Lori Perkins's Blog, page 2

The Binge Watcher’s Guide to The West Wing Published to Tie-In with the DNC; 25th Anniversary of the Show

As all eyes turn to the Democratic National Convention, Riverdale Avenue Books has released The Binge Watchers' Guide to the West Wing. The 10th book in Riverdale’s innovative Binge Watchers series looks back at the classic television show as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, as well as how the political ethics and situations can be viewed through today’s political prism.

Aaron Sorkin's political drama had an enormous influence on American politics. The show is a time capsule from the political moment after the Berlin Wall fell, but before 9/11. it also influenced political dramas including Shonda Rhimes' Scandal and even sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation.

This volume focuses on the first two seasons, examining how the television show explains political issues, scandals, and vision. The West Wing was a show about political optimism, something that just might be returning to the current political landscape with the nomination of Kamala Harris.

The author, Joshua Stein, Ph.D., said he has been working on this book for nearly a decade. “I wanted to write this book because The West Wing is an opportunity to explore what politics should be, and what it isn’t.” He also shared that he cut his political teeth by watching the show with his own father who worked on Al Gore’s Presidential campaign when Stein was a child and later ran for City Council in Oakland California. Stein added, “The West Wing…was the way my dad taught me about politics and values. The show was optimistic that politics could improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society, provide for common good, and engage publicly with the moral issues of our time.”

So Excited to be Publishing THE BINGE WATCHERS GUIDE TO THE WEST WING

To tie in with the Democratic National Convention and the 25th Anniversary of the show.

Pre-sale up now!

Official SantaCon Anthology to Be Published by Riverdale Avenue Books Call for Stories

SantaCon, the annual international Christmas parade of holiday celebration in cities throughout the world, has teamed up with Riverdale Avenue Books, a boutique publisher in New York City, to publish an anthology of short stories featuring the event.

The collection of Christmas-themed stories will be published the week of Thanksgiving in ebook and trade paperback and proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to SantaCon’s charity of choice.

Although the annual SantaCon event is known for its day of celebration through the streets of major cities, SantaCon also raises funds for charity. It brings together people who would never have met otherwise, has saved lives, made marriages (and probably caused a few divorces too). SantaCon and Riverdale Avenue Books will put together an anthology of the most creative stories that could conceivably take place during or around SantaCon – romances, mysteries, horror (Krampus anyone?), even science fiction, time travel, literary fiction, you name it.

Said Publisher Lori Perkins, “As a New Yorker who has participated in and watched this glorious event every year, I have always been enthralled and titillated by the stories that can emerge around this festival of Christmas hijinks. This is the opportunity to tell those tales, as well as raise money for charity. I am thrilled to be publishing this.”

The call for short stories is can be found at https://riverdaleavebooks.blogspot.co...

BAD INK: How the New York Times Sold Out Transgender Teens Just Pubbed

A much-needed book that only becomes more necessary by the day, Wilchins' BAD INK presents an unflinching, clear-eyed analysis of the Times’ role in reversing the course of trans rights."

— Herron Walker, W Magazine

“I can’t stop reading this book! BAD INK is the clearest, most coherent dissection of the Times’ decision to trade journalistic integrity for clicks at the expense of trans kids. Every mainstream reporter should read this book.”

— Kate Sosin, The 19th News


“The Times' crusade against transgender youth will go down as one of the journalism scandals of our age. But we don't have to wait for history's verdict—thanks to the timely, essential work of Riki Wilchins’s BAD INK.”

— Evan Urquhart, Assigned Media



Bad Ink by award-winning trans author/activist Riki Wilchins is being published by Riverdale Avenue Books. Bad Ink is the definitive inside story of how and why the newspaper of record suddenly became the nation’s leading voice for attacking transgender kids.

Wilchins documents how—beginning in 2015 just as A. G. Sulzberger was taking the reins of Publisher—the Times shifted from its historic support for transgender rights to suddenly embark on what Popula’s Tom Scocca called “a plain old-fashioned newspaper crusade” that consumed nearly 70,000 words in dozens of articles—many splashed across its front pages.

The Times relentlessly attacked trans teens’ right to transition, to medical care, to sports participation—even the idea they actually were trans. But as Bad Ink shows, all this wasn’t based on new studies or fresh reporting, but on pseudoscience and disinformation manufactured by Christian nationalist hate groups just as they and their MAGA allies in state legislatures were introducing over 1,000 bills criminalizing nearly every aspect of trans kids’ lives.

Bad Ink makes the case that this was all apparently part of Sulzberger’s plan to remake the liberal rag for the digital age by appealing to a fast-growing right-wing readership.

And unfortunately, it worked.

Review copies at www.NetGalley.com Reviewers/academics free copies by emailing TransTeensMatter@gmail.com

RAB's Magnus Imprint Publishes College Jocks and Frat House Bros

After his self-published collection of gay erotic short stories Frat Boys and Dorm Rooms made Amazon’s audio bestseller list, Matthew Cooper has teamed up with award-winning LGBTQ Imprint Magnus Lit to release his second collection of hot tales of university life, College Jocks and Frat House Bros: Gay Erotic Stories from University Life.

