George Seaton (2)Resenhas

I love finding a new (to me) author whose writing is so beautiful and evocative and poignant and heartfelt that when I pause in my reading, it's to find my cheeks wet with tears. Only my most favourite authors manage to do this. And George Seaton has joined that select group.

Highly recommended!

4.5 stars! LOVED it!!!

A holiday story of a different kind, ‘Whispers of the Old Winds’ is mysterious and unusual, suspenseful and emotionally touching. It successfully combines some legends of Native Americans with certain mystic abilities rooted in Catholicism - to create an entirely new outlook on the strange events in Pine County that newly elected Sheriff Sam and his artistic husband Michael find themselves in the middle of. I loved how the first few pages pulled me into what seemed like a contemporary murder mystery, only to open up into the mystical realm in small, almost unnoticeable steps until I was left with a tale that can only be explained and believed if you take into the account the supernatural – or something like that.

Sam is a former soldier with more than a few traumatic events in his past, leaving him with demons that still haunt him. His husband of a few years, artist Michael, is of Italian descent and is the only one who makes Sam’s life bearable when the nightmares surface. Sam is all about facts and reality, but Michael clearly has links to something outside what most people perceive. How far this goes emerges slowly as pre-Christmas events unfold in the small town where they live. I loved how Sam didn’t even begin to notice that something was more off than usual until about the last third of the story. And he is remarkably open-minded about the whole situation. It certainly had me fascinated.

If you like holiday stories with a touch of the unusual, if two men who are deeply in love and uniquely suited to help each other deal with the “darkness” intrigue you, and if you’re looking for a read that is as imaginative and even creepy as it is touching, then you will probably like this short story.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

Set (mostly) in Texas, this novella is about bull riding, two somewhat lost men who help each other define who they really are, and a whole lot of traveling, morally questionable goings-on, and the need to find a home. ‘Shane Thorpe Knew Jesus and Rode Bulls’ (what a title!) is part of the ‘States of Love’ series that offers stories of romance that span every corner of the United States. It gives a great feel for a way of life and a way of thinking more than actual geographical information, and that style makes it different from the first two books in this series. The characters are at the center of this story but there are also lots of details that say “Texas” with a healthy dose of Colorado thrown in as a bonus.

Joe is a lost soul in more ways than one. His single mother raised him the best way she is able, he has big plans to go to college, but Fate has other ideas. His mother dies on his high school graduation day, and he ends up leaving Colorado with his best friend, Harley, to chase their dream of riding bulls and living in Abilene, Texas. Harley, having had to grow up quickly to escape his bast*rd of a father, teaches Joe a lot about “real life” – including how to make “withdrawals”. Robbing gas stations and small convenience stores, in plain English. I have to admit I had trouble liking Joe because of this cavalier attitude toward other people’s money. I could see where he was coming from, and he was always “nice” about it – never actually pulling the gun he carried – but still. Despite all of this I found myself liking him when he had to go through Harley dying three years into their trip, and even more when he took Shane under his wing and helped him accept that he is gay.

Shane grew up in a religious household, was told that being gay is a sin, and is only slowly beginning to withdraw from his mother’s clutches. Shane knows he is gay, has even experimented with a friend in high school, but he is scared to admit it and incur the Lord’s wrath. When he meets Joe in a bar right after Harley’s death and rescues him, it is the beginning of a friendship that gradually shows Shane there is another way of looking at his sexuality. The changes are so slow they are almost not noticeable, but it was great to see how Shane grows and changes to the point where he can admit that he likes Joe as way more than a friend and begins to move forward.

The pace of this story is slow, there are flashbacks and lots of back story told after the fact, and even the action part, when a Texas Ranger begins to trace Joe’s “withdrawals”, is in no way hectic. By the time that ranger gets closer to Joe, I was so involved in Joe and Shane’s story that I hoped the ranger would never catch him; Joe had made me into his accessory, and that made me smile.

If you like stories with lots of local flavor and intriguing characters, if bull riders and rodeos are your thing, and if you’re looking for an entertaining character study with a touch of criminal activity, then you might enjoy this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

Big Diehl: The Road Home... started as a short story in "Big Diehl." Its now grown in to a full fledged novel with a bit of a whodunit thrown in. I don't think you need to read the former since the majority of the short is contained within the novel. (Not that it's not a great read.)

Nutshell: This story is about looking towards the future, while at the same time letting go of a hurtful past.

So many great characters in this book. 4.5 stars.

Even if it’s presented as a collection of short stories with the common thread of being all about the men living inside the Palisade, an apartment complex gathered to gays in the 1981’s Denver, I think this is also like a journal of the author himself; one of the men is the “writer” and his partner David, and in the little bio we found at the end of the novel, it says that George Seaton shares his life with his partner of twenty-eight years, David… 2011 minus 28 and we arrives to 1983… but maybe the author wrote this collection some years ago?

