LBGTQ Humor

You Are Not the One: Stories
by Vestal Mcintyre
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In this debut collection of eight compulsively readable stories, Vestal McIntyre combines honesty and compassion with hilarious dialogue—bringing together the comic milieu of David Sedaris with the spot-on perceptions of Adam Haslett’s You Are Not a Stranger Here. With “ONJ.com,” a young woman in advertising decides she wants a gay man in her life, almost as if she were shopping for a poodle. Unluckily, the gay man she finds, a good-looking and fast-talking freelancer, isn’t as pleasant and “fun” as she had hoped. In the loopy “Dunford,” a lonely, aging architect with a suppressed fascination for female escorts decides impulsively to take the opportunity of his wife’s absence to set up a date. Sadly for Dunford, he realizes too late that his escort doesn’t share his penchant for masturbation in car washes. Quieter notes are sounded in “Foray” about a bookish teenaged recluse discovering an unexpected emotional connection to his family after his mother asks him to read Moby Dick to his young, mentally retarded cousin. And “Nightwalking” centers on a woman sleepwalker whose mother’s death frames the occasion for a rocky family reunion. You Are Not the One marks the auspicious arrival of an exciting new talent.

Review:  "Carroll & Graf's cover copy claims that McIntyre 'brings together the comic milieu of David Sedaris with the exquisite crafting of Alice Munro,' and while McIntyre does offer quirky scenarios (teenage hoodlums kidnapping a kid in a kangaroo costume; a 40-something wife performing a cocaine-fueled interpretive dance for a roomful of younger strangers) and moments of subtle insight (though they are hardly Munrovian), what he delivers primarily is a kind of unharnessed intelligence and insufficiently edited creativity, which he demonstrates in a bumpy series of eight stories revolving around the need for love and acceptance, whether it is from a lover, oneself or one's pet octopus. In 'Binge,' cocaine-snorting Lynn attends a party, ruminates on her attraction to a younger woman, considers her annoyance at her husband and, after the aforementioned dance, finds redemption of a sort thanks to a subway preacher. As an attempt at poignancy, it falls flat; it reads like a sudden end-stop for a garrulous narrator. 'Octo' is similarly challenged, as a boy must part with his beloved and now deceased pet octopus, and a roller-coaster ride serves to symbolically link him — in terror — with his nasty sister. 'ONJ.com' and 'Disability,' which consider complicated relationships between young gay men and their associates, ring true, however; the latter especially points to McIntyre's promise. Agent, Mitchell Waters. (Jan.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)
 

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"Kyle's Bed and Breakfast"
by Greg Fox
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Long Island resident Greg Fox, artist and writer of the nationally-syndicated comic strip "Kyle's Bed and Breakfast," has been announced as a finalist in the "Best Humor Book" category in the Lambda Literary Award nominations, released last week. He will be competing against four other authors in this category, including New York Times bestselling authors David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs.

Fox recently completed a book tour promoting the "Kyle's Bed and Breakfast" book, which included local stops at Book Revue bookstore in Huntington and the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Featured in the "New York Times, The Advocate, and "Genre, Kyle's Bed & Breakfast, Greg Fox's ultra-hip, ultra-funny comic strip featuring a diverse, neurotic, often hunky, and always fascinating group of gay men sharing their lives at a gay bed and breakfast in the suburbs, has garnered legions of fans.

Now in its 100th episode, the first four years of the strip are available together in this hilarious volume, which includes never-before-published material. The Lambda Literary Awards recognize and honor the best in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature. From thousands of nominations received from across the country, five nominees have been selected in each of 20 categories. A panel of 74 judges, chosen to represent the diversity of the LGBT literary community, will determine the final winner from the finalists in each category.

The recipients will be announced and awards presented at a gala ceremony in New York City on Thursday, June 2, 2005 (on the eve of the BookExpo America Convention). The event will be hosted by the Center for Lesbian Gay Studies at the City University of New York, and will take place at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue. Fox has been creating the comic strip since 1998, and it is currently syndicated to publications covering 25 states in the USA, as well as online on the "Out in America" cities network of websites. The comic strip revolves around a gay bed and breakfast in Northport village, and the often whacky adventures of it's diverse group of residents, including a gay professional baseball player.