John Houck became a Marine to become a hero. But his life changed when he failed to notice an explosive device that ended up maiming the captain of his Force Recon Company, a respected Marine who nearly sacrificed himself to save John's life. Home from Iraq, John pays a visit to his...  more

John Houck became a Marine to become a hero. But his life changed when he failed to notice an explosive device that ended up maiming the captain of his Force Recon Company, a respected Marine who nearly sacrificed himself to save John's life. Home from Iraq, John pays a visit to his former captain, only to discover the captain has been gruesomely murdered. John pursues a strange man he sees running from the scene, but he discovers that Alex Martin is not the murderer. Alex is, in fact, the former captain's secret male lover and the killer's intended next victim. When it becomes clear that local law enforcement has direct connections to the murder itself, John realizes that to repay his debt of honor, he must teach Alex Martin how to protect himself, even if that means teaching Alex to kill. In the process, John confronts the painful truth about the younger brother he was unable to protect and the older sister he always felt he failed. Blind Fall is a story of honor and integrity, of turning failure into victory. It is a stunning departure for Christopher Rice: the story of two men, one a Marine, one gay, who must unite to avenge the death of the man they both loved -- one as a brother-in-arms, one as a lover -- and to survive.

Before they were grown men working and playing in Pittsburgh, Brian Kinney and Michael Novotny were high-school friends deadling with bullies, secret crushes, and their emerging sexuality. Step back in time with two of Queer as Folk's hottest characters in the first book in this...  more

Before they were grown men working and playing in Pittsburgh, Brian Kinney and Michael Novotny were high-school friends deadling with bullies, secret crushes, and their emerging sexuality. Step back in time with two of Queer as Folk's hottest characters in the first book in this provocative new series.  On the eve of Brian Kinney's eighteenth birthday, he and his best friend, Michael Novotny, celebrate a bond that could link them forever if their future paths don't separate them for good. In a few short weeks Brian, the seductive soccer star, will leave for college, where he'll be free to explore the adult pursuits in which he's only dabbled in high school. Michael is destined for a more sedate life in community college while living at home with his eccentric mom. But before their lives diverge, a hot new club will open, they'll go to the prom "stag" together, and family strife will turn their world upside down. Brian and Michael still have some unforgettable times to share before graduation ushers in the next stages of their lives. 

Readers who became acquainted with Nathan Reed in Living Upstairs will be pleased to encounter him again in this new work, set in California in 1941, two years prior to the events in the previous novel. The gay would-be writer is here 17--and in his own words, "a nobody high school kid...  more

Readers who became acquainted with Nathan Reed in Living Upstairs will be pleased to encounter him again in this new work, set in California in 1941, two years prior to the events in the previous novel. The gay would-be writer is here 17--and in his own words, "a nobody high school kid with a secondhand typewriter, a hundred sheets of blank dime-store paper, and voices in his head." His literary aspirations prompt him to join the staff of a local college newspaper, which in turn draws him into a group of thespians starting up a theater. Several opening nights, in fact, figure into Hansen's many story lines, which include a police scandal, rumors of Nazis and an attempted murder. His brief, well-paced scenes are fueled by abundant dialogue and lean, unsentimental prose. The multiplicity of characters is handled skillfully, though many are only lightly sketched. (Nathan's parents--an unemployed musician and a fortune-teller--come off as quirky and borderline cartoonish.) Hansen's readers may be disappointed that the gay California subculture is not as keenly detailed here as in Living Upstairs. Nathan's gay awakening is driven more by plot than by psychological or sexual exploration, but Hansen sagely keeps his attractive protagonist, the object of lust from characters of both sexes, full of self-doubt about his identity.

From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry—the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy,...  more

From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry—the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had to drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life—and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.

A close circle of friends.  A sexy stranger.  How strong are the bonds of friendship? With a nine-week stay on the New York Times bestseller list, E. Lynn Harris's third novel, And This Too Shall Pass, put his "sizzling and fast-paced" books at the top of...  more

A close circle of friends.  A sexy stranger.  How strong are the bonds of friendship? With a nine-week stay on the New York Times bestseller list, E. Lynn Harris's third novel, And This Too Shall Pass, put his "sizzling and fast-paced" books at the top of everyone's must-read list.  Readers across the country were thrilled to watch his true-to-life characters wrestle with questions of faith, family, and love.  In his new blockbuster, If This World Were Mine, Harris introduces four new characters whose friendship and deep bonds of intimacy are threatened by conflicts of career and romance. Friends since their days at Hampton Institute, the four group members are as different as the seasons, yet they all share a love of one another.  Yolanda, a media consultant, keeps it going on with a no-nonsense attitude and independence that are balanced by the theatrics of Riley, a former marketing executive, whose marriage has reduced her to "a kept woman with kids." Computer engineer Dwight's anger at the world is offset by the compassion of Leland, a gay psychiatrist, whose clients make him question why God ever invented sex.  Together, these four friends keep a collective journal they call "If This World Were Mine," and share their personal diaries each month at a gathering filled with humor, gossip, and affirmation. But after five years, the once-strong bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must handle challenges of work, lost love, and a stranger in their midst: gray-eyed John Basil Henderson, a former NFL star whose past has begun to haunt him.  As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and the stability of the group begins to disintegrate.  When one of them faces death, the crisis forces the friends to recognize and accept the inner strength that the group has nurtured in each of them.  Is their past friendship strong enough to survive the future? With home training tales from Uncle Doc, Leland's gay uncle and purveyor of Miss Thing's Wings, Chicago's premier chicken emporium, the group reaffirms honesty as the bedrock of their friendship.  As Leland and Yolanda pledge to each other, "I love you.  That's all."

When gay P.I. Dave Brandstetter returns home from a business trip, he finds an unknown dead man on his doorstep. Is he the latest victim of a serial killer the media are calling the "Knifer in the Dark"?

"We have traded tales, my buddies and I; of affairs, encounters, secrets, fears, self-promotion-of fantasies that we make real in the telling." In this, the first volume in Ethan Mordden's acclaimed trilogy on Manhattan gay life, he introduces a small group of friends-Dennis Savage, Little...  more

"We have traded tales, my buddies and I; of affairs, encounters, secrets, fears, self-promotion-of fantasies that we make real in the telling." In this, the first volume in Ethan Mordden's acclaimed trilogy on Manhattan gay life, he introduces a small group of friends-Dennis Savage, Little Kiwi, Carlos, and the narrator, Bud-and chronicles their exploration of the new world of gay life and the new people they are in the process of becoming.In a voice at once ironic, wistful, witty, and profound, Mordden investigates his suspicion that all of gay life is stories and that, somehow or other, all these stories are about love.

Here are three novellas of escape and exile, touching and funny and at times calculatedly outrageous. In "Saturn Street," a disaffected L.A. screenwriter delivers lunches to homebound AIDS patients, only to find himself falling in love with one of them. In "The Wooden Anniversary," Nathan and...  more

Here are three novellas of escape and exile, touching and funny and at times calculatedly outrageous. In "Saturn Street," a disaffected L.A. screenwriter delivers lunches to homebound AIDS patients, only to find himself falling in love with one of them. In "The Wooden Anniversary," Nathan and Celia - familiar characters from Leavitt's story collections - reunite after a five-year separation. And in "The Term-Paper Artist," a writer named David Leavitt, hiding out at his father's house in the aftermath of a publishing scandal, experiences literary rejuvenation when he agrees to write term papers for UCLA undergraduates in exchange for sex.

Here are three novellas of escape and exile, touching and funny and at times calculatedly outrageous. In "Saturn Street," a disaffected L.A. screenwriter delivers lunches to homebound AIDS patients, only to find himself falling in love with one of them. In "The Wooden Anniversary," Nathan and...  more

Here are three novellas of escape and exile, touching and funny and at times calculatedly outrageous. In "Saturn Street," a disaffected L.A. screenwriter delivers lunches to homebound AIDS patients, only to find himself falling in love with one of them. In "The Wooden Anniversary," Nathan and Celia - familiar characters from Leavitt's story collections - reunite after a five-year separation. And in "The Term-Paper Artist," a writer named David Leavitt, hiding out at his father's house in the aftermath of a publishing scandal, experiences literary rejuvenation when he agrees to write term papers for UCLA undergraduates in exchange for sex.

After an absence of eight years, Armistead Maupin returns with the tale of Gabriel Noone, a writer whose cult-hit radio serial "Noone at Night" has brought him into the homes of millions. Noone is in the midst of a painful separation from his lover of 10 years when a publisher sends him proofs...  more

After an absence of eight years, Armistead Maupin returns with the tale of Gabriel Noone, a writer whose cult-hit radio serial "Noone at Night" has brought him into the homes of millions. Noone is in the midst of a painful separation from his lover of 10 years when a publisher sends him proofs of a remarkable book: the memoir of an ailing 13-year-old boy who suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of his parents. Now living with his adoptive mother, Donna, Pete Lomax is not only a brave and gifted diarist but a devoted listener of Noone's show. When Noone phones the boy to offer encouragement, it soon becomes clear that Pete sees in this heartsick middle-aged storyteller the loving father he's always wanted. Thus begins an extraordinary friendship that only grows deeper as the boy's health deteriorates, freeing Noone to unlock his innermost feelings. Then, out of the blue, troubling new questions arise, exploding Noone's comfortable assumptions and causing his ordered existence to spin wildly out to control. As he walks a line between truth and illusion, he is finally forced to confront all of his relationships—familial, romantic, and erotic.

In each section of Michael Cunningham’s new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. “In the Machine” is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated...  more

In each section of Michael Cunningham’s new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. “In the Machine” is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. “The Children’s Crusade,” set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city. The third part, “Like Beauty,” evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, “It avails not, neither distance nor place...I am with you, and know how it is.” 

What Tales of the City did for San Francisco, Misadventures in the (213) does double for L.A. in this audacious, satirical tale of a struggling screenwriter, his media-whore best friend, and their circle of celebrity-seeking pals."(213)?" you'll likely ask.Well, the area code, of...  more

What Tales of the City did for San Francisco, Misadventures in the (213) does double for L.A. in this audacious, satirical tale of a struggling screenwriter, his media-whore best friend, and their circle of celebrity-seeking pals."(213)?" you'll likely ask.Well, the area code, of course."Misadventures?"Just the high jinks underemployed Tinseltown wannabes are usually up to. Like making off with fish from Tina Louise's koi pond. Or harassing Alicia Silverstone with tales of watermelon-loving porn stars. Or auctioning off Andrew Shue's chicken wing and Heather Locklear's lip print for charity. You know. Packed with Hollywood life lessons and more B-level celebs than you can shake a casting sheet at, Misadventures in the (213) is a brilliantly witty dagger straight through the heart of the L.A. entertainment machine.

Case #7 for California insurance-sleuth Dave Brandstetter--who's looking into the road-accident death of independent trucker Paul Myers. . . which was really the result of a bombing. At first, as Dave makes inquiries in Myers' rough, black/Hispanic neighborhood (his Jaguar is promptly...  more

Case #7 for California insurance-sleuth Dave Brandstetter--who's looking into the road-accident death of independent trucker Paul Myers. . . which was really the result of a bombing. At first, as Dave makes inquiries in Myers' rough, black/Hispanic neighborhood (his Jaguar is promptly vandalized), he zeroes in on two likely suspects: Bruce Kilgore, lover of Myers' wife Angela, owner of a struggling local private-school (Myers' life was insured for $100,000); and Silencio Ruiz, a street-gang leader, imprisoned for two years on Paul Myers' testimony. Soon, however, disturbed by some unanswered questions (e.g., who beat up the silent, frightened Angela Myers?), Dave concentrates instead on the nature of trucker Myers' nightwork--especially when it appears that another solo trucker, black Ossie Bishop, died recently of natural, but strange causes. And eventually, while sheltering Bishop's harassed family, Dave and his assistant/lover Cecil uncover a shady network for the trucking of toxic wastes . . . along with a tacked-on revenge motive.

Hip radio comedy fans and theater folks who belong to the cult of Obie-winning playwright/performer David Sedaris must kill to get this book. These would be fans of the scaldingly snide Sedaris's hilariously described personal misadventures like The Santaland Diaries (a monologue about...  more

Hip radio comedy fans and theater folks who belong to the cult of Obie-winning playwright/performer David Sedaris must kill to get this book. These would be fans of the scaldingly snide Sedaris's hilariously described personal misadventures like The Santaland Diaries (a monologue about his work as an elf to a department store Santa) seen off-Broadway in 1997. In a series of similarly textured essays, Sedaris takes us along on his catastrophic detours through a nudist colony, a fruit-packing plant, his own childhood, and a dozen more of the world's little purgatories. Chipped beef -- A plague of tics -- Get your ya-ya's out -- Next of kin -- Cyclops -- The women's open -- True detective -- Dix Hill -- I like guys -- The drama bug -- Dinah, the Christmas whore -- Planet of the apes -- The incomplete quad -- C.O.G. -- Something for everyone -- Ashes -- Naked

Publishers Weekly: Taken separately, the short stories in this debut collection are brief slices of bitterness. Taken together, they describe a gay coming of age and a coming to grips with human frailty. In the first story, the physical manifestation is genetic: the club foot the narrator...  more

Publishers Weekly: Taken separately, the short stories in this debut collection are brief slices of bitterness. Taken together, they describe a gay coming of age and a coming to grips with human frailty. In the first story, the physical manifestation is genetic: the club foot the narrator inherited from his mother. After a party at which his guests dress up in his mother's clothing and makeup, his parents discover his sexual preference. "All I wanted was for you to have a chance at a normal life," his mother says. "It's like you've chosen to be deformed." In the title story, the narrator recounts the parallel tales of his painful acne treatment and the doomed affair between a friend (a member of "the secret club of beautiful men") and a married man. By "Dr. K.," though, the body's betrayal is fatal: with the narrator's lover dying, he begins an affair with a man whose lover has killed himself. After inquiring about the lover, he adds apologetically that "Storytelling... is what people do during the plague-they hole up somewhere and have a round table." Klein's evocation of both an individual and a culture maturing and entering a funereal phase is strong, and although there are weak patches here and there when imagery gets in the way of meaning-especially in "India," which stumbles pointlessly about-his direct, economical language hammers these stories home with a single stroke.

