Cathy Pegau (born September 27)

Cathy Pegau can't seem to write anything that doesn't have some sort of "otherness" in it. Science fiction, sword and sorcery fantasy, shape shifters, ghosts...You name it, she's willing to write it.

Cathy lives in Alaska with her family, pets, and the occasional black bear wandering through the yard.

Deep Deception won a 2013 Rainbow Award as Best Lesbian Sci-Fi / Futuristic.

Further Readings:

Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau
Publisher: Carina Press (May 27, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: Deep Deception

Colonial Mining Authority agent Natalia Hallowell doesn't always play by the rules, but she wouldn't compromise a case either. Put on administrative leave under a cloud of accusation, with no support from her boss, Natalia seeks a little anonymous companionship at her favorite bar. But she's surprised when the woman who catches her fancy starts buying her drinks.

Desperate, Genevieve "Gennie" Caine has no choice but to seduce, drug and tie Natalia to the bed to get her attention. With the Reyes Corporation after something she has, Gennie needs Natalia to open an investigation and distract them long enough for her to get off Nevarro.

Natalia doesn't trust Gennie—despite the growing attraction between them—but the corporation's suspiciously high profits and abnormal business dealings convince her that they must be hiding something. She has no idea just how deep the deceptions run…

More Rainbow Awards at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2013

Anthony Callea & Tim Campbell

Anthony Cosmo Callea (born 13 December 1982) is an Australian singer-songwriter who rose to prominence after being the runner-up in the 2004 season of Australian Idol. He was signed to Sony Music Australia until 2009 and is now an independent artist. Callea's debut single "The Prayer" is the fastest-selling single by an Australian artist, held the No.1 spot on the ARIA Singles Chart for five weeks, a record for the debut single of an Australian Idol contestant, and was the second-highest selling Australian single of the last decade.

Callea has accumulated a string of awards including an ARIA Music Award, Channel V Artist of the Year, Pop Republic Artist of the Year, MTV Viewers' Choice Award, Variety's Young Entertainer of the Year, MO Award and a Gospel Music Award and is known for his powerful trained voice and his versatility in a range of genres in releases and live performances. All but one of the tracks on his second album A New Chapter were co-written by him. October 2011 saw Callea release his first new music in four years, a single titled "Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh", self-funded, released and distributed as a fully independent venture through his own production company, Vox Enterprises. The dance-pop track was co-written in LA with two-time Grammy-nominated and official DJ for the Black Eyed Peas, Poet Name Life. It signals a departure from the ballads for which he is known and was released in digital format only.

His albums, DVD and singles have all debuted in the top 20 of the ARIA Charts with the exception of "Oh Oh Oh Oh", and an EP titled Last to Go released in February 2012. However, "Oh Oh Oh Oh" debuted at number 6 on the Official Independent Music Charts AIR Charts, and in its first week, peaked at number 17 on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Artists Singles Chart. Last to Go reached number 7 on the Independent Distribution Singles Chart.


Anthony Callea is an Australian singer-songwriter who rose to prominence after being the runner-up in 2004 Australian Idol. In 2007, after speculation and tabloid rumours dating back to his Idol appearances, Callea publicly acknowledged that he is gay "Yes, I am gay," Callea said. "I have no issue with my sexuality now, but it's taken time to become confident with who I am and happy with who I am." Hee and actor/singer Tim Campbell were married in New Zealand on November 17, 2014.

( Read more... )

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

Tim Campbell (born 27 September 1975 in Sydney) is an Australian television and stage actor, best known for playing the character of Dan Baker in the soap opera Home and Away. In late 2007, rumours of Campbell dating singer Anthony Callea surfaced in the media. During an interview, Campbell confirmed that he is gay, but denied romantic involvement with Callea. However, on 11 February 2008, during an appearance on Vega 91.5fm's breakfast program, Campbell acknowledged that he and Callea had now progressed to being "an item" stating that they were 'very happy' together. The couple later thanked their fans for the support they were shown after their relationship was made public.

