Merlin-444, by Rejean Giguere
An ambitious concept that doesn’t quite fly
Story Blurb: In small town Saskatchewan Bobby Morrison is trying to piece his life back together. Losing a father has stopped him and his mother dead still. The only thing he has going for him is his Hot Rod.
Bobby’s need for speed rips him out of his small town life and thrusts him headlong into the past. He takes on the power and history of the Rolls Royce Merlin. The ensuing insanity hurls him into the Battles of Britain, the Atlantic and the Pacific. When the past presents a mission, can he complete it? Can he find his way?
About the author: Rejean Giguere is an avid outdoorsman, adventurer, photographer and artist. He enjoys fishing, hockey, golf, tennis, skiing and snowmobiling, his V-Max
motorcycle and vintage Corvette. He grew up in Canada and Europe, and enjoyed a business career in Toronto and Ottawa.
Available in e-book format – 266KB
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Review by Gerry Burnie
When I first came across Merlin-444 by Rejean Giguere [Smashwords, 2011], two things attracted me to it; i.e. it is a Canadian story by a Canadian author, and secondly it features the legendary Merlin engine and the Battle of Britain. It is not to suggest there aren’t lots of good Canadian authors to choose from, many I have reviewed (like Cynthia Faryon, and Tom Douglas), but the combination was the clincher.
The concept is a complex one—one might even say, “daunting.” The main protagonist, Bobby Morrison, is a likeable teenager with small town values, which include foregoing his own interest to look after his mother in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan (population 610). Like most small towns life is slow-paced, and so Bobby occupies his time pumping gas and working on his suped up ’77 Camaro.
His boss—and second protagonist—is an “old guy” [sic] known only as “Mr. G,” who seems to operate the service station more as a hobby than a business. Therefore Bobby is pretty well free to tinker with his hot rod.
His nemesis, known as “Digger,” owns a hot rod too, plus an obnoxious ego to go along with it. He is also dating Suzanne, Bobby’s secret love interest. However, this story is not intended as a romance, so Suzanne and Digger are mostly sub-plot overlaid by the preponderating action.
The real story begins when Mr. G suggests they put a Rolls Royce, Merlin engine, in the garage truck—which is quite a feat considering the Merlin V12 engine packed an amazing 1,470 hp (1,096 kW).
Even more incredible is when Bobby first fires it up and experiences some sort of time warp, by which he is transported back in time to the cockpit of a Spitfire. Moreover, he is the midst of a dogfight as part of the Battle of Britain (1940).
More such ‘flights’ were to follow, during which we learn for whom and for what reason he is being mysteriously called back in time, and the answer is quite poignant—not quite a tear-jerker, but satisfying.
My observations
The cross-over nature of this story—i.e. young adult-cum-historical fiction-cum-fantasy—would be enough to give any writer grey hairs just thinking about it, and so I think this author has given himself a fairly tough row to hoe from the start. In fact, I think he may have over extended himself to tackle it in the first place.
It is not to say that there aren’t some very nicely written parts. The dog fights for example are particularly intense, and the author’s straight forward style suits this sort of action, but overall I felt the story was rushed without regard to development. Instead, characters were unexpectedly introduced with chunks of information to cobble it together.
There are also some issues with repetitive phrases that stood out like stumbling blocks in places. For example:
Jumping up he ran to the truck squinting, shielding his eyes. As the light and noise finally settled, the dust floated to the floor of the cab. He yanked open the door and pulled the kid out, dragging him to a chair. God, he took in a quick breath, there was blood on the kid’s shoulder.
The kid was alive, but sure seemed drained. He watched carefully as Bobby slowly came to. He saw the distant look in his eyes, while he watched the kid get his bearings back.
Finally the kid looked up, shaking his head, “Incredible Mr. G.. Out of this world.” P.52
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I realize that this isn’t a particularly favourable review at first blush, but hopefully it will make for one in the future. There is enough good about this story to suggest it. Two and one-half bees.
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Congratulations to Jackie Dupuis: Jackie won ‘Runner-up travel story 2011’ with her short story “Captive in Cuba.” To read all about it, click here.
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GLBT Writers Group: You are invited to join our intimate little group of supportive writers on Linkedin. Let us know what you have written, or are currently writing, and get feedback on a variety of questions—including excerpts. Drop by for a look-see: GLBT Writers Group.
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If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
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The King Must Die, by Mary Renault
A classic novel by a legendary writer in the gay genre.
Story blurb: The story of the mythical hero Theseus, slayer of monsters, abductor of princesses and king of Athens. He emerges from these pages as a clearly defined personality; brave, aggressive and quick. The core of the story is Theseus’ Cretan adventure.
Available in e-book format
About the author: Mary Renault was born at Dacre Lodge, 49 Plashet Road, Forest Gate, Essex, (now in London), Renault was educated at St Hugh’s College of Oxford University, then an all-women’s college, receiving an undergraduate degree in English in 1928. In 1933, she began training as a nurse at Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary. During her training, she met Julie Mullard, a fellow nurse with whom she established a life-long romantic relationship.
She worked as a nurse while beginning a writing career, treating Dunkirk evacuees at the Winford Emergency Hospital in Bristol, and working in Radcliffe Infirmary’s brain surgery ward until 1945. She published her first novel, Purposes of Love, in 1939; it had a contemporary setting, like her other early novels, which novelist Linda Proud described as “a strange combination of Platonism and hospital romance”. Her 1943 novel The Friendly Young Ladies, about a lesbian relationship between a writer and a nurse, seems inspired by her own relationship with Miss Mullard.
In 1948, after her novel Return to Night won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa, where they remained for the rest of their lives. There, according to Proud, they found a community of gay expatriates who had “escaped the repressive attitudes towards homosexuality in Britain for the comparatively liberal atmosphere of Durban…. Mary and Julie found themselves able to set up home together in this new land without causing the outrage they had sometimes provoked at home. (Renault and Mullard were critical of the less liberal aspects of their new home, participating in the Black Sash movement against apartheid in the 1950s.)
Mary Renault died at Cape Town, South Africa, on 13 December 1983. – Wikipedia.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
The name Mary Renault is almost iconic in my past, for her Nature of Alexander (1975) was the first book that dealt with homosexuality I had ever found, and as such it was like finding the Holy Grail. This was quickly followed by Fire From Heaven (1969) and The Persian Boy (1972), and just about anything I could get my hands on that had Mary Renault’s name on it.
The King Must Die [Vintage, 1988 (originally published by Pantheon Books, 1958)] was somewhere in there, so re-reading this classic was like a pilgrimage back in time.
It is probably the most main-stream of Renault’s books, at least the ones I have read. Like most classical Greek characters Theseus is capable of deep love for his comrades, but unlike most it doesn’t extend to sex. Given the tenor of the times, however, this is quite understandable if it was to be published at all.
The story more-or-less follows Theseus’ heroic rescue of the enslaved Greek youths from Crete and the mythical Minotaur, but Renault has avoided a mere repetition by adhering to what could be archaeologically supported. Nonetheless, it still retains the marvellously exotic and colourful nuances of the myth by its inclusion of gods, goddesses and witches.
Moreover, by humanizing the mythical elements—his acquiring the bona fide kingship of Eleusis, becoming identified as the son and heir of the king of Athens, and especially the humanizing of the Minotaur as Asterion, the sinister and power-hungry son of Minos (king of Crete)—she has made it all seem plausible.
As a writer of historical fiction myself, I believe the two things I admire most about Renault’s writing is her character development, and the way she weaves the various elements together into a seamless whole. For example, this story takes Perseus from his childhood through five stages of his life, each a complex story in itself, and yet it never loses the central thread from beginning to end. That is the signature of a masterful writer, and which made Renault a legend in her own time.
This novel is not for those who are looking for explicitly gay content, and certainly not erotica of any kind, but if you admire a well-told story in the classical-style, this tale is for you. Five bees.
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I have put together a gallery of interesting, vintage photographs relating to my up-coming novel Coming of Age on the Trail. Many of these images date from the late 1800s, and are of interest in their own right. To view this gallery go to: http://www.gerryburniebooks.net/COAPhotos.htm
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From Afar, by Ava March
A cleverly conceived story, capably written and well worth a read.
Story blurb: Some rules are destined to be broken.
Loneliness. A concept with which Raphael Laurent is very familiar. He’s lived a solitary life for thirty-six years, shunning the excesses of the local vampire clan—until he spots Lord Aleric Vane, the handsome and dissolute third son of a duke. For three years Raphael has watched from a distance, for only when he is near Aleric does the hollow, empty ache in his chest ease.
Cut off from his family for refusing to follow his father’s dictates, Aleric’s nights are filled with vice. But after three years in London, the city has lost all appeal. Desolate and penniless, his future appears bleak. Until a mysterious man drops from the shadows to drive off a trio of murderous thieves.
When Aleric awakens, he finds himself forever changed. The itch for more that drove him to London is gone. In its place is the feeling that he’s known the beautiful Raphael all his life.
But to save Aleric, Raphael had to break the rules, giving him a chance to love the one man he never thought he could have—a chance that could be ripped away by Aleric himself…
Warning: This book contains hot m/m action with a new vampire with a ramped up sex drive, and a dash of voyeurism of the m/m, m/f, and m/m/m varieties. Definitely not your traditional Regency romance.
*Available in e-book format – 396 KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
Since my last couple of reviews have dealt with non-GLBT books I thought it was time I should get back to the mainstream of Gerry B’s Book Reviews. Ava March’s novella From Afar [Samhain Publishing, Ltd., 2010] is one of the books that has been languishing on my TBR list, and so I happily turned to it this week.
This is one of those crossover stories featuring vampires that seem to be popular these days. For the life of me I can’t figure out why, and to date no one has been able to provide a definitive answer, but that is a discussion for another day and forum.
This story is set in Regency England, and features a young vampire by the name of Raphael. At the opening of the tale we find Raphael up a tree spying on a libertine lord (Aleric) at play with a prostitute—something that Raphael has apparently watched more than once. The truth is that Raphael is infatuated with Aleric, but given his (Raphael’s) inhuman characteristics a full-fledged relationship is an impossibility.
However, circumstances change when Aleric is critically wounded in a mugging, and rather than see his unconscious love die Raphael gives him the bite of ‘everlasting life’ as a vampire, but since it is without Aleric’s consent the question is how will he react when he regains consciousness?
To give him his due Raphael’s love is genuine, for he goes to great lengths to revive his “lover,” and when he does he is rewarded by a compliant Aleric. The reality is the Aleric is a lord in name only, and is otherwise destitute. Moreover, he had always been more than just a bit bi-curious, and so there follows quite a charming ‘getting-to-know-you’ segment in which Aleric learns the dos-and-don’ts of being a vampire.
The tension in the story is provided by a dominant clan of vampires under the control of a female who, rather awkwardly, develops an attraction to Aleric, and while she can’t destroy Raphael she can cause serious and grave difficulties for both him and Aleric.
It is a cleverly conceived story, capably written and well worth a read, but it is also a little incredulous in places. For one thing I found Aleric’s acceptance and adjustment to his new life a bit too ready, and the ending seemed truncated for what needed to be resolved. Three and one-half bees.
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Visit my 2011 year in review. See the top five ‘most viewed’ book reviews of 2011, plus other interesting stats.
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While I am in Florida I maintain a regular blog report on Gerry Burnie Books – My blog. It’s an eclectic newsletter about what is happening in my life, and some of the interesting sights around St. Augustine.
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If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
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Snow: the double life of a world war II spy, by Nigel West and Madoc Roberts
A fascinating story for history buffs and fans of true-life spy stories.
Story blurb: SNOW is the codename assigned to Arthur Owens, one of the most remarkable British spies of the Second World War. This ‘typical Welsh underfed type’ became the first of the great double-cross agents who were to play a major part in Britain’s victory over the Germans. When the stakes could not have been higher, MI5 sought to build a double-cross system based on the shifting loyalties of a duplicitous, philandering and vain anti-hero who was boastful and brave, reckless and calculating, ruthless and mercenary…but patriotic. Or was he? Based on recently declassified files and meticulous research, Snow reveals for the first time the truth about an extraordinary man.
About the Authors: Nigel West is the pen name of Rupert Allason, a military historian and author specialising in intelligence and security issues. He is European Editor of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence. He was awarded the first Lifetime Literature Achievement Award of the US Association of Former Intelligence Officers and was voted ‘the experts’ expert’ by a panel of spy writers selected by The Observer.
Madoc Roberts has worked in television for thirty years. He is managing director of Barkingmad TV and as a producer and director has made history programmes for Channel 4, Channel 5, Discovery and the History Channel. As an editor he has worked on feature films and made award-winning programmes for all the major networks including Timewatch for BBC 2 and Time Team for Channel 4. He was also the main editor on the long-running BBC 2 series Private Life of a Masterpiece. In the 1970s he was lead singer with The Tunnelrunners. He now lives in Cardiff with his wife, the artist Susan Roberts.
Available in e-book format – 1419 KB
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Review by Gerry Burnie
I have long maintained that the most interesting history of any society lies not with its kings and politicians, but with ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Okay, maybe Arthur Owens wasn’t your average person, but his exploits certainly prove the point. Fortunately for us, Nigel West and Madoc Roberts have brought this fascinating story to light in a recently released, non-fiction tale of espionage in WWII; Snow: the double life of a world war II spy [Biteback, October 2011].
To start, Arthur Owens was a Welsh battery salesman who was out to sell his invention that no one in Britain seemed to be interested in. That is when he decided to go farther a-field to offer it to the Germans in 1935. He therefore walked into the German embassy a salesman and walked out a spy.
Inevitably in the world of espionage and counter-espionage Mi5 eventually learned of his activity, and Owens subsequently became the first double agent on record.
One of the key areas Owens able to serve British intelligence was to identify German agents, who were then given the offer of working with Mi5 or facing a firing squad. Needless to say very few refused this ‘charming’ offer, and so Britain was kept quite well informed about Hitler’s activities leading up to the war in 1942.
The end of his spying activity—but not his ballsy luck and attitude—came in 1941 when the Nazis accused him of being a double agent, but mysteriously let him return to England. Thereby he was interned in Dartmoor prison for the remainder of the war.
Following the war, fearing retribution from both sides, he exiled himself to Canada and then to Ireland. In the meantime, however, he threatened the British government he would go public with his story and was paid-off an undisclosed amount of money. That’s what I like about this character; traitor or patriot, Owens had balls!
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A couple of interesting side notes to this story, as well. Apparently, Owens’ son had no idea of his father’s activities until his mother told him, nor was he aware of his half-sister by Owens’ first wife. Indeed, Patricia Owens was a Hollywood movie star appearing opposite Marlon Brando and James Mason.
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A fascinating story for history buffs and fans of true-life spy adventures. Five bees.
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If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
Happy New Year to all, and thanks for dropping by!
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Lone Star Christmas, by William W. Johnstone
A Western tale in the classic dime-store-novel style.
Story blurb: Smoke Jensen, Matt Jensen, Falcon and Duff MacAllister—Together For The First Time
They just wanted to get home for Christmas . . . but fate had other plans.
It’s December 1890. A Texas rancher named Big Jim Conyers has a deal with Scottish-born, Wyoming cattleman named Duff MacAllister. Along with Smoke and Matt Jensen, the party bears down on Dodge, Kansas, to make a cattle drive back to Forth Worth. But before they can get out of Dodge, guns go off and a rich man’s son is killed.
Soon the drive turns into a deadly pursuit, then a staggering series of clashes with bloodthirsty Indians and trigger-happy rustlers. And the worst is yet to come—the party rides into a devastating blizzard, a storm so fierce that their very survival is at stake.
From America’s greatest Western author, here is an epic tale of the unforgiving American frontier and how, amidst fierce storms of man and nature, miracles can still happen.
Available in e-book format – 689 KB
About the author: William W. Johnstone started his writing career in 1970, but did not have any works published until 1979 (The Devil’s Kiss) and became a full-time writer in 1980. He wrote close to two hundred books in numerous genres, including suspense and horror. His main publication series were Mountain Man, The First Mountain Man, Ashes and Eagles and his own personal favorite novel was The Last of the Dog Team (1980). He also authored two novels under the pseudonym William Mason.
Johnstone had lived for many years in Shreveport, Louisiana, yet died in Knoxville, TN, at the age of 65. His death remained officially unconfirmed for nearly three years and was the subject of continuous debate in the forum on his web site. No statements were issued, however until the 2006 paperback release of Last Gunfighter: Devil’s Legion, which, on its copyright page has, indeed, confirmed that “William W. Johnstone died” and that a “carefully selected author” has been chosen to carry on his legacy. J. A. Johnstone is continuing William W. Johnstone’s series. – Wikipedia.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
As you may have noticed I have a fondness for Western novels, especially the classic variety, so when I saw the evocative cover [no credit provided] of “Lone Star Christmas” by William W. Johnstone [Pinnacle Books; Original edition, 2011] I chose it as my Christmas book blog.
As a classic Western tale it has it all; i.e. winsome maidens, gallant gentlemen, good and bad gunslingers, fallen angels, cattle drives, rustlers and renegade Indians, so in some ways—with a bit more sophistication—it is a revival of the dime store novel.
No problem there.
The story begins on a train where we meet the winsome maiden (Rebecca Conyers) and the gallant gentleman (Tom Whitman) from Boston. Whitman is travelling nowhere in particular, just escaping a painful past, and so when he happens to rescue the winsome maiden from two churlish cads she offers him a job on her father’s spread, “Live Oaks,” which Whitman accepts.
Okay, right here we know that this is a throw-back to the ten-cent novel when a tender foot from Boston takes on the job of a rugged ranch hand—successfully, as it turns out. On the other hand, how else is the gallant Tom Whitman going to get romantically inclined toward the winsome Miss Conyers?
“Big Ben” Conyers is a sort of Ben Cartwright-type: A self-made cattle baron, paternalistic, and imbued with high moral standards in spite of having sired Rebecca by a woman other than his present wife. Therefore, he refuses to tell Rebecca about her real mother, and forbids her from pursuing a romance with the gallant Tom Whitman.
It is at this stage in the story where the plot begins to thicken, and also strain the fetters of credibility to the max. The winsome Rebecca, now the “headstrong Becky” is romantically rebuffed by the gallant Tom Whitman, and so she disguises herself as a cowhand and signs on with a cattle drive to Dodge, Kansas.
Ulp! Now that’s a bit of a stretch. From what I know about a woman’s anatomy (which admittedly doesn’t go beyond the obvious) there are certain physical features that are difficult to disguise—like beardless skin, small hands, and—okay—boobs. Moreover, we are talking about a cattle drive with seasoned cowhands who, like Andy Adams, Charlie Seringo and “Teddy Blue” Abbott, had probably been driving cattle since they could sit a saddle.
There are some other incredulities, too—like shooting a crab-apple-sized apple off someone’s head, and three strangers who appear out of a blizzard to lead a pregnant woman to the safety—but this is fiction, after all. So I’m going to buy them all, for in spite of these it’s an entertaining read.
Having said that, I’ll saw it off at three bees.
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Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews – 18,096. Can we make it to 20,00 by January 1st, 2012? We can with your help. Please spread the word.
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Relive some of my memories of Christmas in the 1940s by visiting my personal blog: Gerrybuurniebooks.wordpress.com.
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The sale figures are in for Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears, and while I can’t retire in luxury they are quite gratifying indeed. Thanks you to all those who bought and read them. If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
Thanks for dropping by.
The Sharpshooter, by Kit Prate
A short story celebration of the classic Western tale.
Story blurb: Clete Benteen was a kid one minute and a man the next. The son of a sharpshooter, he grew up when his pa was brought home across the back of a horse, back-shot. Making a place for himself among hard cowboys, Clete must use all the skill he has to provide for his family and to find his Pa’s killer. But is he tough enough to survive?
Kindle edition – short story – 121 KB – .99¢
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although “The Sharpshooter” by Kit Prate [Western Trail Blazer, 2011] is not a GBLT story, or a particularly long read, nonetheless I liked it for its adherence to the classic Western genre; i.e. a deep sense of justice, stoic determination, and a clear distinction between “good guys” and “bad guys.”
As the blurb tells us, young Clete Benteen (14 years old) is forced into manhood to support his widowed mother and fellow siblings, as well as avenge his father’s murder. This brings him into contact with his father’s employer, a powerful rancher by the name and style of Judge Terril, and a group of sinister, hired guns that Terril employs to enforce his power.
What makes Clete equal to the others in some way is his skill as a sharpshooter; a skill he has both learned and inherited from his dead father. Other traits he has either learned of inherited are his fierce independence and self assuredness.
I bought into his sharpshooter’s skill because one of my main characters in an upcoming novel (“The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia”) is a teenage shootist, but I was a little more questioning about Clete’s precociousness. Or, maybe it was the willingness of the adults—Terril especially—to let him get away with it. It is, however, only a minor quibble.
As the story moves along there is a nice build up of tension, especially with his capture by the bad guys, and the contest of wills as his captivity continues under sometimes cruel and abusive conditions. After all, it wouldn’t be a true western if the good guys had a ‘cake walk’ of it.
Altogether this is a great little read for the money, and worth every cent of it. Four and one-half bees.
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Stay up-to-date with Gerry’s Marvellous Adventure by visiting my personal blog from St. Augustine, Florida—North America’s oldest, continuously-occupied city. It is a mixture of personal news, history, and photos. I think you will find it interesting.
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Come count down the days ‘til Christmas on Speak its Name Advent Calendar. Great stories and prizes to be won every day.
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The sale figures are in for Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears, and while I can’t retire in luxury they are quite gratifying indeed. Thanks you to all those who bought and read them. If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
Thanks for dropping by. Check back next week for my Christmas pick.
Sandals and Sodomy (An anthology)
A erotic romp through ancient Greek and Roman history
Blurb: Greeks Bearing Gifts by D. G. Parker Young Antenor of fallen Troy faces violation and death, only to be rescued and enslaved by a gruff, older Greek, a hard-bitten soldier in the king’s good graces. What Antenor does not expect is Calchas’s good heart that sees him through shipwreck, marooning, and rescue. Troy Cycle by Dar Mavison When the gods abandoned men during the battle of Troy, the greatest of those men – Hector, Odysseus, Paris, Achilles – schemed to end the war. Amongst themselves they waged war both vicious and tender in a desperate attempt to achieve peace, a peace that for some would only be found in death, leaving others to discover it in new life. But no one would ever be forgotten by the other three. Undefeated Love by John Simpson The men of the Sacred Band of Thebes are remembered for their valor, their honor, their devotion to duty, and their great love for their partners. Alexandros and Agapitos found a place amongst them, but little did they know their love and sacrifice would face the test of war – and survive to shine eternally. Hadrian by Remmy Duchene Roman Emperor Hadrian is all-powerful . and alone. But when Antinous trespasses into Hadrian’s bath, the ruler’s eyes are opened to a whole new world of love. After the Games by Connie Bailey When the Emperor sends a beautiful concubine, Valerius, to the slave pens to slake the hunger of his fiercest beast, the fighter Alaric, he doesn’t anticipate that Alaric just isn’t interested. But to keep Valerius from being punished, the fighter keeps him close for one night, a night that turns from talkative to passionate. The Vow by Ariel Tachna Adrastos still mourns his dead partner and lover, and he has hardened his heart and spirit to any other. Knowing his duty to bond and train a soldier, he reviews a trio of Army recruits, but he insists he will not choose one. Eager to prove himself worthy to serve the Army and Aphrodite alike, Erasmos presents himself for the final test.and finds that he, the petitioner, is the savior rather than the saved.
Dreamspinner Press (July 15, 2008). 268p. Also available in eBook format.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
“Greeks Bearing Gifts” by D. G. Parker
This is a look at the aftermath of the fall of Troy from a young Trojan’s point of view. Antenor is saved from a cruel fate by a high-ranking Greek officer, Calchas, and thereby becomes his slave. However, in a twist that I thought was somewhat contrived, Calchas treats Antenor more like a son (or an eromenos) than a slave.
Antenor gets a chance to repay this kindness when the two are shipwrecked on a deserted island, and Antenor saves Chalchas’ life with a suddenly revealed knowledge of healing herbs.
I found the ending equally implausible as well, so I will reserve my recommendation.
“Troy Cycle” by Dar Mavison
There have been many versions of the fall of Troy–an event shrouded in myth–as well as the exploits of Achilles, Hector, Paris and the legendary Helen of Troy. However, this version takes it well over the top with its dark interpretation of all these characters, plus Odysseus, King of Ithaca.
An ‘over the top’ interpretation is fair enough when dealing with a myth, but when revisiting the fall of Troy anything less than heroic is just too much of a departure to be credible—even in a ‘let’s pretend’ sort of way.
“Undefeated Love” by John Simpson
Alexandros and Agapitos are two noble-born youths who decide to dedicate themselves to each other, and are therefore invited to join the Sacred Band of Thebes–150 couples dedicated to one another to the death.
There are some good things to say about this story, including references to known historical facts. However, the two protagonists didn’t put me in mind of warriors of the period. Rather, they are lovers who fight as aposed to fighters who love. That, I think, is the essence of King Philip’s famous comment.
“Hadrian” by Remmy Duchene
For those who are looking for a one-handed read, Hadrian should do the trick for you. To its credit, however, it makes no pretence about being anything else.
“After the Games” by Connie Bailey
This is by far my favourite. Here is plot and character development that has some depth and sophistication even though it is essentially erotic. Alaric, a gladiator, has taken a vow of celibacy following the death of his lover, but is finally seduced by a young “pleasure slave’s” cleverly spun tales; somewhat reminiscent of Scheherazade.
“The Vow” by Ariel Tachna
This is a well developed story that pits a grief-burdened older man against a younger man’s determined desire to be his lover. Both characters are credible in their roles, and there is enough tension to make it more than just a romp to the sack. It’s a good read.
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Over all I found most of the stories disappointing. Mind you I judge a book by its plot, and erotica just doesn’t compensate for the lack thereof. However, not everyone feels this way, and so I will leave it up to the readers to decide. Two and one-half bees.
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The sale figures are in for Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears, and while I can’t retire in luxury they are quite gratifying indeed. Thanks you to all those who bought and read them. If you would like to learn more about any of my books, or to order copies, click on the specific cover below. Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears are available in both Kindle and Nook formats. Publisher’s price, $4.95.
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Junction X, by Erastes
In some ways this is a brave new frontier, sensitively and superbly written, and begging to be read both for enjoyment and contemplation.
Story blurb: Set in the very English suburbia of 1962 where everyone has tidy front gardens and lace curtains, Junction X is the story of Edward Johnson, who ostensibly has the perfect life: A beautiful house, a great job, an attractive wife and two well-mannered children. The trouble is he’s been lying to himself all of his life. And first love, when it does come, hits him and hits him hard. Who is the object of his passion? The teenaged son of the new neighbours.
Edward’s world is about to go to hell.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
I have reviewed several of Erastes’ previous books, and in my opinion “Junction X” [Cheyenne Publishing, 2011] has to be her best effort yet. Part of my opinion is based on her gutsy decision to tackle the controversial topic of male adult-to-teen love. It is not that it doesn’t exist in abundance, it is just that no one wants to talk or write about it for fear of being labelled a pedophile. I will also add that a male writer probably couldn’t have written on this topic without the usual finger pointing, so I am glad that Erastes took up the challenge.
Every aspect of this story is outstanding: A powerful narrative, vivid and believable characters, uncompromising drama, and a heart-grabbing ending, but for me the most compelling aspect was the insight Erastes achieved into the troubled soul of Edward Johnston—knowing the dangers, and yet pursuing his feelings for a comely 18-year-old student just the same. I liked the subtle way it began, too, for I have long held that we talk ourselves into loving someone—fantasy, sometimes unrealistic but overpowering nonetheless.
There is also the subtle reference to an unspoken truth, and that is that teenagers are innately sexual and can be provocatively seductive. This is made all the more disarming by the fact that it is mostly subconscious. Therefore, Alex had no more idea he was seducing Edward than Edward had of seducing him. In Grecian times it would have been attributed to the fickle Fates.
In some ways this is a brave new frontier, sensitively and superbly written, and begging to be read both for enjoyment and contemplation. Five bees.
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The Sacred Band, by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
A scholarly tale of pathos, romance, and adventure
Story blurb: An adventure like no other. Two Sacred Bands, united for the first time. The Sacred Band of Thebes lives on, a world away, in this mythic novel of love in war in ancient times. In 338 BCE, during the Battle of Chaeronea that results in the massacre of the Sacred Band of Thebes, the legendary Tempus and his Stepson cavalry rescue twenty-three pairs of Theban Sacred Banders, paired lovers and friends, to fight on other days. These forty-six Thebans, whose bones will never lie in the mass grave that holds their two hundred and fifty-four brothers, join with the immortalized Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons, consummate ancient cavalry fighters, to make new lives in a faraway land and fight the battle of their dreams where gods walk the earth, ghosts take the field, and the angry Fates demand their due.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
| This is another book purchased from Amazon.com’s ‘Gay Historical Fiction’ list, but apart from a few vague references to homosexuality it is not a GLBT story. |
At 570 pages (929 KB) The Sacred Band (Sacred Band of Stepsons) by Janet Morris and Chris Morris [Paradise Publishing, 2010] is an epic tale of heroes, gods, and demigods. I also understand that it is a continuation of a series, but it is the first I have read.
There are a number of good things to be said about this story. The evidence of major research stands out first and foremost. This was a time when every life force was governed by some god or goddess, major or minor, and to sort all these out is no slight task. I did, however, have some questions about weaponry—particularly cross bows and throwing stars in the third century BC. It is true that the authors did admit some anachronisms here, but for me these took me outside the time frame.
The plot is also well constructed, with drama, romance, pathos and destruction, woven together in a compelling and interesting way.
The journalism is of a high order as well, but here we begin to experience some difficulties. Technically it is good but convoluted by an overabundance of esoteric description; so much so that I found myself skimming over paragraphs, even pages, to get to the next point.
Individually the characters were both distinct and interesting, but collectively (by name) they were overwhelming. This was made even more mind-boggling by the fact that many of these had two or three names used interchangeably, i.e. Tempus/Riddler/Avatar; Nikodemus, Niko, Swift; and so on.
However, for me the most critical shortcoming was a book of 570 pages in length, involving the Sacred Band of Thebes, and not once did it mention same-sex sex by name or practice. Indeed, the only time when one male character makes a brief pass at another—in a whore house—it was treated with something like, “I’m not that way.”
Recmmended for the good points mentioned. Two and one-half Bees.
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The Great Pagan Army, by Vaughn Heppner
Recommended for those who enjoy a well-written historical action
Story blurb: This is the year 885 A.D., when a thundering army of hardened cutthroats, berserks and axmen trample its way across Western Europe, raping and pillaging at will. They are the Great Pagan Army—the largest array of Vikings ever assembled into one host. No army or city can resist them; no one dares… until a crippled young count finds an old Roman book on tactics.
With a handful of desperate knights, Count Odo fortifies the river fortress of Paris and awaits the savage host. Neither he nor the Vikings realize that this will be young Paris’s most brutal siege and of incredibly fateful importance.
Available in Kindle format – 1007 KB
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Review by Gerry Burnie
| Note: Although this novel was found on Amazon.com’s “gay historical fiction” list, it is not a GLBT story. I don’t believe this is in any way the fault of the author, it is nontheless sloppy shopkeeping on the part of Amazon, and misleading as well. |
Author Vaughan Heppner has chosen a most interesting period in history as the setting for his novel, “The Great Pagan Army” [Amazon Digital Services, 2010]. Beginning in the 830s AD, the Vikings did indeed exploit internal divisions within Charlemagne’s empire, and several times attacked Paris—the last taking place during 885 – 886 AD.
The main chronicle of this siege is the “Bella Parisiacæ Urbis” (“Wars of the City of Paris”), the eye-witness account by Abbo Cernuus, (“the Crooked”), poet of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. Heppner refers to this account in his Historical Notes, and so the events of this occupation are as accurate as Cernuus made them.[1]
At the opening of the story we get to meet Peter the Monk, a bookish fellow devoid of any knowledge or understanding of life beyond the cloister, and charmingly naïve because of it. It is for this reason we are ready to forgive him the fact that he is on his way to rob the Abbot—to pay off a blackmailer (Lupus) armed with knowledge that, in a moment of weakness, Peter gained carnal knowledge of swine herder’s daughter (Willelda). However, his scheme is rudely interrupted when a gang of marauding Northmen attacks the Abbot’s house and Peter is captured.
One of the attackers, Hemming, the son of the brutish Norse leader, Ivor Hammerhand, is roughly Peter’s age and comparatively naïve as well, and so it is a clever bit of business to cast these two similar but different neophytes on a parallel plane.
After witnessing the destruction of the abbey, and the slaughter of his fellow monks, Peter makes a penitential vow to the Abbot that he will find another holy relic (for which the abbey was known) and replace the abbey, itself. He then manages to escape, and when he finds that Willelda has been captured by the Vikings, he and Lupus set out for Rome—and, coincidentally (on Peter’s part), to rescue Willelda.
Meanwhile, after witnessing the slaughter of his fellows, Hemming is captured—along with his father—by a vengeful group of Berserkers. And when his father is brutally murdered, Hemming sets out on a journey of destiny—a journey inspired by the revenge of his father’s death.
We next get to meet Odo, Count of Paris and later (888-898) king of West Franca. Once again there is a similarity between the Count and Peter inasmuch as the Count is in love with a woman, Judith, the illegitimate daughter of a bishop, but since she has been sent to a convent, Odo cannot openly marry her without alienating the powerful Bishop of Paris.
These two therefore team up to obtain a rare treatise on war, De Re Militari, written by Flavius Vegetius (390 AD). Odo is convinced that with this knowledge he can defend Paris against ‘The Great Pagan Army,’ and perhaps win Judith. For his part Peter agrees to copy the book if the Count will aid in the rescue of Willelda.
And finally we meet the woman Judith, a headstrong girl who is forced to use her wits and guile to circumvent the highly patriarchal society that prevails all around her.
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As I have already mentioned, this is an interesting period of history that has not been exploited in the past. Pity, for it is full to the brim with the sort of politics and power-plays that make intriguing reading, so I was delighted to see that the author had captured the essence of this very well.
I also thought the characters were well developed, particularly in distinguishing between the classes. Peter was to Lupus what Odo was to Peter, and yet they needed one another in a practical way. The same might be said of Hemming and the Beserks, for Hemming was one step above the others on the evolutionary scale.
There are also some great battle scenes, featuring both period weapons and tactics, and the author has done a fine job of bringing these to life with the written word.
Historically, I think it is as accurate as it could be—although some medieval scholar might challenge me on that. I suppose one could quibble the fact that Count Odo’s wife, Théodrate of Troyes, was not the illegitimate daughter of a bishop, but to me such is part of an author’s license.
However, at times I thought the author stretched my credibility factor a bit beyond limits—Peter and Lupus’ finding the bones in Rome, for example. My biggest quibble, however, was with the lack-luster ending. After all the great battle scenes and individual combat, I thought the ending—however historically accurate—was less than heroic. Nonetheless, I can recommend this story for those who enjoy well-written historical action. Four Gerry Bees.
[1] Some historians dismiss Cernuus’s account as being a somewhat fanciful version commissioned and written for Count Odo.
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Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two, by Allan Bérubé
Edition of Gerry B’s Book Reviews
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Some interesting facts
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If you never read another historical account of this era, read this one! Outstanding!
Story blurb: This major study chronicles the struggle of homosexuals in the U.S. military during WW II who found themselves fighting on two fronts: against the Axis and against their own authorities who took extreme measures to stigmatize them as unfit to serve their country. From 1941 to 1945, more than 9000 gay servicemen and women purportedly were diagnosed as sexual psychopaths and given “undesirable” discharges. Based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, augmented by 75 interviews with gay male and female veterans, social historian Berube recounts the purges in the military into the Cold War era when homosexuality was officially equated with sin, crime and sickness. The book reveals that the first public challenge to the military’s policy came not from the gay-rights movement but from military psychiatrists who studied gay servicemen and women during World War II. This evenhanded study brings into sharp focus an important chapter in American social history.
About the author: Allan Ronald Bérubé (December 3, 1946 – December 11, 2007) was an American historian, activist, independent scholar, self-described “community-based” researcher and college drop-out, and award-winning author, best known for his research and writing about homosexual members of the American Armed Forces during World War II He also wrote essays about the intersection of class and race in gay culture, and about growing up in a poor, working class family, his French-Canadian roots, and about his experience of anti-AIDS activism.
Coming Out Under Fire earned Bérubé the Lambda Literary Award for outstanding Gay Men’s Nonfiction book of 1990 and was later adapted as a film in 1994, narrated by Salome Jens and Max Cole, with a screenplay by Bérubé and the film’s director, Arthur Dong. The film received a Peabody Award for excellence in documentary media in 1995. Bérubé received a MacArthur Fellowship (often called the “genius grant”) from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1996. He received a Rockefeller grant from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in 1994 to research a book on the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, and he was working on this book at the time of his death. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Review by Gerry Burnie
If I were asked to design a definitive course on the history of Gays and Lesbians in North America, I would include three books as required reading: Gay American History, by Jonathon Katz; From the Closet to the Courtroom, by Carlos Ball; and Coming out Under Fire, by Allan Bérubé [Free Press, 1990]. Moreover, I think the students would thank me afterward for choosing books that are authoritative, informative and relatively easy to read.
For me personally, Allan Bérubé’s seminal work represents an eye-opener like few others I have read. Indeed, I was moved from profound sadness to outright rage when I learned the systematic
persecution that these innocent men and women had to endure in the service of their country. That, perhaps, is the greatest benefit that this retrospective can provide, for those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The following is a précis of Bérubé’s thesis, but it is by no means complete or in depth. To really appreciate the full story of coming out under fire I urge you to read the original.
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When the war clouds started to descend over Europe in the 1930s the United States military did not exceed two hundred thousand soldiers, and so to overcome this Congress passed the nation’s first peacetime conscription act. Consequently, conscripts began to fill the Army’s ranks in astonishing numbers (16 million in 1940-41).
With so many men available, the armed forces decided to exclude certain groups, including women, blacks, and—following the advice of psychiatrists—homosexuals (although this term was not yet widely used). Traditionally the military had never officially excluded homosexuals, but in World War II a dramatic change occurred. Seeing a chance to advance their prestige, influence, and legitimacy of their profession, psychiatrists promoted screening as a means of reducing psychiatric casualties before they became military responsibilities.
In 1941, therefore, the Army issued a directive which disqualified “homosexual proclivities” as a “psychopathic personality disorder.” This was in keeping with the prevailing belief that homosexuality was a neurological disorder—i.e. the first signs of a brain-disease caused by heredity, trauma, or bad habits such as masturbation, drunkenness and drug addiction.
Moreover, the military encased this idea in “characteristics that were considered inferior or “degenerative” by virtue of their deviation from the generally white, middle-class, and
native-born norm.” (Location 536).
“The framers of the Army’s interwar physical standards listed feminine characteristics among the “stigmata of degeneration” that made a man unfit for military service. Males with a “degenerative physique,” the regulation explained, “may present the general body conformation of the opposite sex, with sloping narrow shoulders, broad hips, excessive pectoral and public adipose [fat] deposits, with lack of masculine hirsute [hair] and muscular markings.”” (Location 536).
Bérubé then goes on to explain, “The reason for excluding these as psychopaths was that, like other men in this “wastebasket” category, they were considered to be irresponsible troublemakers who were unable to control their desires or learn from their mistakes and thus threatened the other men.” (Location 568).
To make matters worse, this sort of quackery was widely promulgated in training seminars for recruiters and physicians throughout the United States, and even published in medical journals for wider distribution.
On the other hand, because of women’s marginal status in the military prior to WWII, neither the Army nor the Navy had developed policies and procedures concerning lesbians. Therefore, women
recruits were never asked the homosexual question, and were therefore able to enter the military undetected.
After Pearl Harbor was bombed, however, the rules were relaxed to accommodate the demands of war, and the military was forced to accept and integrate most gay selectees. In fact, it was privately acknowledged that gay men had become vital members of the armed forces. Moreover, the gay recruits found ways to fit in and even to form close and lasting relationships with “buddies.”
Sexual activity was at a minimum until the recruits learned the rules, and then discrete opportunities could be found where there was a will.
“Not all trainees who approached other men for sex were gay. Heterosexual recruits who had had the most sexual experience with women or who felt strong sex drives could initiate sex without being afraid that they were queer, especially if their partner was gay and played the “passive” role. Teenage recruits who were just fooling around with each other, especially if they had been drinking, found themselves unexpectedly becoming sexual. Some older soldiers with more sexual experience in the military taught younger men how to have sex without getting caught. On the other hand, recruits who knew they were gay before entering the service were sometimes the most reluctant to have sex.” (Location 1103).
Meanwhile, Army and Navy officials struggled with how to manage the homosexual behaviour, and several approaches were developed. When challenged from the outside, particularly by concerned
parents or clergy, their public stance was to condemn behaviour considered to be immoral in the wider culture, including profanity, drunkenness, erotic pictures, extramarital sex, lesbianism, homosexuality, and prostitution. Within the organization, however, military officials took a more understanding approach—forced into it by the need to hang onto trained personnel.
Trainees usually learned on their own how to put up with one another’s differences in order to get through basic training. They also received pleas for tolerance from the war propaganda which
portrayed American soldiers as defending the ideals of democracy, equality, and freedom against the totalitarian Axis. But inspired more by necessity than idealism, male trainees responded to the demands of basic training by developing their own pragmatic ethic of tolerance: “I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me.”
One of the areas where blatant effeminacy was tolerated—even applauded—was in the “all-soldier variety show.” These began as a diversion, but soon became a popular form of frontline entertainment even under fire. These were all-male shows to entertain each other that almost always featured female impersonation, and coincidentally provided a temporary refuge for gay males to let their hair down and entertain their fellows.
“The impulse to put on shows and perform in dresses generally came from the men themselves—soldiers without women, as well as gay men, had long traditions of spontaneously dressing up in women’s clothes. But during World War II, the military officials, pressured by GIs, their own morale personnel, and leaders in the civilian theatre world …found themselves not only tolerating makeshift drag but officially promoting female impersonation.” (Location 1677).
In 1941, strained by the demands of a massive war mobilization that included a large influx of gay soldiers, the military could no longer handle its homosexual discipline problems by sending all offenders to prison as required by the Articles of War.[1] Therefore, based on the belief that homosexuality was a mental illness, there was a concerted effort to discharge homosexuals without trial while retaining those whose services were deemed essential. However, this policy ran contrary to the common law that held homosexuality as “an infamous and unspeakable crime against nature,” and that the military had a responsibility “to prevent such crimes with severe punishment
and to protect the morals of the nation’s young people under their jurisdiction.”
Underlying all this was a sort of political upmanship among various factions of the military bureaucracy. For example, having sodomites released into the care of psychiatrists would greatly enhance the standing of psychiatry as a legitimate science, and for their part the generals resented the interference of the legals in the Judge Advocate’s office. Therefore, the unfortunate men and women awaiting jusice were helplessly caught somewhere in the middle.
There was also the question of what sort of discharge would apply–i.e. honourable medical discharge or dishonourable? An honourable discharge, it was argued, might lead to homosexual activity or declaration in order to escape compulsory service. Dishonourable discharge (so-called “section eights” or “blue cards”), on the other hand, were generally used only for men who had been convicted of a crime and who had served their sentences. These had been used successfully to eliminate social misfits–alcoholics, chronic liars, drug addicts, men who antagonised everyone—but technically did not include homosexuals. In the end (1943), however, the military issued a directive that steered a compromise inasmuch as sodomy was still deemed a criminal offence, but it allowed for an exception where force or violence had not been used. These individuals would be examined by a board of officers ”with the purpose of discharge under the provisions of Section Eight.
It was intended as a more humane way of dealing with “offenders” but, as gay men and women would soon find out, it was fraught with difficulties of its own.
As officers began to discharge homosexuals as undesirables, the gay GIs who were their targets had to learn how to defend themselves in psychiatrists’ offices, discharge hearing rooms, hospital wards, and in “queer stockades.” There they were interrogated about their sex lives, locked up, physically abused, and subjected to systematic humiliations in front of other soldiers.
“The discharge system could drag any GI whose homosexuality became known or even suspected into seemingly endless maze of unexpected humiliations and punishments. Some gay male and lesbian GIs first entered the maze when they voluntarily declared their homosexuality, fully expecting to be hospitalized
and discharged. But others, following the advice in basic training lectures to talk over their problems with a doctor, psychiatrist, or chaplain, were shocked when medical officers betrayed their confidences by reporting them for punitive action ad “self-confessed” homosexuals, or were disappointed and frustrated when more sympathetic psychiatrists could not help them at all. Caught during their processing for discharge in battles between friendly and hostile officers, they found themselves thrown around like footballs in a game over which they had no control.” (Location 4442).
Nor were things to improve when they were returned home to civilian life. Gay veterans with “blue” or undesirable discharges where stripped of his service medals, rank, and uniform, then given a one-way ticket home where they had to report to their draft board to present their discharge papers. The stigma attached to these discharges was not an accident. Rather, it was intended to punish homosexuals and prevent malingering, and the requirement that the GI report to his draft board ensured that his community would find out the nature of his discharge. Therefore, they were forced to come out to their families and communities. Wherever blue-discharge veterans lived, employers, schools, insurance companies, veterans’ organizations, and other institutions could use their bad discharge papers to discriminate against them.
One of the most vindictive punishments meted out to these veterans was the denial of GI benefits that included federally subsidized home loans; college loans with allowances for subsistence, tuition, and books; unemployment allowances; job training and placement programs; disability pensions and hospital care. Top officials at the Veterans Administration were responsible for this denial, contrary to Army policy and Congress, but nonetheless the VA refused to drop its anti-homosexual prohibition. Consequently, many blue-discharge veterans found it difficult (impossible) to find employment, and when they applied for unemployment insurance, or small
business loans, or college assistance, they were denied in a Catch-22 situation.
One of the side effects of this discrimination was that having survived fear and death on the battlefield, some gay combat veterans began to cast off the veil of secrecy that so seriously
constrained their lives. For them, “coming out” to family and friends was not nearly as terrifying as facing the enemy in battle. Moreover, the popular press began to take notice of the blue-ticket discharges, and their plight, and started to publish columns on the “Homosexual Minorities,” characterizing them as “anther minority which suffers from its position in society in somewhat the same way as the Jews and Negroes.”
Unfortunately, this period of ‘liberal’ attitude was short-lived, for in the late 1940s a preoccupation with conformity brought a fearful scapegoating of those who deviated from a narrow idea of the
nuclear family and the American way of life. However, you will have to read this most remarkable book to learn the outcome of this.
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What I have included above only covers a small portion of this fascinating, sometimes heart rending, story. If you never read another history of this period, I urge you to read this one. Five Bees, and if I could give ten I would!
[1]
Under the Articles of War, the maximum penalties for Army enlisted men and
officers convicted of sodomy were five years confinement at hard labour,
forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and dishonourable discharge or dismissal.
Under the Articles for the Navy, the maximum penalties for enlisted men were
same but with ten years of confinement at hard labour.
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Dreaming Sparta, by Richard Favio
A bold and interesting premise.
