CarboN: The Primitivision is the premiere art book by Lawrence Armondo Hodge (aka CarboN). His new book is a collection of CarboN’s work from 1989 to 2021. This Bay Area native drew his inspiration from many cultures, styles, and art genres. As viewers flip through the pages of his book, it is easy to detect design hints from many civilizations and other artists. Mythological and natural forms can be seen in his drawings and figures from his imagination. The book spans thirty-two years of CarboN’s creative process. This book is broken down into four sections, showing the evolution of CarboN’s stylings.
This book takes the viewer through the years of his progression. Browsing through each section, one gets a sense of how CarboN’s art developed. His early works could be considered flash art. The pieces seem to be smaller and simpler but also detailed. The inkwork is lighter, and the art contains more open spaces. Later works tend to be more complex and abstract. Many later works are very involved, and CarboN explores the whole page. The lines get heavier and darker. At first glance, these larger pieces look like elaborate doodles, but the longer one studies them, the more one sees.
It has been said that all art should evoke emotions. CarboN’s works are no exception. Primarily black and white, some works are repetitive, giving them an Escher-like feel. Others are more in the style of Aubrey Beardsley. With the wide range of influences CarboN cited as his muses, it is hard to put a hard label on his works. Though, if I were to give them a genre, I would have to call his art psychedelic tribal with hints of surrealism and abstractism. It is not hard to lose oneself in the pages of this book for hours. Viewing the later works can be an all-day endeavor. The longer one explores these works, the more one will find.
The beauty of CarboN’s art is on full display in this book. It is well crafted yet simple and elegant. This publication would be a great addition for anyone who collects art books. CarboN holds off explaining his pieces, allowing the viewer to put their thoughts and emotions into how the art makes them feel. This book would be great as a conversation starter, for casual viewing, or in-depth meditations. Aspiring artists could draw motivation from this well-done tome. CarboN: The Primitivision is a highly fulfilling viewing experience.
Lawrence Armando Hodge (aka ~CarboN~) was born in San Leandro CA on October 11, 1970 and spent much of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been consistently honing his drawing style since the mid to late 1980’s.
During his younger years he was drawn to art and design from a multitude of different cultures including Pacific islander tattoo design, Ancient Hindu and Egyptian design, Greek, Norse mythology, Celtic, Far East and Oriental, Japanese woodcuts, Native American, Islamic, and African Tribal.
Major influences include: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Aestheticism, Vorticism, 1960’s and 1970’s psychedelic and Pop Art.
In the year 2040, the world’s transportation is dominated by a highly advanced artificial intelligence system.
However, this seemingly perfect technology collapses, resulting in catastrophic disasters and the loss of millions of lives worldwide.
The disaster is dubbed Mayday, and its aftermath affects everyone. But was it simply a malfunction, or is there a more nefarious agenda at work? Who is accountable for the mass slaughter, and why was it carried out?
Order your copy and find out if the rise of AI, will be the fall of civilization!
★★★★★“LeKodak’s stellar debut is a science fiction thriller that utilizes elements of speculative fiction, apocalyptic fiction, and conspiratorial mystery in a globe-hopping narrative that chronicles a group of adventurers trying to unravel who—or what—was behind a software malfunction that killed tens of millions of innocent people. It is well-written, relentlessly paced, and thematically profound, and will surely appeal to fans of SF thrillers by luminaries like Clarke, Dick, and Crichton. This is the good stuff.”
Paul Goat Allen, BlueInk Review
★★★★★“It’s refreshing to see a talented author like LeKodak take the trope into the dystopian disaster novel niche and deliver an action-packed tale that gives just as many blockbuster thrills as it does intelligent technological questions. The plot and its themes are the primary focus, but in the ensemble cast of characters caught in the crossfire, each one has good solid development and moments to shine. I recommend The Dawn of AI to enthusiasts of intricately penned and exciting science fiction everywhere.”
K.C. Finn, Readers’ Favorite Book Review
★★★★★“The characters are extremely well developed, which is quite an accomplishment given how many there are. The most intriguing characters to me are conjoined twins with incredible story arcs and whenever the point of view kicked back to them, for me, it was like a favorite song playing again on the radio.”
