With our commitment to diverse perspectives, we will share our pride at the Ice House Tuesday June 10

And a cover reveal of RV Living memoir and how-to: Motorhome Gypsies by Rachel Thompson & Lisa Cross

About 20 years ago, I walked into a meeting of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group asking if anyone there had an interest in freelance journalism opportunities. I had recently accepted a position as managing editor of a start-up collection of weekly newspapers, The Lehigh Valley News Group. (There’s barely a trace of this effort by Berks-Mont Newspapers, owned by the Journal Register Company, to replace the ill-fated Morning Call Chronicles, but I have posted some of the pages that I laid out here.)

Now, we all know that memories may be faulty, but I remember sitting beside Rachel Thompson. After I made my spiel, she turned to me and told me she had no experience but she was interested.

And Rachel became my most dependable and hard-working freelance reporter.

Fifteen years ago, Rachel and her wife, Lisa Cross, left the Lehigh Valley in an RV. They planned to travel the country and find the next place they wanted to live. But then, they never left the RV.

Enter the growing popularity of the RV living and van life movement. Rachel and I have discussed releasing a book that combines her intimate knowledge and practical advice— written with people with no experience in mind— with rich travel writing.

And we’re almost there.

We’ve been talking about Motorhome Gypsies: Practical RV Living Advice and Real World Adventures for several months now, but here’s the final cover:

Join Us at the Queer Book Fair June 10

Parisian Phoenix will join Magnus Mateo, The Ice House Literary Arts Committee, The Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project and FlowerMouth Press for a Queer Book Fair, Tuesday June 10 at Bethlehem’s Ice House on Sand Island. The event will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and feature about 10 queer authors.

In support of the committee’s efforts to “expand queer libraries,” Parisian Phoenix will be selling books with queer connections and by queer authors.

Some but not all:

NONFICTION

• Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money, an anthology of Lehigh Valley personal experience essays that includes a dozen authors talking about sexuality, gender identity, body image, disability and other topics.

• Shuffling and Scribbling, a tarot journal exploring divination using your own instincts, by a bisexual gen z author.

POETRY

• McKenna Graf’s as-of-yet unreleased third volume of her archive of adolescence series, The Depths. Her second book, Mortals, Myths and Maybes will also be available.

FICTION

• Angel Ackerman’s Courting Apparitions, the second volume of the Fashion and Fiends series, which includes a chapter where the main character alludes to a past relationship with his gay best friend.

• Trapped: What if Skunks Were Matchmakers? by Seneca Blue. This traditional rom-com features a curvy, midlife protagonist in a dying steel town. Her sister, and her sister’s wife and children, pop in and out of the novel as the main character must regain her confidence after a disastrous dating history. The full-color second edition features extra photography by Joan Zachary.

• Laurel Wenson’s YA Caldwell Series, several volumes featuring an overweight asexual, aromantic main character and her gay best friend. In the first book, the characters have lost a dear friend to anorexia.

SPICY FICTION

• William Prystauk’s Kink Noir series, four volumes of his noir-style mystery novels that take place in New York City. These erotic tales feature a polyamorous family unit of the main character, his bisexual partner, and their trans lover.

EROTICA

• Juicy Bits: Erotic Stories of BDSM, Kink and Fetish, an anthology organized “from mild to wild” to explore consent and fantasy (and hopefully inspire conversation and wants and limits) which features hetero- and homosexual stories.

• In Control: The Short, Kinky, Otherwordly Fiction of M.Christian, an erotic collection which explores a variety of non-traditional desires, why we love, and how our sexuality helps us embrace and understand who we are.

Cheap books

A recent search on Amazon showed a variety of our books at reduced prices, some cheaper than I can print them. Most of these books are around or under $5 each:

• Sprinkles Did It!, Who Turned Out the Lights? and the six-episode graphic novel, A Curious Compilation of Bumbling Baddies

• Trapped: What if Skunks Were Matchmakers? Click here.

• The fourth volume of the Fashion and Fiends series, Road Trip. Click here.

• E.H. Jacobs’ Splintered River. Click here.

• McKenna Graf’s second volume, Mortals, Myths and Maybes. Click here.

Update on Amazon Ads

I attended a free webinar with Geoff Affleck (of Amazon Ads Management) and learned some of his strategy and compared it to that of Bryan Cohen, whose mini-course I paid for about a month ago. In general, Geoff spends more money than Bryan. So this, and the differences in technique, give me more to think about for when the grant money arrives.

