'Now I'm Here' is now an audiobook! My sixth novel is narrated by Tim Curran.

 
Good news, everyone! (I love saying that. Dr. Farnsworth is so silly.) 

Anyway, to get to the point, my sixth novel is now an audiobook, and you can listen to it on Audible. Veteran journalist Tim Curran is the narrator and I had a terrific time going through the book and making slight changes and sharing thoughts on understanding the characters to bring their voices to life. It's really been a great experience and Tim is an audiobook narrator whom I highly recommend. 

 On to the story, which you may know about by now, but I think I'll just share some of the press release below.

 about Now I'm Here

 A passionate story of the love between a Queen-inspired piano prodigy and a pumpkin farmer, author Jim Provenzano’s sixth novel, Now I’m Here has been adapted as an audiobook narrated by Tim Curran, with a November 15 release on Audible.

Now I’m Here is set in the small fictional town of Serene, Ohio, in the 1970s and ’80s. Two boys from different families – Joshua, with his stable middle-class home in town, and David, raised by his alcoholic and abusive father on their isolated farm – discover, then lose, then find each other again. Thirty years later, as the town’s history is slowly erased by fading memories and encroaching suburbia, their childhood friend, Eric Gottlund, tells the tale of their quiet heroism with poignancy and a sharp eye for detail.

Narrator Tim Curran

Combining literature and music, the author blends historic and contemporary topics. In Now I’m Here, two Southern Ohio teenage boys, Joshua Evans (a piano prodigy) and David Koenig (a pumpkin farmer’s son) attend a Queen concert in 1978 on their first date. Their passionate affair grows into a life together full of farming and concerts in their barn.

Joshua’s brief fame as a musician includes an invitation to perform in a Los Angeles talent show. He also gains a bit of notoriety by performing unusual solo versions of pop songs at West Hollywood New Wave nightclubs of the early 1980s.

Fighting religious intolerance, “rehabilitation therapy,” the lure of fame, and the heartbreak of AIDS, the two boys grow into men before our eyes. Through their love of each other and of rock’n’roll, the English rock band Queen in particular, Joshua and David breathe life back into their home town, if only for a while.

Published review excerpts for Now I’m Here:

San Francisco Examiner
The British rock group Queen ­–a touchstone of Provenzano’s adolescence– serves as muse, role model and escape hatch for the rural Ohio teenagers at the center of Now I’m Here, a wrenching love story that delves deep into the experience of growing up gay in heartland America during the late 1970s.

The book and each of its chapters share titles, and themes, with Queen songs. The lyrical prose and fine-grained detail of his novel are a far cry from the jubilant bombast in the film’s trailer. Now I’m Here offers flipside of a biopic, focusing not on celebrities’ lives, but on the faraway lives of people they touched.

 

 San Francisco Review of Books
“California author Jim Provenzano joins the great novelists who have written important and lasting novels about men in love, and while he has won prizes for his work it is now, with his publication of Now I’m Here that he joins the ranks of the major authors who have had a lasting imprint on our society and the LGBTIQ community.

 “Words of admiration and appreciation fail the task of honoring this fine novel. Provenzano knows this period, the highs and lows of two men in love living in a world that simply could not or refused to understand their love. The only entry point into the glow of this novel is by reading it at least once – and probably more. It is a masterwork of the highest order.”

Edge Media Network
“Joshua and David, the brave couple brought to life in Jim Provenzano’s captivating, unforgettable novel, Now I’m Here, manage to experience a quintessential epic romance albeit in just a few short years. Were it not for the admiring (and admittedly jealous) eye of their friend, Eric Gottlund, who meticulously narrates this heartbreaking, breathtaking story, the saga of Joshua and David could have easily gone unnoticed.

“This storytelling method effectively and passionately conveys the lengthy, turbulent evolution of their compelling, inspiring and uplifting relationship. The love story of Joshua and David reminds the reader how to appreciate the extraordinary in the ordinary. Professionally speaking, neither of these men achieves fame or accomplishes anything especially newsworthy, but what they share emotionally is nothing short of remarkable. Some books you read for laughter, intrigue, debate or information. Now I’m Here makes you feel.”

Out in Print
“I’ve always marveled at the contradiction of hundreds of thousands of mostly straight sports fans stomping their feet and clapping to ‘We Will Rock You’ as done by Queen, probably the gayest rock band in history with the gayest front man ever. But whatever chord Queen struck, it resonates to this day with both fans and authors. In his newest novel, Now I’m Here, Jim Provenzano uses his knowledge as a fan and his skill as an author to tell the story of two small-town Ohio boys.