Jamie Michele, Readers’ Favorite Book Review
★★★★★“The Dawn of AI connects the dots between characters that I neither expected nor saw coming in a story configuration that has an after-before-after pattern. I love this configuration as it hooks immediately and then goes back to fill in the blanks after I am invested in the plot. Excellent storytelling. Very highly recommended.”
Asher Syed, Readers’ Favorite Book Review
★★★★★“With the rise of Artificial Intelligence being a hot topic in the real world right now, I’m grateful to see such thought-provoking stories that explore this emergent technology’s potential. This book is an easy recommendation to anyone interested in exciting science fiction, which takes a prevailing concern of today’s world and explores it with intelligence and consideration.”
Lexie Fox, Readers’ Favorite Book Review
★★★★★“The pitfalls of giving the machines too much control play out in the storyline of Ryan LeKodak’s novel. His take on an apocalyptic event is so vivid it is frightening to contemplate. The Dawn of AI is a science fiction aficionado’s dream novel.”
Essien Asian, Readers’ Favorite Book Review
★★★★★“In a world where jobs and livelihoods are being increasingly threatened by AI’s potential, this book is a reminder that machine malfunctions will inevitably happen.”
Theresa Kadair, Los Angeles Book Review
About the Author:
Ryan LeKodak is a science fiction author who lives in San Diego, California with his family. After emigrating from Vietnam in 1980 by boat, Ryan dreamed of becoming a doctor and nothing more. But upon learning the sight of blood made him squeamish, he pivoted from premed to begin a thirty-plus-year career in high-tech engineering, IT, quality assurance, and operations. Now a cybersecurity program manager based in San Diego, Ryan juggles a hectic career, raising his twin sons, and appeasing a needy Poochon puppy. At home, his lively boys take center stage, and their colorful comic doodles, adolescent puns, and wildly exaggerated stories from school inspired him to craft fast-paced science-fiction thrillers that explore the ominous potential of a future where AI surpasses human control. Through his writing, Ryan champions the extraordinary strengths that reside within each of us and celebrates the individual quirks that lighten fantastic worlds on the brink of disaster.
Ms. Pretty Rickey: The Street Sweeper is a Force to Be Reckoned with, Infamous Poetry about Chief Officials, Freedom from War, Dirty Money, Narcotics Anonymous, World Affairs and Domestic Crimes. A Whisper of Sweet nothings, Fresh delights of Lasting Love in the mist of Terror’s Electronic Harassment and constant tracking through Satellite. Sweeping the Streets slowly through this short Poetic Book of Awareness
Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories by K. contains a series of short stories bound together by the theme of love during times of trouble. This anthology of stories is incredibly diverse and unique. K. soars above other authors with their sense of language, almost lyrically describing events in an abstractly beautiful way.
However, the prose is often so incredibly poetic that it was difficult for me to figure out what was actually happening. For instance, I had to read “Radius” multiple times in order to figure out what was going on with Mustapha’s brother, and I’m still not entirely sure I understood. There are so many abstract images painted to describe the story that are simultaneously poignant and senseless. During the portion describing Mustapha’s brother, I found myself squinting as if I were trying to decipher a Jackson Pollock painting. I knew it was beautiful, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
Then it’s almost as if a different person picks up the pen to write “Calamity Jane,” wherein a teenage boy is exploring love and sexuality and the seemingly wanton need to tear down all women around him. It wasn’t a story that particularly resonated with me as a reader, mostly due to the amount of denigration focused on teenage girls throughout. The focus is on Jane, in particular, but also on any young girl who happens to wear yoga pants, who is thought of as an object in this young boy’s eyes. He constantly refers to them as “bitches,” and yet, he also constantly notes that they make his genitals “tingle.” If that made you cringe, perhaps skip this particular story. It strikes an ugly chord against the rest of the incredibly beautiful short stories.