Story blurb: In ancient Greece, Demetrios trains to become a Spartan soldier but grows depressed over the loss of his mentor, Andreas. His desire for them to retain their monogamous relationship is overcome by Lysandra’s devious attempts to have Andreas fulfill his duty as her betrothed.
In present day New York, Andrew’s life is in shambles when his father threatens to evict him for being gay.
When, Andrew stumbles into Demetrios’ world through a dream portal, their encounters provide each with the incentive to confront their demons … together.
Cover design: J.M. Snyder, with photography by: Vulkanette, Frenk and Danielle Kaufmann, and Igor Kovalchuk.
Available in eBook format – 197 KB
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Richard Favio has an extensive résumé of literary reviews, short fiction and poetry, and I understand that Dreaming Sparta [JMS Books LLC, 2011] is his second novella.
The premise is an interesting one, whereby two pairs of soul-mates—Demetrios and Andreas from Ancient Sparta, and Andrew and Demetri from modern-day New York—somehow intersect spiritually across the continuum of time. Right there we have almost endless possibilities of contrast and comparison, some of which the author exploits quite nicely.
Andreas and Demetrios are erastes and eromenos, a mentoring and hands-on relationship that was accepted and encouraged for the benefits to society and the state. For example, the erastes (mentor) taught his young lover (eromenos) the proper etiquette and duties of a citizen. Indeed, it is believed by some that Spartan militarism and the well-being of the state depended on sexual love between men, i.e.:
“Older men chose young male lovers. There was no real age of consent in ancient Sparta. Childhood innocence had no meaning in the warrior state. All aspects of the life cycle were subjoined to the aim of making soldiers fit for war and the preservation of the common weal. Its practice was such an integral part of Spartan life that Plutarch writes: “By the time they were come to this age (twelve years old) there was not any of the more hopeful boys who had not a lover to bear him company.” Without a realization of the profound male love relations that animated it, no understanding of Spartan society is possible. Sparta was a homosexual state by law.” “Sex and History” a blog by Stanley Pacion.
However, once a certain age had been achieved it was expected—for the benefit of the state—that these would marry and procreate. Nonetheless, this was, once again, a mere extension of underlying male-oriented society, i.e.:
“Though encouraged into homosexuality from youth and conditioned to it by the institutions in which he lived, the law nonetheless required him to marry. Lycurgus [the legendary founder or Sparta] not only excluded bachelors from participation in the greatly appreciated naked processions of women, but also prescribed, “…in wintertime, the officers compelled them [the bachelors] to march naked themselves round the market-place, singing as they went a certain song to their own disgrace, that they justly suffered this punishment for disobeying the laws. Moreover, they were denied that respect and observance which the men paid their elders.” The need for children as well as the preservation of duty to the state inspired this contradictory legislation for Sparta.” Ibid.
The wedding night, as described by both Favio and Pancion, appears to leave a lot to be desired by modern standards:
“The wedding night also fell under the jurisdiction of Lycurgus’ legislation. In a tender passage Plutarch describes the legally prescribed ritual of consummation in Spartan society: “… she who superintended the wedding comes and clips the hair of the bride close around her head, dresses her up in mans’ clothes, and leaves her upon a mattress in the dark; afterwards comes the bridegroom, in his every-day clothes, sober and composed as having supped at the common table, and, entering privately into the room where the bride lies, unites her virgin zone, and takes her to himself; and after staying some time together, he returns composedly to his own apartment, to sleep as usual with the other young men.”” Ibid.
On the other hand, Andrew and Demetri are just discovering their attraction to one another; an attraction that is frowned upon by society (as represented by Andrew’s father), and erstwhile by the state.
Modern technology was a source of contrast explored by the author, making for some humorous observations on the part of a visiting Demetrious.
Nevertheless, for me there were a number of shortcomings. The first is that I never did catch the reason that Andrew was ‘dream-transported’ back to Sparta in the first place. Perhaps it was there and I missed it, but it was a question that stuck in my mind throughout.[1] Secondly, as pointed out by Stanley Pacion, there were some very well established and interesting reasons for Andreas and Demetrios’ loving relationship, and although these are alluded to in Dreaming Sparta, I felt they could have been further developed.
That said, Dreaming Sparta is an interesting concept, and the author does include some interesting details regarding Sparta, so it is well worth the price. Three and one-half Gerry Bees.
[1] Since I am using the same scenario in my next novel (i.e. spiritual connectedness), I was especially interested to see how the author dealt with it.
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Undefeated Love, by John Simpson
Readily recomended for those who enjoy an adventure with their romance.
Story blurb: Two young men fall in love just as the Nazi Party is coming into power in Germany. One man is talked into becoming involved with the S.A., and then the SS while his lover looks on horrified. When their love is discovered, both men become the victims of the institution that one of them helped protect.
Available in eBook format.
About the author: John Simpson, a Vietnam-era Veteran, has been a uniformed Police Officer of the Year, a federal agent, a federal magistrate, and an armed bodyguard to royalty and a senior government executive. He earned awards from the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury. John has written articles for various gay and straight magazines. John lives with his partner of 35 years and three wonderful Scott Terriers, all spoiled and a breed of canine family member that is unique in dogdom. John is also involved with the Old Catholic Church and its liberal pastoral positions on the gay community.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Until I serendipitously came across “Undefeated Love,” by John Simpson [Total-E-Bound, 2011], I hadn’t previously encountered a novel about WWII from a Nazi perspective; and definitely not a gay-Nazi perspective.
To set-up this unusual scenario, the author begins with life in pre-war Berlin(1930s); a sort of avant garde society captured dramatically by the 1966, Broadway production of “Cabaret,” a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood [starring Jill Haworth—Sal Mineo’s romantic opposite—and Joel Grey], which had some barely-concealed, homosexual undertones.
From there the author gradually introduces Naziism by way of some high-ranking, sexually ambivalent SA officers (Sturmabteilung – “Stormtroopers” or “Brown shirts”), the precursors to the dreaded SS-(Schutzstaffel – “Protection Squadron”), and the ambitious but well-intentioned ingénue, Kurt. He is endowed with such outstanding, ‘poster-boy’ looks that he not only attracts the attnetion of the SA officers, but also captures the heart of another young man named Stefan.
Stefan is in love with Kurt, and vice versa, but the ambitious side of Kurt sees security in the SA, and so accepts the invitation to join the staff of a SA officer with the much elevated rank of Colonel. It is a step into quicksand, of course, and with each new event Kurt is drawn ever deeper into the morass. The problem being that Stefan is inevitably drawn into the sinkhole as well, and in order to protect him Kurt is eventually forced to reveal his hidden love.
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I am only generally acquainted with Hitler’s rise to power, but I do know that it was gradual and insidious—similar to the way the author has preInted it. In Simpson’s story, each event leads to the next with a sort of sinister intent, and this—along with his well-researched knowledge of the times—gives the story the degree of credibility necessary to pull it off.
I thought the violence was handled well, too. The difficulty of setting a story in the Nazi camp is to go overboard with the brutality, but Simpson has maintained a balance between glossing-it-over and sensationalizing it. Moreover, the real violence came at a later date from this story.
The characters, Kurt and Stefan, are well developed and likable, and the same can be said about their relationship, but I didn’t share the portrayal of the Nazi officers to the same extent. It wasn’t a serious flaw, and I can’t think of how I would have treated them differently, but they all seemed just a little off the mark.
There was room for a bit more drama at the ending, too, but only by a notch. Otherwise, I have no hesitation in recommending this story to those who enjoy a love story set against a despairing background. Four Gerry Bees.
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If you haven’t done so already, drop by Charlie Cochrane’s Live Journal and read my interview with her. http://charliecochrane.livejournal.com/143455.html. Charlie is the author of the very popular Cambridge Fellows Mysteries Series.
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Good ole Nor All Thy Tears is still hanging-in at #11 out of 67,000 books on the Barnes and Noble’s “Romantic Fiction” list—with Debbie Macomber and Nora Roberts.
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Park Dwellers, by Mal Tempo and Nathan Scott
An interesting idea, but otherwise it leaves a lot to be desired
Blurb: Public cruising across America remains the least discussed of all gay activities. Meeting in public parks is for many gay men perfect for twenty minutes of fantasy and fun. Interviewing dozens and dozens of men over three years, the authors compiled a series of profiles of park users and cruisers with a focus on sexual habits, strange sights, and their success in pursuing this unique American fantasy. Men have come to public parks, creating a secret society of gay cruisers thriving for centuries. These stories are true. If the tales seem familiar, you must remember that they have been told many times.”
Available in eBook format – 555 KB.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
“Park Dwellers” by Mal Tempo and Nathan Scott [Long Time Ago Press, 2010] is an interesting idea, but otherwise it leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, the blurb suggests that this is a “series of profiles” based on interviews from “across America”, but it is, in fact, based on one park somewhere in United States, and consists primarily of observations that are neither in-depth, nor particularly unique—except for the idiosyncrasies of the individuals described.
Indeed, as a gay man it comes as no surprise that public parks are used for cruising, and also for furtive, impersonal sexual encounters, but what I would like to have known (from the interviews) is the psychology of park cruisers—i.e. not just the methodology. Is this their only form of socio-sexual activity, or is it merely one segment of it? And why?
Alas, for me “Park Dwellers” falls short in just about every category I could have hoped for. It is too superficial to be a study, too shallow to provide any meaningful profiles, and worse, by not making clear that park cruisers are a miniscule part of GLBT society, it perpetuates the myth that gays are a ‘slutty’ lot with only one focus in life.
Journalistically, the syntax and writing are solid enough, but the overuse of clichés, metaphors and campy phrases gives it a gossipy overtone. This is also accentuated by the less-than-complimentary pseudonyms assigned to the various denizens, i.e. “Quasimodo,” “The Frog Prince,” and “Winnie the Poo-Poo.” Moreover, although it is the responsibility of the publisher, the formatting truncates sentences and runs paragraphs together in a difficult-to-read manner.
As I have said above, “Park Dwellers” is an interesting idea, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Two Gerry Bees.
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Gerry Burnie-Books
I’m excited–and that doesn’t happen very often at my age. However, my interview with Charlie Cochrane (“Cambridge Fellows Mystery Series”) is published today. Do drop around and share our thoughts. http://charliecochrane.livejournal.com/143455.html
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I have added three, newly discovered vintage photographs to my Coming of Age on the Trail, Related Photos site. These are interesting photos from the 1890s era that illustrate various aspects of the story, along with a description. These photos are of interest in their own right. Check it out.
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Symbiota Sapiens, by P.T. Dean
A tour de force of imagination
Story blurb: This is the story of Jeremey, a young man who is chosen by an ancient society to join their ranks to guide humanity to its destiny. Ancient technology and enhancements in his body can make him powerful, and immortal…but his new duties will require him to leave his friend Julian to fend for himself.
What happens when Jeremey and Julian run away from thefuture that has been planned for them? And what happens when other, less idealistic immortals take notice of Jeremey and begin making plans of their own?
This fanciful tale explores the nature of love, loyalty, and human nature as the two are caught between two factions in a silent struggle for the future of humankind. As they run, each time they fight for each other’s lives, they discover a deeper truth about their love for each other.
Available in Kindle format – 580 KB
About the author: P.T. Dean has a long established interest in speculative fiction, with a particular weakness for epic tales that wind several intricate plot lines together. Since coming out of the closet his stories have pulled on the paranoia and fear of his past, but also on the emotional richness of his own relationship. His romantic subplots also draw from his personal experience, and have covered a spectrum from overt heterosexuality with homoerotic overtones to explicit same-sex passion. His rule of thumb is that every character, no matter how minor, is the protagonist of some novel somewhere. A little piece of that novel should show through whenever that character makes an appearance. Even the villains are the hero from their own perspective – if you hadn’t already fallen in love with the protagonist, you might want the villain to win instead. Bibrary Book Lust
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Review by Gerry Burnie
“Symbiota Sapiens” [Amazon Digital Services, 2011] is the epic debut novel of author P.T. Dean. It is an ambitious work to cut one’s teeth on, but Dean does a remarkable job of just that with only a few exceptions.
The story line is a complex one, almost as if the author was challenging himself, but I never had a problem following it throughout. He also uses some literary devices I have never come across before, i.e. the use of italics, bold face and regular type, to differentiate between the various voices. It is an unorthodox method—at least it is to me—but it worked.
The premise is that Jeremy has been chosen by a mysterious clan of ‘immortals’, survivors of the lost city of Atlantis, who style themselves “Guardians.” It is never made quite clear why Jeremy is chosen, but this is only a minor issue. Jeremy is then told that he must divest himself from all mortal connections, including his orphaned step-brother, Julian. However, having been Julian’s de facto guardian for several years, Jeremy refuses to do this and they both run away to New York.
The Guardians also have counterparts, known as the “Fallen”, who possess the same powers as the Guardians but use it for cross purposes. Jeremy and Julian find this out when they encounter the leader of this faction, a smooth-talking but sinister character by the name of Damion, and only escape with the help of the Guardians. However, they are then pursued by Damion’s minions, zombie-like characters called “autonoids”, who are trying to get at Jeremy through Julian.
P.T. Dean also unfolds a fantasmagorical array of technological gadgetry, including a super computer known as an “A1” that operates both internally and externally inside Jeremy’s head. It is also assisted by a veritable host of microscopic “caretakers” known as “Esserons”, that can cure any ailment or injury that befalls him.
In that regard, this story challenges the 1970s all-time zany “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. However, while Hitchhiker’s Guide was written as a spoof, “Symbiota Sapiens is a serious adventure and love story with zany overtones.
Journalistically the writing is solid throughout, and Dean’s handling of some very complex scenarios is masterful. However, there are some continuity problems. For example, in one scene Julian is kidnapped by a pair of autonoids using a stun gun. At the time Julian had been using his laptop computer in a cyber-café, and when Jeremy finds him missing he immediately takes off in hot pursuit, rescuing Julian and running (at a record pace) until they are well away from the area. They then take a hotel room where Julian continues to work on his computer. However, as far as the reader knows it is still back at the cyber café.
This oversight didn’t interfere with the over all enjoyment of the story, but I can’t call it perfect, either. I can recommend it as a highly original story, though, and if you are a sci-fi fan I think that you will enjoy this one. Four Gerry Bees.
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I have added three, newly discovered vintage photographs to my Coming of Age on the Trail, Related Photos site. These are photos from the 1890s era that illustrate various aspects of the story, along with a description. These photos are of interest in their own right. Check it out.
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No Apologies, by J.M. Snyder
“No Apologies” requires no apologies.
Story blurb: Donnie Novak and Jack Sterling have known each other forever. Growing up together in a small Midwestern town, they were best friends. After high school, they both enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the same time, and somehow were assigned to the same company before being stationed on the U.S.S. Oklahoma together.
One night on leave, Donnie crosses an almost imperceptible line between friendship and something more. A stolen kiss threatens to ruin what Donnie and Jack have built up together all these years, and the next morning, he can’t apologize enough.
But a squadron of Japanese bombers has their sights trained on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row, and in the early hours of December 7, 1941, Donnie might not get a chance to set things right.
About the author: An author of gay erotic/romantic fiction, J.M. Snyder began in self-publishing and now works with Amber Allure, Aspen Mountain, eXcessica, and Torquere Presses.
Snyder’s highly erotic short gay fiction has been published online at Amazon Shorts, Eros Monthly, Ruthie’s Club, and Tit-Elation, as well as in anthologies by Alyson Books, Aspen Mountain, Cleis Press, eXcessica Publishing, Lethe Press, and Ravenous Romance.
In 2010, Snyder founded JMS Books LLC, a royalty-paying queer small press that publishes in both electronic and print format. For more information on newest releases and submission guidelines, please visit JMS Books LLC online.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Ah, young love!
“No Apologies” by J.M. Snyder, [JMS Books LLC, 2011], is a gem of a short story that captures the heart and attention right from the start. I would even go so far as to suggest that almost every gay male will be able to identify with this story from personal experience; i.e. that one buddy you fell in love with early, but didn’t know if he ‘swung that way.’ To make matters worse, he didn’t know either, and so each touch was like a prayer leading to disappointment. And then came that inevitable occasion when you crossed the line, in Donnie and Jack’s case with a furtive, liquor induced kiss, and so began the panic of losing a cherished friend on account of it.
We’ve all been there, and it is made even worse if the next morning your friend and soul mate—your hoped-for ‘lover’, even—isn’t talking or seems distant. Then the heart rending really begins, along with the guilt and the desperate attempts to make it right.
J.M. Snyder has not only captured this bittersweet situation, but he has also maintained it throughout the story until the very last paragraph. Along the way this reader was on tenterhooks wondering if young love would prevail, or if they would even survive the infamous bombing of Pearl Harbour—which was going on at the same time.
“No Apologies” requires no apologies. It is a tender love story set against the obscenity of war in a paradise. Five Bs
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Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. by Johathan Katz
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October is GLBT History Month, and in commemoration of this occasion I offer what I consider to be the quintessential history of Gays and Lesbians in North America. |
This book should be the Bible of not only the past, but also the present and the future—as in “we’ve prevailed in spite of all.”
Publisher’s blurb: Unique among books about Gay people, this pioneer work brings together for the first time a large group of historical chronicles of American Lesbian and Gay life, coupled with the heterosexual attitudes of the era. Intended for an audience of all sexual persuasions, these selections reflect a new, historical view of this once-silent invisible minority and a dramatic reappraisal of American life, from Alexander Hamilton’s love letters to John Laurens, to the forgotten autobiography and insane asylum records of a feminist transvestite of the 19th century, to lesbianism in the life of blues great Bessie Smith, and to the present in a 1976 report of the Gay liberation organization of American Indians.
About the author: Katz taught as an adjunct at Yale University, Eugene Lang College, and New York University, and was the convener of a faculty seminar at Princeton University. He is a founding member of the Gay Academic Union in 1973 and the National Writers Union in 1980. He was the initiator and is the director of OutHistory.org, a site devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (LGBTQ) and heterosexual history, that went online in September 2008, and is produced by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, an institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center, under a grant from the Arcus Foundation.
Katz received the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Sex Research from the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research in 1997. In 2003, he was given Yale University’s Brudner Prize, an annual honor recognizing scholarly contributions in the field of lesbian and gay studies. His papers are collected by the manuscript division of The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library.
Review by Gerry Burnie
“We have been the silent minority, the silenced minority—invisible women, invisible men. Early on, the alleged enormity of our “sin” justified the denial of our existence, even our physical destruction” p1. So begins noted sexual historian, Professor Johnathan Katz, in his seminal “collection of turbulent chronicles,” Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. [Plume; Rev Sub edition (April 1, 1992)].
He then goes on to add to this lamentable observation:
“During the four hundred years documented here, American homosexuals were condemned to death by chocking, burning, drowning; they were executed, jailed, pilloried, fined, court-martialed, prostituted, fired, framed, blackmailed, disinherited, declared insane, driven to insanity, to suicide, murder, and self-hate, witch-hunted, entrapped, stereotyped, mocked, insulted, isolated, pities, castigated and despised.(They were also castrated, lobotomized, shock-treated, and psychoanalyzed…) Homosexuals and their behavior were characterized by the terms “abomination,” “crime against nature,” “sin,” “monsters,” “fairies,” “bull dykes,” and “perverts.”p17.
Professor Katz then goes on to document every word of these in a 720-page, annotated thesis, which—quite astoundingly for such a scholarly work—remains immensely readable.
For example, there is the chronicle of the earliest known case of a homosexual being put to death in America, that of Frenchman Gonzalo Solís de Merás, murdered in St. Augustine, Florida [my winter home], in 1566. Also, The execution of Richard Cornish for sodomy in Colonial America, 1624; and of William Plaine in 1646. There is also a record a Black man, Jan Ceoli, living on Manhattan Island, who was condemned to be “choked to death, and then burned to ashes.” In the same Dutch New Netherland Colony, Jan Quisthout Van Der Linde was sentenced to be “tied in a sack and cast into the river” for a homosexual rape.
An early report, 1824-26, identifies homosexuality in American prisons, and concerns “prostitution” of “juvenile delinquents” with older male prisoners. Male prostitution is also prominently mentioned in a report, dating 1892, documenting the homosexual underworld in American cities. These reports also include descriptions of Black male homosexual transvestites, homosexual activity at steam baths, newspaper solicitations, and street life.
There are also early reports of a civil servant being discharged: a New York policeman, for making improper advances on other males while on duty (1846), and of a minister separated from the church for homosexual activity (1866). The clergyman was Horatio Alger.
In 1896, the family of a wealthy businessman, Henry Palmer, petitioned the court to have Palmer declared mentally incompetent on account of his homosexuality, and although a prominent doctor testified to his “absolute certainty of Palmer’s sanity,” the court found him “insane,” anyway.
Lesbians didn’t seem to fare any better, for in 1636 John Cotton made a proposal to the Massachusetts Bay Colony that homosexual relations between women be placed on par with male homosexuality as a capital offence. In 1656 the New Haven Colony passed a law prescribing the death penalty for lesbianism, as well as male homosexuality.
Professor Katz has also dedicated a significant portion of his scholarly work to Native Americans. One of the earliest reports, dated 1528-36, states:
“During the time that I was thus among these people I saw a devilish thing, and it is that I saw one man married to another, and these are impotent, effeminate men [amarionados]and they go about dressed as women, and do women’s tasks, and shoot with a bow, and carry great burdens,…and they are huskier than the other men, and taller…”p430
Another report, dated 1673-77, reads:
“I know not through what superstition some Illinois, as well as Nadouessi, while still young, assume the garb of women, and retain it throughout their lives. There is some mystery in this, for they never marry and glory in demeaning themselves to do everything that the women do. They go to war, however, but can use only clubs, and not bows and arrows, which are the weapons proper to men. They are present at all the juggleries, and at the solemn dances in honor of the Calumet; at these they sing, but not dance. They are summoned to their Councils and nothing can be decided without their advice. Finally, through their profession of leading an extraordinary life, they pass as Manitous,–That is to say, for Spirits,–or persons of consequence.p.433
Moreover, an 1889 report by Dr. A.B. Holder, describes “A Peculiar Sexual Perversion,” i.e.:
“The word bō-teˊ I have chosen as being most familiar to me and not likely to convey a wrong impression, since I shall be the first, perhaps, to translate into English and define it. It is the word use by the Absaroke Indians of Montana, and literally mans “not man, no woman.”…
“The practice of the bote among civilized races is not unknown to specialists, but no name is suited to ears of polite, even though professional, has been given it. The practice is to produce the sexual orgasm by taking the male organ of the active party in the lips of the bote, the bote probably experiencing the orgasm at the same time. Of the latter supposition I have been able to satisfy, but I can in no other way account for the infatuation of the act.”
My comments
Among the monumental, literary works of history, Jonathon Katz can rightfully take his place. Or, as another reviewer has already put it, “Jonathan Katz would be sainted if he never wrote another word or produced another bit of research.”[1]
This documentary history is utterly astonishing for the amount of research it implies, the documented stories it tells, the humanity it describes, and for the easy-to-read journalism in which it is presented. Among the GLBT communities, this book should be the Bible of not only the past, but also the present and the future—as in “we’ve prevailed in spite of all.” Five Stars—plus.
[1] B. J. Wilson, Amazon.com.
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Mordred, Bastard Son, by Douglas Clegg
An audaciously innovative take on an old chestnut!
Publisher’s blurb: A young monk becomes enthralled by the story that a wounded, mysterious prisoner in his care begins to tell. That prisoner is Mordred, the traditional villain of Arthurian legend, and his story is one of ambition, power, and betrayal. Here, Mordred recounts his own conflicted feelings toward the father who betrayed him, and his passionate love affair with a knight in King Arthur’s court. From his birth into his youth, Mordred’s soul is forged by the great forces of Camelot, and of the shadow-legend of a father who has sought the death of his only son.
About the author: Douglas Clegg’s first novel was published in 1989 by Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books — launching Clegg’s career as a novelist. He began writing a book a year, as well as dozens of short stories. His novels and stories explore the nature of evil, whether in his horror fiction, psychological thrillers or fantasy fiction. His fiction-writing career currently spans more than 20 years of constant writing and publication.
He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the Shocker Award
Review by Gerry Burnie
Like millions of others around the world, I have always been—well, for seventy-five years, anyway—a fan of the Arthurian legend and the outrageously fictional Camelot. Moreover, I suppose I could say that during that time I have been brainwashed into believing that the ‘bastard son,’ Mordred, was the worm in the apple. Imagine the audacity of Douglas Clegg, therefore, to challenge that idea with his revisionist novel Mordred, Bastard Son [Aylson Books, 2007].
However, that’s the fun of writing a story about a story; there’s always the other side, and after 600 years I suppose Mordred was due for some favourable press.
Judging from the reviews, it seems that a lot of other people had the same difficulty adjusting to this radical idea as well. It is a story that you either like or not, but having said that: I liked it. In my opinion it is a tour-de-force of fantasy, and although I had difficulty grasping the story at first, once I got into it I was hooked.
The difficulty, I think, is with the myriad of gods and goddesses, plus Celtic festivals, i.e. Beltane and Samhain (pronounced “sah-vwin,” by the way) that must be introduced in the first chapter, and this is quite a mouthful to digest all at once. Also the transition between the third-person opening, and the first person flashback was a bit awkward. However, as I have already said, once I got passed this the rest of the story ultimately made up for it.
There are some quite interesting innovations, too. For example, the idea that Arthur raped his half sister, Morgan-of-the-Fay, runs amok with the Arthurian legend built upon his infallible character. Likewise, the idea that Arthur ‘stole’ the sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake doesn’t exactly show his good side. Nevertheless, Mordred is divided in his feelings (at least in this first book of the series) toward his father—hate, on one hand, and an odd sort of affinity on the other.
Morgan le Fay remains Morgana, darkly beautiful with sinister edges, although she is unusually cast as a victim in this story. The ‘heavy’ on the distaff side is her sister Morgause, who turns into something of a ‘Malificent’ [Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”] in the latter part of the story. In fact these two, plus Viviane (the “crone”) makes the society within which Mordred is raised a sort of matriarchracy.
On the other hand there is Merlin who, as in all of his other reincarnations, is timeless. He is also omniscient, and having apparently given up on Arthur, has taken Mordred under his wing as a student of the “magick.” This sort of thing opens the doors wide to a flight of fancy, and Clegg takes full advantage of it; 
a real virtuoso rendering of imagination if ever there was one. Principally however, Merlin teaches Mordred the art of “ravelling” and “unravelling” (the mentally
sharing of memories, feelings, etc., with another, and, of course, retrieving memories in the same manner). Also, “vesseling,” i.e. mental telepathy–sort of the cell phone of Arthurian times.
Another departure from traditional Arthurian legend is found in Clegg’s depiction of Lancelot as a hermit, and also gay—or at least bisexual. In one version of Arthur, however, Lancelot is deceived by the Fisher King’s daughter into thinking that she is Guinevere, and the resulting liaison results in another bastard, i.e. Galahad. Hearing of this, Guinevere banishes Lancelot, and he is said to have lost his wits and wandered in the wilderness. So, perhaps the hermit characterization is not so removed from the original.
Apart from these innovations, one of the most refreshing departures from the usual GLBT story for me is that, while it is a sexy enough, there is not one really explicit sex scene throughout. It is therefore a love story between men that relies on sentiment and plot to make it happen. Bravo! Five stars.
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Home Fires Burning, by Charlie Cochrane
You can always be assured of a good read with Charlie Cochrane’s name on the cover.
Story blurb: Two stories, two couples, two eras, timeless emotions.
This Ground Which Was Secured At Great Expense: It is 1914 and The Great War is underway. When the call to arms comes, Nicholas Southwell won’t be found hanging back. It’s a pity he can’t be so decisive when it comes to letting his estate manager Paul Haskell know what he feels before he has to leave for the front line. In the trenches Nicholas meets a fellow officer, Phillip Taylor, who takes him into the unclaimed territory of physical love. Which one will he choose, if he’s allowed the choice?
The Case of the Overprotective Ass: Stars of the silver screen Alasdair Hamilton and Toby Bowe are wowing the post WWII audiences with their depictions of Holmes and Watson. When they are asked by a friend to investigate a mysterious disappearance, they jump at the chance—surely detection can’t be that hard? But a series of threatening letters—and an unwanted suitor—make real life very different from the movies.
Charlie Cochrane, author of the delightful Cambridge Fellows series, brings her familiar romantic, roguish style to the two novellas that together are “Home Fires Burning.”
Review by Gerry Burnie
You can always be assured of a good read when it has Charlie Cochrane’s name on the cover, and her latest work, Home Fires Burning [Cheyenne Press, August 2011] is no exception. Mind you, I must admit a weakness for vintage British style, and also the sentimentality of love during wartime. Even the title evokes this, being taken (I think) from a patriotic ditty composed by Ivor Novello with lyrics by Lena Gilbert Ford in 1914, i.e.
Chrous:
“Keep the Home Fires Burning,
While your hearts are yearning.
Though your lads are far away
They dream of home.
There’s a silver lining
Through the dark clouds shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out
‘Til the boys come home.”
This Ground Which Was Secured At Great Expense:
The blurb captures the gist of the story fairly well, and so I will limit my remarks to those aspects that I found particularly appealing.
I believe you can recognize a master writer within the first two dozen pages by the way the story develops, i.e. not too fast nor too slow in the same way that life or fate unfolds. Surprisingly it is easier said than done, for it requires an almost innate sense of timing to get the pace just right and maintain it. This is particularly true of a period novella like this one, for life in the early twentieth century—particularly for the upper classes—moved at a much more leisurely pace than we in the “fast food” era know it. Having said that, Ms Cochrane did a very fine job of capturing this civilized pace indeed.
Another aspect that registered with me was her depiction of the naïveté leading up to WWI. As part of one’s manhood it was very much expected that you would go off and fight whether you wanted to or not. There was also a measure of arrogance in the belief that Britain was invincible, and so, like Nicholas, many went “to get it over” by Christmas. Like Nicholas, however, they soon discovered that trench warfare was a very different war from anything they had experienced. The gruesomeness of it almost defies description, but I think the author has captured enough of it to give the reader the idea without emphasizing the macabre.
I also like how Nicholas, Phillip and Paul all maintain their masculine identity throughout, which would have almost certainly been the case in 1914. The unhurried pace at which Nicholas and Phillip entered into a sexual liaison is also credible, as is the uncertainty that existed between Paul and Nicholas. All pluses.
My only quibble comes with the sex scene that seems to be tacked on late in the story, but to discuss it further would risk spoiling the ending. Five stars.
The Case of the Overprotective Ass
This story is a light hearted tale, once again written with a real sense of style. The protagonists, Alistair and Toby, are two quick-witted cinema personalities of the 1940s. They are also lovers. Having just finished a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, they are asked by a theatre friend to find his missing male secretary. This sets them off on a adventure around London, conducting interviews and collecting clues—all the while indulging in witty banter.
In reading this story I couldn’t help but see Jonty and Orlando in disguise, and some parallels with the Cambridge Fellows Series. Or maybe it is because Charlie Cochrane is the author of both. Regardless, it was a delightful read and highly recommended. Five Stars.
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(1) The Proudly Canadian list of boks. (2) The Best Gay Canadian Fiction list of books. I have recently created two lists in Goodreads’ Listopia to help celebrate both Canadian books and Canadian authors. The Proudly Canadian list is open to all, so if you have a book that qualifies as Canadian feel free to add it. Or cast your vote for one that is already there. The URL of the list is: http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_votes/3715526.
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Re-writes to Coming of Age on the Trail are coming alon slowly, i.e. 98/177 pages.
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Nor All Thy Tears and Two Irish Lads are now available in Kindle and Nook formats. The publisher’s price is $4.95 ea., but this price may vary from vendor to vendor. To order click on the individual covers below.
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Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky, by Gerry Burnie
| Note: A busy week of promoting my new novel, Nor All Thy Tears, has put me behind in my reading for this week’s review, and since I want to do the featured novel justice I have decided to display some of the reviews that have been received so far. Thanks for your indulgence. |
Story blurb: Love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of Big Prairie Sky Country, Saskatchewan.
Sheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all that the sky seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an ex-con whose body has been found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment–the suspected victim of a blackmail attempt gone wrong.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime, simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated. With his career in a crisis, and his personal life as well, Cartwright is unexpectedly joined by an ally in Colin Scrubbs, a ruggedly handsome rancher from Saskatchewan. But can they salvage Cartwright’s career from the brink?
*Now available on Amazon.co.uk.
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Review by Avery Lighthouse [This review first appeared on Amazon.com].
Having read Gerry Burnie’s first novel “Two Irish Lads,” a charming story of love set in the 19th-century wilderness of Upper Canada, his latest, Nor all Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky, was quite a surprise to me, but it certainly attests to the remarkable versatility of this author.
The story involves the rise and near fall of Sheldon Cartwright, a `Monday’s + Tuesday’s child’ for certain–i.e. fair of face and grace. It begins at the zenith of his political career, fresh from besting the prime minister on national television, and being considered for the leadership of his political party at the relatively young age of twenty-eight. However, the discovery of a mutilated body and a provocative photograph are about to cast a shadow over him. This photograph, a nude image of him at age sixteen, then comes into the possession of a homophobic cop with a loathing for “faggots,” as well as younger, successful men with higher educations—both of which apply to Cartwright.
The story then reverts to Cartwright’s early childhood in the remote farming community of Pefferlaw (a real place by the way–as are most places mentioned in the story), and his loving relationship with his mentoring mother. This is a really charming segment of the story, reminiscent of Burnie’s first novel, and for anyone growing up in the 1950s and 60s it is a wonderfully nostalgic time as well. In this part we also learn of his sacred vow to his mother, and of his first encounter with the psychotic and violent Trace Colborn–a real “nasty” if ever I’ve read of one.
The next segment takes him to 1960s Toronto as a university student, struggling to balance academic demands with a late night job at the White Chef Restaurant—a notorious hangout for young male hustlers. It is here that Trace Colborn re-enters Sheldon’s life, and like J. Worthington Foulfellow ["Pinocchio"], Colborn tempts Sheldon with visions of an easy life that Colborn can arrange. Desperately driven to achieve a university education Sheldon naively agrees, and he is then introduced to a “Papa Duck” (the equivalent of a madam in male prostitution circles) who operates a secretive “call boy” service for high-end clients. This leads to Sheldon’s meeting with Edward Deere, a multi-millionaire, who is moved to take him under his wing as a protégé and lover–albeit a paid one.
In the meantime Sheldon meets Susan Koehler, the daughter of a wealth Rosedale matron, and before long Sheldon has fallen in love. However, although they have secretly decided to get married after graduation, he must maintain his other life in order to fulfill his sacred vow to his mother—i.e. to complete his education. He is therefore forced to walk a thin line between his two disparate worlds–e.g. juggling separate relationships with a wealthy patron, a handsome younger lover (Kevin Smyth), the psychotically possessive Colborn, and a full-time girlfriend.
The third stage finds him married to Susan with two charming children, and living the typically suburban life of a young family man in the early 1970s. He has become fairly well-connected too, and this leads to an invitation to stand for election as the Member of “St-Bartholomew-on-the-Hill” (I love that name!), which he wins “on the strength of his boyish good looks and wholesome family-man image as much as anything else.”[2]The story then seamlessly carries on from where it left off in part one, and in this third part we get to meet Colin Scrubbs, the ruggedly handsome Member of Parliament from Saskatchewan, who at first bonds Platonically with Sheldon, but inevitably their bonds deepen into an affair of heart. Nevertheless, Sheldon staunchly chooses to honour his vow to Susan.
It is then that all the elements begin to converge when the damning photograph is released to a tabloid newspaper, and the whirlwind of political and personal scandal touches down to engulf Cartwright with almost devastating effect.
It should be noted that I have purposefully left out several events that would otherwise be spoilers if included; however, this story has it all elements of a good thriller: Humour, pathos, homoerotic sex (both gentle and violent), vengeance, betrayal and murder. Having said that, the author never goes over the top with any of these, and although there is plenty happening at any given time, the storyline never falters at any point from beginning to end. It is, in fact, a masterful balance of control and flow that makes it both exciting and easy to read at the same time.
This is a most worthy piece of literature, equal in some ways to “Catcher in the Rye,” and it is one that riveted my attention from the first line to the last.
****
Review by Scotty Henderson [This review originally appeared on Amazon.com
Quite simply this is a great story that captured my interest from the first line and held it there to the last word. It has everything: great characters, a page-tuner plot, superbly written narrative, and a really romantic ending. I especially liked Lisa and Wally (Sheldon's children). They added both humor and warmth to a pretty dramatic story, overall. There were also some tear-jerker moments, but it would be a spoiler I mentioned what they were. You'll have to read it for yourself. Do that, because you won't be sorry.
****
Review by J. Fraley "Trailboss "Trailboss" [This review originally appeared on Amazon.com].
After having already read Mr. Burnie’s “Two Irish Lads” and finding it an excellent read, I was hoping for at least its equal or better. I was not disappointed. Even better. This story was great.
Nor All Thy tears delivers!! A believeable story from the beginning, it’s filled with drama, intrigue, and suspense, all the while delivering a glimpse into Canadian life and government.
This story moved at a good pace and each scene set way for the next. I was compelled to read without putting it down. And the story continued strong until the end. An excellent novel of love, passion and relationships in a dramatic setting. Two thumbs up!!
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Vist my new Gerry Burnie Author’s Page, on Amazon.com.
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Calling all Canadian authors of gay content novels. I would really love to review your stories, and also add your title to my Goodreads “Best Gay Canadian Novels” list. Contact me, or submit your novel in PDF format to: gerry@gerryburniebooks.com.
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Both “Nor All Thy Tears” and “Two Irish Lads” are now available in Nook and Kindle formats. The publisher’s price is $4.95; however this price may vary from retailer to retailer.
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To order any of my books click on the individual covers below.
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Moral Authority, by Jacob Z. Flores
I nominate this story as most outstanding debut novel of the year!
Story blurb: In the year 2050, America has changed. Profoundly. Homosexuality is a crime, cursing in public is a punishable offense, and lifestyle legislation keeps American citizens on a prescribed moral path. The country lives in a Moral Age, all thanks to The Moral Authority, the nation’s fourth branch of government, which has held dominion for the past thirty-five years. Yet the Moral Age comes at a price. Americans either live like mindless cattle or in fear. Told from three points of view, Mark, the brash young hero, who finds true love in the most desolate of places; Isaac, the renegade, who searches for redemption, and Samuel the dictatorial megalomaniac intent on maintaining his power, Moral Authority exposes what happens to a nation that continues to restrict, instead of broadening, civil rights.
About the author: Jacob Z. Flores lives with Bruce, his partner of eight years, and their three children, Pilar, Ainsley, and Carson in Victoria, Texas. Jacob is also a Professor of English at Victoria College.
*Available in paperback from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
“Moral Authority” [CreateSpace, August 2011] is author Jacob Z. Flores’ debut novel, and what a debut it is! Flores has conceived a dystopian plot every bit as prophetic and sinister as George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” except that in this case the unforgiving focus is on homosexuality as the ‘thoughtcrime’ and homosexuals as the prescribed enemies of ‘the common good’. Therefore, my hat goes off to him for having tackled (successfully in my opinion) a demanding literary challenge of this complexity so early in his career.
The story centres on Mark Bryon, a quite average graduate student who in ordinary circumstances wouldn’t attract any undue attention apart from being young and attractive. However these are not “ordinary” times when every move, both public and private, is subject to scrutiny by those who have voluntarily subjected themselves to a morally-incorrupt, corrupt state: i.e. “The Moral Authority.” Therefore, there is a very Orwellian tone throughout, including a ‘Big Brother’ in the person of Samuel Pleasant, ‘Newspeak,” and the subjugation of free thought.
There are also the usual twin pillars that form the basis of most fascist regimes, e.g. a simplistic reason for being, and a perceived enemy—both within and without. For example:
According to Randy Gonzales, over the past thirty-five years the United States managed to save itself from moral corruption because of the newest branch of our nation’s government. Since its inception by President Sarah Palin in 2014 and the constitutional amendment she and the Republican majority helped pass the following year, the moral downslide the country experienced then had not only been halted but come about at least 180 degrees. Gone were the days of media violence and pornography. All illegal drugs and associated crimes had been virtually eliminated. Murder, rape, gang violence, thefts, domestic crimes, prostitution, and even vandalism accounted for less than 10% of the overall crime rate in the entire nation. As a result, communities within the United States enjoyed a golden age. 14
And the perceive enemy:
Constitutional amendments and which all had their origins from within the Moral Authority, freed this country from such unhealthy lifestyle choices that caused many health and societal problems, such as homosexuality, obesity, smoking, alcoholism, and even profanity. To commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary, the Supreme High Chancellor of the Moral Authority, Samuel Pleasant, planned to address the nation the following week. Speculations already abounded that Supreme High Chancellor Pleasant intended to unveil further social legislation to better streamline this nation’s morality. This came about due to recent attacks against moral law instigated by a group of domestic terrorists calling themselves the Human Rights Campaign. 15 [Emphasis mine].
The story then builds on this theme, and as it progresses the plot gets darker and darker in very much the same fashion as totalitarian states rule by edict and the point of a gun. However, at no time does the author push any of this over the top so that credibility is strained. Even in the latter parts of the story when the Moral Authority’s “K3s” are at their cruelest (i.e KKK, the equivalent of the Nazi’s SS elite guard), the reader is never caused to doubt that it could happen.
Along the way, however, the author does make some cogent observations in the context of the narrative, i.e.
According to Mark’s research, the number of Americans cited with violations of the moral code of respect had risen in many major U.S. cities. The manpower and resources alone used to enforce such petty violations could be better redirected to rehabilitating offenders who committed more egregious crimes in the nation, 33
which is a point that applies beyond this fiction to real life. I might add, as well, that the hidden cost of every law—large or small—that is made and enforced is a diminution of our civil liberties. I think this is the message to be gained from this story.
On the other hand, I think I could be tempted to accept a law that restricted unruly children in restaurants, i.e.
The mother and father looked exhausted, and he could see why. Their two preschool aged boys were in the middle of a pretend sword fight with their chopsticks as stand in swords. Obviously, there were no moral officers here as the parents would certainly be in violation of the code of respect concerning the appropriate behavior of children in public. 35 [Emphasis mine].
Altogether this is an engrossing story from beginning to end, a real page-turner and superbly written. I nominate Moral Authority by Jacob Z. Flores as the most outstanding debut novel of the year. Five Stars.
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I am happy to announce that Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky is now available in Nook and Kindle formats, and that it is now available in Amazon.co.uk. The publisher’s price is $4.95, although this may vary from different retailers.
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To purchase any of my novels click on the individdual covers below. If you wish to purchase a Kindle version, go to Amazon.com.
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Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, by Tab Hunter with Eddie Muller
A fascinating look at a man and an era
Story blurb: Welcome to Hollywood, circa 1950, the end of the Golden Age. A remarkably handsome young boy, still a teenager, gets “discovered by a big-time movie agent. Because when he takes his shirt off young hearts beat faster, because he is the picture of innocence and trust and need, he will become a star. It seems almost preordained. The open smile says, “You will love me,” and soon the whole world does.
The young boy’s name was Tab Hunter—a made-up name, of course, a Hollywood name—and it was his time. Stardom didn’t come overnight, although it seemed that way. In fact, the fame came first, when his face adorned hundreds of magazine covers; the movies, the studio contract, the name in lights—all that came later. For Tab Hunter was a true product of Hollywood, a movie star created from a stable boy, a shy kid made even more so by the way his schoolmates—both girls and boys—reacted to his beauty, by a mother who provided for him in every way except emotionally, and by a secret that both tormented him and propelled him forward.
In Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, Hunter speaks out for the first time about what it was like to be a movie star at the end of the big studio era, to be treated like a commodity, to be told what to do, how to behave, whom to be seen with, what to wear. He speaks also about what it was like to be gay, at first confused by his own fears and misgivings, then as an actor trapped by an image of boy-next-door innocence. And when he dared to be difficult, to complain to the studio about the string of mostly mediocre movies that were assigned to him, he learned that just like any manufactured product, he was disposable—disposable and replaceable.
Hunter’s career as a bona fide movie star lasted a decade. But he persevered as an actor, working continuously at a profession he had come to love, seeking—and earning—the respect of his peers, and of the Hollywood community.
And so, Tab Hunter Confidential is at heart a story of survival—of the giddy highs of stardom, and the soul-destroying lows when phone calls begin to go unreturned; of the need to be loved, and the fear of being consumed; of the hope of an innocent boy, and the rueful summation of a man who did it all, and who lived to tell it all.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although I can’t remember being a star struck fan of Tab Hunter (being “star struck” was a condition limited to “bobby soxers” in 1950s’ Pefferlaw), at 74 I am of the right generation to appreciate an autobiography like this one, i.e. “Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Move Star” by Tab Hunter with Eddie Muller [Algonquin Books, 2006].
For one thing I much prefer a behind-the-scenes view of things, which is especially justified after reading about some of the unadulterated hype generated by the Hollywood PR mills in Hunter’s case. Admittedly I’ve never understood the type of mass hysteria demonstrated by “fans” of anyone, be it Elvis, The Beatles, or Will and Kate. Therefore, the first good thing I’ll say about Tab Hunter’s biography is that he didn’t start believing his own press releases. Consequently, we do get a pretty fair glimpse of the man behind the image.
Beyond that I would say that this story will be of interest mainly to people of my generation, movie buffs, and modern historians (apologies for the term, Tab). However, for those of us who qualify it is a delightful walk down Memory Lane. For example, remember this:
“The Arlington Theatre, home of all my film-infused fantasies was now the neighbourhood’s big make-out. I figured I should get in on the action, be like the guys, even though I had little in common with them. [My experience as well].
“Four or five guys, cruising in a pack, would surround one of the local girls. They’d guide her to the back of the theatre, the way animals isolated and heard one of their own. They’d take turns nuzzling her and fondling her breasts.
“I did it too—even though I was always afraid the girl would call the police on me, the way Lois had [A false complaint]. As I copped a few sheepish feels, my brain disconnected. I should be out at the barn, with the horses! That’s where I belong!
“The guys ribbed me, of course, for my lack of enthusiasm. I didn’t care. I didn’t want any part of it.30-31.”
And that first time:
“One of those nights at the Arlington, as I was sitting alone in the dark, a man swooped down into the seat beside me … This guy knew exactly what he was doing.
“I let him do it. Hard to say why—I was scared, stupid, and excited. When he was finished, he gave me a dollar and wrote his phone number on a card. “If you every want to do it again,” he said, “call me.”
“No chance of that, I told myself, buckling up. But despite the shame already suffocating me, I tucked his card inside my little rawhide-stitched wallet.”32
And confession:
“I entered the anonymous confines of the dark confessional, my heart pouding. Because of my acute claustrophobia, confession was already difficult for me. I thought I’d die as I haltingly explained to the priest what had happened. Saying the words was torture, but confessing was the only way I could go on living with myself.
“I never finished. Through the latticework boomed the priest’s voice, branding me the most despicable creature in the world. I was unfit to receive God’s forgiveness, unfit to set foot in His house, unfit to live. On and on this “man of God” went, mercilessly, until I ran shaking from the confessional. Instead of offering sanctuary, the church I loved now felt hateful and oppressive.”32-33
I think those passages speak for themselves about how it was to be a gay teenager in the 1950s, so perhaps the reading list should be expanded to include those supporters of DOMA, etc., who want to return to the bad old days.
