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Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

When a young DeafBlind man learns the girl he thought was lost forever might still be out there, he embarks on a life-changing journey to find her—and his freedom.

Arlo Dilly is young, handsome, and eager to meet the right girl. He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none.

And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life—a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever.

Or so Arlo thought.

After years trying to heal his broken heart, Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment which unlocks buried memories of his past. Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along, and if his lost love might be found again.

No longer willing to accept what others tell him, Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth. After all, who better to bring on this quest than his gay interpreter and wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend? Despite the many forces working against him, Arlo will stop at nothing to find the girl who got away and experience all of life’s joyful possibilities.

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Nathan has a special gift that has been with him for as long as he can recall.

He can see the dead, and they whisper secrets to him. But his unique talent isn’t appreciated by everyone, nor is his flamboyant style. Growing up without a mother, raised by a single father, dressing fabulously, and being a seer of the invisible leads to all kinds of schoolyard problems. Despite his father’s never-ending support, Nathan finds comfort in his darker side.

When Nathan discovers his love of fashion, femininity, and fierceness, it’s only time before he evolves into Azadore Necrophilia Hex—the newest drag queen on the scene.

With dedication and study, and some spirits of the long-departed helping her along the way, Azadore soon becomes a local sensation. A big dark bear of man becomes a huge fan, and on their very first date, Azadore is introduced into the world of magicals, where she finally finds home.

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George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.

Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend

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THE START OF A BEAUTIFUL PARTNERSHIP— A DETECTIVE DUO WITH HEART AND FUR

Steve’s ripe for a new relationship—divorced, over forty, and still dusting himself off from a lamentable sojourn in prison, an unusual experience for a professor, to say the least. (He really must do something about his hacking habit!)

Rochester’s a handsome, homeless, loveable golden retriever whom Steve had always found too big, too enthusiastic, and too shaggy.

But tragedy struck their neighborhood when someone murdered Caroline, Steve’s nice next-door neighbor, while she walked her best friend, Rochester. Steve’s the unlucky guy who finds her body and he just knows, despite their differences, that he has to take in the broken-hearted pooch.

Once they’re both properly rehomed, these two form a detective partnership that’ll make you sit up and beg for more. Eat your hearts out, Spade & Archer—pretty soon they’ve got a warm and fuzzy thing going. Big furry forthrightness—not to mention heart—meets tech-savvy craftiness as they work their case.

Rochester has no idea he has the potential to be the greatest doggy detective since Rex the Wonder Dog was a pup. But he’s got a job to do and he has to find a way to train Steve in the fine art of investigation. Unbeknownst to Steve, his life just changed radically—because a big furry mentor has just trotted into it. Both want justice for Caroline, and Rochester’s way of expressing it is simply to sniff out one clue after another in the hope his two-legged colleague can piece them together.

Steve’s way—when all’s said and done— is still to bend the law a little, with the help of Caroline’s contraband laptop. And also to follow Rochester’s trail of treats.

Fans of animal cozies—and all cozies!--will find pure gold here especially aficionados of mutt heroes from the aforementioned Rex through the immortal pooches created by Spencer Quinn, David Rosenfelt, Garth Stein, and Laurien Berenson. Lovers of canine classic films like TURNER AND HOOCH, BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, and the immortal BENJI will also want to sit and stay awhile. Luckily, there’s a whole litter of cases out there.

Neil S. Plakcy is the author of the award-winning Mahu mystery series, and coeditor of Paws and Reflect: A Special Bond Between Man and Dog.

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A therapist who treats LGBTQ clients often must be more than “gay friendly.” Clinical experience, scientific research, and cultural understanding are advancing rapidly, and the task of being LGBTQ informed is ever-changing in today's world.

This book covers topics such as how to avoid making the common mistake of believing that "a couple is a couple," thus treating LGBTQ couples the same as their heterosexual counterparts; how to treat clients struggling in "mixed" orientation marriages and relationships (straight and LGBTQ spouses in the same couple); and how to work with all clients who have non-heteronormative sexual behaviors and practices. Perhaps most importantly, the book discusses covert cultural sexual abuse (the trauma suffered from having to suppress one's own sexual and gender identity) as well as the difficult process of coming out to family and friends. 

