Monthly Archives: May 2025

30May/25

Jonathan Lerner

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May 30, 2025

It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 19: Jonathan Lerner!

Jonathan Lerner shares his memoir: Performance Anxiety. We discuss the civil rights era, why being LGBTQ+ was even more lonely, and what it was like to find community while realizing you were different!

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Bio:
Jonathan Lerner is the author of the novels Caught in a Still Place, Alex Underground, and Lily Narcissus, and the memoir Swords in the Hands of Children. He is a journalist focusing on urban design and environmental issues and a longtime contributing editor at Landscape Architecture Magazine. He lives with his husband, the nonprofit leader and community advocate Peter Frank, in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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23May/25

Sophie Haeder

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May 23, 2025

It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 18: Sophie Haeder!

Sophie Haeder shares her novel: The Land Within. We discuss being inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, the romantasy genre, and the prominence of LGBTQ+ characters in this literary style!

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Born in 1992, Sophie Haeder lives in the picturesque countryside of Bavaria, Germany, where she embraces her nerdy nature alongside her roles as a wife and a mother of a little girl. With a lifelong passion for fantasy, encompassing everything from fairies to witches to trolls, she has found solace in imaginative play since childhood. Serving as a gamemaster for her Dungeons & Dragons group brings her immense joy. This love of storytelling eventually led her to writing, a natural progression from her professional career as a content marketing manager. She loves fantasy and art, and her writing combines all of her interests into one. That’s why she does all the artwork for her books herself, including the cover, the map, and every other illustration in her book. If you play D&D yourself, you may recognize some of the mechanics of magic and world-building that follow this kind of vibe. But of course it is not necessary to know anything about D&D to enjoy her book.

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16May/25

John R. Gordon

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May 16, 2025

It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 17: John R. Gordon!

John R. Gordon shares his novel: Mother of Serpents. We discuss evil spirits & madness, blending history & myth, and why it’s important to write queer, interracial families!

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Bio:
John R. Gordon lives in Shepherds Bush, London, England. He is a screenwriter, playwright and the author of nine novels, Black Butterflies and Warriors & Outlaws, both of which have been taught in the USA; Faggamuffin, Colour Scheme, Souljah, Drapetomania and the interracial YA romance Hark. He writes for the world’s first Black gay television show, Patrik-Ian Polk’s Noah’s Arc, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination. He is the creator of the Yemi & Femi comic, for adult readers.

This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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09May/25

Margaret Gardiner

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May 9, 2025

It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 16: Margaret Gardiner!

Margaret Gardiner shares her novel Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar. We discuss being raised to be silent, finding one’s way through damage toward healing, and the dark side of fame!

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Model. Speaker. Panelist. Host. Journalist. Author.
Margaret Gardiner became an international cover girl at 16, Miss Universe at 18, and ultimately, the fashion editor at goldenglobes.com.
She’s worked with A-list stars from Angelina Jolie to Zendaya. She knows what it is like to be on the red carpet, in the spotlight – and what goes on behind the scenes.
With a degree in psychology, and a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, her debut novel is for every person who has ever been made to feel less.

This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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02May/25

Del Blackwater

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May 2, 2025

It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 15: Del Blackwater!

Del Blackwater shares her novel: Dead Egyptians. Her lifelong love & pursuit of Egyptology has lead her to writing about Egypt in 1902, and a gay British Egyptologist who was there when the Egyptians began to take back their country, plus mysticism, reincarnation, and porch time!

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Bio:
Del Blackwater is a novelist and travel writer based in Wisconsin.

Her life vacillates wildly between a quiet existence in the country and a feverish, risk-centric existence when on the road. Her travels have taken her to four continents, and she makes questionable decisions in all of them.

While Egypt is inevitably the high-water mark of both her travels and her writing, she tries to spend time in other places as well.

Del is the author of Dead Egyptians, a historical fantasy series set in the Edwardian era. She is also published many times over as a board game and tarot deck designer, notably as the creator of Playlist Wars, a music game.

When not keeping busy, she unwinds by taking care of a menagerie of critters and enjoying something she calls porch time.

This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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