This month we are highlighting LGBTQ+ authors, activists, artists, and more in honor of Pride. Recently we chatted with Brian Poth, who is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Source LGBT+ Center, about his podcast Queer Goggles. He hosts the podcast with Nick Vargas, who is co-founder of The Source LGBT+ Center and is their Director of Development and Strategy. The Source is based in Visalia, California.
The Player’s Encore is the second book in Joe Cosentino’s Player Piano Mystery series. In the first book, The Player, grade school music teacher Andre Beaufort discovers an old player piano in the basement of his building and has it brought up to his apartment. Much to his surprise, the piano is haunted by Roaring Twenties playboy Freddy Birstwistle, who was the original owner of the house that has been converted into apartments.
June is Pride month, but sadly, there are many places that still don’t acknowledge and recognize that fact. Former Selma, CA resident Lance Nelson decided that he wanted to make an effort to change that, starting with the area where he grew up. Lance was born and raised in Selma and attended Wilson Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School, and Selma High School. He graduated from Selma High School in 2006. Lance is currently attending Columbia University, majoring in human rights with an interest in equal access to education. His future goal is to work for a nonprofit, and perhaps one day, even the United Nations.
I live in Michigan which just announced that along with the CDC’s mask recommendation that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks indoors. However, the state is less than 50% fully vaccinated, and I worry about a new spike due to non-vaccinated people parading around as if they are vaccinated. This gets me back to pride. In 2020 Pride events were cancelled or moved to virtual spaces.
As we continue to feature other mystery podcasts, Pride month seemed like the perfect time to chat with Brad Shreve about his podcast, Gay Mystery Podcast. Earlier this month we reviewed Brad's first mystery novel, A Body in a Bath House..
In honor of Pride this year we thought we would do something a little different—we reached out to several of the LGBTQ+ mystery authors that we have covered in the past and asked them to share their favorite LGBTQ+ mysteries.
In honor of Pride this month we wanted to interview a local LGBTQ+ performer, so we chatted with one who does a little bit of everything in the theatre community, Michael C. Flores. Michael was born and raised in Madera, CA and has been very involved with Selma Arts Center since 2015.
Private detective Mitch O’Reilly is struggling to get clients so that he can pay the bills. He also runs a spy store called Eye Spy Supply in a mostly abandoned strip mall in Los Angeles. That isn’t going well either. The only time he seems to make a sale is when his sister Josie fills in for him when he’s off on a case. He is behind on the rent for his shop and practically living off cereal to survive.
Steve Levitan would be the first to declare that his Golden Retriever Rochester was responsible for turning around his human’s life. After two miscarriages led to now ex-wife’s compulsive shopping habit, Steve wielded his considerable computer skills to hack into three credit bureaus and block her ability to spend. Unfortunately, that also led to his being caught and imprisoned for a year, forcing him to rebuild his life into an administrator at Eastern College.
In honor of Pride, this month we are featuring several LGBTQ+ authors and characters. When I was looking around for books to include, I stumbled upon Neil S. Plakcy’s series featuring Special Agent Angus Green and noticed that his latest book, Survival is A Dying Art, was a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Mystery. I decided that this was the perfect choice and I am very glad that I did!
