LGBTQI | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Sex and God and Other Essays by William J. Cataldi

Sex and God and Other Essays is a curious collection of writing that sticks long after closing the book. Some of the subjects are so outrageous and so taboo, that at times it’s hard to believe they have been written. But thankfully, Cataldi has, given the instant impression of a brave author.

Considering the background of the writer, which he explains in the prologue in detail, the work is shaded with a whole other quality. A gay-Christian-Taoist-Leatherman who doesn’t agree with vegetarians? That’s about as niche a viewpoint you’ll ever get.

Never once does it feel thoughts are disingenuous, and […]

SPR2019-01-22T11:37:17+02:00July 14th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Essays, LGBTQI|

Spoon Knife 2: Test Chamber – Edited by Dani Alexis Ryskamp and Sam Harvey

The Spoon Knife anthologies are an annual open collection run by NeuroQueer Books to give exposure to upcoming writers of neurodivergent, queer, and Mad literature. Spoon Knife 2: Test Chamber is, as the title suggests, the second such collection, and intends to stand as as a defiant monument to the experiences and efforts of marginalized communities who are bound to suffer in the midst of recent and current geopolitical climates.

The collection comprises 35 stories, all with a general technological, dystopic, or post-human theme in addition to the overall NeuroQueer Books niche of neurodivergent/queer subject matter. These include an eye-opening […]

James Grimsby2017-05-26T03:37:58+02:00May 25th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: LGBTQI, Short Stories|

Review: My Kill Play: When a Virus Hijacked the Roller Derby by Tim Patten

★★★★

Roller derby, in its modern form, has been a cult phenomenon across the world. A thrilling and dangerous sport, it has evolved from childhood pastime to a spectacular arena of courage and cunning on-wheels. My Kill Play: When A Virus Hijacked the Roller Derby is a personal account of author Tim Patten’s experiences with the sport, as childhood hobbyist to professional, and the way his life and those around him changed throughout the late 20th Century during one of the most infamous first-world medical crises of the past forty years.

My Kill Play joins Patten’s previous publication, Roller Babes: […]

James Grimsby2017-03-31T11:44:57+02:00March 30th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: LGBTQI, Memoir, Sports|

Review: Simple Simon by William Poe

★★★★★

“Cocaine overtook the lives of many people in the 1980s. That seemed especially true in the Hollywood gay scene, where I was something of a fixture in the bars, especially the seedy ones.”

Simon Powell has lived a life of many regrets – one of religious engagement and chemical addiction; of Hollywood dreams and cold nights on concrete streets, of love and loss, and the harsh bounce back from rock-bottom. Simon is a gay man from Arkansas who’s seen it all, and it’s taken its toll. Recovering from his near-fatal addiction, he worked towards a healthier existence through rehab […]

James Grimsby2019-10-04T06:34:20+02:00August 24th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQI, William Poe|

Review: My Ladybird Story by Magus Tor

★★★½

John Bird is your typical suburban American kid in many ways, and yet secretly, he knows he isn’t. His dad tries to beat it out of him with sports, and his words cut almost as sharply as the taunts his schoolyard bullies chant at him every day: “ladybird.” Everyone knows John is different, but nobody knows why, exactly. It’s only when newfound kindred spirit Aureus enters John’s life does he start to understand “himself” in My Ladybird Story: The growing pains of a Transgender by Magus Tor.

The author has a wide variety of other titles available, mostly romance […]

James Grimsby2019-01-22T15:38:11+02:00January 28th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Coming Of Age, LGBTQI, Romance, Young Adult|

Review: Bully by Emme Dun

★★★★★

Bully, by Emme Dun is an intelligent and aptly-timed legal thriller.

Based on true events, Bully kicks off during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The discrimination and hysteria surrounding gay parents resulted in many being treated as second class citizens. By 2008, Joanna Crawford, now an elected family court judge wants to atone for her treatment of her own father, a gay man. Lisa White, a lesbian mother, finds herself in Crawford’s court and their children become political pawns.

First-time author, Emme Dun, has penned an important and fascinating legal thriller that will captivate […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T15:38:03+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Legal Thriller, LGBTQI, Thriller|

Review: In the Blood of the Greeks by Mary D. Brooks ★★★★★

In the Blood of the Greeks, Intertwined Souls Series Book 1, by Mary D. Brooks, is an amazing story set against the horrors of World War II.

In Larissa, Greece, the town’s occupants are living in fear. World War II is raging in Europe, but in their small town, they are living under Nazi tyranny. Zoe Lambros, a young Greek woman, has suffered much due to the war. Her hardened heart desires one thing: revenge. Eva Muller, the daughter of a German Major in command of the occupying force, is living with her own fear. When the two […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T15:49:16+02:00April 28th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction, LGBTQI|