In “Dog Whistle,” dogs are cruel in order to appease their masters, but with the touch of a gentle soul, realize the world around them is of their own making. Each story is so different in its own way and love truly ties them all together. I appreciate the different kinds of love woven throughout this story, not just pretty and romantic love. In “The Conversation,” familial love is explored, while in “Head Down,” a cheater falls in love. There were so many different voices within the book that it really felt fleshed out with untold ideas and unique stories. The stories were mostly very short and easy to read.
If you like philosophy, wistfulness, and the notion that love conquers all, this book will be a very enjoyable read for you.
“I think we’re destined to one day despise those quirks we once fell in love with.”
From the opening tale, it is clear that this collection of twelve stories centering around love will be anything but conventional. Survivor’s guilt devours the main character, Mustapha, who survives a bombing in Gaza that claims the lives of his neighbors and own brother, Khalid. In the privacy of his thoughts, he is unable to hide his attraction for Khalid’s widow, Khalila, particularly knowing that the affection is reciprocated. However, outwardly he is resilient, thwarting any advances with the common statement that work needs to be done. The imagery of the fallen families, depicted by the metaphor of fallen branches, their limbs and bodies sprawled together yet mangled in every direction, is haunting. While love is central, the author’s stories transcend beyond simple romance and dive into contextualized and developed worlds that add unique insight into what drives human behavior.
In “Calamity Jane,” the author changes gears, delivering an attention-grabbing opening line: “Jane was a sweet girl once you got past the fact that she was a bitch.” Simply put, the author has a knack for building characters that, while unorthodox, are irresistible and interesting. On the surface, this story could be perceived simply with the purely lust-filled lens of the on-again, off-again relationship of Jane and Jay. However, the perspective of Habib, the main character, provides a spin that is more focused on how much women are taken for granted in relationships. Needless to say, there are underlying themes to every story, albeit subtle, that impel audiences to spend a little more time unraveling the author’s message.
As with Jane and Habib, the sexual tension is prevalent in numerous other stories. For example, in “The Hand,” the main character is mesmerized by one of his supervisors, describing her moist lips and her black suit jacket as being “buttoned to just below her bust line; the silver buttons a fluvial shimmer against her white blouse.” However, the Hand is strongly reminiscent of Orwell’s Big Brother, always watching and controlling what memories are formed and even which memories can be kept (e.g., photographs).
On a similar yet different note, “The Conversation” features a blind character whose sexual tension with the pizza guy is palpable. But digging deeper, the reader can relate with her desire to be free from the shackles and constraints placed by her mother (who encourages Silvia to stay indoors) and the constant juxtaposition of what a parent perceives as protection with what the child feels is suffocation. Perhaps the most intriguing of the stories is “Head Down,” where the instant attraction between Joseph and Shannon, both physically and from a personality standpoint, intersects with Joseph’s tension in an unhappy marriage. A five-day information technology conference in Calgary turns into a whirlwind of passion and romance for the two with lingering effects.
From dystopian stories featuring Game of Thrones-esque great walls, an automaton with a mind of its own, and Greek mythology adaptations to inspired dogs inciting resistance and gardening being a metaphor for life, an element of the unexpected is embedded within each story. Undoubtedly eclectic, each selection takes on a life of its own with electrifying energy and the ability to incorporate themes that will keep ruminating in readers’ minds long after the story is finished.
K., an anti-war advocate, studied English, Religion and Philosophy at University of Toronto and has written fiction for years, publishing several stories in literary magazines. Resistance, Revolution and Other Short Stories is K.’s first book. K. lives in Malton, Ontario, Canada, with their spouse, five children, an American Wirehair cat and a Quaker parrot.
The novel presents a continuation of the lives of Bill McCoy and Susan Myers, key characters in the book, The Go Between. The summer between high school graduation and first year at college finds Bill McCoy working as a handyman on a small farm rented by a woman waiting for the divorce from her abusive husband to be finalized. Bill’s girlfriend, Susan Myers, is serving as a summer intern in the Columbus, Ohio office of a federal congressman. Their separation opens the door for unexpected adventures and personal growth as well as dangers to the two young adults that they could never have anticipated.
