Read a Book - Save a Kid

Close your eyes and imagine yourself on the streets of Chicago. It’s late October, the leaves have turned, and you can feel snow in the air. It’s an exciting time on the mile—Halloween is in a few days, then around the corner comes Thanksgiving with turkey and stuffing, and Christmas with happiness and family and light. But that isn’t for you. See, your family doesn’t want to see you. They made that incredibly clear when they threw you out in the almost snow. Eighteen years old and you have no place to sleep, no food, and no warmth in your soul. All because you let it slip that you were gay.

Take a moment and think about what that means.

You can’t get a job because you have no fixed address. Filthy, you clean up in public restrooms, but you never really feel clean. Under constant threat of being beaten, raped, or killed for what little you have, you are forced to beg for food or shelter along with thousands of others fighting for the same scraps. Discarded by society, you are chased from what little shelter you can find on trains, under bridges, or in doorways. You should be studying for the SATs, going to prom, being a kid, but instead, you’re fighting for your life.

So, where do you turn? What do you do?

Fortunately, there are shelters across the country to help homeless LGBT kids find safe shelter. One such place is Lost-N-Found Youth in Atlanta. They have a 24/7 hotline for kids who need help, provide STD testing and connect them with medical attention, and help them obtain lost or stolen ID documents. Shelters like Lost-N-Found youth help these kids get their GED and give them a fighting chance at life. But it takes money to run shelters such as these which is why every penny of royalties from the Jamie Mayfield line of books is donated directly to charities to help our homeless LGBT kids.

In the Waiting for Forever series, you will see some of the more horrifying aspects of what happens to kids who are thrown away by their parents. Not because it’s entertaining, but because it’s real. Children are tossed onto the streets every day for something they cannot and should not have to change.

How you can help:

• Find a local LGBT Youth shelter and donate your talents such as general repair, IT, moving, medical, or mental health services.
• Find a local LGBT Youth shelter and donate goods such as cars, food, household items, and gift cards.
• Set up a recurring donation so that the shelter has funds they can count on.
• Buy goods and services (like the Jamie Mayfield books or the Lost-N-Found anthology from Featherweight Press) which donate to LGBT Youth shelters.
• Watch out for the LGBT kids in your life and help to keep them safe. My hope is that the line takes off well and a great deal of money and awareness can be raised to help our kids be safe and healthy and happy.

Jamie Mayfield Releases:
Choices – June 6, 2013
Destiny – July, 2013
Determination – August, 2013
A Broken Kind of Life – Sept, 2013

Waiting for Forever: Choices
A Harmony Ink Press Young Adult Title
Waiting for Forever: Book I

Part One: The Throwaway Boy

As the country’s religious and secular leaders battle over equality in the abstract, Brian McAllister and Jamie Mayfield live in the crossfire. In their little town of Crayford, Alabama, loving another boy is the worst kind of sin. Best friends since childhood, they explore their love and each other in Jamie’s backyard tree house as they hide from the world. They happily plan for the future together—until their lives are rocked when their secret is exposed and Jamie’s family intervenes.

When hatred turns to violence in their sleepy little town, Brian tries to cope with the loss of his best friend, who is stolen in the night. In desperation, he turns to Adam, a new friend with a shared pain. Can Adam fill the hole left by Jamie’s absence? The answer will change everything.

Adapted from the award-winning Little Boy Lost series by J. P. Barnaby.

100% of the author's royalties are being donated to help homeless LGBT kids find safe shelter.

Pre-order from Dreamspinner Press

About Jamie Mayfield:
A survivor of the ex-gay residential institution The Sunshine Center, fictional author Jamie Mayfield went on to find his voice in novels. Always a great lover of books, Jamie found his passion as he began to pursue a liberal arts degree in creative writing. An avid reader, he’s a fan of gay romance, suspense, and horror—though not all in the same novel.

Jamie lives in San Diego with his fictional husband, Brian. He writes YA fiction as a way to let kids know that they have an entire LGBT family all around them. Above all, he wants them to know that they are not alone. It does get better.