In charming, beautiful, and wealthy old-South Savannah, Georgia, the local bad boy is shot dead inside of the opulent mansion of a gay antiques dealer, and a gripping trial follows. Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilarious black drag queen. A...  more

In charming, beautiful, and wealthy old-South Savannah, Georgia, the local bad boy is shot dead inside of the opulent mansion of a gay antiques dealer, and a gripping trial follows. Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilarious black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques dealer who hangs a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a "walking streak of sex."

Reality is unraveling in the dusty Colorado town of Castle City.  Strange symbols are carved into storefronts, and ancient legends come to life.   Saloonkeeper Travis Wilder is handed an ornate iron box and a mysterious mission.  And in Denver, where dead men...  more

Reality is unraveling in the dusty Colorado town of Castle City.  Strange symbols are carved into storefronts, and ancient legends come to life.   Saloonkeeper Travis Wilder is handed an ornate iron box and a mysterious mission.  And in Denver, where dead men walk, ER doctor Grace Beckett is witness to a terrifying and inhuman scene of carnage.  Theirs is a destiny shrouded in a coming darkness, a destiny that draws them into the otherworld of Eldh....   Eldh is a land of gods and monsters, myths and runecraft, conspiracy and blood.  It is a world that has secretly coexisted beside ours for millennia.  But now the boundary between worlds is crumbling in the face of a monstrous evil.  And Travis and Grace must save this strange land in order to safeguard their own world.

The unsympathetic anti-hero here is Darryl Cutler, a handsome but aging hustler who once wrote sex-paperbacks for the sleazy Brackett House. (Hansen's own paperbacks were published by Brandon House.) Haunted by bygone hit-and-run guilt, Darryl now works as live-in nurse/lover/assistant to old,...  more

The unsympathetic anti-hero here is Darryl Cutler, a handsome but aging hustler who once wrote sex-paperbacks for the sleazy Brackett House. (Hansen's own paperbacks were published by Brandon House.) Haunted by bygone hit-and-run guilt, Darryl now works as live-in nurse/lover/assistant to old, ill, wealthy Steward Moody--a cushy enough job. But then Darryl fails madly in lust/love with young, blond, icy Chick Pelletier, a bisexual Lady Macbeth who immediately persuades Darryl to murder old Moody (a faked medical accident). Darryl inherits a fortune; he and Chick move to a grand beach-house. But Chick's insatiable appetites force the repugnantly docile Darryl into one degradation after another; plagiarizing a screenplay (so Chick can become a movie-star); killing a writer/neighbor (whose wife is Chick's new bedmate). And though Darryl does eventually get free of his Chick obsession, finding truer love with a Mexican lad, it's too late to escape his fate--especially once his monstrous mother arrives on the scene.

Dubbed by The New York Times as "the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen," Stephen McCauley presents his fourth deftly comic, critically acclaimed novel.Jane Cody imagined she'd lead a tumultuous life, full of money, passion, and painless tragedies. Instead, she wakes up at forty...  more

Dubbed by The New York Times as "the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen," Stephen McCauley presents his fourth deftly comic, critically acclaimed novel.Jane Cody imagined she'd lead a tumultuous life, full of money, passion, and painless tragedies. Instead, she wakes up at forty with a doting second husband, a precocious son who loves to bake, and a fast-paced job as a producer for a Boston television station. What went wrong? In New York, Desmond Sullivan -- biographer of demi-celebrities such as the forgotten torch singer Pauline Anderton -- wonders how he ended up "stuck in something as pathetic" as a happy, secretly monogamous relationship with smart, sweet Russell.Jane and Desmond meet in Boston and join forces to create a series of TV documentaries on America's cultural mediocrities. But their search for the truth about the elusive Anderton takes them on a journey of self-discovery in which they learn more about their own secrets and lies than they ever wanted to know.

George and Nina seem like the perfect couple. They share a cozy, cluttered Brooklyn apartment, a taste for impromptu tuna casserole dinners, and a devotion to ballroom dancing lessons at Arthur Murray. They love each other. There's only one hitch: George is gay. And when Nina announces she's...  more

George and Nina seem like the perfect couple. They share a cozy, cluttered Brooklyn apartment, a taste for impromptu tuna casserole dinners, and a devotion to ballroom dancing lessons at Arthur Murray. They love each other. There's only one hitch: George is gay. And when Nina announces she's pregnant, things get especially complicated. Howard -- Nina's overbearing boyfriend and the baby's father -- wants marriage. Nina wants independence. George will do anything for a little unqualified affection, but is he ready to become an unwed surrogate dad? A touching and hilarious novel about love, friendship, and the many ways of making a family.

An uproarious work of social satire by Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony, who give us an exclusive peek into the world of super-rich, super-connected African Americans. Lauren is trying to be an independent woman by starting her own documentary film company, but it's...  more

An uproarious work of social satire by Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony, who give us an exclusive peek into the world of super-rich, super-connected African Americans. Lauren is trying to be an independent woman by starting her own documentary film company, but it's difficult when you're married to Ed Thomas, one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the country -- particularly when he seems to have a roving eye. Manny is an up-and-coming gay real estate agent who arrived in Manhattan from Alabama with only the clothes on his back. He's made his way to the top of his profession -- yet he still wants more and is intent on charming his way into riches to keep his gorgeous live-in boyfriend happy. Tandy is one of the powerful "ladies who lunch" until her husband's death reveals his shocking financial problems. Now, she's desperate to reinvent herself and must find a new source of money. In this compelling first novel, authors Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony give us a rare glimpse inside the fashionable and urbane world of New York's chic African-American society and its incumbent scandals, foibles, and skeletons. Gotham Diaries is a gripping novel, filled with fascinating characters and a plot that won't let go.

As an openly gay comic, Bob Smith broke barriers with an appearance on "The Tonight Show." Now Smith offers up his own original, whine-free perspective on being grown up and gay.In OPENLY BOB, the acclaimed comedian candidly, and humorously, tackles issues facing grown-up gays as they make their...  more

As an openly gay comic, Bob Smith broke barriers with an appearance on "The Tonight Show." Now Smith offers up his own original, whine-free perspective on being grown up and gay.In OPENLY BOB, the acclaimed comedian candidly, and humorously, tackles issues facing grown-up gays as they make their place in an overwhelmingly straight society. From bringing your boyfriend home to your father's funeral, to being the only gay couple at a family wedding, to surviving couples counseling, Smith's decidedly wry spin on the events of our lives resonates with keen observation and hilarious truth."So Mom says to me on the phone, 'Just because you're coming home for your father's funeral doesn't mean we can't have fun!'"Sex education, meteor showers, lesbian ventriloquist dummies, fleamarket shopping, body piercing, pot -smoking drag queens, environmental correctness, Judgment Day, Samuel Beckett, Newt Gingrich, Coco Chanel, Sigmund Freud--nothing and no one escapes Smith's incisive eye in this very human collection of comic essays.

The publication of Alec Baldwin Doesn_t Love Me in 1998 launched a fresh, vital voice in comedy. Publishers Weekly has called Michael Thomas Ford a "cranky, bemused, and extremely funny." Lambda Book Report has described Ford as "genially misanthropic," and Southern Voice has named him "our...  more

The publication of Alec Baldwin Doesn_t Love Me in 1998 launched a fresh, vital voice in comedy. Publishers Weekly has called Michael Thomas Ford a "cranky, bemused, and extremely funny." Lambda Book Report has described Ford as "genially misanthropic," and Southern Voice has named him "our freshest, most fearless satirist." Ford_s series of My Queer Life books (Alec Baldwin Doesn_t Love Me, That_s Mister Faggot to You, It_s Not Mean If It_s True, and The Little Book of Neuroses) have racked up four Lambda Literary Award nominations, with two back-to-back wins, and appeared on bestseller lists from New York to Dallas to Sacramento. Now the best of his writing has been collected along with five new, brilliantly funny essays to create the essential My Queer Life -compendium. Raves for Michael Thomas Ford_s My Queer Life:"Ford is a delightfully inventive wit."_Publishers Weekly"He truly entertains by being meaningfully hilarious."_Booklist"One of the funniest books I_ve read this year."_Kelly Justice, Carrytown Books_Richmond, VA; Book Sense 76 Pick"A fresh voice, unafraid to tackle any subject and tickle, if not outright hit, below the belt."_Rain TaxiMichael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books in a variety of genres, including biographies and young-adult fiction. His books in the My Queer Life series have been national bestsellers and earned him two Lambda Literary Awards. He lives in San Francisco.

Jason Dallin, straight (if you'll pardon the expression) from college in Ohio, is working at Video Xplosion rather than in films. But his luck turns when he is asked to house-sit wannabe but talentless actress Fawn Farrar's $10 million Beverly Hills estate. Capitalizing on his new position, he...  more

Jason Dallin, straight (if you'll pardon the expression) from college in Ohio, is working at Video Xplosion rather than in films. But his luck turns when he is asked to house-sit wannabe but talentless actress Fawn Farrar's $10 million Beverly Hills estate. Capitalizing on his new position, he is soon befriended by his all-time favorite star, Marina Stetson, a Janis Joplin-esque singer just out of rehab and trying to make a comeback--and whose husband Jason secretly covets. Adding to the drama is Jason's ex-roommate, the incredibly pretentious Tricia Cox, whose struggles to make it as a talent agent take a wrong turn when she contracts her meal ticket, the talented and beautiful Violet Cyr, to a hip-hop sitcom called "Chillin' with Billy. When Billy turns out to be a talking goat, all hell breaks loose. The trashy, hip young heroes suffer through humiliations galore before they have a chance to make it--but not before Christian McLaughlin has laid bare in hilarious detail all the foibles and fumbles of a group of happening young people in La La Land in their shameless pursuit of fame, fortune--and sex.

In the tradition of the ground-breaking Men on Men and its highly acclaimed sequel, Men on Men 2, this superb anthology brings us twenty powerful, often poignant stories, fifteen never before published. Some are from well-known authors such as Christopher Bram, who tells a psychologically...  more

In the tradition of the ground-breaking Men on Men and its highly acclaimed sequel, Men on Men 2, this superb anthology brings us twenty powerful, often poignant stories, fifteen never before published. Some are from well-known authors such as Christopher Bram, who tells a psychologically dramatic story of seduction in "Meeting Imelda Marcos," and Paul Monette, whose "Halfway Home" is a moving account of AIDS and two brothers. And there are many new authors whose stunning talents are introduced in this extraordinary collecton. Together their voices etch an indelible portrait of a world where love is both thwarted and realized, where the shadow of AIDS hangs over flirtations, seductions, obsesssions and commitments, and where the family remains a source of both solace and anxiety.

Written with the warmth, wit, and heartbreaking humor that have made Stephen McCauley's previous novels beloved by readers and critics alike, True Enough is a story of love and lust, trust and betrayal, commitment and denial; it signals a major leap forward in the career of a novelist whom the...  more

Written with the warmth, wit, and heartbreaking humor that have made Stephen McCauley's previous novels beloved by readers and critics alike, True Enough is a story of love and lust, trust and betrayal, commitment and denial; it signals a major leap forward in the career of a novelist whom the San Francisco Chronicle has called "a writer of insight, surprise, and finesse." True Enough begins with Jane Cody; at forty she has it all: a satisfying career as a producer at a Boston public television station, a successful second marriage, a wildly precocious six-year-old son who loves to bake. She's definitely not worried about losing her job, couldn't care less what the neighbors think of her child, and absolutely never longs for her rakish, unfaithful first husband. Honestly. Equally pleased with his life is Desmond Sullivan. His (secretly) monogamous relationship with Russell has been the happy center of his New York life for half a decade, and his second book, the biography of an obscure '60s-era female vocalist is (and has been for three years) mere pages away from completion. By accepting a temporary teaching job in Boston, he'll get enough distance from his distracting happiness to finish his book and maybe even figure out how much blissful domesticity he can stand. When Jane and Desmond meet, they're drawn to each other by needs and fears they never knew they had. They team up to work on a series of TV documentaries on the lives of America's forgotten artistic mediocrities -- according to Jane, "the whole culture is drifting away from geniuses and exceptional people who only make the rest of us feel inadequate" -- that could save Jane's career and help Desmond wrap up his book. They embark on a journey that proves to be surprising, revealing, and stunningly life-affirming. Of course, no journey is easy, and their progress toward uncovering the truth about enigmatic pop singer Pauline Anderton (a real singer, even if, at times, a really bad one) is slowed by pesky personal crises -- like Jane's realization that adultery with one's former husband is still adultery, and Desmond's discovery, on a return trip to New York, of a suspiciously unfamiliar pair of eyeglasses on his nightstand. Maybe Jane's shrink -- to whom she's confessing all, more or less -- can help. And maybe Desmond can learn something from Jane's handsome, flirtatious married brother. Or maybe the answer to each of their problems has been there all along, like a lost coin, waiting to be picked up and polished and put back into circulation. But then, true love can be so embarrassing.