One summer had never been as eventful as the one that William Bill McCoy and Susan Myers had in The Summer of In Betweens by Richard Read (Jose Saco). As eighteen-year-old William prepared to graduate and start his first year at OSU, he never anticipated that his last summer would be spent separated from his longtime girlfriend, Susan Myers. However, Susan had been selected for a rare opportunity to be a summer aide at the Columbus office of Congressman Roger Bentley. Thankfully, William had his new summer work at the Chase Estate, working for the newcomer in town, Mrs. Maia Storm. Maia had rented an estate in the town of Hartland, escaping a sticky situation at home. However, it may seem the situation followed her to town. William and Susan were both drawn into new experiences that left them shaken, making the summer one they could never forget.
The book started more like a teenage/young adult story, especially with the background the author had given of the book’s prequel. Initially, it seemed to be a simple story. But as the book progressed, a more intricate and exciting plot was revealed. The story intrigued, shocked, and emotionally engaged me. I liked that the author showed the story from different characters’ points of view. It allowed me to enter the characters’ minds, know what they were thinking and feeling, and connect with them on a deeper level. Read further enhanced readers’ engagement with the book by providing visual aids in the form of pictures.
The book was graphic in a sexual sense. It explored behind the curtains of marriage as it examined delicate issues often tiptoed around in society, like sexual abuse in marriage. Sensitive readers should read with caution. However, lovers of romantic stories might be scintillated by the sexual tension that permeated some parts of the book.
Many of the characters had a warmth about them. Their conversations were punctuated by a lightness and humor that could make readers giggle with good-natured mirth. William and Susan’s characters showed incredible strength and intelligence — a trait that might connect them to the reader. Maia’s character embodied a mental strength and personal conviction that made her character endearing.
Some errors were observed in the book, and I found them disturbing. They bordered on misspelled or wrongly used character names. For example, on Page 236, the name ‘Bannister’ seemed to be a wrongly spelled version of the character Brock Lannister’s name. However, it appeared that Roger Bentley ought to have been there contextually. A similar occurrence was spotted on Page 85 when the character William called another character’s name that he had not yet known at that stage of the story. However, these errors took nothing away from the book’s enjoyment and would only demand further editing.
The Summer of In Betweens was entertaining, and I enjoyed the reading experience. It was exciting and had some action topped off by fun romance. I’d recommend it to lovers of thrillers meshed with some clandestine romance. As a result of the number of errors found, I’d rate The Summer of In Betweens three out of four stars.
OnlineBookClub.org
About the Author:
The author graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in English and then spent two years teaching high school math and English with the Peace Corps in Eritrea. He worked for twenty-five years as a high school counselor and basketball coach for boys and girls teams. Upon retirement, he counseled part-time with sexually abused children and their families. Much of his fictional writing incorporates situations encountered by students and children that he counseled.
Mr. Read lives in northwest Pennsylvania with his wife. They have two daughters, four grandchildren, and two toy poodles. Weather permitting, he enjoys training and competing in sprint triathlons.
From the streets of Mexico to mountains of Wyoming, Juan Velasquez does what is needed to survive and to prosper.
His belief in the rule of law is trumped by his belief in the pursuit of justice, a trait that is passed down to his daughter, Elizabeth, and his granddaughter, Elaina.
Assassination within Juan’s family triggers a homicide investigation that sets off a chain of events leading to betrayal, kidnapping and more death. Deception and devotion become confused and while loyalty has benefits, it also has a cost. When Juan disappears during his unofficial search for the assassin, Elaina deciphers details that could lead her to him. Hesitant to share the information with authorities she sets out on her own, aware that in the undercover world, life is a masquerade and the path to the truth is complex.
That’s the opening portent of Deadly Repercussions, a suspense/mystery story that introduces brothers who are dual citizens of the United States and Mexico.
Alejandro and Manuel have chosen different paths in their lives, but their loyalty and family ties to one another remain consistent until death breaks them and leads one brother to exact revenge while a son left behind is indoctrinated into a street gang.
The fight for justice continues into new generations and a conflict as the story evolves, following Juan into adulthood. A daughter’s safety is left to New Jersey boy Jerod Ventura, who moves from his initial burglary as a young man to become one of Juan’s trusted friends.
