It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 9: Geoffrey Newman!
Geoffrey Newman shares his memoir, Better to Cry Now. We discuss living a blessed life in defiance of those who say you won’t make it, and how Geoffrey found the flow of his life that helped him be a proud, gay, black man so he could then help his students overcome any obstacle with creativity, tenacity, and love.
Bio:
Geoffrey Newman, PhD, is dean emeritus of the College of the Arts at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He was the first holder of the Owen Duston Distinguished Professorship from Wabash College in 1987 and received the prestigious Amoco Award for Theatrical Excellence from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 1979. He helped establish the Department of Theater at Wabash College in 1970 and served on the faculty of the drama department from 1975 to 1986, during which time he was appointed chairman of drama (1982–1986). He then served as the founding dean of the College of Arts at Montclair State University from 1988 to 2011. He now resides in Palm Springs, California, with Ed, his husband and soulmate of forty-seven years.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 8: Rob Osler!
Rob Osler returns to share his latest mystery, The Case of the Murdered Muckracker. We discuss the evolution of the Harriet Morrow Investigates series, writing a lesbian detective during the Progressive Era, growing a found family across a series, and mirroring political corruption and immigration rights between then and now.
Bio:
Rob Osler writes traditional mysteries featuring LGBTQ+ main characters. Believing that relatability is as important as representation, he strives to showcase our shared humanity across individual identities. Both books in Rob’s historical The Harriet Morrow Investigates series are USA Today Bestsellers, the first of which, The Case of the Missing Maid, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and is an Amazon Editors Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. His other works have been finalists for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Lefty, and Macavity Awards, a CrimeReads Best of the Year, and a winner of the Mystery Writers of America Robert L. Fish Award. After living in Boise, Chicago, and Seattle, Rob resides in California with his husband and a tall gray cat.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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January 31, 2025
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 5: Rob Osler!
Rob Osler returns to share the first book in his Harriet Morrow Investigates series: The Case of the Missing Maid. We discuss the parallels between the Progressive Era (1890-1920) and current events, writing an exemplary and queer woman in a historic setting, and the unfolding of the series.
Bio:
Rob Osler writes traditional mysteries featuring LGBTQ+ main characters. Believing that relatability is as important as representation, he strives to showcase our shared humanity across individual identities. Rob’s just-released historical novel THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAID is a USA Today Bestseller, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and is an Amazon Editors Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. His other work has been a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Lefty, and Macavity Awards, a CrimeReads Best of the Year, and a winner of the Mystery Writers of America Robert L. Fish Award. After living in Boise, Chicago, and Seattle, Rob resides in California with his husband and a tall gray cat.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
Or Listen/Watch Right Here:
March 8, 2024
It gives us great pleasure to present a Season 9, Episode 10 Interview – Rob Osler
Rob Osler returns to share his latest Hayden & Friends Mystery, Cirque du Slay! We discuss the importance of characters living their authentic lives and the growth of the “quozy” genre!
Rob is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Authors’ Guild, Sisters in Crime, and Queer Crime Writers. He is a graduate in philosophy from the University of Puget Sound and earned a master’s degree in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School.
After many years living in Chicago and Seattle, he resides in California with his long-time partner and a tall, gray cat.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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May 12, 2023
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 8, Episode 20: Rob Osler + Our Review of And Then We Danced!
Rob Osler brings his energy to the show to discuss his “quozy” mystery, Devil’s Chew Toy. He shares his 2-minute pitch poem and we discuss what it means to be queer in the cozy genre. Then Baz and Vance discuss the foreign film And Then We Danced, followed by who won their weeks!
Bio:
Rob writes traditional mysteries featuring LGBTQ+ main characters. His novel Devil’s Chew Toy was a 2023 Left Coast Crime Finalist for Best Debut Mystery and an Agatha Awards Finalist for Best First Novel and named a 2022 Year’s Best by Crime Reads, BOLO Books, PopSugar, and Book Riot. The sequel to Devil’s Chew Toy, titled Cirque du Slay, comes out March 9, 2024. His first publication, Analogue, (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine), won the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award for best short story by a debut author as part of the Edgar Awards. Forthcoming works include Miss Direction in Ellery Queen’s September/October edition, and Red Shoes in the Brutal and Strange, an anthology based on Elvis Costello songs from Down & Out Books, Jan 2024. Also on the horizon is The Case of the Missing Maid, book one in a new historical series featuring a queer female detective in Chicago in the Progressive Era from Kensington Books.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 7: Rodney Rhoda Taylor!
Rodney Rhoda Taylor joins to share their memoir, A Life in Letters: A story of resilience, sequins, and hope. We discuss the art of writing letters, infusing hope and humor into our works, and how stories show our shared humanity.
Bio:
Inspired by Carrie Bradshaw, Rodney Rhoda Taylor returned to school to purse writing and eventually graduated with a degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Unsure of what to do after graduating, after all who does know what to do with their degree, they meandered about their writing career aimlessly for the first year until a friend suggested they join a writing group that focused primarily on plays. Their writing career soon took off. They soon found themselves writing, producing, directing and acting in plays. They are the author of the short plays Eros, Poolside, Good-Bye Cupid, My Fairy Godmother, Baby Christina, Motherly Advice, and P.S. I Love You. Their play writing eventually led them to co-found Left Coast Theatre Co., an LGBTQ theater in San Francisco with Joe Frank. After taking a break from writing for a few years to focus on themselves, they resumed their writing career with the publication of their first book, a memoir, A Life in Letters, A story of resilience, sequence and hope. They presently reside in the South, with their little chihuahua, Isabele, hoping one day Cupid will still pay them a visit. (Hopefully after a visit to the optometrist.)
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 6: Christian Baines!
Christian Baines returns to share his latest novel, Andalusia Dogs. We discuss The Season of the Witch for the Haunted Hearts book series, as well as his novel’s “bless this chaos” vibe set in the artistic Movida era of Spanish culture after the death of Franco.
Bio:
Christian Baines is an awkward nerd turned slightly less awkward author. Raised on dark humour and powered by New Zealand wine, he is the author of nine novels including gay paranormal series The Arcadia Trust and My Cat’s Guide to Online Dating. Born in Australia, he now travels the world whenever possible, living and writing in Toronto, Canada between trips.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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November 22, 2024
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 9, Episode 45: Christian Baines!
Christian baines returns to share his latest releases: Geist Fleisch and Arcadia Trust 4 – Tears in Time. We discuss the rise of horror in Hollywood thanks to queer directors, ghosts in 1930s Berlin, and coming home to find your dimension has cracked a bit!
Bio:
Christian Baines is an awkward nerd turned slightly less awkward author. Raised on dark humour and powered by New Zealand wine, he is the author of six novels including gay paranormal series The Arcadia Trust and My Cat’s Guide to Online Dating. Born in Australia, he now travels the world whenever possible, living and writing in Toronto, Canada between trips.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
Or Listen/Watch Right Here:
May 26, 2023
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 8, Episode 22: Christian Baines + Our Review of Desert Fury!
Christian Baines delights us with his latest novel, My Cat’s Guide to Online Dating. It’s dark, it’s sexy, and it plays in the shadows of mythology. Then Baz and Vance rate and review a Hollywood classic, Desert Fury, and close by sharing who won their weeks!
Bio:
Christian Baines is an awkward nerd turned slightly less awkward author. Raised on dark humour and powered by New Zealand wine, he is the author of six novels including gay paranormal series The Arcadia Trust and My Cat’s Guide to Online Dating. Born in Australia, he now travels the world whenever possible, living and writing in Toronto, Canada between trips.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
Or Listen Right Here:
OR Watch on YouTube:
[Re-Edited and Re-Uploaded to YouTube due to copyright claim issue]
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fJG0C68Xo4[/embedyt]
August 2, 2019
It gives us great pleasure to welcome Christian Baines back as the guest on Episode 227 – Pollyannas Are Horrible!
Christian Baines returns for a great conversation about Urban Fantasy and his latest release, Sins of the Son, the third book of the Arcadia Trust series.
Christian Baines is an awkward nerd turned slightly less awkward author of weird and dark fiction. His work includes the gay paranormal series The Arcadia Trust, e-novella Skin, and Puppet Boy, a finalist for the 2016 Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award. Born in Australia, he now travels the world whenever possible, living, writing, and shivering in Toronto, Canada on those odd occasions he can’t find his passport.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
Or right here:
December 1, 2017
It gives us great pleasure to welcome Christian Baines as the guest on Episode 140: A Kiss Kill Love Fight Relationship!
This week Christian Baines joins us to talk about his latest novel, Skin, writing the paranormal and the world-building behind it, dark heroes and LGBTQ antiheroes!
Christian Baines is an awkward nerd turned slightly less awkward author of weird and dark fiction. His work includes the gay paranormal series The Arcadia Trust, e-novella Skin, and Puppet Boy, a finalist for the 2016 Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award. Born in Australia, he now travels the world whenever possible, living, writing, and shivering in Toronto, Canada on those odd occasions he can’t find his passport.
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 5: Patricia Grayhall!
Patricia Grayhall returns as a triple threat with her latest novel Framed. We discuss corporate greed, conspiracies, environmental awareness, immigration issues, unrequited love, and why the best novels have threads of multiple genres.
Bio:
Patricia Grayhall is a retired physician turned acclaimed author whose memoir Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and Medicine earned a starred Kirkus Review and recognition as one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best 100 Indie Books of 2022. The memoir has won multiple prestigious awards, including the 2024 National Indie Excellence Award for LGBTQIA Non-fiction and Memoir and the 2023 Best Indie Book Award for LGBTQ Memoir.
Following the success of her memoir, Patricia co-authored the romance novel Golden Years and Silver Linings with her partner in 2023.
Her literary range expanded with A Place for Us: A Novel, published by She Writes Press in June 2025.
Patricia’s newest medical/legal thriller Framed, blends her medical expertise with compelling storytelling, marking her evolution from memoirist to versatile fiction author. Patricia lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest, where she enjoys other people’s dogs and occasional sightings of orca, eagles, otters, and black bears.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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June 13, 2025
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 22: Patricia Grayhall!
Patricia Grayhall returns to share her new romance: A Place for Us. We dive into connecting with lost loves, building a life together in the face of obstacles, and endings that bring happiness and hope!
Bio:
Patricia Grayhall is a medical doctor and author of the award-winning memoir, Making the Rounds; Defying Norms in Love and Medicine and a romance novel, Golden Years and Silver Linings, with wife and author Linda M. Ford. She has authored articles in Queer Forty, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Millions, Lesbian Game Changers, The Seattle Lesbian, and Seattle Magazine, and has been interviewed on NPR.
Currently, Patricia is working on her third novel, an environmental crime novel. All of her novels are inspired by real-life experiences, one of the advantages of being an older author. Patricia lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys other people’s dogs and occasional sightings of orca, eagles, otters, and black bears.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
Or Listen/Watch Right Here:
January 20, 2023
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 8, Episode 3: Patricia Grayhall + Sense8 review part 3!
Patricia Grayhall, author of the memoir Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and Medicine, joins us to discuss her training to become a doctor before Roe v Wade, and her lifelong lessons about sustaining relationships. Then Albert Nothlit returns for part 3 of our review of Sense8’s first season!
Patricia Grayhall is a retired medical doctor and author of Making the Rounds; Defying Norms in Love and Medicine that garnered a starred review in Kirkus Reviews, as well as positive reviews from Katherine Forrest and Radclyffe. She’s published articles in Queer Forty, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Millions, Lesbian Game Changers, The Seattle Lesbian, and Seattle Magazine. In addition to a recent NPR interview, her book is among Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2022.
Patricia lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys other people’s dogs, big nature, and her second career as an author.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 4: Sophie Haeder!
Sophie Haeder returns with her latest novel The Lurking Demon. We discuss the evolution of Dohva, and the main characters – Sineth, Kima, and Avala. We also discuss world building and finding inspiration in Dungeons and Dragons.
Bio:
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. Playing Dungeons & Dragons with her favourite group of nerds brings her immense joy.
This love of storytelling eventually led her to writing, a natural progression from her professional career as a marketing manager.
She loves fantasy and art, and her writing combines all of her interests into one. That’s why she did all the artwork for her books herself, including the cover, the map, and every other illustration.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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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!
Bio:
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.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 3: S.M. Stevens!
S.M. Stevens shares her novel Beautiful & Terrible Things. We discuss this amazing diverse cast of friends, their social justice activities in immigration, racism, and mental health, and what it’s like to write about living in today’s America. She then shares how to get a free short story and novelette about her characters that were cut from the book.
Bio:
After many years as a business writer, S.M. Stevens found the time to pen her first novel when a pelvis broken in 3 places absolved her from housework and chauffeuring the kids around for several months. The result was her middle-grade novel Shannon’s Odyssey, written for adventurous animal-lovers.
A year later, while in treatment for cancer, she wrote the first of the Bit Players series to fill the void of fiction for music and theatre-loving teens. The YA series now has three books, and appeals to all teens not just drama-loving ones.
Her first adult novel (thankfully not prompted by another health crisis!) was Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, published in 2019. The story is a coming-of-age tale about two young women starting their careers in Boston while dealing with past and present demons.