Marcel Emerson makes a stunning literary debut with a gripping tale of passion, pain and the promise of love. Jennifer Peele and Dontae Erickson have just entered the prestigious world of Georgetown University's elite law school. A chance meeting brings them together and they realize...  more

Marcel Emerson makes a stunning literary debut with a gripping tale of passion, pain and the promise of love. Jennifer Peele and Dontae Erickson have just entered the prestigious world of Georgetown University's elite law school. A chance meeting brings them together and they realize they have a lot more in common than their mysterious green eyes. Personal tragedies have made them kindred spirits, both seeking to fill the empty space left by deaths of their mothers. Jennifer, once a rising songstress, re-ignites her passion for singing but ends up facing the flames of an abusive relationship with one of her band members. She struggles to maintain her dignity, her grades and her failing relationship, in spite of its fatal flaws. Dontae falls under the spell of a charming law student, Darrel, but their budding relationship soon withers under the weight of a personal tragedy-the death of Darrel's father. Darrel makes a quick exit and seems to vanish off the face of the earth, only to resurface later, with a pregnant wife in tow. Will Dontae accept Darrel's offer of continuing their relationship, in spite of the fact that he belongs to someone else, or will Dontae move on and look for love in the arms of another? My Eyes Are Green will pull readers into the life and times of the characters, making them feel as if they are a part of the story and that the characters are of flesh and blood. The story races to a powerful climax and decisions are made that will transform each character, forever.

Chauncey Greer is the owner of The Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D had become much more than good friends. A free spirit now on the brink of forty,...  more

Chauncey Greer is the owner of The Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D had become much more than good friends. A free spirit now on the brink of forty, Chauncey has always hooked up with both men and women. With the age of the "down low" making women more cautious, however, Chauncey has been focusing on the guys. After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church, where the minister?s message inspires him to follow his dream of a musical career once again. Although he?s lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey?s smashing performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church?s homophobia by staging a ?Day of Absence? when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned?until D. appears on the scene and Chauncey has to face some hard choices about his future. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER is filled with the plot twists, humor, and provocative insights readers expect from Harris. Like his last three novels, it is sure to rocket to the top of bestseller lists nationwide.

Weakened by AIDS, artist Tom Ahaheen retreats to a remote California beach to come to terms with his illness and his life, until his estranged brother, Brian, comes back into his life.

It used to be trendy; now it's just comfortable. And it's the perfect spot to recover from Saturday night while preparing for Monday morning. Each Sunday, Third and Heaven, a little diner in West Hollywood, California, plays host to four friends who over breakfast counsel, console, encourage,...  more

It used to be trendy; now it's just comfortable. And it's the perfect spot to recover from Saturday night while preparing for Monday morning. Each Sunday, Third and Heaven, a little diner in West Hollywood, California, plays host to four friends who over breakfast counsel, console, encourage, mock, outrage and otherwise make each of their lives worth living. Freddy is an entertainment-show host who is dating a Broadway star with a crystal meth addiction. Claire is a twice-divorced osteopath who is compulsively amorous with men she meets in the supermarket. Ritchie is a personal trainer who dreams of being an actor and struggles to reconcile with his Sicilian family. And Joshua, as a publicist to has-beens and nobodies, attempts to spin press mentions out of thin air. Over the course of a year, their friendship remains the one constant as porn stars are dated, Thanksgiving dinners are ruined, stalkers are served restraining orders, exes are spied on, gowns are assembled in late-night sewing bees, apartments are painted and bail is posted. No matter what happens, each of them knows the other three will be there, waiting to dish in the corner booth at Third and Heaven. Ben Patrick Johnson is one of the top voice-over actors in Hollywood. His is the signature announcer voice of Entertainment Tonight, Judge Joe Brown and Fox Sports' You Gotta See This! His voice has been heard in hundreds of trailers for films such as X-Men, Anger Management, The Pianist, City of God and many others. He is the author of In and Out in Hollywood and lives in Los Angeles.

Tranquility reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer and the world's most beautiful fat woman....  more

Tranquility reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer and the world's most beautiful fat woman. Significant Others is Armistead Maupin's cunningly observed meditation on marriage, friendship, and sexual nostalgia.

The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a...  more

The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath across Alaska, and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living in San Francisco park.

Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guiness Book record holder as the world's shortest woman. All of 31 inches...  more

Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guiness Book record holder as the world's shortest woman. All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where -- as she says -- "you can die of encouragement." Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star. In a series of mordantly funny journal entries, Maupin tracks his spunky heroine across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her regular harrowing encounters with small children, large dogs and human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into Cady's life, unleashing heady new emotions, and she finds herself going for broke, shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and daring that it just might succeed. Her accomplice in the venture is her best friend, Jeff, a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the Hollywood Closet. As clear-eyed as it is charming, Maybe the Moon is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a perspective rarely found in literature.

When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there's more to making a baby then meets the eye. Help arrives in the form of a grieving gay neighbor, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. Bittersweet and...  more

When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there's more to making a baby then meets the eye. Help arrives in the form of a grieving gay neighbor, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. Bittersweet and profoundly affecting, Babycakes was the first work of fiction to acknowledge the arrival of AIDS.

In his award-winning first book, Bob Smith offered up a witty dose of nineties reality with his observations as a happily adjusted gay man. Now, after breaking up with his longtime boyfriend, Smith looks back to his painfully normal childhood to see where all the trouble really began. Like every...  more

In his award-winning first book, Bob Smith offered up a witty dose of nineties reality with his observations as a happily adjusted gay man. Now, after breaking up with his longtime boyfriend, Smith looks back to his painfully normal childhood to see where all the trouble really began. Like every other American kid, Bob's adolescence was marked by alternating moments of blissful ignorance, hazy confusion, and humiliating self-consciousness. And in these pages, Bob evokes his youth with a vividness that will make you shudder and howl with recognition.In these hysterically humorous pages, Bob Smith introduces readers to his comically unsympathetic grandmother, who makes light of his carsickness: "Bob only throws up because he's near the window and he can"; to his first teacher crush, whose "five-o'clock shadow could plunge a room into darkness"; and to his first brush with fame, when he fainted from his chair during a biology filmstrip ("Way to go, Smith!"). Sharp, observant, ingeniously ironic and wholly satisfying, this new Lambda Award-nominated collection is at once bittersweet nostalgic fun and a testament to the unquestionable gifts of a highly original comic writer.

The tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cozy nest for adventures for afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppleganger in a desert whore-house, and Michael Tolliver bumps into a certain gynecologist in a seedy Mexican Bar....  more

The tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cozy nest for adventures for afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppleganger in a desert whore-house, and Michael Tolliver bumps into a certain gynecologist in a seedy Mexican Bar. Meanwhile, their venerable landlady takes the biggest journey of all without ever leaving home. (Visit the Tales of the City website at www.talesofthecity.com)

Sixteen-year-old Bert Rosenbaum is living in the Bronx with his family when his brother, Philip, has his first psychotic breakdown. Philip communicates with extraterrestrials through radio stations only he can hear, discovers a homosexual plot to control the world, and burns Bert's cherished...  more

Sixteen-year-old Bert Rosenbaum is living in the Bronx with his family when his brother, Philip, has his first psychotic breakdown. Philip communicates with extraterrestrials through radio stations only he can hear, discovers a homosexual plot to control the world, and burns Bert's cherished Dylan albums to protect him from evil subliminal messages. Haunted by the shadow of his brother's madness, Bert graduates from college, lands a job in the Department of Sewers, and settles into a small, dingy Manhattan apartment. Confused by his simultaneous attraction to a male coworker and a married woman, stuck in a job that bores him, and surrounded by an odd assortment of neighbors whose troubled lives affect his own, Bert becomes convinced he is following in his brother's footsteps. When three space aliens arrive, Bert's fears seem to be realized. At first menacing, though eventually claiming his friendship, the aliens provide a hilarious spoof on contemporary American culture. Yet whether they are real or imagined, through them Bert becomes ready to take control of his life, come to terms with his sexual identity, and embark upon his first serious relationship. In this poignant yet comic tour de force, Eugene Stein creates a phantasmagoric Manhattan, a city where craziness is manifested everywhere, and where alienation displaces family and community. Straitjacket & Tie is the bold and memorable introduction of Eugene Stein's expansive talents as a novelist.

Patrick O'Neil is a travel agent who never goes anywhere. His lover, Arthur, whom Patrick can't quite commit to, wants to cement their relationship by buying a house. Then a call comes in the middle of the night. Patrick's younger brother, Tony, has fallen in love - unfortunately...  more

Patrick O'Neil is a travel agent who never goes anywhere. His lover, Arthur, whom Patrick can't quite commit to, wants to cement their relationship by buying a house. Then a call comes in the middle of the night. Patrick's younger brother, Tony, has fallen in love - unfortunately she's not the woman he's already pledged to marry.

Sam is a teen boy who's attracted to both boys and girls. He doesn't know what to call himself or where he fits in. Then he meets Toby, another boy who likes both boys and girls. Are they destined to be just friends, more than friends, or less than friends? And what would happen if they...  more

Sam is a teen boy who's attracted to both boys and girls. He doesn't know what to call himself or where he fits in. Then he meets Toby, another boy who likes both boys and girls. Are they destined to be just friends, more than friends, or less than friends? And what would happen if they were attracted to the same girl? Love comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes all at once. In his brilliant, funny, and heartfelt debut, Eddie de Oliveira shows us there's more to life than being a wallflower or being knocked out by nunga-nungas.

Police Chief Ben Orton had a gift for making enemies. When his body was found, head smashed in, the people of his seaside domain were shocked--less because of the gruesome murder than because someone had finally dared to cross Ben Orton.

After twenty-one years on the detective beat, aging veteran P.I. Dave Brandstetter is finally going to get some rest -- that is, after one last case. Even though he is no longer able to sprint after the bad guys like he used to, Brandstetter is not stopped from investigating this wild tale of...  more

After twenty-one years on the detective beat, aging veteran P.I. Dave Brandstetter is finally going to get some rest -- that is, after one last case. Even though he is no longer able to sprint after the bad guys like he used to, Brandstetter is not stopped from investigating this wild tale of kidnapping and murder told by a bruised and grubby little boy found wandering the beach alone. The police don't even believe the kid -- just as they don't believe that the drug-related shooting death of a pop guitarist in anything out of the ordinary. So Dave is lured out of retirement to confront street drugs, powerful politicians, sleazy record executives, child abuse, and to unravel as snarled a tangle of carnage and deception as he's ever faced.

A new crime novel featuring insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter, who finds too many loose ends to tie up when he investigates a murder. The investigation takes him from an evangelical church to the seedy world of teenage drugs and prostitution.

Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter adds yet another adventure to his list when he attempts to find out who shot an arrogant young man at an outdoor war games center near Los Angeles. Newscaster/lover Cecil remains in the background as Dave questions the dead man's wealthy parents, follows...  more

Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter adds yet another adventure to his list when he attempts to find out who shot an arrogant young man at an outdoor war games center near Los Angeles. Newscaster/lover Cecil remains in the background as Dave questions the dead man's wealthy parents, follows the man's jumpy girlfriend to Winter Creek, runs afoul of a dangerous, neofascist military group in the area, and outwits the not-so-clever-after-all culprit. Hansen is completely familiar with his characters and the mechanics of plotting, and he offers a tightly woven, motion-filled (but largely emotionless) construct that should appeal to many.

In the tradition of Michael Cunningham's The Hours, a beautiful novel destined to become a classic Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, a worn, jaded professor comes to our nation's capital to recuperate from his loss. What he finds there -- in his repressed, lonely landlord,...  more

In the tradition of Michael Cunningham's The Hours, a beautiful novel destined to become a classic Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, a worn, jaded professor comes to our nation's capital to recuperate from his loss. What he finds there -- in his repressed, lonely landlord, in the city's mood and architecture, and in the letters and journals of Mary Todd Lincoln -- shows him new, poignant truths about America, yearning, loneliness, and mourning itself. Since Andrew Holleran first burst onto the scene with 1978's groundbreaking Dancer from the Dance, which has been continuously in print, he has been dazzling readers and critics with his haunting, brilliant prose. The Publishing Triangle ranks Dancer from the Dance at #15 on its list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels ever, along with titles by Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. A new Andrew Holleran book is a major literary event; with Grief, Holleran is poised to reach a wider audience than ever before.