The repercussions of murder resonate through different generations, relationships, and experiences. Karen Black weaves a powerful saga of disparate special interests, kidnappings and threats, and forces that clash as times change.
Black is particularly adept at following children into adulthood, from Elaina and Juan to Jarod, showing how family and friendships evolve against the threat and backdrop of violence and change.
Deadly Repercussions moves deftly between and among these disparate lives in a dance with death that keeps altering the characters in unexpected ways.
The mercurial timeline of shifting experiences and interests keeps readers thoroughly immersed in events that challenge relationships with heartache, love, adversity, and wasted lives changed by destructive impulses.
“Life is a masquerade with repercussions that can be deadly.”
Libraries that choose Deadly Repercussions for its special brand of suspense paired with inspections of generations that grow and change under the influence of violence and bad choices will find this story replete in not just suspense and mystery, but murder, loss, and the resonance of events that change future generations.
Book clubs, too, will find its winding progression through choices and consequences sparks lively discussion over the pursuit of justice and its end results.
With a degree in Criminal Justice and an understanding that for some justice trumps the law, in “Deadly Repercussions,” the author combines experience and imagination to weave a complex mystery novel that doesn’t end quite the way you would expect. Black lives in the United States with her husband and a variety of wildlife, as well as two aliens disguised as cats.
Dangerfield’s Promise explores what freedom truly means to two protagonists living in two different centuries. Blending historical events and contemporary fiction with elements of magical realism and psychology, Dangerfield’s Promise weaves the two story lines together as both protagonists search for their families, and ultimately, their souls. Dangerfield Newby, a newly-emancipated black Virginian, wants to buy his wife Harriet and all of his children out of slavery and move them into the free state of Ohio. Harriet’s owner refuses to sell Harriet or any of the children. Outraged but powerless, Dangerfield decides to join abolitionist John Brown, who he has met previously during his travels through Ohio.
Dangerfield sees John Brown’s bold plan to capture the armory in Harpers Ferry and eliminate American slavery as his best option to free his enslaved family. But the insurrection in Harpers Ferry is quickly put down, and Dangerfield is the first of Brown’s men killed in the raid, shot down in an alley as he flees the approaching army. He carries letters from Harriet in his pocket when he dies. Fictional protagonist Michael Turner is a brilliant black surgeon who embodies the late 20th Century American dream. But his success has come at a high price. He is estranged from his family – he regards them as lacking ambition and innate talent. And his family views him as aloof, arrogant, and neglectful of his responsibilities to his family and the black community. After Turner’s dying grandmother tells him that he may be distantly related to Dangerfield Newby, he begins to research this possible link with history, and in the process, uncovers dark family secrets unknown to anyone living.
Reviews:
“Dangerfield’s Promise by Terrance Newby is part Historical Fiction mixed with a transformative journey of self-discovery. Destiny forms a crucial part of Dangerfield’s and Turner’s lives, especially when it comes to each man reaching a fork in the road: Dangerfield in joining the abolitionist fray and whether Turner relinquishes his investigative journey. The splitting of the narrative between past and present makes this excellent book no less compelling. A moving and wonderful book.”
“The book is a must-read for fans of classic historical narratives, like Django Unchained and 12 Years A Slave. Plus, readers who enjoy magical realism will have their fill of thrills with the hair-raising ghost appearances and intriguing visions. Told through multiple third-person perspectives, the book brings different strong characters and times together in a one grand, epic narrative that is perfect for a complete escape from the mundane.
This remarkable story about the inhumane act of slavery will inspire readers to question the practices they view as normal but future generations might find equally deplorable. Dangerfield’s Promise is so lifelike and emotional that it helped me appreciate how far humanity has come—even though there’s still much room for improvement. Terrace had better make it a series because I want more!”
Terrance C. Newby is an attorney, writer, and playwright based in Roseville, Minnesota. His first play, “The Cage,” was professionally staged in St. Paul in 2016. His play, “The Body Politic,” was professionally staged in June 2018. His short stories have appeared in OurEcho and in Straitjackets Magazine. “Dangerfield’s Promise” is his first novel.