For those who have an interest, however, I highly recommend this story as a fascinating look at an era through the eyes of someone who saw if from the mountain. Five stars.
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I’m happy to say that after a long struggle, Amazon-Canada is now listing Nor All Thy Tears as both available and in stock–although it’s hard to understand how a ‘print on demand’ book can be “out of stock.” Moreover, it is also displayed with a product description. Hallelujah!
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Nor All thy Tears is now #2 on the Barnes and Noble “Romantic Fiction” List.
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To purchase any of the novels below, click on the individual cover:
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The Jolly Lobster, by Robin Anderson-Forbes
A most worthy debut novel
Story blurb: The Jolly Lobster is a very gay adventure featuring rum runners, speakeasies, brothels, and love in Halifax during Prohibition. It’s the summer of 1920 and Ed Stevenson, is lost and flat broke in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fortunately for Ed, his lover Charles Sinclair, who had served with him during the war, has been searching for him in all the local juice joints, speakeasies and blind pigs. Reunited, the two prepare to embark on the new life together they planned during their time in the trenches. Little did Ed know that in order to earn a living, he’d end up working in a speakeasy; but this was not any old speakeasy, this was The Jolly Lobster. The Jolly Lobster was one of the more popular speakeasies in Halifax, catering to all types and run by two lovable women trying to make ends meet; Dorothy and her large lover, Rose. Dock workers, fishermen, university students, and colourful men and women of the homosexual persuasion all mixed and mingled at The Jolly Lobster, in order to sate their thirst for rum, whiskey, suds, to have a bowl of The Jolly Lobster’s famous lobster chowder and to partake in the many pleasures that awaited them in the rooms upstairs. They also came for the music provided by the beautiful and talented Bobbie Smith, a mean fiddle player who loves to dress in the fashion of the flapper, play bawdy songs on her fiddle and also play with the men upstairs in the brothel. All in all, The Jolly Lobster is a close little family type business; and like all family businesses there’s bound to be a few secrets and intrigues; which there are, and in plentiful supply. And given that they’re in the booze business during Prohibition they find their little operation having to stay one step ahead of the law and a few more steps ahead of the competition. The Jolly Lobster’s chief competitor is a banished crime boss from Montreal, by the name of Pierre Dumont, whose instructions are to take over the booze business in Halifax. Dumont executes his instructions ruthlessly and soon takes over most of the joints in Halifax in short order. The Jolly Lobster and its family are made of tougher stuff though and it takes all of Dumont’s cunning, to bring about their downfall. This he attempts to do with the help of a willing traitor or traitors, a Temperance Inspector with a past connection to Dorothy, Rose and Bobbie; and several murders just to make his point. Things begin to look quite grim for the hard working boys and ladies of The Jolly Lobster; it’s going to take an army to get rid of Dumont and his gang. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of volunteers.
*available in eBook format: 608 KB
About the author: Robin Anderson-Forbes was born and raised on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. After visiting Nova Scotia, he and his husband were so entranced with the province, they moved there along with their cat into a big old house. The Jolly Lobster is Robin’s first novel.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Recently I did a search of fellow Canadian, gay fiction writers, and was pleased to see there were a goodly number of published authors out there. Among them is Robin Anderson-Forbes, whose debut novel “The Jolly Lobster” caught my eye straight away.
One of the longest ‘droughts’ in Canadian history lasted from about 1900 to 1930, when prohibition parched the land. It started as primarily a women’s movement in the 1870s—i.e. the Women’s Christian Temperance Union—and achieved nationwide effect by the 1920s. It wasn’t a total ban, however, for booze could be sold through the government for, “industrial, scientific, mechanical, artistic and medical uses,” and needless to say there was a rather high incidence of sickness during this period—particularly around Christmas time.
It also spawned some lucrative business opportunities for enterprising entrepreneurs who turned their homes, basements, garages, etc. into “speakeasies” (currently known as “after-hours clubs,” or “booze cans” … so I’m told!) And this brings us around to one such speakeasy, “The Jolly Lobster.”
I’ve always had a soft spot for East Coast stories. They have a warm, folksy feel about them, reflecting a down-to-earth culture that still exists in some of the outports today, and which Anderson-Forbes has captured delightfully well in Rose and Dorothy, as well as the twins, Roger and Rupert. In fact all of the ‘good-guy’ characters are likable (to varying degrees), and therefore it is quite easy to invest in them—a connection that is absolutely crucial in a good-guy v. bad-guy story like this.
Although I’m not an authority on this topic, I think the sub-culture of 1920s’ speakeasies is fairly portrayed as well. Certainly there was a remarkable degree of ingenuity that went into circumventing what amounted to an unrealistic, special-interest-sponsored law, and the hardy, self-reliant “Bluenosers” were every bit equal to the task. So I can well imagine that there were quite a few underground establishments like The Jolly Lobster in Halifax in the 1920s.
As for the prostitution, especially male prostitutes, I think may be a bit over the top. On the other hand, I can recall being on a college outing with about 70 fellow-students to Nova Scotia, and we were inadvertently billeted at an out-of-the-way hotel that doubled as a brothel. So anything is possible.
Critically speaking, when I first began reading I thought I had started in the middle of the story. Suddenly there were all these characters—some with connections that went back before the story began—and so it was a bit overwhelming for a while. This settled down by the second chapter, but the opening could have benefited by a more gradual introduction.
Pace-wise the story moves along quite smoothly, but there are inconsistencies—“leaps of faith,” I call them, because the plot twists either arise abruptly, or too conveniently for a seamless delivery.
However, altogether I found it a charming story with likable characters and a gratifying ending. A very worthy debut. Four stars.
News
Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky is now #3 of 63,979 on the Barnes and Noble “Romantic Fiction” (general) list! I am also happy to state the Amazon-Canada has now listed it as “available”; however, at the same time it has neglected in include a product description. Therefore, here it is:
Love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of Big Prairie Sky Country, SaskatchewanSheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all that the sky seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad. However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an ex-con whose body has been found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment—the suspected victim of a blackmail attempt gone wrong. Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime, simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated. With his career in a crisis, and his personal life as well, Cartwright is unexpectedly joined by an ally in Colin Scrubbs, a ruggedly handsome rancher from Saskatchewan. But can they salvage Cartwright’s career from the brink?
The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England, by Diane Rapaport
An agreeable balance of law and journalism
Publisher’s blurb: Diane Rapaport’s previous book was New England Court Records: A Research Guide for Genealogists and Historians, so it seems only right that she would share her own most exciting archival finds. As its title suggests, The Naked Quaker bares seldom-seen aspects of Colonial New England life. Representative chapter headings include “Witches & Wild Women,” “Coupling,” “Parents & Youth,” “Tavern Tales,” “Slaves & Servants,” and “Neighbor vs. Neighbor.” Glimpses into a vanished world.
About the author: Diane Rapaport, a former trial lawyer, has made a new career as an author and speaker, bringing history to life with true stories from early New England court records.
****
Review by Gerry Burnie
Note: This is not a GLBT book.
Being a former law professor and a rabid history buff, The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England, by Diane Rapaport [Commonwealth Editions, 2007] was right up my alley. It is a collection of cases gleaned from the archival court records of Puritan New England, c. 1620s to the latter part of that century.
Although we think of the present as being a litigious time, and in some ways it is, it doesn’t hold a tallow candle to the inhabitants of 17-century Massachusetts. Moreover, many of the causes are remarkably familiar even today—i.e. drunkenness, unlicensed sale of liquor, unpaid debts, unwanted advances, and obstreperous youth, etc. Therefore, as Ms Rapaport points out, “Goin to law” was a common remedy for large and small issues.
It was also a source of spectator entertainment that came around usually every quarter (Courts of Quarterly Session)—but more often as required—and people would gather from miles around to watch or partake. Lawyers were hardly ever retained, judges were sometimes commissioned from the ranks of the previously convicted, and the courtroom was generally a tavern. All of this Ms Rapaport reveals as part of her meticulous research.
In fact, going through the pages of The Naked Quaker is like taking a front row seat at some of the sessions. For example we have Mrs. Elizabeth Goodman, a notoriously outspoken widow, who was accused of being a witch on the basis that she had an uncanny knowledge of her neighbours affairs, and that, after Mrs. Goodman admitted “some affection” for a certain gentleman, his new wife suffered “very strange fits” after the wedding. Nonetheless, the judges decided that the evidence was “not sufficient … take away her life,” and so she was set free.
Then we have a “lascivious meeting” of unmarried men and women in the fall of 1660. This group, including Harvard students and their young women friends, drank wine together at a tavern, and then moved on to Harvard Yard where they were witnessed holding hands. One witness even described a girl sitting on a boy’s lap, and other amorous behaviour that shocked the sensibilities of proper Puritan judges, and so the participants were admonished to “avoid the like loose practices in the future.”
On the other hand, a husband and wife were severely punished for playing and allowing to be played games of cards at their home.
Outright religious intolerance was not only rife, particularly between Puritans and Quakers, it was legally sanctioned. For years the Massachusetts authorities had engaged in unrelenting persecution of Quakers—the General Court issued a series of laws penalizing the “accused sect of heretics”—and it was illegal for Quakers to meet together or to teach others about their beliefs.74 It was also unlawful (whether Quaker or not) not to attend church on the Sabbath, and Lydia Wardell and her husband had been fined for missing (Puritan) services on twenty consecutive Sundays. Consequently, Lydia did attend one Sunday in 1663—only she did it naked.
Slavery was quite acceptable to Puritan society, and it frequently extended beyond people of colour–Africans and Native Americans–to include the Irish and Scots. For example, two boys (11 and perhaps 14) had been kidnapped from their beds and brought to Massachusetts as indentured “servants.” They were sold to a magistrate to work on his estate, and some years later they appealed to the court (on which their master sat) for relief from their servitude. They lost.
Although this is a chronicle of digested court cases, the reader need have no concerns about it being a dry or dusty read. On the contrary, probably because of her experience as a speaker on the subject, Ms Rapaport has struck an agreeable balance between law and journalism. In addition, given the direct quotes in the arcane language of the day, and the grassroots insight into everyday life, it could also be a valuable resource for writers working on that era.
Highly recommended for his buffs like myself. Five stars.
News
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Review: 12,574
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This has been a busy month for me with the publication of an eBook version of Two Irish Lads, The paperback publication of Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky,” and completing the first draft of Coming of Age on the Trail. I am also happy to say that both Two Irish Lads and Nor All Thy Tears have received 5-star reviews on Amazon.com. Therefore the count stands this way:
Click on the individual images (except Coming of Age) to purchase.
The White Rajah, by Tom Williams
A fictional tale of history that could itself be fiction
Story blurb: Invalided out of the East India Company’s army, James Brooke looks for adventure in the South China Seas. When the Sultan of Borneo asks him to help suppress a rebellion, Brooke joins the war to support the Sultan and improve his chances of trading successfully in the area. Instead, he finds himself rewarded with his own country, Sarawak.
Determined to be an enlightened ruler who brings peace and prosperity to his people, James settles with his lover, John Williamson, in their new Eden. But piracy, racial conflict, and court plotting conspire to destroy all he has achieved. Driven from his home and a fugitive in the land he ruled, James is forced to take extreme measures to drive out his enemies.
The White Rajah is the story of a man, fighting for his life, who must choose between his beliefs and the chance of victory. Based on a true story, Brooke’s battle is a tale of adventure set against the background of a jungle world of extraordinary beauty and terrible savagery. Told through the eyes of the man who loves him and shares his dream, this is a tale of love and loss from a 19th century world that still speaks to us today.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
When I first encountered the novel The White Rajah by Tom Williams [JMS Books LLC, 2010] I had never heard of this very real, historical character, James Brooke, nor his exploits. Even so, the romance the title evoked—in the sense of an Errol Flynn adventure—intrigued me.
I liked the fact that Mr. Williams chose a third-person narrator, John Williamson, and that Williamson had an intimate role to play. However, given Williamson’s lowly station in life, I found him a bit erudite for his character—although that’s not a real drawback to the story.
The story, apart from a sea voyage around the horn of Africa to the Far East, takes place in and around Borneo, of which Sarawak was a province in turmoil when Brooke arrived in 1841. Therefore the Sultan of Brunei asked for his assistance in fighting off piracy and insurgency, and as a reward he granted Brooke Governorship of Sarawak, which then became an independent state in 1842. Moreover, the Brooke dynasty retained control over Sarawak until 1946, when it
became a British Protectorate.
This is interesting stuff, factually speaking, but it has always been my fervent belief that the real story is in the personalities who made it happen, and in this regard Williams has done a fairly good job of doing so through John Williamson as narrator, and also as Brooke’s (supposed) lover.
I think he has done a fair job of capturing the base motivations of the characters: The ravenous greed of the East India Company; the politics of the Brunei Sultanate, and the conversion of an idealistic Brooke into a potentate. It is all there, and it is historically credible.
However I did find some less than credible aspects, such as Williamson’s rather incredible knowledge of the Far East in such a short time.
Nonetheless this is an enjoyable story, regardless of your knowledge of history or the time, and so it is recommended as such. Four stars.
News
I’m happy to announce that Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky was officially lanched August 4th, 2011, and that it will be available in eBook format shortly.
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Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 12, 429
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Progress on Coming of Age on the Trail: 172/180: Projected release date September 2011
Hope you are having an enjoyable summer!! Reviews are updated Sunday of every week. Please drop back again.
Wings of Love, by Scotty Cade
A true M/M romance in Harlequin style
Story Blurb: Devastated after losing his partner of fifteen years to cancer, Dr. Bradford Mitchell tries to escape the emptiness and loss by leaving his life in Seattle behind. Traveling to the Alaskan mountains where he and Jeff often vacationed, Brad reconnects with Mac Cleary, the ruggedly handsome and very straight loatplane pilot who had flown them to Hyline Lake many times in the past. Brad and Mac form an unlikely friendship and buy an old log cabin together, and as he and Mac begin to bring the old cabin back to life, Mac watches Brad come back to life as well, stirring emotions in him he’s never felt for a man before. When fear, confusion, and a near tragedy threaten to force the two men apart, they’ll face some tough questions. Can Brad let go of Jeff and the guilt he feels about beginning to care for another man? And can Mac deal with his fears of being gay and accept the fact that he is in love with Brad? It will be a struggle for both men to keep their heads and hearts intact while exploring what life has to offer.
Available in eBook format, 655 KB.
SCOTTY CADE left Corporate America and twenty-five years of marketing and public relations behind to buy an inn & restaurant on the island of Martha’s Vineyard with his partner of fourteen years. He started writing stories as soon as he could read, but only recently for publication. When not at the inn, you can find him on the bow of his boat writing male/male romance novels with his Shetland sheepdog Mavis at his side. Being from the South and a lover of commitment and fidelity, most of his characters find their way to long, healthy relationships, however long it takes them to get there. He believes that in the end, the boy should always get the boy.
Scotty and his partner are avid boaters and live aboard their boat, spending the summers on Martha’s Vineyard and winters in Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
The above blurb fairly well covers the outline of Wings of Love by Scotty Cade [Dreamspinner Press, 2011], and so I can get right to my views.
I particularly enjoy wilderness settings, especially in and around Alaska and the Yukon Territory. There is something inherently masculine about them, as well as primitive, and so these make an ideal setting for an M/M story. In this regard the author did not disappoint with his choice of Brad and Mac, two fairly hunky guys equal to the wilderness—even if it is with hot water and a microwave. My point is, however, that these guys are definitely not out of place nailing nails and sawing wood, etc.
I also like how the author dealt with the topic of losing a loved one to cancer, which was both sensitive and realistic without being maudlin. Cancer is a tragic subject, and the effect of it has no doubt touched us all in one form or another, but SC wisely chose to have his characters move on with life. After all, we the living have very little choice, and there is life after death (not to be construed as a religious statement).
As well, I liked how he let the relationship between a gay man and straight man evolve at what seemed like a realistic pace. My most cherished love in life was with a straight guy, very much like Mac, and so I know it does happen, and how.
These are all good points, and recommend the story highly. However, what took the edge off it for me was the pace. Scotty Cade is a very thorough writer, and so he has attempted to answer any (and every) question the reader might have regarding this or that, and in so doing has burdened the flow in sometimes superfluous information. i.e.
He stepped up to the radio, picked up the handset, and pressed the button. “November 4649 Delta, this is Wing Mansion. Over.”
He waited for a few seconds and heard nothing.
“November 4649 Delta, this is Wing Mansion, do you copy?”
He waited again.
Just when he was about to repeat the call again, he heard, “Wing Mansion, this is November 4649 Delta, I hear you loud and clear. Wing Mansion, switch to channel one eight. Over,” he heard Mac’s voice say.
“Wing mansion switching to channel one eight,” Brad repeated.
Brad turned the dial up two notches to channel one eight and said, “Wing Mansion standing by on channel one eight.”
“Good morning sleepyhead. Over,” Mac said.
“Mac, are you okay? Over.” Brad asked.
“I’m fine. Did you get my note? Over.”
“Mac, thank you for taking the time to write it; it was very thoughtful. Over.”
“That’s me, thoughtful Mac. Over.”
Mac was sounding a little strange. Then Brad remembered Zander and Jake were with him, and he was sure they could hear everything Mac was saying.
“Mac, I know Zander and Jake can hear what you’re saying, but can they hear me? Over.”
“That’s a negative. Over,” Mac responded. WINGS OF LOVE 91
“Oh good, I’m not ready to start explaining all of this to them. Over.”
“That’s affirmative. Over,” Mac said.
“What’s your ETA? Over,” Brad asked.
“About zero eight hundred hours. Over,” Mac said.
Brad remembered military time, and he thought that meant eight am. “Okay, safe flight and give my best to Zander and Jake, and tell them to enjoy their vacation and not to worry about the lodge. I’ll check on it every couple of days. Over.”
“I’ll pass that along. Over,” Mac responded.
“Mac, will you make it back up before the storm? Over.”
“I’ll do my best, but if I don’t, you’ll be fine. I’ll be in touch. Over.”
“I’ll look forward to it. Oh, and Mac, please be careful. I don’t want to lose you. Over.”
“Will do. Over.”
Brad ended the conversation by saying, “You do that.” He added, “Wing Mansion over and out, switching back to channel one six.”
The last thing Brad heard Mac say was, “November 4649 Delta standing by on channel one six.”
Okay, I’ve operated a VHF radio, and I know how the lingo goes (channel changes and all), but this much attention to detail—however admirable—doesn’t advance the story. And that’s the point. If it doesn’t advance the story whittle it down, generalize it, or leave it out.
Otherwise, Wings of Love is a pleasant, feel good story with a romantic, happy ending. Four stars.
News
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 12, 323
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The eBook version of Two Irish Lads [Maple Creek Media] will be available at Kindle and Nook outlets this week.
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The final galley proofs have been approved, and so Nor All Thy Tears should be released in both hardcopy and eBook formats in a week or so.
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Progress on Coming of Age on the Trail: 163/180.
This is the story of a teenager’s unique coming of age on an epic, 1,500-mile cattle drive through the rugged wilderness of 19th-century British Columbia
Loosely based on an actual cattle drive to the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of 1896-1898, this fictional tale pits 17-year-old Cory Twilingate
against an almost insurmountable wilderness in an effort to save his father’s cash-strapped ranch. Supporting him all the way is his father’s recently hired foreman, “Reb” Coltrane, a ruggedly handsome and trail-savvy cowboy from Texas, and as a result a bond is formed between them like two Spartan cohorts fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the rigors of the trail.This is a tale that explores the phenomenon of male bonding under extraordinary and sometimes perilous conditions. It is also a romance that includes those most American of institutions, i.e., cowboys and cattle, but as told from a gay perspective. Whether it is a rugged tale of adventure, or a coming of age romance you are seeking, “Coming of Age on the Trail” delivers on all counts.
Men of Honor: Pirates of the Narrow Seas, #2, by M Kei
A swashbuckling adventure and Romance
Peter Thorton and his lover set out on a quest to rescue a captive duke who is the pretender to the throne of Portugal. Thorton is arrested and placed on trial for desertion and sodomy. Men of Honor continues the further adventures of a gay officer during the Age of Sail, replete with perils, excitement, and nautical detail. Alex Beecroft, author of ‘False Colors,’ says it’s “a book which can stand comparison with C. S. Forester’s Hornblower.”
Available in eBook format
Review by Gerry Burnie
Some time ago I reviewed Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1: Sallee Rovers, and gave it a five star rating—even though I had some minor reservations about pace. I also have some reservations about M Kei’s latest in the series, Men of Honor: Pirates of the Narrow Seas, #2, [Lulu.com, 2010] but there are enough good things to say about it that I think I can go five stars as well.
M Kei is a good, solid writer. Therefore all the technical stuff regarding sentence and paragraph structure, as well as syntax, are a given. Likewise his descriptions—especially of things nautical—are vivid and colourful, and therefore the reader has no difficulty being transported back in time. However, since I wouldn’t know a marlin spike from a hat pin, I agree with one reviewer who observed that the tactical side of the sea battles were a bit mind boggling. On the other hand, they certainly were pulse-raising with their violent bombardments, and gratuitous blood shedding.
As regards characterization, in volume #1 I disliked Perry as being too stuffy and ambitious, liked Tangle for being swashbuckling, and sort-of liked Peter Thornton as being idealistically naïve. Shakil, of course, had just been introduced toward the end of #1, and so it was really too early to tell, In Men of Honor, however, I found Perry just as dislikeable (for the same reasons), Tangle an opportunist, and Peter just as naïve, but a little less likeable [e.g. his automaton’s sense loyalty toward the British Navy that had little toward him in the past]. Nevertheless, I believe it was the author’s intent to give Peter these less-than-ideal characteristics, and as such things like “like” and “dislike” are at the discretion of the reader.
As for Shakil, it is difficult to say. I liked him, even admired him for having a core of steel draped in velvet, but I could not quite get excited about his personality. He just seemed too ‘perfect’ for me. However, once again I suspect the author has introduced him as much for a future reason as his role in this novel. We will see.
Altogether I have no hesitation in highly recommending Men of Honor: Pirates of the Narrow Seas, #2, as being a darned good read, and look forward to reading volume #3—the finale. Five Stars.
News
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 12,152
Watch for the Kindle and Nook versions of Two Irish Lads coming next week. The publisher this time round is Maple Creek Media. Check them out for good service and good prices.
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I have approved the interior concept for Nor all Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky, and am awaiting the final cover proof. Once both of those had been approved, it will go to press. The release date has therefore been shoved back to early August.
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Progress on Coming of Age on the Trail: 145/182 – It should be ready for a September/October release.
Have a great summer!
Lorcan’s Desire (Whispering Pines Ranch #1) by SJD Peterson
A credible first novel
Despite the loving support of his family, Lorcan James wants to try life on his own, so at twenty-one, he finds himself walking half way across the country in search of adventure. What he finds is desperation, desperation that leads him straight to the Whispering Pines Ranch and right into the path of its strong, arrogant, gorgeous owner, who awakens something in Lorcan he didn’t even know, existed.
Quinn Taylor is up to his neck in grief and frustration dealing with a neighboring rancher who wants nothing more than to see him go belly-up. He doesn’t need more complications, but from the moment he lays eyes on Lorcan, his world turns upside down. Despite finding in Quinn what his heart craves, Lorcan refuses to be Quinn’s dirty little secret—and Quinn isn’t the only one vying for Lorcan’s attention. Ranch hand Jess will happily declare his love for Lorcan to the world, something Quinn won’t offer—something Lorcan needs above all else.
Cover Art by Anne Cain
SJD PETERSON, better known as Jo, hails from Michigan. Not the best place to live for someone who hates the cold and snow. When not reading or writing, Jo can be found close to the heater checking out NHL stats and watching the Red Wings kick a little butt. Can’t cook, misses the clothes hamper nine out of ten tries, but is handy with power tools.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I understand that Lorcan’s Desire (Whispering Pines Ranch #1) [dreamspinner Press, May 30, 2011] is the first effort by a now “published Author”, SJD Peterson, so congratulations are in order. However, now that the ‘first born’ is out there, let’s see how it rates.
There is much to be said for this story as a first effort. The writing is strong, and technically it reads almost effortlessly—a good start. The style is straightforward with just enough description to make it interesting—particularly the sex scenes, which are as creative a sex scenes get. The plot is also interesting, if taken in a linear
fashion without the twists and turns thrown in.
I was particularly taken by the opening in which Lorcon is introduced as a rebel with a cause, and therein the reader is sympathetically drawn to him. On the other hand, Quinn’s character is not as well developed, and to some extent he remains underdeveloped throughout—apart from carrying a lot of baggage from a previous relationship, and a debilitating fear of being outed by a vindictive and covetous neighbour.
After the introductions, however, the story departs from its nice clean narrative style to get bogged down in a complex of “does he, or doesn’t he’s?” on both sides. I do understand that these are intended to convey the mental turmoil being experienced by both characters, but given that each has a hard-on for the other in every scene they appear together, it unfortunately comes across as more indecision than heart-felt anguish.
The introduction of Jess also took me by surprise. Once in, however, the relationship between Lorcan and Jess–a returning to a clean narrative style–was made much more agreeable because of it.
Having said that, there are some very nice highlights–the tense scene when Lorcan is being hit-on by Jess and Quinn sees them, and when Lorcan and Jess arrive back at the ranch after spending the night together. Also, if you like well-written homoerotica, Lorcan’s Desire is sure to pleae. Three and one-half stars.
News
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 12,020
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The block proofs for Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky, are done and approved, and I think I am on schedule for an end-of-July release–whether it will be listed in Amazon’s catalogue by then, I don’t know. There will also be an eBook version released shortly after that.
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I’ve completed 105/182 pages of rewrites to Coming of Age on the Trail, and it should be ready for publication by the end of September.
This is the story of a teenager’s unique coming of age on an epic, 1,500-mile cattle drive through the rugged wilderness of 19th-century British Columbia
Loosely based on an actual cattle drive to the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of 1896-1898, this fictional tale pits 17-year-old Cory Twilingate
against an almost insurmountable wilderness in an effort to save his father’s cash-strapped ranch. Supporting him all the way is his father’s recently hired foreman, “Reb” Coltrane, a ruggedly handsome and trail-savvy cowboy from Texas, and as a result a bond is formed between them like two Spartan cohorts fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the rigors of the trail.This is a tale that explores the phenomenon of male bonding under extraordinary and sometimes perilous conditions. It is also a romance that includes those most American of institutions, i.e., cowboys and cattle, but as told from a gay perspective. Whether it is a rugged tale of adventure, or a coming of age romance you are seeking, “Coming of Age on the Trail” delivers on all counts.
Muffled Drum, by Erastes
A Romantic novel featuring handsome cavalry officers, and Erestian touches
Blurb: They met in a port-side tavern, their lust-filled moments stolen from days of marching and madness. After eighteen months, Captain Rudolph von Ratzlaff and First Lieutenant Mathias Hofmann have decided to run away from everything they hold dear. Resigning their commissions is social suicide, but there’s no other
choice. Someone will eventually see Rudolph’s partiality toward Mathias.
Now their plans have gone horribly awry… When Mathias goes to Rudolph’s tent after their last battle, his lover looks at him without a hint of recognition. Mathias can hardly believe the man he knew is gone. He wants to fill in so many of Rudolph’s missing memories, but the doctor says a shock could result in permanent damage. The pain of seeing Rudolph on a daily basis, when Rudolph doesn’t remember their love, is excruciating. Now Mathias must decide whether he wants to fight for the man he loves or forget him completely…
Available in eBook format.
About the author: Erastes is the pen name of a female author of gay historical fiction. Having circumnavigated the globe in the ’80s with nothing more than a handful of dollars and a backpack, she’s lived and worked both sides of the equator, but other than Venice she’s found nowhere she loves to live as well as the Norfolk
Broads, where she lives now—firmly under the paw of three demanding cats. Author of eight novels and more than twenty short stories, Erastes is a Lambda
award finalist and a keen lover of history. She began writing full-time after leaving the legal profession, finding it stranger than any fiction.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Having written over ten successful novels to date, it seems author Erastes has decided to challenge herself with a devilishly complex theme, i.e. loss of memory, which is what Muffled Drum [Carina Press, July 4, 2011] centres around. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, she has also chosen an obscure but bloody war, The Austro-Prussian War— 14 June – 23 August, 1866.
Although I have in my possession a sabre/bayonet from this very era, inscribed “Cavalry de La Chat, 1867,” it is a not a war I am familiar with; nor is it a period that has been frequently exploited as a background or setting for novels
In this story, Captain Rudolph von Ratzlaff and First lieutenant Mathias Hoffman, two young, handsome, army officers, have decided to resign their commissions and run away together. However, there is one more battle to fight, and following that Hoffman follows through with his resignation, but von Ratzlaff has sustained an injury that has left him with “selective” amnesia—meaning he can remember everything except the past two years and his lover Hoffman.
As is Eraste’s wont, there are delicate touches of irony sprinkled throughout that remain on the palate until the story is finished, i.e.
“The scent of sweat and horse rose up in the heat they generated. Concentrating on the unique taste and feel of Mathias’s mouth, Rudolph swore to
remember this moment throughout the day to come. When I’m cold from the death around me, or blazing with the thunder of the charge, I will remember this—this moment. It is this that men fight for—Mathias is my reason to fight, my haven. My home.”
Such was not to be, however, and also complicating the scenario is a Frau Ratzloff & family who are waiting at home, and a predatory ex-lover whom von Ratzlaff seems to be remember for all his non-predatory charms.
However, in the end love triumphs over adversity, and so the story ends in a typically romantic fashion.
***
Critically speaking I give full marks for the bold tackling of a complex issue, such as a lover, still very much in love, faced with the dilemma of his partner’s amnesia—especially since the former has gambled his all for a “happy ever after” relationship.
The choice of such an interesting, but little remembered war, was also a bold but typical Erastian venture, and her attention to detail—i.e., “leutnant” for lieutenant, and “rittmeister” for captain—add greatly to the credibility.
My one quibble (although it does not change the ranking) is that I did not find this story as compelling as some of her other novels. However, since these were five-star stories too, it is merely a matter of degree.
News
As a writer there are a couple of times that are particularly exciting. One of them is getting the block proof back from the publisher, as it begins to take shape, and the other is actually holding the finished product in your hand. Those are the two stages of Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky I’m awaiting just now, and so I’m right on schedule for a July release. Like most writers my books are my ‘babies’–gestation period and all–and the characters are the same. The Two Irish Lads, Sean and Partrick, are still ‘my boys’, and although Sheldon and Colin are quite different, they have a special place in my heart, too.
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Meanwhile, I’m working every day on Coming of Age on the Trail–69/185 pages so far–so I predicting a release date of mid-September.
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Vistor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 11,896
Long Hard Ride, by Keta Diablo
A hard-riding and entertaining adventure
Civil War divides a nation, yet nothing will stop Grayson Drake from breaking Corporal Marx Wellbourne out of a Union prison. Assigned to bring Wellbourne to Richmond, Grayson soon discovers not only is the Corporal courting death, but he’s also the same man he coveted from afar four years ago in a Charleston brothel.
Pursued by the villainous warden of the prison, Major Britton Darkmore, nothing is as it seems when intrigue, danger and passion collide on the Long, Hard Ride back to Richmond.
Available in eBook format.
Review by Gerry Burnie
The title and the Civil War genre first attracted my attention to Long Hard Ride by Keta Diablo [Decadent Publishing, 2010] and as an in-the-saddle story it delivers quite well. However, it is more of a period story, as apposed to historical fiction, for the American Civil War is merely a backdrop. Nonetheless, I will quickly add there is nothing wrong with this except the tag.
The crux of the story is that Marx Wellbourne is being held in a hellhole of a Union prison, known by its pejorative, “Helmira,” and is in dire straights. But inside his head are battle secrets that the South is desperate to know, and so Grayson Drake is sent to spring him from this maximum security institution.
The warden, Major Britton Darkmore, is a stereotypical villain who psycho-pathetically guards his ‘no-escape’ record, and so when Wellbourne is sprung the pursuit is on from New York State, to Richmond, Virginia.
Along the way Grayson and Wellbourne have a rather tempestuous relationship, with neither one trusting the other, but they nonetheless manage to get it on both hot and heavy—such, that an uneasy love bond is formed.
***
Critically speaking, the writing is both strong and mature. The sentence and paragraph structures are smooth, such that the reader isn’t stubbing a toe over rough patches, and the dialogue is effective and believable.
As I have also alluded above, the characters are well developed but somewhat stereotypical—villainous warden, macho and omni-capable hero, and a reluctant lover. Nevertheless, they are consistent and made to play their parts well.
The plot is also clever, but being a bit ‘fantastic’ it could have benefited from more development. For instance, the secretive agency for which Drake worked could have done with more expansion to make it credible, and the happenstance surrounding Wellbourne’s escape from Elmia Prison—as well the old boy’s lodge that just happened to be there when it was needed—could have used some further thought.
Nonetheless, overall it was an entertaining read that had some top-rate moments. Recommended. Three and one-half stars.
News
This past week I entered into a deal with Maple Creek Media to format Two Irish Lads in eBook format. This will be a stand-alone publication with a new cover design by Alex Beecroft and a separate ISBN number. Therefore, this old scribe is entering (slowly) into the 21st-century.
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The manuscript for Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky is now in the hands of the publisher, and so it is on schedule for a July, 2011, release.
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews – 11,756
Secrets of Lake Simcoe: Fascinating Stories From Ontario’s Past, by Andrew Hind & Maria Da Silva
This is Canadian history that needs to be preserved as part of our culture and heritage. Three stars.
Blurb: A lively book illustrated with archival photos, Secrets of Lake Simcoe is a valuable addition to local history collections and provides a refreshing way for anyone to view what some consider to be Canada’s sixth Great Lake. At the heart of central Ontario, Lake Simcoe has played an important role in the province’s history for hundreds of years. Today a popular destination for pleasure-seekers and cottagers, it helped open up the region to explorers and fur traders, settlers and entrepreneurs. The lake has secrets aplenty and this book offers a selection of stories of dramatic episodes from the lake’s past. There are shipwrecks, stately resorts, vanished industries, forgotten forts and even murder most foul.
About the authors: MARIA DA SILVA has always had a passion for history and ghost stories. ANDREW HIND is a freelance writer who lives in Bradford, Ontario. They are co-authors of several other titles in the Amazing Stories series, most recently Rebels Against Tories in Upper Canada 1837.
Review by Gerry Burnie
*This is not a GLBT book.
Having grown up and spent most of my entire seventy-three years around Lake Simcoe, Secrets of Lake Simcoe: Fascinating Stories From Ontario’s Past by Andrew Hind and Maria Da Silva touches a nostalgic part of my heart.
As the authors point out, Lake Simcoe is an ancient lake—being the remnant of a giant inland sea that once covered the area—it has figured into nearly every aspect of eastern Canada’s history; from Pre-European times to the present. It is also known worldwide as a tourist destination for vacationers and anglers—being dubbed the “Ice Fishing Capital of the World.”
In an attempt to make it more palatable for the average reader, Hind a Da Silva have taken an anecdotal approach to the history; an approach I agree with to a certain point [a discussion on this point later]. They have therefore avoided the “great blight of academia” by giving the characters and events some personality and colour. History, after all, isn’t merely the dusty facts, figure and dates that most scholars would have us believe. Moreover, even the all-too-often named players (kings, politicians, generals and such) had some interesting quirks about them.[1] For example, John A. MacDonald had the parliamentary pages all trained to bring him a tumbler full of gin in the House of Commons, because it most resembled water.
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And now to the book: There are fourteen different topics covered, in more-or-less chronological order, from “Fort Willow and the Nine Mile Portage,” c.1812, to “The Briars Resort and Spa, 1977.[2] Fort Willow was a revelation to me. I am well acquainted with the official version of the 1812 war, of course, but not the part that gravitated north to Georgian Bay. So for day-trippers this fort may make an interesting outing—see Secrets of Lake Simcoe for the location.
“The Ghost Canal” might also prove interesting for folks visiting the Newmarket-Holland Landing area, where the evidence of this canal is still quite visible. It would be a great way to get the kids interested in history, and Ontario history in particular.
Not all Victorian characters were paragons of virtue (not even the Old Queen herself), and “A Real Rogue: Joseph Anderton” was a prime example of roguery. Moreover, he was also the (now) City of Barrie’s first mayor, and so you can draw your own conclusions on that. Oh, and like modern politicians, he got away with it.
And then, there is “Murder Most Foul in Morning Glory.” As I mentioned above, anecdotal history is fine provided that the facts are more-or-less correct. However, in reference to the so-called “Morning Glory murders,” I take issue with some of the stated facts.
To state my case, my great grandfather, James Burnie, owned and operated the Morning Glory Inn from c.1863 to c.1870. In fact, my grandfather, Alfred Burnie, was born at the Inn in 1869. William Sager acquired it after this, and only operated it until is burned c.1872-73. From childhood discussions with my grandfather, prior to his death in 1949, I was aware of the “murders” well before the discovery of the bones in 1971.[3] Moreover, his version of the couple’s disappearance was very different from the one related here. However, that is perhaps understandable since both versions are based on hearsay.
Apart from the foregoing, to the best of my knowledge there was never a “hamlet” named Morning Glory in the area. Certainly there is none marked on the attached map dated c. 1878[4] [see map]. The property surrounding the Morning Glory Inn was a formidable swamp; the properties to the west and south were all farmlands, and there were no “businesses” per se—in particular no “general store” or “a sawmill situated on the nearby creek.” There was a brick yard near Virginia, but it was operated by A.E. “Ted” Arnold.
Unfortunately this lowers the book’s rating from a four or five-star classification to a three, but I still want to recommend this collection of historical anecdotes for the rest of it. This is Canadian history that needs to be preserved as part of our culture and heritage. Three stars.
[1] See my discussion “Canada has a colourful and interesting history that for the most part is waiting to be discovered,” http://www.gerryburniebooks.com.
[2] The Briars estate was originally built in 1840, but the resort and spa dates from 1970s.
[3] I was privileged to see the bones before they were sent to Toronto, and what I recall is that the man’s femur bone came well above my knee. Ergo he must have been an exceptionally tall man.
[4] Illustrated Historical Atlas of York County, Toronto: Miles and Co., 1878.
News
The manuscript for Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky goes to the publisher Monday. It has been three years in the making, and so it is a very satisfying time indeed. It has also taken me about ten years to learn how to create a composite photo using Photoshop. The cover design to the left is the result. The publisher was originally scheduled to design the cover, but I was concerned that their image of the main characters might not be the same as mine. These two lads are as close as I could come using stock photos. They were acquired from CanStock, which has the best collection I have found to date. The book should be ready for lat July, 2011.
Two Irish Lads is also scheduled to be released in e-book format in July. Amazon has quoted me a price of $350 – $375 to convert the ms to Kindle format. Why, I don`t know. It`s their exclusive format, and so it means more sales for them. However, Maple Creek Media has a price of $149 which includes a Nook formating as well. It also includes sumitting the finished product to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. They also have a very good publishing offer, so you might be interested in checking them out.
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Visitor count to Gerry B`s Book Reviews: 11,459
Vagabond Heart, by A.J. Llewellyn
A fascinating step back in time to war-time Hawaii
Blurb: Gay prostitute Tinder McCartney thought he had it made in WWII Honolulu…until true love and an attack on Pearl Harbor turned his life upside down.
Tinder McCartney is the only gay male prostitute working in Honolulu, HI during World War II. Like the 200 female prostitutes who live and work on Hotel Street, he services the armed forces drifting in and out of the islands. His life and work are controlled by the local police, yet because the cops don’t think that there can be that many ‘depraved’ men wanting the comfort of another man, Tinder is not only busy, but often in danger.
Living by very strict rules enforced by the police, Tinder cannot own or drive a car or bicycle, can’t ride street cars or be seen in the company of other men. He can’t visit bars or restaurants or swim at Waikiki Beach. Savagely attacked by two men one night, he is rescued by a local businessman, Jason Qui, the son of a Chinese immigrant and a former New England missionary.
Jason is not Tinder’s usual type. But Jason offers to protect and house him. It seems like the ideal business arrangement until Tinder’s Vagabond Heart can no longer handle the arrangement… and then on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbour is attacked, turning the entire world upside down.
Available in e-book format from Total E-Bound Publishers, and in Kindle format.
About the author: A.J. Llewellyn lives in California, but dreams of living in Hawaii. Frequent trips to all the islands, bags of Kona coffee in the fridge and a healthy collection of Hawaiian records keep him refueled.
A.J’s passion for the islands led to him writing a play about the last ruling monarch of Hawaii, Queen Lili’uokalani. He has written a non-erotic novel about the overthrow of her kingdom written in diary form from her maid’s point of view.
He never lacks inspiration for his male/male erotic romances and has to pry his fingers from the computer keyboard to pursue his other passions: collecting books on Hawaii, surfing and spending time with his friends and his animal companions.
A.J. Llewellyn believes that love is a song best sung out loud.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although A.J. Llewellyn has over fifty novels out there, Vagabond Heart [Total E-Bound Publishing, 2010] is the first I have read. It certainly won’t be the last, however.
The plot is somewhat unique, inasmuch as it deals with a male prostitute as a romantic lead. Moreover, the story is set in 1942 Hawaii, just before the Pearl Harbour invasion—an era that is particularly nostalgic for me—and this is where AJ shines.
His bio states his passion for Hawaii, and it certainly comes through in his almost palpable descriptions of Hawaii’s history, culture, beauty and grottiness of Hotel Street. Indeed, it is some of the finest descriptive writing I have encountered to date.
And speaking of “history,” special mention should be reserved for the fascinating history of prostitution in war-time Honolulu—in particular the (US) government’s sanction of it (within certain, ridiculous constraints). In this regard, the hypocrisy of government is almost as palpable of Mr. Llewellyn’s excellent descriptions.
The characters are all well developed and interesting as well. Tinder is very much a boy of the 1930s and 40s; meaning, when he found himself up against it he simply found a way to cope. I know the trait, because the 1940s was my era as well.
The girls’ lives could have been a little more developed, but since they were only minor characters this is a value judgment at best.
The native boy, Lauro is quite believable inasmuch as bisexuality seemed to be quite acceptable so long as marriage—as in “one man and one woman”—took place down the line.
Jason Qui came across as just a bit too ideal, and I thought the scenes with him were somewhat ‘pat,’ but once again that is a value judgement that may or may not be shared with other readers. Likewise, I found the sex scenes—while not overwhelming—a bit repetitive toward the end.
Overall, however, it is a well written novel, with an interesting topic and plot, and encompassing an intriguing era. Highly recommended. Four and one-half stars.
News
The completed manuscript of Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky is presently being proofed by my good buddy, Jim Fraley, who is making good progress. Therefore, it should go the publisher by the 26th of this month.
Interestingly, it is partially set in the 1950s and deals with male prostitution as well—i.e.
Sheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician, with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all this the sky seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad from small-town Ontario, Canada.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an ex-con, whose body has been recently found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated, and the stage is set for a political crisis of headline-grabbing proportions. Read an excerpt:
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 11, 459
Long Journey Into Darkness, by JW
A serious effort, but…
Publisher’s blurb: Long Journey Into Darkness is the dark tale of love and romance between cousins that turns fatal. Very Gay, Set in England turn of the century, coming to New York to start again only to be followed by the past, finding love and ………..there is however a little stage drama, murder and more. This book is intended for adults.
Available in Kindle format – 362 kb.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Long Journey Into Darkness by JW [Amazon Digital Services] is a serious work of fiction, and because of this it deserves a respectful discussion. Otherwise, I think I would be inclined to dismiss it.
Technically it is quite well written (apart from a few typos), and for the most part the syntax reads smoothly. The ending is also clever, and certainly unpredictable. However, for my money that is about the extent of the really good things that can be said.
The plot, if taken in a straight line without meandering and doubling back on itself, starts off sometime in the early 1900s in Princeton Place, a dreary mining town in England, where the principal character, Ethan Morris, has come to visit his girlfriend, Edna—even though we are told that he has or had a lover by the name of Robert Morris, a wealthy cousin. This is a quandary that prevails throughout the story, for Ethan can’t seem to decide whether his is gay (which he professes), or heterosexual in his close relationships with at t least three women.
Ethan is a thread-bare poet to start, but a railroad ride later his is unexplicably catapulted into the high life as he awaits passage on the “Elletania” for New York. Thus began my distraction as I tried to figure out how this came to be. Oh, there are clues when a salesman (of something) mysteriously contacts him in Liverpool, which obliquely suggested that he has somehow changed places with his shoe-manufacturing cousin, Robert.
The voyage from Liverpool to New York is eventful only in the sense of meeting a cast of secondary characters; most significantly an actress by the name of Luella Ambrose who takes an immediate liking to Ethan. Miss Ambrose is expectantly glamorous, but she is also both insightful and perceptive, and it is not long before Ethan and she become soul mates. It is not long, either, before Ethan reveals that he is gay, and that he has drowned his cousin back in Princeton Place—all of which Ms Ambrose accepts with nary a raised eyebrow.
In New York Ethan is mistaken for Robert Morris, which he accepts while staying at the Waldorf, but then he quietly disappears to become Franklin Hope, a playwright. Meanwhile, the newspapers all announce the mysterious disappearance of Robert Morris.
In his guise as Franklin Hope he meets his second female soul mate, Miss Cheryl Wilson, a typist with a seemingly permanent chip on her shoulder. Nonetheless, it isn’t too long before he reveals his turbulent past to her, as well, and once again it meets with very little shock on her part.
Personally, I found the line of the story difficult to follow to the point of distraction. I think this is because the characters were all very difficult to pin down. Yes, they were distinct, and eccentric, but they were also inconsistent. Similarly, in order to create an air of mystery (I think) the story meandered about, hinting at this and that, but failing to make a point that one could grasp onto. Therefore, rather than being mysterious it was merely confusing.
Nonetheless, I recognize the amount thought and effort that went into writing this work, and can readily say there is talent behind it. However, for now two and one-half stars.
News
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A message from Erastes re: Ides of pride book swap
PLEASE – even if you aren’t going to participate – could you disseminate this far and wide? It would be so good to have loads of people involved
The economy is biting us all– more and more I see people say they can’t afford to buy the book they’d like to buy.
SO! Let’s cock a snook to the economy. (Non Brits may need to look that up.)
I’d like to have an “IDES OF PRIDE BOOK SWAP“ on Speak Its Name (www.speakitsname.com) on the 15th of June.
It’s a simple idea. If you have a gay historical book that you would like to swap for something you haven’t read – be it electronic or paper, EMAIL ME (erastes@erastes.com) with the details and I’ll put up a post for you
It can be your own book, or simply one you have in your collection. Of course you are welcome to include more than one!
NOW. I’m NOT avocating file sharing here–but the Kindle allows one transfer of each book on your device, so it’s perfectly legal and hopefully it will bring in more readers for you and for all of us — and the readers will be able to discover things they might not have usually tried. Publishers will allow a certain amount of downloads too, so you could use those.
People who want that book will then answer the post with their own swap–or a selection of what you’d like to offer, and it will be up to the original poster to choose which one they’d like. Let me know, and I’ll match up the swap.