“Joshua Lee Evans had a musical gift from the beginning, and was fortunate enough to have parents who encouraged him to use those talents. David Koenig lived on a pumpkin farm and had a hateful, alcoholic father whose wife left him because of his temper and bad habits. It was love at first fight. But the maturation of those feelings was a long road, punctuated by music lessons and farm work. When it finally came together, however, the boys knew what magic it was. A stupid school streaking stunt (popular during the late ’70s and ’80s, when this takes place) puts David in a ‘rehabilitation’ camp for wayward youth courtesy of his father as Joshua leaves town for the big time after graduation, a cover version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in his back pocket. They will come together again, rest assured, but even reunions are fraught with frailty in this sweeping, epic romance.

“This story will confound your expectations. If you’re looking for a Happy Ever After, however, forget it. And that’s fine with me. Life does not always have happy endings, and sometimes we have to work to find meaning when our characters are given a less-than-optimal finish.

“All this would mean nothing in the hands of a lesser writer, but Provenzano has honed his craft and takes you on this dizzying ride with the able assurance of a pro. His rendering of the mid-‘70s is deadly accurate, and will bring a smile of remembrance to your face if you were coming of age then. He never missteps or falls short of the mark emotionally, either. The characters are all organic, built and embroidered on with well-chosen detail.

“So, even if you’re not exactly a Queen fan (and why not, I wonder?), you’ll enjoy this supremely well-plotted and populated romance. Highly recommended.”

25th anniversary of PINS: San Francisco Public Library event Oct. 15

 

25th anniversary of PINS

Author Jim Provenzano in conversation with Mark Abramson

at Eureka Valley San Francisco Public Library, Oct. 15, 6pm.

 

(posting my press release)

 

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the debut novel by local author Jim Provenzano, he will be joined by popular local author Mark Abramson in a one-hour conversation about their early publishing successes with independent presses and self-publishing. Provenzano will also sign and give away free copies of PINS.

 

In 1997, having completed an early version of his Masters thesis novel about gay high school wrestlers, Jim Provenzano succeeded in getting the attention of two high-profile literary agencies. But after both failed to snag a deal, he continued writing and improving the work, changed the title, and decided to self-publish it on October 1, 1999. 

 

With the guidance of the late Richard Labonté and other colleagues, he succeeded in getting reviews and booked multiple reading events in Ohio, New York, California, and even Sydney, Australia. Part of his success, along with being a first-time author, was the fact that at the time Provenzano was an accomplished masters-level wrestler himself.

 

After the first 1000 print run sold well, he decided to print 5000 more copies. In 2000, PINS was the #1 gay fiction title on Amazon.com for several weeks. A commissioned stage adaptation followed in 2002 and premiered at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theater Center. Since then, Provenzano’s books have been mostly self-published in print, e-books, and audiobooks. 

https://www.jimprovenzano.com/

 

With a legendary local history as a bartender, and as a benefit revue and dance party coproducer, Mark Abramson’s life in San Francisco is documented in his fiction and memoir books. He also recounts his youthful days in Minnesota living on a farm in his other memoirs. His earlier Beach Reading series follows the life of Castro Street waiter Tim Snow and the intriguing stories set in the Castro district and around San Francisco.

https://markabramson.net/

 

The two authors discuss their early books, their inspiration, and their successes in small press and self-publishing in the gay fiction genre. Provenzano will also sign free copies of his debut novel, PINS. Other books will be available for sale.

 

San Francisco Public Library/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court

October 15, 6pm. (415) 355-5616 Free

https://sfpl.org/locations/eureka-valley

 

 (RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/874431874224738 )

Book-banned, or more accurately, book-dumped in Florida.

Well, I got book-banned, or book-dumped. 

“When I Knew,” an anthology that includes my short essay, is among the hundreds of books that were dumped by rightwing anti-gay minions at New College of Florida.

The Herald Tribune and The Guardian have the story:

“Sarasota’s New College, the once liberal arts school subjected to a “hostile takeover” by well-rewarded, ultra-conservative DeSantis allies, was exposed by the city’s Herald-Tribune for dumping thousands of library books, including a clear-out of its gender and diversity center.

