of 2011 he is dating Dom Palange, who moved from Miami to LA to stay with Wall, and then followed him in NYC while he was working in Bare.

Wall was born in and grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His mother, owner and operator of the eponymous Denise Wall's Dance Energy, recalls putting him in a walker and watching him imitate the dancers. He began dancing at the age of three, training at his mother's studio, and competing in a number of conventions.

His professional career officially started at the age of nine when he appeared in a Dr. Pepper commercial. In 1999, he won the Junior National Outstanding Dancer Scholarship Award. On April 27, 2000, at age 12, he started a two-year run in The Music Man on Broadway, playing a resident of River City/Winthrop Paroo understudy. This gig led to him being chosen to perform at the 2000 New York City Dance Alliance's closing night gala. In 2006, New York City Dance Alliance awarded Wall its Teen Outstanding Dancer of the Year award and he toured with them for a year.


Travis Wall is an American dancer and dance instructor. He is best known for his 2007 appearance as a competitor on the second season of the television show So You Think You Can Dance. In 2011, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the show's seventh season. In 2012, he starred in the reality show All The Right Moves. Since beginning of 2011 he is dating Dom Palange, who moved from Miami to LA to stay with Wall, and then followed him in NYC while he was working in Bare.

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Wall

( Further Readings )

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

Michael Nava (born September 16, 1954)

Michael Angel Nava (born September 16, 1954 in Stockton, California) is an American attorney and writer. He has worked on the staff for the California Supreme Court, and ran for a Superior Court position in 2010. He authored a seven-volume mystery series featuring Henry Rios, an openly gay protagonist who is a criminal defense lawyer. His novels have received six Lambda Literary Awards and critical acclaim in the GLBT and Latino communities. In October 2008, Nava married his partner since 2001, George Herzog, an oncology nurse at the Veteran's Administration hospital in San Francisco. California Supreme Court justice Carlos R. Moreno presided over the ceremony. They live in Daly City, California.

Nava grew up in Gardenland, a predominantly working-class Mexican neighborhood in Sacramento, California that he described as "not as an American suburb at all, but rather as a Mexican village, transported perhaps from Guanajuato, where my grandmother's family originated, and set down lock, stock and chicken coop in the middle of California.” His maternal family settled there in 1920 after escaping from the Mexican Revolution. Nava's grandmother was an "influential force" whose "piety and humility that was highlighted by her Catholic beliefs."

At 12 years old, he started writing and it was also around that time he recognized that he was gay. He was the first person in his family to go to college; he attended Colorado College and "acquired a special affinity for literature and writing." He joined a group of young poets that included writer and humorist David Owen and the poet David Mason. He graduated in 1976 cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History.


Michael Nava is an American attorney and writer. He authored a seven-volume mystery series featuring Henry Rios, an openly gay protagonist who is a criminal defense lawyer. His novels have received six Lambda Literary Awards. In October 2008, Nava married his partner since 2001, George Herzog, an oncology nurse at the Veteran's Administration hospital in San Francisco. California Supreme Court justice Carlos R. Moreno presided over the ceremony. They live in Daly City, California.

( Read more... )

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

Without doubt, Michael Nava's entire Henry Rios series was a powerful motivator to me. It began my understanding that a mystery series with a gay protagonist could be about more than sex and snarky one-liners (not that there is anything wrong with that). It could be smart, serious, the hero could be flawed in many ways, and still draw in readers. Before I began writing my own series, I'd read all of the Rios books and thought: yeah, this is the kind of writing I want to do. As it turns out, I was wrong. My character, Russell Quant, is no where even close to being a Henry Rios wannabe. My voice on the page turned out to be something entirely different. Thinking about it now, I think I was attracted to the fact that there could be so many different perspectives on how to tell a story within the gay genre. That still excites me today. --Anthony Bidulka

One of my Internet friends introduced me to the work of Michael Nava. I love the Henry Rios series. Not only are they set in my hometown of Los Angeles, they just feel so familiar to me. Henry Rios is deeply flawed. The series starts with “The Little Death”. While I appreciate that Mr. Nava has both a successful career as an attorney and political aspirations I kind of wish he could still find time to write. --Z.A. Maxfield

