Tara and Kris chat with E. J. Noyes about her latest novel, Loyalty (book 3 in the Halcyion Division series) and her experience at the conference.

Recorded at the 20th annual Golden Crown Literary Society conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Visit E. J. Noyes' website

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Kris and Tara chat with K.B. Draper about her latest novel, Southbound and Down, her thoughts on GCLS conferences, and the authors K.B. fangirls over. 

Recorded at the 20th annual Golden Crown Literary Society conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Visit K.B. Draper's website

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Tara and Kris chat with K. Aten about her latest novel, Paradise Lost and Found, her thoughts on GCLS conferences, and the best places to buy books if you want the most money to go to authors. 

Recorded at the 20th annual Golden Crown Literary Society conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Visit K. Aten's website

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Have we got a treat for you!

Last week, Kris and Tara talked to a bunch of authors at the Golden Crown Literary Society's 20th annual conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each conversation will be posted individually on this feed throughout the day and in the days to come. 

Please bear with the sound quality, because recording at a conference is challenging. We hope you enjoy the conversations as much as they did!

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Cue the fanfare, friends, because Kris is back! She returns with stories of Pride celebrations, galas, plays in New York City, conventions, and gambling. This conversation has it ALL.

Official Recommendations

From Kris: Turbulence by E. J. Noyes

This week, Kris recommends Turbulence by E. J. Noyes. A stockbroker just looking for sex after a breakup has an amazing one-night stand… with the newly hired pilot at her company. Kris found this one "laugh out loud funny" with great characters and exploration of their flaws. It’s also pretty spicy with lots of sex on the page.

From Tara: One and Done by Frederick Smith

This week, Tara recommends One and Done by Frederick Smith, an opposites-attract m/m romance. One of the men is a university administrator who wants to be the youngest queer Black university president in the US and the other is running the accreditation process at the university. Of course, they only figure this out after clashing at a drag brunch. Tara says this one is sweet, fun, and grounded in reality in ways that make this book special. 

Works/People Discussed

• The Great Gatsby (Musical by Kait Kerrigan)
• Alone (History Channel)
• House of the Dragon (HBO)
• Bridgerton (Netflix)
• RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, season 9 (Paramount+)
• Strange Horticulture (Iceberg Interactive)
• When You Smile by Melissa Brayden

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Kris is off on assignment this week. What assignment? We have no idea. She just left a note on our windshield that read "Off to do cool shit." Fret not! When the cat’s away, the mice will play. And these mice… are Canadian. 

Podcast and personal favourite Amanda returns to the show! If you don’t know Amanda, you can check out her other appearances on the pod here and here.

Settle in for talks about various Pride celebrations, anime, water restrictions, and how Tara is confronted by her love of age-gap romances when a character is her exact age. And, we get a poetry reading for the first time in QR history!

Official Recommendations

From Amanda: A Fate Worse Than Death by Nisha Patel

This week, Amanda recommends A Fate Worse Than Death by Nisha Patel. It's a poetry collection that investigates the vulnerabilities and life experiences of navigating a medical system mired in capitalism. Amanda reads a poem at the end of the episode if you want a sense of what to expect.

From Tara: A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins

This week, Tara recommends A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins. This sapphic romance has a messy friends-to-lovers pairing between a music producer and her best friend, the premiere dancer at a local strip club. Tara praised this book for its fat rep, its kissin’, and how it dives into the sloppy muck of what to do when you sleep with your best friend. 

Works/People Discussed

• Yuri on Ice (MAPPA)
• Truth and Reconciliation Final Report
• University of Alberta Free Online Indigenous Canada course
• 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
• The Untamed (Tencent Video)
• Winter Begonia (iQiyi)
• Farewell my Concubine (1993)
• S.C.I. Mystery (Youku)
• I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya
• Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
• Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix)
• What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
• What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
• Just Kiss Her by Clare Lydon
• Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Writer), Lisa Sterle (Illustrator)
• The Worst Ronin by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Writer), Faith Schaffer (Illustrator)

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(tap, tap) Is this thing on? (tap) I think it’s on.

Hey everyone. It’s just me, Tara, this week. Kris couldn't join me as usual, so instead of replaying one of our old episodes, we came up with an idea for something smaller. Here are my top five podcasts and an official recommendation.