It’s not long but George Seaton managed to have me caring for all the men we briefly met, all of them, even the one who are clearly fated to tragedy, actually maybe even more for them. Michael Cardona, the barman, always searching for a good lay, not really caring for names and faces; 51 years old Maynard and 21 years old Brad, Daddy and kept boy, a relationship not destined to last; Jack O’Hayre, who I think, is only needing to find the right man, someone who can really take care of him; Jaime Guzman, the drag queen; Richard Smith, the nurse with a big heart (wouldn’t be he right for Jack?); Ronnie Jensen, the Vietnam veteran, who is searching in an horse, Joe, the way to put all his love in a place where it’s safe, where it cannot be taken by him; and then two of my favourite, college kids Matt and Shawn, so young and in love, so much into each other that I have hope for them it will be different, since there is no danger lurking for them outside, there is no “outside” in their relationship.

We know (or at least I think I know) that, even if the writer and David hadn’t it easy, and they went through some very bad situations, they managed to have their happily ever after; we also know, from the words of the writer, that many who were living in the Palisade where not so lucky, but the writer is not ready, or willing, to share the names of who didn’t make it. What of Ronnie, Matt, Shawn, Richard? They seemed to be the luckier, they seemed to have, even if from different ages and experiences, found the meaning of life. Did they manage to fully live that meaning?

The Palisade is like a metaphor of life in the ’80: gay people managed to build inner circle, closed environment where they could be safe and live as they felt they wanted to live. It wasn’t the real world, the real world scared them, and the real world was scared by them. But they were happy inside closed door. But then AIDS entered their safe haven, and at the beginning they didn’t know the danger was among them. After AIDS there weren’t safe havens nor more, on the contrary, sometime it was right those close environments that were even more dangerous than the real world, sometime, going outside seemed less scaring than staying inside.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JKEJNU/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Even if the book starts and ends with Tom and Stephen, I found that this is really a “shared” novel, shared by the many descendents of some old money Denver families, among which we distinguish Merriweather, Marty and Elizabeth. Marty and Elizabeth, being a lesbian couple, and having a really important role in the story, makes this really a LGBT novel.

More than a romance, Finding Deaglan is a gothic novel. It’s strange since usually Colorado, Denver, or the ancient Native American legends are not the stuff of gothic novels, but that is the feeling this novel left me, and I think the author wanted to pay an homage to those novel naming the old family home of Stephen, Gaylord. Gaylord was the title of the main character of Gaywick, which is believed to be the first gay gothic romance, by Vincent Virga.

Stephen, Merriweather, Marty, and all the others, are the descendents of men who did great wrong to the Native Americans and above all to their sacred wolves. One of them in particular was a mystical animal, with great power, and the removing of its earthly body (and that of his pack) was not enough to defeat its power. Wolf is still searching vengeance, and the vengeance has to be taken upon these descendants, even if they are innocents, even when they are still babies, like Deaglan, the baby that Marty and Elizabeth finds on a lake shore, a little, wonderful, intelligent baby. If you think, like me, that is cruel, you have also to consider that Mother Nature is cruel too. I think there is an hidden message here, that if we think that we can do everything to Mother Nature and that she will not be harsh with us since we are her sons, then we are sorely mistaking. Everything we do of bad against the earth, the earth will slash back to use double, in the end.

I had really great difficult to accept the sad fate that was falling upon Stephen and Tom, or Marty, Elizabeth and Deaglan, since they seemed not guilty of the same sins of their ancestors. Stephen and Tom are young and kind, with Oscar, their dog, they have everything that can be reconduct to an ordinary family (and Oscar, being a dog, put them in that share of population believing that also animals have soul); Marty and Elizabeth instead are middle age, again a more than ordinary couple, and Deaglan is their chance to add to that family a child. Both these couples don’t deserve the vengeance of Wolf, but that is, they will suffer it.

Finding Deaglan is very long, like the other book by George Seaton I read, Big Diehl. Apparently George Seaton shares yet another thing in common with those old fashioned novels, the number of pages. But actually for this novel it’s the right length, since, as I said, this is not only the story of two men, Stephen and Tom, but that of many, many characters. All of them would be probably worthy of more words, but in the end, if I have to do my pick, surprisingly enough, my choice would be Marty and Elizabeth, and the beautiful, big eyed Deaglan.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608202976/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

I remember with pleasure the novella with the same character, Big Diehl, a barely legal boy who searched in the Army a way out his nightmare but also the family he was missing. Oddity of life was that leading off to a life in the Army, he also find another way, an isolated ranch owned by a lesbian couple, Chris and Maddie, who made her life to offer shelter to all these young boys and girls who are misfit of society. But for Big it was too late, or maybe too soon, he needed to go out and be in the Army, and prove to himself that he has a reason to be in this world.