Cooper explained how glad he is to be releasing this new collection into the world. “As we conclude our celebration of another Pride Month, I think about what it means to be gay in the world today. We continue our fight for our political and social rights, safety, and acceptance. And here I am in my tiny apartment in Wilton Manors, Florida, a hub of gay culture and society, writing steamy, sex-fueled stories. And that's what my stories are meant to be. A celebration. A celebration of gay sexuality. Unapologetically erotic. Proudly sexual. Enjoy.”

College. A time to figure out who you really are. Get out of your parents’ house and experience the world on your own. A time to try new things, experiment, and have the time of your life. Sure, there are the books and the classes and all those late nights studying in your dorm room. But the true college experience is about growing, learning, and discovering yourself—and what your body can do.

The young men in these stories are eager, willing, horny, and ready for anything. From frat parties, community showers, dorm rooms, come back to the best four years of your life and read stories of hook-ups, new love, sexual awakening, and erotic connections.

Who was it for you? The student athlete, the quiet nerd, the partying frat boy? They’re all here in College Jocks and Frat House Bros. And you’re invited to the all-night rager. Meet Josh, who has a parking lot run-in with a hot sexy stranger. Peek in on Issac, the dorm roommate who doesn’t lock the door and doesn’t mind if you watch. Bump into your R.A. just when you need a place to crash. There are frat parties to attend, community showers to cruise, and cramped dorm rooms to hunker down in. Just make sure the door is locked – unless you don’t mind being caught.

The book is available as an ebook, audiobook, trade paperback and hardcover wherever books are sold.

A Romance Novel and a Memoir about Breast Cancer

Award-winning publisher Riverdale Avenue Books has released Perennial: A Garden Romance, a romance novel, and Tornado, A Breast Cancer Log, memoir in journal form, for Breast Cancer Awareness month, which occurs every October.

The author of both titles, acclaimed author Mary Anne Mohanjah wrote Tornado, her day-by-day detailed journal as a blog during her three- year journey through breast cancer diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation and reconstructive surgery. It is a bold, honest look at this experience that one in eight women living today go through.

Mohanraj also used her breast cancer journey to create a beautiful novel of romance and rebirth with a main character who has undergone this experience in Perennial.

Said Publisher Lori Perkins, who is a breast cancer survivor herself, “Perennial is the kind of book I really needed to read when I was undergoing treatment. It lifted both my spirits and my soul.”

About the Author
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion and The Stars Change, founder of Strange Horizons and director of The Speculative Literature Foundation. Previous anthologies she's edited include The Best of Strange Horizons, vol. 1, Aqua Erotica, and WisCon Chronicles, vol. 9: Intersections and Alliances, which was recently long-listed for the BSFA Awards. Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her research and writing interests include Sri Lanka and its civil war, transnationalism and diaspora, domesticity and parenting, chronic illness, science fiction, and sexuality.

Transgender Icon Riki Wilchins Blasts Texas Legal Battle Against Trans Kids in New Book

WHEN TEXAS CAME FOR OUR KIDS

How Evangelical Extremists Launched a War on Transgender Teens


If we went back to 2020, we would be shocked at lives of transgender children—they change their names and birth certificates, played school sports, and got puberty blockers and hormones freely in all 50 states.

But in just three years it would all disappear. By the end of 2023, over 1,000 bills would be introduced more than half of state legislatures that sought to criminalize nearly every facet of their lives.

What happened?

‘WHEN TEXAS CAME FOR OUR KIDS’ is the first and the definitive account of how white Christian nationalists— enraged from a string of devasting Supreme Court defeats—pivoted from gay people to transgender youth and made them the new face of the culture war.

And it all began in Texas, which enacted the first effective ban on gender-affirming care by redefining it as felony child abuse, instantly criminalizing hundreds of loving families overnight and sending many fleeing across its borders in panic.

‘WHEN TEXAS CAME FOR OUR KIDS’ is packed with scores of on-the-ground interviews and never-before-told detail collected over years of research.

Also available is the companion book—"WHEN LOVING YOUR KID IS A CRIME: PARENTS OF TRANSGENDER YOUTH SPEAK OUT.” Nine first-person accounts by families who fled Texas and other red states because they feared their queer child would be taken from them and placed into state foster care.

Review copies of both available at www.NetGalley.com or by contacting TransTeensMatter@gmail.com

---

Riki Wilchins is the author of a 10 books on queer theory and transgender politics, including
Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender
Gender Queer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary
Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Prime
Burn the Binary: Selected Writings on the Politics of Trans, Genderqueer & Nonbinary
TRANS/Gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, & the Media

Riverdale Avenue Books
Lori Perkins, Publisher www.riverdaleavebooks.com

Gay Erotic Romance Author Ryan Field Has Passed Away

I received an email from the husband of one of my favorite writers last night informing me that my author had passed away that morning.

It shook me.

I knew Ryan Field was sick. He told me in August that he wouldn’t be able to work on any new projects for the immediate future because he had started chemo, but I hoped he would push through and rally after treatment (as I did with my own breast cancer) and because I didn’t even want to consider a world without Ryan Field.

