RAB Assistant Publisher David Valentin Joins the L. Perkins Agency

 

Lori Perkins, founder and President of the L. Perkins Agency, a legacy literary agency with three decades of author representation, is pleased to announce that David Valentin has joined the agency as an agent specializing in fiction.

 

Valentin has been working as the assistant Publisher at Riverdale Avenue Books since 2019 after completing a publishing internship where he gained hands-on experience across the editorial, agenting, and publishing process. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in business from Manhattan University.

 

Valentin is currently building his list with a focus on LGBTQ+ romances, Paranormal Romance, Dark Romances, and Romantasy.

“I never thought I'd be neck deep in the publishing industry  as I am now, but here I am!” Said Valentin, “I am thrilled to be entering the agenting sphere of publishing where I can bring all that I’ve learned to helping authors get well-published. I am actively seeking romance projects, with a particular passion for LGBTQ+ stories, literary romance, gothic romance, romantasy, and paranormal romance as well as charming romcoms and cozy, seasonal reads.

He added, “As a lifelong reader of genre-bending and heartfelt fiction, my taste is shaped by authors such as V.E. Schwab, TJ Klune, Kai Butler, Cat Sebastian, and Romeo Alexander, just to name a few. I am especially drawn to stories that push boundaries while keeping love at their core.”

Founded in 1987 by Lori Perkins, the L. Perkins Agency is a New York-based literary agency known for representing a diverse range of fiction and non-fiction, with particular strength in romance, pop culture, and YA. It is recognized for being a pioneering digital-first agency, representing authors in both traditional and electronic publishing. The agency has sold more than 3,000 individual titles and has had 7 books on the New York Times best-seller list including How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson.

 

There are currently two agents at the L. Perkins Agency in addition to Perkins and Valentin, Max Ximenez, and Ben Grange. The agency has foreign agents throughout the world.

 

Visit their website at lperkinsagency.com.

Don Weise has Passed Away

 I am so sad to share this sad news with you.

 

Don was a passionate editor, for all, but especially the LGBTQ community.

 

He is missed.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/Obituary/article/99492-pioneering-gay-book-publisher-don-weise-dies-at-59.html

 

 

 

Riverdale Avenue Books Teams Up with Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast In New Anthology on the Lizzie Borden Legacy

 

Murder. Mystery. Feminism. Fear. The Truth Behind Lizzie Borden Still Haunts Us—And This New Fiction Anthology Dares to Explore Why.

Riverdale Avenue Books is thrilled to unveil The Lizzie Borden House Anthology, a spine-tingling, officially licensed collection of original short fiction inspired by one of America’s most infamous unsolved crimes. Publishing mid-October, this groundbreaking anthology is produced in collaboration with the historic Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast—the very site of the legendary 1892 axe murders that shocked a nation and birthed a cultural enigma.

Curated by acclaimed horror author and occultist Sèphera Girón, this collection dares to ask:
Who was Lizzie Borden—murderer, misunderstood woman, feminist icon, or something far more mysterious?

Featuring more than 25 chilling tales across genres—from historical fiction and true crime to speculative horror and the paranormal—the anthology reimagines Lizzie’s shadowy legacy through bold new lenses. Contributing authors include New York Times bestseller Heather Graham, and Bram Stoker Award-winners Linda Addison and Edo Van Belkom, alongside electrifying new voices that bring fresh blood to the story.

Each story is a dark mirror reflecting our enduring obsession with Lizzie Borden—some are terrifying, some strangely empowering, but all unforgettable.

To mark the 133rd anniversary of the brutal Borden murders, Riverdale Avenue Books launched a successful Kickstarter campaign this past August. The celebration will culminate in a hauntingly immersive book launch party at the Lizzie Borden House itself on November 9th, in Fall River, Massachusetts—where fact and fiction blur in the very rooms where the killings occurred.

On the 28th Anniversary of Princess Diana’s Death, JB Miller’s Novel DUCH Asks: What If She Never Left Us?

 

NEW YORK/PARIS/LONDON — On August 31st, the world marks 28 years since the tragic death of Princess Diana, the “People’s Princess” who captivated hearts with her humanity, vulnerability, and grace. But this year, a provocative new novel is stirring fresh questions—and even a little hope.