A therapist's job is to help clients and their identities through their own lens and not anyone else's—especially the therapist's. The gay affirmative principles put forward in this book will help you build a stronger relationship with your LGBTQ clients and become the go-to therapist in your area.

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Ever dream of finding the perfect lover? When Alexandra Wyatt meets Marnie Hardwick, Alex is thrilled to end her solitary, unhappy existence. After several blissful months, the two women buy a house set deep in a dense pine forest. However, the landscape soon dissolves from idyllic to disturbing as Alex begins to suspect the relationship is an illusory trap. Fueled by jealousy, anger, and curiosity, Alex rushes into a bizarre intersection of past and present that holds treacherous consequences.

Doublecrossed is a suspenseful tale of desire, deception, betrayal, and smoldering revenge that sparks a complex plot to achieve retribution. At once a strange love story and a cascading nightmare, written in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith, the novel entangles the reader in a web of psychological intrigue.

Doublecrossed includes scenes of physical violence and abuse and is recommended for mature adults.

“Doublecrossed is a psychological thriller that drops you in the middle of an intense relationship which turns disturbing after several months. As the blissful honeymoon phase fades, the protagonist's concerns grow for whether she knows her lover at all. Laury Egan's descriptions will place you in the thick of Alex's world, wondering what will happen next. Be prepared for this story to burrow in your mind and set up shop. It will linger long after you finish reading.”—Jazzy Mitchell, author of Leveling Up

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Without Earth, Nel has nowhere left to run

Hot-tempered Dr. Nel Bently is not cut out to save the world. After her last project ended in fire and death, Nel must put aside her distrust of just about everyone and embark on a lo-fi search for a deadly radio transmission.

Earth’s survivors are torn between the austere superpower of IDH and the high-tech grassroots Los Pobledores. At every turn more allies go missing and Nel questions where everyone’s true loyalties lie--and on which side Lin will fall when a line is finally drawn.

They need experts. They need firepower. But it looks like the only thing standing between Earth and devastation is Nel: archaeologist, asshole, and functioning alcoholic with anger issues.

ALIEN meets LARA CROFT in this queer, snarky science fiction adventure about where we came from, and where we’re going from International Bestselling author V. S. Holmes

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Dinny and her brother make their escape from slavery on the pirate ship the Hades. It is the last place in the world Dinny imagined she’d meet the love of her life. Lei, a Chinese exile, recognizes Dinny as the woman of his destiny. But their new life is shattered when her former owner seeks his revenge. With the help of their friends, family, and colleagues, Dinny and Lei will face the challenges of finding love and happiness in the Caribbean world of the 17th century.

Enjoy this erotic historical romance with true-to-life relationships of both heterosexual and LGBTQ partnerships.

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While young doctor Adam Morrow resigns himself to an uninformed existence, world-weary assassin Ian Abbott struggles with a life he never asked for. When the two strangers meet by chance, the attraction is immediate. And deadly, as Adam walks in on Ian in the middle of a hit.

The situation spirals out of control once Ian discovers he and Adam share a connection far more profound than either imagined. Shocked by the discovery, Ian makes the hasty decision to kidnap him.

Overnight Adam is torn from his promising career and a family who believes him dead. Things go from bad to worse when he finds himself reunited with a mother he never knew who is now head of a covert and shadowy group of killers for hire. Forced into joining their ranks, with Ian as his reluctant trainer and handler, Adam is given a series of impossible tasks to complete.

To survive, he must fight with everything he has to keep his life, his sanity, and his very soul from being swept up in a violent and chaotic world even as he battles his unwanted and complicated feelings for Ian.

For his part Ian, a man with dark secrets of his own, has a past he isn't ready to share with Adam even as the other man worms into his life in more ways than one. The two grow closer and lines blur -- between good and evil, friend or foe, enemy or lover. But something, or someone, plots against them, determined to do everything in their power to keep them apart. Even if it means destroying them both.

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