If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a best selling writer or wondered how you could finance your film or other creative endeavors, da Vinci’s Waking Dream gives you interviews with people who are where you want to be. Not only will you learn about their successes, you’ll also hear about their challenges.

Website publisher and podcast host Will Norman interviews gay and gay-friendly musicians, filmmakers, artists, writers like Amazon best selling author Nick Nolan and award-winning animator and comic book artist Brad Rader. Published every Thursday on the Queers on the Verge website, iTunes podcasts, and other distributor venues, da Vinci’s Waking Dream provides its audience with intimate access to gay professionals.

The podcast is for beginners, those seeking to promote their work, and for individuals ready to take their career to the next level. Da Vinci’s Waking Dream is also a great place for gay musicians, writers, filmmakers, content producers, and artists to promote their latest projects.

Listeners get a look at the behind-the-scenes of working gay music artists and entrepreneurs: how they promote themselves and monetize their brand. Guests freely give advice and discuss their latest projects. But listeners come away with so much more since da Vinci’s Waking Dream rises above mere Q&A. You also get to know a little about the person offering advice, which makes listening to the podcast that much more enjoyable. Many times, the guests on da Vinci’s Waking Dream are quite funny, but unlike so many gay podcasts, this show is not striving for humor. Straightforward advice and tips that will help listeners take their dream to the next level is the show’s aim.

One of the perks of da Vinci’s Waking Dream is that you don’t have to be gay to walk away with something from the podcast. All you need is a goal, a receptive ear, and the determination to make your Web 2.0 dreams come true.

Contact:
Will Norman
Ph: (323) 206-7110

More at: Queers On The Verge!

In Essence Best Selling author Terrance Dean’s “The Intern,” a jilted TV producer becomes attracted to a sexy young staffer. But will it be too risky to mix business with pleasure? “In B-Boy Blues” Best Selling author James Earl Hardy’s “Is it Still Jood to Ya?,” a gay power couple reveals intimate details of themselves and their world. And in award-winning Best Selling author, filmmaker, playwright, and actor Stanley Bennett Clay’s “House of John, ” a heartbroken man takes a “healing” sex vacation to the Dominican Republic —and ends up finding true love instead.

Complete with a foreword by E. Lynn ’s good friend Victoria Christopher Murray, plus personal tributes from each of the authors, and evoking the hope, romance and complexity of this gifted writer, this unique collection will serve as a living legacy for fans old and new.

On sale in stores and online now!

Also, listen below as all three authors discuss the book and much more with James Hipps on Blog Talk Radio!

Find out more about P. Victor by clicking here to visit his blog!

The real problem is, I dont want to end up like some of my family members and become a dead beat, drug addict or a waste of human flesh. I’ve been searching for a sense of purpose. HIV did that but I dont want to make it my entire life. It is apart of my mission to aware the people, however I dont want my desires of not being like some of the men in my family that I am off course and unbalanced. I am AFRAID of not fulfilling my destiny and for letting God down. I am AFRAID of NOT seeing my dreams and hopes realized and manifested. But despite all of it, I was thankful anyway and sometimes you just have to be, even when the circumstance is at it’s end. With this new job that I’ll be starting soon with Speak Life Inc. as their Director of Public Relations( Atlanta Branch), getting into school, writing this new book, I am at the ALMOST stage. When you see your life about to take off but not quit there yet.

It’s exciting yet frustrating. I’m just ready for change already! But hey, what can I do…nothing but wait inside the ALMOST and just allow the universe to take course and align everything as it should be. Before I began trusting The Universe again, I was having doubts. Especially after the entire Ex thing blew up in my face. It had placed me in a state where I was reconsidering to settle for mediocrity. That being a Writer, Activist and anything else was a waste of time and I should get a job that I hate and stay there for 40 years. I’m not complaining, just being honest. However, was that me or the fear inside of me talking? THE FEAR! So I will spare myself a pity party and decided to give this a chance. One that will let me know for sure where this lady named Destiny lies. I have nothing to loose. Today, I took a baby step, now I’m un-crippling me, myself and I and talking to mountains that are really only illusions fear’s using to trick my mind and taking big giant steps to own up to my dreams. FUCK FEAR! I’m too old to keep myself back, hell I’ll be twenty-six this year.

More about this AMAZING young talent at: Antron-Reshaud.net!

Featuring opening and closing remarks by Dr. Brenda Greene, Professor of English and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, the program will feature readings from Mr. Harris’ works by Essence best-selling authors Donna Hill, Erika Kendrick, Karen E. Quinones Miller, and Victoria Christopher Murray. Publisher Karen Hunter will make a special dedication and offer personal reflections.