Campbell formerly starred in the children's television show Snobs with Indiana Evans. He also appeared briefly in Water Rats as a police officer. Campbell is also the only Home and Away actor to make an appearance on the show's first podcast, Baycast. He performed "Soul Kind of Feeling", a cover version of the 1984 Dynamic Hepnotics single, in an episode of Home and Away as the character, Dan Baker, at the reception of his wedding to Leah Patterson.

Campbell was a contestant in series six of Dancing with the Stars, which premiered on 20 February 2007. He made it to the semi-final on 24 April, maintaining impressive scores throughout the series. He left Home and Away on 5 October 2007 after filming his final scenes.

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Campbell_(actor)

( Read more... )

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

Andreas & Jay Bell

Jay Bell (born February 19, 1977) never gave much thought to Germany until he met a handsome foreign exchange student, Andreas Bell (born June 11, 1974). At that moment, beer and pretzels became the most important thing in the world. After moving to Germany and getting married, Jay found himself desperate to communicate the feelings of alienation, adventure, and love that surrounded this decision, and has been putting pen to paper ever since. They met on March 1, 2000 and married on September 27, 2003. (P: Courtesy of Jay Bell. Andreas and Jay Bell, 2012 Lambda Literary Awards ceremony (©15))

Something Like Summer is one of Amazon's selections for Best Gay Books of 2011, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, and soon to be a movie from the makers of Judas Kiss. Kamikaze Boys is a winner in the 25th annual Lambda Literary Awards for gay romance, and winner of two Goodread's M/M Romance Member's Choice awards. Both covers are by Jay Bell’s husband, Andreas.

Hell's Pawn won a 2011 Rainbow Award as Best Gay Fantasy.


Jay Bell never gave much thought to Germany until he met a handsome foreign exchange student. At that moment, beer and pretzels became the most important thing in the world. After moving to Germany and getting married, Jay found himself desperate to communicate the feelings of alienation, adventure, and love that surrounded this decision, and has been putting pen to paper ever since. They met on March 1, 2000 and married on September 27, 2003.

( Read more... )

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

George Whitmore & Michael Canter

George Davis Whitmore was a poet, playwright, critic, novelist, and freelance writer, whose lifetime of publishing began with his essays appearing in school literary magazines and ended with his major volume on the AIDS epidemic. He was born in Denver, Colorado, on September 27, 1945, to Lowell and Irene Davis Whitmore. Raised in Denver, he received a BA degree in English and Theatre from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1967. Whitmore was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and pursued graduate studies in the Theatre Department at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. He remained at the college from 1967 to 1968, after which he moved to New York.

Once in the city, Whitmore found employment as an editorial and administrative assistant at two non-profit agencies, Planned Parenthood (1968-1972) and the Citizens Housing and Planning Council of New York (1972-1981); both positions gave him experience in writing copy, reviewing books, and turning out concise feature articles under deadline. Concurrently, Whitmore maintained a parallel career as a freelance writer, reporter, and critic for several gay periodicals including The Body Politic, Christopher Street, Gay Sunshine, and Gaysweek, as well as serving as contributing editor and literary critic at the San Francisco Advocate from 1974 to 1976. In addition, he wrote on topics of interest to the gay community for other magazines such as the Soho Weekly News, Harper's Weekly, and the Washington Post Book World. His book-length study of Henry David Thoreau was published by the Gay Academic Union in 1977-1978.


George Whitmore at the World's Fair, 1987, by Robert Giard
George Whitmore was a poet, playwright, critic, novelist, and freelance writer. He was a member of the Violet Quill with Christopher Cox, Michael Grumley and Robert Ferro, Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano and Edmund White. He met his partner Michael Canter in 1984 and after 6 months, George was diagnosed with HIV. “I miss the brave books I‘m sure he would have written. But I miss his humor and his penetrating smile more. I miss his phone calls. The missing never stops.” Victor Bumbalo.

