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Tom Cardamone, Joe Phillips, Charles “Zan” Christensen, Steven Bereznai, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Hal Duncan, Matt Fagan, Jamie Freeman, Marshall Moore, Jeffrey Ricker, Rod M. Santos, Damon Shaw, Lee Thomas, Stellan Thorne,
The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!
by: Tom Cardamone, Joe Phillips, Charles “Zan” Christensen, Steven Bereznai, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Hal Duncan, Matt Fagan, Jamie Freeman, Marshall Moore, Jeffrey Ricker, Rod M. Santos, Damon Shaw, Lee Thomas, Stellan Thorne,Thirteen short stories of terror, mayhem, and destruction which offer something highly unique in a genre that demands certain characters be only heroes or victims… gay villains! Prose collection with an introduction by Lambda Literary Award winning editor Tom Cardamone.
$3.99 – $9.99

Tom Cardamone is the editor of The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered, and author of the speculative novella, Green Thumb, and the erotic fantasy novel, The Werewolves of Central Park. His short story collection, Pumpkin Teeth, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. His fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, some of which can be read on his website: pumpkinteeth.net.


Steven Bereznai is the author of the gay teen super hero book Queeroes, the gay dating bible Gay and Single...Forever? 10 Things Every Gay Guy Looking for Love (and Not Finding It) Needs to Know, and the children's picture book The Adventures of Philippe. He can be reached online at stevenbereznai.com.

‘Nathan Burgoine lives in Ottawa with his husband Daniel, where he tries not to summon any demons unless it’s really important. His short fiction appears in Fool For Love, I Do Two, Saints + Sinners 2011: New Fiction From the Festival, Men of the Mean Streets, Boys Of Summer, The Touch Of The Sea, and Night Shadows. His non-fiction appears in I Like It Like That and 5x5 Literary Magazine. His first novel, Light, is forthcoming from Bold Strokes Books. You can find him online at redroom.com/member/nathan-burgoine.

Hal Duncan's first novel Vellum was published in 2005 to some acclaim, garnering several award nominations (Crawford, Locus, BFS, World Fantasy Award,) with US, French and Finnish editions subsequently winning the Gaylactic Spectrum, Kurd Lasswitz and Tähtivaeltaja awards respectively. Along with the sequel Ink, he's also published a stand-alone novella, "Escape from Hell!", various short stories in magazines and anthologies, and most recently a full poetry collection, Songs For The Devil And Death. A member of the Glasgow SF Writer's Circle, and a regular online columnist at Boomtron, he also wrote the lyrics for Aereogramme's “If You Love Me, You'd Destroy Me,” on the Ballads of the Book album, and the musical, Nowhere Town, which premiered last year in Chicago. Homophobic hatemail once dubbed him "The… Sodomite Hal Duncan!!" (sic). He's getting a t-shirt made up.

Matt Fagan is a writer and artist raised in the wilds of Oregon, where he climbed trees and sometimes wore pants. His stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Little Engines and Thought Magazine. He wrote and drew the Love Omnibus, a collection of comics about a gay couple living in Chicago, and the underground sensation Domestic Partner of Frankenstein. He is also the artist on an ongoing comic series called Monster Dudes. Fagan currently resides in Chicago, where he owns and operates Brainstorm Comics, and lives with his “special friend”. He has a dog named The Doctor.

Jamie Freeman went to college in D.C. but now resides in a blue county amid the predominantly red counties of North Florida. His short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies including Blood Fruit, Unmasked II, I Do Too!, and Best Gay Erotica (2009, 2010 & 2012). His novellas and ebooks have been published by Dreamspinner Press, Forbidden Fiction and Untreed Reads. Find out more at jamiefreeman.net.

Marshall Moore is the author of three novels (The Concrete Sky, An Ideal for Living, and Bitter Orange) and two short story collections (Black Shapes in a Darkened Room and The Infernal Republic). He is also the publisher at Typhoon Media Ltd, which publishes under the imprints Signal 8 Press and BookCyclone. A native of eastern North Carolina, he now lives and works in Hong Kong.