A family in turmoil, a dangerous cult, and God at the center of it all, A Break in the Fog is a psychological novel that explores how faith can be used to heal, but also how abuse and how family is all that matters in the end.
With her mother dead, her sister Wendy addicted to drugs, and her father condemning her every decision, Clara Greenwood shoulders the weight of all her dysfunctional family’s problems. Desperate for a way out, she is reluctantly goaded into attending a meeting for a secret school, The Ancient Side of Ideas. She is quickly swept up in the cult, however, when she meets the charismatic Damien – one of its teachers. His charm and good looks melt her skepticisms away, convincing her to give up everything in her old life. But when Clara finds herself in too deep, can she find her way out before it’s too late?
Reviews:
“A Break in the Fog is a beautifully written story with themes of love, addiction, post-traumatic stress, and the true meaning of family. In this book, author Molly Salans, writes with prose that dances in the reader’s ear as she tells the story through the points of view of the three main characters. Joe (or Yosev)the father, and Clara and Wendy, the adult daughters. Well-written with beautiful scenery and complex characters, A Break in the Fog will have its readers wide-eyed and hoping for the best.”
“A Break in the Fog, by Molly Salans, had me thinking about Clara, the story’s main character, well after I finished the story. A wonderfully well-done novel, this is not a light read. The story follows Clara’s journey recalling her traumatic childhood, dysfunctional family, and her eventual wash up in a deadly cult. A tale that truly shook me, readers of serious fiction or those who are seeking a deeper understanding of cults, would thoroughly enjoy this book.”
An award winning psychological thriller, A Break in the Fog is a story about a family in turmoil and a dangerous cult. This novel is loosely based on the author’s own cult experiences years ago.
A Break in the fog has won a first place award for best historical fiction, thriller and suspense
Along the North Carolina coast, random people are aging decades in days and dying within a week. Suspecting some weird new form of radiation, the Pentagon sends its top secret Nuke Response Team Alpha to investigate.
Team chief Colonel Blake Hunter is on vacation in Greece when unknown agents try to kill him and kidnap his young family. What horrifying new weapon have the terrorists created? How can Hunter stop them when his wife and children are in the danger zone?
Reviews:
“Fans of plots with highly competent protagonists and sophisticated technology, such as the James Bond series, should read this book. The vividly depicted action sequences are excellent movie material, and I appreciated the use of functional technology, such as GPS and sensors that tell the protagonist’s location and health state, as well as a holographic shield that works as an invisibility cloak.
This all-around thrilling story offers readers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the exciting and challenging world of a relentless agent on a highly dangerous mission from the comfort of their own homes, as well as appreciate the mundane after exploring the possibility of losing it all in the book. A tremendously captivating and addictive experience!”
Charles A. Salter has published dozens of fiction and non-fiction books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles over the past 4 decades. This is Book One of his new series NUKE RESPONSE TEAM ALPHA.
Saving Ryan is the inspiring story by physician-scientist Dr. Emil Kakkis about his journey to develop a new, first-ever treatment for an ultra-rare genetic disease called MPS. The scientist had great challenges getting grant and industry support for this rare disease despite the solid science behind doing the treatment. Simultaneously across the country, Mark Dant was in a quest to save his 9-year-old son, Ryan, afflicted by MPS for which there was no cure.
Through extraordinary persistence, and with a clock-ticking on Ryan’s declining health, Mr. Dant eventually learns of Dr. Kakkis and his work, whose enzyme replacement therapy could potentially treat Ryan successfully. With renewed hope of saving his son’s life, Mr. Dant turns his attention to fundraising through his own Ryan Foundation to support the continued development of the life-saving treatment. Through an extraordinary series of obstacles and heartaches, Dr. Kakkis develops a successful treatment and ultimately gains the required support of a biotech company to complete the project.
