Tag: reading-is-hot

Featured S&S Author No. 1

I love this photo that I took:

of author William J. Mann

One of the reasons that I, and so many others, mourn the demise of independent GLBT bookstores is because of experiences like the one I had when I was introduced to the writing of Bill Mann. I went into Houston’s Crossroads bookstore one day, where the biography Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines was prominently featured on a display table.

I’d never heard of William Haines (or, at that time, William J. Mann), so without Crossroads, I might not have found this story of a man who was the number-one leading box office star in America in 1930. The reason I–and maybe you–never heard of Haines is because he walked away from a career in show business rather than pretend he wasn’t homosexual and living with his partner, Jimmie Shields. Considering that in 2007, the Hollywood closet still exists, with its doors tightly shut, Haines’s story is an amazing one of courage and honesty.

That book led me to the novels and other work of Bill Mann, including some of these:

You can read descriptions of all the books on Mann’s web site.

I was fortunate enough to attend his master class at Saints and Sinners, in which he talked about the unique challenges facing those who want to write biographies and memoirs. I also got him to sign my brand new copy of his latest novel:

Having met the men in this novel in The Men From the Boys, and caught up with them again in Where the Boys Are (the cover of which remains one of my all-time favorites ever), I was eager to see how they’re doing in Men Who Love Men. It’s good to know they’re still around, grappling with love, romance, friendship, and commitment as they settle into their mid-thirties and forties. Now that I know Mann has done right by them, I can get back to work on my own novels.

Another confession

Confession, as Sister Mary Amanda Prophet reminds Adam in HE’S THE ONE, cleanses the soul.

But first things first. I’m glad that Shannon’s dog Rutlie is doing okay and hope the change in food will make a difference. Last week, I found out that my brother’s dog Bailey got some of the tainted food and ended up at the vet. Bailey is okay, no kidney damage that I know of, but he’s an old dog and is lucky that my brother was using only a tiny portion of the wet food to make Bailey’s dry food more appealing.

The only good that can come of this is that people should now be more aware of what’s in their pets’ food, and their outrage may provoke changes. I’ll always wonder if it wasn’t a food issue that made our dachshunds die within five days of each other in 2000 after a series of mysterious illnesses that left Pete with liver failure and Stevie with kidney failure. That’s when I got appalling information on pet food ingredients from a homeopathic vet. We began buying Wysong when Margot and Guinness came into our lives. It’s the only product I trust.

Now for the confession and happier things.
click here for confession

Reading is STILL HOT!

Bob, shown here reading Lambda Literary Awards finalist Greg Herren’s MARDI GRAS MAMBO, remembers that Reading is HOT! Do you? After following Tim’s link to FARB’s excellent discussion about GLBT books (like I don’t check FARB’s blog several times a day), I realized it’s been a while since I reminded you.

Help me out! Please send photos of you–or anyone!–reading any of the books that are Lambda finalists. C’mon, you know you want your picture on my LiveJournal, right?

full list of finalists here

What’ll it be?

Will Famous Author Rob Byrnes force me to wax rhapsodic about the virtues of Irish oatmeal, of which I just had my first bowl ever, compared to the plain old oatmeal I grew up eating?

I’ll be reading…

(Readers may remember that Kieran made Irish oatmeal for Phillip for their first breakfast in THREE FORTUNES IN ONE COOKIE.)

Which reminds me, Gary in KY, did you ever see that I said yes, emphatically YES, to more “Reading is HOT!” photos?

Murder! Mayhem!

Today I took a writing break and went to Houston’s Murder By the Book bookstore to support a good friend and meet a new (to me!) author.

Dean James, who used to manage the store, has been a true friend to my writing career, giving me encouragement to be a little braver about writing and submitting. Dean has written several mysteries under his own name, but his latest is under his pen name Jimmie Ruth Evans. As Evans, Dean’s first two Trailer Park Mysteries, Flamingo Fatale and Murder Over Easy, gave us feisty, independent Wanda Nell Culpepper of Tullahoma, Mississippi. Wanda Nell has a bad habit of getting involved in murders, and her new misadventure is Best Served Cold. I picked up a copy today at Dean’s signing. It’ll probably be the first book I read when I can take a mini writing vacation after March 1.

Also signing today was author Leann Sweeney. Leann’s Yellow Rose Mystery series, based around Texas heiress Abby Rose, is set in Houston. I have to admit that since I haven’t read them, I splurged today and bought all four: Pick Your Poison, A Wedding to Die For, Dead Giveaway, and the newest, Shoot from the Lip.

Reading mysteries is one of those not-guilty pleasures that I can simply enjoy without thinking, Damn! I wish I’d written that! since I don’t write mysteries. Of course, if I came up with a really good plot and an engaging sleuth as my favorite mystery writers do….


Houston-area writers Dean James and Leann Sweeney.