It’s like Noel Edmonds’ swap shop. But gay. Oh. OK. That analogy doesn’t really work, as that show was already extraordinarily gay.
Please please please join it–would be fun to make this an annual event–and it will certainly help people get hold of books they can’t afford. You can swap as many books as you like–and don’t renege, or you won’t be allowed to play next time.
–
Erastes
Gay Historical Fiction
www.erastes.com
The Wishing Cup, by JM Gryffyn
Romance among the dunes!
Orphaned as a boy and brought up by the crusty, disapproving Edward Collins, Dr. David Jameson may not know much about love, but he makes up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of Egyptian history and language. Too bad his job as linguist for a team excavating in the Valley of the Kings puts him right under Edward’s nose. When the discovery of a rare artifact leads to a disagreement between guardian and ward, Jeremiah McKee, the team’s American benefactor, sends no-nonsense Jake Tanner to protect his investment.
David’s disappointment at not meeting McKee fades quickly in the heat of his intense desire for Tanner, who seems to be the only member of the team to give credence to his ideas. Push comes to shove when Edward discovers the burgeoning romance between David and Jake, but not everything is as it seems. Will David and Jake find more in Egypt than sand and strife? Something that, like the pyramids at Giza, will stand the test of time?
Front cover designby Mara McKennen
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although not particularly original, The Wishing Cup, by JM Gryffyn is a charming tale set in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt; a romantic setting for a romantic novella. In this respect, it parallels the exploits of Howard Carter and his monumental discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922, and I also recognized several almost direct extracts from Carter’s journal. However, as the author has been careful to point out (correctly so), this is not intended to be accurate history, i.e., in the words of the author: “An astute reader of this novella will quickly recognize that facts about pharaohs, queens and expeditions (among other things) in The Valley of The Kings were wilfully and knowingly manipulated.” Fair enough.
The story is told using a combination of first-person journal entries by the ingénue, Dr. David Jameson, and third-person narratives. As the story opens the expeditions has just made a discovery of a wishing cup (along with other funery items) in the tomb of Pharaoh Sherentah, but the cup bears the markings of his wife, Queen Sif-re. This cup, and certain cartouches bearing her name, lead David to speculate that the tomb may be that of Sif-re; a theory that is contrary to popular wisdom of the day that there are no queens buried in the Valley of the Kings. It also makes him the butt of derision by his guardian and the other authorities who make up the expedition.
The expedition is being financed by a wealthy American recluse by the name of Jeremiah McKee—a sort of Lord Carnarvon—and when the sealed entranceway to a tomb is discovered he is sent for to be present at the opening. Instead, an emissary named Jake Tanner arrives in his place.
Disappointment abounds, including that of David’s, but as time goes by he develops a fascination and eventually a desire for this rugged American. The others in the expedition are not so keen, however, for Jake Tanner is not easily brushed aside, and he quickly proves to be the equal of Edward Collins. Things come to a head between Tanner and Collins when Collins discovers David kissing Jake, and David ends up with a black eye on account of it.
The stage is therefore set for a showdown and a happy resolution, but I’ll leave the readers to discover how.
The writing is well executed throughout, and the storymoves along at a steady but comfortable pace. The plot is simple but interesting, and there is a mild level of tension—especially regarding the opening of the tomb. However, I found the relationship between Jake Tanner and Jeremiah Mckee a bit hokey. Also the ending, although gratifying, was somewhat predictable. However, these reservations did not overshadow what was a nice, feel-good story. I love a romance! Four stars.
News
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Two Irish Lads is currently being considered for a motion picture version. Preliminary discussions are set for this month.
Two Irish Lads is a pioneer story with a difference.
It is at once a carefully-researched depiction of pioneer life in the early part of the nineteenth century, and also a love story of two men who might have lived during such a challenging time.
Sean and Patrick McConaghy are two young cousins who set sail from Ireland one St. Patrick’s Day in 1820, and after a long and eventful crossing of the Atlantic, they tackle the mighty St. Lawrence River with a band of rugged voyageurs to eventually settle in the wilderness of Upper Canada.
Here they are not only confronted by the daunting task of carving a homestead out of the vast primeval forest, but also the ever-present danger of living as a devoted couple in a world where the possibility of humiliation and death stalked them at every turn if their secret should ever be discovered.
It is a tale that also encompasses mystery, tragedy, brawling, humour and pathos, and altogether it will have you turning pages to discover what is about to happen next.
Good People, by Steven K Meyers
A Snappy story with madcap characters and superb dialogue
Good People tells the story of Rex Black and the circle of his friends and employees who chase his dream of transforming his Upper East Side comedy club into a global brand. Fast and funny, incisive and heartfelt, Good People sums up, in the tradition of Theodore Dreiser, an entire American era of greed and unreal ambition.
Steven K. Meyers, born on a farm in western Colorado, became underbutler of Caramoor, the great Westchester County estate, at 17. Later he graduated from City College of New York (Ward Medal in Greek) and worked in the comedy club business at its 1980s height. He now lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Review by Gerry Burnie
This has been a Steven K Meyers week. Between eye surgery and lab tests I read three different stories by this author; this one, i.e. Good People [Booklocker, 2010], plus Two Short Stories [to be published at a later date], e.g. “The Man Who Owns New York” and “Springtime in Siena.” Three quite different stories. I get the impression, therefore, that this writer writes as an academic exercise, and is not adverse to literary experimentation. But more about that later.
Good People is the most mainstream of the three, if “mainstream” can describe a story about a handful of eccentric (oddball) characters thrown together in a madcap scenario.
Hoping not to overlook any one of them we find Rex Black, a sleazy promoter trying to finagle an IPO—by hook or by crook—for a chain of comedy clubs á la “Catch a Rising Star,” which, according to Wikipedia – “[The] satiric novel, Good People, by Steven K. Meyers, captures the ethos of the original club in the 1980′s;” Michael, the long-suffering office manager—basically good but a little ‘shady’ himself, who is partnered in a more-or-less sexless relationship with Conor, a very talented general manager and sexual opportunist of the zip-ram-bam variety. On the distaff side we have Rosetta Stone (you just have to love that name!) who is clawing—and sucking—her way into becoming a headliner; Perri, Black’s worldly assistant—barfing every morning because she is pregnant, out of wedlock of course; and Ashley the wealthy heiress with the scatter-brained room mate, about whom she constantly complaining but refuses to boot out. These make up the principal cast.
I’ve left a few minor characters out, like Siggy the financial finagler, but you get the idea. These are all distinct and well developed; however, probably the most outstanding quality is the dialogue, which iscrisp and rapid fire.
The benefit of reading three different stories is that it gives me an overview of the author’s writing—not complete of course, but an overview nonetheless, and as I alluded above there is something academic about them all. The sentence and paragraph structure are textbook examples of the craft, and the plots are all cleaver, but there is also an academic absence of emotion. The characters interact, but for the most part it is an arm’s length relationship. The other quibble I have is regarding the switching of topics without notice, i.e. the topic is Michael, and the next paragraph is about Conor’s background.
Having said this, it’s a snappy story packed with wonderfully madcap characters and superb dialogue. Enthusiastically recommended. Four stars.
News
The reworked manuscript of Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky is now complete, and it should go to the publisher next week. To read an excerpt, click here.
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That will allow me to get back to my new novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia. Here is the Story blurb, and if you are interested in reading an excerpt, it is posted on my blog: www.gerryburniebooks.wordpress.com
Young Charles Dempster Noseworthy was a charmingly-naïve Englishman who immigrated to Canada in the summer of 1860. Fortunately for posterity, he kept a personal journal of his adventures from the day he arrived, and later consolidated some fifty years of these entries into a manuscript that was never published; quite likely because of the forbidden sexual content.
When he eventually died in 1915 he willed his Alberta ranch, “Meftidy” (a derivative of mephitidae—the Latin classification for skunks) to a distant cousin in England. Unwilling to make the long journey to Canada, however, this cousin simply retained an agent to sell the ranch and all but a few of Charles’ personal possessions. Notice of this auction contained quite an extensive list of items for sale, including one described as “sundry books and papers to be offered as one parcel lot.”
One can only assume that the journals and manuscript were included in this lot, for these eventually ended up here in Ontario where I purchased them at the estate sale of an elderly Canadiana collector in the 1960s. Several journals were missing, but the manuscript was still in tact. It was apparent however that the references to homosexuality, which remained a criminal offense in Canada until 1971, made it almost impossible to publish even then. Because of this I set it aside with a vow that I would see it published one day as a tribute to Charles and his longtime lover, Jesse Arnold Ketchum—a.k.a. “Kid Cupid.”
The third character in The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia is a charming little miss of the mephitidae family, i.e. “Petunia the skunk.” Watch for it.
Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews: 10,925
The Soldier of Raetia: Valerian’s Legion, by Heather Domin
This stoy builds gradually like an orgasm, and climaxes nicely too
Rome, 10BC. New soldier Manilus Dardanus is sent to apprentice under General Cassius Valerian in the hope of securing a military sponsorship. Dardanus is idealistic and naive, Valerian brusque and restrained – but each soon discovers the other is not what he expected. In the legion Dardanus finds purpose and strength; in Dardanus, Valerian finds hope. This bond will be tested on the northern frontier, as Valerian and Dardanus each realize the true nature of their connection just as war and betrayal threaten to end it – and possibly their lives.
Available in soft cover & Kindle formats (542KB)
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although my specialty is Canadian history, I have a great appreciation for all history, and I certainly bow to Heather Domin’s knowledge of Augustinian Rome, as demonstrated in “The Soldier of Raetia: Valerian’s Legion.
I also like her writing style. She provides just the right amount of description to make both characters and settings vivid without slowing the pace. The characters are also well developed and distinctive although I did find Elurius and Pertinax somewhat similar in nature. This applies to their respective relationships with Dardanus and Valerian, as well. The author has also made very good use of dialogue (very credible), without being contrived. What I liked most, however, was that the story builds to a climax gradually—like an orgasm—and the climax was gratifying.
The synopsis of the story is that young Manilus Dardanus has come to Rome at his father’s insisstance. The father has arranged an introduction to the wealthy and illustrious general Marcus Cassius Valerian, who commands Augustus Caesar’s twenty-fourth legion. Crusty General Valerian is hardened by battle and tragedies of the past, and at first 
assumes that Dardanus is like the other sons of sycophants who have sought his favour—i.e. with the idea of an adoption in mind. Despite these reservations, valerian gives him a place within his household and arranges for him to be trained as a soldier. Theirs is an awkward relationship, but in spite of this they both undergo significant changes; Valarian re-discovers deeply buried emotions within himself, and Dardanus grows from a callow boy to a self-sufficient man. He also discovers friendships bonded from hard work and the heat of battle, as well as loyalty asa soldier and for his idol, Valerian.
Having said all that, I had some minor reservations. I certainly bow to Ms Domin’s knowledge of Roman history, but did they travel in carriages (I mean the four-wheel variety) is 10BC Rome? I don’t know, but it seemed at little ‘modern’ to me. Their were some other anachronisms aswell, For example, the phrases “working his ass off,” and “Cut them off at the pass,” also seem a bit modern. However, these certainly didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the story.
Highly recommended. Four and one-half stars.
News: Visitor count to Gerry B’s Book Reviews is currently 10,656
The rewrites of Nor All Thy Tears are progressing:137/191. To read an excerpt, click here.
A bittersweet story of love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of Big Sky, Saskatchewan.
(Soon to released as Nor All Thy Tears, July, 2011)
Sheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician, with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all this the sky seems seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad from small-town Ontario, Canada.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an an ex-con, whose body has been recently found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated, and the stage is set for a political crisis of headling-grabbing proportions.
My apologies…
| I’m late this week, and I do apologize. It has been one of those weeks with a tragic death in the family, and preparing for eye surgery on Tuesday have both kept my thoughts elsewhere. However, I have an exciting new novel, The Soldier of Raetia, to tell you about, tomorrow. So do drop back.
Gerry B. |
The Falling Ascent of Adrian Loft, a novella by T.L. Peters
An intriguing story line that will leave you thinking
Story blurb: Adrian Loft sees a strange “vision” ordering him to do something that may subject him to vicious public ridicule and perhaps ruin his career and even his life. Adrian tries desperately to write off the vision as some psychic quirk, but things keep happening to him, things he can’t ignore. Soon Adrian embarks on a journey that will forever change his life, and perhaps yours too.
Available in Kindle and Nook ebook formats – 148kb, 120 pages.
About the Author: T.L.Peters is an ex-lawyer who enjoys playing Bluegrass Fiddle and giving his dog long walks in the woods. In between he writes novels.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Note: This is not a GLBT story.
I usually don’t review non-GLBT novels, but when I received a request to review The Falling Ascent of Dorian Loft, by T.L. Peters [T.L. Peters; First edition, 2011], I was so fascinated with the title that I had to agree.
There are a lot of good things to be said about this novella-sized story. Journalistically speaking, T. L. Peters has an interesting writing style; very precise, and with a range of vocabulary that one doesn’t generally find in fiction—i.e. “His glandular system was simply responding to powerful internal stimuli.”117, and “There was, of course, another ready explanation, as there almost always was, at least in Adrian’s narrow world of caveats and sine qua nons.” 10. Moreover the characters are vivid and well-defined—if not particularly likable—and the setting is equally vivid. So there is no question that Peters is a master wordsmith—as most lawyers are.
The basic premise of the story is that Adrian Loft, a lawyer with the firm Grim and Dire [you just have to love that name], receives a very detailed vision instructing him to go to a certain public location where he will find a book lying on a rusty manhole cover. There, he is to read a certain lengthy passage aloud to strangers. After much hesitation, reflection, rationalization and procrastination (about 50-pages worth) he finally does, and finds a copy of the King James’ version of the Bible, and the passage is the book of “Numbers” where God instructs Moses following the exodus from Egypt.
Altogether the process of fulfilling the instructions takes about three months to complete, during which time some incredible things happen in Loft’s life—such as getting arrested and ending up in jail—but in the end his life is dramatically changed from the anaemic, dusty nerd he is portrayed to be, to … Ah, but that would be a spoiler.
As a read, The Falling Ascent of Adrian Loft is ‘interesting,’ and throughout it I couldn’t help thinking it was written with tongue-in-cheek. I have never received a vision myself, but generally speaking they are more mystical than:
“Hurry down to the corner of State and Main, between Jake’s Tavern and the whorehouse masquerading as a jazz club, and pick up the black leather bound book lying on the rusted manhole cover, open it to page 126 and read aloud in a strong voice the text beginning at chapter 1. Continue reading until you come to the end of the passage on page 171. If you finish the entire assignment, place the book back onto the manhole cover and your task is complete. If for any reason you are unable to finish, take the book with you and complete the assignment later, either all at once or in installments. Remember that you must read the text aloud in a strong voice in the presence of strangers. When you have read the entire passage in this way, return the book to the manhole cover. Your job is done. Do not be alarmed. You are, after all, a halfway decent lawyer. You can do this. It is really not all that hard.”pg1.
It is almost as if the author is saying, “Look, you’re not going to believe this, but…”
The other thing that makes me think the author is telling this story with a wink is his healthy deprecation of the legal profession, and until I learned he was an ex-lawyer I had my suspicions he might be. So, if read with this understanding in mind the over-the-top plot becomes a amusement.
However … I did have some issues with his story telling. Having variously been a professor of law, politician and magistrate, I well-know the strategy of, “If you can’t outfox them outtalk them,” from both sides of the situation, and I fear that Mr. Peters’ circumlocution-style of writing has ‘talked’ himself out of a top rating. In short, it rambles insufferably.
As I used to tell the lawyers who came before me, “Yes, Yes, that’s all very nice, but what does it have to do with the case? So let’s get on with it,” and I found myself saying this several times while reading this story. I mean, going on for pages about a chili dog or other various and sundry side-issues–as well-written as these might have been–became a frustration after a while.
In short, T. L. Stevens is a very capable writer with a sly sense of humour (which I like), and so I say have a read and judge for yourself. Recommended. Three and one-half stars.
News: This past week I received a preliminary inquiry from a motion picture company regarding the adaptation of Two Irish Lads as a screen play. As I said it’s preliminary, but the lads and I are all excited. May the luck of the Irish prevail.
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The current visitor count to Gerry B’s Book reviews is 10,407
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The reworking of Journey to Big Sky to Nor All Thy Tears is coming along well (105/191 pages) and I’m pleased with it. It really is a good story, with lots of drama and pathos, and I think you’re really going to enjoy it. It should be ready for a July release, but in the meantime you can take a peek at Part 1 by clicking right here.
Song on the Sand, a short story by Ruth Sims
A 24-carat nugget of a story, and highly recommended.
Story blurb: Tony Dalby finds himself on the wrong end of his 80s, confined to a nursing home, with his days as a dancer a thing of the past. The appearance of Drew into his life brings a welcome distraction, as well as a bit of mystery as to why Drew constantly visits the wheelchair-bound, comatose Jesse. As secrets are revealed, Dalby finds he may have a renewed purpose for living after all.
Kindle edition, 44KB (19 pages).
About the author: Ruth Sims has lived her entire life in small town Mid-America, surrounded by corn, wheat, and soybean fields. Like Emily Dickinson she has never seen a Moor and has never seen the Sea, but she’s seen plenty of silos, Amish buggies, whitetails, and amber waves of grain. She’s the wife of one and mother of two … or vice versa. She gets a little confused by the rush of living.
Though many years past schooldays, her education is continuous and far-ranging, with interests running the gamut from Shakespeare to awful puns and limericks; from criminal psychology to the science of baking towering chocolate cakes and artisan bread. Her special love of theatre (as reader and observer only) is apparent in The Phoenix. Her passion for classical and romantic music comes to life in Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story, published by Dreamspinner Press, July 2010. The Phoenix, originally published in 2004, was revised and republished by Lethe Press in 2009.
Though best known as a novelist, she is proud to have several short stories published.
Review by Gerry Burnie
As someone who knows, I’ve always said that a sure sign of getting old is when nearly every topic begins with, “I used to.” Ruth Sims has captured this regrettable fact remarkably well in her poignant short story, Song on the Sand [Untreed Reads, 2010]. In fact Tony Dalby and I share quite a few “I used tos.” I was a former dancer who now only walks with the aid of a walker. I was also an actor and singer (who once played Curly in “Oklahoma”—like Jesse), so I could relate to Tony Dalby at a very personal level. However, unlike Dalby I have never developed a resentment for the loss of these abilities. That’s what makes Song on the Sand so poignant, though. Conflict and resolution, which Ms Sims weaves into the narrative with remarkable believability.
Tony Dalby is a somewhat bitter old man, irascible as well, confined to a wheelchair in an impersonal nursing home. He is in fact what we all fear about getting old; finding ourselves helpless, alone and lonely. Redemption is on the way, however, in the person of a handsome young stranger named Drew. He is a frequent visitor to the nursing home because his “cousin” Jesse is a comatose inmate—the victim of a hit-and-run. Drew befriends Tony and it is then revealed that Jesse (a former amateur actor and singer) is really Drew’s lover, but because same-sex relationships are not recognized as kin, Drew has had to fabricate a kinship in order to gain access to him.
The pathos of this situation begins to inspire Tony to help, and in fact gives him a reason to help himself. He therefore suggests a form of musical therapy by playing music from Broadway musicals, and one of these is Song on the Sand from “La Cage aux Folles,” in which Jesse and he have previously played the same role.
Will it work? Will Jesse respond? Those are questions that I will leave with you, but like me I think you will be as surprised with the answers.
This is a superbly written story about a topic we rarely see in GBLT literature, i.e. the elderly. Nevertheless those usually hot young things do get old, and I am so very pleased to see aging dealt with with such insight and understanding. Do read this story for several reasons. First—as I’ve already mentioned—because of the uniqueness of topic, and also for the masterful way inwhich Ms Sims has crafted it.
A 24-carat nugget of a story, and highly recommended. Five stars.
News: Earlier this week Gerry B’s Book Reviews welcomed its 10,000th vistor. Thank you all. I am humbled.
Read an excerpt from Nor All Thy Tears by Gerry Burnie, scheduled for release in hardcopy and e-book formats, July 2011.
A bittersweet story of love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of Big Sky, Saskatchewan.
Sheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician, with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all this the sky seems seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad from small-town Ontario, Canada.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an an ex-con whose body has been recently found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime, simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated, and the stage is set for a political crisis of destructive proportions.
Strawberries and Cream at the Plaza, a short story by Ryan Field
The narrative reads like strawberries and cream.
Story blurb: Sometimes true love is in your own backyard, and you never would have guessed it was there. Handsome, young Kellan works too hard and doesn’t spend enough time meeting new men. Deep down, he’s an old-fashioned guy who believes in romance and true love. He’s tired of sex for the sake of sex and wonders about whether or not he’ll ever meet the man of his dreams and fall in love. Though he’s willing to put his heart on the line to start a new relationship, the men he’s been seeing aren’t interested. Until he finally comes in contact with a nice young guy he never expected to meet. They exchange a few e-mails, set up a date to meet in Central Park, and wind up spending a wonderful Sunday morning together that ends at The Plaza Hotel where they dine on strawberries and cream. After that, they discover a connection neither one of them could have predicted. And though they are extremely attracted to each other, Kellan is adamant about getting to know the man he’s falling in love with first before they jump into bed together.
Kindle edition: 127 KB (25 pages).
Review by Gerry Burnie
Sometimes fate really does work in your favour … Well, in fiction, anyway. That’s the premise behind Ryan Field’s charming short story, Strawberries and Cream at the Plaza [loveyoudivine Alterotica, 2010], and it comes across quite delightfully.
The main character, Kellan—a free lance writer and first-person narrator—is given a writing assignment to review a blog authored by Jason Patriot. Impressed by what he sees he contacts the writer to set up an interview, choosing a neutral place to meet in Central Park. They meet, and as these things sometimes do, events progress to where Patriot invites Kellan—not to bed—but to the dining room of luxurious Plaza Hotel for strawberries and Cream.
To reveal more of the story line would be a bit of a spoiler, but I can say that the narrative flows like strawberries and cream, and the story is as tasteful as a sprinkle of sugar. If I have a quibble it would be that the ending is a bit truncated without a satisfying resolution.
Enthusiastically recommended for a short read. Four stars.
Proudly presenting the cover design for Two Irish Lads (electronic version) by Alex Beecroft. It will be released in July, along with Nor All Thy Tears: See below.
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Read an excerpt from Nor All Thy Tears by Gerry Burnie, scheduled for release in hardcopy and e-book formats, July 2011.
A bittersweet story of love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of Big Sky, Saskatchewan.
Sheldon Cartwright is a young, exceptionally handsome and gifted politician, with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career is also in ascendance, and given all this the sky seems seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad from small-town Ontario, Canada.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the publication of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end male prostitute with a romantic connection to an an ex-con, whose body has been recently found mutilated beyond recognition in a burned-out apartment.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime simply because he is young, handsome and well-educated, and the stage is set for a political crisis of headling-grabbing proportions.
Shining in the Sun, by Alex Beecroft
A superbly written coming-out story with some very clever, unique and original differences.
Story blurb: Damn it, a man shouldn’t always have to be afraid…
Alec Goodchilde has everything a man could want—except the freedom to be himself. Once a year, he motors down to an exclusive yacht club on the Cornish coast and takes the summer off from the trap that is his life.
When his car breaks down, leaving him stranded on the beach, he’s transfixed by the sight of a surfer dancing on the waves. The man is summer made flesh. Freedom wrapped up in one lithe package, dripping wet from the sea.
Once a year, Darren Stokes takes a break from his life of grinding overwork and appalling relatives, financing his holiday by picking up the first rich man to show an interest. This year, though, he’s cautious—last summer’s meal ticket turned out to be more pain than pleasure.
Even though Alec is so deep in the closet he doesn’t even admit he’s gay, Darren finds himself falling hard—until their idyllic night together is shattered by the blinding light of reality.
About the author: Alex Beecroft was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and grew up in the wild countryside of the Peak District. Alex studied English and Philosophy before accepting employment with the Crown Court where she worked for a number of years. Now a stay-at-home mum and full time author, Alex lives with her husband and two daughters in a little village near Cambridge and tries to avoid being mistaken for a tourist.
Alex is only intermittently present in the real world. She has lead a Saxon shield wall into battle, toiled as a Georgian kitchen maid, and recently taken up an 800 year old form of English folk dance, but she still hasn’t learned to operate a mobile phone.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
I love stories about British, upper middle-class characters. For one thing, they have a style that is both charmingly stodgy and dauntless at the same time. Never mind that that temerity is born out of a seemingly artless smugness because therein lies their charm. That said, author Alex Beecroft has captured this artlessness to perfection in her latest, 14-carat nugget, Shining in the Sun [Samhain Publishing, May 3, 2011]. Moreover, she has cleverly contrasted it against an artful beach-bum and petty hustler, so right there you know this is going to be a good read.
Ptolemy Alexander St. John-Goodchilde [you have to love that name] is the young bourgeois: very wealthy, very shy, and saddled with an over protective, domineering mother, and a devoted fiancé. Like every young entrepreneur, however, Alec (his preferred name) likes to get away from his family and the old stock portfolio to spend a month on his yacht, typically named The Lady Jane—a good, solid middle-class name.
Fate had other ideas, however, for when his expensive auto, a Morgan Roadsters, breaks down in a small seaside village he is unexpectedly encountered by a copper-haired surfer god, who—in Alec’s eyes—emerges from the sea like the male version of The Birth of Venus.
Darren is the product of a neglected childhood, abandoned by his father and raised by his grandmother, and as she is now ailing he is taking care of her. To make ends meet, so to speak, he sells his body to rich men with the justification that this is a reciprocal-type of love; they want his body and he wants their financial support.
I must mention here, as well, that Alec’s “chat-up” with Darren, on their first encounter, is one of the most original seduction scenes I have ever read. Alec is so painfully shy and inexperienced, and so unconsciously turned-on by this Coppertone Adonis, that he is pathetically charming about it—so much so that you want to hug him and say, “Just do your thing, baby”—which is what the author intended, I’m sure.
Which segues me into my next point. This is writing at a very sophisticated level. Fundamentally it reads effortlessly, the descriptions are evocative with a creative twist, and both the story line and pace flow along quite nicely. However what really stands out, without being obvious, is the control that makes it a clever story—as apposed to being clichéic; which, with this sort of a scenario could have been. Rather, the characters are complex because of their simplicity, as is the story line, and a happy ending seems only right to cap it off.
This is a superbly written coming-out story with some very clever, unique and original differences. Highly recommended. Five stars.
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Read an excerpt from Nor All Thy Tears by Gerry Burnie, scheduled for release in hardcopy and e-book formats, July 2011.
A bittersweet story of love, obsession, treachery, murder, and finally solace under the northern lights of big sky country, Saskatchewan.Sheldon Cartwright is a young, handsome and gifted politician with a beautiful wife and two charming children. His career in ascendance as well, and given all this the sky seems the only limit to this talented, blue-eyed lad from rural Ontario.
However, Cartwright also has a hidden past that one day bursts onto the front page of a tabloid newspaper with the display of his nude photograph. Moreover, the inside story alleges that he was once a high-end, male prostitute with a male lover—a hulking and psychopathically obsessive killer—who has recently been declared murdered when a body is found in his burned-out apartment.
Enter a homophobic cop who is willing to go to any lengths to tie Cartwright into the crime, and the stage is set for a political downfall in spite of Cartwright’s valiant efforts to salvage it.
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Matelots: Raised By Wolves, Volume 2, by W.A. Hoffman
An inriguing era, colourful setting and endearing characters. Enthusiastically recommended.
Story Blurb: Buccaneer adventure/romance. The second of a series chronicling the relationship between an emotionally wounded and disenchanted English lord and an insane and lonely French exile, set among the buccaneers of Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1667.
Publisher’s blurb: Part two of an epic four part “love story for men” set amongst the buccaneers of Port Royal during the infamous Henry Morgan raids. It is the story of the relationship between two lonely and scarred men as they attempt to find happiness and peace through love and friendship. With adventure and romance, this chronicle explores questions and themes of gender, sexual preference, societal acceptance of homosexuality, survival of childhood abuse, and how to build a lasting relationship in a world gone mad.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Although I have been watching the Raised by Wolves series for quite a while, Matelots: Raised By Wolves, Volume 2 [Alien Perspective, 2007] by W.A. Hoffman is the first that I have read. To begin, I like the swashbuckling genre of buccaneers and pirates, and the romantic setting of the 17th-century Caribbean. Moreover, the author has done a fine job of describing both of these in colourful detail so that the reader becomes immersed in the story—the way a good historical-fiction should do.
And for those who enjoy character-driven tales, Will and Gaston’s are both engaging. Will is a romantic who lives and loves to the fullest. He’s also a keen observer of humanity, and seeks to understand the complexities of human nature, particularly when it comes to Gaston, who is the victim of a damaging past. In Gaston’s case it is not an easy quest, for he also suffers from a kind of madness that has been with him from birth.
It is here, however that the story suffers a debilitating set back. Will’s deeply held convictions regarding the human condition seem strangely anachronistic for 17th-century European thinking. After all, Europe was an exporter of human misery in the 17th-century, especially to the Caribbean. Moreover, as a previous reviewer has already pointed out, Gaston’s medical expertise seems anachronistically modern as well.
That said, Will and Gaston are still delightful characters, and perhaps even more endearing because of their very human foibles. Wills’ first person narrative also contributes to this, and adds some charming elements—such as saving a supporting character from being pressed only to find out that he doesn’t like him very well.
The secondary cast are all well-developed and interesting, too. The difficulty with introducing a large number of supporting characters is the risk of cluttering the story line, but here Hoffman has managed them all quite well, and made them all distinct as well.
An intriguing era, colourful setting and endearing characters, and altogether an enjoyable read. Enthusiastically recommended. Four stars.
Chronicle the First Part 1: The Lost Boy (The Noricin Chronicles) by Mark Sheldon
A charming and witty tale
Story blurb: Dan Regal has always been alone, having been left on the steps of an orphanage when he was only a baby. He has never had any visitors, nor made any true friendships with the other children at the orphanage. Aside from this utter, inescapable aloneness, Dan Regal is an entirely normal, unremarkable young boy.
But all of that is about to change…
On Dan’s twelfth birthday, he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger, a man by the name of Nevar Loeren, who claims to be the Principal of a school for children with special gifts – and he says that Dan has the very gifts they seek. The mysterious Mr. Loeren then vanishes before Dan’s very eyes, leaving him to doubt his sanity. But this will not be the last young Dan sees of the enigmatic stranger. Little does Dan know it, but he is just about to find out that he is part of a world he never even dreamed to be possible – and that he is anything but alone in that world.
Review by Gerry Burnie
At first blush Chronicle the First Part 1: The Lost Boy (The Noricin Chronicles) by Mark Sheldon [Mark Sheldon, 2011], is a hard story to categorize. It is, I understand, not intended for younger readers, and yet it is written in a style that would be more appropriate to such an age group. Even some of the characters’ have juvenile names, i.e. Tommy Tuttle. So, superficially, one might be tempted to set it aside as being immature. On second thought, however, that would be at the cost of overlooking a very talented writer; a marvelously witty sense of humour; a charming story; and a fresh approach to adult reading.
Briefly, Daniel Regal has lived pretty much his entire life in an orphanage. He is an average boy in every respect, but on his 12th birthday he is attacked by the resident bully, Tommy Tuttle, and at the time he thinks how satisfying it would be if he could “just set Tommy on fire”. To his utter surprise, the bully is engulfed in a ball of flame.
He is next visited by a suave and mysterious man, Nevar Loeren, who tells him that he is far from average. In fact, he is a “Norcinite,” a group of people with special powers, and invites him to attend their school, Snisnar, to train him to control these powers. There he will learn to move objects with his mind, create protective shields, control his own thoughts and read the minds of others. Since he has few options in the world, and would have to submit to frequent episodes of mind control if he refuses to enroll, he eventually decides to go.
From there on in, his life is changed, and he develops a friendship with Mike and Shelley who become a triumvirate, a working team who care for each other.
However, At Snisnar Dan begins to have nightmares, and is in fact attacked on several occasions by an unseen enemy. Apparently, at one time, there was a group of Norcinites who believed they were superior to the lesser race of Commen (the Old Race), and wanted to eliminate these and those Norcinites who married Commen and their children—i.e. those who did not directly descend from Steven Noricin—the founder of Sisnar.
Key to getting to bottom of all this are some cryptic puzzles that Steven Noricin left behind, and knowing something of how Mark Sheldon’s thinking works—from postings on his Facebook page—I suspect there is quite a parallel between the two.
The quibbles I have are minor. Yes, I did find the story somewhat under developed at this stage, perhaps a bit rushed as well, but it is the first of a 12-part series, and I am sure it will gain depth as the other parts unfold.
Altogether I found it delightfully refreshing, and it took me back to when I sat in a fence corner of our family farm reading about wizards and villains. Enthusiastically recommended. Four stars.
News: I am currently rewriting Journey to Big Sky for re-release as Nor All Thy Tears: A Canadian M2M Romance. Scheduled for re-release in July 2011.
Two Irish Lads is being formatted in a Kindle version. Watch for a launch date.
Silver Saddles: The Dakota Series #2, by Cap Iversen
A fun read.
| This week’s review is rather short. After spending all day Thursday and Friday travelling back to Canada, I arrived home to find that technical reasons prevented me from getting online until a few hours ago. My apologies. |
Publisher’s blurb: Dakota Taylor, the gay gunslinger, is back. Here, Dakota leaves his lover Bennie on the ranch for a short trip into town. But as he heads home, somebody tries to use him for target practice. Soon Dakota finds himself two hundred miles from Bennie, with no chance of returning until he finds out who wants him dead—and why.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Having read Arson: The Dakota Series by Cap Iversen, and enjoyed it, I then went on to find (not that easily done) Silver Saddles [Alyson Books, 1993].
In this tale, gunslinger Dakota Taylor is now happily partnered with Benjamin Colsen, whom he met in the first of the series, and all is well until he get’s the news that his mother has passed away at the family’s homestead. After hearing this news in town he is ambushed on his way home, and discovers that someone has posted a bounty for him, dead or alive. When he recovers from his injuries, he sets out on a nine-month odyssey to find out why someone would hate him enough to go to all this effort to see him dead.
To this point it is classic western fare, i.e. good guy v. bad guy(s), but then the author takes off on a flight of fancy that is both complex and incredible at times. It is the sort of thing that requires not only tight writing, but also tight control of the characters and events that are galloping all over the place. In this regard Iversen does quite well for the most part, and almost pulls it off…that is, almost.
Fundamentally, the story suffers from too many characters doing too many things, as well as a plot that is too clever-by-half. Still, having said that, if you read it as being a “let’s pretend the West was like that,” it is a fun read and an evening’s entertainment. Three and one-half stars.
Wrestling With Love, by D. H. Starr
Enthusiastically recommended.
Story blurb: Derek Thompson and Scott Thayer met in high school. Facing challenges and overcoming obstacles that would make lesser young men fold, they now have the chance to forge a life together. As they enter college, they finally have the time and space to discover each other sexually and give their virginity to each other. However, in spite of the erotic thrill of exploration, there are still challenges ahead, challenges that will test their love and devotion…
While Derek wants to live as an openly gay man, Scott wishes to maintain a degree of privacy. Not only that, but another freshman, Tyrell Jackson, becomes infatuated with Derek and wants Derek for his own. In the face of these threats to their burgeoning relationship, Derek and Scott are forced to look within themselves and make difficult decisions which will change both of their lives forever.
Is their relationship strong enough to bear the strain of balancing their needs as individuals and as a couple? The only way Derek and Scott will attain their ultimate reward is by finding the courage to face their fears. Will they rise to the challenge?
Publisher’s note: This book was previously published under the title Reward of Courage.
Available in Kindle and Nook formats – 510KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
This is the second of a series by D. H. Starr, the first I’ve read, but Wresting With Love [Ai Press, 2011] is a stand-alone story and a good place to start.
The basic story, written in third-person narrative style, explores the relationship between two gay young men, Derek and Scott, as it matures from high school into college. Although they both love each other very much, they have quite different attitudes. Derek wants to express his love and sexuality freely, while Scott is more reticent—preferring to keep his expressions private.
Enter the mischief-maker in the person of Tyrell Jackson, a gay-activist, who has designs on Derek and not willing to take “no” for an answer.
Altogether it’s an interesting, complex story that the author weaves very well. In fact, D. H. Starr is a superb craftsman when it comes to the written word. His journalism is top notch, his ideas flow consistently, and his understanding of the characters comes across as real. However, for my taste the pace was frustratingly slow in places, sometimes devoting one or more pages to a point I found only passsingly relevant.
Having said that, the pluses far outnumber the quibbles and I have no problem in enthusiastically recommending this story. Four stars.
Be an alpha reader: Read an excerpt from my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia, an M/M light comedy and adventure tale, and add your comments at the bottom of this page, or email them to me at: gerryb@gerryburniebooks.com.
News: Two Irish Lads will soon be available in Kindle format. It is currently available in e-book format from iUniverse.
Mere Mortals, by Erastes
This is perhaps Erastes best effort yet
Orphaned Crispin Thorne has been taken as ward by Philip Smallwood, a man he’s never met, and is transplanted from his private school to Smallwood s house on an island on the beautiful but coldly remote, Horsey Mere in Norfolk. Upon his arrival, he finds that he’s not the only young man given a fresh start. Myles Graham, and Jude Middleton are there before him, and as their benefactor is away, they soon form alliances and friendships, as they speculate on why they ve been given this new life. Who is Philip Smallwood? Why has he given them such a fabulous new life? What secrets does the house hold and what is it that the Doctor seems to know? Trust acclaimed author Erastes to tell a moving story in the field of gay historical romance.
About the author: Erastes is the penname of a female author who lives in the area where this book is based. Author of seven books and twenty short stories, this is her third full-length novel. A Lambda award finalist and keen lover of history, she began writing full-time after leaving the legal profession finding it stranger than any fiction.
Review by Gerry Burnie
When it comes to man-on-man, historical romance and adventure, the name Erastes invariably comes to the fore, and her latest creation, Mere Mortals [Lethe Press, March 23, 2011] is perhaps her best effort yet. It is in my mind, anyhow, and I’ve read and reviewed many of her novels and short stories in the past.
The first thing one notices about this novel is the subtlety with which the story unfolds, and the leisurely, measured pace that is so in keeping with a nineteenth-century theme. For example, the story opens with a coach ride through the countryside setting, and with this clever device the reader is invited aboard to see it for him/herself, i.e:
“There was nothing here to write about, or so it seemed. After so many years spent at school in the well manicured quadrangle and playing fields of Barton Hall, this new landscape seemed empty, untidy and bleak. A light mist covered the land as far as the horizon, little more than a thin vapour, but it was enough to drain all colour from the scene passing by the carriage window. I gave a wry smile. Colour that mainly consists of bleached dead reeds, brown ditches and brown muddy pools
“Since leaving Yarmouth the coach had travelled slowly north, following the coast road, such as it was. The coachman had warned us passengers that the roads were bad at this time of the year and he wasn’t wrong; more than once the three of us – for that’s all there was, travelling in the filthy weather – had to alight, braving the vicious biting wind to assist the coach out of one of the larger ruts we encountered. Even inside the coach with the curtains drawn, the wind sliced its way through any small gaps in the woodwork.”
Ergo, in one deft stroke the author sets the tone, the pace, the theme, as well as introducing the narrator and some of the characters. This is writing at a very high level of the craft—almost a textbook example—and it is why Erastes has earned the respect she enjoys.
Mere Mortals is very much a Gothic story with the requisite manor located on a bleak mere, secret passageways, sphinx like servants, and a handsome but mysterious master. All of them playing their parts delightfully, as do the three boys. There is tension, too; plenty of it. Tension that is velvet-wrapped in mystery. It permeates the atmosphere but never becomes blatant or oppressive until it surfaces near the end; when the secret of Bittern’s Reach is revealed.
If you are a fan of M/M romance, historical fiction or Gothic tales, all superbly written, then Mere Mortals is bound to please on all counts.
Be an alpha reader: Read an excerpt from my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia, an M/M light comedy and adventure tale, and add your comments at the bottom of this page, or email them to me at: gerryb@gerryburniebooks.com.
Two Irish Lads , by Gerry Burnie
Note: A tribute to St. Patrick’s Day. This review by Mark Probst originally appeared in Speak its Name, April 15, 2009.
Story blurb: Two Irish Lads is a pioneer story with a difference. It is at once a carefully-researched depiction of pioneer life in the early part of the nineteenth century, and also a love story of two men who might have lived during such a challenging time.
Sean and Patrick McConaghy are two young cousins who set sail from Ireland one St. Patrick’s Day in 1820, and after a long and eventful crossing of the Atlantic, they tackle the mighty St. Lawrence River with a band of rugged voyageurs to eventually settle in the wilderness of Upper Canada.
Here they are not only confronted by the daunting task of carving a homestead out of the vast primeval forest, but also the ever-present danger of living as a devoted couple in a world where the possibilities of humiliation and death stalked them at every turn if their secret should ever be discovered.
It is a tale that also encompasses mystery, tragedy, brawling, humour and pathos, and altogether it will have you turning pages to discover what is about to happen next.
Available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, as well as in e-book formate at iUniverse.
About the author: Now retired, Gerry Burnie has had a long and varied career. For twenty-five years prior to his retirement, he lectured on the topics of political science and law at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Canada. Following that, he turned his interest to history, and lectured for a further five years on the topic of early pioneer settlement in Ontario. In addition, he has been an actor, singer, dancer, artist and municipal politician at various times in his life. These pursuits have been somewhat curtailed on account of his age but not his industrious spirit.
Review by Mark Probst - Author of “The Filly“
Gerry Burnie’s Two Irish Lads is a quaint tale of second cousins Sean and Patrick McConaghy who migrate to Canada from their homeland of Ireland in the year 1820. With their life’s savings they intended to buy some land in “upper Canada” (the area now known as Ontario) and make a good life as farmers with the hope of prosperity.
Once they arrive they visit the land office and select a choice piece of property. With a few supplies and a tent, they take on the task of clearing the land, hoping to build a shelter before winter. The two lads eventually realize they are in love. One of the settlement’s wealthy leaders, Nealon, takes them under his wing, giving them advice, arranging a cabin-raising for them, and even getting Sean a job as a schoolmaster. It is soon revealed that he has an ulterior motive in that he hopes they might marry his two daughters.
There are a few harsh realities through which they must persevere, before all the dust settles, but I won’t spoil it by revealing any more.
The story is written in the style of Sean’s daily journal. While the first few chapters do indeed read like an authentic journal, thankfully Burnie then shifts to more of a first-person narrative than how a real journal would read, but that is simply to accommodate the storytelling process.
Burnie’s knowledge and research shine through in that the story beautifully describes 19th century Irish customs and decorum. He even uses a few Gaelic phrases, always with translation, and the dialog sounds so right you can practically hear the Irish brogue.
I thought the characters were well-developed and exuded a great deal of charm. Sean was the leader and sensible one, whereas the younger Patrick was more carefree and daring. While he yearned to be able to be open and proclaim his “secret love” to the world, he deferred to Sean’s wisdom and together they balanced each other out. The details of frontier life were also well researched, and the descriptions were vivid enough to give us a good picture of the landscapes and the settlements.
My quibbles are minor – I’d have liked to see more of Sean actually teaching the children, and I felt there were a few times some of the characters were just a little too perky for my taste.
I really enjoyed Two Irish Lads. It suits my personal taste of an upbeat depiction of frontier life, and I especially like stories where people come together to help each other and fight against the evils that threaten them. I look forward to reading more from this gifted author.
Be an alpha reader: Read an excerpt from my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia, an M/M light comedy and adventure tale, and add your comments at the bottom of this page, or email them to me at: gerryb@gerryburniebooks.com.
We’re growing! Gerry B’s Book Reviews has reached another threshold of readership. As of this week we passed the 8,000 mark from a year ago, and nearly 1,200 more than last month. Thanks folks!
Pioneers, by Lynn Lorenz
An insightful and altogether touching story
Story Blurb: When Matt films a documentary of gay men living in New Orleans over the last fifty years, his first subject is none other than Sebastian LaGrange, his very own landlord. The elderly gentleman has lived through good times and bad, has seen and done it all, and Matt thinks he’s perfect for the project. Although Sebastian is initially reluctant, he comes to believe in the project, and opens up his life like never before, telling his story from the first time he kissed a boy, to the present.
What Matt uncovers is not only a history of being gay in their beloved city, but he unravels the mysterious past of one of New Orleans’ most desired gay men. Sebastian has been a friend and mentor to Matt and his partner Lane, and even in his old age, Sebastian has even more to teach them about love…
Available in Kindle format, 136KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
There are a whole bunch of good things that can be said about “Pioneers” by Lynn Lorenz [Amber Quill Press, 2010]. To begin, it is superbly written. The syntax flows flawlessly, the characters are well developed, and the pace keeps the story moving along at a comfortable pace. All important pluses in my opinion.
I also found the era in which the story is set—i.e. the 1940s & 50s—a wonderfully nostalgic bonus. As the chief supporting character, Sebastian, says: “It was the fifties, lamb chop. One didn’t come out of the closet, one tiptoed out.” And, later, Matt observes: “That’s what I want to show with this film, baby. I want the young gay men of today to understand what the older gays lived through, how they survived. Or didn’t.” Having come out during the same era, I can readily identify with both of these sentiments.
Another appealing aspect is that the story deals with romance between older men; a somewhat unique topic for most writers of male-on-male fiction. In fact, the only other series that comes to mind is Ronald L. Donaghe’s Common Threads in the Life Series.
I do have a few minor quibbles, though. Although I understand the author’s intention to add dimensional depth to the characters, I found the switching of voices and times to be a little distracting. I also found the flashback scenes between Sebastian and his dead lover Frank, although a relevant to discuss the onset of AIDS in the 1970s, just a bit too lengthy and even saccharin at times.
I hasten to add, however, that these few, minor quibbles do not substantially detract from an insightful and altogether touching story.
Enthusiastically recommended. Four and on-half stars.
Be an alpha reader: Read an excerpt from my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia, an M/M light comedy and adventure tale, and add your comments at the bottom of this page, or email them to me at: gerryb@gerryburniebooks.com.
We’re growing! Gerry B’s Book Reviews has reached another threshold of readership. As of this week we passed the 8,000 mark from a year ago, and nearly 1,200 more than last month. Thanks folks!
Warrior Prince, by J.P. Bowie
Recommended as a good read
Blurb: Set in the early turbulent years of the Roman Empire, and seen through the eyes of three men, Warrior Prince tells the story of a love that will not be denied, of courage in the face of adversity, of political intrigue, betrayal and death. Against this backdrop of death and mayhem, Lucius and Callistus, two estranged lovers, meet at last, but can their love overcome the enormous odds they must face when it seems that every man – and the gods – are determined to tear them apart once more?
About the author: J.P. Bowie hails from Scotland – and has lived in the States for the past 30 years. Originally a singer, J.P. turned to stagecraft, working at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas for the illustrious magicians, Siegfried and Roy.