Despite early success treating MPS patients, the FDA’s abruptly changing policies caused great uncertainty as to whether the therapy would ever get approved – leading to a dramatic showdown at an FDA Advisory Committee meeting. In the end, the treatment was finally approved for all MPS patients, and ultimately saved Ryan. Ryan has been on the enzyme replacement therapy for more than 23 years. He went on to graduate college and in 2021 was married.
Reviews:
“In this memoir, the author describes the research he conducted to develop an enzyme replacement therapy to combat the disease on minimal funding. He recounts the early stages of research in which the treatment was used on dogs in trials. Besides the therapy’s successes, Kakkis outlines the risks of the treatment, including a crisis one patient experienced during an infusion. Along with Ryan’s story of hope (which features family photographs), the volume relates the conflicts with the Food and Drug Administration and the uncertain road to the treatment’s gaining eventual approval…An erudite and heartwarming account about determination in the face of overwhelming odds.” ~ Kirkus
Emil Kakkis is a physician/scientist best known for developing many novel treatments for rare and ultra-rare diseases and being a leader for policy change to accelerate biotechnology innovation for rare diseases.
Through experiences in academia at UCLA, in biotechnology at BioMarin and Ultragenyx, and in nonprofits as founder of the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases, Dr. Kakkis has advocated and innovated ways to take the science that exists and treat patients struck by genetic lightning with first-ever approved treatments that can save their future.
In New York, the party never stops and love’s always just around the corner. At least, that’s what queer journalist Esther Mollica told herself when she quit her job during the 2008 recession and moved three thousand miles away to become New York City’s first blogger on lesbian dating. Her hometown brought her nothing but heartache, and none more devastating than learning that the love of her life was secretly married to a man. On the other hand, New York, with its brazen, sadistic wiles, promised something more than just another walk of shame.
What it really delivered was the woman who became Esther’s hardest subject to write about: her editor. Soon, their tempestuous relationship turned into something as twisted and trauma-inducing as it was intoxicating. And even the haze of all-girl nightlife glamor at the height of pre-pandemic New York couldn’t help Esther hide from the truth: about their dysfunction, about her past, and about the life she longed for in the city she loved.
Gritty, dazzling, heartfelt, and hilarious, The Queen of Gay Street is a personal window into the queer dating scene and a promise that those in search of true love will find their own happily ever after.
Reviews:
“Mollica’s reminiscences are both a celebration of the promise of New York to a young woman hungry for connection and a plangent account of the pitfalls of bad relationships and isolation. Her depictions of lesbian life and dating are well observed and brimming with humor (“You lost track of how many people you’ve slept with?” “No! I, ah, I just mean that it’s more than twenty, and either at or less than thirty. I think”), but she also writes with penetrating subtlety about the pain of sputtering relationships: “This time, something in her touch and embrace had drawn me in deeper and shown more of her vulnerability than any time before, yet I felt something else fading and falling apart.” The result is an exhilarating ride on Gotham’s emotional roller coaster.
An entertaining, often poignant portrait of New York romance blending humor with heartache.”
“Mollica’s (I Feel Love: Notes on Queer Joy) memoir is a raunchy, fun, tell-all love letter to New York City and finding one’s place in it. Mollica left San Francisco to move to Astoria, Queens, in 2008 to recover from a devastating breakup and pursue her dream of writing. With the tart, self-deprecating humor that powers the book, Mollica reasons, “After all, wasn’t New York’s motto basically, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your undersexed’?” She also discusses with disarming frankness her family’s cycle of abuse, her efforts at establishing a career, her strings of unfortunate dates and lovers, and how she found love in the city. Especially engaging is her account of the heartbreak and hilarity of writing “Broads in the Big Apple,” a column in the lesbian magazine, GRL that became ‘comic relief for a microscopic subset of lesbian magazine journalists.”
Esther Mollica has written for Wired, GO, Bust, Curve, Autostraddle, Nonchalant and The Bay Area Reporter. Her short romantic comedy, Never the Bride, was featured as one of four films by up-and-coming women of color in San Francisco’s Frameline Film Festival, 2010.
In 2011 she was named, “New York’s Most Eligible Lesbian Bachelorette” by Time Out New York, which ironically almost scared off her wife.
Essay Block 