First off, thank you to everyone who pre-ordered or since ordered TEARS IN TIME! As I write this post, I’m preparing for the book’s official launch here in Toronto (photos to come), plus Pride appearances in Denver and Toronto later this month. Reviews for the book have been FANTASTIC and I want to thank every reader and reviewer who’s helped to spread the word.
On spreading the word, the holy month is upon us! Well, the other holy month, not Halloween… or Eurovision… or… One of the holy months is here, and that is PRIDE! And every year around this time people start scrambling for new LGBTQ+ reads to put on their list, and every year I see such lists published, excluding not just indie authors (published outside the big five, Random Hatchett Penguin named Simon Schuster commercial machine), but… queer authors ourselves! Now, we love our straight allies including authors, and I’m not here to police what or whom a talented writer can or cannot write about. But it gets a bit tiresome to see our books bumped by straight authors again and again during what is supposed to be LGBTQ+ Pride Month!
So, for your reading pleasure, here’s my list of recent releases or just great books that I recommend you dive into this Pride. Some are indie-published. Some are self-published. ALL are by own-voices LGBTQ+ authors. And it’s by no means an exhaustive list, so please feel free to recommend another LGBTQ+-penned book in the comments below.
And HAPPY PRIDE to one and all (including the allies).
Shane K. Morton
Victor has a secret identity, and she’s being framed for murder.
Murder She Wrote… If Jessica Fletcher were a Fabulous Drag Queen!
The mayor's been murdered and everyone is on edge and reclusive mystery author Vicki Dean is the prime suspect. Can Victor clear her name without revealing his secret identity?
Will the hunky new sheriff help Victor prove Vicki's innocence or be a threat to not only his freedom but also his heart?
Victor must let go of his fear and step out of the shadows in his high heels and lipstick to solve this mystery as only a drag queen can. His life depends on it!
Glenn Quigley
Andrew Peacock is turning forty, sleeping with an older, straight, married man, and tired of the lies. So what better time to drag everything into the open than at a party for his lover’s wedding anniversary?
Told across six instalments, three decades, and one pandemic Teacup Promises charts the key moments in the relationships of Andrew, his boyfriend Jack, Jack’s wife Harriet, and Harriet’s lover, Stephen.
J. P. Jackson
Devid Khandelwal desperately wants to experience the supernatural. After years of studying everything from crystals to tarot to spellcasting, nothing has happened that would tell him the Shadow Realm is real. And that kills Dev. As a last-ditch resort, he purchases a summoning board, an occult tool that will grant him his ultimate desires.
Cameron Habersham is Dev’s best friend. Cam loves Dev like a brother and will do anything for him, as long as he looks good doing it. So when Dev asks him to perform the summoning board’s ritual, he reluctantly agrees, but he knows nothing will come of it. Nothing ever does.
However, within a day, Dev and Cam’s lives are turned upside down as wishes begin to come true. They discover the existence of a supernatural world beyond their imagination, but peace between the species is tenuous at best.
Dev finally gets to see the Shadow Realm, meets the man of his dreams, and is inducted into the local male coven. But for all the desires that were summoned into existence, Dev soon realizes the magical community dances the line between good and evil, and Cam ends up on the wrong side of everything.
The old adage is true: Be careful what you wish for.
Kevin Klehr
Stanley is almost fifty. He hates his job, has an overbearing mother, and is in a failed relationship.
Then he meets Asher, the man of his dreams, literally in his dreams.
Asher is young, captivating, and confident about his future – everything Stanley is not. So, Asher gives Stan a gift. The chance to be an extra five years younger each time they meet.
Some of their adventures are whimsical. A few are challenging. Others are totally surreal. All are designed to bring Stan closer to the moment his joyful childhood turned to tears.
But when they fall in love, Stan knows he can’t live in Asher’s dreamworld. Yet Stan is haunted by Asher’s invitation to “Slip into eternal sleep.”
Ryder O’Malley
You never know the shape revenge will take. But I do.
Prison is a blast. I get three meals a day, a warm bed, and a state-of-the-art gym. The guard’s hip-hugging uniforms don’t hurt either. I say good riddance to it all when I’m offered a chance to take this show on the road. Heroes aren’t getting the job done, so they’re recruiting villains with rugged good looks. But you blow up one ice cream truck, and suddenly they assign you a handler.
If I’m going to stay a free man, I need to stop a psycho from murdering half the city. Of course, the bad guy is attending a couple’s retreat for wealthy supers. If my babysitter is policing my every move, he’ll have to go undercover as my tech mogul husband. If I can survive a week without my cell phone, an overly enthusiastic yoga instructor, and a spouse complaining about love languages, maybe I can stop a massacre.
These heroes aren’t what they seem, but then again, neither am I.
‘Nathan Burgoine
The law of three is everything: three vampires for a coterie, three demons for a pack, and three wizards for a coven. Those alone or in pairs are vulnerable to the rest. Luc, Anders, and Curtis—vampire, demon, and wizard—sidestepped tradition by binding themselves together.
Someone is killing those with the gift of prescience and prophecy, a feat that shouldn't be possible given the victims should all sense the danger at hand. The three try to catch the killer, but how do you outwit someone killing those who see the future?
As more psychics turn up dead, new demons move into Ottawa, the magical Families close ranks, and a rebellion is sparked. Luc, Anders, and Curtis must stop a plan set into motion decades ago by one of the strongest and most dangerous supernatural powers ever to exist in Ottawa.
They already used the power of blood, soul, and magic to kill him once. Now they have to stop his future from coming to pass.
Rick R. Reed
It’s been raining men for most of Bobby Nelson’s adult life. Normally, he wouldn’t have it any other way, but lately something’s missing. Now, he wants the deluge to slow to a single special drop. But is it even possible for Bobby to find “the one” after endless years of hooking up?
When Bobby’s father passes away, Bobby finally examines his rocky relationship with the man and how it might have contributed to his inability to find the love he yearns for. Guided by a sexy therapist, a Sex Addicts Anonymous group, a well-endowed Chihuahua named Johnny Wadd, and Bobby’s own cache of memories, Bobby takes a spiritual, sexual, and emotional journey to discover that life’s most satisfactory love connections lie in quality, not quantity. And when he’s ready to love not only himself but someone else, sex and love fit, at last, into one perfect package.
David S. Pederson
A relaxing trip to a Palm Springs resort turns deadly for Mason Adler and his friend Walter Wingate when first one of their fellow guests, then another, ends up murdered. Suspects and motives abound among the remaining guests as well as the owner of the Oasis resort, Marvin Gagliardi, an old friend of Walter’s.
Mason investigates, hoping to prove Marvin’s innocence, but the more he uncovers, the more he wonders if Marvin actually might be the murderer. Distracting Mason is the handsome and eligible police detective assigned to the case, Brian Branchford. Mason had vowed not to become interested in anyone living a five-hour drive from Phoenix, but Branchford’s green eyes, gray hair, and toothbrush moustache are compelling reasons to give it a try.
It’s up to Mason to uncover the truth about the deaths at the Oasis, and to discover if there’s romance as well as murder at the Oasis.
AJ Dolman
Crazy/Mad is the latest modern poetry of resistance, against the norms and standards of a moment and against the idea of the confessional poem as a tool only for the poet themselves. Written around the poet’s lifelong fears of how their mental health, gender and orientation could be perceived and potentially punished, the poems whimper, rail and spin against continued psychological, personal and political oppressions at the human and institutional levels, including heteronormativity, monosexism and ableism; and rally for embracing all our forms of diversity, within and without.
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