2021 Year In Writing

2021 was my year to color outside the lines.

From a raw and poignant portrayal of a pivotal night in a small-town gay bar, to a tale of a tortured--and addicted--ghost in Chicago, to a story of ultimate sacrifice for love, to my depiction of a serial killer's reign of terror in Chicago, the year proved to me that good stories need not be hindered by genre restrictions. 

On deck for 2022: a romantic thriller called TOXIC and a magical realism novel that explores domestic abuse in a unique way, SEASPRAY.  

Hope you had a happy reading and/or writing year!

THE Q

Step out for a Saturday night at The Q—the small town gay bar in Appalachia where the locals congregate. Whose secret love is revealed? What long-term relationship comes to a crossroad? What revelations come to light? The DJ mixes a soundtrack to inspire dancing, drinking, singing, and falling in (or out) of love.

This pivotal Saturday night at The Q is one its regulars will never forget. Lives irrevocably change. Laugh, shed a tear, and root for folks you’ll come to love and remember long after the last page.

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WOUNDED AIR

Rick and Ernie found the perfect apartment on Chicago’s West Side. Before they’re settled, Rick begins having all-too-real disturbing “dreams.” Each time, an emaciated young man with sad brown eyes appears, terrifying and obsessing him.

From their next-door neighbor, Paula, Rick learns about Karl and Tommy, who lived there before them. Tommy’s mysterious disappearance pains her. When she shares a photo of her with Tommy and Karl, Rick is shocked and troubled. Tommy is the man who appears to him in his dreams.

The ghostly visitations compel Rick to uncover the truth about Tommy’s disappearance. It’s a quest that will lead him to Karl, Tommy’s lover, who may know more about Tommy’s disappearance than he’s telling, and a confrontation with a restless spirit who wants only to—finally—rest in peace.

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IMMORTAL THINGS

By day, Elise draws and paints, spilling out the horrific visions of her tortured mind. By night, she walks the streets, selling her body to the highest bidder.

And then they come into her life: a trio of impossibly beautiful vampires: Terence, Maria, and Edward. When they encounter Elise, they set an explosive triangle in motion

Terence wants to drain her blood. Maria wants Elise . . . as lover and partner through eternity. And Edward, the most recently converted, wants to prevent her from making the same mistake he made as a young abstract expressionist artist in 1950s Greenwich Village: sacrificing his artistic vision for immortal life. He is the only one of them still human enough to realize what an unholy trade this is.

Immortal Things will grip you in a vise of suspense that won’t let go until the very last moment…when a shocking turn of events changes everything and demonstrates—truly—what love and sacrifice are all about.

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OBSESSED

I kill, therefore I am ...

Voices slam through the corridor of his wounded mind. The words of his dead sister cry out. His parents' taunts fill the silent room where he sits and waits -- waits for the murderous rage, filling him with strength, driving him to kill, to touch the cold flesh, taste the warm blood -- to feel alive again ...

A witness has seen him, but his killing only turns her on and now she wants to protect him. His wife suspects him, but the private detective she hired cannot stop him. Joe MacAree fears nothing -- except that he may no longer be human. The thirst that drives him is relentless, moving deeper and deeper into his own shattering, private realm, where each murder is a delicious new gift of life, where revulsion is beauty, and the obsession will never let him go.

"A harrowing ride through cutting-edge psychological horror, this one's got a vicious bite. Rick R. Reed's Obsessed is a twisted nightmare." -- Douglas Clegg, bestselling author

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My Top Ten Favorite Reads of 2020

I am, and have always been, a voracious reader. The ability to escape into fiction has been a saving grace throughout my life. Below are my favorite 10 books, out of some 60 I read over the course of the year.

Let's get to it. And I hope some of my likes will inspire you to read... All books are available in digital and hard copy at Amazon or any other bookseller.

10. Girl Gone Mad by Avery Bishop 

A mind-bender, stay-up-all night super suspenseful read. Very few books deserve the accolade, "I just couldn't put it down," but this is one of them. From the well-defined characters, the authentic sense of place, the expert build-up of suspense, this is simply an outstanding thriller. Hollywood, if you're listening, this would make a great movie. 

9. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Although I liked this author's A MAN CALLED OVE much better, I did really love this one too. I deducted a star for this one only because it was a bit confusing and hard to follow because of an unnecessarily (in my opinion) structure that made it difficult for me to get into the story and to feel empathy for the characters. That said, by the end of the book, I was in tears and in awe at Backman's ability to transport me, make me think, deliver emotions, and wrap it all up in a very meaningful way.  8. A Marriage in Dog Years by Nancy Balbirer Although this memoir caused me to ugly cry in the most undignified way, it doesn't interfere with my wanting everyone to read it, especially those of us who've come out on the other side of loss, whether through break-up or death. Balbirer writes with wit, charm, and sensitivity about her failing marriage and the slow death of her beloved dog, all in the same time frame, and about how we all may tend to cling to things we love that are beyond saving, simply because we can. Profound. Full of emotion and insight. And, at times, bracingly funny. 7. In the Shadow of the Valley by Bobi Conn This is one of the best books, in my opinion, to come out of Amazon's publishing imprints. It's filled with wisdom, heartbreak, despair, joy...and hope. It's a portrayal of the resiliency of the human spirit and, while it chronicles one woman's growth, it's a story I believe we can all relate to. We're all broken and we can all find our paths on this journey we call life. Bobi Conn, I can't wait to read what you write next. 6. At Risk by Alice Hoffman Gut wrenching. Took me back to a time when AIDS was a death sentence and I lost so many close to me. Hoffman's narrative, though, of a child succumbing to the virus is almost beyond bearable. In her capable hands, though, the book is a powerful meditation on the strength of love and family during a crisis. Not an easy read, but certainly a worthwhile one. 5. Man from Milwaukee by Rick R. Reed Yes, I had to include one of my own! I'm particularly proud of this unreliable narrator story about a closeted young man's fascination and identification with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the summer of 1991, when he was arrested.  4. Calypso by David Sedaris CALYPSO is one of Sedaris's very best books. He brings to the stories contained within the collection a wisdom and maturity that will resonate with most of us, especially those of us growing older and who've faced losing family members and others close to us. That's not to say there aren't laugh-out-loud hilariousness afoot here, there is, in spades, but Sedaris's musings about his parents (one dead and one in decline) brought out such poignancy and humanity that makes CALYPSO a masterpiece. I listened to Sedaris himself read the book on audio and when he gets to the last lines of the last piece about his father, my heart broke and I was in tears. And I looked very stupid because I was in the midst of an outdoor run at the time. But those last couple of lines not only tie the whole collection together, but our lives as human beings. 3. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout I adored this book. I also adored its predecessor, OLIVE KITTERIDGE and doubted Strout could surpass herself. I wouldn't say she surpassed herself, but OLIVE, AGAIN was certainly an equal to the first book in terms of emotional power and truth. Its beauty and depth lie in deceptively simple prose that renders deep commentary on the human condition, love, aging, and loss. 2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Oh man, this is right up there with not only one of my most cherished books of the year. It'll also have a place in my heart and memory as one of my favorite books ever. Entertaining, profoundly moving, achingly beautiful prose that skirts poetry at times, unique, flawed, and all-too-human characters, and a mesmerizing sense of place all add up to literary gold. 1. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. It's shot right up to the top of the list of best books I've read not only this year, but in my life. And that's no small feat, since I have been a constant reader since my age was in the single digits. This debut novel, which deservingly won the Booker Prize and was shortlisted for the National Book Award, is a heartbreaking portrait of alcoholism and poverty in Scotland, centering around the tragic and beautiful Agnes and her son Shuggie, who loves her with a kind of hopeless ferocity anyone who has ever loved an addict or alcoholic will understand. Stuart brings to poignant light the Glasgow (and surrounding areas) with a palette of simple grays...startling in its clarity, breathtaking in its detail, and cutting in its truth. This is one of the rare books I will read again and again. It's not a happy book and I shed many tears, but the artistry here is beautiful and a real testimony to the resiliency and kindness of the human spirit.

New and Notable: The Handsome Twist by Pezhmun D Ghiassi

 

Publisher: Friesen press

Release Date: 8/19/2020

Length: 144 pages

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, New Adult, Thriller/Suspense

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Synopsis

The Handsome Twist is a dark fairy tale inspired by the author's actual life, being raised in Iran as a gay male, which for many who don't know, is equivalent to the death penalty. Due to tackling topics such as perverse behavior, taboo lust, political oppression, maltreatment, rape and homicide, in high volume of vulgar language, this book is aimed for the mature audience.

Living his sweetest life in a cozy cottage, deep in the heart of a magical forest, a little boy by the name Pezhmun is cursed on his 10th birthday by the 1st royal subject of Hell, queen of lust, to live a life full of horrific trauma and tragedy.