Michael Nava is one of the three writers I consider the Grand Masters of Gay Mystery (the other two are Joseph Hansen and John Morgan Wilson). It was Nava’s stunning Henry Rios series that inspired me to write gay mysteries. Each one of these books is masterfully plotted, beautifully written, and every character, no matter how important or not to the story, is realistic and three-dimensional. The Burning Plain, however, is my favorite of the series; it concerns a pedophilia ring with ties to a major Hollywood studio, and is absolutely riveting. --Greg Herren

Michael Nava coupled great story telling with great writing and taught me you can do both. So not just Goldenboy, but all of his books are in my must read pile. --P.A. Brown

( Michael Nava, 1988, by Robert Giard )

Further Readings:

Rag and Bone (Henry Rios Mysteries) by Michael Nava
Series: Henry Rios Mysteries
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade (June 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425184706
ISBN-13: 978-0425184707
Amazon: Rag and Bone (Henry Rios Mysteries)
Amazon Kindle: Rag and Bone (Henry Rios Mysteries)

One of the most highly acclaimed writers in the mystery genre "explores new emotional depths" in this last Henry Rios novel. The gay Mexican-American attorney, after the loss of his lover, must face his own mortality while recovering from a heart attack-and reach out to a family he didn't know he had.

"For more years than we've noticed, Michael Nava has been creating an intricate series of fictions about Henry Rios...to give voice to the voiceless, the outsiders...to remind us that these outsiders are our kin." (Washington Post Book World)

"In 1986, Michael Nava began a series about Los Angeles investigator Henry Rios, a character with three strikes against him: He was gay, he was Chicano, and he was a lawyer. He also had a wry sense of humor, a formidable intelligence and a great deal of insight, so the series, without being preachy, cumulatively had a lot to say about certain aspects of the human condition...With Rag and Bone, Nava brings this wonderful and often moving series to an unexpected close...we thank him for illuminating the life of an always fascinating character and perhaps educating a few people along the way." (Denver Post)

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

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

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

Pancrazio "Il Moro" Buciunì & Wilhelm von Gloeden

Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden (September 16, 1856 – February 16, 1931) was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity. From a modern standpoint, his work is commendable due to his controlled use of lighting as well as the often elegant poses of his models. Innovative use of photographic filters and special body makeup (a mixture of milk, olive oil, and glycerin) to disguise skin blemishes contribute to the artistic perfection of his works.

Famous in his own day, his work was subsequently eclipsed for close to a century, only to re-emerge in recent times as "the most important gay visual artist of the pre–World War I era" according to Thomas Waugh.

Although von Gloeden claimed to be a minor German aristocrat from Mecklenburg, the von Gloeden family and its heirs have always insisted that no such person existed in their family records and his claim to The Barony von Gloeden was without warrant; the barony became extinct in 1885 with the death of Baron Falko von Gloeden. Wilhelm von Gloeden was the son of head forester (Forstmeister) Carl Hermann von Gloeden (1820–1862) and his wife Charlotte née Maassen (1824–1901; from 1864 von Hammerstein).

After studying art history in Rostock (1876), he studied painting under Carl Gehrts at the Kunstakademie in Weimar (1876–77) until he was forced by lung disease (apparently tuberculosis) to interrupt his schooling for a year, convalescing at a sanatorium in the Baltic Sea resort of Gröbersdorf. In a search for health, he travelled to Italy (1877–78), first staying in Naples before moving on to Taormina in Sicily. He lodged at the Hotel Vittoria before buying a house near San Domenico.


Il Moro
Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys. In total, the Baron took over 3000 images (and possibly up to 7000), which after his death were left to one of his models, Pancrazio Buciunì, known as Il Moro (or U Moru) for his North African looks. Il Moro had been von Gloeden's lover since the age of fourteen. Most of the pictures are now in the Fratelli Alinari photographic archive in Florence.