Diehl left home and his first love, Joe, a same age kid who had not the courage to explore possibilities, as Diehl did. Maybe if Joe was with him, Diehl would have not joined the Army, to not leave Joe alone. But he had no bonds to stop him; during his life in the Army, Diehl met other boys, to his eyes they were replica of Joe, and he poured in them all the love he had for Joe and was not able to express. In reality, I think all these boys were replica of Diehl himself, and he loved them all since he wanted to be love only by one, Joe.

In the previous novella, I was quite taken aback by the fact that Diehl, even if he has clearly a good man waiting for him at home, Tony, another “host” of Maddie and Chris’s ranch, was not able to love him back as Tony deserved. Diehl is not a don juan, he doesn’t love them all since he is not able to feel real love; I think he is simply already taken, he is not free to be the right one for them, since he is already “promised” to Joe, even if he believes Joe doesn’t want him back.

When Diehl gets out of the Army, before heading back to the ranch, he decides to visit his father, to resolve a question that influenced all his life; he is not planning, or hoping, to meet Joe, and when it happens, it’s not with an angry disposition. Diehl doesn’t blame Joe for anything, he thinks to understand him and his reasons, and in any case, Diehl loves Joe, and if you love someone, you have to forgive him everything. So, when Diehl meets again Joe, it’s a good and sweet encounter, there are no recriminations or regrets, and they are able to clear things between them without losing other time, thank to Diehl’s good heart.

It’s strange, Diehl is so mature and quiet that he seems older and wiser than how he really is. He calls the boys he met during his life “kids”, like they are younger and in need of protection, and instead Diehl is this old man with all past experience to teach him lessons. And instead Diehl is barely old than them, 24 years old is still really young. It’s not age who taught him a lesson, it was life, a life someone his age should have not known. Despite the sadness to know that someone stole Diehl’s youth, there is at least the hope that he has still time, that he can have 50 or 60 or 70 years of happiness ahead of him, that when he will finally set somewhere, with the man of his dreams, he will have time to enjoy his life, and to replace bad memories with good ones.

Big Diehl is not a thriller or a adventure packed plot; it’s more a peaceful paced plot, while reading it you have the feeling of hot and still summer afternoons, of being able to listen to the nature sounds since there are no artificial sounds to cover them.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RISHVG/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Big Diehl is probably the story of many soldiers who searched a family in the Army since they didn’t feel to have one at home. They are so focused in their search that sometime they don’t realize that there could be a family even out of the Army. The problem with Diehl is that he is not at peace with himself and so he is not able to find only a place, and only a man, to love. Diehl loves them all, he is able to find the lonely souls like himself, and for a little bit, they share the loneliness, but the loneliness never leaves them. Joe, Tony, Denman, Michael, all of them are soul mates, all of the could have been the right man, but there is always something, when Diehl is there in the moment when he has to grab the life at full hand, he goes away, always thinking that it’s not time, always having the previous man in mind, and believing that the present one is not the right one. Diehl has to loose all of them to understand that he has beforehand to forgive himself and the man who made him like that to maybe have a chance at happiness. Big Diehl is not a love story, it’s a self-discovery journey, but the love story, and the end of the journey, can be in the future of Diehl, only now it’s not yet the moment.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002U3CB3E/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Out of the Blue by Josh Lanyon

For once there is no mystery, at least not a mystery unknown to the reader and for which he has to gather proofs. Audrey, nickname Bat, is an English Air Force officer during the WWI; he was in love with Gene, one of his fellow pilots, but this is not their story. Gene is dead, shot down during a flight, and Bat has not even the time to mourn him, his mechanic is blackmailing him, treating to reveal the clandestine and illegal relationship, and Bat can’t allow it. Not only Bat is the son of an earl, and so to preserve the name of his family is essential, he is also worried for the memory of Gene, that can’t be soiled. He probably didn’t plan to kill the blackmailer, but it happens and Cowboy, an American pilot who is fighting side by side with Bat, witnesses the event. Now it’s Cowboy who has a proposition, more than a blackmailing, for Bat: they will be lovers and he will help Bat to hide what happened. Bat is both attracted then repulsed but the offer: attracted since with Gene he has never had a real sexual relationship, and what he feels and does with Cowboy is enticing and addictive; repulsed since it’s against everything he was taught to believe, even the old texts he read with Gene to justify their love: sex was not something that was considered or promoted. In the end, probably Bat thinks that he has nothing to loose, he doesn’t believe that he will see the end of the war and so there is nothing to preserve. This is also the attitude of the author for this novella, it’s all open to possibilities; Bat and Cowboy have two different perspective, Bat refuses to think at the future since he doesn’t believe that he will see it, so he doesn’t even think to what will be, he doesn’t worry of the consequences of what they are doing since he doesn’t believe there will be a consequence; Cowboy instead is resolute to be alive at the end of the war, to go back home, and well, why not?, maybe to bring back Bat with him; what will be is not essential now, to consider the consequences it’s not their main issue. There is quite a clash of culture in here, Bat all old England conventions, reserved and sharp with words, Cowboy all new world America open and friendly, even a bit opportunist, but never false.

