Lambda-Award Winning Erotic Romance Author Ryan Field Has Passed Away

I received an email from the husband of one of my favorite writers last night informing me that my author had passed away that morning.

It shook me.

I knew Ryan Field was sick. He told me in August that he wouldn’t be able to work on any new projects for the immediate future because he had started chemo, but I hoped he would push through and rally after treatment (as I did with my own breast cancer) and because I didn’t even want to consider a world without Ryan Field.

I started working with Ryan in 2007 when we spoke on the phone and he told me he used to love het rom coms, but always switched the sexes in his mind. We both agreed that we loved An Officer and a Gentleman and he quickly dashed off An Officer and His Gentleman for Ravenous Romance, where I was then the Editorial Director. It not only charmed me but many of our readers, and he went on to re-tell many of the rom coms of popular culture from a gay point of view — When Harry Met Sal, Gay Pride and Prejudice, Pretty Man, etc. One of my favorite titles that he wrote for me was Valley of the Dudes, his retelling of the Jacqueline Susann classic Valley of the Dolls.

He brought so much creativity and joy to the romances he wrote for us. I was always eager to see what he came up with.

The last original title we worked on together was The Wizard of Pride, a gay retelling of The Wizard of Oz, and it is classic Ryan Field.

I will miss him so much, although he must have written close to 100 books over the past 25 years when he was making his living as a writer. I haven’t read them all, so I know where to go when I need a friend.

But I will miss him every day.

Don’t ever think that an editor doesn’t truly adore her authors. He was really a part of my editorial family.

We’re going to try to work on putting together some sort of award/grant/memorial/prize in Ryan’s name, so please look here for that announcement. And if you want to help, or have ideas, please feel free to reach out to me, lori@riverdaleavebooks.com.

What It Means When We Say October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I’ve known October was Breast Cancer Awareness month for much of my adult life, being very familiar with the pink ribbon and some of the fund-raising events.

Even though I had read that breast cancer detection was up in the past few decades, and that women were getting breast cancer more often at a younger age (under 40), I somehow thought I would be immune. I thought that if I did get cancer, it would be a result of my young adult smoking or some genetic pre-disposition from my dad’s side of the family where we’d managed to get lung, colon and pancreatic cancers.

 

I went to get my annual mammogram a few months late after we were let out of lockdown (15 months instead of 12) and was shocked when the technician said, “you need to schedule a biopsy as soon as you leave this office.” I had breast cancer. 

 

That’s when I learned that one out of eight American women get breast cancer.

 

And when I started telling friends and family that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I found that I knew a lot of women who had had breast cancer--my next door neighbor, my publicist, my journal-writing teacher, my fellow authors (especially my romance-writing colleagues).  I also met two men who had had breast cancer (carriers of the BRCA gene). I was shocked, because it was everywhere, and I never saw it.

 

So this October, I want you to really see ME, so you can see how pervasive this illness is, and yet how fortunate we are to live in a time when breast cancer is “the good cancer,” and so many of us cancer survivors can be cured and/or treated.

 

I guarantee you that someone you know is going through a breast cancer scare, or being treated for breast cancer, or is taking care of someone with breast cancer right now.

There are many ways to translate breast cancer awareness into support.

 

Of course, you can donate money, especially to the various Hope Kits that sent out by the National Breast Cancer Foundation (https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-support/hope-kit/).  They really make a difference when you feel so alone.

 

Once I was better (after surgery, chemo and radiation), I donated my time to start a journaling through cancer writing workshop at Mt. Sinai, where I had been treated.  It is my way of giving back.

 

I also published two breast cancer books at Riverdale Avenue Books.  Perennial is a sweet breast cancer romance, which I would have LOVED as a gift when I was undergoing chemo and convinced no one would ever love me again.

 

The same author, Mary Anne Mohanraj, kept meticulous, detailed, heartfelt notes of her own battle with cancer, chemo, radiation and reconstruction which we published as Tornado. This is an honest guide of what lies ahead for the breast cancer patient. You can get digital copies of both of these books 50% off with the code PINK on the riverdsleavebooks.com website.

 

If you know someone going through this can, give a little extra love and good vibrations.  It means the world.