Hapless protagonist Harry Ford told his blue-blooded Kansas family he was gay when he was a teenager; his angry father changed his will to state that Harry must marry a woman by the time he's 24 or lose a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Schell's well-meaning, goofy debut novel focuses on...  more

Hapless protagonist Harry Ford told his blue-blooded Kansas family he was gay when he was a teenager; his angry father changed his will to state that Harry must marry a woman by the time he's 24 or lose a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Schell's well-meaning, goofy debut novel focuses on the year--1984--that Harry, now a 23-year-old airline steward, oscillates between his gay identity and the possibility of marrying a woman. The devoted love he feels for his beautiful best friend, Amity Stone, may just be enough, he imagines, to turn him into a happy, heterosexual husband and nab him the family fortune to boot. Harry had thought he'd already foregone being rich, having turned up his nose at Ivy League colleges, law school and fancy cars, and choosing instead the freedom to be himself, date men and travel the world. And he falls hard for Argentine waiter Nicolo. But on the other hand, Harry's older brother, Winston, a closeted gay man, is licking his chops at the prospect of collecting his brother's inheritance, which annoys Harry. And then there's Amity, a Dallas wild child whose lust for wealth and luxury is equaled by her true feelings for Harry.

Following the stories of two men castrated to ensure their perfect soprano voices, Cry to Heaven is a historical novel in 18th century Italy. Guido Maffeo is castrated at age six and enters the conservatory. He becomes a star until he loses his voice. When his voice is gone, he becomes a...  more

Following the stories of two men castrated to ensure their perfect soprano voices, Cry to Heaven is a historical novel in 18th century Italy. Guido Maffeo is castrated at age six and enters the conservatory. He becomes a star until he loses his voice. When his voice is gone, he becomes a teacher, searching for a boy who can fulfill his lost dream. He comes to Venice and his life is intertwined with Tonio Treshi. Tonio is the son of nobility and a beautiful singer. He dreams and talks of being a singer, but his family scoffs--that profession is for the castrati, not the son of a nobleman. Tonio's family is complicated, his mother a dark alcoholic who tips between lunacy and stupor, his brother (Carlo) reportedly disowned for seducing a common girl. But Tonio discovers the truth about his brother's sin and turns to his music to hide his fear and confusion. Tonio half-chooses and is half-forced into castration and begins a lifelong plot to take revenge on Carlo. He realizes at Guido's conservatory what has happened to him and refuses to sing. Guido is tormented by Tonio withholding his voice, but Tonio leaves the conservatory anyway. Yet Tonio finds that he now has no place to belong and that his power is building. He returns and begins to sing. His two sides, dark revenge and heroic song battle for control. Tonio begins his journey of stardom and decadence, achieving no balance in his life. His sexuality proves to be a source of great complexity, confusion, and promise. The minute Tonio has sorted out his life and is finally happy, he hears his mother has died and his time has come to confront Carlo.

Max Desir loved his Italian-American family--even after his iron-willed father exiled him from its intimate inner circle. Max Desir loved his lover, Nick, with whom he openly took up life first amid the enchantment of Rome, then amid the realities of New York. Two loves so deeply felt--in a man...  more

Max Desir loved his Italian-American family--even after his iron-willed father exiled him from its intimate inner circle. Max Desir loved his lover, Nick, with whom he openly took up life first amid the enchantment of Rome, then amid the realities of New York. Two loves so deeply felt--in a man so painfully divided.

Craig Lenzati, the rich and powerful CEO of Chicago's answer to Microsoft, is found brutally murdered with stab wounds all over his body. The murder is reported anonymously, and a quick and quiet resolution to the case is demanded by City Hall. Meanwhile, the list of suspects is almost endless...  more

Craig Lenzati, the rich and powerful CEO of Chicago's answer to Microsoft, is found brutally murdered with stab wounds all over his body. The murder is reported anonymously, and a quick and quiet resolution to the case is demanded by City Hall. Meanwhile, the list of suspects is almost endless and that along has the powers-that-be breathing down the necks of Chicago Police Detectives Paul Turner and Buck Fenwick. But as the two struggle to untangle the case and find the killer, they soon learn that the killer has only just begun.

At the age of eighteen Paul Porterfield dreams of playing piano at the world's great concert halls, yet the closest he's come has been to turn pages for his idol, Richard Kennington, a former prodigy who is entering middle age. The two begin a love affair that affects their lives in ways...  more

At the age of eighteen Paul Porterfield dreams of playing piano at the world's great concert halls, yet the closest he's come has been to turn pages for his idol, Richard Kennington, a former prodigy who is entering middle age. The two begin a love affair that affects their lives in ways neither could have predicted.

The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as she recuperates in a London suburb with her husband in 1923; Clarissa Vaughan, beloved friend of an acclaimed poet dying from AIDS, who in modern-day New York is planning a party in his honor; and Laura...  more

The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as she recuperates in a London suburb with her husband in 1923; Clarissa Vaughan, beloved friend of an acclaimed poet dying from AIDS, who in modern-day New York is planning a party in his honor; and Laura Brown, in a 1949 Los Angeles suburb, who slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home. By the end of the novel, these three stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace. At first blush, the structural and thematic conceits of this novel -- three interwoven novellas in varying degrees connected to Virginia Woolf -- seem like the stuff of a graduate student's pipe dream: a great idea in the dorm room that betrays a lack of originality. But as soon as one dips into Cunningham's prologue, in which Woolf's suicide is rendered with a precise yet harrowing matter-of-factness ("She hurries from the house, wearing a coat too heavy for the weather. It is 1941. She has left a note for Leonard, and another for Vanessa."), the reader becomes completely entranced. This book more than fulfills the promise of Cunningham's 1990 debut, A Home at the End of the World, while showing that sweep does not necessarily require the sprawl of his second book, Flesh and Blood. In alternating chapters, the three stories unfold: "Mrs. Woolf," about Virginia's own struggle to find an opening for Mrs. Dalloway in 1923; "Mrs. Brown," about one Laura Brown's efforts to escape, somehow, an airless marriage in California in 1949 while, coincidentally, reading Mrs. Dalloway; and "Mrs. Dalloway," which is set in 1990s Greenwich Village and concerns Clarissa Vaughan's preparations for a party for her gay -- and dying -- friend, Richard, who has nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway. Cunningham's insightful use of the historical record concerning Woolf in her household outside London in the 1920s is matched by his audacious imagining of her inner lifeand his equally impressive plunges into the lives of Laura and Clarissa. The book would have been altogether absorbing had it been linked only thematically. However, Cunningham cleverly manages to pull the stories even more intimately togther in the closing pages. Along the way, rich and beautifully nuanced scenes follow one upon the other: Virginia, tired and weak, irked by the early arrival of headstrong sister Vanessa, her three children and the dead bird they bury in the backyard; Laura's afternoon escape to an L.A. hotel to read for a few hours; Clarissa's anguished witnessing of her friend's suicidal jump down an airshaft, rendered with unforgettable detail. The overall effect of this book is twofold. First, it makes a reader hunger to know all about Woolf, again; readers may be spooked at times, as Woolf's spirit emerges in unexpected ways, but hers is an abiding presence, more about living than dying. Second, and this is the gargantuan accomplishment of this small book, it makes a reader believe in the possibility and depth of a communality based on great literature, literature that has shown people how to live and what to ask of life. (Nov.) FYI: The Hours was a working title that Woolf for a time gave to Mrs. Dalloway.

It's just one night. Just a surreal one night stand with a virtual stranger, a gypsy-eyed drifter with an inexplicably infectious passion for Thoreau. Yet for would-be screenwriter Greg Cannon, the fleeting encounter bears the promise of something even more elusive in this jaded town than...  more

It's just one night. Just a surreal one night stand with a virtual stranger, a gypsy-eyed drifter with an inexplicably infectious passion for Thoreau. Yet for would-be screenwriter Greg Cannon, the fleeting encounter bears the promise of something even more elusive in this jaded town than coveted stardom. then, in a violent instant, Harry Dawes is gone, wrists slashed, found naked in a hot tub with the body of Hollywood's hottest -- and also closeted -- actor. And Greg, who has lost a hundred men in his time but only this one to violence, finds himself robbed of the chance to fall in love. Reeling from the loss of a man he barely knew, he sets out to uncover the truth about the apparent double suicide. Ultimately, his attempt to unravel the enigmatic public and private lives of the tragic victims and those they left behind leads him on a complex journey as remarkable and revealing as the final destination.

"We have traded tales, my buddies and I; of affairs, encounters, secrets, fears, self-promotion-of fantasies that we make real in the telling." In this, the first volume in Ethan Mordden's acclaimed trilogy on Manhattan gay life, he introduces a small group of friends-Dennis Savage, Little...  more

"We have traded tales, my buddies and I; of affairs, encounters, secrets, fears, self-promotion-of fantasies that we make real in the telling." In this, the first volume in Ethan Mordden's acclaimed trilogy on Manhattan gay life, he introduces a small group of friends-Dennis Savage, Little Kiwi, Carlos, and the narrator, Bud-and chronicles their exploration of the new world of gay life and the new people they are in the process of becoming. In a voice at once ironic, wistful, witty, and profound, Mordden investigates his suspicion that all of gay life is stories and that, somehow or other, all these stories are about love.

In luminous prose and with a frankness about sexuality rarely seen in contemporary fiction, Dale Peck has written a haunting, daring, and heartrending debut novel that speaks of gay life in the nineties. Dale Peck weaves together two sets of stories to create a haunting, heartrending portrait...  more

In luminous prose and with a frankness about sexuality rarely seen in contemporary fiction, Dale Peck has written a haunting, daring, and heartrending debut novel that speaks of gay life in the nineties. Dale Peck weaves together two sets of stories to create a haunting, heartrending portrait of an artist in our time. The first is told episodically by John, a hustler in New York, who falls in love with Martin, a man dying of AIDS. Interwoven with these stories is a second set, in which characters named Martin and John appear, but living different lives.

Alex Reynolds and his lover Peter Livesay discover that a mysterious cult has killed friends of theirs over their friends' accidental possession of a stolen religious artifact. Now, Alex, Peter, and Alex's mother have inherited their friends' annoying dog Muffin as well as the unwanted and...  more

Alex Reynolds and his lover Peter Livesay discover that a mysterious cult has killed friends of theirs over their friends' accidental possession of a stolen religious artifact. Now, Alex, Peter, and Alex's mother have inherited their friends' annoying dog Muffin as well as the unwanted and deadly attention of the killers.

Zack Knowles and Daniel Wexler have been together for twenty-one years. Zack is a psychiatrist, Daniel an art teacher at a college in Virginia. In the fall of 2002, a few months before the Iraq War, a new artist in residence, Abbas Rohani, arrives with his Russian wife, Elena, and their two...  more

Zack Knowles and Daniel Wexler have been together for twenty-one years. Zack is a psychiatrist, Daniel an art teacher at a college in Virginia. In the fall of 2002, a few months before the Iraq War, a new artist in residence, Abbas Rohani, arrives with his Russian wife, Elena, and their two children. But Abbas is not quite what he seems, and soon he and Daniel begin an affair. After love throws the two families together, politics threatens the future of both in ways no one could have predicted. A novel that explores how the personal becomes political, Exiles in America offers an intimate look at the meaning of marriage, gay and straight, and demonstrates the breathtaking skill and daring imagination that have garnered Christopher Bram widespread critical acclaim.

Captain Matthew Fairchild has his eyes opened to his own sexuality as well as to the people and country of Vietnam and U.S. military involvement there, during his tour of duty as a desk officer in the 1970s--especially when he observes a Calley-like village massacre and learns that the Army has...  more

Captain Matthew Fairchild has his eyes opened to his own sexuality as well as to the people and country of Vietnam and U.S. military involvement there, during his tour of duty as a desk officer in the 1970s--especially when he observes a Calley-like village massacre and learns that the Army has tortured his Vietnamese boyfriend into telling of their affair.

In West Hollywood, journalist Adam Murphy is abruptly fired while chasing a career-making story. A Marine pilot is killed when his helicopter spirals into the Pacific Ocean -- and Adam suspects the death was not accidental. Battling his own demons in a city of temptations, Adam pursues the truth...  more

In West Hollywood, journalist Adam Murphy is abruptly fired while chasing a career-making story. A Marine pilot is killed when his helicopter spirals into the Pacific Ocean -- and Adam suspects the death was not accidental. Battling his own demons in a city of temptations, Adam pursues the truth alongside his new boss, a famous curmudgeonly mystery writer, and discovers more than he planned about his recently estranged lover, a string of murders of other young men -- and a conspiracy so extraordinary that it threatens his sanity and his life.

In the darkening chill of winter, three Atherton University freshmen are being mysteriously drawn together by fate, and a compulsion they cannot comprehend. Though they come from vastly differing backgrounds, the college holds the promise of a better life for each of them -- and an opportunity...  more

In the darkening chill of winter, three Atherton University freshmen are being mysteriously drawn together by fate, and a compulsion they cannot comprehend. Though they come from vastly differing backgrounds, the college holds the promise of a better life for each of them -- and an opportunity to break away from the anguish and desolation of their former lives. But the past does not die so easily, and the intricate webs of deceit that they have spun to protect themselves are slowly twisted into shackles that chain them to their doom. Snowbound and trapped on the campus, the friends find themselves unwilling pawns in the machinations of a malevolent force that has taken hold of Atherton -- and all their oldest fears, veiled passions, and secret nightmares are about to come to life in...The Snow Garden.

