• Latest

    LGBTSr Exclusive Giveaway: 20 Kindle Editions of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’

    Okay, make that 18 free copies! Congrats to Robin and Larry who got their early bird copies.

    Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has a new tool for authors to get the word out. I’ve purchased 20 Kindle editions of my new mystery, Black Cat White Paw: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, and I’m just waiting to send them out to the next 18 claimants. Love a good cozy-esque mystery set in an idyllic river town? Love cats? This book’s for you. All I would appreciate in return for a free Kindle edition is an honest review on Amazon.

    Just email me at LGBTSr@outlook.com and I’ll send a download link to the first 18 respondents. It’s just like buying a Kindle book directly from Amazon. No in-between, no gathering of personal information. Just click, open, and read.

    Mark/Editor

    About Black Cat White Paws

    In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister Gerri moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.

    Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.

  • Columns,  Grace Anne Stevens

    Grace Anne Stevens: My Transgender Life – The Measure of a Man

    Grace Anne Stevens

    Grace Anne Stevens
    My Transgender Life

    As the month of June 2018 is coming to a close, I am reflecting on my gratitude to have spent half this month traveling, between my 10-day boat and bike adventure in Bordeaux France and a 5-day seminar/adventure in Toronto.   As I review some of my pictures, there is one that captures me and takes me on another one of those time traveling trips I often find myself on.  The picture is of a fruit stand in Bordeaux.

    As I am drawn into this scene of a fruit stand on the street, that is still making my mouth water, I find myself tripping back over 50-60 years ago to my old neighborhood on Avenue J in Brooklyn, when each block seemed to have an outdoor fruit stand similar to this one.


    If you wanted anything, you had to ask the vendor for what you wanted.  This is a long distance from today, where you pick what you want, bag and weigh it, and probably could not find help when you need it in today’s supermarkets.

  • Latest

    Featured Book: Beowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan

    Read the review by Velvet Lounger HERE.

    About Beowulf for Cretins

    English professor and aspiring novelist, Grace Warner spends her days teaching four sections of “Beowulf for Cretins” to bored and disinterested students at one of New England’s “hidden ivy” colleges. Not long after she is dumped by her longtime girlfriend, Grace meets the engaging and mysterious Abbie on a cross-country flight. Sparks fly on and off the plane as the two strangers give in to one night of reckless passion with no strings attached, and no contact information exchanged.

    Back home at St. Albans, the college rocks Grace’s world when it announces the appointment of a new president, the first woman in its 165-year history. Cue Abbie—and cue Grace’s collision course with a neurotic dog named Grendel, a fractious rival for tenure, and a woman called Ochre, in what very well might be Grace’s last real shot at happiness.

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: Beowulf for Cretins by Ann McMan, Reviewed by Velvet Lounger

    The following review first appeared at the Lesbian Reading Room

    By Velvet Lounger

    Beowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan
    Print Length: 320 pages
    Publisher: Bywater Books (June 26, 2018)

    Take one rather lost and lonely English professor and sit her next to a gorgeous, intellectual and amusing woman on a flight to San Francisco. Bring them back together for a madcap costume party that evening, and make both of them brave enough to step out of their comfort zones and “go there.” That’s the basic plot of Ann McMan’s wonderful short story “Falling from Grace” in her anthology “Sidecar,” which led to the idea of “Beowulf for Cretins.”

    Don’t worry if you haven’t read “Sidecar” (although if not, why not?) as the slightly amended story is repeated as chapter one of the full-length version. And once Grace and Abbie go their separate ways the morning after the party, with no contact details, not even last names shared, then surely it will take an act of fate, or possibly an act of God, to make their paths cross a second time.

  • Latest

    Murder Came Early: Black Cat White Paws Release Date Now June 27

    The release date for the eBook edition of Black Cat White Paws has been moved to June 27. You can still get it at the special preorder price of $1.99 (regular $4.99).

    About Black Cat White Paws

    In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister Gerri moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.

    Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.

  • Latest

    Murder Came Early: Black Cat White Paws Release Date Now June 27

    The release date for the eBook edition of Black Cat White Paws has been moved to June 27. You can still get it at the special preorder price of $1.99 (regular $4.99).

    About Black Cat White Paws

    In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister Gerri moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.

    Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.

  • Q Audiobooks

    Q Audiobooks: A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski, Narrated by Vikas Adams

    A Queer History of the United States

    By: Michael Bronski
    Narrated by: Vikas Adams
    Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
    Release date: 06-12-18
    Publisher: Random House Audio

    About ‘A Queer History of the United States’:

    Winner of a 2012 Stonewall Book Award in nonfiction

    The first book to cover the entirety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from pre-1492 to the present.

  • Gadgets and Tech,  Latest

    Gadgets, Gizmos and Tech: VicTsing Bluetooth Mini Speaker


    Gadgets, Gizmos and Tech is a regular feature at LGBTSr offering cool things you can live without but might not want to.

    A friend of ours gives us the most interesting gifts every year when she visits. This year she brought us Alexa, Echo, and this marvelous little VicTsing portable speaker. Billed as a shower speaker, probably because it has a suction cup attached so you can stick it on a bathroom mirror or shower wall, it works just as well sitting on a hotel night stand. It’s very basic, and very handy. It doesn’t take up much more space than the palm of your hand, but once you’ve connected your iPhone or other Bluetooth device, it serves as a small portable speaker. You can listen to anything you’d hear or stream on your phone through this little dynamo–music, audiobooks, or a podcast. If you can hear it through your phone, you can hear it through the VicTsing. We recently took it on a trip to Atlantic City and had our own portable sound system in the room.

  • Announcements

    Point Foundation Announces 2018 Scholarship Recipients

    Via Press Release from the Point Foundation:

    Awards to 45 LGBTQ Students in Programs Ranging from Community College to Advanced Degrees

    LOS ANGELES, JUNE 20, 2018 — Point Foundation (Point), the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students, today announced its 2018 scholarship recipients. The 20 LGBTQ students were chosen to be Point Scholars from more than 2,000 applicants. Point is also welcoming 25 LGBTQ students to its Community College Scholarship Program.

    This year’s scholarship recipients include seasoned advocates for LGBTQ rights and social justice, impressive young scientists, industrious medical students, and competent young people who will undoubtedly impact professions from law to business and the arts. In addition to their accomplishments, many of the scholarship recipients have overcome barriers to their success that are all too common among LGBTQ individuals, including discrimination, immigration status, homelessness, family rejection, and abuse.