Celebrate Charles Bukowski's 103rd Birthday with Bukowski: On Film

August 16th would have been the 103rd birthday of the acclaimed Los Angeles author and poet Charles Bukowski and New York Times best-selling author Marc Shapiro has spent the past year interviewing directors and actors who have worked with Bukowski over the years to bring us the definitive volume on Bukowski ‘s contribution to cinema in the just published Bukowski:On Film

If ever there was a match made in hell, it was legendary writer Charles Bukowski and the movies. Bukowski hated movies and moviemakers with a passion. The late writer would often chronicle his dislike in short stories, poems and novels. On the other hand, Hollywood filmmakers, from all strata of the industry, flocked to the powerful, raw and magnetic energy of his stories and poems and the cinematic possibilities they held.

Marc Shapiro delves into this complex hate/love relationship between author and auteur(s) with countless interviews of those who made cinematic sense of all levels of Bukowski films, from student efforts, to art house, to even the short experimental ones. The book also explores the obscure Bukowski films that were not so much released as escaped to. Of course, Shapiro also looks closely at the handful of major studio features coupled with close Bukowski confidants who offered up their reasoning behind the late author's hatred for the industry that, in many cases, he profited from.

Bukowski: On Film takes a deep, probing, often humorous and psychologically insightful, look at Bukowski and those who were driven by passion to try to get Bukowski right.

Shapiro is currently working on a group biography of Beatle Kids for Riverdale Avenue Books to be published in 2024.

Celebrate Christmas in July with RAB

This year, like every year, Riverdale Avenue Books - award-winning hybrid publisher - celebrates Christmas in July! And, like every year, Riverdale Avenue Books is giving their readers a special promo code to get any of their Christmas titles for 50% off.

Just use the code “XMAS23” when purchasing on Riverdale Avenue Books website, and you’ll automatically get the title you like half off. Whether you’ve wanted their Christmas books either digitally, physically or as a hard copy, you can now get it for 50% off!

“We all need a little extra joy this year,” said Riverdale Avenue Books Publisher Lori Perkins. “Everyone knows that Christmas is the most romantic holiday of the year, but most people are too busy shopping, taking care of family, baking and decorating to enjoy the sales.  RAB gives you a whole summer month to curl up with as many hot holiday hunks as you possibly can.”

Readers also have a chance to enter into Erie Gay News’ book giveaways here. Contestants will have the chance to enter to win Jingle Balls: A Christmas Anthology, Holiday Gay: Tales of Love, Lust, and Other Seasonal Gifts, and A Christmas Carl. If you’d like to participate in all three, you’ll have to enter in each three so make sure to do so before the deadline!

The full list of books including in Riverdale Avenue Books Christmas in July promotion is listed below:

Dyke the Halls: Lesbian Erotic Christmas Stories Edited by Linda Alvarez

Jingle Balls Edited by Cecilia Tan

Hot for Xmas by Trinity Blacio

A Christmas Carl by Ryan Field

Forever Bound with Tinsel by Chloe Stowe

Christmas Magic by Cecilia Tan

The Naughty Angel and Her Three Very Wise Men by Trinity Blacio

Naughty Mommy and Santa’s Helpers by Trinity Blacio

The Naughty Stepbrothers by Trinity Blacio

A Christmas Tail: Book Four of the Masters of the Cats Series by Trinity Blacio

Holiday Smut edited by Lori Perkins

Whips & Chains & Candy Canes by F.L. Bicknell

Her Three Men by Trinity Blacio

Hot for Winter by Trinity Blacio

A Scarlet Christmas: A Femdom Christmas Carol by DL King

Bad Santa by Lise Horton

Her Stepbrother’s Christmas Gift: A Once upon a Stepbrothers Novella by Rachel Kenley

Home Alone for Christmas by Lori Perkins

Wrapped Around Your Handlebars by Ana Lee Kennedy

Frosty, Inc. by Trinity Blacio

Holiday Gay edited by Maitland McDonagh

Beyond Worship: Meditations on Queer Worship, Liturgy & Theology Wins Bronze IPPY Award in Religion Category

What better way to celebrate Pride than to win an Independent Publisher’s (IPPY) Award in Religion during the month that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community?

Said Riverdale Avenue Books publisher, Lori Perkins, “I am also so honored that this inclusive LGBTQ+ title received an award in the “religion” category and not just LGBTQ+. “

The book started as a digital zine published by Manhattan’s Fort Washington Collegiate Church’s website with only a few contributors. Under the direction of Minister James Admans (they/them) and funded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, the zine Beyond Worship sought to collect any written material by LGBTQIA+ authors that could be shared in a worship space. The goal was to not only demonstrate that LGBTQIA+ members of the church are accepted, but part of the community and have something to contribute.