With this heartbreaking story of first love, Grimsley, recipient of the 1995 Sue Kaufman Prize for his first novel, Winter Birds, has crafted another potential award winner. Here he works that novel's theme-a father's abuse of his son-into his sensitive depiction of a love affair between two...  more

With this heartbreaking story of first love, Grimsley, recipient of the 1995 Sue Kaufman Prize for his first novel, Winter Birds, has crafted another potential award winner. Here he works that novel's theme-a father's abuse of his son-into his sensitive depiction of a love affair between two high-school boys in the rural South. Nathan, a sophomore and the only child of an abusive, scripture-quoting, booze-guzzling father and a nearly invisible mother, becomes smitten with Roy, a senior who lives next door. Almost without realizing it (and with some reluctance on both sides), they begin an achingly tender romance. Ultimately, peer pressure leads to tragedy, and to a sort of metaphysical denouement that may strike some readers as over-the-top. But by that time, Grimsley's scenario has become so poignant and credible that the ending seems almost inevitable. He clearly understands the pain and confusion of budding love, and his present-tense narrative adds urgency and a touching immediacy to his tale. Without ever succumbing to clich, Grimsley cuts with surgical precision to the heart of these characters' inchoate longings and barely repressed fears. Deceptively simple descriptive passages are hauntingly elegiac, and things left unsaid become as important as words expressed: these players' silences speak volumes. Romantic passion, violence and ultimate liberation coalesce in this singular display of literary craftsmanship.

Warren, best known for The Front Runner, the ground-breaking novel about a gay athlete, has created another gay sports figure in her first work in four years. With his overweening machismo, the complex hero, a closeted matador at the end of Franco's rule in Spain, is never entirely sympathetic...  more

Warren, best known for The Front Runner, the ground-breaking novel about a gay athlete, has created another gay sports figure in her first work in four years. With his overweening machismo, the complex hero, a closeted matador at the end of Franco's rule in Spain, is never entirely sympathetic but always fascinating. He is aware of the political and social changes of the 1960s but must face the conflict between the demands of his aristocratic family and the traditions of his sport, on the one hand, and his growing love for an idealistic young peasant on the other. Warren's overly romantic style sometimes threatens to turn this into a romance novel. The depiction of gay life under a right-wing dictatorship and the start of the ecological movement in Spain are often more absorbing than the love stories.

Set in 1990's Brooklyn, Sons is the story of a teenage boy's struggle with his sexuality in the age of Hip-hop. In relentless prose, the novel moves from light to dark, through race, culture, class and religion to its tragic climax. A vivid rendering of the pain, angst and isolation of...  more

Set in 1990's Brooklyn, Sons is the story of a teenage boy's struggle with his sexuality in the age of Hip-hop. In relentless prose, the novel moves from light to dark, through race, culture, class and religion to its tragic climax. A vivid rendering of the pain, angst and isolation of adolescent homosexuality, Sons is a significant work of American fiction.

Jeff O'Brien--bright, good-looking, and inching dangerously past thirty--is caught between two generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation X. He's been with his partner, Lloyd, for seven years now, but when Lloyd announces that there's no passion left between them, Jeff is sent into something...  more

Jeff O'Brien--bright, good-looking, and inching dangerously past thirty--is caught between two generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation X. He's been with his partner, Lloyd, for seven years now, but when Lloyd announces that there's no passion left between them, Jeff is sent into something of an existential frenzy. Desperate not to end up alone, Jeff haunts the dance floor and roadside rest stops, finding both the sordid and the sublime in anonymous encounters. But it's love he's after, so ultimately it's his bittersweet romance in Provincetown with Eduardo, twenty-two and a vision of gorgeous, wide-eyed youth, that lingers in his mind and seems to hold the answers he seeks. This is a story of a man coming to terms with the accelerating ambiguity of his world, where men die young but old age is actively devalued. It is the story of gay life today, the life being led by thousands of men trying desperately to keep up--and to discover if anything really unites gay men other than desire. It is the story of how the truths of gay life are handed down from gay generation to gay generation. It is the story of what separates the men from the boys. The Men From the Boys has multigenerational appeal--the first novel to look at the stark dichotomy existing among different generations of gay men. Strong sales and great reviews for the hardcover.

Tom Meeker is a handsome rookie priest stranded in a dying rural parish. Vidal Stump is a proud, gay half-breed with a criminal record and unlawful desires. Father Meeker must choose between his sacred vows and his secret attraction to this Fancy Dancer who lures him into forbidden love.

Todd Mills is running out of time. Against his instincts, Todd is lured to the Stone Arch Bridge by an anonymous phone call with promises of a hot blackmail story.??Under pressure, and in need of a scoop, Minneapolis television's most well-known (and only) openly gay reporter soon finds that...  more

Todd Mills is running out of time. Against his instincts, Todd is lured to the Stone Arch Bridge by an anonymous phone call with promises of a hot blackmail story.??Under pressure, and in need of a scoop, Minneapolis television's most well-known (and only) openly gay reporter soon finds that his visit to the bridge does deliver a sensational exclusive, but not the one he is expecting: Todd arrives to see a man murdered, leaving him as the sole witness to the crime. Todd's lover, city homicide investigator Steve Rawlins, immediately takes on the case.??But when a mysterious suspect emerges, the danger only intensifies, for this suspect has a secret, a past, and an identity that isn't what it appears to be.??An attempt is made on Rawlins's life in the course of his investigation, and Todd--dragged into the center of the story he's trying to cover--makes a frightening discovery.??The murder victim was a police officer, and was gay.??The killer, it seems, has developed a taste for watching gay cops die. And unless Todd and Rawlins are able to put together the pieces of the suspect's meticulously concealed past, the consequences may prove deadly--for them both.

Atherton University, freshman year. Kathryn, Randall, and Jesse come from different worlds, but find themselves unexpectedly drawn together. For each of them, college promises a bright future and a way to disconnect from a dark, haunted past. But as winter sets in, their secret histories...  more

Atherton University, freshman year. Kathryn, Randall, and Jesse come from different worlds, but find themselves unexpectedly drawn together. For each of them, college promises a bright future and a way to disconnect from a dark, haunted past. But as winter sets in, their secret histories threaten to disrupt the layers of deceit that protect their fragile new lives. One dark night a professor's wife is drowned in an icy river, and rumors of murder threaten the safe haven of Atherton. Within days, Randall's illicit affair with the professor is about to be revealed in the local press. Then, an old mystery emerges from the shadows as people recall the discovery of a co-ed's corpse in a frozen creek twenty years before. Gradually, the three friends find themselves snared in a web of lies, a web spun long before their days of Atherton. Snowbound on the university campus, they are unwitting captives of a malevolent force that drives them inexorably toward the "snow garden" of the title -- a place of nightmares that is all too real, and all too near.  

If Sherlock Holmes wore high heels... If Sam Spade found the right shade... If Miss Marple had a clue about applying makeup... ...They wouldn't be half as divine as Doan McChandler and Binky Van de Kamp, San Francisco's most dazzling detective team! Doan's the slinkiest sleuth to slip into a...  more

If Sherlock Holmes wore high heels... If Sam Spade found the right shade... If Miss Marple had a clue about applying makeup... ...They wouldn't be half as divine as Doan McChandler and Binky Van de Kamp, San Francisco's most dazzling detective team! Doan's the slinkiest sleuth to slip into a slip. Binky's his best friend and a trust fund darling, with expensive tastes to match. And now this decadent duo is solving cases with a savvy--and a wardrobe--to kill for! Second in an already popular mystery series with an outrageously funny hook: a drag queen detective!

"A richly painted, viciously paced tale that weaves its way from the mansions of the Hollywood Hills to the trailers of Visalia, Light Before Day is at once a compelling piece of crime fiction and a cultural take on gay West Hollywood and its dark undercurrents. In his most assured novel to...  more

"A richly painted, viciously paced tale that weaves its way from the mansions of the Hollywood Hills to the trailers of Visalia, Light Before Day is at once a compelling piece of crime fiction and a cultural take on gay West Hollywood and its dark undercurrents. In his most assured novel to date, Christopher Rice skillfully reveals a labyrinth of deadly secrests and horrifying surprises, each more shocking that the last" Quote by Gregg Hurwitz, best-selling author of "The Kill Clause" and "The Program".

Behind the locked gates of a compound in the California desert, Benjamin Justice discovers a series of crimes so chilling, they make the blood run cold. This fourth book in the award-winning Benjamin Justice mystery series continues John Morgan Wilson's exploration of the dark depravity that is...  more

Behind the locked gates of a compound in the California desert, Benjamin Justice discovers a series of crimes so chilling, they make the blood run cold. This fourth book in the award-winning Benjamin Justice mystery series continues John Morgan Wilson's exploration of the dark depravity that is normally hidden from the glaring California sun, and delivers a tale of suspense that is at once shocking and compellingly addictive. Still trying to come to terms with his HIV+ status, Benjamin Justice is just resurfacing after a six-month-long romance with Cuervo Gold when he is roused from his self-induced torpor by a young woman bearing the offer of work and a handsome monetary reward. A sleazy star biographer has just written an expos? of Charlotte Preston's late father, Rod, an actor known more for his masculine hunkiness than his thespian abilities, claiming the Hollywood he-man was not all that he seemed. Charlotte wants Justice to write the rebuttal and set the record straight. But before he can even begin, Charlotte is dead, discovered in her bedroom with a needle in her arm by none other than Justice himself. Curiosity aroused, and with a generous advance already swelling his bank account, the journalist is determined to discover the truth -- not only about Rod Preston's life but also about his daughter's death. What Justice finds hidden deep in the desert links an unlikely group of men to a history of twisted perversion and crimes almost too horrible to believe.

Benjamin Justice knows a reporter is nothing without credibility. He learned the hard way when a Pulitzer was snatched from his grasp. It's been a long, hard climb to find even a fraction of the work he once had. But his fortunes are about to change: Justice has been offered the opportunity to...  more

Benjamin Justice knows a reporter is nothing without credibility. He learned the hard way when a Pulitzer was snatched from his grasp. It's been a long, hard climb to find even a fraction of the work he once had. But his fortunes are about to change: Justice has been offered the opportunity to script a documentary for public television. Only after he accepts the job does he learn a crucial piece of information: The man who had the assignment before him has disappeared, leaving behind his trashed motel room-and a spattering of blood. As Justice delves into his predecessor's notes and follows his tracks, he enters a world of pleasure and peril-and deadly secrets. And soon it will not be his reputation Justice must protect... but his very life.

John Thinnes is a good Chicago cop on the verge of a serious burnout--and one of two people convinced accountant Allan Finley's death wasn't a suicide.  The other is Dr. Jack Caleb, Finley's successful, urbane, unabashedly gay psychiatrist--a brilliant healer possessing...  more

John Thinnes is a good Chicago cop on the verge of a serious burnout--and one of two people convinced accountant Allan Finley's death wasn't a suicide.  The other is Dr. Jack Caleb, Finley's successful, urbane, unabashedly gay psychiatrist--a brilliant healer possessing remarkable insight...yet tormented by personal demons as powerful as those haunting Thinnes.  A murder has linked both men, casting them into an urban nightmare of deadly greed and ever-increasing violence--forcing Thinnes to trust an enigmatic and unlikely new partner who could either be a casebreaker... or a killer.

Beneath its calm surface, controversy rages at the State University of Michigan. An outsider, Perry Cross, has been brought in to fill a quickly created tenure-track teaching position, a situation that fellow professor Nick Hoffman finds suspicious. But when Nick discovers that his longtime...  more

Beneath its calm surface, controversy rages at the State University of Michigan. An outsider, Perry Cross, has been brought in to fill a quickly created tenure-track teaching position, a situation that fellow professor Nick Hoffman finds suspicious. But when Nick discovers that his longtime lover, writer Stefan Borowski, shares a past with Cross, Nick's curiosity about Cross begins to verge on obsession. Things only get worse when Cross is found murdered and Nick's jealous behavior and Stefan's past make them both prime suspects. To clear both their names and resolve the questions surrounding the mysterious Cross, Nick investigates the murder, uncovering unpleasant secrets about his coworkers, superiors, and the university itself. As Nick attempts to unravel the mystery, his suspicions alarmingly turn close to home, and his own life is endangered.

One would think teaching would be a quiet profession. But not in Chicago, thinks high school teacher Tom Mason, when he hears that one of his students has been accused of killing his girlfriend. As a friend of the boy's family, Tom is asked to help clear him, and the more he probes, the more it...  more

One would think teaching would be a quiet profession. But not in Chicago, thinks high school teacher Tom Mason, when he hears that one of his students has been accused of killing his girlfriend. As a friend of the boy's family, Tom is asked to help clear him, and the more he probes, the more it seems that something sinister is going on in the usually quiet suburbs of Chicago. With the aid of his lover Scott Carpenter, a professional baseball player, the two set out to discover what really happened that night.