J.P. began writing seriously in 2000, self publishing a series of books featuring a young artist living in Laguna Beach. The series was successful and since then J.P. has been published by TEB Press, a UK based publishing company, and MLR Press under the auspices of Laura Baumbach.
His recent series of vampire stories, originally only available in ebook form, will now be available in print starting June 2009.
212 pages. Available in Kindle & Nook formats, 298 KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
This is the first J.P. Bowie novel I have read, but judging from “Warrior Prince” [MLR Press, 2009] I conclude that he is an accomplished writer. Certainly his prose is well constructed and also flows along at an easy-to-read pace. Moreover, the characters are quite well developed, and for the most part believable.
Lucius, a middle-class Roman, leads a quite comfortable life except for an unrelenting longing for his departed lover, Callistus. The latter is a former fugitive slave with Spartacus’s defeated uprising, and Lucius is uncertain whether he is alive or dead.
Reminiscent of a decadent, pre-Christian Rome, a vastly wealthy merchant introduces Lucius to a handsome tribune, Flavius Sedonius, who is sexually indifferent between male and female, and after a brief affair with Lucius, Flavius mentions that he is marching back to Gaul to do battle with a Prince Callistus.
Encouraged by evidence that Callistus lives, Lucius signs-up with the army in the hope of finding Callistus, but ends up in another part of Gaul, while Flavius is captured by Callistus in the other. In another twist of fate that Roman Legions free both, and Callistus is taken back to Rome to die in the arena.
I won’t spoil the ending by talking about the outcome, but it does add a touch of drama to a fairly tame romance by imperial Roman standards.
Overall it is a good read with some interesting twists, some drama, and enough sex and romance to satisfy. My strongest quibble, however, is that it takes some unacceptable liberties with the period. This is particularly so regarding such anachronistic phrases as “to tie the knot,” referring to a marriage, which dates from about the 13th century, A.D. Also, “he should make an honest woman of her,” which the Online Etymology Dictionary dates from about the 17th century.Laving said that, I recommend Warrior Prince as a good read. Three and one-half stars.
Read an excerpt from my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia, an M/M light comedy & adventure. Comments welcome. Add your comments, or e-mail them to me at gerry@gerryburniebooks.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Last week 293 visitors viewed Gerry B’s Book Reviews – up 5.4% from the week before. Thank you all. GB
Secret Historian:The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade, by Justin Spring
Will the real Samuel Steward please stand up…
Blurb: Drawn from the secret, never-before-seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century. An intimate friend of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, Steward maintained a secret sex life from childhood on, and documented these experiences in brilliantly vivid (and often very funny) detail.
After leaving the world of academe to become Phil Sparrow, a tattoo artist on Chicago’s notorious South State Street, Steward worked closely with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex research. During the early 1960s, Steward changed his name and identity once again, this time to write exceptionally literate, upbeat pro-homosexual pornography under the pseudonym Phil Andros.
Until today Steward’s many identities have been known to only a few—but an extraordinary archive of his papers, lost since his death in 1993, has provided Justin Spring with the material for an exceptionally compassionate and brilliantly illuminating life-and-times biography. More than merely the story of one remarkable man, Secret Historian is a moving portrait of homosexual life in the years before gay liberation.
Hardcover – 496 pages; also available in Kindle format – 898 KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
It’s difficult to know what to say about Secret Historian by Justin Spring [Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2010]. It is the type of story that overwhelms while you’re reading it, and stays with you long after you set it down. Moreover, while I liked and admired Justin Spring’s writing, and the nostalgic look at the twentieth century, I disliked the principal character, Samuel Steward, as being disturbingly egocentric and self-serving.
Having said that, I will start by saying that even though Spring was the beneficiary of nearly thirty boxes of Steward’s journals, papers, photographs, etc. (a horde that most writers—especially me—would give their souls to find), he still had to sort and categorize these into a meaningful order for the rest of us. Not an easy task, given Steward’s will-of-the-wisp nature. In this regard, I believe has done a masterful job of tracing Steward’s development from a displaced youngster in a stiflingly, religious-bound backwater, to the avant-garde salons of Paris; overseen by such literary giants as Gertrude Stein and Alice B Tolkas.
On a personal note I identified most sympathetically with Steward’s small town beginnings, whereby he learned very quickly how to be deceptive because it was what others wanted, i.e.
[The situation was that Steward had written a ‘love’ note to a salesman who had unethically made it public. Thereby, Steward’s father (a drunken, drug-using Sunday school teacher) found out about it and confronted his son.] “I want to know what the hell a son of mine is doing writing love letters to another man.” Steward recalled him saying in his journal, and then went on: ““I think,” I said, drawing on my new vocabulary from Havelock Ellis, “that I am homosexual.”
“…Don’t give me any of your smartaleck high school rhetoric!” He [his father] bellowed…[And] that was the way the conversation went on for about an hour. When I saw that he wanted to believe that I had not actually sinned, the game became fairly easy…I pretended to be chastened, to be horror-struck at the enormity of [what I had proposed to the salesman]…I worked it to the hilt, falling in easily with his suggestion that perhaps I should go to see a professional whore—that such an experience might start me on a heterosexual (he said “normal”) path.””
It was the first lesson that he, and we, learned about being homosexual in pre-Stonewall days—pre-bathhouse-raid days in Canada (1981). Deception and compartmentalization were the prices paid for pursuing an alternative lifestyle; not because one wanted to live a lie, but because others were uncomfortable with the truth. Oh, and the understood cure for deviance was the “Royal Fuck,” as a friend of mine once coined it.
It is not at all surprising that Steward could juggle multiple lives; including, incidentally, a (alcoholic) professor of graduate studies. Moreover, his students apparently loved him, and he loved them; one in particular, for whom he traded “As” for blow jobs.
One of the things I found quite interesting was the absence of the term “gay” when referring to himself or others as homosexual. Rather, he used the more clinical descriptor “invert,” “deviant” or, occasionally, the pejorative “queer.” This is no doubt due to the fact that “gay,” referring to a homosexual, dates from after WWII (1945). It, too, was used as a pejorative until it was adopted by the gay community.
Another aspect that fascinated me was the treatment for syphilis in the pre-penicillin era, i.e.
“The best treatment then available was ‘a three year ordeal—[including] weekly shots of Neosalvarsan from a doctor…’”
“The painful weekly shots gave Steward both purpura and a skin ulcer. After the course of neosalvarsan came a mercury ointment that he had to rub into his armpits and groin, and then a course of saturated solution of potassium iodide ‘which caused the skin to erupt all over [my] back in what looked like Job’s boils.’”
The fact that Steward contracted syphilis is not at all surprising, for he was a twentieth-century Satyr with an insatiable sexual appetite, and who kept his own ‘scoreboard’ on 3” x 5” file cards that he referred to as his “Stud File.” These included sailors, thugs, underage hustlers, Rudolph Valentino, Thorton Wilder (“Our Town”), students, policemen, ex-cons, priests, Hells Angels, scripted orgies, and brutal S/M sessions (both scripted and otherwise). Indeed, so prodigious was he that it surprising he found the time to do anything else.
Nevertheless, Justin Spring, like a good biographer, never judges; rather, he leaves it to the readers to draw their own conclusions. In this respect, while Secret Historian is a valuable look at gay history throughout much of the twentieth century, it is seen through the slightly distorted prism of one man’s exploits. Enthusiastically recommended for biography fans, and students of the twentieth century. Four stars.
Last week 310 visitors viewed Bashed, by Rick Reed. Thank you for your insterest. Gerry B.
Bashed: A Love Story, by Rick R Reed
I’m a fan!
Blurb: Three haters. Two lovers. And a collision course with tragedy. That October night, Donald and Mark had no idea their lives and love were about to be shattered by fag bashers, intent on pain, and armed with ridicule, fists, and an aluminum baseball bat. Bashed charts the course of a journey that encompasses suspense, horror, and–ultimately–romance.
About the author: Rick R. Reed has been described as the “Stephen King of gay horror” by Unzipped Magazine. And Dark Scribe magazine said, “Reed is an established brand — perhaps the most reliable contemporary author for thrillers that cross over between the gay fiction market and speculative fiction.” Reed also chronicles the emotional lives of gay men in his work, with an increasing eye toward exploring the romance genre.
Review by Gerry Burnie
This is the first Rick Reed novel I have read, but after reading “Bashed: A Love Story” [MLR Press, 2009], I have become a fan.
Right from the first few pages you get the notion that the author is in control of his craft, and that this is going to be an action-thriller worthy of the label. Moreover Reed delivers, consistently, from start to finish.
To begin, Donald and Mark are two lovers who, through no fault of their own, are victimized by three, thrill-seeking punks, under the malevolent influence of Ronny—a sexually confused, twenty-something psychopath. Out of this group we also get to meet Justin, not a bad kid who is somewhat overwhelmed by the prevalent forces in his life—his sinister friend Ronny, his gay uncle Walter, and a society that isn’t clear on the point, either. Ergo, bashing fags is the thing to do in order to prove your manhood on a Saturday night.
From a story standpoint, these characters are all superbly developed—with the exception of Luis, who seems to disappear after his walk-on part. Nevertheless, character development is one of the very strong points of this novel; standing side-by-side with a cleverly constructed plot that keeps the reader involved from start to finish. “Masterful” is a term that comes to mind, again and again.
There are some minor quibbles, however. As I have previously mentioned, Luis is a character that had me wondering why he was introduced. On the other hand, I didn’t entirely buy into the ghost scenes as being palpable. I hasten to add, however, that these anomalies didn’t seriously detract from the overall quality of the story or the writing.
Enthusiastically recommended as a darned good read. Four and one-half stars.
Last week, February 4th to 11th, 247 visitors viewed Gerry B’s Book Review. Thanks!
GB
A Shared Range, by Andrew Grey
Not one of Andrew Grey’s best efforts
Blurb: After a year in medical school, Dakota Holden returned home to take care of the family business full time and help his father cope with multiple sclerosis. Devoted to his family, Dakota allows himself just one week of vacation a year, which he spends in some exotic location having all the fun he can stand. On his last vacation, a cruise, Dakota struck up a friendship with Phillip Reardon, and it fills an important role in Dakota’s life. So when Phillip decides to take Dakota up on his invitation to visit the ranch, Dakota is happy to see him and meet his veterinarian friend, Wally Schumacher. Despite Wally’s inclination to help the wolves Dakota’s men shoot to protect the cattle, he and Dakota find they have a lot in common, including a fierce attraction. But they’ll have to decide if the Wyoming range is big enough for Dakota’s cattle, Wally’s wolves, and their love.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I have reviewed Andrew Grey’s work once before, and was duly impressed (four stars); however, A Shared Range [Dreamspinner Press, 2010] simply doesn’t measure up.
In my former review, I said that I liked the way his characters were developed; strong, distinct and consistent throughout. In this latest effort, however, none of these characteristics apply to the same extent, particularly as it applies to ‘consistency.’ In this respect they can go from happy to sad, angry to loving, cold to horny in a mere two pages—leaving the reader to wonder what the core dynamic is.
This inconsistency also applies to the plot development, for it seems that Dakota’s father goes from nearly comatose to revival in time to give Dakota some sage advice regarding his love life. Likewise, wolf-hating ranchers become accepting, macho cowboys embrace their gay boss, and a pint-sized Easterner punches the lights out of a farm hand and a burly football player.
Having said that, I still respect Andrew Grey’s writing. His “Love Means…” series demonstrates his skill and sensitivity, and I recommend those to you. Two and one-half stars.
Here’s What We’ll say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy, Reichen Lehmkuhl
A timely look at the anachronistic ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy.
Blurb: Reichen Lehmkuhl is perhaps best known for the ambition, intelligence, and athleticism that won him the grand prize on CBS’s Amazing Race. Since winning the million-dollar prize, Lehmkuhl has gone on to find success acting in film and television. However, he played the biggest role of his life long before his professional acting debut, when he was forced to hide his sexuality to comply with the Air Force’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Here’s What We’ll Say tells the harrowing inside story of what happens when cadets who are committed to serving their nation’s military figure out that they are in fact gay. With no way out and no place to turn for protection, a new code of conduct emerged among gay and lesbian cadets that helped ensure their safety. Gathering secretly in various locations, cadets formed a hidden network. To guarantee the privacy of individuals in attendance, however, each meeting opened with, “Here’s what we’ll say…” — a pledge so sacred that the group had it inscribed on the inside of their class rings.
About the author: Reichen Lehmkuhl is a graduate of the Air Force Academy, a former captain in the Air Force, an actor, an international model, a flight instructor, winner of CBS’s Amazing Race, and a gay rights advocate. He lives in Los Angeles.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Given the current debate regarding the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy, Here’s What We’ll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy” by Reichen Lehmkuhl [Da Capo Press, 2007] is a timely topic. Regretfully those that need to read it most—the religious fundamentalists and dogmatic, small-c conservatives–will probably never see it.
Lehmkuhl’s story relates his troubled childhood; the breakup of his parents’ marriage, the feeling of not being wanted, and the psychological impact of all this. His feelings of inadequacy are also exacerbated by the stigma of living in a trailer park—i.e. the perception of being “trailer trash.” However, apart from being Lehmkuhl’s own story there is nothing unique about this. Nor is there anything about it that would necessarily be deleterious to a person’s later life. Therefore, I question the author’s choice of devoting 50% of the book to the telling of it when a quarter of the 368 pages would have said it all quite nicely.
Fortunately the second 50% somewhat redeems the prosaic first part, and finally gets down to the business of his coming out and the U.S. Air Force Academy, as stated in the title.
Although I was vaguely familiar with the discipline of a military academy, the pseudo-sadistic hazing rituals, etc., Lehmkuhl’s intimate knowledge of such has revealed much I didn’t know. For example, I knew nothing about the demeaning practice of running the “strip” [see photo to the left], which Basic Recruits are required to do between classes, or the memorizing of meaningless passages for the sake of being able to spout them on demand. It all seems rather mindless, but it is something that has worked to develop men for decades, and in the case of Westpoint Military Academy has worked since the time of Thomas Jefferson.
More odious is the systematic scourging of homosexuals at the official level; a point that ’Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ doesn’t address. This umbrella approach does not preclude being investigated or ‘outed’ by someone else. It also doesn’t 
preclude significant numbers of raunchy, virile young lads from indulging in ‘extra-curricular activities’ in spite of the risk.
To counteract this ever-present risk, Lemhkuhl describes how he founded an ad hoc brother and sisterhood, referred to as the “family,” which operated on the pragmatic basis of you lie and we’ll all swear to it, in order to protect one anothers’ asses. While one might argue the ethics of such a principle, Lemhkuhl makes a compelling argument for its validation on the basis of counteracting an even greater injustice.
Overall I found this story to be a worthwhile read on account of its look behind the anachronism of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy. Three and one-half stars.
January 31, 2011 – A new threshold for viewership has been achieved! Thanks to you, January was the best month ever with 1,104 viewers. I am humbled by your interest, and sincere in my thanks. Gerry B.
Sal Mineo: A Biography, by Michael Gregg Michaud
A life story, an adventure, and a romance – highly recommended
Blurb: Sal Mineo is probably most well-known for his unforgettable, Academy Award–nominated turn opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and his tragic murder at the age of thirty-seven. Finally, in this riveting new biography filled with exclusive, candid interviews with both Mineo’s closest female and male lovers and never-before-published photographs, Michael Gregg Michaud tells the full story of this remarkable young actor’s life, charting his meteoric rise to fame and turbulent career and private life.
About the author: MICHAEL GREGG MICHAUD’s work has appeared in numerous magazines and publications, including the Los Angeles Times. He is also a playwright, editor, artist, and award-winning photographer. An animal-rights defender, he is a founding director of the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation. He lives in Los Angeles.
*Available in e-book format – 2137KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
When I first came upon the title “Sal Mineo: A Biography” by Michael Gregg Michaud [Crown Archetype, 2010], I knew it was something I had to read. You see, in 1965 I spent an intimate evening with Sal Mineo in Toronto, and although this time was brief I can attest to some of the characteristics Michaud writes about; certainly Mineo’s disarming charm, his impetuousness, and his passion for life at whatever he happened to be doing at the time.
Sal Mineo’s impoverished childhood in the Bronx is a testament to several things: i.e. if you stay true to your dreams they will come true (in some measure), and anything worthwhile is worth working for. Mineo did against formidable odds. Along the way luck also played a role when he was cast with Yul Brenner in “The King and I,” and Brenner became his inspiration as well as his mentor.
Eventually Hollywood beckoned, and on the basis of his accomplishments, youthful good looks and luck, at the tender age of fifteen he was cast in a supporting role opposite the (now) legendary James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause.” The female lead in this cinematic classic was Natalie Wood, and it is particularly interesting to note that all three of these individuals met an untimely and tragic end.[1]
Mineo idolized Dean, who was known to be bi-sexual, and for the first time Sal began to realize how love between men could arise. Nothing ever transpired between these two, however, and eventually Dean’s brilliant career and unorthodox lifestyle was cut short by a tragic car accident—September 30, 1955.
In the Halcyon days of his career, Mineo was managed by his well-intentioned but domineering mother—the quintessential stage mother—who spent his considerable income faster than he could earn it. Moreover, lacking the business acumen to realize this, and being a bit of a spendthrift himself, the plot was set for a financial crises.
Also contributing to this downturn was Mineo’s inability to make the transition from a teen idol to more mature roles. Ironically, it was his baby face and stereotype casting as a juvenile delinquent—the very characteristics that had made him a famous—that worked against him in the eyes of the public. Consequently, he joined the ranks of childhood stars whose careers were short lived.
Until this stage his sexual orientation had been strictly heterosexual, particularly with a British 
starlet by the name of Jill Haworth.[2] That was until he met Bobby Sherman; a virtual unknown until Mineo used his influence to launch Sherman’s singing career in the 1960s. Following his fling with Sherman, the floodgates seemed to open to a variety of attractive, young men who ended up in Mineo’s bed—some with familiar names from the era, i.e. Jay North (Dennis the Menace), David Cassidy, and Jon Provost (Timmy of Lassie fame). Nevertheless, when he met a handsome actor by the name of Courtney Burr, he finally formed a love that lasted until Mineo’s death in 1976.
Not surprisingly rumours of this began to circulate, and since Hollywood’s attitude about sex was oddly (and not just a little hypocritically) guarded, Sal lived his private life under the radar for fear and professional recriminations.
“Sal knew that outing himself, declaring his sexuality, would destroy what little was left of his career. Though Sal never publicly came out in a conventional manner, there was a subliminal coming-out that began years before. He wanted his lifestyle and his choices to be accepted. He wanted a normalcy and legitimacy in his life.”
Not an unreasonable wish in a town where almost anything goes, sexually, and sensuality is a packaged product.
***
This exhaustive biography is not only a tribute to Sal Mineo, a talented and misunderstood individual who lived life to the fullest—no matter what he did—it is also a tribute to the author’s unrelenting dedication. For example, the writing of “Sal Mineo: A biography” took ten years and three-years of research to complete. Moreover, numerous interviews were conducted, most particularly with Jill Haworth and Courtney Burr, to give it a personal insight beyond the written record. Bravo!
Full of details and previously undisclosed anecdotes, the biography captures a career of ups and downs and a private life of sexual impulses. Highly recommended. Five stars.
[1] See the “Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood.”
[2] With deep regret, Jill Haworth passed away January 03, 2011.
Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock, Mark Tewksbury
An inspiration for gay, aspiring athletes, and a challenge for similarly-oriented, marquee athletes to do the same
Synopsis: In public, Mark Tewksbury has always credited the 1976 Olympics as a major inspiration for his becoming an Olympic champion swimmer, but in fact, it was wearing a towel-turban in imitation of his grandmother and swimming in her condo pool that first sparked his love of swimming. Intimate and endearing details such as these are what provide Tewksbury’s story with relevance beyond the famous-athlete-fights-and-overcomes-his-personal-demons story. Granted, Tewksbury covers all the usual challenges faced by performance athletes-the sacrifices, the post-Olympic depression, the intense glare of the media spotlight-but it is his private sojourn as a gay man, from coming out of the closet to visiting his first gay bar (“it was like being in another world with fashionably dressed people drinking cocktails from martini glasses”) to entering his first sexual relationship (an ongoing, three-way relationship with a male couple) that will resonate with the reader. Despite the “Gay Jock” subtitle, the book is accessible; Tewksbury comes with all the tics and quirks of your everyday gay man wrestling with his sexuality, and later, with the complexities of finding a partner and dating. A thoughtful, moving narrative that inspires as much as it entertains.
*Available in e-book format
Review by Gerry Burnie
I doubt there is a gay person out there who can not relate to Mark Tewksbury’s autobiography, “Inside out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock” [Wiley, 1 edition, 2007]. 
That is, until he was propelled into international prominence with his 1992, Olympic gold medal performance in Barcelona, Spain; one of only seven gold medals awarded to a Canadian that year.
Until then his story is almost pro forma. Included are his family and his generally unhappy childhood, his early same-sex infatuations, the prevailing fear of exposure—yet being centred-out as gay, anyway; proving, I suppose, that the ‘closet’ has see-through walls at times—and the mindless abuse he suffered on account of it. Through it all, however, his will to achieve never faltered, and it is this that makes his story truly inspirational.
Another inspirational aspect is his steadfast ability to remain true to himself, i.e.
“I gazed around the room slowly. The best swimmers from Russia, Cuba, the United States, Spain, Germany and France were in front of me. And I was different. I was the fag. And in that moment I owned my truth completely. I thought, `If these guys knew how hard it was for me to get here, they wouldn’t believe it. They have no bloody clue what I have been through. Or how strong I am.’”
Having said that, however, the second half of the story is both informative and redundant respecting the International Olympic Committee and its politics; given what was known even at the time when the story was first published in 2007. Likewise, the discord with the Gay Olympics, GayGames & OutGames came as no surprise. Sexual orientation does not preclude ideological differences, personal agendas, pecuniary influence, and rabid infighting. In this respect it conforms quite congruently with the wider community.
Albeit, that is the reality of Mark Tewksbury’s experience, and for his part he can only be faulted for trying to crowd all of this into one story. Nonetheless, I can enthusiastically recommend this story as an inspiration for aspiring, gay athletes, and a challenge to similarly oriented, marquee athletes to do the same. Four and one half stars.
See the story behind the story of my in-progress novel, The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunias
Achilles: A love story, by Byrne Fone
Of gods and humans, highly recommended
Story blurb: The story of the war at Troy, as Homer wrote it in the Iliad and as I re-imagine it in Achilles: A Love Story tells of a violent clash of cultures that remains for us even now a dreadful exemplar of the horrors of war and the folly of those who engage in it. But as the ancients all knew, the story of the war at Troy was also a tale of love between men-of the devotion of Achilles, unrivalled hero, terrible warrior, and so it is said in legend, the most beautiful man in the world, to another great warrior, the handsome Patroclus. Their names resound in the catalogue both of heroes and of lovers; their story remains one of the greatest, most emblematic, and earliest gay love stories ever told. In the Iliad Homer also tantalizingly hints at another love story, the love of Antilochus, son of King Nestor and Prince of Pylos, for Achilles. In Achilles: A Love Story I tell the story of Antilochus and Achilles through Antilochus’ point of view and in his first person voice, fleshing out what Homer only hints at and inventing what he does not, as it plays out against the background of the last year of the Trojan war. Achilles: A Love Story creates the story of Antilochus and Achilles, and one both epic and tragic, that has been told, so far as I know by no other writer.
About the author: In the 1970s Byrne Fone, PhD, began working in the new field of Gay Studies. At the City University of New York he introduced one of the earliest university courses in the field, in which he is a recognized pioneer, in the United States, and later taught Gay Studies at the University of Paris and at the CUNY Graduate School. His work in the field includes the largest and most comprehensive anthology of gay literature, The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, as well as a study of early English and American gay literary history in A Road to Stonewall: Homosexuality and Homophobia in British and American Literature (Scribners). His book on Walt Whitman, Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Homoerotic Text (S. Illinois University Press), explores both the poet’s homosexuality and how it is manifest in his poetry. His most recent study in the field is Homophobia: A History ( Holt and Picador) which examines the history of homophobia over a period covering almost two millennia. In addition to this scholarship, Fone’s interest in architectural history led him to write Historic Hudson: An Architectural Portrait, which is the first full-length history of the City of Hudson.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I greatly enjoy the romantic stories of legendary Greek heroes, especially if they do not shy away or gloss over the practice of pederastric love between men. Supported by both historical fact and legend, the reality is that such liaisons were encouraged as a means of schooling younger men (the “eromenos”), and bonding warriors together; first in bed and then on the battlefield—for example, The Sacred Band of Thebes. To his credit, Byrne Fone does not shy away from this topic. In fact, “Achilles: A love story” [CreateSpace, 2010] is an unapologetic celebration of male love and valour.
The story follows Homer’s poetic version of ‘The Fall of Troy’ (the Illiad), but for the semblance of detail Fone has created a fictional chronicler, Dionysos of Tenedos. It is a clever device that effectively fills-in the gaps in Homer’s overview.
Another clever device is his decision to narrate the story in the first-person voice of Antilochus, son of King Nestor of Pylos [See the excavation of his palace at right]. In Homer’s Illiad Antilochus has the unenviable task of informing Achilles of Patroclus’ death, and after his death Antilochus was the closest to Achilles. “Indeed,” as Fone notes, “the reliance becomes more intimate, for Homer says that Antilochus’ ashes were interred in the great tomb on the Trojan Shore along with those of Achilles and Patroclus. Thereafter, as Homer notes in the Odyssey, the three friends are reunited in the underworld and walk together in the eternal fields.”
Quite apart from Homer’s ageless epic, however, Professor Fone has done a masterful job of fleshing out his characters in all their heroic proportions, as well as their human weaknesses. Agememnon, for example, has been lionized as a king among kings for centuries, and yet his character is far more believable as the self-promoting, glory-seeker by which Fone has depicted him.
Similarly, the legendary Achilles may have been physically invulnerable—except for his ‘Achilles’ heel’—but emotionally he is described as being quite prone to petulance, uncontrollable rages and fathomless love. In other words he is only half divine, as Fone has realistically made him out to be.
So, if you are a devotee of history, fiction, romance, and a darned good read, I highly recommend “Achilles: A love story” as the fulfilment of them all. Five stars.
Thanks to you, Gerry B’s Book Reviews has welcomed it’s 6000th visitor–a full 1000 more than December. Thanks for your interest!
Sam’s Hill, by Jack Ricardo
Mr. Ricardo has a flair for historical fiction, but…
Story Blurb: A young man coming to grips with his homosexuality during the latter half of the 19th century, through four years of The Civil War, the Indian Wars with General Custer’s 7th Cavalry, into the rough and tumble town of Cheyenne and up into the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory.
*Available in Kindle format, 382KB
Review by Gerry Burnie
A revisiting of the American Civil War is not a new theme, nor is gay, Union and Confederate soldiers, but “Sam’s Hill” by Jack Ricardo [Amazon Digital Services, 2010] contains some of the best, graphic descriptions of battlefield action I have ever read; the carnage, the confusion, the fear and the impersonal killing are all there in almost tangible detail.
The plot—at least for the first half of the story—is equally well conceived with some quite unexpected twists.
Sam Cordis is a young Union volunteer from New Jersey; green, innocent, seeking to become his “own man” and heading west when the war is over, “…a mere two or three months, he was sure.”
After a taste of war, and the reality of it, i.e.
“The order came. “Tear Cartridges.”
“Sam did exactly that. He poured powder into the barrel of his musket, dropped a metal ball inside, stuffed the ramrod down to push the ball into position, and carefully placed a cap under the hammer.
“When he heard the first shot, the taut skin of his neck strangled his throat, his heart stopped. The woods began bleeding with an indistinct jumble of men in gray yelling ferociously, shooting indiscriminately. Sam wanted to run for cover. There was none. And there was no interference when he lifted his musket.
“He stayed his mind, focussed his eyes, spied his target. He couldn’t see the Rebel clearly. He didn’t know if he was young or old, an officer or a volunteer. He was merely a target. Sam aimed the weapon with ease, as if marking a jackrabbit on the banks of New Jersey’s Rampo River. He pressed the trigger and squeezed as his older brother taught, gently, caressing the tender skin of a newborn calf. The report of the musket was lost in the din.
“Sam didn’t wait to see if the ball hit its mark. He followed the example of the others, crossing the former path, running wide, stumbling, turning, reloading, firing again, this time with haste. As hastily as the enemy fired at him.”
Under such perilous circumstances men frequently bond out of necessity, and the mores of a conventional society are either relaxed or shirked in favour of a new reality. So it was with Sam and his young companion, Davie, when a tender friendship gradually blossomed into love, like a flower amidst the ruin. Just as quickly, however, it was snuffed by a sniper’s bullet, but not before Sam had discovered a love that would not be denied.
As the war dragged on Sam found himself in Savannah, Georgia, with Sherman’s army, and during a lull in the hostilities he is drawn to the docks in search of male companionship. It is a mixture of intrigue and inert desire until he encounters an older man who almost succeeds in fanning his smouldering desire into a flame. However, in an unexpected twist, he is mugged and then rescued aboard a gunboat where the stranger is first mate. Romance nearly blossoms there as well, but when the gunboat is attacked Sam is thrown overboard during the mêlée. Miraculously he is washed ashore on the coast of Florida, and making his way inland he encounters a regiment of Black, Union soldiers, who are themselves captured by Confederate forces.
A forced march then proceeds to a POW camp somewhere in South Georgia—a non-regulation compound where corruption and cruelty prevail. A “King Rat” type-of-character also rules, and he sets his sights on seducing Sam. On the other hand, Sam befriends a badly wounded youth who would otherwise die. These are the characters that will play a significant role later in the story, but for now they are certainly interesting enough.
When peace if declared Sam and the now rehabilitated youth start for their respective homes in the north, where Sam’s several family members await, but first there is another character to be met; an Indian brave named Kehoe.
To this point I would have no hesitation in giving this story a five-star rating. The journalism is first rate, the characters are interesting and credible, the action is breathtaking, and the pace compelling.
Regretfully, the second half of the story begins to bog down under the burden of characters that, in their numbers and complexities, nearly overwhelm the reader. Likewise, to accommodate each of their parts, the story looses its linearity to twist and coil around the various subplots.
There is no question that Mr. Ricardo has a flare for historical fiction, but sometimes less is more. Four stars.
Happy New Year! Thanks to you, Gerry B’s Book Reviews has reached nearly 6,000 visitors, up almost 1,000 from last month. I am humbled by your interest.
Gerry B.
The Christmas Throwaway, by RJ Scott
A feel-good, curl-up-beside-the-fire read
Publisher’s blurb: Christmas is a time for giving – what do you do when no one gives a damn?
For Zachary Weston Christmas means sleeping on a churchyard bench in the freezing snow with nothing better in his future. Thrown out of his home for being gay, he is left without money or, it seems, anywhere to go.
Until a stranger shows him that some people do give a lot more than a damn.
Ben Hamilton is a rookie cop in his small home town. He finds a young throwaway, fresh from the city, sleeping on a bench in the churchyard on a snowy Christmas Eve. Can he be the one to give Zachary his own Christmas miracle?
Review by Gerry Burnie
At the risk of seeming Grinch-like at this time of year, I found The Christmas Throwaway by RJ Scott [Silver Publishing, 2010] a bit too saccharin for my taste.
The premise of the story is that Zachary Weston, an almost-eighteen-year-old castaway, thrown out by an abusive, homophobic father, takes refuge in a small town with a small police force and young cop (Ben Hamilton) who happens to be gay.
Moved by the young lad’s plight and the spirit of Christmas, Hamilton takes him under his wing and under the protection of his family—most particularly his nurturing mother. Zachary is readily accepted by all, except for Jamie—Ben’s married brother—who quite reasonably has some reservations about bringing a total stranger under his mother’s roof. Other members of the supporting cast are Ellie, Ben’s younger sister; Mark his long-standing, best friend, and Melanie—Mark’s wife and the town doctor.
After considerable toing and froing the inevitable happens, and Ben and Zach fall in love. The issue of Zach’s previous home life is also resolved—quite surprisingly in the end.
Overall assessment
Journalistically, this is a well-written story. The premise, although somewhat lacking in originality, is also well-developed with some interesting plot twists here and there. Where it suffers, however, is in a noticeable lack of any real tension or drama. The characters are just too cloyingly nice to one another, and what tension there is comes across as mildly contrived.
Nonetheless, it is a feel-good story with likable characters and a happy ending, and if are looking for a good curl-up-beside-the-fire read, then this is a book for you. Three-and-one-half stars.
Merry Christmas to all
And the very best in the New Year!
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Christmas in Ontario: Heartwarming Legends, Tales, and Traditions, by Cheryl MacDonald
It’s sure to get you into the Christmas spirit
Story blurb: “Every year, he put on the red Santa suit. Every year, there were more sick and needy children to attend to. And every year, as word of his activity spread, Jimmy [Lomax] collected more money and gifts to distribute.” This book will be especially fascinating for all readers interested in history and human interest stories. Christmas is a time for celebrating with friends and family and for sharing stories, memories, and good cheer. This compilation brings to life the very best holiday stories from across Ontario. From the early days of exploration to the modern day, and from heartwarming inspirational tales to dangerous escapades, this is a collection to treasure for many years to come.
About the author: Cheryl MacDonald has been writing on historical topics for nearly 30 years. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, including The Beaver and Maclean’s, and she has written a number of books, mostly relating various aspects of southern Ontario history.
Cheryl holds history degrees from the University of Waterloo and McMaster University and is currently pursuing graduate studies. A grandmother of two, she lives on a large rural property close to Lake Erie and about 90 minutes west of Niagara Falls.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Christmas is about cherished memories and traditions, and while Canada has no unique Christmas traditions, per se, it does have a long history of events and experiences that are unique in their own way. “Christmas in Ontario” by Cheryl MacDonald [Altitude Press: Amazing Stories Series, 2004] is a collection of these heart-warming stories which can be shared by the whole family. For example:
“On Christmas Eve 1668, a 14-year-old girl lay fighting for her life at La Jeune Lorette, near Quebec City. Théresèse was a member of the Huron, a nation that had been pushed out of their traditional homelands near eastern Georgian Bay by the Iroquois. To comfort herself, as well as to mark the approaching holiday, she sang Jesous Ahatonhia, a carol which described the birth of Christ in a setting that closely resembled the Ontario wilderness.
“While there is no definite proof, traditional accounts claim the carol was written by Father Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649). A French missionary, Brébeuf was a skilled linguist who eventually wrote a Huron grammar and dictionary, so it is highly plausible that he translated the Christmas story into the Huron language.”
Jean de Brébeuf was martyred at Ste.Marie Among the Hurons, a Jesuit mission on the shores of Georgian Bay on March 16, 1649, making Jesous Ahatonhia, or “The Huron Carol” the oldest carol written in North America.
Another early recollection comes from Catharine Parr Trail who, reluctant to part with her sister at the end of Christmas Day, she accompanied her home through the woods around Peterborough, Ontario, (c. 1830s) and recorded the event as follows:
”Just as we were issuing forth for our moonlight drive through the woods, our ears were saluted by a merry peal of sleigh bells, and a loud hurrah greeted our homely turn-out, as a party of lively boys and girls, crammed into a smart painted cutter, rushed past at full speed. They were returning from a Christmas merry-making at a neighbour’s house, where they too had been enjoying a happy Christmas, and long the still woods echoed with the gay tones of their voices, and the clear jingle of their merry bells, as a bend in the river-road, brought back on the breeze to our ears.”
One of my favourites took place at a German prisoner of war camp, in 1917. Shortly before Christmas, the prisoners received an invitation to a Christmas party.
“At the time they were skeptical—after three years surrounded by barbed wire and bayonets, they had little reason to trust their captors. But more fromcuriosity then anything else, they accepted the invitation.
When they awoke on Christmas morning, two surprises greeted them. First, all the guards were unarmed. And secondly, right in front of the guardhouse was a huge Christmas tree, dripping with tinsel and dozens of presents.The prisoners were asked to gather round the tree Then the camp commandant spoke, telling the men how much he regretted that war had taken them so far away from home and family at Christmas, and how he hoped that the gulf between the two warring nations would eventually disappear after peace.”
Then a small gramophone began playing “Silent Night” and the commandant commenced to remove small presents from the tree, passing them out to each man.
If you are looking to get into the Christmas spirit this year, this collection of “heartwarming legends, tales, and traditions” has the right ingredients.
Anyone remember the “Cabbage-Patch Kid” craze?
Missouri, by Christine Wunnicke (translated from the German by David Miller)
A wonderfully zany and offbeat tale set in the American Midwest.
Story blurb: Written in the language of the period, this vivid and utterly transfixing love story between two men is set in the nineteenth-century American Midwest. Douglas Fortescue is a successful poet in England who flees the country for America following an Oscar Wilde-like scandal insinuating sexual impropriety; Joshua Jenkyns is a feral young outlaw who was taught how to shoot a man at age six, and who, against the wishes of his father, teaches himself how to read, a skill that then unleashes a world of possibility beyond that which he knows. The two men meet when Joshua robs Douglas’s carriage and takes him hostage; soon, a remarkable secret is revealed, and these two very different men grow closer, even as Douglas’s brother tries to “save” him from his uncivilized surroundings.
Missouri was first published in Germany to wide acclaim. Now available in English for the first time, Missouri is destined to become a gay men’s camp classic for its earnest, romantic reinterpretation of a time and place in American history traditionally closed off to gay readers.
Review by Gerry Burnie
“Missouri” by Christine Wunnicke [Arsenal Pulp Press; Tra edition, 2010] is a story that either pleases or displeases; there is very little middle ground shown by its critics to date. Therefore, I will have to say that I liked it. I found it wonderfully zany; offbeat; and unlike any other gay, American Western tale I have every encountered.
Douglas Fortesque is an ambitious court clerk in northern England, and not just a little bit of a con man. He therefore lets his hair down (literally), dyes it black, starves himself until he has that gaunt, poet-like appearance, and pens utter gibberish to the wild acclaim of an effete London literary society. Indeed, the more outlandish he becomes the more acclaim he receives from a pretentious, gullible public.
Eventually tiring of this masquerade he retires to the country, but legitimacy only makes him less interesting and also vulnerable to his critics, and in a thinly veiled allusion to Oscar Wilde’s persecution he escapes to the United States where his brother wishes to buy property.
Meanwhile, Joshua Jenkyns, the young, slightly psychotic half-breed offspring of a notorious American outlaw is terrorizing the Midwest, learning how to read and becoming enamoured by the disjointed words of one, Douglas Fortescue. In a bizarre turn of events, therefore, these two unlikely characters cross paths and Fortescue is hurried away on horseback to become Jenkyns’ coddled hostage.
Thus begins a process of assimilation whereby Fortescue is stripped of his pretentions, and Jenkyns of his savagery, until they meet in an ethereal love-making scene that is beautifully understated by the author. Any other approach—graphic for example—would have cheapened it.
One of the criticisms that has been leveled at this novella is that it is too short (134 pages) to develop a complex story of this nature; and I agree that it could have been longer. However, in those 134 pages Wunnicke has developed two very unforgettable characters, a unique love story set against a stark, primeval wilderness, and an outcome that is totally unpredictable.
Highly recommended. Five stars.
The City of Lovely Brothers, by Anel Viz
A cleverly conceived family saga
Story blurb: “The City of Lovely Brothers” is a family saga, the history of Caladelphia Ranch, jointly owned by four brothers, Calvin, Caleb, Calhoun and Caliban Caldwell – how it grew and prospered, and how rivalry between the brothers led to its breaking up and decline. As the story evolves, it focuses on the love affair between the youngest brother, Caliban, who is lame, and Nick, one of their ranch hands, and how their relationship set the stage for the already open feud to explode and ultimately caused the demise of the ranch.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I enjoy this type of family saga; especially if it involves interesting, colourful characters. In this regard, ”The City of Lovely Brothers” by Anel Viz [Silver Publishing, November 2010] has a full cast of them.
The author’s approach is to conjure up a fictional city, “Caladelphia,” Montana, as though it actually existed. Moreover, by referring to its street maps, city limits and equally fictional landmarks—i.e. “Hokey Hill Mall,” he does a very convincing job of it, as well. It is also a clever way of introducing the Caldwell family, their history, and the four disparate brothers—Calvin, Caleb, Calhoun and Caliban. There is also a sister, Callie, who plays a supporting role to the others.
Calvin, the oldest of the siblings, is a stern, humourless man who assumes the role of head of the Caldwell clan after both parents die. He fills this role quite well, too, and apart from being somewhat dictatorial he is a good manager; expanding the ranch until it is one of the largest outfit in the territory.
Caleb is the next oldest, boisterous and a hard drinker—which ultimately contributes to his destruction.
Calhoun is a strong personality in his own right. It is inevitable, therefore, that these two should clash in an extreme case of sibling rivalry; especially when Calvin undertakes to severely discipline him for impregnating a servant girl.
Finally, Caliban is the baby of family blessed with good looks that are almost “Too pretty to be a man.” Moreover his good nature matches his looks, such that “No one could resist his laughing eyes and kind smile.”
Part II of the story then goes on to trace the rising fortunes of the Caldwell ranch, later named Caladelphia—meaning “The City of the Cal Brothers.” But the Greek translation could also mean “pretty” or “lovely” brothers. Ergo, the title.
Along the way a number of events transpire that are meaningful to the story. Needing a woman keep house, Calvin sets out on a quest to find a wife, and returns with one; a quite realistic touch, for it was often done that way without undue wonderment on anyone’s part.
Secondly, Calvin administers a humiliating whipping on his fifteen-year-old brother, Calhoun, for impregnating a servant girl; causing a lifetime rift between the two. And, thirdly, Caliban is thrown from a horse; sustaining a hip fracture that is poorly treated by the local doctor. This necessitates a trip to the populated community of Billings, Montana, where he is properly treated but requires several months convalescence. The time is well spent, however, because he advances his education through reading; such that he becomes reasonably well read. His brother Caleb comes to Billings to escort Caliban home, and also to further his sex education—although nothing physical transpires between them.
All of this is artfully woven together and advances the story at a pace that keeps the reader’s interest moving along. This pace continues as Caliban, concerned about how he might support himself when his hip gives out, decides to become a teacher. This necessitates a two-year absence from the ranch, and while in Laramie he is approached at least once by a man who is drawn to his beauty. However, Caliban rebuffs him.
While he is away Caleb decides to marry, and Caliban decides to ask one of his stable hands, Nick, to share his remote Cabin. Their friendship had been growing quite close, and since they were both single it seemed like a practical thing to do. Calvin objects on the basis that Caliban would be fraternizing with an employee, but Calvin is overruled by his wife, Darcie. On his return, therefore, Caliban and Nick discover that they share more than just a cabin, and for the first time Caliban is in love.
In Part III, Caliban and Nick are now a couple; albeit covertly, and the author has cleverly introduced a fictional diary that Nick has been maintaining since childhood. This gives their love story a certain aura of authenticity, and through their eyes we see the relationship between the other brothers deteriorating—particularly between Calhoun and Calvin. This situation is exacerbated as Calvin begins to subdivide the home-section of the ranch into a village-type development—which Calhoun criticizes as taking away from the ranch. In short, there is no middle ground for these two characters, and thereby the seeds of destruction of Caladelphia as a ranch are sown.
There is much that can be favourably said about this story. It is cleverly conceived; it is well written; and the first and second parts move along quite nicely. However, in the third part the pace is burdened by superfluous detail that doesn’t seem to add anything to the story. Moreover it is frequently repetitious, giving the impression that the author has lost control of the narrative.
Apart from these reservations, it remains a good read and is recommended on that basis. Three-and-one-half stars.
Here is the cover for my ‘in-progress’ novel, “The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia“. Click on Image to read an excerpt.
Finding Forever (an unpublished short story) by Jacqueline Castillo
A discussion on ‘the short story’
Story blurb: Jess and Amber are two gal friends who are off on a vacation under the hot sun of Cuba. Jess is just recovering from a break-up with her longtime boyfriend Chris, and not quite ready to sample romance again, while Amber is making a meal of it and urging a reluctant Jess to do the same.
Enter a handsome Cuban entertainer named Vincente, with dark eyes and a gentle but persistent nature. Add a few Cuba Libres to the mix, and the ingredients are set for Finding Forever.
I don’t usually review either individual short stories or unpublished works, but with finding forever by Jacqueline Castillo it gives me a chance to talk about ‘the short story.’
In my opinion the key word is “short;” which means that the writer must step in with a hop-skip-and-a jump, deliver their best shot, and then step out with a resolving kiss or a tear. All in quick-quick time.
Overall Finding Forever is an admirable effort for an unpublished writer, and shows great promise. Jounalistically, it is well written, the sentences flow, the description is colourful, and the dialogue is realistic and meaningful. However, what is lacking is any real sense of drama or tension—i.e. the “punch” that leads to the resolution, and without it the story doesn’t reach its full potential.
Very much part and parcel with the above are the characters. Jess is pretty, Amber is precocious, and Vincente is dark and handsome, but these characteristics alone don’t make them interesting. What’s going on inside them? How deeply is Jess grieving over the loss of Chris? How shallow is Amber’s idea of happiness? And how smitten is suave, handsome, Latin Vincente? In a short story these have to almost literally jump off the page to grab the interest of the reader.
Nonetheless it’s a great start, and the key to good writing for first-timers or pros alike, is: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite!
Still awaiting Coming of Age on the Trail from the editor, but making progress on The Brit, Kid Cupid, and Petunia.
Fortunes of War, by Mel Keegan
A superbly written, intriguing and captivating story that will have you turning pages
Story blurb: In 1588 a young mercenary and the son of an English earl meet by a quirk of fate. Dermot Channon is a soldier, while Robin Armagh has been sheltered on his father’s estate. Love blossoms fast while war looms on the horizon. Under the thundercloud of armed conflict, Channon leaves England and the Spanish Armada sails soon after. Robin despairs of seeing him again, for their countries are locked in an endless struggle. Years fly by, and in 1595, when Robin’s brother is taken for ransom in Panama, the dangerous duty of delivering the price of his life and liberty falls to Robin. He sails with the historical ’1595 Fleet,’ commanded by Francis Drake, hoping to bring home his brother. But Fortune has other plans for Robin and Channon. Ahead of them is an epic adventure in hazardous waters where old enmities, Spanish and English, shape their future together — and try to drive them apart.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I love a plot-driven story, especially if the plot is as meaty as “Fortunes of War,” by Mel Keegan [Dreamcraft, 2005]: the intrigue-ridden court of Elizabeth I, war and rumours of war, likable lovers and pirates. It has them all.
The story is written in two parts; the first part being an introduction, and here Keegan has done a masterful job of introducing the main characters while capturing the conspiratorial nature of the Elizabethan court. The two main characters, Robin and Dermot, are ably supported by a cast of interesting personalities—the cold-hearted Earl of Blackstead (Robin’s father), the aging Spanish ambassador and Dermot’s uncle, and the villainous Earl of Bothwell, to name a few.
The underlying conspiracies are interesting, as well; Catholics against Protestants, England against Spain, and foe against foe, all cleverly woven into the fabric of the story.
Five stars for the first part, therefore.
However the second part starts out rather slowly, almost cumbersome in spots, and for a brief while the story looses its momentum. Another minor drawback in second part is with the characters—Guillaume in particular—who come across as rather stereotypical. These are not major blemishes, but they are enough to detract from what would otherwise be a five-star achievement.
