A Stoner McTavish Mystery

There were dark forces afoot in the sleepy little New Age town of Shelburne Falls, hungry ghosts who had chosen Aunt Hermione as their prey. Stoner McTavish, lesbian travel agent and reluctant detective, her lover Gwen, and her best friend and business partner Marylou, must stop them before it's too late. But who are they? What do they want, and why? And how do you stop an enemy you can't even find? Stoner embarks on a journey that forces her to face her worst fears. And they just might come true.

Sarah Dreher is the author of the well-loved Stoner McTavish Mystery Series as well as many award winning plays. She attended Wellesley College and went on to earn a PH.D. in clinical psychology from Purdue University.
At the age of 17, she was threatened with expulsion from Wellesley College for “being too fond of other girls.” In an interview, Sarah reveals,

“I was accused of being a lesbian, though I wasn’t ‘out’ at the time,” she recalls. “I felt like killing myself. One of the rules of being gay in the 1950’s was that you should hate yourself. It took me 15 years to get over it; it took the women’s movement really, to get me past it.”

Sarah’s play “Alumnae News” parallels this experience in her life. As in all of her work, the poignancy and bristling energy are leavened by humor, and by the author’s empathy with her characters.
Sarah passed away to writer’s heaven at her home on April 2nd, 2012, just one week after celebrating her 75th birthday.

Being a teen isn't always easy, and for gay, lesbian, bi, and trans teens - or those still exploring and discovering their sexuality or gender identity - it can be even tougher. Yet courage, friendship and acceptance can be found in surprising places.

Sarah Bodman has two equally exotic professions: Certified Video Specialist, and balloon pilot. Called to an assignment in a Louisiana prison, Sarah finds herself in a tiny, closely guarded prison room with two federal lawyers. The lawyers will be questioning a man in the witness protection program whose sworn deposition Sarah will film, a witness who is key to the prosecution of notorious gangland boss Vinnie Scalio.

Despite every precaution, the witness is murdered, along with one of the lawyers. Scalio, determined to eradicate every trace of evidence against him, employs all of his resources to track down Margaret Paige, the other lawyer, as well as Sarah and her filmed deposition.

Fleeing, the two women crash-land in Louisiana's Manchac swamp. Even this deadly landscape provides little cover from Scalio's planes and guns, and offers up its own formidable challenges to their survival.

The fireworks between Sarah and Margaret are as hot as the danger they are in. And Margaret is keeping her own secret. A secret that may well be as insurmountable a problem as Scalio.

Here you will find the finest essays “judiciously selected from countless publications” (Chicago Tribune), ranging from The New Yorker and Harper’s to Swink and Pinch. In his introduction to this year’s edition, Adam Gopnik finds that great essays have “text and inner text, personal story and larger point, the thing you’re supposed to be paying attention to and some other thing you’re really interested in.” David Sedaris’s quirky, hilarious account of a childhood spent yearning for a home where history was properly respected is also a poignant rumination on surviving the passage of time. In “The Ecstasy of Influence,” Jonathan Lethem ponders the intriguing phenomenon of cryptomnesia: a person believes herself to be creating something new but is really recalling similar, previously encountered work. Ariel Levy writes in “The Lesbian Bride’s Handbook” of her efforts to plan a party that accurately reflects her lifestyle (which she notes is “not black-tie!”) as she confronts head-on what it means to be married. And Lauren Slater is off to “Tripp Lake,” recounting the one summer she spent at camp—a summer of color wars, horseback riding, and the “wild sadness” that settled in her when she was away from home.

In the end, Gopnik believes that the only real ambition of an essayist is to be a master of our common life. This latest installment of The Best American Essays is full of writing that reveals, in Gopnik’s words, “the breath of things as they are.”

Kay and her life partner lead six very dissimilar women on a two-week trek into the Ozark mountains, a trek designed to teach basic survival skills to these tenderfoots.

Lu and Desiree have been together twelve years.  Desiree plans to use the occasion of this trip to reveal a secret that will change both their lives...

Poppy Dillworth has lost her precious Irma after thirty-six years of happiness.  She sees no reason to go on living, and has chosen this trip for her own special purpose....

Marcie is a fledgling missionary out to prove her worthiness for assignment to South America.  She has deep concerns about Poppy....

And there's Jane and Ramona.  Conventional women who have led the most conventional of lives.  Until they share the intimacy of a tent in the wilderness.  Then Jane discovers a passion so far beyond anything she has ever dreamed that she flees Ramona in panic....

Meet all these engaging women in this sensual, suspenseful, highly entertaining story.  Accompany them all on their Wilderness Trek...

"First thing you learn on welfare, you don't need meat if you have rice and beans." --Mama Ruiz

Marty has lost her job.  Unable to find work, she has no option other than to apply for welfare.

She meets lively, intelligent Thea in the crowded waiting room of Tucson's unemployment office.  Thea's optimism brings Marty out of her depression, and the two women decide to pool their resources.  They wind up in a barrio apartment with no hot water, no refrigerator, no bathtub.  But they have a diverse assortment of new neighbors, including the matriarchal Mama Ruiz.  And they have each other...

Love grows between Thea and Marty.  Until Joan arrives in her eighteen-wheeler, and Marty's life is once again turned upside down...

Pioneer lesbian writer Valerie Taylor, author of Prism as well as the Erica Frohmann series, returns to us with an authentic story of women struggling to find their place in a world of uncertain attachments.

A finalist for the Chapters/Robertson Davies First Novel Award, Burning Ground has established Pearl Luke as a fresh, original voice and a writer to be watched. Burning Ground is the story of Percy, a fire watcher ensconced in the cocoon of her tower, scanning the horizon for "smokes." Completely alone, and wrapping herself in a fire-proof blanket of routine, Percy tries to insulate herself from the much more dangerous fires that burn from within.

It's the intrusion of the past that haunts her, as she struggles to escape disturbing family secrets, and the loss of Marlea, her best friend and sometime lover.  As she reaches out to a new friendship, Percy faces a searing battle of the elements -- both emotional and physical -- that will redefine her whole life, her loves and losses. Cinematic in its style, erotic in tone, Burning Ground boldly explores desire, sexual identity and emotional risk, rising to a powerful ending, not easily forgotten.

An astonishing new novel from the author of Searching for Spring...

It is 1974 in the California coastal town of Santa Clarinda.  With the women's movement beginning to erupt all around her, Cara Doherty becomes the administrator of the university's fledgling Women's Center.

Neil Norman, 18 years old, is pumping gas and dealing drugs in Santa Clarinda.  A customer gives Neil a gun for drugs, an d Neil exults in his newfound power--an unimagined power that can make his most cherished fantasies real.

Marti McDavid is a new divorcee, new to the women's movement, new to her love for Cara.  She is not new to drugs.  She is a customer of Neil's.

Young women vanish from the streets of Santa Clarinda.  And the lives of Cara, Marti, and Neil explode in the events that transform their lives and galvanize the entire city.

You will not soon forget Patricia A. Murphy's completely riveting portrait of Neil Norman, and you will not soon forget We Walk the Back of the Tiger.

In the small town in Minnesota, everyone knows everything about everyone in the small community of parents at private school, Sydney Academy, where the yearly tuition is $30,000 per student. Things were normal until a very controversial topic comes into discussion with the board of Sydney Academy. This topic raises a lot of stir and brings two parents (Jackie and Christa) of the board together to form an instant bond even though they are on opposite sides of this controversial topic. The question is – will Christa change her vote and side with Jackie’s strong point of view, or will she risk losing Jackie forever because of their extreme differences in opinion on the matter. This story will keep you wondering what will happen next with the twists and turns of this lesbian fiction story.

The fiery and enigmatic masterpiece―one of the greatest novels of the Modernist era.

Nightwood, Djuna Barnes' strange and sinuous tour de force, "belongs to that small class of books that somehow reflect a time or an epoch" (Times Literary Supplement). That time is the period between the two World Wars, and Barnes' novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna―a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous.

The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction―there is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions. Barnes' depiction of these characters and their relationships (Nora says, "A man is another persona woman is yourself, caught as you turn in panic; on her mouth you kiss your own") has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature.

Most striking of all is Barnes' unparalleled stylistic innovation, which led T. S. Eliot to proclaim the book "so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it." Now with a new preface by Jeanette Winterson, Nightwood still crackles with the same electric charge it had on its first publication in 1936.

In a world where same-sex relationships are illegal can Alice and Juliana’s love survive? What would your life be like if your love was illegal? It’s 1945. Juliana wants to be a star and she has the singing voice to do it. Alice (Al) is determined to make Juliana into the star she wants to be. The worst thing that could happen to Juliana is to be discovered as gay. The worst thing that could happen to Al is to lose Juliana. Al must guard their secret at all costs. Will the gossip columnists and the new laws destroy them? 

If you like stories about 1950s Manhattan and behind the scenes drama in theater and nightclubs you’ll love, Olympus Nights on the Square: Book 3 of the Juliana Series. It’s sexy, funny and deadly serious; it’s full of mobsters, the FBI, McCarthyism, gay bashing, lesbian pulp, a beginning awareness of transgender persons and “cures” for homosexuality. A lot like now. Get your copy today!

Original stories by C. S. Adler, Marion Dane Bauer, Francesca Lia Block, Bruce Coville, Nancy Garden, James Cross Giblin, Ellen Howard, M. E. Kerr, Jonathan London, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, Lesléa Newman, Cristina Salat, William Sleator, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jane Yolen

Each of these stories is original, each is by a noted author for young adults, and each honestly portrays its subject and theme--growing up gay or lesbian, or with gay or lesbian parents or friends.

Whether you're looking for help, hoping to volunteer your time, or investigating local cultural or entertainment opportunities, Strength in Numbers is the place to begin.  By far the most comprehensive guide of its kind, Strength in Numbers provides essential information--including Internet and e-mail addresses--for approximately 1,000 local, national, and international organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.

Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.

Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy's first published novel, and in it he draws blithely on the 'sensation novel' perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when Desperate Remedies appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.

From Library Journal

Hardy launched his writing career with this 1871 novel, which actually was published anonymously. Its sexuality, including lesbianism, was apparently too much of a Victorian eyebrow-raiser for him to attach his name. This edition includes a map, a glossary, and scholarly notes.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928) was recognized, and even revered, as the major literary figure of his time by his contemporaries. Most of his major novels are available in Penguin Classics.

MARY RIMMER is Associate Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. She has written extensively on Hardy, and is currently writing a book on narrative voice in Hardy.

Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The latest from legendary master storyteller Stephen King, a riveting, extraordinarily eerie, and moving story about a man whose mysterious affliction brings a small town together—a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences. 

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

From Stephen King, our “most precious renewable resource, like Shakespeare in the malleability of his work” (The Guardian), Elevation is an antidote to our divisive culture, as gloriously joyful (with a twinge of deep sadness) as “It’s a Wonderful Life.”