Passion Marks
A gifted young writer makes his literary debut in this haunting and powerful novel about a gay black man grappling with the death of his twin brother and with the dream boyfriend who turns out to be the lover from hell.
Victims of domestic abuse know that the violence they suffer at the hands of loved ones is not limited by gender, culture, sexual preference, or socio-economic status. Now first-time author Lee A. Hayes takes this hot-button issue to gripping new levels in a novel that transcends all barriers of sex, class, and race.
“From the outside, it looked like the perfect world; exclusive neighborhood, fancy cars, and wealth. If only they knew…”
Set in Texas, Passion Marks tells the story of Kevin Davis, an attractive, college-educated black man, who is leading an agonizing double life. The fashionable Houston home Kevin shares with his partner might as well have bars on the windows, for all the freedom he enjoys. For behind closed doors, he lives a sordid and humiliating existence as the kept lover of powerful businessman James Lancaster, a vicious closet abuser. Compounding Kevin’s torment is the guilt he harbors over the recent death of his identical twin brother, Keevan. Haunted by apocalyptic visions and terrified of the man he’d once hoped could save him, Kevin is unable to break the cycle of violence and depravity that has made him a prisoner in his own life. Until an unforeseen event forces him to confront the demons that are holding him back and call on a strength he didn’t know he possessed.
Building to an unforgettable climax, and peopled by a cast of richly drawn characters – including Kevin’s best girlfriend, Danea, and the mercilessly driven James – this is a powerhouse story of tough love from a supremely talented new author. A Deeper Blue: Passion Marks II
With gripping detail, A Deeper Blue intertwines love, hate, jealousy, infidelity, revenge, and ultimately, murder. Hayes continues to show that the line between love and hate is a thin one – and that sins from the past can evolve into nightmares of the present.
Name: Glen Hanson / G-Man Occupation: Gay Erotic Artist: Illustrations, Art Direction and Writing Place of Birth: Toronto, Canada Schooling: Sheridan College Career: He started, rather innocently, as a cartoon show artist for Babar, Beetlejuice and Daria. In 2000, he was nominated for an Annie Award for his work on MTV’s Spy Groove. Since then, he has been seen in some of the worlds most exclusive publications including, British Vogue & GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, The Wall St. Journal, Maxim, FHM and Variety. He has also worked on several ad campaigns and merchandising projects for BOD, Timex, Grand Marnier, McDonald’s and Skippy Peanut Butter. On top of all this, he has also illustrated several book & cd covers. Yet, he is probably best known for his work on the comic Chelsea Boys, which he is currently developing into an animated series for LOGO. Website links: Glen Hanson and Chelsea Boys.
(Heads up! Glen’s site has a heavy, base soundtrack attached to it. So, be careful when clicking the link. It may just catch you off guard, but enjoy it, regardless of this warning!)
Name: Gengoroh Tagame Occupation: Gay Erotic Artist: Comics, Illustrations, and Novels Date of Birth: February 3, 1964, in the Year of the Dragon Schooling: Tama Art University, with a specialty in Graphic Design Career: First published in a magazine in 1982, he did not use the name “Gengoroh Tagame.” He wouldn’t take that name until 1986, at which time he would start to work as an Art Director for a public company. In 1992, he switched to work as a free-lance Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Illustrator. In 1994, he became a full-time Gay Erotic Artist. He has since been published in nine comic books & one art book. He is also regularly published in two gay Japanese magazines, G-men and SM-Z, published by G-project, as well as the gay Japanese magazine Bady, published by Terra publishing. A Few of His Favorite Things: Bears, Bondage, Cocks, Discipline, Fundoshi, Gags, Kura, Leather, Muscles, Piss, Punishment, Scat, Torture, Training, and Whips Favorite Gay Erotic Artists: Cavelo, Etienne, Funayama, Fuwa, Hun, Les, Mishima, Tom of Finland, and Ward Favorite Non-Erotic Artists: Caravaggio, Cocteau, Ito, Katsushika, Mapplethorpe, Pasolini, Rubens, Tezuka, Tsukioka, and Yato
In two earlier novels, Blue Heaven (1988) and Putting on the Ritz (1991), Keenan adapted and updated P.G. Wodehouse to his own original and side-splitting ends. Now, after a long hiatus largely spent as a writer and producer on the TV show Frasier, Keenan has produced a comic masterpiece – My Lucky Star – that in intricacy of plotting and brilliance of language rivals the best of Wodehouse. The Plot
Keenan sends his down-on-their-luck heroes – ordinary guy and narrator Philip Cavanaugh; Philip’s unscrupulous pal and former lover, Gilbert Selwyn; and their brainy friend, Claire Simmons – to Hollywood, where Philip ends up helping aging, has-been movie star, Lily Malenfant, pen her scandalous memoirs.
In fact, Philip has been hired as a spy by Lily’s more successful actress sister, Diana, and Diana’s son, Stephen Donato, a closeted, male action-star, who both have good reason to fear the dirt Lily plans to dish.
Enter the boys’ nemesis from Blue Heaven, Moira Finch, and their fortunes plummet in a series of misadventures involving blackmail, male prostitutes, impersonating a police officer, and a sex act caught on videotape that’s as audacious as it is hilarious.
By the end, a vindictive DA thinks he has Philip and Gilbert at his mercy, but of course he didn’t reckon with Claire, who comes up with a solution to their troubles worthy of that which Jeeves uses to save Bertie’s neck in The Code of the Woosters.
Marketed primarily to gay readers, Keenan deserves to win a large, appreciative audience of all sexual persuasions with this tour de force.
The order you should read Keenan’s books: Putting on the Ritz 1st, Blue Heaven 2nd, and My Lucky Star 3rd.
Lookin’ for a good read? How about several? Pick up any one of these twisted titles by Steven Cooper: Deadline
Investigative reporter Damon Fitzgerald is hot on the heels of the story of his career when he is strangled to death in his own apartment. But what kind of reporter lets a little thing like death keep him from a good story? Steven Cooper, who had a dead drag queen providing answers in his first mystery – With You in Spirit – and an unruly penis directing the action in his second – Saving Valencia – is no stranger to unusual plot twists! In Deadline he once again combines thrills, slapstick, and the supernatural in the story of a man intent on solving his own murder. Saving Valencia
Valencia Brandywine, heiress to a hotel empire, has been kidnapped, and the ransom is $7 million and her brother Rico’s denouncement of his homosexuality. Valencia has been kidnapped by a group of zealots determined to convert the world’s homosexuals to a life of heterosexuality. Rico, with friend D’vora Wasserman at his side, trots the globe in search of Valencia . . . a search that turns out to be a deeply personal and somewhat mystical journey as well. What follows is a romp through psychotherapy, religion, romance and several inauspicious erections. With You in Spirit
“My father’s body was found floating face down in the waters off Chappaquiddick. Naturally, everyone assumed a Kennedy did it.” So begins Cooper’s rollicking tale of love, murder and ghosts, where skepticism meets spiritualism, and family eccentricities hold the key to just about everything.
Are you looking for some light, gay themed fiction to fill these long, grey winter days? Well get your hands on a copy of The Boys & The Bees by Joe Babcock. The Plot
A gay 12 year old boy begins his first year of junior high with the vow that this will be the year that he kisses a boy. Like The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers – only lighter, brighter and more youthful – The Boys and the Bees is set in Minneapolis and involves a confused but sweet adolescent kid coming to grips with growing up gay and feeling completely lost about it.
Available in bookstores now & online from bn.com and amazon.com