In the rudest awakening he is stripped from his chakras as they take human form, helping him to truly comprehend the power of love, through self acceptance and courage, where only then he meets his soulmate, but hopefully in time to save the world from plunging into eternal darkness.

This story points to topics in which many of people who grow up LGBTQ, usually face throughout the journey of self discovery and self acceptance with a hope of inspiring all to be there true organic selves.

The Handsome Twist simple edition is written in a more comprehensive manner for all to read without difficulty in comparison to the sophisticated, prosaic and poetic original version.

Excerpt

I was born on a glacial Thursday, 4 am of January 4^th, 1990, in Baltimore, Maryland, from a mixture of Persian, Irish, Italian, and Native American, something my mother use to call a Heinz 57 ketchup. A year later, after my birth, both my father and mother grew exasperated from to the complexities of the cold climate. In a drastic change of mind, our domesticity was relocated to the Sunny Scottsdale of Arizona.

I confess life in the scorched city did us well. My parents both successful businessman and woman, steady income, a beautiful home and anything to ever ask for and how I wish life always showed its brighter side to me and my loved ones, but that's not always the case, and this life we speak of isn’t always dreamy…

I recall being ten and en-route from school to home that day as a certain anxiety pommeled my paunch.

I swung the door open only to my witness, the household tarnished! I had never seen so much shattered glass and porcelain gathered in one spot! My pops seeing me rapidly tugged my wrist, marching to the bedroom, sitting us at his computer. “You want to see what your mom's doing?” My momma's shriek from the other side of the house rang loud “Parheez No! Don't do that to him!” Disregarding her plea, he opened his browser, pulling up a website.  A tall, scrawny man, his blinkers framed in glass binoculars, and a dirty brown mustache with a red cap on his head appeared as my father uttered, “You're mother is fucking this man!”  I gasped in shock! My breath shortened as I dashed to my only sibling, my older sister's room drowning in tears! I leaped to her embrace as she nurtured me.  How could someone do that to a 10-year old I pondered! Anyhow, let's let that minor one slip, considering that the least of our worries, for now, that is.

Months later, the once upon a time madly in love couple split! My father by fate lost all his fortune to his partner who had swindled him to his very last dime and as far as my mother who till that day had dedicated her life-giving me and my sister her all, chose emancipation parting ways, re-wedding to a forest firefighter named" William Delaney " who most likely now quivers in the icy flames of Hell!

My old man now left with empty pockets, and two kids on his hand did what he only knew best, returning to his homeland, Iran.

Luckily his parents had been financially blessed and were indeed the significance of benevolence granting us a home to launch a new life!

A year later, my Baba saw suitable to remarry, so he did. He pondered maybe if a motherly figure hovered our lives, it would do us good, another erroneous mistake!

My step-dame initially seemed the kindest, sweetest being to roam the earth, though gradually in time, she allowed her true colors to show vibrancy.

This woman I speak of had seen much darkness and cruelty in her life, and by the time she had been locked into our family, already had she entrapped herself in a chamber of bitterness, constructed by bricks of pessimism and paranoia. So to be honest, yes, she has a golden heart, though like myself a very fucked up past with the only difference I chose the path of wisdom, not ignorance in my years of youth.

My father made certain to never deprive her of emotion, yet still, she portrayed envy for the love and affection he offered us, making it her mission to assure our lives a misery.

By night shame would be our pillows and goosebumps of gloom our blankets. Now imagine me, my sister to her brown almond eyes, adversaries, not offspring!

Years of her crudeness sailed the sea of our existence till in a sudden twist, this compulsively jealous spouse of a wife of my father went down a darker spiral of violence as one day I declined one of her many ruthless requisitions, expecting me to drop whatever I had in hand and spring at her ease.

I stood up for myself for once, in-surprise my merit were sharpened claws! Scaring my throat, leaving a sting of blood, the image of my scrag!

If a wicked stepmother was my only pain, I'm positive I wouldn't be here scribbling away.

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Meet the Author

 

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Raised in Iran, Ghiassi is a renaissance in the field of art! At the age 10 after the separation of his parents he along with his father and sister moved to Iran. He soon began school in a Farsi language school and easily became adapted. In his teen years he discovered himself a dilatent in the field of art by sowing clothing, painting, dancing and high school plays. Ghiassi is a graduate with a BA in Persian literature. At the age 24 he returned to America, served as a US Marine reservist and soon found himself obsessed with writing and a brilliant outlet to manage his heavy luggage of trauma and pain. He currently now resides in Southern California, studying film and directing as an actors student in hopes to one day transform The Handsome into a full length feature.

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