Town & Train: A Manly Book!

Had some hot sales at the recent Hintonburg Community Craft Sale. Sold some copies of Town & Train. Me fair wife sold some of her books too and our son stole the show selling out all of his handmade rainbow loom jewelry. I also donated a copy of Train to the silent auction. There was some debate among the organizers about the interesting-looking book, so they upgraded it and included the novel in a men's basket, which also included locally made men's health products and craft beer. So Town & Train is officially a men's gift that can accompany other manly things. So one can safely say—scrub up and moisturize yourself afterward, grab a craft brewsky and crack open yer copy of Town & Train. And feel very manly about it.

Naked Heart Festival: An LGBTQ Festival of Words

Friday, Nov 11 thru Saturday, Nov 13, 2016
Toronto, Various Venues

I'm proud to be part of Glad Day Bookshop's and Glad Day Lit's second annual NAKED HEART – An LGBTQ Festival of Words. . 

Over 90 authors have confirmed for the stellar lineup, which includes Felice Picano
Hasan Namir, Farzana Doctor, Jeffrey Round, Liz Bugg, Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco and Rae Spoon. 

This festival in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood of Toronto includes workshops, panels, performances & discussions for writers and lovers of words. 

The venues are Glad Day Bookshop (499 Church Street), Buddies In Bad Time Theatre (12 Alexander Street), the Xtra Lounge (2 Carlton) and The 519 (519 Church Street). All spaces are wheelchair accessible and ASL will be provided all day Saturday and Sunday in one venue.

Launched in 2015, Naked Heart is already the largest and most diverse LGBTQ literary festival in the world with over 2,000 attendees. In 2015, the festival had over 120 writers present at 47 events.

Speculative Brunch at Naked Heart Festival this Sat

Speculative Brunch reading at 
Naked Heart Festival: An LGBTQ Festival of Words
Wanna' hear some fine speculative fiction? I tell ya, we've got horror, fantasy, sci-fi and romance. I'll be reading from my new novel Monster Mansion (working title) at the Speculative Brunch on Sat, Nov12 at this year's Naked Heart Festival. We'll be at Glad Day Books' new digs at 499 Church St. Where are you gonna be? However, don't come just to hear me. I'm the company of Steven Bereznai, 'Nathan Burgoine, J. m. Frey, Michael Lyons, Stephen Graham King (the other Stephen King, as I call him) and the gracious David Demchuk.  
All author photos courtesy of the authors' websites.

The link to this fine Speculative Brunch is here. And if you're wondering about what to eat, I'd venture a guess that this rag-tag crew is so adorable you could just eat them up.

The full schedule is here.

As the little girl almost said in the film Poltergeist, "We're back!"
From left to right: J. M. Frey, Yours Truly, Michael "Mikey" Lyons snapping
the group selfie,'Nathan Burgoine and Stephen Graham King.
Photo from the 2015 Naked Heart courtesy of Mikey.

And check out these bios of these fine authors.

J. M. Frey

J. M. Frey’s debut novel Triptych  was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, won the San Francisco Book Festival award for SF/F, was nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie,  was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011 , and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly. Her sophomore novel, an epic-length feminist meta-fantasy titled The Untold Tale, (book one of the Accidental Turn Series), debuted December 2015. The Skylark’s Song, book one of The Skylark’s Saga, a steampunk action novel about a girl vigilante and her mysterious rocketpack, soars into book stores in 2017.

Yours Truly: James K. Moran

James K. Moran’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various Canadian, American and British publications, including Bywords, Glitterwolf: Halloween, Empty Mirror Magazine, Icarus, On Spec, Postscripts to Darkness 3, and The Rolling Darkness Revue. A longtime contributor to Daily Xtra, Moran’s articles and reviews have also appeared in a wide variety of media, including Arc Poetry Magazine, Daily Xtra, Matrix Magazine, the Ottawa Citizen and Rue Morgue. He lives and dreams in Ottawa, Canada, blogging at jameskmoran.blogspot.ca. His debut horror novel, Town & Train, is available from Lethe Press.