A series of three bombs destroy a local health clinic, killing many and injuring many others including high school teacher and clinic volunteer Tom Mason. While Tom is hospitalized, his lover, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter, begins to believe that Tom may have been the intended...  more

A series of three bombs destroy a local health clinic, killing many and injuring many others including high school teacher and clinic volunteer Tom Mason. While Tom is hospitalized, his lover, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter, begins to believe that Tom may have been the intended victim of the bombing -- the third bomb was wired to Tom's truck and Scott is receiving threatening letters saying that he's next. With a long suspect list and a mounting death toll, Scott must find the killer before the killer finds them.

Captain Charles Ryder returns to the country estate of Brideshead where he indulges in a sentimental journey that takes him back twenty years to his schoolmates at Oxford and to his memories of the Marchmains.

From the award-winning author of The Coming Storm comes the brilliantly conceived and precisely rendered novel The Salt Point, which explores the lives of four people-Anatole, Leigh, Chris, and Lydia-and their intermingled and unwinding desires. Set in a Poughkeepsie mall, the Main Street to a...  more

From the award-winning author of The Coming Storm comes the brilliantly conceived and precisely rendered novel The Salt Point, which explores the lives of four people-Anatole, Leigh, Chris, and Lydia-and their intermingled and unwinding desires. Set in a Poughkeepsie mall, the Main Street to a new generation, the novel follows these characters as they achieve their oddly triumphant lives redolent with loss and hope, humor and sadness, union and alienation. As promises are diminished and futures are abandoned, all four are hurtled toward that place in which everything is transmuted-the salt point.

In these nine masterly stories, David Leavitt surveys the complicated politics of human relationships in families and communities, in the present day and over the course of the last century. A "wizard at blending levity and pathos" (Chicago Tribune), Leavitt displays here his characteristic...  more

In these nine masterly stories, David Leavitt surveys the complicated politics of human relationships in families and communities, in the present day and over the course of the last century. A "wizard at blending levity and pathos" (Chicago Tribune), Leavitt displays here his characteristic grace and intelligence, as well as his remarkable candor and wit. Here are stories that range in form from a historical survey to a police interrogation to an e-mail exchange. In "The Infection Scene," a young man's determined effort to contract HIV is juxtaposed with an account of the early life of Lord Alfred Douglas. In the title story, an expatriate tries to make sense of his ex-partner's senseless murder. In "Crossing St. Gotthard," the members of an American family traveling in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century find themselves confronting their own mortality as they plunge into a train tunnel in Switzerland. And in "Black Box," the partner of a man killed in a plane crash is drawn into an unholy alliance with a fellow "crash widow." Moving from Rome to San Francisco to Florida, from fin-de-siècle London to Hollywood in the early 1960s, these stories showcase the agility and sensitivity that have earned David Leavitt his reputation as one of the most innovative voices in contemporary short fiction.

At the age of eighteen Paul Porterfield dreams of playing piano at the world's great concert halls, yet the closest he's come has been to turn pages for his idol, Richard Kennington, a former prodigy who is entering middle age. The two begin a love affair that affects their lives in ways...  more

At the age of eighteen Paul Porterfield dreams of playing piano at the world's great concert halls, yet the closest he's come has been to turn pages for his idol, Richard Kennington, a former prodigy who is entering middle age. The two begin a love affair that affects their lives in ways neither could have predicted. "Absorbing from start to finish" (The New Yorker), The Page Turner testifies to the tenacity of the human spirit and the resiliency of the human heart.

Tender, unsettling, and amusing, these stories present families all unhappy in their own different ways. A mother who presides over her local Parents of Lesbians and Gays chapter has trouble accepting her son's lover. A recently separated couple's compulsion to maintain a twenty-six-year...  more

Tender, unsettling, and amusing, these stories present families all unhappy in their own different ways. A mother who presides over her local Parents of Lesbians and Gays chapter has trouble accepting her son's lover. A recently separated couple's compulsion to maintain a twenty-six-year tradition seems to magnify futility. 

With this new collection of short fiction, Leavitt writes with increased authority and range about love and loss within families and among gay and straight couples, territory claimed before in Family Dancing and Equal Affections . Set in Italy, both the rhythmic, rounded "I See London, I...  more

With this new collection of short fiction, Leavitt writes with increased authority and range about love and loss within families and among gay and straight couples, territory claimed before in Family Dancing and Equal Affections . Set in Italy, both the rhythmic, rounded "I See London, I See France" and the ably orchestrated "Roads to Rome" feature a visiting American observing the uninhibited interaction of sophisticated and somewhat decadent Italian families through the filter of the protagonist's conventional, constrained values. Another outsider, but on the move, is Celia, narrator of the title story, unattached to any person or thing except Nathan, who is gay and has been her best friend since college. When he leaves for Europe, she gets a makeover at Bloomingdale's, begins to date a man at work and finds herself, on Nathan's return, unwilling to give him the same self-abnegating support she'd accorded him before. Fidelity and betrayal are explored in "My Marriage to Vengeance" and the perfectly shaped "Houses"; grief and recovery animate the antic, affectionate "Spouse Night." In its final paragraphs, "Chips Is Here" turns its funny, antagonistic pet-owners scenario upside down with a piercing evocation of constancy.

Not everyone can claim both Hercule Poirot and Nancy Drew as inspiration. Of course, not everyone is a vampire sleuth from the States who pulled up stakes to live in a small English village. Even the eccentric denizens of Snupperton Mumsley might be surprised by Simon Kirby-Jones's rather...  more

Not everyone can claim both Hercule Poirot and Nancy Drew as inspiration. Of course, not everyone is a vampire sleuth from the States who pulled up stakes to live in a small English village. Even the eccentric denizens of Snupperton Mumsley might be surprised by Simon Kirby-Jones's rather unusual lifestyle. But murder is a more than adequate distraction when a visiting celebrity meets his maker, and Simon must suss out a killer. Hardly one to become star-struck, Simon nevertheless deigns to attend a tea at Blitherington Hall in honor of celebrity interior designer Zeke Harwood, star of the poopular television show, Tres Zeke. The self-acclaimed King of Home Decorating makes it immediately obvious that he's there to give the drawing room a makeover, not make friends. So it's little shock to Simon when the drama-queen decorator meets his demise; he's only surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Now, in a locked-room puzzle worthy of Agatha Christie, Simon must peel away layers of lies to reveal who killed the decorator in the drawing room with a blunt instrument.

The novel opens in New York City, 1991, with literary maven Roger Sansarc, who narrates, and his current boyfriend attending a 45th-birthday celebration for Roger's flamboyant second cousin, Alistair Dodge. Alistair is suffering from AIDS, and Roger has brought the requested pills to hasten his...  more

The novel opens in New York City, 1991, with literary maven Roger Sansarc, who narrates, and his current boyfriend attending a 45th-birthday celebration for Roger's flamboyant second cousin, Alistair Dodge. Alistair is suffering from AIDS, and Roger has brought the requested pills to hasten his demise. The action flashes back to 1954, when Roger and Alistair first meet, as fourth graders; subsequent sections alternate between the present?detailing Alistair's fate, as well as a heated ACT UP demonstration?and assorted professional and amatory episodes in the lives of the conservative Roger and his ever-outre relation. Comparisons with Ethan Mordden's similarly themed How Long Has This Been Going On? are inevitable: both books portray America's evolving gay culture during the past few decades. Picano's tale is the more traditional in style and structure, while Mordden brings greater scope and sweep to his freewheeling, in-your-face novel. Despite the dramatic events and requisite period references here (e.g., mentholated Kent cigarettes, Mary Renault's The Persian Boy), the historical perspective Picano brings seems somewhat forced. Nevertheless, his finely crafted prose makes these People consistently absorbing.

Jarrod Jarvis, has-been actor and gay amateur sleuth, has snagged a pivotal role in Murder Can Be Civilized, a West End play by Wallace Goodwin, the writer who catapulted the boy Jarrod—now a well-preserved 34—to TV stardom. Since Jarrod's latest slasher film flopped, he longs for a...  more

Jarrod Jarvis, has-been actor and gay amateur sleuth, has snagged a pivotal role in Murder Can Be Civilized, a West End play by Wallace Goodwin, the writer who catapulted the boy Jarrod—now a well-preserved 34—to TV stardom. Since Jarrod's latest slasher film flopped, he longs for a hit to please his lover, LAPD cop Charlie Peters. Though thrilled to be working with Claire Richards, a formidable Oscar-winning actress, Jarrod smells trouble when Richards drops dead after the first performance. With his usual nose for clues, Jarrod embarks "on yet another journey to uncover the truth," complicated by Charlie's vanishing with a South Asian hunk. Splice in a missing Oscar, another murder, a cast of irresistible suspects—among them, Claire's Irish boyfriend Liam; Goodwin and wife Katrina; Brit theater icon Dame Sylvia Horner; Bollywood sexpot Akshay Kapoor; and obnoxious director Kenneth Shields—and open the envelope please: another Copp winner.

When Christian arrives in Egypt as the man Friday to an eccentric American, he's hoping to get his chance to make history and establish his name in archaeology. What he doesn't count on is meeting brash hired gun, Eric Lawless, and falling into an uneasy partnership. He thinks Eric is a boor....  more

When Christian arrives in Egypt as the man Friday to an eccentric American, he's hoping to get his chance to make history and establish his name in archaeology. What he doesn't count on is meeting brash hired gun, Eric Lawless, and falling into an uneasy partnership. He thinks Eric is a boor. Eric thinks he's a prude. Sparks fly, leading to a night of passion that Christian has no intention of repeating. Too bad he can't resist Eric's rough charm. He's not ready for what their digging exposes either. The spirits of ancient Egypt are stirring, raised by very modern men, leading him, and Eric, into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. One where old ghosts and older gods send them on a dance of deception and terror deep in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. Together, they must face their greatest fears, and their feelings for each other. Ancient artifacts, deadly snakes, and terrifying monsters stand in the way of what may be the greatest archaeological find any man has ever seen. Can they unearth the secrets of the tomb of the god king before they lose everything they hold dear?

Jed Thatcher figures there comes a point when a man has to think about changing career paths. Especially when that man is his. Eli Marshall loves his job as a smokejumper, though, and isn't convinced her should move on to something safer. Besides, he figures Jed's own job of flying...  more

Jed Thatcher figures there comes a point when a man has to think about changing career paths. Especially when that man is his. Eli Marshall loves his job as a smokejumper, though, and isn't convinced her should move on to something safer. Besides, he figures Jed's own job of flying tourists into snowstorms isn't all that much better. While they wrangle over that, Jed's brother Ross has a problem of his own to sort out. His boyfriend Kevin is having second thoughts about their life together, and it's causing a rift Ross isn't sure they can breach. The brothers struggle with their problems and live their lives day to day with a cast of unforgettable characters, from all too knowing moms to a pack of adoring dogs. The Thatchers of Jumping Into Things are back, and there's nothing these good old boys can't handle as long as they stick together, even if it does seem like they might not land on their feet this time.

Christopher Bram tells the story of Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, alias Dr. August, a clairvoyant pianist who communes with ghosts, and who finds meaning in his life through a strange love triangle with a righteous ex-slave and nervous white governess.  Spanning the years between the Civil War...  more

Christopher Bram tells the story of Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, alias Dr. August, a clairvoyant pianist who communes with ghosts, and who finds meaning in his life through a strange love triangle with a righteous ex-slave and nervous white governess.  Spanning the years between the Civil War and the early 1920's, this riveting and ambitious historical novel displays the immense talents of a prodigious, highly esteemed author working at the height of his powers.

Critically acclaimed novelist Christopher Bram has written some of his best work about life in the performing arts. In Father of Frankenstein, the basis for the Academy Award-winning movie Gods and Monsters, it was Hollywood in the thirties and fifties. In The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life...  more

Critically acclaimed novelist Christopher Bram has written some of his best work about life in the performing arts. In Father of Frankenstein, the basis for the Academy Award-winning movie Gods and Monsters, it was Hollywood in the thirties and fifties. In The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes, it was the strange world of Victorian music and spiritualism. Now, in Lives of the Circus Animals, Bram explores contemporary New York theater, spending several days and nights with a diverse handful of men and women. There is Caleb Doyle, a hot new playwright whose newest work, Chaos Theory, has just bombed. His sister, Jessie, also loves theater but has no outlet for her talents except to work as the personal assistant to British actor Henry Lewse, "the Hamlet of his generation," while he does a Broadway musical. Henry loves Shakespeare, money, grass, and boys. Then there's Frank Earp, an ex-actor who courts Jessie and is directing a troupe of acting students in a homemade play. Among the students is Toby Vogler, a nice kid from the Midwest who has a whole other career at night. Toby was once Caleb Doyle's boyfriend. Overseeing this world like an unhappy god is Kenneth Prager, second-string theater critic for the New York Times. Leaping from one life to another, one day to the next, the novel throws these people together in a serious comedy about love and work and make-believe. Lives of the Circus Animals is a cross between a Mozart opera and a Preston Sturges movie. A look at theater people who are just like everyone else, only more so, it's a comic celebration of how we all strive to stay sane while living in the shadow of those two impostors, success and failure.