Caino, 1902

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

In the 1870s, English art critic John Addington Symonds wrote about Michelangelo's and da Vinci's nudes, explicitly associating them with contemporary male-male desire. At the same time, in Sicily, German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden began taking photographs of local young male peasants in "classical" poses. His work with clothed models garnered popular attention in Europe and America.
Von Gloeden's more explicitly erotic photos of nude males, many of them in sexually suggestive poses, also gained attention among American and European men who identified as lovers of men.
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Most art historians agree that von Gloeden had sexual relationships with men and that Day, Eakins, and Sargent had romantic, if not physical, relationships with men. Women and men who desired their own sex had not found a significant level of freedom in America. But these female and male artists were able to live with a certain amount of visibility, with privileges the ordinary person did not have. --A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

( more photographs )

( Further Readings )

More Photographers 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

Stephen Wallem & Tony Humrichouser

Stephen Wallem (born 14 June 1968) is an American stage and television actor. He is best known for his one man musical review, "Off the Wallem", as well as numerous theater productions. Wallem and actor and theater professor Tony Humrichouser live in New York City. In 2011 Wallem declared "I imagine we'll be in New York for as long as I could imagine, so I think the second same-sex marriage becomes legal, we will marry. It's ridiculous that it hasn't, but slowly yet surely it's happening. It's about time." Wallem and Humrichouser, celebrated their two-year anniversary in 2011. "We stayed in New York and went to the first hotel we ever stayed at together," Wallem said. "It's only four block away from our house, but it means a lot to us. We did have a bigger room this time."

Wallem is also a playwright, composer, and director (see link to website below). He currently stars as "Thor" in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie. He is the brother of Linda Wallem.

Wallem was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, and worked as a stage actor and After Dark Award-winning cabaret singer in Chicago before moving to New York to make his television debut on Nurse Jackie. National tours include Forever Plaid, Into the Woods and Scrooge with Richard Chamberlain. He accrued nearly 2,500 performances as both 'Jinx' and 'Sparky' in various companies of Forever Plaid, including Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver and the first national tour. Wallem portrayed 'Judas'/'Padre' in the Court Theatre's acclaimed production of Man Of La Mancha (After Dark Award for 'Outstanding Performance', Joseph Jefferson Award for 'Best Ensemble') and reprised his performance at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. For the Ravinia Festival, he appeared with Tony-winners Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Michael Cerveris and George Hearn in A Little Night Music, Passion, Sunday In The Park With George and Doll with David Hyde Pierce (all directed by Lonny Price). Wallem also originated the role of 'Arvid' in the Broadway workshop of Kristina från Duvemåla, written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA.


Stephen Wallem is an American stage and television actor. He is best known for his one man musical review, "Off the Wallem", as well as numerous theater productions. Wallem and actor and theater professor Tony Humrichouser live in New York City. In 2011 Wallem declared "I imagine we'll be in New York for as long as I could imagine, so I think the second same-sex marriage becomes legal, we will marry. It's ridiculous that it hasn't, but slowly yet surely it's happening. It's about time."

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

Anthony Alexander Humrichouser (born September 16, 1966 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American actor/director. He is the son of Teresa Zammit and Ted Wesley Humrichouser. Humrichouser spent his first years in Charleston, South Carolina and later in Key West, Florida. After his father retired from the United States Navy, his family settled in Warren, Michigan. There he attended South Elementary School, Butcher Junior High School and Warren Mott High School.

Upon graduation, Humrichouser attended Macomb Community College and obtained a BFA in Musical Theatre from Western Michigan University. From there, he moved to Chicago to pursue his ongoing acting career.

In 1999 Humrichouser moved to Providence, Rhode Island and attended the esteemed Trinity Repertory Conservatory where he acted with the Tony Award winning Trinity Repertory Company. There he completed his professional training and received his MFA in Acting from Rhode Island College in 2002.

In 2003 Humrichouser moved to Des Moines, Iowa to Head the Musical Theatre Program at Drake University, where he served as Professor from 2003-2007.

Currently, Humrichouser is the Director of the Musical Theatre Program at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Humrichouser

( Further Readings )

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

2015 GRL Featured Blog Tour: Tara Lain

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). Moreover I'm taking part at the 2015 GRL Featured Blog Tour as Featured Blogger.

For the 2015 Featured Blog Tour, today author is Tara Lain:

Love is Love is Love is Love.