Nevertheless this is a superbly written, intriguing and captivating story that will have you turning pages to discover what will happen next.
Progress report: Coming of Age on the Trail is still in the hands of the editor. In the meantime I have made a start of The Brit, The Cupid, and Petunia. Click here to read an excerpt.
Dash and Dingo, by Catt Ford and Sean Kennedy
A first-rate adventure/romance — enthusiastically recommended
Story blurb: Stodgy British archivist Henry Percival-Smythe slaves away in the dusty basement of Ealing College in 1934, the only bright spot in his life his obsession with a strange Australian mammal, the thylacine. It has been hunted to the edge of extinction, and Henry would love nothing more than to help the rare creature survive.
Then a human whirlwind spins through his door. Jack “Dingo” Chambers is also on the hunt for the so-called “Tasmanian Tiger,” although his reasons are far more altruistic. Banding together, Dingo and the newly nicknamed Dash travel half way around the globe in their quest to save the thylacine from becoming a footnote in the pages of biological history.
Review by Gerry Burnie
When I first selected “Dash and Dingo” by Catt Ford and Sean Kennedy [Dreamspinner Press, 2009] for review, the thing that caught my eye was the unusual and attention-grabbing title. That was the first unique aspect about this work. The next was the setting—Australia and 
Tasmania—and the totally unique story line; a search for the now-extinct species of carnivorous marsupial called a Thylacine.
This assured me that there was a plot there, and it didn’t take long to discover that it was a very worthy one indeed.
As the story blurb describes, Henry “Dash” Percival-Smythe is a rather bookish archivist whose life is as ordered as his archive. Yet, the fact that he secretly rebels against his father’s, and mother’s, hidebound adherence to what is ‘proper’ in ‘polite society,’ suggest that he is ready to burst his shell if only the opportunity would arise.
Enter Jack “Dingo” Chambers; a Crocodile-Dundee-like character with an irreverent, roguish nature—i.e. the perfect foil for Percival-Smythe’s reticent character.
Both characters are cleverly developed to play off one another until love occurs, almost inevitably. Nevertheless, it grows (evolves) at just the right pace, as it should to be credible, and in the process Dash does as well. In fact, following his development is one of the most delightful aspects of the story; A metamorphosis of sorts.
Part of that development is heading off with Dingo to the wilds of Tasmania, but not by a slow, mundane steamer. Rather, they brave a certain amount of risk by flying there aboard a mail-carrier plane. A symbolic start to the adventures to come.
In Australia we are introduced to the Chambers, Dingo’s parents, and the marked contrast between them and the Percival-Smythes. We also meet Clarence Hodges, the determined and relentless villain, who at first blush is merely an enemy of the Tasmanian Tiger. However, as the story unfolds we find that Tassie is merely a surrogate for a deeper animosity.
From there on adventure abounds, sometimes humorous and sometimes perilous, until a final showdown involving both the Thylacine and Hodges. Romance also blossoms, and the coupling is both romantic and sexy. However, gratefully, it merely compliments the story without dominating it.
Although this is a collaboration, the dual-effort is seamless. Moreover the writing is executed at a very high level throughout; the dialogue is lively, and the vocabulary is consistent with the times and cultures.
Where I found room to quibble was with Hodges’ motivation that caused him to be so sinister. A rationale is given, which is plausible enough, but it somehow doesn’t measure up to the obsessive hate exhibited by the man.
Apart from that, I found this story to be a first-rate adventures/romance. Enthusiastically recommended. Four-and-one-half stars.
Progress report, and a new start. Coming of Age on the Trail is in the hands of the editor. In the meantime I have made a start of number four: The Brit, The Cupid, and Petunia (a tentative title). Read a brief passage, here. Comments welcome.
Last Good War, by Charles J. Brauner
A solid read, and a fascinating twist on history
Book blurb: The Japanese Rape of Nanking and her sneak attack on Pearl Harbor along with Nazi Germany’s villainous use of the gas ovens gave the World War Two Allies a moral justification seldom found in warfare. Yet the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have cloaked the last days of the Pacific war in endless controversy ever since. Was Japan so badly battered by August 1945 that she would have surrendered anyway? Why didn’t America explode one on a nearby deserted island and let the enemy surrender without such horrific loss of life? The Last Good War addresses these issues in a vivid and violent re-enactment of the final months of conflict.
Soon after Pearl Harbor two mature fifteen year old Canadian cousins enlist in the U. S. Navy and become radioman-gunners flying in dive-bombers in the Pacific. As seasoned combat aircrewmen off the U.S. aircraft carrier Brandywine, the two Canadians take part in a 1945 attack on the Japanese naval base across the bay from Hiroshima. The aerial battle reshapes the conduct of the war. As a result Aviation Radioman’s Mate Second Class Carson Braddock and ARM2/c Max Bryson are called upon to help the crew of the Enola Gay on their historic flight to Hiroshima. Soon after, two young Japanese sailors confront Carson and Max in combat. With great courage and ingenuity Gunner’s Mate Takijiru Sugihara and Bosun Chikonori Kaijitsu provide their country with a fresh opportunity to redress the balance of military power. A major moral decision must be made. The outcome of the war is in doubt. Indeed, Carson and Max face an enemy who is eager and able to use the most cruel weapon in anyone’s hands. And in the struggle that ensues the two cousins discover what veterans world-wide have learned from war over the last half century. What separates warring nations is their beliefs; What unites enemies on the battlefield is their courage.
About the Author: C.J. Brauner was raised in America during the depression. The death of his father in the South West Pacific led him to quit high school to fly in U.S. Navy dive-bombers during WWII. After the war he worked as an installer for N.J. Bell Tell. The G.I. Bill enabled him to earn a B.A. and a teacher’s certificate from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He took his Masters at Columbia Univ. in NYC. In the 1950s he taught English in the Michigan public schools until he received a Fulbright Scholarship to Greece. After his wife’s death at the American Farm School in Salonica he brought his infant daughter back to the U.S. and earned his Doctorate at Stanford U. in California. His early academic career took him to Purdue U., Syracuse U., and Ohio State Univ. For 30 years he was a professor at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada where he resides with his second wife and four grown children.
Review by Gerry Burnie
If you like solid adventure and raw action that moves at a heart-pounding pace, then The Last Good War by C.J. Brauner [Trafford Publishing; Reprint edition, 2006] is right up your alley. Indeed, within the first few pages one of the protagonists, Carson Braddock, is involved in a good-ole-fashioned punch-up with a brawny Southerner; thus setting the tone for what is to come.
And for these two—including Max Bryson—there was plenty to come, i.e.
“A flurry of one-inch shells rose to meet them and mark their speed and precise direction. Black puffs from three-inch shells blossomed above and below to bracket their altitude. Five-inch shells spiralled up to their flight level for effect. Audible bursts that erupted beneath the wings rocked the blue dive-bombers like angry hands on a cradle.
““Christ,” Max Bryson commented. “They’re throwin’ up enough tonnage to beat our bomb load five to one.”
“And explosion just ahead of Carson’s banking dive-bomber sent the sizzle of hot steel rushing through the propeller arc and along the slipstream. The shredded smoke filled his cockpit with the bitter tang of cordite. Regardless of the hazard and discomfort, however, both Canadian rear-seat gunners concentrated on the final preparations for the dive.
““With gunnery like that,” Carson Braddock observed, “the bastards don’t need the proximity fuse.”
“Suddenly, a Japanese four-inch shell blew the cowling off a Helldiver in the leading flight as it dove into a narrow gorge. The wounded pilot slumped forward and struggled with the controls. The battered dive bomber banked hard as the pilot pulled the plane into a steep stall. Slowly, she flopped over on to her back, dove down, rolled right side up, and fell off into a violent spin. The fatally injured pilot smeared blood all over the inside of his cockpit canopy as he fought to gain control and unload his bombs. The five-hundred-pound bombs spilled away from the plane like pebbles from a wagon wheel. Knifing down, they exploded and the trees as the damaged wingtip began to fold.
“MAY DAY! MAY DAY!” the radio-gunner in the rear seat broadcast. “This crate is coming apart like a peeled banana!”
“In slow motion, a nylon parachute blossomed from the rear seat. Caught in the spin and the churn of the slipstream, the canopy snagged on the tail fin and wrapped the rudder and the elevators in white cloth. Wild centrifugal force tore the hlpless gunner out of the cockpit and spun him around at the end of the shroud lines in a wide and accelerating arc. Shedding cockpit covers and torn wing panels, the doomed plane dropped far into the steep and incredibly narrow valley. As the fliers above watched, the parachute’s long nylon cords whipped the your airman into the face of a cliff just before the plane crashed and exploded. Crushed like a fly on a windscreen, the inert body of Chris Foreman from Gila Bend, Arizona, clung to the sheer granite wall as flames and smoke engulfed it.
““Their luck ran out,” Chief Flannigan declared in a somber voice over the squadron frequency. “Now let’s all get back to work.””
It is this sort of ‘visual’ realism that makes this novel darkly fascinating and compelling to read. One is at once repelled by the violence and bloodshed portrayed, and yet drawn into at the same time; wondering if our young, likeable heroes’ luck can hold out against the odds.
In this regard, all the characters are well developed; however, the introduction of Miss Shirley Hashimoto seemed oddly out-of-place in an otherwise, decidedly male story. I may be a bit biased, as well, but I thought the scenes involving her were somewhat contrived.
Altogether a good solid read, and an interesting twist on history. Four-and-one-half stars.
Progress report on Coming of Age on the Trail. It is now in the hands of the editor. Probable release date, January, 2011.
Convoys of World War II: Dangerous Missions on the North Atlantic, by Dorothy Pedersen
Canada’s almost forgotten navy
Non-fiction works of this nature are not star-rated.
Book blurb: Nine men tell their personal stories of life at sea during World War II. In extreme danger, they battled seasickness, injury, and less than comfortable living conditions while avoiding floating mines and torpedoes in their efforts to guide ships safely across the Atlantic Ocean.
About the author: When she was six years old, Dorothy Pedersen obtained a copy of Charlotte’s Web from the Clydebank Public Library, in Clydebank, Scotland. By the time she was finished the book she knew she wanted to be a writer. She came to Canada in 1964 where, alas, school teachers discouraged her from pursuing writing as a career. After an assortment of jobs she trained in equine studies and horsemanship, worked for the horse industry for a period of time, and continues to this day to write about it. Dorothy enjoys designing and creating handknits and crocheted garments, and is an animal rights supporter, and boxing fan.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Within hours of Canada’s declaration of war on September 10, 1939, the Canadian government passed laws to create the Canadian Merchant Navy to provide a workforce for wartime shipping. The Canadian Merchant Navy played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic bolstering the allies merchant fleet due to high losses in the British Merchant Navy. Eventually thousands of Canadians served aboard hundreds of Canadian Merchant Navy ships.
That is what most history books have to say about it, but what was it like aboard one of these ships? In her prologue to “Convoys of World War II: Dangerous Missions on the North Atlantic” [Amazing Stories series, Altitude Press, 2007], Dorothy Pedersen gives us a glimpse us a glimpse as follows:
“’Torpedo ahead,’ the lookout yelled.
With thudding hearts, a pair of Canadian sailors watched the torpedo skim the water in front of their corvette. It was racing straight for the tanker—one of the 35 ships in their convoy and only a hundred metres away. With a deafening impact, the shock of the explosion almost blew the sailors off their ship.
“The tanker’s cargo of fuel, destined for the Allies’ war efforts in Europe, spewed into the ocean and ignited into a hissing, spitting, roaring fireball. As the tanker burned, the horrified witnesses heard only weak cries. After a short time, these too were drowned out by the thunder of the angry fire. The sailors knew there was no point in the convoy’s rescue ship sticking around.
“Escorted by armed navy vessels, the convoy of Canadian and British merchant ships raced onward, trying to put distance between them and the visible and invisible dangers of the North Atlantic. Despite the reputed safety of the pack, another of their ships was stricken quickly. Lifeboats had been lowered but some sailors barely had time to grab a life ring before hitting the frigid water. The rescue ship was ordered to stay for them as the rest of the convoy again sailed on.
“Choppy seas made the rescue agonizingly slow and difficult. Scramble nets were thrown over the side of the rescue ship for the desperate men to haul themselves aboard. Half an hour later, only a few men and boys had been saved. Many more were losing the fight with the frigid water.
“Then the order came that was even more chilling; “Abandon the rescue.” Once again under attack, the convoy had signaled for help. The rescue ship revved up its engines.
“In the ocean, the weakening hearts of the remaining sailors sank alongside their ship.”
Nature itself could also be unforgiving, as one young sailor recorded in his diary:
“What a miserable, rotten hopeless life . . . an Atlantic so rough it seems impossible that we can continue to take this unending pounding and still remain in one piece . . . hanging onto a convoy is a full-time job . . . the crew in almost a stupor from the nightmarishness of it all . . . and still we go on hour after hour.”–Frank Curry, Royal Canadian Navy, 1941 during the Battle of the Atlantic, a battle that would be called the longest in history.
Although Canada’s Merchant Navy is grouped in with the British Commonwealth’s, it is estimated that the Commonwealth merchant navies suffered 30,000 casualties from 1939 – 1945—most of those in the Battle of the Atlantic. Even so, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the merchant navy finally got recognition for their contribution to the war effort. “We really were the forgotten veterans of the unknown navy,” Earl Wagner is quoted as saying (p.68).
*September 3rd is “Merchant Navy Remembranch Day.”
Dorothy Pedersen has done as masterful job of bringing this history to our attention, and I highly recommend “Convoys of World War II” as an interesting and informative read.
This is part of my Remembrance Day tribute. A new memorywill be added each day until November 11th. Lest we forget!
Valour At Vimy Ridge: Canadian Heroes of World War I, by Tom Douglas
They said that it couldn’t be done…
Non-fiction works of this kind are not star-rated
A defining moment in Canadian military history. A much-needed Allied victory. A show of valour and heroism. The battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 saw Canadian troops storm a strategic 14-kilometre long escarpment that was believed to be impregnable. This was the first time in the nation’s history that a corps-sized formation fought together as a unit under its own meticulous planning. Canadian troops persevered under heavy fire to take the ridge, demonstrating incredible discipline and bravery. The battle became a symbol of sacrifice for the young nation and a turning point in its role in the global theatre of war.
Amazing Stories Series–Altitude Press, 2007
Tom Douglas, an award-winning journalist and author, lives in Oakville, Ontario with his wife Gail, also an author in the Amazing Stories series. Tom’s father, Sgt. H.M. (Mel) Douglas, was part of the Invasion Force that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Tom is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, worked as a Communications Advisor for Veterans Affairs Canada, and has written speeches for the Minister of National Defence. Recently, he self-published a book, Some Sunny Day about his family’s experiences in Northern Ontario following his father’s return from World War II.
Review by Gerry Burnie
They said it couldn’t be done, and thousands of French and English had tried it, but four battalions of Canadians succeeded; not without 10,602 Canadian casualties, including 3,598 fatalities, however.
It was known as the “Great War,” and “The war to end all wars,” but history has proven that World War I was not the war that ended all wars. What it was, was a bitter, bloody conflict with over 15 million (combatants and civilians) killed, and 22 million wounded between July 28, 1914 and November 11, 1918.
This conflagration started with the assassination of an obscure prince, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which led to posturing between two, now forgotten states—Austro-Hungary and Serbia. Serbia’s ally, Russia, then began to assemble troops, which brought in Germany as ally to Austro-Hungary. England and France then came to the aid of Russia, and this automatically brought Canada—as a dominion of England—into the fray.
Nevertheless, a nationalist fervour gripped Canada to aid the “Mother Land,” even though the militia numbered just over 3,000—and volunteers poured into recruiting stations so that by September of 1914, more than 30,000 set sail for England; making it the largest convoy to cross the Atlantic.
However, these patriotic young men who had dreamed of glory in a far off land soon learned that they had been sold a bill of goods, and that there was nothing glorious about existing like an animal in filthy, disease-ridden trenches that scarred the landscape, or seeing your friend—or lover—blown to bits by an enemy mortar shell.
Indeed, the recruiting posters showing clean-cut lads in freshly pressed uniforms sipping wine at outdoor cafés in Paris didn’t contain any scenes of a corpse-strewn no-man’s land—that stretch of barren ground that separated the trenches between the two opposing sides. “Nor were there any close-ups of a diseased rat crawling over your face as you tried to grab a few hours’ sleep before having to go “over the top” to raid the enemy trench just a few metres away from yours.”
“No mention of German snipers waiting for you to emerge from the relative safety of a muddy shell hole so that he could blow your head off. No depiction of life in the trenches, where foot rot, lice, and the stench of death were your constant companions,”
Vimy Ridge was a promontory near the River Aisne where, after a failed attempt to take Paris, the Germans were ordered to dig in to protect themselves. When the allies realized that the German trenches were a formidable obstacle, they dug in as well.
“After a few months the opposing trenches stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier. For the next three years, neither side was able to advance more than a few kilometres along the line that came to be known as the Western Front. But living conditions in what amounted to little more than deep ditches wasn’t anything like the cozy bungalows or college dorms or rural family homesteads the young Canadians had left behind.”
Life in the Trenches
As part of this introduction to the battle, Author Tom Douglas describes the conditions:
“[N]o story about World War I—and in particular the magnificent achievement of the Canadians at Vimy Ridge—would be complete without a basic understanding of these inhuman and seemingly insurmountable obstacles that had to be overcome on the road to victory.
“The excavations along the Western Front were built in threes—the front line, support, and reserve trenches. This trio of long, snake-like ditches covered between 220 and 550 metres of ground from front to back and could wind for several kilometres across the terrain parallel to the enemy fortifications.”
“Running perpendicular to these channels were communication trenches for fresh troops, equipment, and supplies to move up the line and wounded soldiers to be taken to the rear.”
The trench was too deep to allow its occupants to be seen over the top, so a small ledge called a fire-step was added. The soldiers would crouch down on this protrusion, then pop up to take potshots at the enemy before ducking down quickly to avoid having their heads blown off by a camouflaged sniper who’d been lying motionless for hours in no man’s land.”
“The front-line trenches were protected by gigantic bales of barbed wire placed far enough forward to prevent the enemy from getting within grenade-lobbing distance. So impenetrable and tangled were these obstacles that they acted like the steel web of a monstrous spider, impaling any hapless soldier who came close enough to get tangled in the trap. Before a battle troops would be sent out with wire cutters to chop a path through the razor-sharp wire. It was one of the more hazardous duties to perform because of those ever-present snipers.”
To make matters more difficult the Germans occupied the high ground, forcing the attacking allies to charge uphill while loaded down with weapons and equipment. Moreover, the allies—French, British and Canadians—were only a few feet above sea level, and would frequently find themselves standing ankle deep in water.
“Waterlogged trenches meant wet feet for days and weeks on end—and wet feet led to frostbite or the dreaded trench foot that, if left untreated, could result in amputation.”
“Dysentery was another killer that accounted for thousands of death in the trenches. Needless to say, sanitary conditions in these waterlogged ditches were appalling. Latrines were dug behind the lines, but these soon filled up and spilled into the trenches. In addition, many of those excavations had been dug in areas were corpses from earlier battles had been hastily buried, and the decaying bodies were another source of deadly germs.”
“A steady diet of canned beef, mouldy biscuits, boiled sweets, and coffee made from ground turnips left the men susceptible to boils, scabies, and other skin eruptions.”
As the author points out, a great number of soldiers suffered from mental illness after weeks and months of living under such conditions. The term “shell shock” was coined to describe this condition, but many officers and even doctors refused this as a reason to remove the victims from the battle front.
“The rallying cry “for king and country” soon took on a cynical overtone.”
The Author then goes on to document the charge up Vimy Ridge from the personal perspective of the soldiers and officers who took part; many of them being awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery—some posthumously.
At this time of remembrance, this is Canadian history that should not—cannot be forgotten. If a country’s history forms its heritage, then this is what we are all about.
This is my Remembrance Day tribute. A new memorywill be added every day until November 11th. Lest we forget!
Lessons In Trust: A Cambridge Fellows Mystery No.7, by Charlie Cochrane
An absolutely must read
Book blurb: When Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith witness the suspicious death of a young man at the White City exhibition in London, they’re keen to investigate—especially after the cause of death proves to be murder. But police Inspector Redknapp refuses to let them help, even after they stumble onto clues to the dead man’s identity.
Orlando’s own identity becomes the subject for speculation when, while mourning the death of his beloved grandmother, he learns that she kept secrets about her past. Desperate to discover the truth about his family, Orlando departs suddenly on a solo quest to track down his roots, leaving Jonty distraught.
While Jonty frantically tries to locate his lover, Orlando wonders if he’ll be able to find his real family before he goes mad. After uncovering more leads to the White City case, they must decide whether to risk further involvement. Because if either of them dares try to solve the murder, Inspector Redknapp could expose their illicit—and illegal—love affair.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I say with great regret, for the genuine enjoyment I have missed, that “Lessons in Trust” by Charlie Cochrane [Samhain Publishing, 2010] is the first of the “Cambridge Fellows Mysteries” I have read. Fortunately it is not the first of Ms Chochrane’s stories I have reviewed, for “Sand,” (her contribution to the “Last Gasp Anthology”) holds that delightful distinction. Nevertheless, Lessons in Trust gives a much broader picture of her remarkable talent, and it has left this particular reader yearning for more of the same.
The book blurb quite adequately covers the story outline, and so for my part I will ‘read between the lines,’ so to speak.
The early 1900s was an interesting and colourful era with vestiges of Victorian stodginess reluctantly giving way to what would soon become the “Flapper” generation. In between were bright, ‘modern’, fashionable young men like Jonty & Orlando, with a foot in both generations. The common ground was style, and these two—from quite different backgrounds—had it in spades.
What delighted me about this read is that the author has been able to capture this with remarkable credibility: Victorian correctness mixed with a ‘bending of the rules’ (correctly, of course); a begrudging acceptance of the motor car (but properly dressed for the occasion); and wit and scintillating conversation to carry it all off.
The mysteries are truly mysteries, too, and will leave any reader turning pages. I guarantee it.
A must read. Five stars.
Progress report, re: Coming of Age on the Trail. I’m happy to say that the first draft is finished and heading for the editors desk. Probable release date: January. 2011.
Luke, by Jan Irving
A nice light, wholesome read: Two men and a baby from a gay perspective.
Book blurb: Wandering cowboy Luke Walker is at the end of his rope after his girlfriend abandons their newborn daughter. A terrified new father, he’s grateful to meet Dr. Morgan Gallagher. Morgan recognizes that he and Luke could help each other: Luke can rebuild Morgan’s property and land so Morgan can have the horses he wants, and Morgan can provide the younger man with a safe place to raise his daughter. In theory, it should work out perfectly, except that Morgan is instantly attracted to Luke—a straight man—and sharing the same cabin and caring for the baby is a more intimate arrangement than he’d imagined.
Available in Kindle eBook format.
Review by Gerry Burnie
As you may have noticed, I like western-genre stories. Classic westerns are my first choice, á-la “We Pointed them North: Reflections of a Cowboy” by Teddy “Blue” Abbott, but more contemporary depictions are enjoyable too, and “Luke” by Jan Irving [Dreamspinner Press, 2010] is one such.
It is a sweet little story about two men and a baby, which is a novel approach that could have been further developed for its uniqueness; nevertheless it adds a domestic touch to an otherwise standard ‘guy-story,’ and although the custodial circumstances—i.e. why Luke ended up with the baby—seems a bit incredible, it makes for an interesting twist.
This ‘on-the-edge’ credulity runs throughout the novella, e.g. how Morgan, a doctor, ends up on a broken-down ranch in the middle of nowhere; how Luke just happens to stumble onto it; how an erstwhile straight guy falls in love with another man; and why Zelda—the biological mother—wanders back into his life. Nevertheless, Ms Irving has been able to maintain a fine line along the fair side of plausibility—that safe ground for all authors.
The same might be said about the ending, which the author has wisely attached in the form of an epilogue, for it could just as well been omitted without being noticed.
Altogether, I congratulate the author for having written a plot-driven, western-themed story that doesn’t rely on homoerotica to sell it. Four stars.
Variety, The Spice of Life, by Mykola Dementiuk
An interesting read about a genre not very often explored
Publisher’s blurb: Giving up the old for the new means drastic changes…a new apartment, new friends, new lovers, and maybe even, a new sex change? But has he changed that much to accept these changes so readily when he knows that there are even more drastic changes waiting for him?
About the author: Mykola Dementiuk was born in 1949 of Ukrainian parents in a West German DP camp, immigrating to America when he was two. After Catholic grade school & public high school in New York City, he graduated from Columbia University in 1984.
A writer with varied employment, from gyro seller at Lollapalooza to roustabout at the Big Apple Circus, Mykola helped create the magic of Cirque due Soleil performances of “Algeria” with Electrical work.
After suffering a massive stroke in 1997, Mykola eventually returned to writing, using one finger to execute the fantasies and psychological stories of his mind.
Review by Gerry Burnie
From the outset I will admit that I have had no exposure to the transvestite genre, or even the culture for that matter, and so when I was asked to review ”Variety, the Spice of Life” by Mykola Dementiuk [eXtasy Books, 2010] I wasn’t certain I could give it the proper insight. Fortunately the author has developed the story around a main character who is even more uninitiated than me, and with a naiveté that I don’t believe I ever had.
Said character is made even more transparent by not being assigned a name for the first two-thirds of the story. All of this has a purpose, of course. In other words, he is purposefully presented as a blank canvas upon which life paints what he is to become—a “Missy.”
This process starts when this over-sheltered momma’s boy is cast out into the world following the death of his mother. Although he knows he has strong homosexual tendencies, he has no experience apart from being groped by an older man. However, as fate would have it he spies the ‘man of his dreams,’ and being naïve he falls madly in love; emphasis on the ‘madly.’ Now, the Fates are the fickle agents of the gods, and in this case they can’t resist having a bit of fun with this lovelorn swain. Ergo, ‘Mr. Dreamy’ turns out to be a transvestite hooker, petty thief and all-round exploiter. As is so often the case, however, none of this seems to deter our innocent, and it seems the more he is exploited the more his ardour grows. In fact, he even emulates his puppeteer by becoming a cross-dresser himself.
The story is set in New York, and is a very New-York-type of story—gritty, with a cosmopolitan impersonality about it; impersonal relationships, impersonal sex, and the-devil-take-the-hindmost ethos. All of which is intentional and well presented, as is the overall story.
The quibbles are very few. I had some difficulty relating to the main character, but that may be more of a personal comment than a criticism. I also found the ending a bit simplistic, although that didn’t detract from the overall quality of the story, otherwise.
An interesting read about a genre that is not very often explored. Eagerly recommended. Four-and-one-half stars.
Update on the progress of Coming of Age on the Trail: 163/181 pages of rewrites completed. Should go to the editor by the end of October. Meanwhile, learn more about it and read an exerpt here.
Soldier: A Soldiers Story, by Allen Cross and Arius de Winter
This short story should be dishonourably discharged from your reading list
Author’s Blurb: This is the story of a soldier finding himself in the time of battle, falling in love and not being able to express it. This is the story of how soldiers live, of how we, soldiers, fall in love, how the battle field opens the character to express things he never would, and except himself before death finds him. It is a story of odds, moral code and in the end………..?
This book is filled with sexual situations, gay illustrations, sex and one on one sexual situations. Cum join us as these soldiers find something more in the foxhole then war.
As a former soldier who found himself in battle, in love, and in a fox hole, I was blighted by the hopes that might never come, the question ‘why now, why did I find you now” and meeting death face to face. These are the expressions of hope, valor and the human side of love that can be found even in a time of war.
These are the real stories of men in battle, some fictionalized, some up-beat romance added but still the real thing, hope, valor and glory.
This book is illustrated and intended for gay readers, it is my un-edited proof.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Note: Readers should be aware that under the Kindle format, which does not specify either word or page count, some publishers are marketing short stories (some as short as a 30-minute read) with no notice that these are not novellas or full scale novels.
“Soldier: A Soldiers Story” by Allen Cross and Arius der Winter [Amazon Digital Services] is one such example. The complete text of this slapdash effort can be read in about an hour—provided that one has an hour to waste.
The plot, such as it is, is set during WWII in the Pacific Corridor; although that can only be deduced from references to “Japs” and an “island.” The narrator Jack, a soldier, is stationed there and is befriend by two others, Matt and Simon, in the shower. Apart from the fact that Matt has a “full ten inch cock” there is very little description of these two to help the reader get a picture of them. However, “He [Matt] was clean shaved, [sic] cock, balls and all.”
The narrative and dialogue at this point are much along the same lines, i.e.
“Dude,” you ok. [sic]
I felt sick.
He [sic] was this hot guy standing in front of my [sic] with a fucking hard on and I wasn’t supposed to be looking at him like a love lost child. I’d lost total control and now, here my cock was shower dancing with his.
I thought I would explode right there on the spot.
“Hey dude, don’t worry about it, happens all the time”. [sic]
I wasn’t sure what he meant, that his cock was hard or that his and mine were touching?
Matt smiled as he looked down at my cock embrace [sic] with his. He just looked up at me and smiled.
“Hey you fucker, I’m Simon”, the man next to Matt announced. You two dick dancing or can I join.
And so forth.
As a sort of blanket caveat (apology, perhaps), the author is careful to point out that this is an “un-edited proof”—which begs at least a couple of questions: e.g. If the writing isn’t complete, why publish it? and, Does this author not realize that by publishing such shoddy workmanship he is indirectly sullying the image of every other writer who has paid good money to have his or her manuscript(s) edited? And in this regard condemnation I include Amazon Digital Services and every other publisher who markets this type of inferior pulp.
The plot then goes on to gloss over the feeble attempt at a storyline by mixing in lots of explicit, homoerotic sex. However even this is poorly handled in places. For example, the author writes that “Matt sat up, reached for my cock and began to suck my dick as I moaned softly,” but approximately two pages later, he writes, “I desperately wanted his body and his long hard cock but he was so good looking that I wasn’t sure he’d reject me or ask of me more than I was willing to give.” [Emphasis mine]. Rejection? Not two pages beforehand the guy was copping on the narrator’s dick, so it is a pretty fair bet that rejection isn’t overly likely.
Although the hype for this story strongly suggest that this is “…the story of how soldiers live, of how we, soldiers, fall in love, how the battle field opens the character to express things he never would, and except himself before death finds him” I found very few references to army life apart from some superficial, generic situations that told me almost nothing about what it was like. I do know, however, that if soldiers had copulated as openly as these are written to have done, being court-martialled would have been the least of their worries. One-half star.
Another short story of the same ilk is: Missing Jackson Hole by Ryan Field [loveyoudivine Alterotica, 2010]. 149K. This story can be read in about 30 minutes; however, one must buy and download it to discover this.
Cruising Through History, by Habu
A better-than-average homoerotic work for those readers who enjoy this genre
Book blurb: Since the beginning of man, the unfolding of history has been dominated by the forces of conquest, seduction, and lust. And the pursuit of man by man, although mostly carried out in whispers and in the shadows, is as ancient and constant as history itself. This is a cruise through history in twenty-two short stories, careening from a brash assault on the gates of a Chinese brothel by an adventuring, demanding West to the shores of Tripoli, from an American Revolutionary War colonel’s tent to the brutal dawn ravishment at Pearl Harbor-and even on to alien visitation into outer space itself. You will discover a fast and furious journey of varied and unique tales where men seek out other men for conquest and pleasure. You will be entertained and heated up to the fantasy and treachery and the triumph and glory of the passion one man can have for another-and the sometimes dire, sometimes fully satisfying consequences, that can have in the pursuit of that passion-down through the ages.
About the author: Habu, a bisexual former supersonic spy jet pilot, intelligence agent, and diplomat, is a mainstream novelist and short story writer under another name in another dimension of his life.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Cruising Through History by Habu [CreateSpace, 2008] is a collection of pseudo-historical vignettes along the lines of Time Well Bent, but without the sophistication. Rather, the emphasis in each of these twenty-two short stories is concentrated around the homoerotic sexual exploits of the various protagonists. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this provided that that is all the reader is looking for, but for those looking for more—or even a little variety—it is regretfully one-dimensional.
The problem with too much erotica, in my opinion, is that once you have read one fuck-session you have pretty well covered them all with minor variations.
Having said that, the author has cleverly provided some variety by changing the settings from ancient China to the Iraq conflict. Moreover, the writing is strong throughout—even great in places—e.g. “Naval Dilemma (Pearl Harbor, World War II)” and “Disintegration (Colonial Rhodesia’s demise)”—and both the historical and cultural detail impressed me as being convincingly authentic.
On balance, therefore, I would say that this is a better-than-average homoerotic work for readers who enjoy this genre. Three and-one-half stars.
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Cut Hand, by Mark Wildyr
Altogether, this is quintessential historical fiction encompassing a fascinating topic and period in history.
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Book blurb: Homosexuals have been with us forever; queers, pansies, and fags are inventions of European civilizations. But, many New World native cultures view “Two-Spirit” people through more respectful eyes. Cut Hand by Mark Wildyr is a romantic action epic set in the early 1800s about an unorthodox love between a white youth on the American frontier, escaping his Tory family’s past, and a young Indian warrior destined for the leadership of his tribe.
Billy Strobaw’s world turns on its axis at his surprising and unexpected physical reaction to a young Indian he and two traveling companions take captive. The handsome warrior, Cut Hand, not only earns his freedom, but also steals Billy’s heart and prevails upon the American to come live among his people.
Plunged into a strange culture where his lust for another man is not regarded as disgraceful, Billy agrees to become Cut’s winkte wife, an act that brings problems, but not from the direction he anticipated. As the two men work to overcome differences in their cultural backgrounds, Billy comes to understand these Native Americans have as much to offer him as he has to share with them.
The sexuality of the protagonists becomes merely a personal footnote in the struggle of the Plains tribes to preserve a way of life that has served them well for generations. Told partially in Colonial and early American English, the novel follows the lives of these two lovers from 1832 to 186l, thirty tumultuous years on young America’s frontier.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Mark Wildyr’s cross-culture novel “Cut Hand” [StarBooks Press, 2010] was a delightful find for me. To explain, I usually shy away from “Wild West” stories because they tend to be little more than loosely strung together sexual romps, to which the plot only serves to move the characters from one tryst to another. On the contrary “Cut Hand,” while sexy, is a plot-driven, insightful look at “Two Spirit” customs within North American Native cultures. Moreover, since it places a white boy in the role of the wink-te (pronounced “wan-te” in this story), it is unique approach to it.
Billy Strobaw is the product of Tory parents (called “Loyalists” in Canada) who are unsettled as a result of the American War of Independence. He and his family therefore become outcasts in their own land, and after their untimely deaths young Billy decides to seek his fortune in the Far West. Enroute, his party saves a handsome young Indian named Cut Hand from certain death by a rival band. Thereafter Billy is surprised by his unexpected physical reaction to the Indian brave. Surprisingly Cut Hand returns his attention to not only steal Billy’s heart but also convinces him to live among his people.
Thrust without preparation into a strange culture Billy agrees to become Cut Hand’s winkte wife; an act that brings problems but not from the direction he expected. As the two men work to overcome the differences in their cultural backgrounds, Billy comes to appreciate the Native Americans for their oneness with the land and their staunch loyalty to one another.
To simply say that this story is “plot-driven” does not do it the justice it deserves. This a superbly researched glimpse of “a time never again to be seen on the Great Plains,” and done with such credibility that it is a veritable history lesson in itself. Also woven into this is a sometimes poignant story of love between men: manly men; husbands and wink-te wives; warriors; and yet so human that anyone could identify with them.
While commenting on the superlatives inherent in this work, one shouldn’t overlook the cast of true-to-life characters. Wildyr has given each of these a distinctive character, and then goes on to develop and expand it as the story progresses. Moreover, he has resisted the pitfalls of stereotyping the Natives, especially, and has not attempted to ‘sanitize’ them, either.
Altogether, this is quintessential historical fiction encompassing a fascinating topic and period in history. Five stars.
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Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative History, Edited by Connie Wilkins
If you enjoy a broad variety of unique and imaginative stories, superbly written, then this book is for you.
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Book blurb: We have always been here. For as long as there’s been such a thing as sex, alternate sexual identities have been a fact of life. So why have we been so nearly invisible in recorded history and historical fiction?
Now editor Connie Wilkins, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, has assembled fourteen stories that span the centuries from ancient times to the Renaissance to the modern era and explore alternate versions of our past.
Their queer protagonists, who bend history in ways dramatic enough to change the world and subtle enough to touch hearts and minds, rescue our past from invisibility, and affirm our place and importance throughout all of history, past, present, and future.
Also available in Kindle version.
Review by Gerry Burnie
“Time Well Bent” [Lethe Press, 2009] is one of the more intriguing collections of stories that I have had the pleasure of reading—for a number of reasons.
The first, off-hand, is that it contains several tales about lesbian love; something that I have not had an opportunity to review, previously.
“A Wind Sharp as Obsidian“ by Rita Oakes opens the collection and sets the tone for the stories that follow; inasmuch as it is an imaginative example of superb writing. Malianalli, a mortal, is in a relationship with the Mayan goddess Xochi. The story then goes on to focus on one moment in that relationship, and leaves the fictional consequences to take their shape in the reader’s imagination. This allows the author to concentrate on the political, physical, and spiritual world of the Mayan peoples at the cusp of the conquistadors’ invasion. An intriguing “What if” melding of history and fiction.
“Roanake” by Sandra Barret is the second ‘gal-story’ set in the early (1585-1587) Puritan settlement of that name in North America. Elizabeth, unhappy with the rigidly enforced gender roles of Roanoke, is fortunate enough to be mentored by Maigan, okitcitakwe (two-spirits) to the Croatan Indians. This story is unique inasmuch as it explores lesbianism in Puritan society, and the feminine side of ‘two spirits’. It also provides a ‘what if’ answer to the Roanoke mystery.
In “A Spear Against the Sky,” M.P. Ericson has chosen the Roman settlement of Britannia as a setting, and two of the most famous women warriors in history; Boudica and Cartimandua. It is a story that adds an intriguing and plausible dimension to our patchy knowledge of events.
In “Great Reckonings, Little Rooms,” Catherine Lundoff shines her light on Woolf’s Judith Shakespeare as an Elizabethan cross-dresser in a story of complex relationships packed into this short story.
“The Heart of the Story” by Connie Wilkins is alternative history set in the second world war. It’s a compellingly solid and active world where mythology and history come together, around a fairytale lesbian love story.
“Morisca” by Erin Mackay is a juxtaposition of great leaders and lowly individuals, in a tale set in the fifteenth century court of Spain. This is a heart warming and charming look behind the scenes.
On the male side “The Final Voyage of the Hesperus,” by Steven Adamson blurs the lines between dreams and realities as the Hesperus sails between India and the sugar plantations of the West Indies. Woven into this is a male love story that is divinely inspired.
“A Marriage of Choice” by Dale Chase is a quintessential ‘what if’ story that imagines Thomas Jefferson debating the terms of the American Bill of Rights with James Madison—as narrated by Jefferson’s male lover, Caleb. Personally, I found this story the most fanciful and intriguing as the two most celebrated minds in American history come together to debate an issue that is not yet settled; i.e. same-sex marriage. A real flight of fancy!
“The High Cost of Tamarind” by Steve Berman is a slight juxtaposing two young men’s haunting past and present, but it was a bit too impressionistic for me to follow comfortably.
“Sod ‘Em” by Barry Lowe is an interesting tale set against an austere location and time—around the ninth or tenth centuries. It is a fairly credible recreation of the conditions a lowly monk might have endured, and almost certainly M/M relationships did result. The idea that the Bible, as we know it, is the product of various translations, transcription and interpretations over the centuries is a ‘what if’ story in itself.
“Barbaric Splendor” by Simon Sheppard is sometimes creepy guided tour of the fabled Xanadu; i.e. the court of Kubla Khan, and it is definitely not what popular, historical accounts have led us to believe.
“Opening Night” by Lisabet Sarai, is very cleverly set around the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, “Ruddigore,” but from there it departs rather dramatically from G&S history. Okay, I was prepared to live with that, but the North American connection left me backstage. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting take superbly written.
“A Happier Year” by Emily Salter is a charming period piece spun around E.M. Forster’s “Maurice,” a novella that was suppressed until after Forster’s death. Salter has created a very sensitive story in which she extrapolates how the publication might have affected society if it had been published before the Great War. She has also created a beautifully complicated character in Henry.
“At Reading Station, Changing Trains,” by C.A. Gardner recalls the story of T.E. Lawrence’s life as he tries to hide from his fame and ‘other self.’ The problem being that he has revealed his ‘other’ in thefirst draft of his autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Salt (which he burnt). The second draft–sans any reference to it–has been stolen a Reading Station, but mysteriousl comes back to him through his friend, Feisal Ibn Hussien. It is the manuscript, therefore, that brings the two friends back together, and the question then becomes whether the modern history of Iraq would have been different if Lawrence had once again joined forces with Feisal? What if?
As an added feature the authors have each included an explanatory note at the end of their contribution, shedding light on the process and intent behind each entry.
If you enjoy a broad variety of unique and imaginative stories, superbly written, then this book is for you.
A Vigil for Joe Rose, by Michael Whatling
Publisher’s blurb: What is it like to be “out” in high school today? Is homophobia still rampant, or have things changed? How do the reactions of students, teachers, administrators, and families affect the out gay student?
A Vigil for Joe Rose is a collection of stories told with empathy and humour about the experience of being out in high school. As a unified collection, these eight short stories and a novella chart the journey of the main characters from first coming out to their growth into confident young gay men, and the challenges, triumphs, and losses along the way.
About the author: MICHAEL WHATLING grew up outside of Montreal, Canada. For a time he escaped and lived in London, Paris, and Tokyo. He holds a Ph.D. in education, and has taught at the elementary, secondary, and university levels. His writing includes short stories, novels, and screenplays. He now lives in the town where he grew up, tormented by intolerance, the need to write, and wild rabbits in his yard.
About Joe Rose: Montreal – Early Sunday morning a local man was stabbed to death on a city bus by a gang of youths. Joe Rose, 23, was attacked by 15 or more assailants who jeered at him and shouted, “Faggot.” The incident occurred at about 4:30 a.m. outside the Frontenac métro.
Witnesses to the attack say the youths beat him and stabbed him because his hair was dyed pink. The youths pulled off Rose’s hat and started punching him, then pulled out hunting and kitchen knives and scissors and stabbed him repeatedly before fleeing the bus. A female bus driver who tried to intervene was struck but not seriously injured.
“I’m convinced it was because he’s gay,” said one witness who asked not to be identified. “There were a lot of people they could have singled out. Why him? He had pink hair and looked gay. They chose him.”
A family spokesperson said Rose was returning home from a friend’s house on the last bus. In college, Rose was the president of the gay and lesbian student group.
A 19-year-old and a 15-year-old will be charged later today with second-degree murder. Two juveniles, 14 and 15, who cannot be named under youth protection laws, will be charged as accessories after the fact.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I first encountered Michael Whatling’s writing on Authonomy. It was with regard to the novella, The Last Coming Out Story, now published as part of a collection called, A Vigil for Joe Rose [iUniverse, 2008]. At the time I was impressed by his skill, but finding Authonomy too much of a popularity contest cum paper chase, I didn’t revisit it until recently. That’s when I learned of Michael’s published work.
To appreciate the nature of this work the reader should first take note of the introduction, wherein Whatling explains that the genesis is found in his doctoral research, and that, although it is a fictionalized account, it is based on interviews with actual gay students, i.e. a “non-fiction novel,” á-la-Truman Capote’s ”In Cold Blood.”
In this regard, Whatling has done a superb job of shining the spotlight on the thinking of sixteen to eighteen-year-olds, who happen to be gay, out, and attending high school. Sometimes the ‘coming out’ is intentional and planned, and sometimes it is not. “Losing control of the process,” it is called in “Elton John, Uncle Dave, and Me,” and that is a frightening process. “The Holy Ghost” explores teacher homophobia, and “A Lesson on Being Inseparable” tells the tale of a boy who is dedicated to teaching younger students about sexual orientation. Therefore, a wide range of perspectives are explored with the same sort of insight.
Best developed, in my opinion, is “The Last Coming Out Story,” which probably best fulfills the “non-fiction novel” function as well. It is a postmodern take on the ubiquitous coming out story. How does the president of the school’s “Rainbow Club” go from being the most popular student to the most hated? Though not for being gay.
So far. so good. The writing is very strong throughout, and one cannot be overly critical regarding the facts. After all, non-fiction is its own defense. However, when this is combined with the requisites of a novel (per se), the ordinary rules of entertainment apply. In this regard there was a sameness among the various short stories, and a lack of any real conflict. “Episodes in Fear: Mathews Story,” comes fairly close, but otherwise there is no real ‘high drama’ On the other hand, the factual account of Joe Rose’s murder is high drama enough. (See above)
A compelling read. Four-and-one-half stars.
Gerry B’s Book Reviews has been awarded a LOVELY BLOG AWARD!
From M. Kei, author of Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1: Sallee Rovers
Congratulations! You’re the recipient of a Lovely Blog Award. This
community generated blog honors blogs in the field of historical
fiction. Some of you are not exactly ‘historical fiction,’ but as a
writer of historical fiction I find you useful and interesting, and I
think other readers of historical will, too.
Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers, by Steven Zeeland
An insightful, informative and interesting read
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Publisher’s blurb: Steven Zeeland’s Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers is a raw, unsanitized personal record of conversations he had with young soldiers and airmen stationed in Germany shortly before the outbreak of the Gulf War. These interviews document the far-ranging and pervasive gay networks with the U.S. Army and Air Force. While a few of Zeeland’s buddies were targeted for discharge, most portray an atmosphere of sexually tense tolerance — and reveal a surprising degree of interaction with straight servicemen. Some of these soldiers even found that, ironically, the U.S. military actually helped them become gay. It did this by taking them away from hometown constraints, stationing them overseas in cities where they found greater opportunity to explore their sexuality, and thrusting them into the sexually charged atmosphere of all-male barracks life.
Review by Gerry Burnie
I suppose that nearly every gay male—myself included—has fantasized at one time or another about a uniform bulging with raw masculine virility. Of course, according to the politicians and military brass, homosexuality is not supposed to exist. Gays in the military? Unheard of! Steven Zeeland’s Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers [Routledge, 1993] puts a lie to that proposition by introducing us to sixteen very active gays in the military.
Although the timeline is dated some things are timeless, and human sexuality is one of these. So is the myopia of policy makers who, in the face of indisputable proof, continue to pretend that the issue simply does not exist.
The book is a collection of transcribed interviews with sixteen, gay servicemen, who describe their personal experiences while stationed in Germany. Critically speaking, the experiences are not that different or unique from any other group of sexually active men this age, but what is remarkable is the network of social connections that are inadvertently revealed; red light districts, gay bars and bath houses that soon become known and frequented.
Another aspect that comes to the light in these interviews is the lack of danger or fear as a result of their sexual orientation. Some spoke of minor discrimination, and others of frustration at having to hide their orientation, but most claimed that life was not unpleasant, overall. Moreover, the overwhelming majority thought that gays represented no particular problems in military service.