Jeffrey Ricker’s first novel, Detours, was published in 2011 by Bold Strokes Books. His writing has appeared in the anthologies Paws and Reflect, Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction, Blood Sacraments, Men of the Mean Streets, Speaking Out, Riding the Rails, and others. He is currently finishing his second novel and pursuing an MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. When class is out, he lives in St. Louis with his partner, Michael, and two dogs. Follow his blog at jeffreyricker.wordpress.com.

Rod M. Santos was born in Manila, raised in the Bronx, and is currently lost in Yonkers. His work fluctuates between dark and lighthearted fantasy with frequent stops throughout the speculative continuum. His stories have appeared in Icarus magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Cinema Spec, Myths and Magic, and Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates. In 2008, he garnered an honorable mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (Datlow, Link, and Grant) for his story "In Earthen Vessels" (Philippine Speculative Fiction, Vol. 3.).

Damon Shaw lives in the Canary Isles, fifty miles off the African Coast. He has sold stories to Daily Science Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, AE, and Bull Spec. He also has stories in several Lethe Press anthologies. Follow him at damonshaw.livejournal.com. He wrote Light and Dark in Autumn 2010 when his partner, Angel was gravely ill with cancer. Angel passed away in January 2011. Damon would like to dedicate this story to him.

Lee Thomas is the Lambda Literary Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Dust of Wonderland, In the Closet, Under the Bed, The German, Torn, Ash Street, and the forthcoming Like Light for Flies. Under a couple of other names he has authored several suspense thrillers for young adults, including Mason, Shimmer, and the Wicked Dead series (co-authored with Stefan Petrucha). Lee lives in Austin, Texas, where he is working on a new book. You can find him online at leethomasauthor.com.