Michael Lyons

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

'Nathan Burgoine

'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 over two dozen short stories published, and his first novel Light is now available in e-book and print 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.

Stephen Graham King

Born on the prairies, Stephen Graham King has since traded the big sky for the big city and now lives in Toronto. His first book, Just Breathe, tells the blunt, funny, and uncompromising story of his three-year battle with metastatic synovial sarcoma. Since then, his short fiction has appeared in the anthologies North of Infinity II (“Pas de Deux”), Desolate Places (“Nor Winter’s Cold”) and Ruins Metropolis (“Burning Stone”). His first novel, Chasing Cold, was released in 2012. He is also an artist, working primarily in acrylics, but also dabbling in photography. He also loves to cook, so if you ask very, very nicely, he might make you dinner. More about his writing and art, as well as some of his favorite recipes, can be found on his website.

Steven Bereznai 

Steven Bereznai's newest book is I Want Superpowers, a dystopian YA novel, available for pre-order on Amazon (Kindle) and other online stores. Print orders available later in November, 2016. Bereznai's first book, Gay and Single...Forever, was released in 2006, followed by his novels Queeroes and Queeroes 2. His writing is also featured in the anthologies Second Person Queer, I Like It Like That, Singleism, The Lavender Menace, and Best Gay Romance 2010. Bereznai is a former editor-in-chief of fab magazine and FAB STYLE QUARTERLY. His articles have appeared in PAX, Passport, Instinct, The Toronto Star, VIA Destinations, Now, Xtra!, Icon, and of course, fab. Bereznai, a recreational water polo player and fan of science fiction, also loves travel writing and watches way too much T.V.

David Demchuk
A playwright, independent filmmaker, screenwriter, essayist, critic and journalist, and radio dramatist, David Demchuk has been writing for theatre, film, television, radio and other media for more than 30 years. In 2011, Pinknews.co.uk named him one of the top 25 most influential LGBT people on twitter worldwide.His debut horror novel, The Bone Mother, will be published by ChiZine Publications in Spring 2017. A staged version titled The Thimble Factory was presented at Videofag in Toronto in October 2015. Known primarily for his work in Canadian theatre, David’s plays have been produced in Toronto, New York, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Chicago, San Francisco, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in London, England. His publications include the short-fiction cycle Seven Dreams and the collected Alice in Cyberspace episodes in book form, appearances in anthologies Making Out! (Touch), Outspoken (Rosalie Sings Alone) and Canadian Brash (If Betty Should Rise and Rosalie Sings Alone). His reviews, essays, interviews and columns in such magazines as Toronto Life, The Body Politic, Xtra!, What! Magazine,Cinema Canada and Prairie Fire, as well as the Toronto Star. Most recently, he has been a contributing writer at Torontoist. Demchuk was born and raised in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto.

Had a Great OIW Panel with Robin Riopelle on Building Tension

Promo shot for our Building Tension panel. I like how
Robin and myself have our backs to each other.
To build tension.

Thanky you, Con Cú  and Benoit Chartier, for arranging the thoroughly enjoyable panel that Robin Riopelle  and I sat on for Ottawa Independent Writers last Thursday, Oct27. Despite the snowy and rainy weather, a fierce turnout of at least 40 attendees showed up at the Good Companions Seniors' Centre to hear Robin and I talk about building tension and suspense in our books. She read from her fabulous supernatural suspense novel Deadroads (that I kept gushing about) and I read from Town & Train. The room was great, and brought up great questions. Robin is always so gracious. All in all, we had a fantastic evening. And, because I don't have pics from the event, I will have to share this great promo shot again of Robin and myself and the railroad tracks. Trains and railroad tracks are the common elements in our first novels.

Horror Writers Association issues statement about keeping Halloween

So this what happens when you dislike Hallowe'en being called Character Day and Dance by your kid's public school. If you're a horror writer, and you're lucky, the worldwide Horror Writers Association (HWA) issues an official umbrella statement regarding their stance on keeping Hallowe'en Hallowe'en. My many thanks to HWA president Lisa Morton and the board in their speedy, timely assistance in my cause that I couldn't carry as much as I wanted to. This year.