• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (November 8, 2011)

After moving from the Midwest to New York City at the age of twenty-one, Robert Rave finally found the resolve to mail a letter to his parents informing them that he was gay.  Once Robert was “out,” both he and his mother Jane felt a newfound freedom to be more honest with each other.  From the discrimination Jane experienced as a pregnant teenager in a small town, to Robert’s “manscaping,” almost no topic was off-limits in their conversations.  Soon, Robert was creating a “gay glossary” so that Jane could understand the lexicon and Jane was giving Robert the same dating advice that she used to give Robert’s older sister (“men are jerks”).

Conversations and Cosmopolitans is a frank, funny, and heartfelt look at coming out from both a mother’s and son’s perspective, and an inspiring memoir about building family relationships based on honesty, openness, and acceptance.

“As a mother of boys I hope one of them is gay so I can have this much fun with him.” –Heather McDonald, writer and story producer for Chelsea Lately and the New York Times bestselling author of You’ll Never Blue Ball in This Town Again

“The most endearing, inventive memoir I’ve read in ages…[It] is a necessary book, a book we’ve all been waiting for, as it deals honestly, affectionately, and originally with an experience that’s central to our contemporary lives–the struggle to know and love your parents and children exactly as they are.” –Robert Leleux, author of The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy

“[A] heartfelt look at a mother and son’s relationship from both points of view. [L]augh-out-loud funny, touching and poignant…”–Lance Bass, Grammy-nominated singer, former member of *NSYNC, and author of Out of Sync

“Totally delightful…The main character is really Manhattan. And as Robert struggles to get a life in Gay New York, Jane coaches him through the rough patches with her no-nonsense maternal charm.”—Mishna Wolff, author of I’m Down

About Jane and Robert Rave

JANE RAVE grew up in a small Midwest town, doing all the things you do in a small town: cheerleading, band, and church activities.  She is the mother of three, grandmother of six, and has been married for forty-four years.  She lives in Illinois.

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ROBERT RAVE is the author of two novels, Spin and Waxed, and currently lives in Los Angeles. Visit him at facebook.com/robertraveauthor or follow him on Twitter @RobertRave.

TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS for CONVERSATIONS AND COSMOPOLITANS:

Monday, November 7th:  Book Club Classics!

Tuesday, November 8th:  Bibrary Book Lust – author guest post

Wednesday, November 9th:  DBC Reads

Thursday, November 10th:  DBC Reads – author Q&A

Friday, November 11th:  Chick Lit Reviews

Monday, November 14th:  Colloquium

Wednesday, November 16th:  The Betty and Boo Chronicles

Monday, November 21st:  Life in Review

Tuesday, November 22nd:  Chick Lit is Not Dead 

Tuesday, November 22nd:  Regular Rumination

Monday, November 28th:  Book Hooked Blog

Wednesday, November 30th:  Lit and Life

Thursday, December 1st:  Sara’s Organized Chaos

Tuesday, December 6th:  Luxury Reading

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (January 26, 2010)

A Divinity scholar at Wittenberg University, Horatio prides himself on his ability to argue both sides of any intellectual debate but is himself a skeptic, never fully believing in any philosophy. That is, until he meets the outrageous, provocative, and flamboyantly beautiful Prince of Denmark, who teaches him more about both Earth and Heaven than any of his books. But Hamlet is also irrationally haunted by intimations of a tragic destiny he believes is preordained.

When a freelance translation job turns into a full-scale theatrical production, Horatio arranges for the theater-loving prince to act in the play-disguised as the heroine! This attracts the attention of Horatio?s patroness, the dark and manipulative Lady Adriana. A voracious and astute reader of both books and people, she performs her own seductions to test whether the “platonic true-love” described in his poems is truly so platonic. But when a mysterious rival poet calling himself “Will Shake-speare” begins to court both Prince Hamlet and his Dark Lady, Horatio is forced to choose between his skepticism and his love.

Laced with quotes, references, and in-jokes, cross-dressing, bed-tricks, mistaken identity, and a bisexual love-triangle inspired by Shakespeare?s own sonnets, this novel upends everything you thought you knew about Hamlet. Witty, insightful, playful, and truly wise about the greatest works of the Bard, The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet is a delectable treat for people that have loved books like Stephen Greenblatt?s Will in the World and John Updike?s Gertrude and Claudius.

About Myrlin A. Hermes

Myrlin Ambrosia Hermes (yes, that is her real name) was born in 1975 to a pair of eccentric world-travellers who met in a ’60s San Francisco avant-garde theatre troupe and took their daughter to live for a year on a commune in India before landing on the island of Maui, Hawaii, where she was raised.

She has a degree in English Literature and Theatre from Reed College and studied Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

She is the author of the novel Careful What You Wish For, and has received grants and awards from the Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, and the Arts Council England. Her non-literary creative projects include an original collage-art Tarot deck, and she is a two-time challenge winner at Craftster.org.

She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is working on a historical novel about 17th-century playwright, spy, and proto-feminist rabble-rouser Aphra Behn.

Check out Myrlin’s website and also her blog.

Myrlin’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS

Wednesday, March 24th: Regular Rumination

Thursday, March 25th: Book Addiction

Monday, March 29th: Life in the Thumb

Thursday, April 1st: Steph and Tony Investigate

Monday, April 5th: Raging Bibliomania

Tuesday, April 6th: Wordsmithonia

Wednesday, April 7th: BookNAround

Thursday, April 8th: Laughing Stars

Monday, April 12th: Eclectic/Eccentric

Tuesday, April 13th: Books for Breakfast

Thursday, April 15th: Write Meg

Wednesday, April 21st: Worducopia