Official Recommendation

From Tara: Blood Remains by Cathy Pegau

This week, I’m recommending the historical, sapphic, urban fantasy romance Blood Remains by Cathy Pegau. The worldbuilding is robust, inviting us into the syndicated crime scene of 1930s Seattle. It also has found family, which I’m a huge sucker for. 

Works/People Discussed

• Maintenance Phase (Suggested episodes: Snake Oil, The Body Mass Index, Diet Book Deep Dive: Angela Lansbury’s “Positive Moves”)
• Your Fat Friend
• If Books Could Kill (Suggested episodes: Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus, The 5 Love Languages, The 4-Hour Work Week)
• A More Civilized Age
• Better Offline
• History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

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Sometimes you drive out into the dark, beyond the city lights, and wonder whether your loved one's intentions are nefarious. Other times you see the northern lights! 

This week, a very relieved Kris shares stories of lights in the sky, the benefits of not being murdered, and what it’s like to swim with penguins. And Tara’s here too, more laid back after emerging from a gaming fugue state, with another banger recommendation. 

Official Recommendations

From Kris: Mary & George (Sky/Starz)

This week, Kris recommends the British historical drama Mary & George, which tells the story of a man, his mother, and the King of England they’re intent on seducing. Kris particularly liked this one because of the lengths the characters go to get what they want.

From Tara: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist (PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam)

This week, Tara recommends I Was A Teenage Exocolonist by Northway Games. In this deckbuilding life sim game, you play a settler going through a wormhole to a brand-new world. The story is looped, with the player returning to their arrival point over and over, trying to set right what went wrong in previous loops. It’s queer AF and was the subject of much delight in Tara’s home.

Works/People Discussed

• Queer Liberation Library
• Christine Williams
• Jeopardy! (NBC)
• Survivor (CBS)
• Catfish (MTV)
• Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix)
• Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang
• Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni

Support & follow the show

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Grab your popcorn, chocolate, or other favourite movie snack, and sit down with Kris for her recommended double feature. Don’t worry! You still have time before the first movie starts. 

Kris and Tara discuss two constants in life, Covid and the NFL, before getting into what they’ve been reading and watching lately. Then it’s lights out and no cellphones. We have a strict policy.

Official Recommendations

From Kris: Blue Jean (2022) & Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

This week, Kris recommends two films set in the late 1980s. The first is Blue Jean (2022), a drama about a closeted gym teacher in Britain who has to handle a student threatening to expose her sexuality to the community. The second is the thriller Love Lies Bleeding (2024), about a gym manager who falls in love with a bodybuilder and gets mixed up with her mob father.

From Tara: The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve

This week, Tara dips her toe into the YA romance pool to recommend the lovely and warm The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve. Two best friends are ready to start dating, so they plan a summer's worth of activities to find their first loves. Of course, no one is more surprised than them when it turns out love might be closer than they originally thought. Tara recommends this book to anyone, especially the tweens and teens in your life, because it has no sex, some kissing, and all good vibes.

Works/People Discussed

• Crashing (Channel 4)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 16 (MTV)
• Physical 100 Season Two: Underground (Netflix)
• About that Kiss by Harper Bliss (check out the episode where Tara recommended it)
• Cabin Fever by Tagan Shepard

Support & follow the show

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It’s tax season at Queerly Recommended and Kris and Tara are comparing notes (and stamps!). Kris also talks about her upcoming trip to Earp Division Expo and Tara shares about a recent trip to Vancouver.

Official Recommendations

From Kris: Maestro (2023)

This week, Kris recommends Maestro (2023), the Bradley Cooper-directed feature film about American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre. Kris was especially taken by how completely Bradley Cooper disappeared into the role and the emotions of the storytelling. 

From Tara: Dulhaniyaa by Talia Bhatt

This week, Tara recommends the sapphic romance Dulhaniyaa by Talia Bhatt. It's about how Esha, an American-raised Indian woman, is pressured into learning a special dance for her wedding to a man she's never met and falls for her dance instructor, Billu, instead.

Tara adored this book, describing it as an amazing translation of a Bollywood film into a book. You should definitely check out a few Bollywood romance films before reading this one to truly understand the achievement that was made with this book.

Works/People Discussed

• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 
• 9-1-1 (Fox)
• The Resident (Fox)
• Fallout (Amazon Prime Video)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 16 (MTV)
• Blown Away (Makeful/Netflix)
• Colstead & Andie by Olivia Janae
• A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland (find out if the ending is happy by opening the spoiler tag on this page)

Support & follow the show

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