The shortcomings of this study are there as well. The first is the limited scope of the sample. Virtually all the interviewees came from the same branch of the military, located in the same base. Moreover, none of the interviewees were actively engaged in combat at the time. Would their responses have been any different if that were not so? It is hard to say. Nevertheless it is a question that is still open with this reader.
With that caveat, I recommend this study as being both interesting and informative. Four stars.
Casa Rodrigo, by Johnny Miles
A fun read by which you can cheer the good guys and hiss the villain
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Publisher’s blurb: On a lush, tropical island inhabited by rogues, thieves and villains, where men take the law into their own hands, a father and son are thrust into tumultuous events that will change their lives forever.
Bernardo de Rodrigo is proud of his son. Alonso is handsome and winning, and everyone he meets is instantly drawn to the tall, warm Spaniard. But how could either of them have known that a forbidden love is about to claim Alonso’s heart?
Arbol, the charismatic male slave who was saved from the clutches of Raul Ignacio Martín, feels an instant connection with Alonso, the moment he looks into Arbol’s eyes, the moment they touch.
Bernardo has other things to worry about, however. He’s trying to exorcise himself of an intensely gratifying yet shame-filled sexual affair with Raul, who secretly adores Bernardo but doesn’t know how to show it.
When Raul blackmails Bernardo, their dark and sordid relationship not only threatens the bond between father and son, it places Arbol’s life in danger. Now Bernardo must make a difficult choice that could further alienate his son while Alonso must find a way to keep the man he loves.
Front cover art: Anne Cain. Front cover design: April Martinez
Review by Gerry Burnie
The above blurb is accompanied by the caveat: “This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Dubious consent, male/male sexual practices.” Usually I shy away from stories of this nature, not because they offend my sensibilities, but because they are so woefully short of any plot worth mentioning.
While the plot in Casa Rodrigo by Johnny Miles [Loose Id, LCC, 2010] is not its strong point, it is a credible storyline and an effective balance for the abundance of “explicit sexual content.” Indeed, it has some quite original scenes—such as the opening where the runaway slave vainly tries to save herself and her newly born child, Arbol. It is also a dramatic way of introducing the main characters in the roles they will play throughout the remainder of the story.
The genre, apart from being homoerotic, is a period story. I have seen it described as ‘historical fiction,’ but since it lacks any real historical content I have difficulty in reconciling that description. However, its treatment of slavery seems quite credible to someone who is no authority on the subject. Slavery was certainly inhumane and cruel, and I think Miles has done of effective job of bringing those aspects to the fore.
The characters, Bernardo do Rodrigo, his wife Adelina, the main character Alonso, the slave Arbol, and the villainous Raul Ignacio, are all reasonably well-developed and distinct. However, I had some difficulty identifying with any of them. Bernardo came across as a pathetic, self-serving weakling, and his long-suffering wife, Adelina, seens to be the author of her own misfortune; Alonso, while loving enough, was altogether to wimpy to be a true hero figure, and Arbol was too articulate and cultured for a slave. Finally, although consistent. Raul Ignacio’s character was a bit over-the-top with his villainy.
Nevertheless, Casa Rodrigo is a fun read. The sort of story by which you can cheer the good guys and hiss the villain. Three-and-one-half stars.
See what others have to say about Coming of Age on the Trail (Coming Soon).
If you haven’t done so already check out my other books, Two Irish Lads, and Journey to Big Sky.
Ransom, by Lee Rowan
An officer, a gentleman… and a sodomite. The first two earn honor and respect. The third, a noose.
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Publisher’s blurb: Even as he finds himself falling in love with his shipmate, William Marshall, David Archer realizes it is a hopeless passion. Not only is Will the son of a minister, his first act aboard ship was to take pistol in hand and dispatch an older midshipman who made offensive advances. Davy realizes that Will would probably not shoot him if he expressed his feelings, but their affectionate friendship would surely end, once Marshall learned of Archer’s “unnatural” yearnings.
William Marshall has never given much thought to any feelings beyond duty, loyalty, and honor. For a young Englishman in 1796, the Navy is a way to move beyond his humble origins and seek a chance at greatness. While others spend shore leave carousing with willing wenches, Marshall is more likely to be curled up with a navigation text.
Captured by accident when their Captain is abducted, Archer and Marshall become pawns in a renegade pirate’s sadistic game. To protect the man he loves, David Archer compromises himself—trading his honor and his body for Marshall’s safety. When Will learns of his friend’s sacrifice, he also discovers that what he feels for Davy is stronger and deeper than friendship.
The first challenge: escape their prison. The second: find a way to preserve their love without losing their lives.
Ransom, the first book in the Royal Navy Series by Lee Rowan, introduces readers to the appealing characters of Lieutenants Marshall and Archer. Become part of the story as they discover their shared love against a backdrop of intrigue, mystery, and danger.
Review by Gerry Burnie
This is the first Lee Rowan work I have read, but after reading Ransom [Bristlecone Pine Press, 2009] it won’t be my last.
Indeed, it takes only a paragraph or two is get the impression that this author is very much in control; both of the story and of the reader’s interest. That’s a good thing, too, because most of the tale involves some fairly complex and prolonged suspense that could very well become unravelled if it were not for Ms Rowan’s masterful writing skill.
The same is true regarding David’s and Michael’s developing romance, which evolves from devoted friends to lovers throughout the first two-thirds of the novel. Consequently, without the strong, guiding hand of the author this gradual pace might have become frustratingly lethargic. Coquettish. As it is, however, apart from a few too many apologies between them, the pace seems quite credible for two navy lads of the eighteenth-century.
The balance of characters is nicely thought-out, as well. Captain Smith, being the most senior in rank, age and experience, represents a “stiff upper lip” example for the two younger lads to emulate, and the somewhat psychotic, pirate captain is the antithesis of Smith and the morality of the day. He is also ‘deliciously’ sinister, and a nice foil for the other characters.
Put all this against a background of intrigue and mystery that is exacerbated by the mounting sexual sadism of the pirate captain, the unfolding escape plans by Davy and Michael, as well as Captain Smith, and the brilliant sleuthing on the part of Lieutenant Drinkwater, and it makes for a page-turner for certain.
Having said all that I felt the story should have ended two chapters earlier than it did. I found the final two chapters anticlimactic, and almost an afterthought to include some graphic sex for the one-handed readers.
I am happy to say, however, that this is only a minor quibble—perhaps not even shared with readers of homoerotic fiction—and otherwise it is an outstanding example of 18th-century, naval historical fiction. Four and one-half stars.
Read what others are saying about Coming of Age on the Trail , so far.
Voyageurs, by Keira Andrews
Manly love in a manly setting
Jack Cavendish needs to get to his station at Fort Charlotte, a fur-trading outpost in Grand Portage, Upper Canada. The fort is only accessible by canoe, and there’s just one man willing to take him on the perilous, thousand-mile journey from Montreal this late in the summer. Young Christian Smith, the son of an Ojibwe mother and absent British father, needs the money to strike out on his own, so he agrees to take Jack deep into the wild.
As they travel endless lakes and rivers, at times having to carry the canoe over land, the arduous expedition takes its toll. Yet the attraction between Jack and Christian, two men from vastly different worlds, grows ever stronger. Locked in a battle against the wilderness and elements, how long can they fight their desire for each other?
This book is available in e-book and Kindle formats.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Voyageurs, by Keira Andrews [Torquere Press, 2010], is one of a series called “Spice It Up” wherein each story features a different spice—in this story it is the clever uses of turmeric. Otherwise it is a period story (somewhat historical) set in the year 1793. I make the distinction because, apart from a few historical references—i.e. Upper Canada, the North West Company and the existence of Voyageurs, also coureur des bois—there is very little actual history that one can point to. I hasten to add, however, that the author does a very fine job of capturing the ruggedness experienced by adventurers of the time. It is also a very credible depiction of romance and love between two manly men in a primeval, wilderness setting.
Journalistically speaking the writing is very strong, and the plot is well thought out and progresses at a nice pace. It also unfolds logically so that the reader is never left to wonder how an element came about, or where a certain character came from. And speaking of characters, although they are understandably few in this story, the twoo protagonist are well-developed and credible. Jack’s evolution from a pampered Englishman to competent outdoorsman is believable, and Christian’s transformation from a resentful half-breed to accepting lover is equally credible.
What I would have liked to see, however, is more historical authenticity. For example, reference is made to “Grand Portage” being hypothetically located in Upper Canada, and the large lake they encounter suggests Lake Superior. This implies that they were heading north/east from Montreal, but what route did they take? For Canadian readers, especially, this sort of inclusion would have greatly added to the story.
Once again I hasten to add that these are only minor quibbles that do not seriously detract from the romantic element of the story. Four stars.
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Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1: Sallee Rovers, by M. Kei
A swashbuckling tale full of colour, adventure and romance – a good read!
Publisher’s blurb: Lieutenant Peter Thorton of the 18th century British navy must struggle to come out gay while surviving storms at sea, ship-to-ship battles, duels, kidnapping, and more in his quest for true love and honor. The Sallee Rovers, Book One of The Pirates of the Narrow Seas Trilogy is an expertly crafted swashbuckler brimming with authentic detail and fully realized portraits of life at sea, written by a tall ship sailor and internationally acclaimed poet.
Awards: Winner of a Sweet Revolution Award for “Best Full Cast” and “Judge’s Pick”
(Note: The book if available in Kindle format).
Review by Gerry Burnie
The Sallee Rovers by M. Kei [Bristlecone Pine Press, 2010] is the first of the Pirates of the Narrow Seas trilogy and, according to his bio, the author is not only an experienced sailor, but has also experienced many of the risks and challenges described in the story. He can therefore rightfully claim his status as an authority. Having said that, I must admit that I wouldn’t know the difference between a marlinspike and a hat pin. Nevertheless, when the discussion got tactical I had no difficulty following it, nor did I find that it burdened the story—that is, not at first.
In this book we are introduced to Lieutenant Peter Thornton, a likeable sort but insecure in his role. This is partly due to being eclipsed by his best friend, Roger Perry (with whom he is secretly in love); being a partial orphan, and being new to his commission. As luck would have it—or perhaps not—he and Perry are both given assignments aboard HMS “Ajax.” The not-so-lucky part is the rather pompous and acerbic master—i.e. Captain Bishop. Moreover, matters are made worse for Thornton because Bishop takes an arbitrary disliking for him, such that he can do no right.
The plot thickens when the Ajax comes upon a sinking Spanish galleon in distress, and Peter and a crew are sent aboard to free the enchained, galley slaves in order to give them a chance at survival. One of these is a commanding, Sallee Turk, who prior to his capture was a high-ranking captain of the Sallee Rovers (i.e. pirates).
Somewhat true to his nature Bishop sets them adrift to save his own skin, and Peter and two other crew members are abandoned aboard the sinking galleon. Joining forces with the Sallee Turk, Captain Tangle, the galleon is saved and Peter becomes the right-hand confident of the swashbuckling Tangle. Thus begins a relationship that covers the gambit from admiration to frustration, and from conflict to romance.
As mentioned previously, the first half of this story moves with the pace of a schooner under full sail, and adventure abounds on the ‘bounding mane.’ Peter is likeable, Perry is charming, Bishop is a pompous fool, Tangle is dashing in an ‘Errol Flynnish’ sort of way, and the supporting characters are all distinct and credible. The naval strategies and skirmishes with the Spanish off the coast of France are exciting and engaging such that you want stand up and cheer for the good guys.
However, to me the pace seemed to slow in the second half when the story delved (perhaps a bit too much) into the belief’s and practices of the Islamic religion. Understandably, the author wanted to make a distinction between Islam and Christianity that Peter had to consider, and because it is all very interesting, but an overabundance of detail at the point where the reader is looking forward to a climax makes the story drag rather noticeably. Not seriously, but enough to detract.
Having said that, this is a good solid read and I look forward to reading the others in the trilogy, Pirates of the Narrow Seas.
All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
It’s about manliness, friendship, loyalty, honour and integrity, and it just doesn’t get much better than that!
All the Pretty Horses is the story of John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of west Texas ranchers. Upon his grandfather’s death and his parents’ divorce, the sixteen-year-old Cole finds himself landless, penniless, and possessed of skills that mean nothing in a country transformed by highways and a world war, where cowboys are as doomed and marginal as the Indians they once displaced. With his friend Lacey Rawlins, John Grady sets off for Mexico. They have no idea what they will find there: on their map, the area south of the Rio Grande is blank. They have between them two horses, a rifle, and their bedrolls. The year is 1949.
In the months that follow the two boys–who are soon joined by a third, the unlucky Jimmy Blevins–will journey backward in time while simultaneously going forward into a precocious and saddened manhood. They will find their way to a place where a horse is still a thing of value and breaking one is considered a worthy feat, a place where love can still burn like a cold fire. But in Mexico love also has the power to destroy a reputation, and one can encounter obstacles of medieval severity. Stealing a horse–even one that is by all rights his own–can get a man killed. Or subject him to ordeals that amount to nothing less than the death of his former self.
Winner of: National Book Award for Fiction (1992), National Book Critics’ Circle Award (1992),
Motion Picture (2000): Miramax Films; Director: Billy Bob Thornton; Starring : Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Lucas Black, Penelope Cruz.
Review by Gerry Burnie
When discussing Cormac McCarthy’s writings, such as his All the Pretty Horses [Vintage, 1992], the discussion invariably turns to his unorthodox use of English grammar, i.e.
He dismounted and unrolled his plunder and opened the box of shells and put half of them in his pocket and checked the pistol that it was loaded all six cylinders and closed the cylinder gate and put the pistol into his belt and rolled his gear back up and retied the roll behind the saddle and mounted the horse again and rode into the town.( 257)
Nonetheless, when reading it in context one cannot imagine it written any other way. In fact, it struck me as being almost blank verse, and quintessentially suited for the vastness of the great Texas and Mexican landscapes. Indeed the setting of a story dealing with the very spirit of The West calls for it. There is a naturalness about it, unhindered by stops and starts or artificial boundaries. It is therefore free to grow as if it were evolving in the here and now. Yet there is purposefulness to its growth, for each new idea or thought builds on the last with the same organic freedom—like a living vine.
McCarthy also uses a number of Spanish words and phrases (untranslated), and many reviewers have criticized this choice for leaving the reader(s) in the dark. However I think that it was a very intentional choice, and very much part of the relationship of the reader to the story. In other words we are tagging along with John Grady, and unless we speak Spanish we would otherwise be in the dark to know what they were talking about. It is another touch of realism that in its subtlty never interferes with the gist of the story.
For me, however, the most impressive aspect of this read isthe credibility of the characters. In the story John Grady Cole is 16 years old in 1949, which means he was born in 1933; however, according to the code he lives by he could just as easily have been born in the 1800s; when a man’s word was his bond. For example, John Grady (and Rawlins) are joined by 13-year-old Jimmy Blevins who tags along uninvited, he’s a pain and he screws them in big and little ways. JGC and Rawlins are provided plenty of opportunities to move on without him, to leave him to the fate he deserves. But John Grady sticks his neck out for Blevins especially when he deserves the opposite. That, to me, is the true spirit of the West.
Lacey Rawlins is quite distinct from JGC, but just as credible, and—in my opinion—absolutely delightful! In many ways the two of them remind me of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn ‘gone West’. The interaction between them is primarily presented in dialogue form, but with such authenticity that one never doubts for a moment they are who they are supposed to be. i.e.
John Grady and Rawlins are talking about being born:
Rawlins lay watching the stars. After a while he said: I could still be born. I might look different or something. If God wanted me to be born Id be born.
And if he didn’t you wouldn’t.
You’re makin my goddamn head hurt.
II know it. I’m makin my own.
They lay watching the stars.
So what do you think [about running away to Mexico]? He said.
I don’t know, said Rawlins.
Well.
I could understand if you was from Alabama you’d have ever reason in the world to run off to Texas. But if you’re already in Texas. I don’t know. You got a lot more reason for leavin’ than me.
What the hell reason you got for stayin’? You think somebody’s goin to die and leave you something?
Shit no.
That’s good. Cause they aint.
If, from this, you can picture two teenage boys lying under the stars and talking seriously about life, then you get my meaning about credibility. An evocation of another, simpler time, and lush with memories for some of us.
Finally, some criticism has been raised about the Alejandra /JGC relationship for not being romantic enough. Not from my point of view. In my opinion this story is not about boy-meets-girl; rather it is about manliness, friendship, loyalty, honour and integrity, and it just doesn’t get much better than that.
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See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail: An M/M adventure and Romance
See an interesting collection of cowboy photographs from c. 1900.
The Broken H, by J.L. Langley
The Broken H needs a bit of repair
Publisher’s Blurb: A rocky past that sent Shane fleeing his home and seeking refuge on The Broken H has kept him from the one thing that has always been dear to him. Grayson.
Sheriff Grayson Hunter hasn’t felt like he belonged for a long time. Once he loved The Broken H, his ancestral home, and Shane Cortez with all that he was. Now he tries to stay as far away from the ranch and the man as possible until an accident brings them together.
Gray didn’t count on Shane’s decision to let go of the past…and get a hold of Gray.
Publisher’s note: This book is a male-male love story and contains homoerotic sex acts that may be offensive to some readers.
Review by Gerry Burnie
As a self-proclaimed homoerotic novel—“one-handed reads,” as I refer to them—The Broken H, by J.L. Langley [Loose Id LLC 2007] is better than some. Oh, there are plenty of sex scenes (15 in all, give or take one or two), but journalistically speaking the writing is quite solid, and the author has made an attempt to build a plot between the romps in the sack. Admittedly the plot is a bit short on originality, but the point is that there is one.
Shane Cortez is a runaway with a mysterious past—although we don’t find out what that is until quite late in the story. Nevertheless, he now seems well adjusted as foreman of The Broken H Ranch. The Hunters, a remarkably liberal family—including their gay son, Grayson—have unofficially adopted Shane as a son, and Grayson has fallen lustfully in love with him. It is nonetheless a rocky romance, made more difficult by a teenage bimbo who accuses Shane of knocking her up. Her father, a somewhat stereotypical loudmouthed redneck, then sets out to demand that Shane make an ‘honest woman’ of her.
Meanwhile, he and Grayson are filling page-after-page with “homoerotic sex” at the drop of an elastic band [see the story for an explanation].
If a nice light read without too many challenging plot twists is your forte, then this story is bound to fill the bill.
See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail: An M/M adventure and romance
See a collection of interesting photographs of cowboys taken around the turn of the century.
The Bishop’s Man, by Linden MacIntyre
An intriguing, sometimes disturbing story of one priest, and a peek behind the cloth.
Blurb: Father Duncan MacAskill is called The Exorcist. Not in the traditional sense, however: at his bishop’s bidding, he drives out devils of a different sort – priests who molest children. He does not banish the devils to hell, nor to the police, but to discreet clinics or simply to far-off parishes to commence their sins anew. MacAskill’s loathsome bishop has a heart of ice. He refuses to see abused children as victims. They are merely troublesome complainers who need to be silenced. The Exorcist is more sympathetic, but still he obeys the bishop. Despite his own celibacy and sobriety issues, MacAskill is the closest thing to a hero in Linden MacIntyre’s riveting new novel, The Bishop’s Man, a searing indictment of the Catholic church. MacAskill is sent to a rural parish in his native Cape Breton, which is also the author’s native land. There, while wrestling with his own demons, MacAskill encounters a troubled young man who appears to be the victim of a notorious priest. MacAskill is determined to help this man, regardless of the consequences for the church. His subsequent investigation takes him on a sordid and surprising path.
Winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Linden MaIntyre was born and raised in Port Hastings, Nova Scotia. After high school, he moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Francis Xavier University in 1964. He also studied at St. Mary’s University and the University of Kings College in Halifax. From 1964 to 1967 he worked for the Halifax Herald as a parliamentary reporter in Ottawa. He continued in the same role with the Financial Times of Canada from 1967 to 1970. He was drawn back to Cape Breton after the death of his father in 1970 and for the next six years he lived there and worked as a correspondent for the Chronicle Herald.
He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Halifax in 1976 and for three years he hosted a regional public affairs show called The MacIntyre File. It was while with this program that he launched a successful legal challenge before the Sipreme Court of Nova Scotia over access to affidavits and documents relating to search warrants. Later heard before the Supreme Court of Canada, the successful suit was a landmark case which set a precedent in support of public and media access to information in Canada.
In 1980, MacIntyre moved to Toronto, where he still resides, to work as a producer and journalist on CBC’s new flagship news program, The Journal. This appointment took him around the world preparing documentary reports on international affairs, preparing such notable features as “Dirty Sky, Dying Water” (about acid rain). Various jobs at the CBC through the eighties culminated in his appointment in 1990 as co-host of the weekly newsmagazine the fifth estate, with which he is still involved. In addition, he is a frequent guest host of The Current on CBC Radio One.
Review by Gerry Burnie
It has been said that priests, judges, etc., are “quite ordinary people charged with an extraordinary responsibility,” and The Bishop’s Man [Random House Canada, 2009] reflects this maxim in a most believable way. Indeed, it is almost an exposé of the ‘ordinariness’ of priests and, therefore, difficult to comprehend that it was written by a layman.
Some of the strong points of this story are the very interesting, complex and colourful cast of characters that populate it, i.e. the wily bishop – the quintessential ‘company man’; young Danny MacKay – the troubled teenager struggling with his sexuality and an uncertain future; Sextus Gilles – the not so happy-go-lucky, likeable rake; and Stella – Duncan MacAskill’s female friend and would-be romantic link. Each of them represents a segment of society confronting MacAskill’s isolated existence, and because of this each has an impact on him in a profound way.
Being an ‘East Coaster’ MacIntyre has also captured the outpost community of Creignish with delightful accuracy—the rustic quaintness of it, as well as the neighbourliness of the inhabitants. This includes, of course, an almost intimate knowledge of one another`s families going back several generations. However, no story about the East coast of Canada would be complete without it.
Having said that, the numerous flashbacks to MacAskill`s stint in Honduras were disruptive and even confusing at times. Moreover, apart from a reflection of the troubles in that part of the world in the 1970`s, I had difficulty understanding why these were even included. Albeit they were interesting enough, and not a major detraction from the overall story.
Altogether, I found The Bishops Man a thought-provoking story that compelled me to keep reading until all the intriguing plot lines had been resolved.
Enthusiastically recommended.
Progress on the rewrites to Coming of Age on the Trail – 163/170
Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story, by Ruth Sims
A truly great story that reads like silk rippling across naked skin
Publisher’s blurb: COUNTERPOINT: DYLAN’S STORY is the story of Dylan Rutledge’s life, from the age of eighteen until his early thirties, and of the two men whose lives were intertwined with his at different times and in different ways.
At eighteen Dylan Rutledge has one obsession: music. He believes his destiny is to be the greatest composer of the rapidly approaching twentieth century. Only Laurence Northcliff, a young history master at The Venerable Bede School for Young Gentlemen, believes in Dylan’s talent and encourages his dream, not realizing Dylan is in love with him.
But Dylan’s passion and belief in his future come at a high price. They will alienate him from his family and lead him on a rocky path fraught with disappointment, rejection, and devastating loss that kills his dream. A forbidden love could bring the dream back to life and rescue Dylan from despair and bitterness, but does he have the courage to reach out and take it? Will he deny the music that rules his soul?
Ruth Sims has lived her entire life in conservative, Republican, tiny-town Midwest USA surrounded by corn, wheat, and soybean fields. It’s a strange place indeed for a Liberal Democrat to have sprouted. Like Emily Dickenson she’s never seen a moor and never seen the sea but she’s seen plenty of silos, Amish buggies, whitetails, and amber waves of grain. She’ll battle anybody who says the flat, fertile land of the Midwest doesn’t have its own kind of beauty.
Though many years past schooldays, her education is continuous and far-ranging, with interests ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, from Shakespeare to groan-inducing puns and limericks. Her library has many shelves of history, biography, drama, and reference books. Her special love of drama is apparent in The Phoenix, and her passion for Classical and Romantic music comes to life in Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story.
Words, imagination, books, music, and writing have always been the means by which she could slip into more exciting lives than her own. When the chance finally came for her to write full-time, she was able to focus on the stories that have been in her head for years. Her many characters are thankful to escape; it was getting crowded in there.
Review by Gerry Burnie
In March of this year I had the pleasure of reviewing The Phoenix by Ruth Sims, and described it as, “A masterful piece of writing, credible and enjoyable from start to finish.” At that time I thought that I had exhausted all the superlatives possible on a novel, but with Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story [Dream Spinner Press, July 2010] she had surpassed even these. Indeed, Counterpoint has been described as “A symphony of words.”
It begins with a tasteful cover design by Alex Beecroft that captures the theme of the novel with just the right flare. Then the story opens like an insightful overture containing a glimpse of what is to come, but most of all it artfully introduces Dylan’s impetuous personality better than any descriptive narrative could do. Here we find Dylan playing one of his own composition illicitly on the main organ of the Bede College (for young gentlemen) chapel; an instrument that is almost the ‘proprietary’ province of the old-school, hide-bound choir master—ushering in one of nemesis in Dylan’s life; the first of many.
Chapter one also introduces us to Laurence Northcliff, a more liberal-minded teaching master—although, how ‘liberal’ remains to be seen in a later chapter.
In fact, the character development in this story is one of the very strong points of Ruth Sims’ writing; for they are all true to the period in their attitudes and way of thinking, credible for who and what they are, and consistent throughout. For example, Dylan retains his artless idealism throughout; Northcliff his maturity and understanding; Dylan’s father his ultra-conservative, middleclass standards; etc. I also thought it very true-to-life that his father would blame Northcliff for Dylan’s ‘downfall,’ referring to his homosexuality, because it couldn’t have come from his genes—plus ca change.
The setting, both in England and in Paris, deserve a special mention as well; for I find it quite remarkable that a gal who “has lived her entire life in conservative, Republican, tiny-town Midwest USA,” can create 19th-century, European settings that are so credible in detail and ambiance that they rival travel brochures.
Indeed ‘ambiance’ is another aspect of her writing that is worthy of praise. It creates that period “feeling” that so many of her readers have commented on, including myself regarding The Phoenix:
“Not to be overlooked is the amount of research required to reproduce Victorian England to a credible degree is quite considerable—especially for a gal who, according to her biography, has never seen a moor! Well, the test of the ‘credibility factor’ is that I as a reader certainly believed it.”
Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story reads like silk rippling across naked skin, and the overall experience of it—the heights and depths of love, the highs and lows of life, the counterpoints of success and failure, and the triumph of the human spirit has left me with the afterglow of having read a great story!
See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail
From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits that have Changed Our Nation, by Carlos A. Ball
It is a truly fascinating study, superbly researched, and remarkably readable in spite of being a complex topic.
*Non-fiction books of this nature do not fit the star-rating system.
Publisher’s Blurb: The advancement of LGBT rights has occurred through struggles large and small-on the streets, around kitchen tables, and on the Web. Lawsuits have also played a vital role in propelling the movement forward, and behind every case is a human story: a landlord in New York seeks to evict a gay man from his home after his partner of ten years dies of AIDS; school officials in Wisconsin look the other way as a gay teenager is repeatedly and viciously harassed by other students; a lesbian couple appears unexpectedly at a clerk’s office in Hawaii seeking a marriage license.
Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.
Over the last twenty years, no group of attorneys has helped to transform this country more than LGBT rights lawyers, and surprisingly, their collective accomplishments have received relatively little attention. Ball remedies that by exploring how a band of largely unheralded civil rights lawyers have attained remarkable legal victories through skill, creativity, and perseverance.
In this richly layered and multifaceted account, Ball vividly documents how these judicial victories have significantly altered LGBT lives today in ways that were unimaginable only a generation ago.
About the Author: Professor Ball received his B.A. summa cum laude from Tufts University, his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar and the book reviews editor of the Columbia Law Review, and his LL.M. from Cambridge University, where he was awarded a “First.” He clerked for Chief Justice Paul Liacos of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and worked as a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society in New York City in the early 1990s. He joined the law school in 2008 after teaching at the University of Illinois College of Law for eight years and at the Penn State University School of Law for five.
Professor Ball is also the author of The Morality of Gay Rights: An Exploration in Political Philosophy (Routledge, 2003), and co-author of Cases and Materials on Sexual Orientation and the Law (West, 2008).
Review by Gerry Burnie
If I were putting together a mini-course on the social history of GLBT discrimination in North America, I would definitely include Gay American History: Lesbian and gay men in U.S.A.- Johathan Katz , and Carlos A Ball’s, From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation [Beacon Press, 2010]. Moreover, at the risk of coming across as a ‘missionary’ for the cause, these two seminal works should be put on every GLBT individual’s ‘must-read’ list.
When reviewing a book of this nature it is necessary to say from the outset that one cannot possibly do justice to the amount of research and detail contained therein, in a few words. This is particularly so when dealing with a topic like constitutional law—probably one of the most complex but fascinating of all the areas of law. Nor should a review like this be read as authoritative in any way—i.e. the opinions expressed are not legal opinions.
Having said that, however, Professor Ball writes in a very readable style for legals as well as those with no legal training whatsoever. Therefore, the fact that it deals with law and judicial interpretation should not deter the average reader from reading and enjoying—and learning from—this important work.
To accommodate the space available, what follows is a sample of some of the cases covered, and a more detailed summary of one of them. You may want to take note of the dates to appreciate the fact that these legal break-throughs have been relatively recent in coming.
Harassment
Jamie Nabozny was a seventh-grader (age 11, 1988) when the harassment started with some of his school peers taunting him with words like “faggot” and “queer.” The harassment grew progressively worse over a four-year period—including one instance where he was knocked into the urinal in the boys’ washroom, and then peed on—and culminated in finding himself lying on the floor of his school’s library as a boy repeatedly kicked him in the stomach while other kids cheered. During these intervening years Jamie and his parents complained on countless occasions to the school administrators. However, the officials refused to get involved; in fact, no student was ever disciplined for verbally or physically harassing Jamie.
In 1993 (now a university student) Jamie contacted a lawyer who filed a complaint again the school district, the two principals involved, and the assistant principal, on the basis that school officials had refused to take the necessary steps to protect Jamie from harassment because he was gay. It also alleged sex discrimination by contending that school officials would have responded differently to the harassment had Jamie been a girl (records showed that one of the boys who had tormented Jamie had been suspended for calling his girlfriend a bad name).
The Federal Court, however, ruled that there was no evidence suggesting that Jamie had been treated differently because of his sex.
It was then that Jamie contact Lambda lawyer Patricia Logue, and although no student had ever succeeded in suing school officials for failing to protect him or her from anti-gay harassment, the facts in Jamie’s case were so compelling that the lawsuit might serve as a test case for the benefit of other GLBT youth across the country.
Logue therefore argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals that government officials (i.e. the school district, school principals and vice-principal), for discriminatory reasons, had failed to provide him with the protection from violence and harassment to which he was entitled under law. She also told the court that the defendants had discriminated against Jamie both because he was gay, and because he was a boy.
Jamie had offered evidence of such discrimination, including his contention that school officials had told him on several occasions that he was to blame for the harassment because he insisted on being openly gay in school.
Logue also pointed out that it was difficult to imagine that the school officials would have ignored the level of abuse and harassment to which Jamie was subjected if he had have been a girl.
The outcome of the U.S. Court of Appeals appeal was that the three-judge panel agreed with the appellants (Logue and Nabozny) and ordered a new trial.
Now that the case was going to trial (before a jury) it was decided to add an experienced litigation lawyer to the team, and David Springer (an HIV positive individual) signed on to represent Jamie in the fall of 1996.
At the trial the lawyer for the school board’s insurance company argued that the officials were all basically good people, and that these experienced professionals had no recollection of Jamie Nabozny or of his complaints; therefore, the alleged complaints were a “pack of lies.” However the issue was not whether the defendants were good or bad people. Instead, the case was about whether the defendants had failed to address antigay harassment against a gay boy in the same way that they had in the past treated harassment against heterosexual girls. Moreover, the apparent inability of the defendants to recall anything related to Jamie Nabozny whil he attended their schools, including incidents of serious physical assaults was just not credible.
After deliberating for just under four hours the jury returned a unanimous verdict that the school officials had intentionally discriminated against Jamie because he was a gay boy.
The impact: To emphasize the impact of the Nabozny decision, the author quotes several studies that attempted to bring attention to the prevalence of antigay harassment in American public schools. For example, a 1993 survey of Massachusetts high school students reported that 98 percent had heard homophobic remarks at school and that more than half had heard school staff were five time more likely to have missed school on account of safety concerns, and four times more likely to have attempted suicide than straight students.
Professor Ball points out that it is not an exaggeration to say that the Nabozny lawsuit changed much of that when the news media reported the almost $1 million settlement, and school officials across the country scrambled to prevent what happened to Jamie from being repeated. In addition, insurance companies were now insisting that their policy-holding schools implement programs to prevent multi-million dollar, antigay lawsuits.
Family
When Leslie Blanchard died of AIDS (September, 1986) at Newark, New Jersey, he did so in the arms of his partner of ten years, Miguel Braschi. As loving partners the two men had lived together in a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, with only Blanchard’s name on the lease. sHowever, three months after Blanchard died the landlord threatened Braschi with eviction because he was not a “surviving spouse of the deceased tenant or some other member of the deceased tenant’s family who has been living with the tenant.
As far as the landlord was concerned, Braschi was not Blanchard’s spouse nor a member of his family. He was therefore not legally entitled to remain in the apartment after Blanchard died. However, although none of the precedent cases had gone to appellate courts, the cases nonetheless showed a tendency to recognize committed same-sex relationships with deceased tenants were entitled to anti-eviction protection.
The job of ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] lawyer, Bill Rubenstein, was to show he appellate court that it was appropriate and necessary to define the meaning of family functionally by focussing on the extent of the emotional and financial interdependence of the parties rather than formalistically by focussing on whether the parties were linked through ties of marriage, blood, or adoption.
In the end the court did what Rubenstein had asked it to do by rejecting a definition of family that only looked to whether the individuals have “formalized their relationship by obtaining, for instance, a marriage certificate or an adoption order.” Furthermore, it went on to say:
[T]he intended protection against sudden eviction should not rest on fictitious legal distinctions or genetic history, but instead should find its foundation in the reality of family life.
The impact: One of the beneficial things that the Braschi case achieved was that the highest court in New York provided considerable legitimacy to the claim the GLBT were as capable of forming loving and lasting familial ties as were straight people.
Marriage
Glenora Dancel and Nina Baehr were born in Honolulu in 1960. Some years later (1990), after discovering their sexual orientation as lesbians, they met, fell in love, and made a decision to get married. At almost the same time Baehr had to be rushed to the hospital regarding a serious infection, and because she had no health insurance Dancel later tried to add Baehr to her employer’s health insurance. That is when she learned that such a benefit was available only to the spouse and children of employee. She also tried to buy life insurance and name Baehr as beneficiary but was told the beneficiary could only be someone related to her be blood, marriage, or adoption. Nor was it possible for same-sex partners to register as domestic partners because domestic partners were not recognized under Hawaiian law. This meant, basically, that a serious illness could mean bankruptcy, and if either one of them was hospitalized the other could be denied the right to visit or to help make decisions about their treatment.
American laws criminalizing same-sex conduct goes back to colonial times, but it was only in the 1990s that some states started to prohibit the recognition of same-sex relationships as marital. Up until this time the courts had taken the position that thee plaintiffs were denied the opportunity to marry not because of their sex, but “because of the recognized definition of that relationship as one entered into only by persons who are members of the opposite sex.”
At issue: Lawyers Evan Wolfson of Lambda, and Daniel Foley—a non-gay, ACLU advocate—saw the pursuit of marriage equality as the most effective way of changing the terms of debate over GLBT issues—i.e. putting the relationships and families of GLBT people front and centre, show there was just as much love and devotion there as with straight relationships.
The outcome: After the state court had rejected the initial lawsuit, the case was then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals (1992) by Wolfson and Foley, and as part of its reasoning the Court held that the plaintiff’s legal challenge had nothing to do with sexual orientation. In its opinion that “homosexuality and same-sex marriages are not synonymous” because under the law of Hawaii a gay person could marry someone of thee opposite sex while a straight person could not marry someone of the same sex. This showed that they Hawaii’s marriage law classified individuals according to their sex and not their sexual orientation—something that was clearly wrong.
As mentioned above, these are just a sampling of the important milestones that have been achieved by courageous individuals willing to ‘stand-up and be seen’ for the good of the movement, and the very fine lawyers who gave of their talents in the pursuit of justice for all. It is a truly fascinating study, superbly researched, and remarkably readable in spite of being a complex topic.
See Journey to Big Sky by Gerry Burnie
Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo, by Walter L. Williams and Toby Johnston
An entertaining and fascinatng tale of historical and socialogical significance
Publisher’s blurb: [Lethe Press, 2005] Twenty years after publishing his groundbreaking The Spirit and the Flesh, anthropologist Walter L. Williams breaks his silence and publishes another book on Native Americans by teaming up with award-winning writer Toby Johnson. Together they have produced a work of historical fiction that is striking in its evocation of Navajo philosophy and spirituality. Set in the Civil War era of the 1860s, this novel tells the story of a feckless Virginian who finds himself captivated by a Two-Spirit male highly respected among the Navajo. It is a story of tragedy, oppression, and discrimination, but also an enlightening story of love, discovery, and beauty. Two Spirits illuminates the truth of what the United States did to the largest indigenous people of this nation. Full of suspense, plot twists, and endearing romance, this novel will captivate readers.
Review by Gerry Burnie
This is a novel that admirably fits the category of ‘historical fiction’.
The history: Set in the rugged Territory of New Mexico in the 1860s, it tells the story of a tender love that blooms against a backdrop of shame, cruelty, corruption and death.
In 1864 twelve thousand Navajo (Diné) were forced to march from their homeland in Canyon de Chelly (now Nevada) to Bosque Redondo Reserve outside Fort Sumner; a distance of 325 miles in the dead of winter. More than three thousand individuals died en-route, and because the soil was so unfertile at the Reserve another quarter of the population may have died as a result of starvation.
This ill-fated scheme was the brainchild of General James Carlton, a so-called “Indian Fighter” who regarded the Navajo as “savages,” per se, and promptly set about embezzling money and supplies from them; making their existence even more precarious.
The fiction: William Lee is a young, idealistic and confused young man, who is literally cast out into the world after being caught by his fundamentalist father having exploratory sex with another youngster. Now disowned, he is assisted by a sympathetic member of the community and eventually sent to New Mexico as the apprentice to the Indian Agent at Bosque Redondo—more-or-less a banishment from the God-fearing, white society.
Unbeknownst to Washington or William Lee, the Indian Agent has ‘disappeared’ from his post, and Lee therefore becomes the acting Agent in his absence. Well aware of his inexperience, General Carlton sets about moulding his character by treating him like a novice clerk whose only function is to maintain the status quo of Carlton’s making.
Early in William’s experience he encounters a mysterious, but strikingly handsome ‘woman,’ named Hasbaá—in reality a Two Spirit, possessing both male and female spirits. Such individuals were considered a blessing sent by the Great Spirit, and possessed very powerful medicine for healing and other religious ceremonies. Of course William is unaware of any of this, and his confusion is only exacerbated when he discovers the Hasbaá has the body of a man. Nonetheless, Will and Hasbaá are drawn together, and the two of them eventually fall in love.
William then goes on to learn the ways of the Navajo, assisted by an old woman who acts as his interpreter, and at the same time he begins to learn about himself—ultimately accepting his homosexuality. His curiosity doesn’t end there, however, because he goes on to enquire into the discrepancies that are becoming apparent at the Fort—an inquiry fraught with intrigue and danger.
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The question that always accompanies historical fiction, is: Is it history, or is it fiction? In fact the resolution between these two fundamentals is a very tricky business, indeed. The ideal, of course, is a more-or-less 50/50 split; provided the two are woven seamlessly into an integrated whole. Only then, in my opinion, has the writer achieved harmony.
If I have one criticism of this novel it is that the fiction does not always measure up to the history; seeming at times to almost be a contrivance to introduce a fact, etc. Moreover, the ‘old lady’ character who is charged with interpreting some very complex Navajo beliefs, while obviously needing to be wise, is far too articulate to be credible as a woman with no educational background.
Having said that I hasten to add the pluses far outweigh the negatives, and I therefore recommend Two Spirits: A Story of Life With The Navajo as an entertaining and fascinating tale of historical and sociological significance.
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At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill
a powerful and yet tender coming-of-age tale that engages the reader with layers of emotion, from the pinnacle to the depths and back again.
Publisher’s blurb: Set in Dublin, At Swim, Two Boys follows the year to Easter 1916, the time of Ireland’s brave but fractured uprising against British rule. O’Neill tells the story of the love of two boys: Jim, a naive and reticent scholar and the younger son of the foolish aspiring shopkeeper Mr. Mack, and Doyler, the dark, rough-diamond son of Mr. Mack’s old army pal. Doyler might once have made a scholar like Jim, might once have had prospects like Jim, but his folks sent him to work, and now, schoolboy no more, he hauls the parish midden cart, with socialism and revolution and willful blasphemy stuffed under his cap.
And yet the future is rosy, Jim’s father is sure. His elder son is away fighting the Hun for God and the British Army, and he has such plans for Jim and their corner shop empire. But Mr. Mack cannot see that the landscape is changing, nor does he realize the depth of Jim’s burgeoning friendship with Doyler. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude, the two boys meet day after day. There they make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, Easter 1916, they will swim the bay to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves.
Awards: Winner, Lambda Literary Award, 2002
About the Author (From Amazon.com): You may have read the hype. Irishman Jamie O’Neill was working as a London hospital porter when his 10-year labour of love, the 200,000-word manuscript of At Swim, Two Boys, written on a laptop during quiet patches at work, was suddenly snapped up for a hefty six-figure advance.
Review by Gerry Burnie
Shortly after I reviewed Gay Male Fiction Since Stonewall, I received a note from author Les Brookes suggesting I read At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill [Scribner, 2002]. I took him at his word, and I am ever so happy that I did. This is an epic tale (576 pages) that has been compared to such heavyweights as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Flann O’Brien, and arguably so.
The setting is the village of Glasthule, near Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1915. Glasthule is a quintessential Irish village that O’Neill has populated with a cast of colourful characters: Jim Mack, the sixteen-year-old ingénue, unworldly to the point of being naïve; Doyler Doyle, similar in age but worldly in all the ways Jim isn’t, and a socialist-patriot; Mr. Mack, Jim’s father and an inveterate social-climber, both for himself and his son; Eveline MacMurrough, Glasthule’s local gentry and leading citizen; Anthony MacMurrough. Eveline’s nephew back in Ireland after his release from an English prison for ‘gross indecency’; Mr. Doyle, “Himself”, Doyler’s father and a veteran of the Boer War—which status he uses to illicit free drinks at the local pub; and the Catholic clergy-establishment represented by Brother Polycarp, a paedophilic conservative, and Curate Father O’Toiler, a devout, Irish nationalist.
Each of these characters is unique in some way, well-developed throughout, and each represents an element of traditional Irish society. Moreover, O’Neill has endowed them all—especially the poorer-classes—with a wonderfully quaint vernacular of Irish words and phrases; including Gaelic. He then goes on to surround these with an equally lyrical narrative that captures the lilt of the Irish language to a delightful degree.
At the beginning of the story Jim is a student at the Catholic college, a remarkable achievement for a lad of his modest, economic background, but it is only made possible by winning a scholarship. While this is a most credible accomplishment on Jim’s part, it also labels him a step below his wealthier classmates—a reflection of the classist-based stratification of Anglo-Irish society during this era. As a result Jim is somewhat of a loner; feeling neither at ease with his peers nor in his father’s pretentious, middleclass lifestyle. That is until he serendipitously encounters the rakish Doyler Doyle, a former childhood friend who has returned to Glasthule to assist his poverty-stricken mother and ailing father—i.e. “Himself.” Coming from the other side of the tracks, and employed as a “shit shoveller,” Doyler represents the lowest class of all on the economic scale; nevertheless he possesses a “what cheer, eh?” attitude, and a high level of fundamental honesty and principle—if one overlooks the occasional ‘sex-for-incentive’ activity.
Like a moth to a beacon, Jim is drawn to this outgoing, verbose, and also affectionate rascal, and together they find common ‘ground’ in swimming at “Forty Foot”; a promontory near Dublin, famous for nude bathing. Thus the two become dedicated to the swim such that they make a solemn pact to swim to Muglins Rock a year hence—Easter Sunday, 1916—as the pinnacle of their achievement and their growing friendship. Unwittingly, therefore, they have also laid the cornerstone of their romance, which will grow apace.
Here O’Neill has purposefully cut through the economic class structure of the day to find a more meaningful commonality to bind the two boys together, acceptably, while letting their romantic love develop almost imperceptibly at the same time. Interestingly, for a novel written in 2002, it is a classic assimilationist approach to gay fiction; i.e. an idealistic love between two males ‘unblemished’ by sex. The melancholy ending also reflects the unwritten, pre-Stonewall (1969) rule that covert or overt gay characters couldn’t be allowed an ‘happily-ever-after’ ending.
Representing the Irish Nationalist movement of the period, O’Neill has surprisingly assigned Eveline MacMurrough, and to some extent Curate Father O’Toiler—although his nationalism is firmly grounded in the interest of the Catholic Church as the national church. Ergo, the landscape of early 20th-century Ireland is painted in shades of conflict: conflict between the classes; conflict between Ireland and Britain; conflict between the Catholics and Protestants, and conflict between gays and the heterosexual establishment.
Jim and Doyler are also caught up in these conflicts regardless of their quite innocent and as yet unconsummated love. Jim’s bullying peers taunt him about his relationship with Doyler, Brother Polycart is darkly jealous of Doyler’s attention toward Jim, and Jim is torn between his religious belief and his growing sexual desire for Doyler—so much so that he ultimately experiences a nervous breakdown, and Doyler is driven away for being a socialist.
Rising above all this the two boys do eventually reach the apex of their love/relationship by swimming to Muglins Rock, where they finally consummate their love as well. However, having reached the pinnacle of their relationship there is no place but down when they are caught up in the ill-fated, 1916 Easter uprising.
This is a powerful and yet tender coming-of-age tale that engages the reader with layers of emotion, from the pinnacle to the depths and back again.
See Two Irish Lads by Gerry Burnie
The Book of War Letters: 100 Years of Private Canadian Correspondence by Audrey and Paul Grescoe
Those who do not heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes…
Publisher’s blurb: Duress – the extreme experience war produces – brings out the most remarkable human qualities, and letters written in wartime contain some of the most intense emotion imaginable. This anthology includes letters that date as far back as the Boer War (which began in 1899) and extend up to 2002, when Canadian peacekeepers served in Afghanistan. Between are letters from the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and a number of peacekeeping missions. It contains some of the most powerful writing that Canadians – whether reassuring loved ones, recounting the bitter reality of battle, or describing the appalling conditions of combat–have ever committed to the page.
The letters Canadians have written during wartime are proud and self-deprecating, stoic and complaining, brave and fearful, tender and violent, funny and poignant. The Book of War Letters tells us something about what it means to be Canadian, and what it means to be alive.