Her latest novel, Beautiful & Terrible Things, was released by Black Rose Writing in Summer 2024 and has won numerous awards, including Indies Today Best Literary Book of 2024. The same characters are featured in her award-winning novelette, The Wallace House of Pain (available on Amazon).
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 02: Daniel Land!
Daniel Land returns to share his concept single: Pearl Daddy. He wrote two singles that compliment each other and tell a love story with each track from one lover’s perspective. We also discuss the North African influences that ghost into the music.
Bio:
Daniel Land has become both a scholar and a practitioner of the kind of music he creates, studying towards a PhD on artists like the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive at the London College of Music, whilst collaborating with artists as varied as Darkher, Swoone, and the electronica auteur Ulrich Schnauss. Meanwhile, Daniel’s music has found a wider audience by gracing campaigns by brands such as Expedia and appearing in films including Only You and The Art of My Scars.
He is currently working on the third draft of a memoir covering the period from 1997 to 2000, focusing on his late teens in rural Devon, UK, and the experience of coming out in the shadow of Section 28. It explores how homophobia shaped his early relationships, the depressive fallout that followed, and the activism that emerged from his recovery: working with a charity to support isolated queer young people, campaigning for legislative change, contributing to police diversity strategies, and helping to develop national guidelines for schools on tackling homophobic bullying.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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May 5, 2023
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 8, Episode 19: Daniel Land + Our Review of Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits!
Daniel Land joins us to share his upcoming album, Out of Season. He leads us into a discussion about identity and memory, then we review Alex Borstein’s Corsets & Clown Suits, followed by what won our weeks!
Bio:
Daniel Land has become both a scholar and a practitioner of the kind of music he creates, studying towards a PhD on artists like the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive at the London College of Music, whilst collaborating with artists as varied as Darkher, Swoone, and the electronica auteur Ulrich Schnauss.
Daniel will release his new album, Out of Season, in 2023. He is currently writing a concept album about the AIDS crisis, and is working on the second draft of a memoir about homophobia.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 01: Neil Laird!
Neil Laird helps us kick off the new year by sharing his series Prime Time Travelers. We discuss how his career as an Emmy-nominated director of historic series for television shaped writing his series. We also discuss uncovering examples of gay life in ancient times while balancing satire, romance, and historical drama in his series
Bio:
Neil Laird is a multiple Emmy-nominated director of historical films for Discovery, BBC, PBS, History Channel, National Geographic, and many other networks. He has produced over 100 programs around the globe that feature crumbling Egyptian tombs, lost Mayan cities, and mysterious shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea.
But to his continued disappointment, he has yet to stumble upon a time machine to see these things when they were shiny and new. His book, the first in a series, aims to remedy that grave injustice.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 51: Gordon Blitz!
Gordon Blitz returns to share his novel Converso Jews: A Hidden Family Story. We discuss his recent plays and monologues, as well as the book’s dual story line and how it explores families in the past hiding their Judaism from the Catholics in control and how it has affected a modern family who doesn’t know where some of their rituals came from as they learn to embrace an interfaith, gay love relationship.
Bio:
After forty years as an accountant, Gordon Blitz retired in 2017 and became a passionate writing machine. As a senior LGBTQ+ man, he has a unique perspective on the many facets of being LGBTQ+ for the last fifty years. He is a multi-media creative artist, novelist, playwright and performer.
A Homeless Thanksgiving had a reading in 2025 as part of the Talking It Out Festival at the Spit & Vigor Blackbox Theatre in New York City.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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May 10, 2024
It gives us great pleasure to present a Season 9, Episode 18 Interview – Gordon Blitz
Gordon Blitz joins us to share his multi-genre strengths by writing about dementia, aging, and late-life same-sex love in Harmonic Dissonance. We then discuss his crime novel Murder Times Three-A Waverly Place Mystery where he highlights bisexual and asexual aspects of being queer while a cat uncovers clues that lead the amateur sleuth through the case.
From a young child, Gordon was called a sissy, girlie, fag, queer, and homo. Getting towel whipped, stomach punched and spit on were part of his world. Being bullied like this made him go into a nice, staid, and stable career in accounting. Gordon didn’t find his writer’s voice until 2017 when he retired from forty years of debits and credits. Since then he’s become a passionate writing machine. Gordon has published work in Whoa Nelly Press, Wingless Dreamer, Two Hawks Quarterly, the Santa Monica College Journals Chronicles and On Going Moments, and Gay Wicked Ways.
This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 9: Geoffrey Newman!