A special presentation will be readings from the upcoming book “Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris” (Kensington/Dafina books) by the book’s authors Stanley Bennett Clay (“Looker”), James Earl Hardy (the “B-Boy Blues” series), and Terrance Dean (“Hiding In Hip-Hop”). Release date for “Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris” is May 25, 2010.

The National Black Writers Conference’s Tribute to E. Lynn Harris is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (718) 230-2100.

But this post isn’t about the book or the sale. It’s about interpretation and social responsibility. I recently read a review of AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN by a book reviewer who refers to herself as “Book Utopia Mom.” Here’s the link to the review http://bookutopia.blogspot.com/2009/06/officer-and-his-gentleman-by-ryan-field.html. I’ve passed the review on to a number of my gay friends who’ve read this book, and they were both shocked and confused. Not because it wasn’t a great review, but because she’s so far off with respect to certain facts that still exist within the GLBT community.

Here’s a quote from the review that makes no sense: “Never really believable for him to be in the situation he is, it’s hard to feel sorry for him when he doesn’t look at options.”

First, you have to wonder how much explanation she needs in order to get the point. He doesn’t think he has options, and that’s pointed out clearly in the book. He’s certainly not living this way because he likes it. At least this is what I’ve heard from all the gay readers who have read the book. Just the idea of “options” leaves me wondering what she’s thinking. Some people don’t know they have options. He doesn’t have support from anyone.

The plot revolves around a good looking young gay man who is tossed out of his home when his family discovers that he’s gay. He has little education, no money, and he’s all alone in the world. All he has are his looks. So he finds employment and a place to live with an older gay man (who is in the closet and couldn’t care less about gay rights) who takes advantage of his vulnerable situation by forcing him to walk around naked after work. There’s no sex between them. I could have done that. It happens all the time with older gay men and younger gay men who need some kind of support. I’ve witnessed it happen, and I’ve always stepped in to help the younger gay man out of the situation. I actually had a friend who was brought to this country by a wealthy, older attorney. The attorney “kept” him as his lover and he became an emotional hostage. The guy didn’t know he had choices. So I helped him get into school and out of his self-destructive situation, and he became a nurse in Atlanta with a thriving career. In the book, I did the same thing with the main character. Someone comes along, offers him a choice, and his life changes.

My point in the book, and in this post, is that there are young gay men who don’t think they have choices. They allow themselves to be taken advantage of all the time. This is why so many of them wind up on the streets. Part of this is low self-esteem, because they still haven’t learned to love themselves as gay men. And part of this is fear of living on the street. Because there’s not much opportunity out there nowadays without some kind of support. And in case this book reviewer hasn’t noticed, we’re not all equal yet. The GLBT community is still fighting, daily, for the same equal rights everyone else takes for granted.

I’ve learned to take all reviews quietly and move on. AN OFFICER… has had some great reviews and I’m thankful for them. I’m eternally thankful to my agent and publisher for helping get a book like this out. But when a book reviewer questions a fact (not to mention my experience as a gay man as compared to her experience as a straight woman), and doesn’t understand that there are young gay men out there suffering from abuse who don’t know they have choices, I have to say something. Because now it’s not about reviewing books. It becomes a social issue that goes way beyond that. And as a gay man I simply can’t sit back and allow it to happen. I want to be able to sleep at night.

I’m sure this book reviewer didn’t mean anything personal (I hope anyway), and I truly do believe she wrote the review because she’s not aware of certain situations that still occur in the gay community. But ignorance is not an excuse when you decide to make public statements about what I consider a sensitive topic.

If anyone is interested, especially the gay readers of this blog, you can click onto the reviewer’s link above and place a comment on the reviewer’s blog if you agree with me. I want all my books to be sexy, romantic love stories with a happy ending, but I also want them to be socially responsible and real. I’ve been writing GLBT fiction for over fifteen years, I’ve been published by all the gay presses, and I’ve worked for free for many publications to help get the message out. I take it very seriously when someone makes light of a serious GLBT issue that’s happening all the time.

Contributed by Ryan Field

Read more about Antron Reshaud and his writing by clicking here or clicking here.

But what if I told you most Keegan books are categorized as gay lit? Would you read the books? Or would you click away from this interview right now? If so, why?

Mel Keegan – a pen name – is one of the more prolific and outspoken gay lit authors on the scene today. In this interview, Keegan examines the past, present and future of gay lit, and shares why he (or she?) believes ebooks will democratize literature and enable the world’s authors and readers to connect in ways that were previously impossible in the traditional print world.

Read more and the interview at Smashwords!

Drawing on decades of research on gay service and hundreds of exclusive interviews with policymakers, government officials, academics and service members, the book shows the cruel and unaffordable costs of the current gay ban.

Read more and find out where Nathaniel will be speaking in Miami on the 18th at unfriendlyfire.org!

Find out more about Lamar and much, much more at Living Out Loud with Darian!