Before there was an Internet, there were small publishers within the still newly established LGBT community. One of them was Alyson Books. They were located up in Boston, on Plympton Street, and they were revolutionary in a sense because they started publishing lgbt themed children’s books in l990, Alyson Wonderland. This was new and it was a risky thing to do back then.

But they did it anyway. And they gave lgbt authors a voice, and they catered to the lgbt community in a way that hadn’t been done before. Alyson is very special to me. I read my first gay novel, published by Alyson Books. I bought it in a small news shop, on the corner of Seventh Ave. South and Christopher Street in The Village. They published my first short story back in the late nineties. I’ve always been proud to be in their books. And now they recently released my book, AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN in partnership with ravenous romance. This is a traditional print book and it can be purchased in bookstores or directly at the Alyson web site here: http://www.alyson.com/9781593501648.html

There was a time when publishers like Alyson kept gay men and women connected, through good books, both fiction and non-fiction. It’s hard to believe for people under thirty that things were so different then. But there was a time, not too long ago, when books were the only things gay people had to keep them going.