I am a middle-aged book collector. For a long time, I was the young guy on the gay mystery collector scene. As we get older, the friends I’ve made are starting to unload their books as they downsize their collections and possessions. The wonderful thing about that is I am the first person they contact about selling their books to, but the bad part of my friends downsizing is I am the first person they reach out to.
There once was a man named Joseph Sabin. He was born in England in 1821 and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He opened a bookstore and wrote a multivolume bibliography entitled Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America. What his very brief Wikipedia page left out is that while in Philadelphia he borrowed a great deal of money to buy books to stock his store.
This month was the largest month of LGBTQ+ mysteries I have ever seen! Some of the titles are for elementary and middle school aged kids, some are for high school aged young adults, and then there are those for adults, including fan favorites Greg Herren and J.M. Redmann! I am very excited to see what Scotty and Micky are up to now!
Fifty-four years ago, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, drag kings and queens, people of color, and white, all had enough and fought back against the unfair and discriminatory treatment they experienced in every civilized sphere: social, economic, and government. The LGBTQ+ community has seen huge expanses in equal rights: marriage, serving in the military, and in some states civil rights protections. However, as the LGBTQ+ community gains rights, the far right continues to attack and try to push the community back into the closet.
Eight years ago a friend of mine lost his life to cancer. He was eight-two years old and was undergoing yet another cancer treatment to attempt to remove the cancer from his tongue. He already had a very difficult time talking due to earlier surgeries removing the cancer cells from other parts of his throat and mouth. This time, when they put him under anesthesia, he did not wake up.
February! The month of love and romance! This article is about none of those things! We are about death, destruction, and mystery! Of course, mysteries are not without some kind of romance.
Holiday season has arrived!
Gift giving at its zenith!
Consumerism gone mad!
Bah Humbug!
Buy local, buy direct if possible, and always review books you love!
That is all. Have a safe and prosperous new year!
On With the Books!!
Roughly fifteen years ago, I discovered Mahu by Neil Plakcy. I was lucky in those days. I was able to wander into my local Barnes and Noble and they had a huge assortment of LGBTQ novels and nonfiction books segregated in their own section. It was in that section that I found books by Michael Nava, Richard Zubro, Joseph Hansen, and Neil Plakcy.
Amazing that another year is almost at an end. This year certainly has had its ups and downs professionally and personally. ReQueered Tales lay low for most of the year with very few releases compared to previous years. However, we had some amazing titles come out: Skydiving on Christopher Street by Stan Leventhal, Drylands End and its sequel Betrothal at Usk by Felice Picano, Dead as a Doornail by Grant Michaels, Long Goodbyes by Nikki Baker, and Little Miss Evil by Lev Raphael. In 2022, we expect to see a lot more releases by authors like John Morgan Wilson, Edward O. Phillips, Lauren Wright Douglas, Richard Hall, Robert Ferro, Michael Grumley, Nikki Baker, and, new to ReQueered Tales, Richard Stevenson!
As a bibliographer, a librarian, a collector, and reader, I spend a lot of time in mystery groups on Facebook, and the one major refrain from authors is the lack of publishers willing to take on new talent. Same with literary agents. Only the hottest and biggest names are picked up for publication by the major five, and even the smaller independents are getting ever more picky about who they will publish. I understand slightly their hesitancy; they’re a business. Why take a risk publishing a nobody author who may cost the business money when they can keep churning out the same huge authors.
