Redfern Jon Barrett

The Giddy Death of the Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights

Blondee lives in a strange world without memories: just four walls, fifty huts and a hundred forgotten people. She came in with the food rations. Mind and body naked, like everyone. Now she lives in a triangular hut at the edge of everything. They say she was a thief - she has long fingers - and she certainly has a reputation for taking multiple lovers. But haunted by the ghost of a fat man and dreaming of a stone woman, Blondee knows she can reshape the world - she just needs to get the world to listen...

Forget Yourself

Proud Pink Sky

Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Melissa Scott

Cat Rambo

Sacchi Green

Steve Berman

Tansy Rayner Roberts

Penny Stirling

Tori Truslow

Kenneth Schneyer

Claire Humphrey

Alex Jeffers

Layla Lawlor

Zoe Blade

Amanda Fitzwater

Meda Kahn

Chant©♭ McCoy

Robert E. Stutts

Lexy Wealleans

A book such as this spins not only words but also whole worlds: eighteen of them, representing the best lesbian-themed stories of the fantastic or futuristic published the prior year: An artisan who tests the skills and wares of her friends in the hope of finding the ideal housing for an idealized love. A shape-shifting sidekick ensures that the heroine, who might not even be aware of her, saves the day. The device on a young girl's wrist that counts down the years until she will meet her soul mate poses the ultimate challenge of delayed gratification. A daydreamer wonders how she will face the coming Stone Moon and its gathering when her culture demands fertility yet her heart belongs to her best friend, who is not only female but of a higher caste. The women to be met in these pages will find themselves tested not because of their sexual identity but rather the identity they have composed, constructed, and spun.

The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

Heiresses of Russ 2014

Caroline and her Dom live out their normal lives amongst the poverty, alcoholics, and street preachers of Swansea, Wales. But when Dom and his straight roommate fall in love--a passionate, secret, non-sexual love--their lives are transformed into a queer chaos of cross-dressing, gender bending and free love. Will Dom hold on to his relationship? Can religious fundamentalists be adopted as pets? And just what are The Lesbians up to? The battle between preachers and drag queens, skinheads and sex workers, boyfriend and girlfriend, is set to change the city forever." Love conquers all, especially such trivial things as monogamy and sexual orientation, in this polyamorous romance...a sprightlier comedy of modern manners." - Kirkus Reviews"Set in Swansea, Wales, The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights is an engaging and thought-provoking read. It's a story about breaking free of restrictions -- relationship conventions, geographical place, traditional gender identity." - Out in Print"Redfern Jon Barrett's second novel is a fantastic ride through the lives of these Swansea residents.... The Giddy Death of the Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights is recommended to any library that collects popular fiction." - GLBT Roundtable of the American Library Assoc." In The Giddy Death of Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights, Redfern Jon Barrett's rambunctious second novel, an oddball and one-of-a-kind romantic comedy, Swansea's not much of a habitat to celebrate. At best, the choral voices of Caroline, Rutti, Dom, and Richard, the novel's twentysomething first-person narrators, damn it with faint praise as relatively affordable and quiet; and as better than nothing. Usually, though, they dwell on faults....Bennett's accomplished at handling the quartet of distinct first-person narrators. Caroline, inhabiting 'the life of a geography postgrad' has just enough money to both eat and pay rent. She works at a "shitty place that calls itself a bar." She's in love with Dom, an introverted maths grad student. Richard's shy, an avid gamer, and employed by a call center with a daily surplus of idiotic callers." - Lambda Literary Foundation"Each character takes centrestage and becomes the protagonist, not only in their designated first person sections, but throughout. It takes real skill to make this reader identify with a straight woman, a straight man, a drag queen, a lesbian, and their fluctuating identities, all sometimes within a single chapter. Most importantly, it made me examine my own identities and question the strictures that I have built around them." - MyGayToronto.com

The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights

Redfern Jon Barrett

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