In Duch, author JB Miller spins a sharp, hilarious, and poignant tale that dares to imagine the unthinkable: What if Diana survived—and quietly returned to Paris, decades later?

Set in a swirling three-week romp through modern-day Paris and London, Duch centers on a mysterious silver-haired woman in her sixties found wandering outside a Paris hospital. She’s lost her memory. She wears a locket with photos of William and Harry. She speaks like a Windsor. And she insists her name is Diana.

 

Her old school friend from boarding days—who once called her Duch—recognizes her instantly. So do thousands of Britons who are suddenly, and possibly irrationally, convinced: Princess Diana is back.

Is this a long-lost royal miracle, or is the world suffering from a collective case of Diana Derangement Syndrome?

 

“At this very moment she's undoubtedly renting an apartment in Paris,”
— Prince Harry, Spare

 

JB Miller, known for his biting wit and tender insight, has crafted what critics are calling “a masterful dream,” a heartfelt social satire that explores grief, identity, power, and the myth of Diana in a post-truth age.

 

“Duch has pathos, joy and humor… It takes a masterful writer to create this complex and beautiful dream, and Miller is a master!”
— Jennifer Clement, author of Widow Basquiat and President Emerita of PEN International

 

“Farce, satire, page-turner, cultural commentary, counterfactual history… Duch rings true with all its implausible narratives.”
— John Donatich, author of Ambivalence, A Love Story

 

As Britain reflects on Princess Diana’s enduring legacy—and the monarchy’s evolving future—Duch offers a singular, spellbinding, and surprisingly affectionate lens into the royals’ most haunting question: What would happen if Diana came back?

RAB Teams Up with Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast In New Anthology

 Who was Lizzie Borden—murderer, victim, feminist icon, or something far more mysterious? This chilling new anthology of short fiction delves deep.

Riverdale Avenue Books is proud to announce The Lizzie Borden House Anthology—a groundbreaking, officially licensed fiction collection inspired by the infamous Lizzie Borden murders in collaboration with the Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast. Curated by acclaimed horror author and occultist Sèphera Girón, this genre-spanning anthology delves into the 1892  murders that have haunted the American imagination for over a century.

The anthology features over 20 original stories exploring Lizzie’s legacy through historical fiction, true crime, speculative fiction, and supernatural horror. Contributors include New York Times bestseller Heather Graham and Bram Stoker Award-winner Linda Addison, along with fresh new voices in the genre. Each story offers a fresh take—some chilling, some empowering, and all unforgettable.

To bring this haunting vision to life, the team is launching a Kickstarter campaign on August 4th, 2025—exactly 133 years after the infamous murders took place. Supporters of the campaign will not only help fund production, but also gain access to exclusive perks, bonus content, and special invites.

Backers may even be able to attend a publication party at the Lizzie Borden House on November 9th, and—if stretch goals are met—a midnight séance to channel the lingering spirits of Fall River. 

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/riverdaleavebooks/the-lizzie-borden-house-anthology?ref=discovery&term=lizzie%20borden&total_hits=12&category_id=47

Visit us at THE RAINBOW BOOK FAIR in NYC May 10th

 Thrilled to announce that Lori Perkins is moderating a panel on Protest for the RAINBOW BOOK FAIR, which is happening this SATURDAY, May 10, at 1:30.

The RAINBOW BOOK FAIR is FREE and takes place from 12 noon until 6 PM, at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, 208 W. 13th Street, in the West Village, slighty west of 7th Ave.

RIVERDALE AVENUE BOOKS will be there with our a table.

The RBF is the largest LGBTQ book event in the US. Every year, approximately 100 exhibitors show books of all kinds appealing to our community—fiction, non-fiction, poetry, books for young people, for seniors, for every kind and corner of the queer world. This will be the 13th Rainbow Book Fair, and it’s sure to be as wonderful as ever. For more information go to rainbowbookfair.com.