Ralph is a breezy East Villager, politically aware but only half committed, who is swept up in an affair with Bill, a young Republican journalist who "just happens" to be gay. Ralph's qualms about dating a man whose values clash with his own turn to disgust when Bill publishes a scathing...  more

Ralph is a breezy East Villager, politically aware but only half committed, who is swept up in an affair with Bill, a young Republican journalist who "just happens" to be gay. Ralph's qualms about dating a man whose values clash with his own turn to disgust when Bill publishes a scathing tell-all book that attacks several prominent women in Washington. Illuminating the fine line between the personal and the public, Gossip brings wry insights and provocative questions to current political and social controversies. Bram's deft humor and subtle grasp of human character enrich a novel that is at once entertaining, surprising, and wholly original. • Bram is one of America's most accomplished gay novelists. He has been featured in cover stories in Lambda Book Report and Christopher Street. • The film of Father of Frankenstein starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser is about to go into production and should raise Bram's profile considerably.

A fresh tone, exuberance and light-handed humor mark this first novel about a homosexual's coming of age in Manhattan. We meet Joel Scherzenlieb at Boy Scout camp, where his CIA agent father has left him to work as a counselor for the summer. Joel doesn't yet know the nature of his...  more

A fresh tone, exuberance and light-handed humor mark this first novel about a homosexual's coming of age in Manhattan. We meet Joel Scherzenlieb at Boy Scout camp, where his CIA agent father has left him to work as a counselor for the summer. Joel doesn't yet know the nature of his sexuality, nor does he find out at camp, since his father soon whisks him off to live at his mother's farm in Virginia. With no money for college, Joel works the farm with his mother, maternal grandmother and sister Liza. Later, he runs into Corey, his only friend from camp days; finding their way to bed, they begin the relationship that's the heart of the book. At the same time, Liza is pursued by another former counselor, Bob. Eventually, Joel and Corey move to New York, where Joel begins to cruise the Village gay bars. One night Liza, who has left Bob, appears at their apartment with her baby; she turns to Joel and Corey for help and to confirm her belief in stable relationships. An irate Bob soon follows, precipitating the story's funny, riveting resolution, involving blackmail, issues of loyalty and considerable conversation about the nature and lastingness of love.

Spanning more than sixty years from the Civil War to the early 1920s, and moving from the battlefields of the South to New York City, through Paris, London, Constantinople, and Coney Island, The Notorious Dr. August features Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, alias Dr. August, an improvisational pianist...  more

Spanning more than sixty years from the Civil War to the early 1920s, and moving from the battlefields of the South to New York City, through Paris, London, Constantinople, and Coney Island, The Notorious Dr. August features Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, alias Dr. August, an improvisational pianist who believes his music is sometimes inspired by the spirit world.He is in love with Isaac Kemp, an ex-slave who only sporadically returns his affections and who himself successfully woos Alice Pangborn, a rather prim white governess. The three, locked in a strange and often painful love triangle, travel the world--until a horrible tragedy forces them all to examine the choices they have made and shakes up their relationships in ways none of them could have predicted.Rich in historical detail and musical knowledge, The Notorious Dr. August is a brilliantly written exploration of race, class, spirituality, and sexuality -- and of what it really means to love another.

Glamorous, fabulous, and famous, A-list actor Tim Chase is in Minneapolis shooting his new film. Although he's married to Gwen Owens, herself a beautiful and talented member of the Hollywood elite, one question continues to follow him: "Is he gay?" As an investigative journalist for WLAK-TV,...  more

Glamorous, fabulous, and famous, A-list actor Tim Chase is in Minneapolis shooting his new film. Although he's married to Gwen Owens, herself a beautiful and talented member of the Hollywood elite, one question continues to follow him: "Is he gay?" As an investigative journalist for WLAK-TV, Todd Mills knows he's the perfect person to break the story, if he can get an interview with the reclusive star. Todd's pursuit of the Chase story is tragically interrupted by the murder of a young runaway whom Todd and Todd's lover, homicide detective Steve Rawlins, both knew from their volunteer efforts at the local center for gay youths. As he investigates for WLAK-TV, Todd finds out that Rawlins knew the young man much better than he is willing to admit at first, and that Rawlins is trying to keep this embarrassing fact from becoming public.

It seems forever that Israel (Izzy) and Evangeline (Eve) -- a gay man and his woman friend -- have lived together while the city around them crumbles. He's an erotic cartoonist; she makes exotic jewelry and works as a receptionist in one of the whorehouses in their raunchy neck of the...  more

It seems forever that Israel (Izzy) and Evangeline (Eve) -- a gay man and his woman friend -- have lived together while the city around them crumbles. He's an erotic cartoonist; she makes exotic jewelry and works as a receptionist in one of the whorehouses in their raunchy neck of the woods. She collects clippings of unsolved murders of women from lurid newspapers and is a rational, tippling cynic who also has flashes of psychic ability. He's an aging party boy who's been getting more and more into metaphysical reading and exploring heightened states of mind through S/M sex clubs and a peyote-like drug called silt that's permeated the gay community. Silt causes a "shift", which takes the user to a different reality. When gay men of a certain age (Prime Cuts) start disappearing without a trace, and then Izzy goes missing, Eve must summon her greatest powers -- intuition and sex -- for a journey through bars, sex clubs, a dungeon, mysterious dream messages, and several jolting silt trips in an effort to grasp what's happened. Along the way, a complex portrait emerges of the relationship between two erotic outlaws.

The story begins in the Imperial Court of the Jade Chimera, an Austin institution presided over by Madam Agnes (ne Angus McKinney), a 60-ish drag queen who makes RuPaul look like a dowdy has-been. Agnes dispatches the newly arrived hunk du jour, Jim, to Osage, Okla., where he is to recover...  more

The story begins in the Imperial Court of the Jade Chimera, an Austin institution presided over by Madam Agnes (ne Angus McKinney), a 60-ish drag queen who makes RuPaul look like a dowdy has-been. Agnes dispatches the newly arrived hunk du jour, Jim, to Osage, Okla., where he is to recover certain incriminating photos from Brother Earl, a sleazy evangelist who heads the Holy Word of God University and Technical Institute. Subsequent episodes involve Osage's one gay bar (a hilarious watering hole worthy of its own novel), a Ku Klux Klan meeting gone awry and a plethora of quirky personalities.

Lights, Camera, Murder! Anything can become a major production in Hollywood, especially celebrity murder. That's how still-tough-at-fifty something, macho detective Rayford Goodman and young, gay, and talented writer Mark Bradley are thrown together to catch a killer.

An unlikely but ultimately successful combination of sleuths occurs when young, mostly out-of-the-closet gay writer Mark Bradley meets biography subject Ray Goodman, the older and once-famous Hollywood private eye who solved the fabulous 1963 Rita Rose murder case. After encountering the...  more

An unlikely but ultimately successful combination of sleuths occurs when young, mostly out-of-the-closet gay writer Mark Bradley meets biography subject Ray Goodman, the older and once-famous Hollywood private eye who solved the fabulous 1963 Rita Rose murder case. After encountering the unexpectedly paroled "murderer," the pair reexamine the old murder, bump into the assorted Hollywood stereotypes involved in the case, uncover more than a few well-hidden skeletons, and find the real murderer. After a somewhat tiresome beginning, Cutler establishes the partnership, chases around the Hills, and delivers some great comic lines.

Ex-P.I. Rayford Goodman and his gay collaborator, Mark Bradley, become caught up in case with tentacles into high-level L.A. politics when they investigate the murder of a call girl neighbor and a psycho who opens fire at the Gay Book Awards dinner.

Rayford Goodman (still-tough-at-fiftysomething macho detective) and Mark Bradley (thirtysomething, gay, hip writer) are as opposite as cat and mouse. But when it comes to solving murder, no other pair can match wits with this Hollywood odd couple. It all begins when Goodman gets invited by the...  more

Rayford Goodman (still-tough-at-fiftysomething macho detective) and Mark Bradley (thirtysomething, gay, hip writer) are as opposite as cat and mouse. But when it comes to solving murder, no other pair can match wits with this Hollywood odd couple. It all begins when Goodman gets invited by the business end of a .38 revolver "to return a favor" for a mob boss--to guard the three-time Oscar-winning director Claudio Fortunata, who is recuperating from cosmetic surgery in an elegant Beverly Hills hotel. Ironically, Bradley's next assignment is to write the great Fortunata's steamy biography. Instead of finding a "nip and tuck" superstar, Goodman and Bradley discover a bullet-ridden corpse whose face was used for target practice. But is the dead man Fortunata? From the back lots of Hollywood to the back rooms of dirty deals, Goodman and Bradley are on the trail of a twisted killer who is giving a whole new meaning to makeovers in this quick-witted, explosive mystery.

After a string of humorous essay collections, Ford (The Little Book of Neuroses) expands his repertoire with this brimful first novel about life, love and self-discovery over the course of a steamy Provincetown summer. Among the bevy of characters Ford introduces is Josh Felling, who flees to a...  more

After a string of humorous essay collections, Ford (The Little Book of Neuroses) expands his repertoire with this brimful first novel about life, love and self-discovery over the course of a steamy Provincetown summer. Among the bevy of characters Ford introduces is Josh Felling, who flees to a friend's guesthouse to mull over his boyfriend's recent infidelity, though a day later he's already lusting over Reilly Brennan, the soon-to-be-married guesthouse repairman who might not be so straight after all. Midwestern runaway teen Toby Evans arrives soon after, and meets sweet local transgender performer Emmeline, who takes him in; next comes influential Hollywood producer Reid Truman and his boyfriend, hot closeted actor Ty Rusk. A quick weekend away turns into an indefinite stay for Josh, who has decided to write a novel and agrees to donate sperm so that Jackie, a local lesbian restaurant owner, can bear a child. Complicating matters for the Hollywood duo is Devin, an opportunistic local girl who insinuates herself into their lives by agreeing to pose as Ty's New York "love interest," but has big plans to expose their relationship to the tabloids instead. This is a slight cut above more mainstream gay fiction offerings, thanks to Ford's crisp prose and snappy, contemporary dialogue. Though the characters wade across some all-too-familiar waters, it's the sandy, barefoot-friendly setting that morphs all the melodrama into a satisfying beach book-and a pleasant fiction debut for Ford.

Jeff O'Brien--bright, good-looking, and inching dangerously past thirty--is caught between two generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation X. He's been with his partner, Lloyd, for seven years now, but when Lloyd announces that there's no passion left between them, Jeff is sent into something...  more

Jeff O'Brien--bright, good-looking, and inching dangerously past thirty--is caught between two generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation X. He's been with his partner, Lloyd, for seven years now, but when Lloyd announces that there's no passion left between them, Jeff is sent into something of an existential frenzy. Desperate not to end up alone, Jeff haunts the dance floor and roadside rest stops, finding both the sordid and the sublime in anonymous encounters. But it's love he's after, so ultimately it's his bittersweet romance in Provincetown with Eduardo, twenty-two and a vision of gorgeous, wide-eyed youth, that lingers in his mind and seems to hold the answers he seeks. This is a story of a man coming to terms with the accelerating ambiguity of his world, where men die young but old age is actively devalued. It is the story of gay life today, the life being led by thousands of men trying desperately to keep up--and to discover if anything really unites gay men other than desire. It is the story of how the truths of gay life are handed down from gay generation to gay generation. It is the story of what separates the men from the boys. The Men From the Boys has multigenerational appeal--the first novel to look at the stark dichotomy existing among different generations of gay men. Strong sales and great reviews for the hardcover.

Jeff and his on-again, off-again lover Lloyd Griffith are thirty-something professionals still grieving the death of their mentor, Javitz. Jeff bounces from party to party, forgetting his pain only when he's on the dance floor, immersed in a sea of beautiful boys with sculpted pecs and...  more

Jeff and his on-again, off-again lover Lloyd Griffith are thirty-something professionals still grieving the death of their mentor, Javitz. Jeff bounces from party to party, forgetting his pain only when he's on the dance floor, immersed in a sea of beautiful boys with sculpted pecs and speed-bump abs. At his side is his protege, best friend, sister, and not-so-secret admirer Henry Weiner, once a ninety-eight-pound weakling who has lately blossomed into a hunky muscle-boy escort. As the lives of Jeff, Lloyd, and Henry intertwine, each confronts a different challenge. Henry's repressed feelings of love for Jeff propel him on a quest to discover his own identity amid the often-seedy world of sex for cash. Lloyd deals with the dark side of the "fag hag" experience when his Provincetown housemate, Eva, exhibits increasingly bizarre behavior. But the most intriguing mystery of all involves the beautiful stranger Jeff meets at yet another circuit party and invites to move in. Anthony Sabe is a young man seemingly without a past, whose bright-eyed ingenuousness at first charms everyone, but later raises suspicions. When Jeff sets out to uncover the truth about Anthony, what he finds is progressively more disturbing, raising questions not only about Anthony but also about himself. Over the course of a life-changing summer, Jeff, Lloyd, and Henry deal with the myriad issues confronting gay men today: sex, drugs, grief, AIDS, barebacking, body image, commitment, one-night stands, and the search for love. The first novel to be set on the gay party circuit, Where The Boys Are evokes a world with its own language, customs, traditions, and idiosyncrasies, set to a backdrop of sex, drugs, and dance music.

