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Contemporary Gay Romances is the third collection of short fiction by legendary novelist and memoirist, Felice Picano (The Lure, Like People in History, Ambidextrous). It is also his most diverse in terms of the times, places, themes, characters and situations he writes about. Filled with the unexpected, the true, and the amazing, Contemporary Gay Romances moves with ease from gas-lit, upper class London, to a future, climate-altered Bay Area; from semi-rural Florida to Southern California beaches, to an extrasolar planet where people have surprising existences. His characters range from ordinary American suburban housewives to extraordinary children, from grieving young geologists and memory-haunted middle aged men, to British Midlands soccer stars and 22nd Century war heroes. Picano subtitled this collection of stylish, unique, and moving works "Tragic, Comic, Mystic & Horrific," and they are all that and more. The ten tales include prize winners as well as stories published here for the first time, and are as different from any standard "romances" as you can get, but they will linger in the mind and memory.

Great sex can be magical, but what if magic adds sizzle--or horror--to the sex?

A young man's magic binds him to both a demon and a vampire. The unlikely love of two men survives the tragic death of one. A college student experiences a nerve-wracking close encounter with dick-grabbing tentacles slithering out of his toilet. And when a man comes to visit an old school buddy, he's seduced by the father who has stolen his son's soul...

Arcane mystery, supernatural seduction, sex that haunts in a manner both weird and wondrous--these stories by ‘Nathan Burgoine, Gregory L. Norris, Mark Wildyr, Jeff Mann, Johnny Murdoc, Davem Verne, and others offer sexual thrills and perverse arousal, spooky chills, and magical orgasms. Dare to enter a sexual Otherworld.

Everything can change in a heartbeat.

Hunter Roswell thought she had left her past behind. But her carefully structured world starts to fall apart when a serial killer connected to her past emerges from the shadows and begins stalking her. Already responsible for the deaths of five women, the killer now has Hunter firmly in his sights. And he's picked a target date—the night of October's full moon—also known as the blood moon or hunter's moon.

Sara Wilder, a psychologist and former FBI profiler, is brought in to help Hunter unravel the connection between her past and a ruthless killer. But as the search for the killer intensifies, both women find themselves struggling with an unexpected and undeniably mutual attraction. In a race against time, can they survive a killer who is willing to use anything—even love—to further his own agenda?

Dakota Riley is not looking forward to the next three days in Vegas. Her best friend Riann is getting married there, but Dakota doesn't like the heat or the fact that she is going to be spending three days with twenty women she can't stand. All she wants is a little free time and a warm body to fill her bed, that is until her world is upended by the introduction of her best friend's cousin, the mysterious Shawn Camello.

Shawn Camello has been invited to her cousin Riann's bachelorette party at the last minute. She is reluctant to go but is persuaded by Riann in the hope that they can become re-acquainted after not seeing each other for twenty-five years. The moment she meets the sexy, determined Dakota Riley, she tries avoiding her at every turn. The problem is, everywhere she looks, Dakota is there, and she's becoming harder and harder to resist.

In a town like Vegas where anything can happen, Shawn and Dakota find that the stakes are love at all costs, and it's a gamble neither can afford to lose.

Mixing business with pleasure can be dangerous at best. In antebellum Louisiana, Baton Rouge businesswoman Corrine Staples returns to New Orleans to help her lifelong friend, Della Prentiss, with her plantation records. She's there to work but becomes increasingly intrigued by Della's delightfully alluring daughter, Katie, a fiery Southern belle who pushes the limits of propriety.

Katie Prentiss is a headstrong temptress with an active libido. She is immediately attracted to Corrine and sets her sights on seducing her. Corrine tries to keep her feelings in check, but soon finds herself giving in to forbidden passions.

Notorious pirate and mercenary Weiss Kyakh works as a reluctant double-agent for the Supreme Constellations. Her mission is to infiltrate a cutthroat band of space pirates along with a sentient bio-android, Madisyn Pimm. Pimm's sole purpose is to bring pirates to justice. The sophisticated android looks human, but Weiss soon realizes that Madisyn has her own heartbreaking secrets.

As war rages in the Realm, Weiss longs to escape from both the pirates and SC forces, but her growing affection for Madisyn makes her delay her plans. With thousands of lives in the balance as the final endgame approaches, will her delay cost them their lives?

Book Four in the Supreme Constellations romantic sci-fi adventure series.

Sex and skateboards and surfing on the California coast. What more could anyone want?

Alden McKenna has spent her entire life not growing up. Being an adult is tedious, not to mention totally boring. And requires less skateboarding. So why bother? Moving to a small beach town seems like an awesome idea. The skateboarding is good, the sun is always shining, and no one moves very fast. She even meets a hot chick like five minutes after moving there. Life is good. Except young Weston Duvall has already grown up and her reasons for doing so surprise Alden even more because she didn't see them coming. Weston can't trust Alden, and Alden isn't sure she wants to be trusted. So why can't they seem to stay away from each other?

Speaking Out features stories for and about LGBT and Q teens by fresh voices and noted authors in the field of young adult literature. These are inspiring stories of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after "coming out." Queer teens need tales of what might happen next in their lives, and editor Steve Berman showcases a diversity of events, challenges, and, especially, triumphs.

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.

Jenna McGovern has spent her whole life training for the stage. She's taken dance classes, voice lessons, and even earned her performance degree from one of the most prestigious musical theater programs in the nation. At graduation, she's stunned when a chance audition lands her a prime supporting role in the hottest Broadway touring production in the country. In more exciting news, Jenna discovers acclaimed television star Adrienne Kenyon is headlining the production.

Jenna settles easily in to life on tour and has a promising career laid out in front of her, if only she plays her cards right. She's waited for this opportunity her entire life and will let nothing stand in her way. The one thing she didn't prepare for, however, was Adrienne. Her new costar is talented, beautiful, generous, and the utmost professional. As the two women grow closer onstage and off, they must learn how to fit each other into a demanding lifestyle full of unexpected twists and difficult decisions. But is Jenna ready to sacrifice what she's worked so hard for in exchange for a shot at something much deeper?

They are creatures of extraordinary beauty and incredible power. Messengers of God or protectors of the human race, these mysterious creatures of light can also take human form--and can experience the emotions, lusts, and desires of a man. Some of the top writers of gay male erotica tackle the daunting subject of angels and the mixture of spirituality and sexuality, passion and desire that occurs when an angel feels desire for a beautiful human male. These stories mix heat with tenderness, amazing sex with spirituality, and earthy sensuality with an other-worldly heat.

You'll never look at angels quite the same way again.

Till Death Us Do Part...sometimes.

Clara Dearheart works in a funeral parlor and talks to her clients. Her friends and family have watched her suffer after the loss of her partner and urge her to move on, but all Clara wants is to stand still.

Bebe Franklin writes terrible soap episodes and needs a career change. Her boss hates her; her friends are sharp as knives; all Bebe wants to do is run. And she doesstraight into Clara's calm, ordered, and extraordinary life. For Clara can see ghosts and waits for her dead lover. How can Bebe compete with a love that transcends death, a love that knows no rest? A love that haunts all it touches.

Sometimes conformity and control are only shields, and all it takes is the right woman to shatter the illusions forever.

Andrea Taylor craves peace in her life, no matter what the personal sacrifice. She arranges her career as a violist, her relationships with family and friends, and even her love life so she can avoid strife at all costs. Everything is going according to plan until she meets Brooke Stanton the night before Brooke's wedding rehearsal and her ordered existence falls apart.

When Brooke hires a string quartet to play at her rehearsal dinner, she doesn't expect to meet a woman who threatens the security of her already predetermined future. Suddenly she has doubts about the conventional path she has chosen and desires she can no longer ignore.

In an eclectic neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, these two women face a life-altering decision—will they fight the attraction that threatens their carefully structured lives or take a chance on finding the harmony only love creates?

Noir has always been one of the most popularand darkestsub-genres of the mystery field. Following in the footsteps of such masters of the form as James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, some of the top writers of gay mystery explore this territory of amoral tough guys with a cynical view of the world by giving classic noir a gay twist. Edited by award winning author/editors Greg Herren and J.M. Redmann, Men of the Mean Streets changes the face of gay mysteryand the reader may never look at gay life and culture in the same way again.

What happens when you lose the one thing you'd give your life to save?

When Valentine Darrow loses her soul, she embraces her role as one of the vampire elite. As Blood Prime of the clan of the Missionary, Valentine spends her days transforming an old family bank into the financial capital of the Consortium and her nights painting the town red. Blood red.

Alexa Newland believes their everafter to be over. But then a new discovery about an ancient myth kindles her hope that Valentine can be saved. Alexa must trek through the mountains of Argentina to recover a rare flower with mystical powers.

Will Alexa succeed in her quest before Valentine irrevocably crosses over to the darkness?

Women. Crime. Justice. At least the search for it. On the mean streets, the back allies, the dark corners.

These are stories of tough women in hard places. The nights are long, the women are fast, and danger is always a short block or quick minute away. Edited by award winning author/editors J.M. Redmann and Greg Herren, Women of the Mean Streets is an anthology of some of the top, tough women crime writers today, noir stories with a lesbian twist.

When the world ends, what's left to care about?

Taylor Stone is no hero. She has three simple rules for life after the plague: Keep moving. Keep to yourself. Don't get involved. The plague took a particular joy in killing the women of the world, making it that much harder for the few who survived. The only thing that matters since she escaped from a small farm outside of Pittsburgh is the truth waiting at the end of her journey home. The rest of the world, or what's left of it, can go straight to Hell as far as she's concerned.

When a group of survivors offers her food and shelter, she is more than happy to spend a few days, take what she needs, and get out, like she always does. But in a place called Burninghead Farm, despite all her rules and plans, Taylor finds a group of people who have more to offer than the basics of survival. Most of all, there is Kate, a woman who makes Taylor realize love is still alive and makes her dream of a future she thought was no longer possible. If only Taylor can find the courage to fight for it.

It turns out that the end of the world isn't about the end of the world at all, but about what happens after.

Firefighter paramedic Mallory "Ice" James commands a crew of smokejumpers—twenty women and men who eat together, sleep together, and parachute into the face of raging forest fires together—and she has thirty days to whip the rookies into shape. Discipline and teamwork mean the difference between life and death on the line, and she's earned her reputation as cool and controlled in the face of danger. Mallory isn't happy when "Hotshot" Jac Russo shows up unannounced for boot camp along with a reputation for being trouble. Jac is none too pleased about her cold reception, even if the new boss is drop-dead gorgeous and hotter than the blazes they're supposed to be dousing. Mallory and Jac may not like each other much, but lust isn't something either can control—and they soon discover ice burns as fiercely as flame.

A First Responders Novel

Business and pleasure don't mix, especially when the business is murder.

When Aimee Howard, successful boutique real estate broker and socialite, is visited by a team of federal agents looking to arrest her wayward niece, she hires the best defense money can buy. But Aimee begins to question her confidence in the law firm when she learns they've hired a disgraced former police detective to take the lead.

Homicide detective Skye Keaton's shortcuts in the name of justice have finally tipped the scales in the wrong direction. She's lost her job, her pride, and the respect of her family and friends. When an old friend trusts her with a simple task, find a young woman in hiding, she's happy to have the work even though the client is a bossy former debutante who wants to micromanage her every move.

Skye reluctantly decides to let Aimee close to the investigation so she can manage Aimee's expectations, but their professional proximity quickly takes a turn toward passion. Despite their best defenses, as they work together to regain what they've lost, both women find the magnetic attraction that develops between them hard to resist.