Jamie Mayfield is a fictional character from the acclaimed Little Boy Lost series by female author J. P. Barnaby.

Website: http://www.JamieMayfield.com
Tumblr: http://JamieMayfieldYA.tumblr.com
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/JamieMayfieldYA
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/JamieMayfieldYA




Jamie is celebrating the release of Waiting for Forever: Choices with a 12-week blog tour and giveaway. View the full tour schedule HERE. Comment on any blog tour post or tweet using hashtag #WaitingForForever to enter to win a Kindle! Drawing will be held on 8/15/2013. You must be 18 to enter and have a valid US mailing address. No purchase necessary.

Thoughts Behind "Normal?": A Guest Post by Stephen J. Mulrooney:

The love that we have for one another is the most beautiful expression of who and what we are, whether it is expressed between or within genders, generations, or the rainbow of races and creeds that comprise the human experience. The important thing is not who we love, but that we love.

With that in mind, I wrote and my husband published a novel entitled “Normal?” which endeavors to demonstrate that when it comes to the trials and tribulations of growing up, infatuation and love, the experience for us all is the same no matter where we stand in the spectrum of the human rainbow. The truth of the matter is that anyone who has ever loved, desired, or reached for some yearning just beyond their grasp has experienced the same highs and lows, the same dramas and traumas, the same hungers and thirsts, and the same heartaches and heart-quakes; no matter who they are, no matter who they love. We are all the same, only different. And that’s normal.

“Normal?” is written as a coming of age journey of a young gay boy at the center of an unusual extended family that includes everything from a few professional drag queens to a well respected rabbi. It is a story that grows and evolves in love, as every loving family must; and illustrates that when it comes to family, at the heart of the matter, it is the heart that matters most.

One of the amazing aspects of human nature this book endeavors to demonstrate is that we can create the love and the family that we want if we don’t have it now. Though it is seldom easy to free ourselves from the ties that bind, even when they are choking us, we must always remember that we are never helpless. There are always alternatives. We are bound first and foremost to the pursuit of our own happiness, wherever and with whoever that pursuit takes us. Without that foundation, we have nothing to build on. With it, we can build castles.

We are all creators, and a true family is a creation whether we have been born or have evolved into it. With the bricks of faith in one another and the cement of respect for each other, it is built day by day, hope by hope. And the most amazing part is ... all it really takes to build one is a little time, an open mind, and a lot of love.


Click HERE to read our True Colorz Review of Normal?

Blurb: “Were it a dream, it would be a most wondrous dream; but it’s more. It’s a life. And I don’t have to remember any of it. It remembers me.” With these words, Gene Poole-Hall takes us on a beautiful coming-of-age journey that will leave you questioning any preconceived impressions of the definition of normal, and lead you to the conclusion that when it comes to family, at the heart of the matter, it’s the heart that matters. Gene’s story begins with his adoption into an extended family that includes everything from a few drag queens to a well respected rabbi. If Gene’s life is anything but normal, he isn’t aware of it. He enjoys all the advantages of being an only child at the heart of a family of unrelated adults bonded together by mutual love and respect.

The core of Gene’s family is Mother, who is actually his biological uncle Ben. Mother is a bigger than life female impersonator whose warmth and compassion has attracted the most unusual extended family you will ever meet. Mother’s partner, Tom, whom Gene calls Dad rather than Uncle Tom for obvious reasons, is a Wall Street executive. Gene’s Uncle Josh, the rabbi, is Mother’s life-long best friend and first unrequited love interest. Gene’s aunts, Allie and Sue, whose lives are anything but a drag, are famous, if not infamous, drag queens from Mother’s band of performers. And that’s just the beginning of Gene’s family.

A sudden move to the suburbs and the unexpected addition of three new family members, Chip and Dale, an unusual set of twins, and Robbie, an attractive farm boy, soon add colors that Gene has never imagined, to his already colorful world. Travel through all the trials and tribulations of a young teen’s life as he explores all the joys, wonders and pitfalls of coming of age and experiencing the emotional and biological dramas and traumas of infatuation and love for the first time.

Purchase Link

Post by Stephen J. Mulrooney