Allusions: LGBTQ Writing

As bombs rain down over London during the Blitz, Major Tommy Haupner negotiates the rubble-filled streets of Bloomsbury on his way to perform at a socialite party. The explosive event of the evening is not his virtuosic violin playing, but the 'almost-blond' American who not only insults him, but then steals his heart.

The Seventh of December follows a few months in the lives of two Intelligence agents in the early part of World War Two. Set against the backdrop of war-torn occupied Europe, Tommy and his American lover, Henry Reiter, forge a committed relationship that is intertwined with intrigues that threaten the integrity of the British Royal Family and the stability of a Nation at war.

Neither bombs nor bullets manage to break the bond that these men form in their struggle against Nazism and the powers of evil.

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Halloran pulled the sheet down to the man's waist. What I saw made me take a deep breath: the man's throat was cut so deeply his head looked like it had almost been severed.

"If you tell me this man was found in the public toilet behind the grandstand of Coogee Oval opposite where I live, I might just need a chair," I said.

Clyde Smith's quiet, happy life, in love for the first time, working as a private detective and journalist, is suddenly thrown into disarray by the appearance, after a three year hiatus, of a body bearing the distinctive hallmarks of a string of murders he hadn't been able to solve when working in homicide.

Forced to cooperate with the new detective sergeant who'd taken his place in the local cop shop, Clyde has to not only deal with the enormous chip on the young man's shoulder, but also with a complex case that involves kidnapping, the re-emergence of the Silent Cop Killer, the historical abuse of young men and boys in orphanages across the State, and a ghost from the past who is out for revenge.

Will Clyde and the new DS be able to find the killer before he finds them? Or will they be his final prize, the last victims in his string of grisly murders? Perhaps only the local psychic, owner of a Romany religious statue, the Gilded Madonna, can provide the clue that might ultimately solve the puzzle, but which will also lead Clyde and DS Dioli into mortal danger.

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“There’s no deal unless you tell me who killed Lucretia, Thomas! For the love of God, I have to know—”

“She was shot by an assassin.”

“But who was this assassin? Who shot her?” he demanded again angrily, leaning forward over the table.

“I did,” I said, after a suitably dramatic pause.

He threw his head back and laughed loudly, his arms crossed on his chest. “You?” he said once he’d regained his breath. “You? Thomas Haupner, the violinist? The would-be army officer from some stupid, derelict relic of the British Empire, a trained assassin?”

After returning from a secret mission in occupied France for His Royal Highness, George, the Duke of Kent, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Haupner is looking forward to a cup of tea, a hot bath, and the sleepy head of his American lover, Major Henry Reiter on his shoulder when he wakes up the next morning.

However, along with items Tommy has recovered for the duke, he has also discovered a secret stash of documents, which, when opened, prove to be a poisoned chalice. Tommy and Shorty find themselves caught up in a dangerous web of lies, enemy agents, assassins, and traitors. In an effort to save the reputations of not only their friends, but men and women high in both society and in the government, they themselves become victims of I.K.S., a former World War One international extortion ring, which has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of bomb-devastated London.

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A powerful true story about how a boy survived and then overcame his family’s multigenerational cycle of violence, neglect, and sexual abuse: Despite the odds against him, Cody Renegar grew up and became a loving father and husband, successful hairstylist, and respected artist.

Raised by a substance-abusing single mother, at six Cody and his four siblings were placed into the foster care system in Arkansas, leading to a series of placements in homes where he endured unspeakable abuse and neglect. Cody found solace in his bonds with his brothers and sisters and occasional kindnesses from caring adults, such as a neighbor who taught him to paint.

When at seven he was adopted by an affluent couple, he hoped at last to receive the love and support of a nurturing mother and father. But his dreams and expectations were betrayed when his new father proved to be a violent disciplinarian. It would be eight years before his rescue by an attentive school nurse, and years more to heal the trauma.

The silver lining for Cody was his own resilience and positive outlook. He never stopped reaching for a better life, and his optimistic, gregarious spirit was never silenced or stifled. Cody sees life as an adventure. He believes that we, not fate, are in charge of our destiny. If needed, we can change the stars in the sky.

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Emery Hazard is trying to plan his wedding, even though his fiancé, John-Henry Somerset, isn’t exactly making things easy for him. To be fair, Somers has been distracted lately; his father is running for mayor in a hotly contested election, and their hometown is splintering under the weight of divisive politics.

In a matter of hours, those poisonous politics invade Hazard’s life in a way he couldn’t have imagined. Glenn Somerset, Somers’s father, shows up on their doorstep, and he wants two things: first, for Hazard to neutralize a blackmail threat; and second, for Somers temporarily to move out of the house he shares with Hazard, part of public relations stunt to win the election. To Hazard’s shock, Somers agrees.

Determined to lose himself in his work, Hazard takes on a missing person’s case, but his investigation only leads him deeper into the tangled web of small-town politics. To find the truth, he must face off with the viciously rich who rule Wahredua—and with the poor, desperate, and marginalized, who fight just as viciously in their own way.

When Hazard’s investigation uncovers a murder, he is forced to work with Somers to bring the killer to justice, despite their fractured relationship. But the sudden news that Hazard’s father is failing fast threatens to put an untimely end to the case—and, in doing so, jeopardize Somers’s last-ditch effort to repair his relationship with his own father.

The killer, though, has an accelerating timeline, and in a world of wayward children, every relationship is fraught with hidden dangers.

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Rufus O’Callaghan has eked out a living on the streets of New York City by helping the police put away criminals as a confidential informant. But when Rufus shows up for an arranged meeting and finds his handler dead, his already-uncertain life is thrown into a tailspin. Now someone is trying to kill Rufus too, and he’s determined to find out why.

After leaving the Army under less than desirable circumstances, Sam Auden has drifted from town to town, hitching rides and catching Greyhounds, until he learns that a former Army buddy, now a police detective in New York City, has died by suicide. Sam knows that’s not right, and he immediately sets out to get answers.

As Rufus and Sam work together to learn the truth of their friend’s death, they find themselves entangled in a web of lies, cover-ups, and accelerating danger. And when they witness a suspect killed in cold blood, they realize they’re running out of time.

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Tim Barela’s Leonard & Larry are back! The Complete Leonard & Larry Collection contains every Leonard & Larry strip, from their first appearance in Gay Comix, to The Advocate and Frontiers magazine. Strip creator Tim Barela gave voice to a generation of LGBTQ people. Whether we were gay, straight, into music, or into leather, we could see our lives mirrored in the sometimes crazy but always loving Leonard & Larry universe.

The Complete Leonard & Larry Collection contains all the strips from the long out of print previous collections of Tim Barela’s work: Domesticity Isn’t Pretty, Kurt Cobain & Mozart Are Both Dead, Excerpts from the Ring Cycle in Royal Albert Hall, and How Real Men Do It. Also in this collection are cartoons from Mountain Man and the never seen before Grizzly ‘N’ Ted series. The Complete Leonard & Larry Collection features a forewords by internationally respected animation historian Charles Solomon and Gay Comix pioneer and pop culture historian, Andy Mangels, plus an introduction by Tim Barela.

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