Tag Archives: Young Adult

04Dec/20

Wayne Goodman

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December 4, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Wayne Goodman as the guest on Episode 295 – I’m Missing a Part of My Brain!)

Wayne Goodman, writer of historical fiction and producer of the Queer Words Podcast, joins us to discuss his recent releases, Tim Tam and the Space Pirates, and his collection of queer short stories, All the Right Places.

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Bio:

Wayne Goodman has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area most of his life (with too many cats). Goodman hosts Queer Words Podcast, conversations with queer-identified authors about their works and lives. Over the last decade he has mainly written historical fiction with an emphasis on queer characters. Recently, Wayne has branched off into the world of Middle Grade Readers. When not writing or recording, he enjoys playing Gilded Age parlor music on the piano, with an emphasis on women, gay, and Black composers.

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20Nov/20

J. Marshall Freeman

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November 20, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome J. Marshall Freeman as the guest on Episode 295 – Coming Out As a Novelist!)

J Marshall Freeman shares his latest release, The Dubious Gift of Dragon Blood. We talk about the evolution of the book and real, self-discovering queer characters in a world with dragons!

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Bio:

J. Marshall Freeman is a writer of fiction and poetry, a musician, and graphic designer. He is a two-time winner of the Saints+Sinners fiction contest (2017 and 2019). In 2019, he published “Arthropoda,” a chapbook of poetry.

In December 2020, his young adult fantasy novel, The Dubious Gift of Dragon Blood, will be published by Bold Strokes Books. Upcoming work includes the young adult adventure novel, Barnabas Bopwright Saves the City, and the climate change science fiction novel, Cicada Rises from the Earth.

He lives in Toronto, Canada with his husband and dog.

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09Oct/20

Abigail de Niverville

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October 9, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Abigail de Niverville back as the guest on Episode 289 – They Went There!

Abigail de Niverville returns to share her latest novel, We Go Together, and we discuss healing from abuse, bi-representation, a trans love interest, and music’s role in a story. A great discussion all the way around.

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Bio:

Abigail de Niverville is a Moncton-born composer and author living in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2017 with a Master’s of Composition, having studied with Alexander Rapoport. She has previously studied with Kevin Morse at Mount Allison University. While studying music, Abigail would often escape the daily stresses of university life by writing stories and novels. Her experiences in theatre performance and production often influence her creative works in all mediums. In 2019, her debut novel I Knew Him was released by NineStar Press. She continues to dedicate her time writing novels, poetry, and songs.

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April 26, 2019


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Abigail de Niverville as the guest on Episode 213 – Unnecessarily Mysterious!

Abigail de Niverville joins us to discuss her new novel, I Knew Him, as well as how her musical composition informed her work and her take on YA literature.

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Books mentioned in this episode:

Bio:

Abigail de Niverville is a Moncton-born composer and author living in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2017 with a Master’s of Composition, having studied with Alexander Rapoport. She has previously studied with Kevin Morse at Mount Allison University. Her experiences in theatre performance and production often influence her creative works.

Recent musical works include: Letters (for tenor and piano), Let Me In (for Ensemble Atlantica), and October 4th, 1967 (a mini opera).

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27Mar/20

Hans Hirschi

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March 27, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Hans M. Hirschi back as the guest on Episode 261 – Nobody Ever Told Me How to Douche!

Hans M Hirschi shares his upcoming release Matt: More Than Words, and a project he’s working on that pairs writers and dancers, plus a bit about being creative in this Covid-19 era.

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Books mentioned in this episode:

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Bio:

Hans likes to read books that deal with issues he can relate to, tackling the big as well as the mundane questions facing humanity and particularly the LGBT community today, from parenting, family relationships, love, loss, but also difficult subjects like our environment, trafficking, child abuse, racism, global warming, aging etc.

He’s a father married to the most amazing man, Alex. Together they have a beautiful son, Sascha. He considers himself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. He has friends all over the world.

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September 6, 2019

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Hans M. Hirschi back as the guest on Episode 232 – I’ve Never Spoken About This to Anybody…

Hans M. Hirschi returns to discuss the conclusion of his YA series, The Golden One, and reveal the next children’s book he’s working on.

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Bio:

Hans likes to read books that deal with issues he can relate to, tackling the big as well as the mundane questions facing humanity and particularly the LGBT community today, from parenting, family relationships, love, loss, but also difficult subjects like our environment, trafficking, child abuse, racism, global warming, aging etc.

He’s a father married to the most amazing man, Alex. Together they have a beautiful son, Sascha. He considers himself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. He has friends all over the world. When he’s not writing, he has a new side venture working as a tour guide in Gothenburg.

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April 12, 2019

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Hans M. Hirschi back as the guest on Episode 211 – Are We Supposed to Respond?

Hans M. Hirschi shares his latest book and audiobook releases for children (The Dragon Princess) and young adults (The Golden One trilogy).

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Books mentioned in this episode:

Bio:

Hans likes to read books that deal with issues he can relate to, tackling the big as well as the mundane questions facing humanity and particularly the LGBT community today, from parenting, family relationships, love, loss, but also difficult subjects like our environment, trafficking, child abuse, racism, global warming, aging etc.

He’s a fifty-one-year-old father married to the most amazing man, Alex. Together they have a beautiful five-year-old son, Sascha. He considers himself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. He has friends all over the world. When he’s not writing, he has a new side venture working as a tour guide in Gothenburg.

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May 23, 2018


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Hans M. Hirschi back as the guest on Episode 165 – Don’t Do This Without Parental Supervision!!

Hans M. Hirschi returns to the show to share his latest novel Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm, to talk about how he weaves all the elements of life into a story, and why he’s a feel-good writer!!

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Bio:

Hans likes to read books that deal with issues he can relate to, tackling the big as well as the mundane questions facing humanity and particularly the LGBT community today, from parenting, family relationships, love, loss, but also difficult subjects like our environment, trafficking, child abuse, racism, global warming, aging etc.

He’s a fifty-one-year-old father married to the most amazing man, Alex. Together they have a beautiful five-year-old son, Sascha. He considers himself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. He has friends all over the world. When he’s not writing, he has a new side venture working as a tour guide in Gothenburg.

This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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October 13, 2017


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Hans M. Hirschi as the guest on Episode 133: Hits Close to Home!

This week Hans M. Hirschi joins the show to discuss his latest release, Disease, writing about the tough topics that face families of every type, and the upcoming GayRomLit Retreat!

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Bio:

Hans likes to read books that deal with issues he can relate to, tackling the big as well as the mundane questions facing humanity and particularly the LGBT community today, from parenting, family relationships, love, loss, but also difficult subjects like our environment, trafficking, child abuse, racism, global warming, aging etc.

He’s a fifty-year-old father who clings to the illusion of still being his pen-age of twenty-seven, despite his body’s daily wake-up reminders to the contrary. He’s married to the most amazing man, Alex, and together they have a beautiful four-year-old son, Sascha. He considers himself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. He has friends all over the world. When he’s not writing, he likes to do public speaking or training (where he has his professional background).

 

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28Jun/19

Lou Hoffmann

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June 28, 2019


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Lou Hoffmann as the guest on Episode 222 – Lots of Light and Flying!

Lou Hoffmann joins Baz for a lively and thoughtful discussion about queerdom in literature, society and how they are expressed in YA works.

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Bio:

Lou Hoffmann, a mother and grandmother now, has carried on her love affair with books for more than half a century, and she hasn’t even made a dent in the list of books she’d love to read—partly because the list keeps growing. She reads factual things—books about physics and history and fractal chaos, but when she wants truth, she looks for it in quality fiction. She loves all sorts of wonderful things: music and silence, laughter and tears, youth and age, sunshine and storms, forests and fields, flora and fauna, rivers and seas. Even good movies and popcorn! Those things help her breathe, and everyone she knows helps her write. (Special mention goes to (1) George the Lady Cat and (2) readers.) Proud to be a bisexual, biracial woman (of European and Native American descent), Lou considers every person a treasure not to be taken for granted. In her life, she’s seen the world’s willingness to embrace differences change, change back, and change again in dozens of ways, but she has great hope for the world the youth of today will create. She writes for readers who find themselves anywhere on the spectrums of age, sexuality, and gender, aiming to create characters that live not only in their stories, but always in your imagination and your heart.

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11Jan/19

Josh Aterovis

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January 11, 2019


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Josh Aterovis as the guest on Episode 198 – Suddenly There Was a Dead Body!

Josh Aterovis joins us to discuss his YA sleuth series (with the current release of A Change of Worlds), and how the landscape of queer YA has changed so much from 2001 when he published his first gay mystery novel.

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Bio:

Josh Aterovis fell in love with mystery novels in the fourth grade when he discovered the Nancy Drew series in his school library. He soon moved on to Agatha Christie, which led to a lifelong love affair with whodunits, culminating in his award-winning Killian Kendall mystery series.

His first book, Bleeding Hearts, introduced gay teen sleuth Killian Kendall, and won several awards, including the Whodunit Award from the StoneWall Society. All Lost Things was a 2010 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Gay Mystery.

Aterovis grew up on the bucolic Eastern Shore of Maryland, which, coincidentally, just happens to be the setting for the Killian Kendall books. He now lives in the quirkiest city in America — Baltimore, Maryland — where, besides writing, he is also an artist and, sometimes, an actor.

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04Jan/19

Tash McAdam

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January 4, 2019


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Tash McAdam as the guest on Episode 197 – Cassius Is Screaming!

Tash McAdam joins us for a ripping conversation about the status of YA, their current release, I Am the Storm, and about the importance of trans and queer representation in literature.

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Bio:

Tash is a Computer Science and English teacher in Canada, although they were born and raised in the hilly sheepland of Wales (and have lived in South Korea and Chile before settling down in Vancouver). Tash identifies as trans and queer and uses the neutral pronoun ‘they’. As an English teacher they are fully equipped to defend that grammar! They have a degree in computer science so their nerd chat makes sense, and a couple of black belts in karate which are very helpful when it comes to writing fight scenes.

Their novel writing endeavours began at the age of eight although they will admit that their first attempt was derivative, at best. Since then, Tash has spent time falling in streams, out of trees, juggling, dreaming about zombies, dancing, painting, learning and then teaching Karate, running away with the circus, and of course, writing.

They write fast-paced, plot-centric action adventure with diverse casts. They write the books that they wanted to read as a queer kid and young adult (and still do!)

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30Nov/18

‘Nathan Burgoine

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November 30, 2018


It gives us great pleasure to announce ‘Nathan Burgoine as the guest on Episode 192: The Queerlings!

‘Nathan Burgoine returns to discuss his latest, and first Young Adult, release: Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks. He then shares what it was like for him talking with today’s youth about the stories they want and his beautifully interwoven short story collection.

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Bio:

‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was “Heart” in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction. Since then, he has had dozens of short stories published, including Bold Strokes titles Men of the Mean Streets, Boys of Summer, and Night Shadows as well as This is How You Die (the second Machine of Death anthology). ‘Nathan also has a series of paranormal erotic short stories that begins in the Bold Strokes anthology Blood Sacraments, and continues with further installments in Wings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell. His standalone short erotic fiction pieces can be found in the Lambda Literary Award finalist Tented, Tales from the Den, and Afternoon Pleasures. ‘Nathan’s nonfiction pieces have appeared in I Like it Like That and 5×5 Literary Magazine.

‘Nathan’s first novel, Light, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. His second and third novels, Triad Blood and Triad Soul, are available now from Bold Strokes Books. Both are available wherever quality LGBT fiction is found—always check Indiebound for your local brick and mortar, if you can. For novella lovers, ‘Nathan’s wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey gay romance In Memoriam is available on Kindle and Audible, and his gay holiday chosen family romance Handmade Holidays is available from NineStar Press.

A cat lover, ‘Nathan managed to fall in love and marry Daniel, who is a confirmed dog person. Their ongoing “cat or dog?” détente ended with the rescue of a six year old husky named Coach. They live in Ottawa, Canada, where socialized health care and gay marriage have yet to cause the sky to cave in.

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June 2, 2017


It gives us great pleasure to announce ‘Nathan Burgoine as the guest on Episode 114: The Three Second Review!

This week ‘Nathan Burgoine joins us to discuss his series, to drop announcements of his upcoming projects, share the importance of chosen families, unveil Canada as a setting, and share the magic of the three sentence review.

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Bio:

‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was “Heart” in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction. Since then, he has had dozens of short fiction pieces published. His first novel LIGHT was a Lambda Literary Finalist. Both Light and his second novel, Triad Blood, are available from Bold Strokes Books.

A cat lover, ‘Nathan managed to fall in love and marry Daniel, who is a confirmed dog person. Their ongoing “cat or dog?” détente ended with the adoption of Coach, a six year-old husky. They live in Ottawa, Canada, where socialized health care and gay marriage have yet to cause the sky to cave in.

 

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04May/18

Charlotte Reagan

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May 4, 2018


It gives us great pleasure to welcome Charlotte Reagan as the guest on Episode 162 – The Sacred Cow!!

This week Charlotte Reagan joins us to talk about her sweet novel Just Juliet and her slightly darker novel Loving Lakyn. We also talk about Young Adult (YA) versus New Adult (NA), what’s on our bookshelves, and Charlotte drops some awesome recommendations!!

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Bio:

Charlotte Reagan was born, raised, and currently resides in a small town in Texas with her cat. She’s been writing pretty much all her life, even when she was too young to know how to put her stories down on paper. Once she started she couldn’t seem to stop! She still has boxes of old notebooks filled with ideas and plots that she never finished. She writes young adult romances focusing primarily on the LGBT+ community. Charlotte crafts lighthearted stories that bring about hope, laughter, and maybe even a few tears. She can usually be found with her laptop or off traveling somewhere!

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02Jan/18

Waiting for Walker by Robin Reardon

Review, , , , , , , , , , ,

This novel takes a lot on. Without giving too much away, there are some big issues at  play here, amongst them coming out to parents, the processing of grief, learning to trust, racism and dealing with all the questions arising from Walker being intersex. It could be a murky mix of navel-gazing and histrionics, but it isn’t. Instead, there is a delicately-balanced story of young love, set against the misunderstandings of two families, one of which have their own devastating loss to deal with as well.

The story, intricate and compelling, is told through the eyes of Micah, a young gay man who falls totally in love with Walker. Even as he learns more about Walker’s gender, and the inevitable questions it poses about his own sexuality, his emotions are incredibly tender and real. At the same time, he is dealing with his mother’s grief over his lost brother, and the fact that his father has moved on and found happiness with another woman. It’s a huge burden for any teenager to bear, and Micah reacts in a totally convincing manner; switching from surly to affectionate to sullen again. He was written very well, never losing my interest for a moment, and remained appealing even when he was in one of his moods, and the author has a knack of drawing their secondary characters so well, they almost share top billing with the two leads.

The descriptions of Long Island Sound, sailing for the first time and the burgeoning emotions are exquisite. You can almost smell the sea air and feel that flutter of anticipation as Micah falls inexorably in love with Walker. The story is atmospheric, almost dreamy at times, but not in a way that gets in the way of the plot, which moves along at just the right pace. For an easy read, it packs a big emotional punch.

I believe this book has a wide appeal, from young teenagers just exploring who they are as people, to anyone interested to know more about intersex relations and love. It certainly educated me without being preachy, and the ending was immensely satisfying (no spoilers.) This is definitely a book I will read again in the future.

BLURB

“Maybe, when you trust completely, you leave yourself open to the pain of someone else.”

Micah Jaeger’s life is a mess. His folks have split, and his mother is seeing a medium to communicate with Micah’s older brother, killed in Afghanistan. He had to change schools for his junior year, and he retreats further into himself, hiding behind his camera—and hiding that he’s gay.

One sunny day in June, as he’s shooting a dead seagull on the shore of Long Island Sound, a mysterious guy appears in a beautiful sailboat. At first, the guy’s boat shoes are the image that stays with Micah. But soon it’s the person himself, Walker Donnell, who haunts Micah’s dreams.

Walker’s life looks perfect to Micah. His wealthy parents adore him. He has everything he could want. He’s gorgeous and generous. And he falls hard for Micah. But he has a secret: Walker is intersex.

The closer Walker and Micah grow, the more Walker feels the need to be sure of himself in ways he hasn’t fully faced before, and now it’s his turn to retreat. Micah knows Walker is worth waiting for, so he waits. And waits.