About the Authors
Paul Grescoe has been chronicling Western Canadian entrepreneurs for decades–from the legendary Vancouver billionaire Jim Pattison (“Jimmy”) to the Winnipeg couple who founded the Harlequin romance empire (“The Merchants of Venus”). With his wife, Audrey, he is also a compiler of three recent volumes of private correspondence that illuminate Canadian history. The Grescoes live on Bowen Island, a world away from the rest of British Columbia.
Audrey Grescoe has been a freelance journalist and a newspaper and magazine editor; more recently she has written books on travel and nature.
Paul Grescoe has contributed to most of the major Canadian magazines and has also written books, including detective novels and “The Merchants of Venus, about the Harlequin publishing empire. They live on Bowen Island, near Vancouver, B.C.
Review by Gerry Burnie
The Book of War Letters: 100 Years of Private Canadian Correspondence [McClelland & Stewart, 2005] is the second of a three-part series by the husband and wife team of Paul and Audrey Grescoe; the other parts being: The Book of Letters and The Book of Love Letters.
As I have oft stated in the past, it is a real cause for celebration when I come across personal journals, first hand observations, or in this case letters that tell us things about our ancestors and our past that history books can only hint at. Moreover, the several generations covered in this collection may be the last to speak in such a manner, for telephone calls cannot be bundled and e-mails can’t take us back to our ancestors’ ways of behaving and thinking and viewing the world.
This is a monumental work (442 pages of letter) from the Boer War, 1899-1902, The Great War, 1914-1918, The Second World War, 1939-1945, Korea. 1950-1953, The various “Peacekeeping” missions, 1954—, and the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, 2003—. However, these should not be viewed as just “war” correspondence, for they cover the gamut of emotions from patriotism to disillusionment; from protestations of love to “dear John letters; from “fear” lurking between the lines to reassurance for the folks back home. They are also happy-go-lucky, sad, resigned, and condoling when written by an officer or chaplain regarding a casualty.
Of course they all contain the admonition that “war is hell,” but the difference here is that this was written by individuals, boys, men, women, who were there, i.e.
About 1:30 the bombardment increased to an indescribable intensity, and shrapnel began bursting overhead. Through the din we could hear bullets whistling over the trench with a sound like the strings of a violin touched sharply and the beating of a gigantic bass drum. Word came down that the Germans were coming over, and we all got up and went back up the trench. The colonel was ahead up on the parapet waving on his men—a hero to the last. The bombardment stopped as suddenly as it begun. Instead the air was cleft and cut and sawed by millions of machine gun bullets. What they saw going on up the trench seemed to madden the fellows. We passed a man with a hole through both ankles, walking toward us. Another with both legs shot off at the hips, fast bleeding to death looking at us in mute appeal as we stepped over his mangled body. An then—but what’s the use—there were hundreds, one as bad as the other … I say we were maddened. It was not bravery nor bravado, nor patriotism, nor fear of being shot that drove us on … I think it was animal instinct and vengeance that prodded us on…
Barlow [Whiteside], July 1916
Having read this message written nearly 100 years ago, the question it has to raise is: Why do so-called ‘civilized’ nations, leaders, men and women continue this barbarous way of settling disagreements? Perhaps it might be of some good to send them all a copy of this outstanding look at the human side of war–with but one word emblazoned on the dust cover, i.e. “Why?”
The Book of War Letters is highly recommended for history buffs, writer and scholars specializing in military history, and for all those who have an interest and fascination in human nature.
Next week’s featured novel: At Swim: Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill
See a complete list of titles and authors reviewed to date.
See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail, read an excerpt
Last Gasp Anthology (incl. Erastes, Jordan Taylor, Charlie Cochrane, Chris Smith)
Highly recommended as the ideal book to take along on your vacation.
Last Gasp Anthology (Noble Romance Publishing, LLC, 2010). Stories selected by Erastes, Cover Art by Fiona Jayde
Reviews by Gerry Burnie
Overall this is a delightful read. Bite-sized nuggets covering some of most evocative periods in history, and the characters to match. Apart from Erastes, however, I am not immediately familiar with Jordan Taylor, Charlie Cochrane or Chris Smith, but their introductions have been admirable as well as memorable; the writings are of a very high standard throughout, the individual stories are well developed—as are the characters—and the pace is progressive and steady.
Highly recommended as the ideal book to take along on your vacation.
Tributary by Erastes
Publishers Blurb: It’s 1936 and a generation of disaffected youth waits in the space between a war that destroyed many of their friends and family, and a war they know is bound to come. Guy Mason wanders through Italy, bored and restless for reasons he can’t even name, and stops at the Hotel Vista, high in the mountains of Lombardy. There, he meets scientist James Calloway and his secretary, Louis Chambers, and it’s there that the meandering stream of Guy’s life changes course forever.
Gery B’s Review: This story reads like an art-deco illustration—clean lines and decorated with beautiful people. It is 1930s-British to the core–sort of a ‘grand tour’ of distant lands while hauling along English-middleclass standards like a tortoise’s shell.
Guy Mason is this aloof, British middleclass traveler in a foreign land (Italy), but who still insists on dressing for dinner and having his English beer. A sense of honour is very high on the priority list as well, and having seen active service in the “Great War” (WWI) is the standard. After all, this is the era of the “Order of The White Feather”—the organization aimed at coercing men to enlist in the British Army by persuading women to present them with a white feather if they were not wearing a uniform. Guy Mason served his time shuffling papers at Whitehall, but he nonetheless earned the title of Captain. Unfortunately Louis Chambers was too young to have served, and this almost destroys a relationship with Mason.
Enough said, except that this story is a faithful reproduction of a nostalgic era, featuring and adherence to style and grace that—regretfully—is gone forever.
The White Empire by Chris Smith
Publisher’s Blurb: Edgar Vaughan sincerely believes that six-thousand miles is enough to give him a fresh start. Escaping in 1838 from the drawing rooms of Belgravia and the constraints of his landed family, he takes up missionary work in the trading post of Hong Kong. On arrival, he finds the region on the cusp of war; the Chinese Emperor has outlawed the importation of opium — the key link in the trade of the East India Company. Between Edgar’s sense of isolation, the sight of the puling opium addicts, and one memorable encounter with a man in a peacock waistcoat, Edgar finds himself embroiled in the very marrow of the British Empire’s machinations. He finds himself torn between espousing the expeditious whilst protecting his new acquaintance, and doing what is right and risking the wrath of the British Empire.
Gerry B’s Review: This is yet another faithfully recreated tale of the Britains in a foreign land; somewhat darker than the previous story, however, for this is a period of imperial history that does not reflect well on The Empire—Good Queen Victoria notwithstanding. Nevertheless, it should be seen—as the author has implied—in a context when capitalism, the monarchy and imperial government were virtually the same forces, and very often the same people.
Albeit, Chris Smith has ably captured the atmosphere to a “T”, as well as the arrogance that accompanied white, British middleclass arrivals in their relationships with native nationals all over the world. Moreover, this period of Chinese history is particularly interesting, for the “Opium Wars,” as they become known, (1839-1842, 1856-1860), were the beginning of the end of Chinese culture and domestic order. Being set in the year before (1838) this story effectively tells us why.
Sand by Charlie Cochrane
Publisher’s blurb: “Safe upon solid rock the ugly houses stand: Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.”
People come to Syria for many reasons; tourism, archaeology, or because they need to leave Edwardian England to escape potential disgrace. Andrew Parks is one of those, burying past heartache and scandal among the tombs.
Charles Cusiter has travelled here as well, as chaperone to a friend whose fondness for the opposite sex gets him into too much trouble at home. Out in the desert there aren’t any women to turn Bernard’s head – just the ubiquitous sand.
The desert works its magic on Charles, softening his heart and drawing him towards Andrew. Not even a potentially fatal scorpion sting can overcome the power this strange land exerts.
Gerry B’s Review: This is a delightful story of evolving love that flows like the waves marking the sands of the Syrian desert. It has tension, yes, but mostly it is about love—period.
Superbly written, the setting is colourful; the characters are well-developed and interesting, and story leaves you with a nice, warm afterglow.
The Ninth Language by Jordan Taylor
Publisher’s blurb: Thousands of outsiders descend on Canada’s Yukon Territory during the 1898 gold rush, wreaking havoc on the landscape and the indigenous people who live there. Amid the backdrop of this once pristine land, a man struggling against the destruction of his home and culture finds himself indebted to one of the men causing it. These two strangers discover solace and wholeness where they least expect it: each other.
Gerry B’s Review: I read this story with particular interest, for it is set in the same era and setting as my forthcoming novel—i.e. 1898 in the Yukon Territory. My story also includes some Natives of the Dene Tha´ tribe, so it was interesting to see how the author dealt with this topic.
I found her approach to the story quite believable, although I found Mitsrii’s vocabulary just a bit too articulate for his background; however, it is the message that this character is meant to convey that is the more important to the reader. Moreover, some of the ideas and beliefs are too complex for a broken-English dialogue.
I also appreciated it for the Canadian content.
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See a list of all the titles and authors reviewed to date.
See a preview of my forthcoming novel, Coming of Age on the Trail: An M/M adventure and romance.
Wages of Sin, by Alex Beecroft
If you like a gothic murder mystery and things that go bump in the night, you’re going to love this one!
Publisher’s blurb: Charles Latham, wastrel younger son of the Earl of Clitheroe, returns home drunk from the theatre to find his father gruesomely dead. He suspects murder. But when the Latham ghosts turn nasty, and Charles finds himself falling in love with the priest brought in to calm them, he has to unearth the skeleton in the family closet before it ends up killing them all.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
In the past I have read and reviewed Captain’s Surrender and False Colours, and admired both as outstanding historical fiction set in nautical terms—18th-century British Royal Navy, and such. However, Wages of Sin [MLR Press, 2010] is quite a departure from both.
Set in a gothic mansion in the English countryside, young Charles Lantham, son of the Fourth Earl of Clitheroe,[1] returns to find his father suddenly, and mysteriously dead. This is the pivotal event that underlies the entire story; however, the author has masterfully set the dark mood from the get-go; i.e.
Moonlight sucked the colour from damp grass and silvered rising wisps of dew. The deer-park lay dim and still to Charles’ left, receding to a black horizon. To his right, the Latham family chapel loomed dark again the lead-coloured sky.
Sultan’s hooves whispered across the verge as Charles rode past the private graveyard’s wrought iron gate and averted his eyes from the white glimmer of Sir Henry’s mausoleum. It was one thing to laugh together over newspaper reports of vampires in Prussia while reclining in the comfortable lewdness of an actor’s garret—lamp-s blazing, the magic revealed as greasepaint, squalor and hard work—quite another to think of it there, beneath a slice of pewter moon, in a silence so huge it annihilated him.
A fox cried. Sultan snorted, ears flicking. His own heart racing, Charles gentle3d the horse over the gravel drive that swept to the white Grecian pillars of the mansion. They turned towards the stable-yard—coach houses, stalls and grooms quarters arranged about and enclosed square, entered by a short tcobblecxd tunnel beneath the arch, Sultan sidestepping as Charles dismounted. He wrenched his wrist, landed a slap and slither loud enough to conceal the footsteps of a thousand walking corpses and stood propped against the horse’s strong shoulder, gathering himself. Sultan’s warm, straw-scented breath spiraled up comfortingly into the pr-dawn sky.
As you can see from these three opening paragraphs, they get the adrenalin flowing for the rest of this classic gothic paranormal, murder mystery.
Likewise, the author has populated this setting with an interesting cast of characters: The lecherous George Latham, heir to the earldom; his mysterious guest, Jasper, a papist priest and ward of the old earl’s declared enemy; Lady Elizabeth the pregnant sister, and the dying Emma, George Latham’s consumptive wife. In an upstairs-downstairs twist, there are also the servants—the plump, matronly cook and her pretty, cheeky daughter. Any one of whom could be a murderer.
However, murder is not the only thing that occupies Charles Latham’s thoughts as he slowly gets to know the enigmatic priest. For one thing Jasper is a very handsome—and surprisingly worldly—priest, who holds the answers to several questions that Charles is faced with—including his physical attraction to him.
If asked what the strong points of this short novel are, I would say “from cover to cover.” The story is tight, captivating and engrossing, and the writing is outstanding. So, if you like a plot that includes murder, sins of the fathers, a house possessed, a vengeful ghost, exorcism, a unique setting and last but not least such colourful and interesting characters, Alex Beecroft delivers all of these in spades.
Highly recommended as a good, summer’s-night read.
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See a complete list of titles and authors reviewed.
See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail, by Gerry Burnie.
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[1] I wonder if he knew the Fifth Earl of Ardmore, a character in my forthcoming novel?
The Gathering: Common Threads in the Life Series, by Ronald L Donaghe
An inspiration for families of all types
Publisher’s blurb: The Gathering is the fourth book in the Common Threads in the Life series, which began with Common Sons, and continued in The Blind Season and The Salvation Mongers. The Gathering is set in 1999, four months before the coming new millenium. The Reece family had planned to gather to celebrate the new era by gathering on New Year’s eve. Instead tragedy strikes, and the family gathers for a very different reason.
About the author: Ronald L. Donaghe is a native of the desert Southwest, and he uses this mystical, wide-open place where the sky meets the universe, for the setting of many of his novels. He has published almost a dozen books in three fiction series, including the first book in a fantasy series known as “The Twilight of the Gods.” He is the editor of the online book review magazine, The Independent Gay Writer (http://www.rldbooks.com/Newsletter/Indy-NewsList.html). He is a book reviewer and feature article writer for Foreword Magazine. He lives in a hundred year-old adobe house in the historic district of Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his mate of many years.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
The Gathering [BookSurge, 2006] is the fourth of Ron Donaghe’s thought-provoking and heart-warming Common Threads in the Life Series. And quite apart from my recommendation to read it for both these reasons, I also recommend that the readers start with the first of the Series; being Common Sons [see my review].
Ron Donaghe is one of a handful of gay genre authors that I hold in the highest esteem for not only their story-telling talent, but also their dedication to quality of the written word. They have been an inspiration to many aspiring writers—including myself. I remember with great fondness that Ron Donaghe was the first to contact me with words of encouragement regarding my first novel Two Irish Lads, and I feel privileged to return those words with regards to the Common Threads Series.
The Gathering follows on the heels of The Salvation Mongers, and opens with a tragedy that has occurred in 1999. As a result the Reese-extended-family has gathered in support of Joel and Tom. Thereby, the main theme of the novel is established; that being, the love of family regardless of whether it happens to harbour gay members.
This is the unique aspect of Donaghe’s writing; for, to my knowledge, there are very few gay genre novels that focus on family values—i.e. love, loyalty, support and respect for one another. A further, somewhat unique aspect is that the author has explored the relationship of two men who are in their 50s, and shows that their love can be as strong and vital as that of younger men.
Altogether, it is a warm, inspirational and, yes … wholesome story that can be a model for families of all types.
Ron Donaghe has a new novel in the offing, A Summer’s Change. Watch for it.
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See a complete list of titles and authors reviewed.
See a preview of Coming of Age on the Trail.
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Strings Attached by Nick Nolan
A sterling effort from a first-time novelist!
Publisher’s blurb: Closeted teenager Jeremy is sent to live with wealthy relatives after his mother enters rehab. Struggling to fit into the posh world of Balena Beach, Jeremy joins the high school swim team, dates a popular girl, and begins to think he may have landed in paradise—until his aunt Katherine starts to dictate his every move … and a late-night phone call insinuates that his father’s accidental death was not so accidental after all.
As Jeremy grows accustomed to the veneer of a fabulous life, so grows his need for answers—as well as the danger of immeasurable harm. Weaving together a murder mystery, sexual ambiguity, and characters with hidden identities and agendas, Nick Nolan offers readers a deliciously witty page-turner about the “puppet” who wishes only to be real boy. Strings Attached is also a surprisingly heartfelt story about coming-out-age and coming out—not necessarily in that order.
About the author: Nick Nolan was born and raised in Los Angeles, the city he has haunted for over two decades. Working nights and weekends selling furniture to put himself through college, Nolan went on to direct a group home for homeless and abused GLBT youth. During his scant spare time, he began writing. Inspired by the works of writers like Armistead Maupin, Paul Russell, and Paul Monette, he penned his debut novel, Strings Attached, the first in a planned trilogy. Shortly after its release, Strings Attached was named the 2006 Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine, hit #1 in Gay Fiction on Amazon.com, and spent nearly a year in that genre’s Top 10. Two years later Nolan’s second thriller Double Bound won Book of the Year awards for Gay/Lesbian Fiction by both ForeWord Magazine and ReaderViews Nick Nolan was born and raised in Los Angeles, the city he has haunted for over two decades. Working nights and weekends selling furniture to put himself through college, Nolan went on to direct a group home for homeless and abused GLBT youth. During his scant spare time, he began writing. Inspired by the works of writers like Armistead Maupin, Paul Russell, and Paul Monette, he penned his debut novel, Strings Attached, the first in a planned trilogy. Shortly after its release, Strings Attached was named the 2006 Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine, hit #1 in Gay Fiction on Amazon.com, and spent nearly a year in that genre’s Top 10. Two years later Nolan’s second thriller Double Bound won Book of the Year awards for Gay/Lesbian Fiction by both ForeWord Magazine and ReaderViews.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
In Strings Attached [AmazonEncore, 2010] Nick Nolan weaves a complex tale from the prologue on. Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Tyler moves from a cramped and grubby hovel in Fresno, California, to the opulent—with a capital “O”—setting of Balena Beach. Although he descends from a wealthy family, he has never known wealth, himself; however, he is blessed with exceptional good looks and an innate talent for swimming.
Suddenly immersed in privilege, including a “Mr. Belvedere”-type butler to smooth the way, Jeremy quickly adapts to his new social strata; and even develops a fondness for it. However—and this is where the “strings” come in—nothing is without a cost. As a result, he soon discovers this truism when his demanding aunt Katherine begins to dictate nearly every aspect of his life, from his ‘respectable’ shoes to a preppy hairstyle. Feeling like a puppet, therefore, he accepts this as the price to fit in, and even takes it one step further by dating one of most popular girls in the high school; this, in order to counter his growing attraction to boys—especially hunky Coby Carson. Coincidentally, he also forms a friendship with a very ‘out’ homosexual by the name of Carlo.
Another element is added at this point when he receives an unexpected telephone call from his institutionalized mother, who intimates that the death of his father may not have been an accident.
Up to this point we have learned very little about his so-called “uncle,” Bill Mortson; who, as we discover, is as shadowy as he has remained thus far. With his ‘fleshing-out’ a new and somewhat sinister twist is introduced, and becomes a sub-plot while Jeremy sorts out his sexual identity. There are other shadowy elements as well. One of these involves the twin stars Castor and Pollux, and a star known as the “Father Star;” with an obvious connection to Jeremy’s situation.
Everything is resolved in the end, which contains some unexpected surprises as the complete story is finally revealed.
Strings Attached is an admirable start for a first-time novelist—as Nick Nolan was at the time. The writing style—that is the journalism—is top-notch, the pace is brisk, and it reads effortlessly. The characters are all interesting, well-developed for the most part, and remain relatively consistent throughout. Moreover, the highest compliment I can give it is that it has made me curious to read his second novel, i.e. Double Bound.
Having said that, however, I had some trouble connecting with all the characters at the start—including Jeremy, and it wasn’t until Chapter twenty-one that the younger ones really came together as real. In fact, the weekend episode at the mountain retreat was my favourite read of any of the chapters. The action and interaction between the four characters, while complex, was both human and entirely believable.
Overall, it is one of the better coming-out stories I have read, and it is highly recommended for anyone facing that situation; young or old. It is also recommended as a darned good read.
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Amazon Dot-CA & Dot-Com
The World’s biggest book seller seems to have forgotten those of us who buy and supply it.
On April 25th I ordered the book I was planning to review this week, i.e. Strings Attached by Nick Nolan. Today, May 14th, I finally got a notice that it had been shipped, “Express.”
I have previously complained about Amazon—not directly to them because trying to contact them directly is like writing to God. My complaint on that occasion was that they had neglected to include a ‘product description’ for my second novel, Journey to Big Sky. As you will no doubt understand, a book without a synopsis is a dead issue in the sales department. It was.
The other irony is that my publisher, Createspace, is owned by Amazon.
Nonetheless, it’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good, so it has given me the opportunity to become acquainted with Maureen Ash, author of A Templar Knight series, and in particular Death of a Squire. A review of this delightful story is found below.
GAB
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Death of a Squire by Maureen Ash
A classic Medieval mystery á-la-In the Name of the Rose and a damned good read!
Publisher’s blurb: After eight years of captivity in the Holy Land, Templar Bascot de Matins escapes with injuries to his body and soul. Now on a sojourn to Lincoln Castle, he is sometimes called upon to uphold the will of God and the laws of man
Late in the Autuman of 1200 AD, the townspeople are preparing to host the first meeting between the King of Scotland and King John. Days before their arrival a squire’s body is found hanging from a tree deep in the forest, and the castellan of Licoln Castle entrusts Bascot with the task of finding the killer.
When outlaws kidnap his trusted servant, Gianni, Bascot is surprised by his own familial feelings for the boy. Despite the unsolved crime and potentially murderous rumors, nothing becomes more important to Bascott than Gianni’s safe return. Could these two misdeeds be linked by chance or by cunning?
About the Author: Maureen Ash (c1939 – ) was born in London and developed a lifelong interest in medieval history. Visits to castle ruins and old churches provided the inspiration for her novels. She now lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada where, she says, she enjoys Celtic music, browsing in bookstores and Belgian chocolate. Bascot’s personal details arose out of her own experiences as a young child in London when she saw soldiers returning from horrific experiences in the Second World War. She is fascinated by the details of medieval life and aims to bring them alive in her stories.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Discovering this work by Maureen Ash, i.e. Death of a Squire [Prime Crime MM, 2007], was a happy conjunction of accidents. As mentioned above the first was not having received my book order from Amazon.ca, and because of this I resorted to browsing a bargain table of paper backs. Death of a Squire is the second of a four-part series (so far) called “Templar Knight.” I must admit that I haven’t read the other three, but I hope to remedy that omission in the near future.
The story takes place in the late autumn of 1200 AD. King John—of Robin Hood fame—is on the throne, and he is about to meet the King of Scotland in Lincoln. Therefore, the townspeople are busy preparing for this momentous occasion when the body of young Hubert de Tournay, an unpopular squire, is found hanging from a limb deep in the forest (adjacent to Sherwood Forest—once again of Robin Hood fame). Lady Nicolaa de la Haye, Castellan of Lincoln Castle, calls upon Templar Bascot de Marins with his young, mute servant Gianni to find the killer—something he has successfully done in Ale House Murders, the first of the series.
Was the squire’s death a vengeance killing by peasants angry at the assault of one of their own? Or was it one of his fellow squires who hated him and might have secrets that Hubert would have been only too pleased to exploit? Or was his end perpetrated by one of the women he coerced by force or blackmail to comply with his advances? Complicating matters is King John who, sensitive to any slight real or imagined, has recently heard innuendos of a covert plan to depose him in favour of his rival Arthur. Therefore, was de Tournay’s murder the result of knowing too much about the wayward ambitions of some highborn nobles?
As de Marins goes about solving the crime we meet a colourful cast of characters, wonderfully developed, and learn more about the history of the time and place. In fact, for me this aspect was one of the real highlights of Ash’s writing; her in-depth knowledge of Medieval life, and the seamless manner in which she wove this into the story. The only quibble I have is that she unfortunately chose the climax of the story to introduce the backgrounds of several characters; i.e. Green Jack and Fulcher, which slowed the pace at an inappropriate stage. Moreover, although the ending is certainly unpredictable, it is perhaps a bit too unpredictable without any prior build-up. Nonetheless, it is a great read for the for the summer and for the whole family. I highly recommend this series by Maureen Ash.
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Amazing Stories – WWI, WWII and the Canadian Navy
This year marks some very significant, historical anniversaries that should be remembered by all of us with gratitude. For example, it was 65 years ago on May 8, 1945, that V-E Day (Victory in Europe) was declared. Thus ending the second of two horrendously bloody conflicts in Europe to occur during the 20th century—the first being WWI, which ended on November 11th, 1918.
Similarly, on August 14th, 1945, V-J Day (Victory in Japan) was declared in United States. This conflict saw the first—and mercifully the only use of atomic weapons in warfare.
This year is also the centenary of the Canadian Navy (1910 – 2010).
I have therefore selected three books; one each on the First and Second world wars, and one commemorating the Canadian navy. All three are part of the “Amazing Stories” series published by Altitude Publishing Company.
About Amazing Stories: Amazing Stories™ features a variety of titles to entertain, delight, and fascinate. Dedicated to great storytelling, these true Canadian stories range from funny to daring to purely inspirational. The books are identified by genre – History, Biography, Women, Animal, Human Interest, Mystery, Romance, Business, etc.,– to help you identify the books that you are interested in, either for yourself or as a gift for others.
Each book tells the story of a fascinating Canadian or an event that has happened somewhere in Canada, from the earliest days up to the present. Taken as a whole, the series presents a portrait of the entire country, raising issues – such as regional differences, historical precedent, and cultural uniqueness – that contribute to the wider definition of Canadian identity.
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Mysteries, Legends and Myths of the First World War: Canadian Soldiers in the Trenches and in the Air – by Cynthia J. Faryon
Publisher’s blurb: This book offers a fresh, close-up look at the First World War as it was experienced by ordinary Canadian soldiers. This is the war as it was experienced by the tens of thousands of young Canadians. Reading their accounts offers a no-holds-barred picture of fighting, life in the trenches, the human cost in lives lost, and the physical and emotional aftermath for survivors.
About the Author: Cynthia J. Faryon is an internationally published author and freelance writer. Originally from Victoria, B.C., she now resides in Richer, Manitoba with her husband and their two dogs. Faryon focuses her writing on Canadian content, covering topics such as travel, family issues, biography and history.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
I don’t think I could possibly do greater justice to this collection of vignettes than Cynthia Faryon’s superb prologue (quoted below in part). In it she puts herself in the mind of Edgar Simpson fighting in the trenches of WWI just before he is killed by enemy fire:
“I’ve got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’m not going to survive the day. I hope it’s only the usual fear and the strain of the inhuman conditions getting to me: the mud, exploding shells, human body parts flying through the air—and always, always being wet.”
“Oh my God, the shelling has started and look—smoke is covering no-man’s land, and I can see the enemy cutting through the rolls of barbed wire between us and them!
There are more German’s coming at us than I can count. They look like apparitions with bayonets. I’m shooting, and all down the line machine guns are chattering and men are falling. The water in the bottom of the trench is turning red with blood. There are bodies everywhere and wounded men are falling.
I sense the bullet before feeling it.
In stunned disbelief I look at my chest, at the hole and the blood. I look around for help, but my buddies are busy fighting for their own survival.
Darkness. I feel my body hitting the ground.
What next? Death is coming quickly and I’m engulfed in painless warmth. Then with a flickering consciousness, I’m leaving my body. The fear is gone and I’m strangely emotionless.”
In this imagined episode she has captured the fear, the sense of duty, the poignancy and the sacrifice of one ordinary soldier, in this case Edgar Simpson of Winnipeg, for all the others in the so-called “war to end all wars.”
Other stories included are similarly poignant, or heart-touching, such as “A Bear Named Winnipeg” (the true story of “Winnie the Pooh”), “In Flanders Fields,” and “The Hero of the Halifax Battle.”
Highly recommend, and a “Must Read.”
Unbelievable Canadian War Stories: Well Beyond the Call of Duty – Pat MacAdam
Publisher’s blurb: Often little-known but extraordinary, the quiet heroes of one of the most destructive wars in his-tory left indelible impressions among those whose lives were touched by their actions. Up against firing squads, torpedoes, rogue waves, P.O.W. camps, and all the living hells of warfare, they persevered, they saved lives, and they valiantly served their country. Distinguished and decorated, these men used unconventional methods and quick-thinking tactics to excel on the front lines.
About the Author: Patrick (Pat) MacAdam is a native Cape Bretoner who has made Ottawa his home since 1959. He holds bachelor’s degrees in arts and education from St. Francis Xavier University. He paid his way through university by writing for the Sydney Post-Record, Halifax Chronicle-Herald and Fredericton Daily Gleaner. He spent three summers in the Canadian Officers Training Corps in Camp Borden, Ontario, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. His entire professional life has been in public relations and politics. He was a researcher, speechwriter, and aide to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker from 1959 to 1963. In 1983, he joined his university friend, Brian Mulroney, as his first employee and most senior aide.
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The design of the new Canadian War Museum used the theme “ordinary Canadians doing extraordinary things. This book contains vignettes of some of them from the heroic to the outrageous, but always getting the job done in the service of their country and the rest of us. Therefore, it is important that these—representative—deeds of courage and valour be remembered on behalf of those who have gone before.
Indeed, many of them have already been forgotten. For example, “Canada’s Most Decorated Hero of WWII,” Johnnie Fauquier, who was buried in Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery with full military honours and then forgotten.
“Had Johnnie Fauquier been an American,” observes Pat MacAdam, “Hollywood might have passed over Audie Murphy, Congressional Medal of Honour winner and United States’ most decorated soldier, for star treatment. The movie “To Hell and Back,” which starred Audie Murphy himself, told the story of his heroism.
“Johnnie Fauquier went to hell and back 100 times on bombing raids over Berlin, other key German targets, and the Peenamunde V2 rocket bases on the Baltic Sea. The normal tour for a bomber piolet was 30 raids. He did three tours and then some. He was the first Canadian to comman a bomber squadron in battle, commanding both the crack RCAF 495 Pathfinder Squadron and later the RAF’s legendary Dambusters, Johnnie Fauquier was awarded the Dstinguished Service Order Medal (second only to the Victoria Cross) three times—more than any other Canadian warrior. He also wore the distinctive ribbon of the Distinguished Flying Cross on his tunic.”
Yet, his plain grey granite grave marker simply records that Air Commodore John Emilius Fauquier is at rest there.
Highly recommended for those of us who want to remember.
Unsung Heroes of the Royal Canadian Navy: Incredible Tales of Courage and Daring During World War II – Cynthia J. Faryon
Publisher’s blurb: At the outbreak of World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy consisted of just 13 warships and about 3000 permanent and reserve members. By the war’s end, however, it had grown into the third largest navy in the world, with 365 warships and more than 100,000 personnel. The men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy came from all corners of Canada to fight in the sea war against the enemy. Together, they exceeded even the highest expectations of their allies.
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These are the stories of the men who go down to the sea in ships, and those ships they sail in. Like all war stories these are filled with acts of courage—both individually and collectively—pathos, skill and daring. Even the mascots are remembered as a dog named “Bunker B”—a listed casualty when the Athabaskan sank under fire—and a cat named “Ginger” on her sister ship, the HMCS Haida.
In a chapter named “Abandoned Ship, Abandoned Survivors” it tells the heart-breaking and hear-warming story of what happened when duty clashes with the natural instincts of loyalty and compassion. In war, duty wins.
“The Haida trembled and vibrates as the turbines throb. Petty Officer HP Murray and Telegraphist SA Turner are still on one of the scramble nets trying to rescue survivors as the ship starts to move. They look at the hands reaching out to them and grab for one more. The ocean current around their legs gets stronger and, handing off the last of the survivors, they both struggle to unhook themselves from the nets. The waves are now waist high, and the force is making it impossible to climb up. Hands from above reacdch down, gripping … pulling … tugging, but it is no use. The Haida picks up speed and suddenly the rope breaks. The wake surges over the two men and washed them straight into the turning screws.”
On the other hand.
“Far out in the Channel, the Haida’s cutter is slowly making its way home. The men are wet and cold. But with hard tack, water, and malted milk tablets, they are better off than those left at the site of the sinking. Suddenly, on the horizon looms a German mine sweeper thqt changes course and heads directly for the small boat. Darting into a mine field, the men pray the Germans will give up. For a moment it looks as though the vessel is planning to fire on them. It hesitates, then swings around, leaving the survivors to their fate. Every man on that little boat knows their situation is desperate and that the odds are against them.
“The Haida’s cutter is finally spotted by a squadron of RAF planes and the exhausted survivors are picked up by an Air/Sea Rescue launch and taken to Penzance. By midnight they are resting, warm, and comfortable. But a disquieting thought stays with them all. “What about the rest of the gang?””
Like the others, this comes highly recommended for truly inspirational reading that will leave you with goose-bumps and a warm feeling in your heart!
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In memory of my sister Beverley Hill, 1934 – 2010.
See a preview of my up-coming novel, Coming of Age on the Trail, read an excerpt.
See an alphabetic list of titles and authors reviewed.
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Arson!: The Dakota Series, #1, by Cap Iversen
A gay western in the Louis L’Amour tradition!
Publisher’s blurb: People look up when Dakota Taylor rides into town. His legend precedes him and if that legend isn’t always founded in reality … well, Dakota’s not about to disappoint folks. Nor does he want to disappoint the handsome Bennie Colson, who has a job for him. Trouble is, Ben’s job means taking on a whole town of angry cattle ranchers.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
Pretty well everyone enjoys a cowboy story; especially if the principal characters get out of the sack long enough to ride a horse or chase a cow. Cap Iversen(?)[1] has therefore struck an agreeable balance between the two types in “Arson!: The Dakota Series, No.1” [Alyson Books, 1st edition, 1992].
Dakota Taylor is a gunslinger—a ‘hired gun’—the fastest in the West. He has a pair of custom-made, silver-plated colts on his hip, and an instinct for calculated eradication of people’s enemies.
He is juxtapositioned with Benjamin Colsen, a Harvard law student, who hires Taylor’s gun to avenge the Colsen family’s brutal murder—father, mother and siblings—on their mountain-top, sheep ranch by a group of unknown assailants. The issue seems to be a drying-up of the water supply that has mysteriously struck the valley, and the overall cast of suspects includes the cattle barren, James T Anderson, and practically everyone else in the dusty town of Turnpike.
There are the usual supporting characters: A fat, incompetent and cowardly sheriff; a slick-talking merchant; a ‘meat-head’ butcher; and the weaselly manager of the local meat packing plant. However, there are a few that are slightly out of the loop, i.e. Ryder McCloud, another gunslinger, who has been hired by Anderson. McCloud and Taylor have had shootouts before, but these generally involved fleshy weapons between sheets. Nevertheless, with McCloud’s arrival the plot definitely thickens.
Anderson’s young son, Seth, enters the picture as well. He is your typical brash, young Turk; enamoured with McCloud and not at all adverse to romping with Taylor.
Meanwhile a sub-plot is developing, which involves a fabled Eternal Spring that only the Shoshone Indians and a few others—including Dakota Taylor—know about. Dakota is the adopted son of a Shoshone Shaman, and also becomes the confidante (and bed mate) of his warrior-like grandson; therefore, the only other(s) to know about it must also be the murderer(s).
I will not go further for fear of spoiling the story; however, I will say that the writing style, told in a first-person narrative, is both colourful and appropriate. Moreover it has the air of authenticity, and it reads almost effortlessly. Whoever Cap Iversen is he or she is/was definitely not a novice writer or journalist.
I do have some reservations regarding the number of gay characters that pop up quite ‘coincidentally’ in what is otherwise an insular and isolated community. There are, I believe, six such individuals, which is perhaps stretching the laws of chance and probability. In addition, the story seemed to lose its compactness toward the end.
Nevertheless, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and well-crafted story, and I look forward to reading the other two, i.e. “Silver Saddles,” and “Rattler.” Recommended.
[1] “Cap Iversen seems to be a pseudonym. The best authority I have is that ‘she’ was a real estate agent in Texas. Albeit, Cap Iversen does not seem to have written anything before “The Dakota Series,” nor afterward.
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English Bloods: In the Backwoods of Muskoka, 1878 by Frederick de la Fosse: Edited by Scott D. Shipman
“I often wonder why, when governments and communities erect monuments to heroes, they forget to erect one to the honour of the Pioneer.”- Frederick de la Fosse (1860 – 1950)
Story Blurb: Farming in the Canadian backwoods in the late 1800s was a prospect that enticed many young Englishmen to cross the Atlantic. One such fellow was Frederick de la Fosse, whose well-meaning uncle paid £100 per annum for his young nephew to serve as a farm pupil in the northern reaches of Muskoka. Some years later, de la Fosse wrote an illuminating and humorous biographical account of the trials and tribulations of the “English Bloods,” the local epithet attached to these young lads attempting to hone farming skills in a land never intended to be agricultural. And, in so doing, de la Fosse chronicles the realities of pioneer life in the area.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
From the outset of Frederick de la Fosse’s English Bloods, (Heritage Books, 2004) one is struck by the level of naïveté that existed regarding this new land of Canada. Firstly, by nineteenth-century English society, generally, and by Frederick’s uncle in particular. For example, as a going-away gift Frederick received a saddle and was told to be certain to let them know when he “captured his first wild horse.”
De la Fosse is also quite candid in enunciating his own level of naiveté, and if there ever was a ‘pigeon’ ready for a plucking it was young Frederick. Indeed, within hours of his arrival he had been conned out of $10—quite a hefty amount in 1878—by some wily Canadian con artists.
He was also quite a source of amusement to some seasoned Canadians when he mentioned that he had actually paid money to learn how to “farm”, i.e. chop trees and clear land. It didn’t help his image, either, that he was attired in a shirt a tie for the tasks.
Some of the characters de la Fosse encounters along the way are also quite colourful. One such was a Mr. Yearley, whom de la Fosse describes as weighing nearly three hundred pounds. He therefore describes the experience of having to share a bed with him and his son, John Yearley.
“Good-night, boys,” said Mr. Yearley as he blew out the light, and darkness fell on the scene. Then with a mighty tug he pulled the blanket off us both and coiled it around himself. “Say, Pop,” protested Master John from the outskirts, “what are yer givin’ us?” But there was not answer from his parent. He was already in a comatose condition and snoring in a highly stertorous and alarming manner. Before many seconds had passed, the three hundred pounds of flesh was heaving in a terrific fashion. In the course of a somewhat checkered career, I have come across many snorers but never one who could come within miles of the power possessed by that venerable being. After enduring an hour of the most rending torture I gave a heave which sent Johnny flying to the floor, and followed after him myself. The commotion caused by this sudden action had no effect on the old man. He snored serenely on. Johnny muttered a few imprecations and crawled in bed again, and I thankfully curled up where I had fallen. The mosquitoes had a lovely time with me for the night, but even they were preferable to the agony that I had been enduring.”
As it transpired, his mentor in the art of farming, a Captain Harston, knew very little more about husbandry than young Frederick and the three other, similar apprenticed lads, but he was very good at expounding on the topic while the boys did the actual work. Nevertheless they kept a ‘stiff upper lip’ and muddled on regardless; becoming hardened to the rigours of the job in a relatively short time. It is remarkable, therefore, how the human spirit can adjust to even the most challenging set of circumstances.
As one might imagine the experiences encountered by such an uninitiated novice were many and varied; some harrowing and some hilarious. One of these might have fit into both categories.
“The Hayes family consisted of himself and four or five children. The eldest of them, a girl, was perhaps seventeen years of age. I had paid several visits to the cottage and got to know the family well. It was rather a surprise to me, however, to see Sandy enter our room one Sunday morning for the purpose of paying a visit for we were not intimate friends. The others had taken advantage of the beautiful morning and had gone to the lake for a bath, but I had preferred to remain in bed, so Hayes and I had the whole place to ourselves.
The first I knew of his appearance was when the door slowly opened and I caught a glimpse of his frowsy, unkempt head as he leaned forward to see if anyone was in. “Come in, Sandy,” I said, “what’s brought you here this morning so early?” But Sandy was a taciturn individual and vouchsafed never a word in reply. He slouched into the room and without more ado sat down on the edge of the bed and began to chew viciously at a straw. He was quite a picturesque specimen of humanity, owing to his general getup and commanding figure. He stood fully six feet high and with his red shirt, his trousers tucked into his boots, and a flaming tuft of carroty hair sticking upright through a hole in his greasy straw hat, he might have posed as a model for one of Garibaldi’s warriors. He was evidently in a very serious mood; so I concluded to let him take his time. The minutes flew by, and still Sandy chewed and said nothing. I was just about on the point of again asking what had brought him to our abode at that unconscionable hour when he brought his heavy first down on my leg with a resounding smack and broke the silence by ejaculating “Say!” “Yes,” I gasped out; but the poor man was again floored and could get no further. Then he began to whistle and after he had got through two or three bars of “Protestant Boys” started to perambulate round the room. This behaviour was beginning to get on my nerves and I jumped out of bed and started to put on a few things. “You’ll excuse me,” I said, “but if you will have what you want to say figured out by the time I come back from my bath, I’ll see what I can do to help you.” This showed him that time was precious and that he had better unbosom himself. He stopped in his stride and burst out with another “Say!” “Yes,” I again answered.
“Oh, hell,” he cried in desperation. “What do you say to getting’ hitched up to our Maggie, boy?”
This is a charming and heart-warming tribute to the unsung pioneer, written in a dry-martini-like-humour that is sure to please regardless of where in the world the reader might live.
Special mention should be made of Scott D Shipman who not only did an excellent job of editing the writing, but who also spent eight years researching other, related parties mentioned in the story.
Highly recommended for everyone in the family!
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Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Masterfully written ‘prattle’ (meant positively)
Story blurb: Though he’s been accepted by Brown University, 18-year-old James isn’t sure he wants to go to college. What he really wants is to buy a nice house in a small town somewhere in the Midwest—Indiana, perhaps. In the meantime, however, he has a dull, make-work job at his thrice-married mother’s Manhattan art gallery, where he finds himself attracted to her assistant, an older man named John. In a clumsy attempt to capture John’s attention, James winds up accused of sexual harassment! A critically acclaimed author of adult fiction, Cameron makes a singularly auspicious entry into the world of YA with this beautifully conceived and written coming-of-age novel that is, at turns, funny, sad, tender, and sophisticated. James makes a memorable protagonist, touching in his inability to connect with the world but always entertaining in his first-person account of his New York environment, his fractured family, his disastrous trip to the nation’s capital, and his ongoing bouts with psychoanalysis. In the process he dramatizes the ambivalences and uncertainties of adolescence in ways that both teen and adult readers will savour and remember.
About the author: Peter Cameron was born in Pompton Plains, New Jersey in 1959 and grew up there and in London, England. He spent two years attending the progressive American School in London, where he discovered the joys of reading, and began writing stories, poems, and plays. Cameron graduated from Hamilton College in New York State in 1982 with a B.A. in English Literature.
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Review by Gerry Burnie
I use the term “prattle” in a positive way. It is a literary device that can be very effective when used by a master ‘wordsmith’ like Peter Cameron; a form of improvisation that I envy. However, when it gets too-clever-by-half it can be become oppressive. That is the situation with “Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You” (Picador; Reprint edition April 28, 2009.)
On the positive side the characters are all well developed in such a way as to be ‘interesting’; like green hair. James is precocious, brilliant and cynical. We never do find out what he likes—except Anthony Trollope, his co-worker, John, and his grandmother Nanette—but we do find out what he doesn’t like: people his own age; nearly everything about modern society; and college because of the previous reasons.
His family, e.g. mother, father and sister, are a pretentious lot, and a thinly-veiled representation of “Yuppy” society. His mother, thrice married, has picked another ‘winner’ and ends the marriage before the honeymoon is over. His father, the senior partner of a Manhattan law firm, eats steak because it is a sign of success, and his sister is cynical but without James’ smarts to make it meaningful.
However, the plot is a bit more difficult to nail down, precisely. One gets the feeling of tagging along with James with no particular destination in mind. We tag along to his mother’s art gallery where the featured exhibition is a collection garbage cans with no name (“art should speak for itself”), and peer over his shoulder while he ‘sabotages’ John’s attempt to find a mate on the “Gents4Gents” website.
We also accompany him on a particularly ‘awful’ workshop, known as “The American Classroom” in Washington DC, and sit with him while he undergoes therapy. However, none of the foregoing ever seems to get resolved. It just meanders, and this is where the “prattle” becomes just that.
Nonetheless James is a likable kid, and from his point of view it all makes sense. Moreover, there is much about this story that resonates long after one puts it down. Cameron raises some very thought provoking notions, and for this reason it gets my recommendation.
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Transgressions by “Erastes”
Masterfully written as usual, and a very inspirational topic – Recommended
Publisher: Rnning Press Book Publishing
Story outline: 1642, England: David Caverly’s strict father has brought home the quiet, puritanical Jonathan Graie to help his dreamer of a son work the family forge. With war brewing in Parliament, the demand for metal work increases as armies are raised.
The fair David is drawn to his father’s new apprentice. And though his father treats them both as if they were brothers, David’s feelings toward the shy Jonathan develop as they hide their growing physical relationship. Until the fateful moment when local gossips force David’s father to banish him, to protect the family name.
Freed, directionless, and whimsical, David is eager to experience the drama and excitement of war, and follows two soldiers headed for battle, but the reality is a harsh awakening for his free-spirited nature. Seizing the opportunity to desert, David heads to London to lead a secret life, unaware that Jonathan too has left the forge in search of him. Lost and lonely, the vulnerable Jonathan quickly falls in with the Witchfinders, a group of extremists who travel the country conducting public trials of women suspected of witchcraft. Jonathan is drawn to the charismatic Michael, finally embracing a cause for truth so wholeheartedly, he doesn’t recognize the danger—physical and emotional—that Michael represents. For the fanatic puritan is desperate to purge Jonathan of his memories of David in any manner possible….
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Review by Gerry Burnie
The storyline of Eraste’s recent work, “Transgressions: A M/M romance,” (Running Press Book Publishers, 2009), has been well served by the product description, so I will cut directly to the elements of the story.
To begin, all the protagonists—David Caverly, Johnathan Graie, and Tobias—are good, strong characters; well-defined and distinct. Likewise their personalities are distinct, and except where circumstances require it they remain consistent throughout. David, the indolent and ‘typical-teenager-type’ who matures under fire (literally), and who comes to seek and honour love over hedonism; Johnathan, the serious-minded-Puritan and wide-eyed innocent of sorts, who is mesmerized first by the more head-strong and charismatic David, and later by the possessive and sinister Michael; and the worldly Tobias who is content to screw his way through partners until he meets his “virgin farm boy.” All are quite believable, as well; although I did find Johnathan a bit hard to fathom at times.
As usual Erastes has chosen a powerful atmosphere and setting in the English Civil War(s) (1641-1651), between the forces of Parliament and the Royalists; more specifically, between Oliver Cromwell and Charles I. It was a truly brutal conflict on both sides, with an estimated death toll—from all causes including war-related disease—of 190,000 individuals; or nearly 4% of the population.
Socially, it was a brutal time as well, that divided families against one another, and afterward the so-called “Loyalists” were hunted down as outlaws.
Erastes has also included the equally powerful and brutal practice of hunting witches. This was an ongoing religiously-sponsored atrocity that lasted until it was finally outlawed (in England) in 1735. Nevertheless, in spite of the dark era that all this represented, love prevailed. A celebration of the indomitable human will to find beauty in the midst of darkness.
Masterfully written as usual, and a very inspirational topic.an absolute-must addition to your bookshelf. It would make a great gift for the kids as well!
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See a preview of Gerry Burnie’s forthcoming novel, “Coming of Age on the Trail”; See some interesting “Related Images”; Read an excerpt
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