Stellan Thorne lives in Manchester with his partner, several cats and a chaotic stack of comic books. He always wanted to be a super villain, but suspects he's either too nice or too lazy.
Thirteen short stories of terror, mayhem, and destruction which offer something highly unique in a genre that demands certain characters be only heroes or victims… gay villains! Prose collection with an introduction by Lambda Literary Award winning editor Tom Cardamone.
Cover by Joe Phillips.
ISBN: 9781938720222
Publisher: Northwest Press
Publish Date: 2012
Page Count: 232
Weight | N/A |
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Dimensions | N/A |
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Sale!The Mark of Aeacus #2 by: Charles “Zan” Christensen, Mark Brill, Terry Blas, $2.99 – $4.99
Jack’s adventure as the Bearer of The Mark of Aeacus continues. A mysterious stranger appears at the foot of Jack’s bed, tells him the secrets of the mark of power that he bears, then tells him he must die. Can Jack’s mysterious new powers save him… or would we all be better off if they didn’t?
The digital edition of this book adds 25 bonus pages, including Mark Brill’s original pencil artwork and a bonus pinup by Briar Hollow artist Terry Blas!
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Rated 4.00 out of 5The Legend of Bold Riley #2 by: Leia Weathington, Zack Giallongo, Terry Blas, Victoria Grace Elliott, Liz Conley, $2.99
Bold Riley, still reeling from a tragic loss, continues southward with no real destination or purpose. On the desolate Broken Head Moors, she’s rescued from a terrible storm by an aged weaver whose fantastic tapestries may foretell the shape of what’s to come.
Written by Leia Weathington with art by Zack Giallongo and Liz Conley, a pinup by Victoria Grace Elliott, and a cover by Terry Blas.
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Rated 4.25 out of 5The Legend of Bold Riley by: Leia Weathington, Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McLellan, Konstantin Pogorelov, Liz Conley, Jason Thompson, Brinson Thieme, $9.99
Leia Weathington’s sword-and-sorcery epic The Legend of Bold Riley is illustrated by Leia and a host of talented artists.
“Who is Bold Riley?” you might ask. She has hunted the wildest game and dallied with countless beautiful girls, but still longs to know the world beyond the city walls. Princess Rilavashana SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out to travel through distant lands and find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods and tragic love.
She’s as capable with a sword as she is with her wits—man, does she carve things up when the need arises—and is a strong, beautiful, confident woman who doesn’t wear a bikini into battle. And she always gets the girl!
Created by Leia Weathington, with art by Weathington, Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McClellan, Konstantin Pogorelov, Liz Conley, and Jason Thompson. Cover artwork by Brinson Thieme. 232 pages. 7″x10″. Full-color with metallic ink cover.
Retailers! Download a Bold Riley Promotional Display that highlights the foreword by fan-favorite writer Jane Espenson and helps encourage customers to check out the book.
PREVIEWS:
You can download a 67-page preview of the book in PDF or EPUB (iPad-only) format right here on the site. The preview includes excerpts from four of the stories in the book, bonus artwork and more.
Additionally, there’s a ZIP file of preview images available for use in reviews and articles. Download it here. (11MB ZIP file.)
INTERVIEWS:
Feature on Panel Patter by Rob McMonigal — “Ms. Weathington, working with a variety of other artists, has created a fantasy world ripe for exploration, with our guide being Bold Riley, a young woman with royal (but restless) blood. It’s great to see the ‘Uncharted Fantasy World’ idea given a new twist by having a protagonist that’s not only female, but queer as well.”
Feature on Portland Comic Books Examiner by Christian Lipski — “Author Leia Weathington is releasing Bold Riley, her first book, at the end of June, and spoke with the Portland Comic Books Examiner about her own journey.”
Interview on Portland Comics by Doug Dorr — “I worked with 5 other artists for Bold Riley and made the mistake at first of trying to really tightly control the visuals of the comic. That was something I learned to back off from pretty fast. If you are working with artists you probably decided to get into a collaboration with them for a reason. SO TRUST YOUR ARTIST! What I’ve started doing is making model sheets characters, objects and places that must look a certain way to maintain continuity in the story, after that I send photo references, script and descriptions of mood and setting and turn the artist loose to have fun with it.”
Interview on The Hathor Legacy by Maria Velazquez — “Like many creators I started writing the kind of story I always wanted to see. Like most women I was raised with fairy tales and the complex feelings that go with them. Sure they focus primarily on female leads, but those leads tend to be passive objects. The women are what things happen TO not people who make things happen themselves.”
Interview on Sequential Tart by Lee Atchison — “We like the anti-hero right now. And with reason. Things are shit, we’re all pretty jaded. How can you not be when at the click of a button you can see the latest string of atrocities played out before your eyes. I like the anti-hero, but somewhere amid all of the horror and the skepticism, I wanted to place a story about a hero who, while not beyond reproach, is good and wants to do good and tries her hardest.”
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Rated 4.00 out of 5Dash #3 by: Dave Ebersole, Delia Gable, $2.99 – $3.99
Zita Makara is out for blood and Dash is in her sights! Can he stop her before another life is lost? Is she really the monster she appears to be…or is someone else pulling the strings?
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Rated 3.67 out of 5Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon by: $5.99 – $14.99
Turns out the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was just the opening that the terrorists were waiting for! This witty, sexy, spy tale sends up Republicans, the War on Terror™ and gay clichés from A to Z. The end of the world was never so fabulous!
Out in Print –
“You’ll find no better book of queer supervillainy anywhere. I can hardly wait for the next volume. Please, Tom, tell me there’s another in the works!” Read Jerry Wheeler’s review on Out in Print.
Sequential Tart –
“Overall, it’s a fantastic anthology. Exciting and entertaining stories of supervillains (and heroes) make for a fun read. It’s quality writing. The queer aspect isn’t as big as the book’s covers and introduction would make it out to be, but for several of the stories it adds elements to characters and plots.” Read Sheena McNeil’s review on Sequential Tart.
Impressions of a Reader –
“I enjoyed the stories in this anthology—after all, it contains a favorite tale of queer villainy, Hal Duncan’s “The Origin of the Fiend”—but can I just say how much I absolutely loved the introduction by Tom Cardamone? We don’t say enough about introductions and how they affect a reader (the “hook” they become), or what they mean to a collection or anthology.” — Read the whole review on Impressions of a Reader.