After seeing the results of my initial Bryan Cohen course, I made some Amazon ads that were basically experiments. Mainly, I did some ads with custom text. Geoff cautioned against doing these ads because the custom text made them look like ads and ads perform better when they look like organic search results.

How have my original ads fared?

• I have spent $25 ($22.50 of that for Shuffling & Scribbling)

• I sold one copy of Shuffling & Scribbling which made $5 in royalties

• I have received almost 32,000 impressions (more than half for the tarot book)

• I have gotten 68 clicks (62 for the tarot book)

• Affleck suggests that 1 click for every 1,000 views is the acceptable target. The tarot book far surpasses that, getting one click for every 263 views.

Once the grant money arrives, I will update the ads and develop a more aggressive plan. I also intend to include all of my eligible authors,

EVENTS

• On June 14, Larry Sceurman will participate in Local Authors Day at Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, Pa. Look for more details here.

• On June 16, McKenna Graf will launch her newest poetry collection, The Depths, the third volume in her archive of adolescence series, with an audiobook releasing on Bandcamp. Print version will be available all the usual places.

• ThrillerFest opens in New York City June 17 and Dianna Sinovic will be there as part of their Debut Authors Program promoting her supernatural thriller, Scream of the Silent Sun.

• And on June 21, we will join the Pocono Liars Club at the Eastern Monroe Public Library in Stroudsburg, Pa., for their 2025 Author Expo with a theme of END BOOK BANNING. That event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for more information. Angel Ackerman (yes, that’s me) and Joseph Swarctz will both be giving readings in the 11 a.m. hour. I will probably read an excerpt from my second novel, Courting Apparitions, a ghost story. (To check out Courting Apparitions on Kindle Unlimited, click here.)

• Also on June 21, at WDVR 89.7 fm in the broadcast coverage area of WDVRfm.org online, Angel Ackerman hosts a special tribute to Steve’s Café, the working man’s tavern featured on the cover of Larry Sceurman’s novella, The Death of Big Butch. Maryann Ignatz curated the music to honor her father, Stephen Ignatz, and the 110th anniversary of Ignatz family ownership of the tavern. Maryann also contributed an essay to Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money detailing her experience of the blue-collar history of Phillipsburg, N.J.

• June 24, McKenna Graf will be at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, 6 to 7:30 p.m., promoting The Depths.

• July 4, the official release of Benjamin Goluboff’s and Mark Luebbers’ poetry chapbook, Group Portrait, a unique interpretation of a photographic portrait in the World War II era from Peggy Guggenheim’s art salon. We have seen the advance review copies and we are really excited about this little book!

• At the Whitehall (Pa.) Library, 6 p.m., on July 9, Larry Sceurman will present a family story time.

• July 12, E.H. Jacobs will be at The Bookery in Manchester, N.H., signing his debut novel, Splintered River, from 1 to 3 p.m. Jacobs has a sophomore novel on deck for 2026. For more information about The Bookery, click here. (This book is also available on Kindle Unlimited.)

• July 14, the official release of Motorhome Gypsies, our RV Living book that is part memoir and part practical advice, by Rachel Thompson and Lisa Cross. We may have a cover reveal soon!

• At 11 a.m. on July 16, Larry Sceurman will visit the Cops N Kids Reading Room on the southside of Bethlehem, Pa. For more information on Cops N Kids Lehigh Valley, click here.

• Barnes and Noble in the Southmont Shopping Center in Bethlehem Township, Pa., will host a benefit for the children’s hospital on August 16. Larry Sceurman will present a children’s story time (and he hopes to have his second children’s book ready before that event). Details to come. See Larry’s books here.

• Also August 16, I will be hosting a memoir workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. at Blank Space Community Center, 85 Makefield Road Unit 7, Yardley, Pa., 19067. Tickets will be $40 and will include print materials. Details to be announced soon.

• Also in August, the release of Any Landing You Walk Away from is a Good Landing, historical fiction about the airline industry in the throes of 1980’s deregulation. The author of that book is retired flight attendant Dawn O’Harra.

I hope you can join us at an upcoming event, or if you are outside the Lehigh Valley, consider taking advantage of those cheap prices and ordering some books!

As always—

Angel

Our neighbor’s morky— that’s an intentional hybrid of Maltese and Yorkshire terrier will be staying with us for almost two weeks. If you need some silly dog photos, here’s your chance: