Robert J. Halliwell: “My own experiences with love and romance influence me massively. I’m not the sort of person who can write things that I have no connection to.” AS WE celebrate Pride Month, I’m thrilled to feature an Own Voice author whose work brilliantly highlights the importance of diverse voices in fiction, including authentic […]
“Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.” – E.M. FORSTER Cover Image: The First Official Pride Picnic that took place at Hanlan’s Point Beach In August 1971 / A poster of the 1973 Gay Pride Week in Toronto. The year I was born! RIGHT NOW, it’s a particularly tumultuous time for members […]
Nicholas Young: “I’m sure my sexuality influences my writing subconsciously. It would be strange if it did not.” I WANT to welcome Nicholas Young to the Blog. Nicholas is a Canadian author whose work delves into themes of queerness, memory, isolation, and belonging through intimate, character-driven storytelling. His debut novel, Under the Covered Bridge, is […]
“Bren’s arm wrapped around A.J.’s chest as the first verse started. It was only then, as music poured from the bud snuggled in his ear, that he realized it–even without his Discman, there was always music when he was with Bren.” – Robert J. Halliwell, And Then He Pressed Play: Track One CANADIAN AUTHOR Robert […]
“…we lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” — Margaret Atwood BIRTHDAYS ALWAYS make me think about random, specific moments from my life. Good, bad, and odd. Like that one time my parents forgot my 18th birthday. Yes, I […]
“I stared out the window, watching the shadowy patterns of the rain-soaked beams pass by. This bridge had always felt like a portal, a passage to somewhere else, a place where the world might change, where I might emerge as someone different.” – Nicholas Young, Under the Covered Bridge WRITTEN IN a beautifully stylized, almost […]
“…if you fish for the glory you catch the darkness too… when you hook twice the glory you hook twice the fear.” — Sheila Watson CANADA IS often portrayed as friendly, relaxed, and picturesque, but readers here have a long-standing love for fiction that dives into shadows, secrets, and emotional complexity. The stark bleakness of […]
IN 2025, I reached a momentous milestone with the release of my second Haunted Hearts Own-Voices Gay Paranormal Romance novel, I Will Always Find You. While the first series revolved around ghosts, this installment immerses readers in the spellbinding world of witchcraft in the collection we named Haunted Hearts: Season of the Witch. This multi-author […]
“How do we define the question ‘What makes a man?’ and why are we compelled to define the term at all?” – Angus McLaren, The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries 1870-1930 Angus McLaren’s The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870–1930 (University of Chicago Press, 1997) provides a compelling historical analysis of how masculinity […]
DURING my time at the University of Guelph, while pursuing my English degree with a focus on nineteenth-century literature and Queer Theory, particularly Victorian Gothic, I came across this book while looking for texts to aid with my studies in the field. I still have my original copy, which I picked up at the now-closed […]