When Publisher Lori Perkins, a member of Fort Washington, read the zine, she was immediately inspired to expand upon the idea of belonging in a community not just to LGBTQIA+ members of Fort Washington, but any LGBTQIA+ person struggling to find a sense of belonging in a community that they can call home and wanting, but struggling, to find their relationship with a higher purpose.

Beyond Worship seeks to show LGBTQIA+ people that they are divine, here for a reason, and have so much to contribute to their communities.

Whether a poem, a short story, a psalm, a meditative guide, or an academic paper, each LGBTQIA+ author in this anthology explores what it means to find community and love in a society that tells them they are undeserving of both. From all over the world and from a variety of faith traditions, each author’s piece shows readers different ways of being in a world worth experiencing.

Rev. Admans commented on the experience of putting together this collection, “I'm thrilled to share this collection of pieces by LGBTQIA+ religious and spiritual authors. We live in a time where queer and transgender people are taught that our faith journeys are invalid. Beyond Worship shows otherwise. Not only can LGBTQIA+ people flourish in our faith, but we can be theologians with profound teaching and insight.”

A virtual IPPY Awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 20th at 3:30.

 

Classic M/M RomCom When Harry Met Sal By 

LAMBDA-Award Winning Ryan Field Republished

New York, NY – February 2023 – Lambda-award winning author Ryan Field wrote this gay romance as part of his series of novels retelling beloved romcoms with gay characters. Inspired by the romcom classic Nora Ephron movie, When Harry Met Sally, about two friends who finally realize how much they love each other after many years, this novel is an homage to the power of romantic story telling and true love.

 

When Harry Beckham's best friend asks him to drive her new, casual boyfriend, Sal Sorentino, from California to New York, Harry never expected they'd wind up as lovers their first night on the road. Harry just assumes that Sal is straight, and Harry already has a boyfriend of his own back in San Francisco.

But when Sal explains that he's bisexual and that he's extremely attracted to Harry, everything changes. Harry tries to resist the mutual attraction, but all it takes is one simple kiss and they both wind up having the best sex of their lives on a cross-country road trip.

When they reach New York, they agree to go their separate ways and forget about each other. Harry becomes a well-known designer who does national talk shows, and Sal becomes a professional poker player who lives in a mansion and owns a pet pig named Dolly. And by the time they meet up again seven years later, their lives have changed completely.

But that doesn't stop the passionate physical connection between them from surfacing again. Though all the odds seem to be against them, their physical relationship evolves into mutual love and respect. And this unyielding love they feel for each other turns out to be stronger than anything they could have imagined.

 

Explained author Ryan Field, “when I write books based on mainstream movie titles like When Harry Met Sally what I'm really doing is making a statement that says I'd like to see a movie like WHEN HARRY MET SAL for a change instead of what I've been seeing for most of my life. This isn't fan-fic. This is more like "what-if-fic."

 

RAB Announces NaNoWriMo Contest for Publication

As you all know, National Novel Writing Month 2022 has just ended (if you’re a writer then you likely lovingly know this time of the year as NaNoWriMo). For many, once they’ve completed their 50,000 word novel in 30 days, they have no idea what to do with it or how to get published.

As many of you also know, I firmly believe in NaNoWriMo, so this year, I have rounded up a team of dedicated interns and editors and we have committed to a NaNoWriMo contest for publication at Riverdale Avenue Books.

I think it is amazing that we have a national month devoted to encouraging writing. I see the people who participate in NaNoWriMo as artists and athletes, and I know that the work that is produced becomes some of our cultures' best and brightest. One of my favorite books I’ve published, Untrustworthy by JR Gersen-Siegel, an LGBTQ Handmaid’s Tale, was a NaNoWriMo novel (and winner of our first NaNoWriMo contest).

Submit your 50,000-80,000 word novel in the genres of erotica, erotic romance, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and LGBTQ fiction to Riverdale Avenue Books by midnight of February 1, 2023 for consideration. Riverdale Avenue Books’ team of editors will evaluate the submissions and choose first place winners, as well as honorable mentions, from each genre for publication by Riverdale Avenue Books.

Winners will be notified by email by March 15, 2023. Each book chosen will be eligible for standard contract terms, including publication as both print and ebook. The winning books will be published in 2023.

Please enclose a brief bio, as well as your email address, with each submission. Submit completed novels in a word document format with a brief author bio and book synopsis to submissions@riverdaleavebooks.com.

See this article for more information on successful NaNoWriMo projects, https://www.denofgeek.com/us/books/268698/7-books-that-started-as-nanowrimo-novels