Democratic politicians likened it to Nazi-era book burning, and a preview of the extremist Project 2025 agenda linked to the Republican former president Donald Trump’s campaign to win back the White House in November.

“These messages are coming from DeSantis’s appointed and approved leaders, and the governor should just go ahead and admit he wants to be the dictator that Trump wants to be, because that’s what this is,” said the Democratic state congresswoman Yvonne Hayes Hinson.

“This shameful book dump is just the latest chapter in this Republican regime’s war on books and ideas. How insecure do you have to be to ban books on gender and women’s studies. They’re just plain weird.”

This is what happens when rightwing idiots think they’re going to take over and suppress books and ideas that they think are “woke.” Of course the opposite of being woke is being stupidly asleep at the wheel while the world continues to evolve.

The idiocy of all this is that these books still exist. You can’t make a book disappear. They can be republished in new editions, or be found in other libraries or sold at used bookstores.

Here’s my contribution to “When I Knew,” edited by Robert Trachtenberg, with a sweet –and accurate– illustration by Tom Bachtell. Contributions include short essays by B. D. Wong, Arthur Laurents, Simon Doonan, Stephen Fry, Marc Shaiman, Michael Musto and many others. Imagine trying to censor the voices of these accomplished people.

You can buy a copy on BookShop, and, if you’re inspired, donate it to your local library. 

The quiet understated heroism of baseball player Billy Bean

Billy Bean and Jim Provenzano. photo: Rick Gerharter

Only the second major league baseball player to come out after retirement, Billy Bean was a pioneer in a subtle way. He played for different teams, had ups and downs and a pivotal later success. Bean died of Leukemia on August 6, and is survived by his husband, Greg Baker.

What he's known for most recently is bringing Major League Baseball into the 21st century as an ambassador for diversity and inclusion in the league. What did Bean accomplish? 

According to The Advocate, 19 baseball players have come out in the past few years. If Bean helped that happen, let's give him credit. And only this week, The Boston Red Sox Jarren Duran was suspended for two games after shouting an antigay epithet to a fan. He later issued an apology.

Life-changing
"Billy Bean was never a star," wrote John Casey for The Advocate. "in fact, his career statistics, spread over six years with four different teams, were what one player would record in just half a season - if he’d last that long. Bean’s career batting average was a paltry .219, so theoretically, anyone hitting .219 for half a season would most likely be benched."

An All-American outfielder twice, Bean led Loyola Marymount to the College World Series in 1986, and retired at age 31. After the coming out news subsided, Bean actually shied away from doing the lecture circuit until he was convinced by Judy Shepherd to take advantage of that his moment.

So, when MLB asked him to become a Senior Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Bean returned to the sport he loved, and developed and implemented initiatives aimed at promoting DEI within the sport.

Billy Bean flying to catch a ball in the outfield

Maura McGurk, writing eloquently for OverTheMonster, recalled that she was at the Mariners game on Tuesday night [August 6] "when they announced Bean's death before the game and paused for a moment of remembrance. They were playing the Tigers, Bean’s first team. With all our recent trade-deadline talk about prospects, here’s one to note: Bean was one of those coveted prospects who couldn’t make it in the big leagues. 

"His résumé and early successes promised great things, and he started to deliver right away. In his first game, he rapped out four hits, tying a record for a player in his first MLB debut. Detroit fell in love with him. But from those attention-getting beginnings, he made only 519 plate appearances in 272 total games, and retired at 31 years old.

A double
debut
After coming out in 1999, Bean made headlines in the media. His cover feature in a late December issue of The Advocate, coincidentally featured –on the last editorial page– the first major review for my debut novel PINS about about high school wrestlers.

At the same time, Sports Complex, my syndicated column for the Bay Area Reporter and other publications and websites included a different sport each week. Although I had already interviewed dozens of major LGBTQ athletes as well as hundreds of team members in amateur leagues, I tried to get an interview with Bean. 

But at the time, when someone comes out big time, there's a kind of hierarchy. The cover story in The Advocate was published, as well as an extensive feature in The New York Times, where Robert Lipsyte told of Bean's multiple struggles in the sports industry while being closeted, even while he was briefly married to a woman. 

In the first rush of publicity, Bean's handlers rejected initial interview requests from smaller newspapers. Snub moi? We were in the same issue of The Advocate. I was a bit put off and should've perhaps requested a later interview. But by the time his memoir came out, I was onto other non-sporty work.