"Hi! I’m Tara Lain and I write the Beautiful Boys of Romance. I’ll be a Featured Author at GRL and am getting so excited I’m having trouble focusing on the gazillion thing I have to do before I go. Poppy Dennison asked me what I was wearing to the Luau. Hmmm? Okay, add that to the list!

As we approach this GRL, I think it’s fun to consider how MM romance has blossomed in the years since I attended my first GRL in 2011 – the first GRL there ever was. That get together in New Orleans had a tight camaraderie between people who were damned well going to express their love for a type of romance few people even recognized existed. We were 100 rebels banded together in a beautiful old hotel full of ghosts.

I think about 2012. For me, that was the year my book Fire Balls was published. It was my first bestseller. It hit number one on the Gay Romance Bestseller list and stayed for days. It was in the top 10 for weeks. It was a happy rollercoaster ride for me, still a novice author. BUT, I look back and realize that book barely dropped below 1000 in the Kindle store even though it was the bestselling gay romance.

Today is a whole different story. Gay romances regularly drop into the Top 100 books on Amazon – not on a bestseller list, the whole store! What an accomplishment this is, and what a validation for the universality of the subjects we write about, the talent of the authors who express these ideas, and the passion of the readers who champion them. We go into GRL 2015, not as a fringe subgenre, but as a meaningful variation on the great themes of romance. I think, of course, that gay romance is more accepted because gay people are more accepted, but I also think that gay people are more accepted, in perhaps a small part, because of gay romance.

A few years ago, many of us set as a goal that gay romance would step out of its closet and claim its place as great romance that happens to have same-sex lovers. While we might not be there yet, we’ve made a big leap in four years. Here’s to what the future holds.

My first day at GRL, October 14th, will be the (re) release day of my fairy tale romance, Sinders and Ash. This is the first book in a new series called The Pennymaker Tales. The second book, Driven Snow, will be out Nov 25th. Here’s a nibble from Sinders and Ash.

SINDERS AND ASH by Tara Lain
Available NOW for Pre-Order at Dreamspinner Press -- http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6906

Housekeeper Mark Sintorella (Sinders) works diligently at a resort hotel while designing clothes anonymously, hoping to get into fashion school. Then his carefully planned life is upended with the arrival of Ashford Armitage, son of the fifth richest man in America—and the most beautiful guy Mark has ever seen. Ash must find a wife or he’ll lose his grandfather’s inheritance, and he settles on Bitsy Fanderel. But secretly Ash is gay, and the guy who cleans the fireplaces sets his heart ablaze.
Further stirring the pot is the little elf of a man, Carstairs Pennymaker, who has Mark wearing his own designs and masquerading as a girl to impress the fashion investors in the hotel. When the clock strikes twelve, two beautiful princesses line up for the wedding—but one isn’t a woman. Will the slipper fit? Only Mr. Pennymaker knows for sure.

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About the author: Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT erotic romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 29. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Paranormal Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog near the sea in California where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!

You can find Tara HERE:
Website: http://www.taralain.com
Blog: http://www.taralain.com/blog
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4541791.Tara_Lain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/taralain
FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/taralain

( GRL Blog Tour Appearance Schedule )

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Treading Water by Kate Pavelle

Treading Water (SwimBikeRun Book 1) by Kate Pavelle
Gay Contemporary General Fiction
Series: SwimBikeRun
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Mugen Press; 1 edition (August 5, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1942920008
ISBN-13: 978-1942920007
Amazon: Treading Water (SwimBikeRun Book 1)
Amazon Kindle: Treading Water (SwimBikeRun Book 1)

Buffeted by the winds of fate, Jesse Hightower drifted far from his Crow reservation. Family issues, foster homes, and living hard on the street. Now his computer-jockey job makes him out of shape, and a tough split with Renata threw him into depression. Even worse -- to keep his job, he has to train for a mandatory, company-wide triathlon. An heir to an ice cream empire, Sebastian Gillen was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and family expectations of an executive career. A brilliant swimmer, Sebastian had given up his shot at the Olympics for the sake of business. Meeting Jesse at the pool is an exciting breath of fresh air. Inspired by Jesse’s inner strength, Sebastian resolves to make this boyfriend thing work, even if he has to stand up to his family – including his sister, Renata.

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