I started working with Ryan in 2007 when we spoke on the phone and he told me he used to love het rom coms, but always switched the sexes in his mind. We both agreed that we loved An Officer and a Gentleman and he quickly dashed off An Officer and His Gentleman for Ravenous Romance, where I was then the Editorial Director. It not only charmed me but many of our readers, and he went on to re-tell many of the rom coms of popular culture from a gay point of view — When Harry Met Sal, Gay Pride and Prejudice, Pretty Man, etc. One of my favorite titles that he wrote for me was Valley of the Dudes, his retelling of the Jacqueline Susann classic Valley of the Dolls.

He brought so much creativity and joy to the romances he wrote for us. I was always eager to see what he came up with.

The last original title we worked on together was The Wizard of Pride, a gay retelling of The Wizard of Oz, and it is classic Ryan Field.

I will miss him so much, although he must have written close to 100 books over the past 25 years when he was making his living as a writer. I haven’t read them all, so I know where to go when I need a friend.

But I will miss him every day.

Don’t ever think that an editor doesn’t truly adore her authors. He was really a part of my editorial family.

We’re going to try to work on putting together some sort of award/grant/memorial/prize in Ryan’s name, so please look here for that announcement. And if you want to help, or have ideas, please feel free to reach out to me, lori@riverdaleavebooks.com.

What It Means When We Say October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I’ve known October was Breast Cancer Awareness month for much of my adult life, being very familiar with the pink ribbon and some of the fund-raising events.

Even though I had read that breast cancer detection was up in the past few decades, and that women were getting breast cancer more often at a younger age (under 40), I somehow thought I would be immune. I thought that if I did get cancer, it would be a result of my young adult smoking or some genetic pre-disposition from my dad’s side of the family where we’d managed to get lung, colon and pancreatic cancers.

I went to get my annual mammogram a few months late after we were let out of lockdown (15 months instead of 12) and was shocked when the technician said, “you need to schedule a biopsy as soon as you leave this office.” I had breast cancer.

That’s when I learned that one out of eight American women get breast cancer.

And when I started telling friends and family that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I found that I knew a lot of women who had had breast cancer--my next door neighbor, my publicist, my journal-writing teacher, my fellow authors (especially my romance-writing colleagues). I also met two men who had had breast cancer (carriers of the BRCA gene). I was shocked, because it was everywhere, and I never saw it.

So this October, I want you to really see ME, so you can see how pervasive this illness is, and yet how fortunate we are to live in a time when breast cancer is “the good cancer,” and so many of us cancer survivors can be cured and/or treated.

I guarantee you that someone you know is going through a breast cancer scare, or being treated for breast cancer, or is taking care of someone with breast cancer right now.
There are many ways to translate breast cancer awareness into support.

Of course, you can donate money, especially to the various Hope Kits that sent out by the National Breast Cancer Foundation (https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/...). They really make a difference when you feel so alone.

Once I was better (after surgery, chemo and radiation), I donated my time to start a journaling through cancer writing workshop at Mt. Sinai, where I had been treated. It is my way of giving back.

I also published two breast cancer books at Riverdale Avenue Books. Perennial is a sweet breast cancer romance, which I would have LOVED as a gift when I was undergoing chemo and convinced no one would ever love me again.

The same author, Mary Anne Mohanraj, kept meticulous, detailed, heartfelt notes of her own battle with cancer, chemo, radiation and reconstruction which we published as Tornado. This is an honest guide of what lies ahead for the breast cancer patient. You can get digital copies of both of these books 50% off with the code PINK on the riverdsleavebooks.com website.

If you know someone going through this can, give a little extra love and good vibrations. It means the world.

Celebrate Charles Bukowski's 103rd Birthday with Bukowski on Film

– August 16th would have been the 103rd birthday of the acclaimed San Francisco author and poet Charles Bukowski and New York Times best-selling author Marc Shapiro has spent the past year interviewing directors and actors who have worked with Bukowski over the years to bring us the definitive volume on Bukowski ‘s contribution to cinema in the just published Bukowski:On Film

If ever there was a match made in hell, it was legendary writer Charles Bukowski and the movies. Bukowski hated movies and moviemakers with a passion. The late writer would often chronicle his dislike in short stories, poems and novels. On the other hand, Hollywood filmmakers, from all strata of the industry, flocked to the powerful, raw and magnetic energy of his stories and poems and the cinematic possibilities they held.

Marc Shapiro delves into this complex hate/love relationship between author and auteur(s) with countless interviews of those who made cinematic sense of all levels of Bukowski films, from student efforts, to art house, to even the short experimental ones. The book also explores the obscure Bukowski films that were not so much released as escaped to. Of course, Shapiro also looks closely at the handful of major studio features coupled with close Bukowski confidants who offered up their reasoning behind the late author's hatred for the industry that, in many cases, he profited from.

Bukowski: On Film takes a deep, probing, often humorous and psychologically insightful, look at Bukowski and those who were driven by passion to try to get Bukowski right.

Shapiro is currently working on a group biography of Beatle Kids for Riverdale Avenue Books to be published in 2024.