American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. (http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/giard.html)

( Read more... )

Source: http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=beinecke:whitmore&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

George was living with AIDS. It should be remembered that he sued the Northern Dispensary, a Greenwich Village clinic, after it refused to treat him because he had AIDS. The clinic was fined $47,000 by the City‘s Human Rights Commission. It closed.
After the book party for Nebraska, a group of us went to a restaurant. George, always a great looker, was in a wonderful mood and looking quite handsome. He was surrounded by his friends and his dear lover, Michael Canter. I was unusually quiet. At one point George turned to me and asked, ―What‘s wrong with you?‖ I lied and told him that I was fine. George could read me, and I could tell if I continued to sit there withdrawn, he would get really pissed. So I started to yak it up, but didn‘t do a very good job of acting. I couldn‘t stop myself from foreseeing what was going to happen to my friend. We‘d seen too many friends in hospitals and sat together at too many of their funerals. That night I was down that road, somewhere in the future. And in doing so, I was ruining that most special moment — mainly for myself. I was missing the opportunity to bathe in the love and success of a close friend who was such a part of me. George, wiser than I was, did not ruin that night for himself. [...]
In his life, he loved order, quiet, loyalty and the company of his friends. In his work he was a true daredevil.
I miss the brave books I‘m sure he would have written. But I miss his humor and his penetrating smile more. I miss his phone calls. The missing never stops. George died in 1989, two years after Nebraska was published and a year after Someone Was Here. He was 43 years old. -- From Victor Bumbalo's essay on Nebraska 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
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

Gustavo Rangel & Jason Wu

Jason Wu (born September 27, 1982) is a Taiwanese-Canadian fashion designer based in New York City. He is most famous for designing the dresses of Michelle Obama on several occasions, including during first and second inauguration of American President Barack Obama. He is in a relationship with Gustavo Rangel, who is also his business partner. (Photo: Marcelo Krasilcic, Patrik Shaw | China in my Hand)

"At first, we were friends -- I don’t remember when that line became blurry. I didn’t think he was my type, but things changed. When it’s unexpected, that’s the best—in anything in life, not just a boyfriend. Our first date was Mary Poppins, which is funny, but it turned into a romantic night.

When my company started growing, I asked Gus to help -- we work from different sides of the brain -- and he always works from the practical side. Like, when we’re shopping, he pulls me back and says, “Don’t buy that.” That’s how our relationship has played out. Working and living with someone -- that’s intense. We have to leave the baggage behind and have a personal life. We have that balance. We walk home, and once we go from the West to the East, there’s no more work talk. At Fifth Avenue, it ends.

It’s good to have someone that is real and honest. Sometimes you don’t see who you are after a long time, especially if you’re busy and working toward something. It’s nice to have someone who’s a mirror. You may not always like what you see, but it’s true." --Jason Wu (http://www.out.com/fashion/2012/01/11/jason-wu-boyfriend-gustavo-rangel-design)


Photo by Martien Mulder
Jason Wu is a Taiwanese-Canadian fashion designer based in New York City. He is most famous for designing the dresses of Michelle Obama on several occasions, including during first and second inauguration of American President Barack Obama. He is in a relationship with Gustavo Rangel, who is also his business partner. "We first met at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve in 2005 and became friends. After about six months, it started to develop into something more." Gustavo Rangel



( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

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

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

Stephen McCauley, Neil Miller & Sebastian Stuart

Stephen McCauley (born June 26, 1955) is an American author. He has written six novels to date including most recently Insignificant Others. His most famous novel is The Object of My Affection, which was made into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. McCauley and longtime partner Sebastian Stuart (born September 27, a Ferro-Grumley Award winner for The Hour Between and an alum of the Ragdale Foundation) live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2010 Sebastian Stuart and Stephen McCauley celebrated twenty years together.

McCauley was raised outside of Boston and went to public schools for his education. Later, as an undergraduate, he attended the University of Vermont and then spent a year in France at the University of Nice. Stephen worked a series of unrelated jobs including teaching yoga, working at a hotel, a kindergarten, and manning an ice cream stand. He worked as a travel agent for many years before moving to Brooklyn in the 1980s. There he attended adult learning centers to take some writing classes before enrolling in Columbia University's writing program. The writer Stephen Koch gave him the idea to begin work on his first novel.

His stories, articles and reviews have appeared in Gay Community News, Bay Windows, the Boston Phoenix, the New York Times Book Review, Vogue, House & Garden, Details, Vanity Fair, Harper's, and Travel and Leisure, among others.

His first novel, "The Object of My Affection" was adapted in 1998 into a Hollywood feature starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, whilst his fourth, "True Enough" was adapted in France in 2007 with the title "La Verite ou Presque".


Stephen McCauley with authors Christopher Castellani and Sebastian Stuart at Porter Square Books, February 1st, 2012
Stephen McCauley is an American author. He has written six novels to date including most recently Insignificant Others. His most famous novel is The Object of My Affection, which was made into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. McCauley and longtime partner Sebastian Stuart (a Ferro-Grumley Award winner for The Hour Between and an alum of the Ragdale Foundation) live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2010 Sebastian Stuart and Stephen McCauley celebrated twenty years together.

( Read more... )

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

In many respects Stephen McCauley’s charming novel, “The Object of My Affection”, first published in 1987, could be seen as the precursor to the entire genre of urban gay romance. George is a gay kindergarten teacher trying to get over an ex-boyfriend and living with Nina, a single, pregnant woman. I think this book continues to deserve all of its many fans. McCauley’s subsequent novels are equally as delightful. --Jameson Currier

( Read more... )

Sebastian Stuart (born September 27, a Ferro-Grumley Award winner for The Hour Between and an alum of the Ragdale Foundation) has written novels, plays, and screenplays. His last novel was ghostwritten (with acknowledgment): Charm! by Kendall Hart, a character on the soap opera All My Children. Charm! spent five weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Stuart and longtime partner Stephen McCauley live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2010 Sebastian Stuart and Stephen McCauley celebrated twenty years together.

Further Readings:

Alternatives to Sex: A Novel by Stephen McCauley
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 9, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743453190
ISBN-13: 978-0743453196
Amazon: Alternatives to Sex: A Novel

Boston real estate agent William Collins knows that his habits are slipping out of control. Due to obsessive-compulsive daily cleaning binges and a penchant for nightly online cruising for hookups, he finds his sales figures slipping despite a booming market. There's also his ongoing struggle to collect the rent from his passive-aggressive tenant and his worries about his best friend, Edward, whom he's certainly not in love with. Just as he decides to do something about his life, he meets Charlotte and Samuel, wealthy suburbanites looking for the perfect city apartment. "Happy couple," he writes in his notes. "Maybe I can learn something from them." What he ultimately discovers challenges his own assumptions about real estate, love, and desire; and what they learn from him might unravel a budding friendship, not to mention a very promising sale.
Full of crackling dialogue delivered by a stellar ensemble of players, Alternatives to Sex is a smart, hilarious chronicle of life in post-traumatic, morally ambiguous America -- where the desire to do good is constantly being tripped up by the need to feel good. Right now.

The Hour Between: A Novel by Sebastian Stuart
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: Alyson Books (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1593501269
ISBN-13: 978-1593501266
Amazon: The Hour Between: A Novel
Amazon Kindle: The Hour Between: A Novel

“I love stories about friendship, particularly those in which friendship is recalled under a nostalgic haze...I found the whole thing quite lovely...Stuart knows how to cut the pathos with some sharp wit.”—Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Company for National Public Radio

When Arthur McDougal is kicked out of Manhattan’s toniest boys’ school, his parents ship him off to the only place that will take him in—the Christian Science–inflected Spooner School. There, in the woods of Connecticut, Arthur meets Katrina Felt, the charming, troubled daughter of a Hollywood movie star. As Arthur struggles with his sexuality and Katrina’s beauty and talent land her in a Broadway musical, the two forge a tender friendship. But while Arthur’s confidence grows, Katrina is pulled down by the heartbreaking secrets and sorrows of her past. By year’s end, their lives will be changed forever, and their friendship will be over. Set in the late 1960s, The Hour Between is a compelling portrait of a time and place, replete with drugs, sex, Andy Warhol, a cast of truly memorable secondary characters, and some of the sharpest and funniest dialogue in recent memory.

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

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

Robert Patrick (born September 27, 1937)

Robert Patrick (born September 27, 1937) is a gay American playwright, poet, lyricist, and short-story writer and novelist. He was born Robert Patrick O'Connor in Kilgore, Texas.

Patrick was born to migrant workers in Texas. Because his parents moved around the southwest constantly, looking for work, he never went to one school for an entire year until his senior year of high school in Roswell, New Mexico. The only cultural constants in his life were books, movies, and radio. His mother made sure he learned to read, and arranged that he start school a year early. Unsocialized due to constant displacement, he always made poor grades, and dropped out of college after two years. Having experienced no live theatre but a few school shows, he fell in love with stage work while washing dishes at the Kennebunkport Playhouse one summer. Stopping off in New York on his way back to Roswell, he stumbled into the Caffe Cino, the first underground or Off-Off Broadway theatre, on September 14, 1961. He remained there working for free in any required capacity, supporting himself with temporary typing jobs while observing and participating in the production of dozens of plays. Having long been a poet, in 1964 he got an idea for a play, "The Haunted Host," and because of the casualness of the Cino, was allowed to mount it almost at once. It was something of a success, and playwrighting became his main focus.

His first play, The Haunted Host, was produced in 1964 and premiered at the Caffe Cino in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, New York. Because Patrick refused the offer of Neil Flanagan, the Caffe Cino's star performer, to play the title role (because Flanagan had recently played Lanford Wilson's gay character, Lady Bright) Patrick himself wound up appearing in the play with fellow playwright William M. Hoffman.


Robert Patrick and Bette Bourne at Phebe's, 1988, by Robert Giard

American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. (http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/giard.html)

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Patrick_(playwright)

( Further Readings )

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

GRL: Sara Alva

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 Sara Alva: Sara Alva is a former small-town girl currently living in big-city LA with a husband, two cats, and an avocado tree. She recently discovered— after a year in her house— that she also has a fig tree in her backyard, which might mean she needs to get out more. But sometimes the stories waiting to be told demand more attention, and when she puts fingers to keyboard, it’s usually to write about journeys of self-discovery, heartache, personal growth, friendship and love. When she isn’t writing, she’s teaching or dancing.

Further Readings:

Silent by Sara Alva
Paperback: 382 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1493665901
ISBN-13: 978-1493665907
Amazon: Silent
Amazon Kindle: Silent

Alex’s life as a teenager in South Central LA is far from perfect, but it’s his life, and he knows how to live it. He knows what role to play and what things to keep to himself. He’s got it all under control, until one lousy pair of shoes kicks him out of his world and lands him in a foster care group home. Surrounded by strangers and trapped in a life where he could never belong, Alex turns to the only person lower on the social ladder than he is: a “special” mute boy. In Sebastian, Alex finds a safe place to store his secrets—those that sent him to foster care, and the deeper one that sets him apart from the other teenagers he knows. But Sebastian has secrets of his own, and when tragedy rips the two boys apart, Alex will stop at nothing to find the answers—even if it means dragging them both through a past full of wounds best left buried. It might just be worth it, for the slim chance at love.

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Checkmate (The Eternal Dungeon: Sweet Blood #4) by Dusk Peterson

Checkmate (The Eternal Dungeon: Sweet Blood #4) by Dusk Peterson
Bisexual Fantasy
Publisher: Love in Dark Settings Press (August 31, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: Checkmate (The Eternal Dungeon: Sweet Blood #4)

"It's all about torture. That's what I didn't understand for a long time. The High Seeker has been seeking out and punishing those of us who wish to show greater mercy to the prisoners than the Code allows. Those of us who question whether it's right to torture prisoners."

The Eternal Dungeon is no longer a prison. It's a battlefield.

Split apart from their closest loves and friends, a small group of prison-workers seek to abolish the use of torture against prisoners in the queendom's royal dungeon. Time is running out, for the deadly High Seeker has already flogged and executed prison-workers who opposed his policies.

Do the reformers have enough time and skill to bring about radical change in the dungeon? Will they be able to overcome their mistrust of one another?

This suspenseful novel can be read on its own or as the fourth story in the "Sweet Blood" volume of The Eternal Dungeon, an award-winning speculative fiction series set in a nineteenth-century prison where the psychologists wield whips.

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