This month we are celebrating our LGTBQ+ authors and books with LGTBQ+ themes and characters. Each book, story and shared experience paves the way towards a more inclusive future. It helps people see from a different perspective, and perhaps, increase understanding and change attitudes. Sharing a personal experience with the public isn’t easy but it is empowering. Thank you for sharing your story.

David Scott
Stargazer

At the age of seventeen, his life changed dramatically when his father died and David took on the running of the family cinemas and drive-in theatres. Puberty and not coming to terms with being gay plagued David who had to keep his sexuality secret in his small home town.

His career includes forty years as a film exhibitor; establishing a horse stud; managing a motel; working in the hospitality industry, and a few other experiences along the way. David’s latest book, Stargazer, is an autobiography highlighting the value of family, ingenuity, bravado, old-fashioned common sense, colourful characters and unfailing good humour. From rural towns in Victoria and New South Wales, to the mountain life in Queensland, the constant has been faithful canine companions, perseverance and a joy for living.

Dani Carlisle
Whiskey Cult: Can you survive the demons?

Dani Carlisle is a non-binary author, parent, poet who whose book Whiskey Cult: Can You Survive the Demons? is about a young person’s struggle with self-identity, coming out, mental health and addiction.

“Growing up, we all have our struggles. We all have our demons. Young adults and teenagers can juggle everything from adolescence, self-acceptance, coming out, mental health, addiction, and finding a place to feel truly at home in the world.“

Tony Williams
The Way Life Is

In his memoir, Tony Williams, a psychologist for many years, asks the big questions that arise from the effects and experiences of life. He gives us an insight into how our past experiences shape our very lives and what we bring to our relationships with significant others and with ourselves.

In his book, The Way Life Is, Tony explores the “big” issues of growing up different, exploring among other things, the influences and effects of family, trauma, of bullying, of an emerging and accepting of gay sexuality, of manhood and marriage and children, financial difficulties, of travel and higher education, of work and relationships.

Ron Kearse
Just Outside of Hope: Sequel to Road Without End

Ron Kearse writes a combination fiction/memoir on the evolution of queer culture in Western Canada from the 1970’s to present.

Ron Kearse finds inspiration in travelling, photography, art, reading, and history. An artist, broadcaster, actor, and writer, Ron has a colourful and varied work resumé. Having lived a nomadic life, Ron has finally settled in Victoria, BC where he lives with his partner James Howard. Just Outside of Hope is the second installment in the Road Without End Trilogy, he has also published a photo book of Vancouver Street Art in the mid-1980s called Lost History.

Alexandra Jones
Same

Same is a sweet little story that has to do with transitioning genders.

This book is written in collaboration with the illustrator, Alexandra’s father. Alexandra is an early childhood educator who hopes to spread love and acceptance to young children around the world. Her father is an artist who feels passionately about helping children understand and accept each other’s unique qualities.

“We hope for our story to be heard and shared among children and families who see the joy and light in people the way we do!“

Carol Thompson Gardner
Lily Loves Beards

Lily Loves Beards is a heartwarming story about the unconditional love and acceptance between a father and his gender-creative child.

Carol has been a part of the LGBTQ+ community since she was a young adult and it is with deepest gratitude for this embrace, that she return this love and compassion back to her community through her voice. Carol lives on the west coast of British Columbia with her partner Bodhi and their little dog, Bear.

Giovanna Lucignano
Thor the Troublemaker & Louis the Lovebug

Giovanna Lucignano has two children’s books. Thor The Troublemaker features a family with two moms. Louis the Lovebug includes an interracial marriage.

There are many families that are diverse in one way or the another. The books are written for an open-minded audience who wish to see something new and outside of a typical family. Both books teach children that all families are different, sometimes imperfect, but always beautiful.

Scott Mainprize
A Waking Life: As I Leave Myself, Fear and Death Behind

Scott Mainprize is a gay, Jain, fourth-generation Algonquin who holds a Bachelor of Education, Master of Social Work and Juris Doctor. He currently works as a lawyer and professor of restorative justice. He has previously taught in Arctic, Quebec, worked in a homeless shelter and AIDS hospice, and has been a student-prosecutor across north-western Ontario. He is not dead; but, he does not have an appendix. Also, he thinks he is funny.

A Waking Life is the story of Nomad Truestar’s journey through the darkness of a single night. After his appendix ruptures, he wakes to the hollow nothingness of isolation. Not knowing whether he will live or die, Truestar begins the quest of confronting the meaning woven into his fragmented life. With the help of a curious quartet of guides, including a wild cat, an Arctic wolf and the woman he believes to be Death, Truestar travels through time and beyond the space he appears confined to, in an exploration of the perceived self, the connected universe and even death.

Jane Stone
Riot Radio

Riot Radio is about a girl named Sasha, a self-proclaimed weirdo, who being kicked out for being gay. She does what every self-proclaimed weirdo does when they have nowhere to go, moves to the city. She is surprised when a record store owner leaves his store to her and she decides to turn it into the biggest underground radio station the world has ever seen.

Jade Stone is an avid fiction reader and lover of modern poetry. She is also an avid animal lover and has two cats who love to keep her company. She is also a vinyl record and thrift store enthusiast.

Laura E O’Shea
Journey Forward

I believed in my friends more than myself…They had convinced me to leave my family to stop my dad from sexually assaulting me. Being there for my family was my life. I thought our small LGBTQ+ community would be my chosen family. We survived suicidal ideation and sexual assault, but our lives overwhelm and divide us. What happens when my friends are gone? I try to take steps forward with my education and friendships. I am not sure if I am enough. Who am I now?

Laura E. (Elizabeth) O’Shea has a lifelong appreciation of listening to, reading, and writing stories. She has written fiction since she was a child. Laura has completed her post-graduate studies. The idea for Laura’s first novel Journey Forward was inspired while attending university.