Indie Publisher Releases FREE Essay Collection on Protest: THE BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE

 Riverdale Avenue Books, the award-winning Bronx indie publisher, has collected essays, editorial cartoons, and poetry from best-selling authors, journalists, teachers, firefighters, and parents about how they are finding sanity and community through everyday acts of resistance.

Riverdale Avenue Books’ Publisher Lori Perkins, a former NYU professor of journalism, wondered how she could do more to resist the policies that were being enacted and the attitudes that were being expressed under the new regime. She realized that she was actively participating in resistance every day in both subtle and larger ways, and she was sure there were many just like her.

Said Perkins, “Hopefully, with this book we will inspire each other and give each other ideas about how to resist those forces that seek to shut down our efforts toward a more progressive, inclusive society. The purpose of this book is to let us all know we are not alone, and that we are part of a large community of common purpose.”

THE BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE  is available FREE in digital form on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Google+, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and wherever ebooks are uploaded (including your local library). A trade paperback edition will be available in bookstores and online for $20.99.

The book will be updated periodically. New essays and/or editorial cartoons can be sent to Perkins at lori@riverdaleavebooks.com.

 

About the Editor

Lori Perkins has been a newspaper editor, a literary agent, a book editor, a professor and an author for four decades. She considers herself a “word-slinger” because words are the ammunition that we all have.  She encourages you all to use your power and fight the good fight.

Deadline Extended to Feb 23rd for THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE

 We have a great book, but it’s not big enough, so we’re extending the deadline to

February 23^rd, and are hoping to publish March 1^st, which is the anniversary of the establishment of the US Constitution.

 

We have a lot of professionals and people working in politics who have shared their daily resistance, but I’d really like to include teachers, librarians, health care workers, etc. Share your stories of personal boycotts and blackouts and not giving up.

 

So many of us are apprehensive about what is coming and what we can possibly do to not acquiesce. 

 

I was frozen in my feeling of powerlessness, and then I remembered that there are many small  things I do that are everyday means of protest.

 

As I tried to write an article about the ways in which I disagree, I realized that there must be many of us who do the same.

 

I posted on social media: Someone should do a BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE  (hoping that some bigshot journalist with a huge following would say they were working on it) and someone who loves me wrote back- “Don’t you own a publishing company?”

 

So here we are

 

Call for Essays

THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE

 

2025 and beyond is going to be a trying experience for those of us who did not vote for this president and the direction in which the country is now headed.

 

I was asking myself, “What can I really do?” and realized there are already things I do every day that are  acts of “resistance”:

• boycotting companies
• sharing information on how to live a more inclusive and progressive life
• speaking up and not remaining silent–even when it is safer to be quiet

 

Most importantly, through my work in publishing I am creating and supporting art that speaks of a different approach or examines the perils of where we are headed.

 

I realized I am actively participating in resistance every day.

 

And I am sure you are, too.

 

THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE  will be a collection of essays (anywhere from 250 to 1,000 words) about what you do to resist, how you resist, and why you resist. I am hoping to publish this as a digital book for FREE on March 1 to ensure that everyone can access this information. Because it will be a free book, I am not offering payment to authors, and do not expect to make money on its publication.

 

The purpose of this book is to let us all know we are not alone, and that we are part of a large community of common purpose. Hopefully, with this book we will inspire each other and give each other ideas about how to resist those forces that seek to shut down our efforts toward a more progressive, inclusive society. However, I am not interested in, nor do I condone any calls for violence. 

 

Please send your work as a Word doc or a jpeg for black and white editorial cartoons to submissions@riverdaleavebooks.com ASAP, and tell your friends and share this with like-minded peeps. I will need your contribution by February 23rd at the very latest.

 

Include your email address and phone number. If we use your piece, you will be sent an agreement to give us permission to publish. If you wish to publish anonymously, we can do that, but I must know who you are. Previously published material is allowed, as long as you have the rights.

 

Also, if you have ideas or suggestions, want to volunteer to edit, proof, or do publicity or marketing, please email me at lori@riverdaleavebooks.com.

 

We do hope to update the book throughout the year, but the deadline for submission is February 23rd (but sooner is better!).

 

 

 

 

Call for Essays for THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE

 

Call for Essays

THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE

 

2025 and beyond is going to be a trying experience for those of us who did not vote for this president and the direction in which the country is now headed.

 

I was asking myself, “What can I really do?” and realized there are already things I do every day that are  acts of “resistance”:

• boycotting companies
• sharing information on how to live a more inclusive and progressive life
• speaking up and not remaining silent–even when it is safer to be quiet

 

Most importantly, through my work in publishing I am creating and supporting art that speaks of a different approach or examines the perils of where we are headed.

 

I realized I am actively participating in resistance every day.

 

And I am sure you are, too.

 

THE BIG BOOK OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE  will be a collection of essays (anywhere from 250 to 1,000 words) about what you do to resist, how you resist, and why you resist. I am hoping to publish this as a digital book for FREE on Jan. 20^th, to ensure that everyone can access this information. Because it will be a free book, I am not offering payment to authors, and do not expect to make money on its publication.

 

The purpose of this book is to let us all know we are not alone, and that we are part of a large community of common purpose. Hopefully, with this book we will inspire each other and give each other ideas about how to resist those forces that seek to shut down our efforts toward a more progressive, inclusive society. However, I am not interested in, nor do I condone any calls for violence. 

 

Please send your work as a Word doc or a jpeg for black and white editorial cartoons to submissions@riverdaleavebooks.com ASAP, and tell your friends and share this with like-minded peeps. I will need your contribution by January 13^th at the very latest.

 

Include your email address and phone number. If we use your piece, you will be sent an agreement to give us permission to publish. If you wish to publish anonymously, we can do that, but I must know who you are. Previously published material is allowed, as long as you have the rights.

 

Also, if you have ideas or suggestions, want to volunteer to edit, proof, or do publicity or marketing, please email me at lori@riverdaleavebooks.com.

 

We do hope to update the book throughout the year, but the deadline for submission is January 13 (but sooner is better!).

 

 

Lori Perkins

Publisher

Powerful Native Debut Novel RESERVATION HIGH Pubs Over Thanksgiving Holiday

 

To our readers,

I want to tell you about this amazing book we just published to tie in with the Thanksgiving holiday.

This summer I read a photojournalism article in the New York Times by Judith Surber about the toll addiction took on her Native American Family and at the end of the article (which was nominated for a Pulitzer fellowship), I saw that she had written and self-published a novel, RESERVATION HIGH.

I asked her if she might want to do a second edition with a publisher and she was thrilled to be working with an editor and we crafted what I believe is a powerful, poignant, beautiful second edition of this story about addiction within a Native American family. It is a Native story, an inter-generational story, a love story, and most of all, an American story. There is just nothing else like it out there.

So I am hoping that you will want to curl up with this family saga (also a love story) at this time of year to contemplate what we are as Americans, how we got here, and what it all means.

From Lori Perkins, Editor and Publisher

Cult Classic Fantasy Novel The Only Criminal by Tim Lucas Published After 25 Years

 

“Compulsively, enviably superb. THE ONLY CRIMINAL is a marvel! 

Lucas brilliantly weaves wit, romance and 

glorious wisdoms with maestro cool.”

- R.C. Matheson (Savages)

 

 

New York, NY: (October 3, 2024) “I tried to sell this book as a New York literary agent for over two decades, but publishers just didn't get it.  They said it was a prose version of a graphic novel. But it was ahead of its time,” explained Riverdale Avenue Publisher Lori Perkins.  “It has haunted me for years and when I finally had my own publishing company, I was thrilled to be the one to bring it out into the world.”

 

The premise of this surreal novel is that in an alternate, naïve world, there is only one mythic, larger-than-life criminal, who is the subject of all the world’s daily news, and somehow involved in all its art and entertainment. No one has ever see his face and lived. The story is told through the eyes of Dr. Paul Vaguely, a psychologist who analyzes The Only Criminal’s deeds and counsels his victims. One day, The Only Criminal disappears without explanation and it becomes apparent that this world can’t survive without him.

 

“THE ONLY CRIMINAL has been incubating in me since early 1977,” author Tim Lucas explained. “I’ve finished it many times but it was never quite complete; even as it went through the final proofreading stages, it continued to evolve right through the final pass. Maybe it took this long for the time to be right for it. It makes sense now in more ways than it would have done 40, 30, 20 or even 10 years ago.”

 

He continued, “Today I’m holding the finished product in my hands for the first time. Writing it, seeing it come to fruition, has been one of the great adventures of my life. It’s a fable about obsessive-compulsive people who live in fear and isolation, a fantasy that’s very pertinent to the world we live in, the world we’ve inherited. It’s dark, it’s funny, and also a love story, and there are many ways it can be interpreted. I hope it finds its audience and stimulates a lot of discussion, or even debate.”

 

About the Author

TIM LUCAS is the author of four well-received novels: Throat Sprockets (1994), The Book of Renfield: A Gospel of Dracula (2005, revised 2023), The Secret Life of Love Songs (2021) and The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes (2022). Throat Sprockets, which is included in Jones & Newman’s Horror: Another 100 Best Books and was selected by Rue Morgue as one of 50 essential alternative horror novels, is set to be published in an expanded 30th anniversary edition by Valancourt Books. The revised edition of The Book of Renfield, published by Riverdale Avenue Books, won the 2023 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Classic Monster Fiction.

 

The Binge Watcher’s Guide to The West Wing Published to Tie-In with the DNC; 25^th Anniversary of the Show

 

 

As all eyes turn to the Democratic National Convention, Riverdale Avenue Books has released The Binge Watchers' Guide to the West Wing. The 10^th book in Riverdale’s innovative Binge Watchers series looks back at the classic television show as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, as well as how the political ethics and situations can be viewed through today’s political prism.

 

Aaron Sorkin's political drama had an enormous influence on American politics. The show is a time capsule from the political moment after the Berlin Wall fell, but before 9/11. it also influenced political dramas including Shonda Rhimes' Scandal and even sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation.

 

This volume focuses on the first two seasons, examining how the television show explains political issues, scandals, and vision. The West Wing was a show about political optimism, something that just might be returning to the current political landscape with the nomination of Kamala Harris.

 

The author, Joshua Stein, Ph.D., said he has been working on this book for nearly a decade. “I wanted to write this book because The West Wing is an opportunity to explore what politics should be, and what it isn’t.” He also shared that he cut his political teeth by watching the show with his own father who worked on Al Gore’s Presidential campaign when Stein was a child and later ran for City Council in Oakland California. Stein added, “The West Wing…was the way my dad taught me about politics and values. The show was optimistic that politics could improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society, provide for common good, and engage publicly with the moral issues of our time.”

Call for stories for the First Annual SantaCon Anthology

 

Everyone knows about SantaCon, the annual celebration, in which people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters, parade in hundreds of cities around the world every December.  The most famous SantaCon is the one held in New York City, where up to 200,000 people dressed as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Elves and Reindeers take over Manhattan.

 

In addition to a glorious day of absurd celebration through the streets of major cities, SantaCon also raises funds for charity. It brings together people who would never have met otherwise, has saved lives, made marriages (and probably caused a few divorces too).

 

Riverdale Avenue Books has partnered with SantaCon to put together an anthology of the most creative stories that could conceivably take place during or around SantaCon – romances, mysteries, horror (Krampus anyone?), even science fiction, time travel, literary fiction, you name it.  The SantaCon setting is a tinderbox for creative inspiration.  Light that match!

 

We will be publishing the anthology, in hardcover, trade paperback and ebooks the day after Thanksgiving, and it will available in book stores and online wherever books are sold.

 

We are looking for short stories of 2,000 to 5,000 words in all genres and categories.  Authors will be paid a $10 fee, and receive a copy of each edition of the book.

 

Other revenue derived from the sale of the book will be provided to SantaCon, which will donate proceeds to the charity of their choice.

 

If you would like to send us your stories, please send them to submissions@riverdaleavebooks.com, lori@riverdaleavebooks.com or david@riverdaleavebooks with the subject “SantaCon 2024.” After which, we will send you confirmation that we received your submission. If you do not receive a confirmation from either of those three emails, you may follow up with an email requesting confirmation.

 

Submissions will be open from now until August  15^st. After August 30^h, we will begin sending out acceptance or rejection emails for your submitted short stories. Please, do not follow up on whether your story has been accepted.

 

Riverdale Avenue Books is an award winning, innovative hybrid publisher at the leading edge of the changes in the publishing industry.  We publish e-books and print books under 15 imprints: Afraid, a horror imprint; The Binge Watchers Guides examining TV and film; Circlet, the latest incarnation of the classic sci-fi and fantasy erotica imprint; Desire, an erotica/erotic romance imprint; Magnus, the award-winning nonfiction imprint of LGBTQ titles; Magnus Lit, our LGBTQ fiction imprint; Pop featuring pop culture titles; Quest, a science fiction fantasy line; Truth, an erotic memoir line; Dagger, a mystery thriller imprint; Sports and Gaming featuring sports and gaming titles; Verve featuring lifestyle titles; Hera, featuring both the true and fictional lives and loves of women aged 35 and up and 120 Days, a reprint imprint for LGB classics. Started in 2012 by industry veteran Lori Perkins, visit us at www.RiverdaleAveBooks.com.

 

                A much-needed book that only becomes more necessary by the day, Wilchins' BAD INK presents an unflinching, clear-eyed analysis of the Times’ role in reversing the course of trans rights."

— Herron Walker, W Magazine

 

 “I can’t stop reading this book! BAD INK is the clearest, most coherent dissection of the Times’ decision to trade journalistic integrity for clicks at the expense of trans kids. Every mainstream reporter should read this book.” 

— Kate Sosin, The 19th News

 

             “The Times' crusade against transgender youth will go down as one of the journalism scandals of our age. But we don't have to wait for history's verdict—thanks to the timely, essential work of Riki Wilchins’s BAD INK.”  

             —  Evan Urquhart, Assigned Media

 

Bad Ink by award-winning trans author/activist Riki Wilchins is being published by Riverdale Avenue Books. Bad Ink is the definitive inside story of how and why the newspaper of record suddenly became the nation’s leading voice for attacking transgender kids.

 

Wilchins documents out how—beginning in 2015 just as A. G. Sulzberger was taking the reins of Publisher—the Times shifted from its historic support for transgender rights to suddenly embark on what Popula’s Tom Scocca called “a plain old-fashioned newspaper crusade” that consumed nearly 70,000 words in dozens of articles—many splashed across its front pages.

 

The Times relentlessly attacked trans teens’ right to transition, to medical care, to sports participation—even the idea they actually were trans. But as Bad Ink shows, all this wasn’t based on new studies or fresh reporting, but on pseudoscience and disinformation manufactured by Christian nationalist hate groups just as they and their MAGA allies in state legislatures were introducing over 1,000 bills criminalizing nearly every aspect of trans kids’ lives. 

 

Bad Ink makes the case that this was all apparently part of Sulzberger’s plan to remake the liberal rag for the digital age by appealing to a fast-growing right-wing readership.

 

And unfortunately, it worked.

 

Review copies at www.NetGalley.com  Reviewers/academics free copies by emailing TransTeensMatter@gmail.com

Magnus Imprint Publishes College Jocks and Frat House Bros

After his self-published collection of gay erotic short stories Frat Boys and Dorm Rooms made Amazon’s audio bestseller list, Matthew Cooper has teamed up with award-winning LGBTQ Imprint Magnus Lit to release his second collection of hot tales of university life, College Jocks and Frat House Bros: Gay Erotic Stories from University Life.

Cooper explained how glad he is to be releasing this new collection into the world. “As we conclude our celebration of another Pride Month, I think about what it means to be gay in the world today. We continue our fight for our political and social rights, safety, and acceptance. And here I am in my tiny apartment in Wilton Manors, Florida, a hub of gay culture and society, writing steamy, sex-fueled stories. And that's what my stories are meant to be. A celebration. A celebration of gay sexuality. Unapologetically erotic. Proudly sexual. Enjoy.”

 

College. A time to figure out who you really are. Get out of your parents’ house and experience the world on your own. A time to try new things, experiment, and have the time of your life. Sure, there are the books and the classes and all those late nights studying in your dorm room. But the true college experience is about growing, learning, and discovering yourself—and what your body can do.

 

The young men in these stories are eager, willing, horny, and ready for anything. From frat parties, community showers, dorm rooms, come back to the best four years of your life and read stories of hook-ups, new love, sexual awakening, and erotic connections.

 

Who was it for you? The student athlete, the quiet nerd, the partying frat boy? They’re all here in College Jocks and Frat House Bros. And you’re invited to the all-night rager. Meet Josh, who has a parking lot run-in with a hot sexy stranger. Peek in on Issac, the dorm roommate who doesn’t lock the door and doesn’t mind if you watch. Bump into your R.A. just when you need a place to crash. There are frat parties to attend, community showers to cruise, and cramped dorm rooms to hunker down in. Just make sure the door is locked – unless you don’t mind being caught.

 

The book is available as an ebook, audiobook, trade paperback and hardcover wherever books are sold.

Riverdale Avenue Books Publishes a Novel and Memoir for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

New York, NY: (October 1, 2023) Award-winning publisher Riverdale Avenue Books has released Perennial: A Garden Romance, a romance novel, and Tornado, A Breast Cancer Log, memoir in journal form, for Breast Cancer Awareness month, which occurs every October.

The author of both titles, acclaimed author Mary Anne Mohanraj wrote Tornado, her day-by-day detailed journal as a blog during her three- year journey through breast cancer diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation and reconstructive surgery.  It is a bold, honest look at this experience that one in eight women living today go through.

 

Mohanraj also used her breast cancer journey to create a beautiful novel of romance and rebirth with a main character who has undergone this experience in Perennial.

 

Said Publisher Lori Perkins, who is a breast cancer survivor herself, “Perennial is the kind of book I really needed to read when I was undergoing treatment. It lifted both my spirits and my soul.”

 

About the Author

Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion and The Stars Change, founder of Strange Horizons and director of The Speculative Literature Foundation. Previous anthologies she's edited include The Best of Strange Horizons, vol. 1, Aqua Erotica, and WisCon Chronicles, vol. 9: Intersections and Alliances, which was recently long-listed for the BSFA Awards. Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her research and writing interests include Sri Lanka and its civil war, transnationalism and diaspora, domesticity and parenting, chronic illness, science fiction, and sexuality.

Riki Wilchins Blasts Evangelical Onslaught Against Transgender Kids in New Book

 

When Texas Came  

 

for Our Kids

 

How Evangelical Extremists Launched a War on  Transgender Teens

 

 

If we went back to 2020, we would be shocked at lives of transgender children—they change their names and birth certificates, played school sports, and got puberty blockers and hormones freely in all 50 states.

 

But in just three years it would all disappear. By the end of 2023, over 1,000 bills would be introduced more than half of state legislatures that sought to criminalize nearly every facet of their lives.

 

 What happened?

 

‘When Texas Came for Our Kids’ is the first and the definitive account of how white Christian nationalists— enraged from a string of devasting Supreme Court defeats—pivoted from gay people to transgender youth and made them the new face of the culture war.

 

And it all began in Texas, which enacted the first effective ban on gender-affirming care by redefining it as felony child abuse, instantly criminalizing hundreds of loving families overnight and sending many fleeing across its borders in panic.

 

‘When Texas Came for Our Kids’ is packed with scores of on-the-ground interviews and never-before-told detail collected over years of research.

 

Also available is the companion book—"When Loving Your Kid Is a Crime: Parents of Transgender Youth Speak Out.” Nine first-person accounts by families who fled Texas and other red states because they feared their queer child would be taken from them and placed into state foster care.

 

Review copies of both available at www.NetGalley.com or by contacting TransTeensMatter@gmail.com

 

---

 

Riki Wilchins is the author of a 10 books on queer theory and transgender politics, including

Read My Lips:  Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender

Gender Queer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary 

Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Prime

Burn the Binary:  Selected Writings on the Politics of Trans, Genderqueer & Nonbinary

TRANS/Gressive:  How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, & the Media

 

Riverdale Avenue Books

Lori Perkins, Publisher  www.riverdaleavebooks.com  

 

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.