Divining Divas

Editor Michael Montlack has assembled an anthology of a hundred gay poets--award winners and fresh voices--in thrall with female icons throughout the ages ranging from Gloria Swanson to Mary J, Blige, from Edith Piaf to Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler to Lady Gaga. These are not merely appreciations of the gorgeous and daring but poems that are confessional to bittersweet to witty.

From USA Today bestselling authors Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens comes murder, magic, and laughter on the bayou... There’s magic in the air at The Mansion at Mystic Isle where Melanie Hamilton works—magic everywhere. The Federation of Magicians has contracted to hold their annual show at the resort on the bayou, and Melanie's excited to join in the fun—nothing like a little hocus pocus to liven things up, right? The winner’s own show and a huge cash prize guarantees stiff competition. And speaking of stiffs, when the contest frontrunner turns up dead, Mel, Jack Stockton, and the staff at the resort rally to chase down the culprit. Is one magician so desperate for fame and fortune they’d kill for it, or is there another reason to work some black magic? Mel conjures up several suspects, but the adept sleight of hand conceals the identity of the murderer. Will an abracadabra and the wave of a magic wand catch the killer, or will it be Mel who disappears? Mystic Isle Mysteries: Mystic Mayhem (book #1) Mystic Mojo (shorts story in the Killer Beach Reads collection) Mystic Mistletoe Murder (book #2) Mystic Mischief (book #3) Mystic Deception (book #4) "Writing team Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, a top all-time favorite, have penned a well-written and exciting series with a Southern flair, combining cheeky characters, humorous foibles, and of course, a clever cozy murder mystery." —Kings River Life Magazine

Family continues to be a wellspring of inspiration and learning for Blanco. His third book of poetry, Looking for The Gulf Motel, is a genealogy of the heart, exploring how his family’s emotion legacy has shaped—and continues shaping—his perspectives. The collection is presented in three movements, each one chronicling his understanding of a particular facet of life from childhood into adulthood. As a child born into the milieu of his Cuban exiled familia, the first movement delves into early questions of cultural identity and their evolution into his unrelenting sense of displacement and quest for the elusive meaning of home. The second, begins with poems peering back into family again, examining the blurred lines of gender, the frailty of his father-son relationship, and the intersection of his cultural and sexual identities as a Cuban-American gay man living in rural Maine. In the last movement, poems focused on his mother’s life shaped by exile, his father’s death, and the passing of a generation of relatives, all provide lessons about his own impermanence in the world and the permanence of loss. Looking for the Gulf Motel is looking for the beauty of that which we cannot hold onto, be it country, family, or love.

"This mechanistic world…has required me to FIND MY BODY to FIND MY PLANET in order to find my poetry."—CAConrad

This book presents interviews with eight gay men who are celebrated American poets and writers, discussing their early lives, friends and communities that shaped their work, histories of gay writers before them, how sex and desire connect with artistic production, and what coming out means to a writer.

Women have made an enormous impact on life on the planet. They are deified and remembered in song, story, legend, and statues since at least 30,000 BC. We are, and have always been, brilliant inventors, innovators, and leaders for hundred and thousands of years. We are the survivors of everything that came our way and passed on our culture. Women are the creators of life! A woman can create life inside her own body, give birth to another human being, and make milk from her own breasts to feed her newborn life. The Goddesses are real mothers, actual women who lived, and created beautiful handiwork and incredible usable things from next to nothing; such as: spinning and weaving, making pots from dirt, farming, medicine, and writing. What a history! What a Gift to Civilization! Women were, and continue to be, the true Mothers of Invention! Stone Age Divas in the true sense of the word. If every girl in the world reads about the Goddesses found in this book, she will have a firm foundation of self-esteem and inspiration to make wise choices in her life. Since time immemorial, women have bonded together in sisterhood to fight for noble causes in nonviolent ways. Women have always been, and continue to be, great benefactors of humanity. 'Stone Age Divas: Their Mystery and Their Magic', takes an astonishing look at human beginnings never before attempted. It challenges our basic assumptions about gender, religion, and our civilization. Warning: This book may be dangerous to your beliefs!

A wonderful collaboration, containing the poetry of Linda Joy Burke, Lenett Nefertiti Allen, Jaki-Terry, and Chezia Thompson-Cager. This mesmerizing collection of verse is as diverse and inspiring as the women who wrote these poems.