It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 17: Ron Naples!
Ron Naples joins us to share his memoirs: My Last Dance With Auntie Brie 1 & 2. We talk about his coming out in the 70s, his life in the early 80s club scene and as a house boy in Ptown, up through finally settling down in San Francisco – most of which was guided by the drag queen Auntie Brie. We discuss the importance of memory, as well as archiving these unique gay experiences.
Bio:
Ron Naples, a native of Connecticut, has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner Joe, for the last 40 years. In the ’70s, he was a percussion major at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the ’80s, he earned a degree in Interior Design from CCC in San Pablo, CA. In later years, he became certified in massage therapy from NHI in Emeryville, CA, which he continues to practice today.
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It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 16: Mickie Kennedy!
Mickie Kennedy joins us to share his poetry memoir Worth Burning. We talk about his life’s story and the themes of family, illness, and what it means to rebuild after trauma and tragedy.
Bio:
Born and raised in rural North Carolina, Mickie Kennedy is a gay poet who explores queerness, family, illness, and what it means to rebuild after trauma and tragedy. His work is a window to an integral time in gay history, when AIDS was its zenith and sex was synonymous with death. His debut poetry collection, Worth Burning, was published by Black Lawrence Press in February 2026, and his chapbook, Glandscapes, won Button Poetry’s 2025 Chapbook Prize. Recent poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, POETRY, The Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, The Sun, Copper Nickel, Nimrod, and Black Warrior Review.
Kennedy earned an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University, where he studied with Carolyn Forché. When he’s not writing, he runs eReleases, a national press release distribution company that helps small businesses earn real media coverage. He lives with his husband and grown children, splitting time between Baltimore County, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
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It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 15: O’labumi Brown!
O’labumi Brown joins us to share her memoir Hairalujah. We discuss the art of moving between hardship and joy in memoirs. O’labumi shares some of her anecdotes and how the evolution of her hair marks the different points of her life.
Bio:
O’labumi Brown was born and raised in New York City, where she studied with Michel Marriott, whose memoir workshops were legendary. Brown, a memoirist, loves using metaphor to set a mood. Her short story “Romance on the Iron Horse” was published in Between the Covers: An Adult Romance Anthology, and her short story “Dragon Della” was published in ThereAfter Magazine. Her debut memoir Hairalujah traces the author’s journey of queer identity in the 80s and steps through allegory’s shadow to tell a story about the lessons she’s learned and how she rose from the rubble. O’labumi currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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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.
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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 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.
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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 10, Episode 46: Hugh Flynn!
Hugh Flynn shares his memoir Something Special Be. We discuss the challenges LGBTQ+ folks face when pursuing legal guardianship, not to mention how it rips families apart, while Hugh shares how inspiring his brother Aaron was during his journey to self-determination!
Bio:
Hugh Flynn is a multi-award-winning author, playwright, journalist, and former healthcare communications executive. He has been widely published throughout the US and Canada, and he has written extensively on health, wellness, labor, human rights, and entertainment. He has as a long history advocating for underserved populations. SOMETHING SPECIAL BE is his first memoir. His current project is a collection of short stories entitled FIFTH GRADE , an unfettered look at the outrageous life of a precocious child. He and his husband live in Southern California where his notably wry, sardonic sense of humor is on daily display.
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It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 43: Jon Kinnally!
Jon Kinnally shares his memoir I’m Prancing As Fast As I Can. We discuss how his life as a self-doubting gay youth brought him to acting and ultimately writing for television’s Will & Grace, Ugly Betty, The Crazy Ones and others.
Bio:
Jon Kinnally was born in Upstate New York and went to college at Oswego State before moving to a then-affordable Manhattan, where he pursued acting and performed with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, in their comedy group Loud Blouse.
After relocating to Los Angeles, they got a job on a new show called Will & Grace and stayed with it for its entire eight seasons, eventually running it and returning for the reboot. Over the years, there were many Emmy nominations as well as a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy in 2018. He has also worked on several other shows with Tracy, including Ugly Betty—Emmy and NAACP award nominations—and The Crazy Ones which they ran, and had the privilege to write for the great Robin Williams. He currently lives in Spain with his husband Chris and their cats, Howard Bannister and Elliott.
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It gives us great pleasure to present Season 10, Episode 31: Dr. Kara Zajac!
Kara Zajac shares her memoir The Significance of Curly Hair. We discuss overcoming grief with humor, the fear of becoming a ‘traditional’ woman, raising a child in an alternative family, and how to thrive without giving up your dreams.
Bio:
Kara Zajac is a freelance writer, chiropractor, mother of a daughter, wife, entrepreneur, musician, and die hard romantic. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York and Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life College of Chiropractic. For the last twenty years, Kara has maintained a private wellness practice in Dawsonville, GA, where she helps people revitalize their lives by healing the brain and body naturally through chiropractic care, energy work, and Braincore Neurofeedback.
She is a member of the Creative-Writing-Workshop as well as the National Writers Union and was awarded the IPPY Silver Medal for Transformational Nonfiction. She resides in the North Georgia Mountains with her wife, Kim, and daughter, Senia Mae. Kara can usually be found at home in the kitchen and enjoys sipping wine while hanging her feet off the dock.
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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!
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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It gives us great pleasure to present Season 11, Episode 17: Ron Naples!