The relentlessly irreverent author of Fag Hag and Closet Case is back with a new novel that asks the burning question: Is the world ready for its first lesbian superhero? Brian Parrish, a brash gay cartoonist, is charged with updating the image of Princess Paragon, a creaky and virtuous...  more

The relentlessly irreverent author of Fag Hag and Closet Case is back with a new novel that asks the burning question: Is the world ready for its first lesbian superhero? Brian Parrish, a brash gay cartoonist, is charged with updating the image of Princess Paragon, a creaky and virtuous heroine whose market share is expressed in decimals. His solution: change her hairdo, streamline her Spandex, and haul her out of the closet. It's a blockbuster idea sure to make Brian famous and attract a whole new readership. But for one devoted fan, it's an abomination. Jerome T. Kornacker worships the princess; his bedroom is her shrine. And for Jerome, the only way to save her from sapphic scandal is to put an end to Brian Parrish's career. With this in mind, he stalks Brian at a Chicago comic-book convention, where the cartoonist is scheduled to unveil his princess-cum-dyke. But when the outraged fan confronts his quarry, the result is an odd alliance that neither could have predicted - and that plunks their heroine into a creative Mixmaster. As if Jerome weren't enough to deal with, Brian also must contend with an editor who has her own plans for a politically correct princess; a lover who's absent without leave; and Jerome's mother, a malaprop-spouting demoness in peach. And only when it's too late does Brian understand what he's really done to Princess Paragon. Abounding in high camp, low farce, ferocious wit, and a perversely insistent morality, What They Did to Princess Paragon further establishes Robert Rodi as one of the most blistering and brilliant satirists of his day.

Lovebirds Tom Mason, a retired Chicago high school teacher, and Scott Carpenter, a former major league baseball player, find their New Year's vacation on the Aegean island of Korkasi violently interrupted. First the owner of the world's "most expensive and exclusive gay resort" turns up dead...  more

Lovebirds Tom Mason, a retired Chicago high school teacher, and Scott Carpenter, a former major league baseball player, find their New Year's vacation on the Aegean island of Korkasi violently interrupted. First the owner of the world's "most expensive and exclusive gay resort" turns up dead in the couple's lodgings, then an explosion at the resort's headquarters kills many staff members. A storm cuts off the island from assistance as the body count rises. Suspects include those who reek of supercilious "A-gay disdain" and others of sordid criminal habits and aliases.

Family matriarch Louise Cooper, mother of gay siblings April and Danny, suffers one medical malady after another, while Nat, her computer scientist husband, enjoys a long-term affair on the side. As Louise's condition deteriorates, tensions mount and family members attempt to define and...  more

Family matriarch Louise Cooper, mother of gay siblings April and Danny, suffers one medical malady after another, while Nat, her computer scientist husband, enjoys a long-term affair on the side. As Louise's condition deteriorates, tensions mount and family members attempt to define and justify their conflicting feelings. Leavitt's plot twists and turns around various relationships of Nat and Louise, Danny and his lover Walter, Louise and her polio-crippled sister Eleanor and April's decision to have a baby while maintaining her tremendous appeal as a star of women's music.

Jack Webster will, more than likely, die tomorrow. In the hot Cuban morning, his life will be eaten away by bullets from a firing squad, punishment for the murder of a teenage boy. Late at night, alone in his cell in a decaying Havana prison, the young American begins to write a letter. In...  more

Jack Webster will, more than likely, die tomorrow. In the hot Cuban morning, his life will be eaten away by bullets from a firing squad, punishment for the murder of a teenage boy. Late at night, alone in his cell in a decaying Havana prison, the young American begins to write a letter. In impassioned fragments, he struggles with his own memories to create an accounting for his young Cuban lover that will cut through the lies the two have been forced to tell about each other, and that will help Jack himself reach a state of clarity, if not peace. As his final night slides with terrifying speed towards morning and death, Jack's letter becomes a longer and longer search, as much to find vindication as to explain how a passionate and spontaneous love-begun with such promise in an embassy party in New York and brought to full realization in the complex mix of tensions, repressions, and celebrations of Castro's Cuba-devolved so completely into a stew of obsession, jealousy, violence, and death. As Jack struggles to justify himself to his beloved Garcia, a realization breaks simultaneously with the dawn, a realization that might allow him a measure of final peace, if he only had the time to understand it more fully. Rich in language and vibrantly evocative, Webster's remarkable narrative as imagined by first time novelist Brendan Lemon captures with aching clarity and sensuality the universal drama of love won and lost.

Francis King's entertaining new novel looks at the havoc wrought when a young Egyptian -- an illegal -immigrant -- finds himself in London. Ahmad leads a double life, befriending and lodging with an elderly woman who suffers from MS; while at the same time throwing himself onto the London gay...  more

Francis King's entertaining new novel looks at the havoc wrought when a young Egyptian -- an illegal -immigrant -- finds himself in London. Ahmad leads a double life, befriending and lodging with an elderly woman who suffers from MS; while at the same time throwing himself onto the London gay scene. Jealousy looms when he begins a relationship with a gay protector -- and is arrested because of his illegal status.Francis King is a prize-winning British novelist, now 80 and the author of more than 40 popular novels, biographies and travel books. He is a former president of International PEN, and has been published in the U.S. by Penguin Books, among others.

From Publishers Weekly Wilson's debut--a neat mix of mystery, police procedural and terror--marks him as someone to watch. On the night three men escape from a Mississippi insane asylum, a young nurse is raped and murdered just outside the grounds. Her lawyer father, Brandon Richards,...  more

From Publishers Weekly Wilson's debut--a neat mix of mystery, police procedural and terror--marks him as someone to watch. On the night three men escape from a Mississippi insane asylum, a young nurse is raped and murdered just outside the grounds. Her lawyer father, Brandon Richards, arrives at dawn, mourning Judith and bent on revenge. It soon becomes clear that the escapees are not responsible, mainly because their blood types do not match that found on the scene. But the blood is the type of Judith's estranged bisexual husband, whose boyfriend may supply an alibi. Richards teams up with Sheriff Tidmore and hires private eye J. J. Winstead (not known for legal niceties) to track down the killer. Complications proliferate: a psychopathic mass murderer says he saw the killer from his cell; the boyfriend is slain; Richards is arrested for trying to plant evidence in his son-in-law's home; tales of Judith's risky extramarital affairs cause Richards to doubt his new "friends" Tidmore and Winstead; and there are three more killings. The case is tied up neatly, but not before Wilson had led us on a complicated, occasionally harrowing chase.

Who says heroes can't be gay? Gay life in Houston was always a bit precarious. But when a ruthless tabloid publisher decided that fag-baiting made good copy, it got even tougher. Gay men found their homes, their jobs, even their lives, in danger. Fortunately, they had one man on their...  more

Who says heroes can't be gay? Gay life in Houston was always a bit precarious. But when a ruthless tabloid publisher decided that fag-baiting made good copy, it got even tougher. Gay men found their homes, their jobs, even their lives, in danger. Fortunately, they had one man on their side. Alex Kane. Alex Kane: a gay hero in the tradition of the Destroyer and the executioner. His only goal is justice for gay people. His only weakness is for other men.

As a sixteen-year-old Catholic seminarian, Chris Sieb had a deep crush on fellow student Jack Canston. Now, twenty-five years after parting ways, Jack has transfered to the Kansas City diocese where he once again encounters Chris - now Father Sieb - a devoted priest and closeted gay man. After...  more

As a sixteen-year-old Catholic seminarian, Chris Sieb had a deep crush on fellow student Jack Canston. Now, twenty-five years after parting ways, Jack has transfered to the Kansas City diocese where he once again encounters Chris - now Father Sieb - a devoted priest and closeted gay man. After seeing each other for the first time, the two rekindle their boyhood yearnings, beginning a secret relationship.Their reverie is brief, however, abruptly shaken when another closeted priest in the diocese, a former classmate of the two, dies suddenly, an apparent suicide. Shortly thereafter a letter arrives at the archbishop's office claiming that more was going on than anyone ever expected. As his secret affair continues, Chris begins to realize there is something horribly wrong with Jack, some dark secret he's withholding, one somehow connected to their deceased classmate - and that the threat it represents is closer than he could ever guess. Now his one chance to survive lies in finally uncovering the truth.

He clicked on Queer Eye, a show where five gay dudes gave some grungy straight guy a makeover?plucking his nose hairs, redecorating his apartment, and teaching him to bake a quiche?so he could confidently propose marriage to his girlfriend and she'd tell him "yes." Which, of course, she did. On...  more

He clicked on Queer Eye, a show where five gay dudes gave some grungy straight guy a makeover?plucking his nose hairs, redecorating his apartment, and teaching him to bake a quiche?so he could confidently propose marriage to his girlfriend and she'd tell him "yes." Which, of course, she did. On TV the guy always gets the girl. As Carlos watched, he recalled Sal, the supposedly gay guy at school. It was then that the idea first popped into his brain: If Sal truly were queer...could he possibly help Carlos?...Nor to propose to Roxy, of course?at least not yet?but to get her to maybe like him?

When high school teacher Tom Mason and his lover, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter, return home after a night out to discover a corpse in their apartment, they are trapped in the middle of a deadly game of hide-and-seek. The body is that of Glen Proctor, a former teammate and friend...  more

When high school teacher Tom Mason and his lover, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter, return home after a night out to discover a corpse in their apartment, they are trapped in the middle of a deadly game of hide-and-seek. The body is that of Glen Proctor, a former teammate and friend of Scott's, who had arrived on their doorstep in the throws of some unnamed "big trouble." With Glen dead and his unknown killers now after Tom and Scott, they are the ones in serious trouble. Since the police are slow to respond to the danger they are in (in fact, Tom and Scott are under suspicion themselves), they are forced to investigate on their own. As they delve deeper into Glen's past (and a dark and troublesome past it is), the situation becomes stickier, and the solution to the murder becomes essential - not just in the name of justice but for their own survival.

When a gay man in the last stages of leukemia is offered the chance to become a healthy, immortal, eternally-youthful vampire, he accepts readily. But he soon discovers that a vampire's life isn't all glorious nightlife.

When young Alec of Kerry is taken prisoner for a crime he didn't commit, he is certain that his life is at an end. But the one thing he never expected was his cellmate. Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things - none of them predictable. And when he offers to take...  more

When young Alec of Kerry is taken prisoner for a crime he didn't commit, he is certain that his life is at an end. But the one thing he never expected was his cellmate. Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things - none of them predictable. And when he offers to take Alec as his apprentice, things may never be the same for either of them. Soon Alec is traveling roads he never knew existed, toward a war he never suspected was brewing. Before long, he and Seregil are embroiled in a sinister plot that runs deeper than either can imagine, and that may cost them far ore than their lives if they fail. But fortune is as unpredictable as Alec's new mentor and this time there just might be LUCK IN THE SHADOWS.

All he remembered was the furtive encounter, the terror of discovery, the burning cigarette. . . and the voyeur on the fire escape plummeting to his death.??For twenty years, Todd Mills was safe, closeted, building his career as a two-time Emmy Award-winning TV reporter.??He had it all--until...  more

All he remembered was the furtive encounter, the terror of discovery, the burning cigarette. . . and the voyeur on the fire escape plummeting to his death.??For twenty years, Todd Mills was safe, closeted, building his career as a two-time Emmy Award-winning TV reporter.??He had it all--until his double life became front-page news.??Since his lover's murder, Todd hadn't worked.??It was the first pause in his professional life. Now he's out, warily beginning a romance with police detective Steve Rawlins, when an old friend, an ex-girlfriend, calls for help.??The son she gave up for adoption years before has found her--and left his baby.??Now she and the baby are being stalked by a cult of zealots who will stop at nothing to reclaim the child.??But as Todd steps into the firing range of The Congregation, he's forced to face the nightmare of his own buried past, as murderous secrets return to kill again. . . .

A surfeit of good intentions sinks this latest offering from a brave, if occasionally rash crime novelist. Zubro's mysteries all feature gay characters, and he develops them boldly. In addition, he's bullish on fingering injustice (doubtless his earlier The Only Good Priest made him few friends...  more

A surfeit of good intentions sinks this latest offering from a brave, if occasionally rash crime novelist. Zubro's mysteries all feature gay characters, and he develops them boldly. In addition, he's bullish on fingering injustice (doubtless his earlier The Only Good Priest made him few friends among the Catholic clergy). Unfortunately, his laudable rhetoric and his intentions exact a heavy penalty on plot here. Paul Turner is a good gay Chicago cop with pals on the force, a loyal and abrasive partner and a hunk of a lover named Ben. Paul's also trying to raise his two boys (one has spina bifida) and find out why Gideon Giles, a college professor and city alderman, choked to death on a concoction of vegetables juiced in his very own juicer. Giles isn't, however, a very compelling victim. Gradually exposed as a chameleon who cynically associated himself with worthwhile causes, he was a wild card in the always volatile Chicago political scene, where he had mysteriously defeated a powerful city politician to become alderman.