Islands by Samantha Kane

During the WWII two men that probably wouldn’t have had any chance otherwise meet: René is a Frenchman and adventurer living in a Polynesian island almost like a small king, and Gabriel is a Navy officer and engineer who comes to ask René’s access to the island for military purpose. Even before Gabriel’s arrival, René was keener of America and Australia than Japan, and he would have probably given his consensus anyway, but when he sees the handsome American officer he decides to play a bit. René, openly gay and quite wanton, at first seduces Gabriel more for fulfil a physical abstinence than for any real love interest, but he ends up in love for the man. Gabe is reserved and cautious, but not against the idea to be seduced; he already knows to have a preferences for men, but till that moment he satisfied his needs with anonymous encounters in dark alleys, he has never had a relationship in the open. True, it’s not that suddenly René and Gabe can have a fairy tale love, even if in an isolated island in the Pacific, there are still some conventions to be respected, but all in all, this is more a nice and simple love story than an historic drama. In the relaxed atmosphere of the island, Gabe will learn to loose a bit his strict behaviour. Among patriotic words and declaration of love, both men manage to retain their masculinity, mixing the French carelessness with the American stoicism and creating a safe haven years before the exotic gay resorts will become so popular.

Coming Home by Victor J. Banis

Just before the war in Vietnam, another revolution was happening in California, the hippies movement, the new flowers sons, the sex freedom. A lot of Marines from the nearby base came to Los Angeles and the Sunset Strip for sex, drugs and rock and roll, but mostly for sex, and Mike considered them his personal hunting reserve. Gays in the closet or curious Straight guys, all of them were good for a one night stand without strings attached. And it was not a decision of the Marines; it was Mike’s decision, probably the output of one more heartbroken. But even if feigning disinterest, Mike is a good guy in the end. One Sunday afternoon he picks up Doug, a very marine of few words but intensive eyes. At first Mike doesn’t understand him, Doug seems willing, even eager, but he is totally inexperienced, and even if he is ready to learn, he has always that detached behaviour, like he was not really interested. Mike is fascinated, and maybe for this reason allows to Doug to come back again the week after, but to his surprise, Doug comes along with a buddy friend, Ryan. They are grown together, in the same little town, and it’s clear that Doug is in love with Ryan; and Ryan maybe is interested, but I don’t think he really loves Doug, at least not as much as Doug loves him back. From lover Mike becomes a best friend and paramour, allowing the two to have a place to stay before being sent in Vietnam. They are happy, at least for a brief moment, but what remains to Mike? As usual Victor J. Banis’ characters are deep and involving, with a layer of fragility over a strong core that allows them to always survive, maybe with a crack, but not totally broken. And it’s not only Mike that has that fragility, also Doug, with his deep brown spaniel’s eyes that supplies the lack of words of a man who is not used to talk of feeling, also Doug is someone who needs a safe shelter; Ryan is the first love, probably the passion, but Mike is that safe shelter.

Big Diehl by George Seaton

Big Diehl is probably the story of many soldiers who searched a family in the Army since they didn’t feel to have one at home. They are so focused in their search that sometime they don’t realize that there could be a family even out of the Army. The problem with Diehl is that he is not at peace with himself and so he is not able to find only a place, and only a man, to love. Diehl loves them all, he is able to find the lonely souls like himself, and for a little bit, they share the loneliness, but the loneliness never leaves them. Joe, Tony, Denman, Michael, all of them are soul mates, all of the could have been the right man, but there is always something, when Diehl is there in the moment when he has to grab the life at full hand, he goes away, always thinking that it’s not time, always having the previous man in mind, and believing that the present one is not the right one. Diehl has to loose all of them to understand that he has beforehand to forgive himself and the man who made him like that to maybe have a chance at happiness. Big Diehl is not a love story, it’s a self-discovery journey, but the love story, and the end of the journey, can be in the future of Diehl, only now it’s not yet the moment.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934531030/?tag=elimyrevandra-20