The Book: Dragons terrorize a Virginia town, and one young man finds friendship--and love--in unlikely places in this near-future post-apocalyptic romance. A Strong and Sudden Thaw was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.

"A Strong and Sudden Thaw" is a well-told, post-apocalyptic romance with a distinctive narrative voice. Combining a realistic story of small-town struggles, prejudices, and affections against a larger tale of endless winter and hungry dragons, R. W. Day offers readers a heartwarming work of speculative fiction that combines the persecuted love of "Brokeback Mountain" with the charming romance of "Big Eden."" -- Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow, October 2006

"(8/10) Wow. An impressive debut novel. Day has created an incredibly detailed and believable world, filled with both sympathetic and loathsome characters." -- Rebecca Buchanan, Sequential Tart, November 2006

"This is an excellent novel, however you measure it. It's good science-fiction, it's a good slash/boy's love romance, and a beautiful coming of age story." -- Ann Somerville, Uniquely Pleasurable, October 2006

The book will be re-released with a new cover in January by Lethe Press: 

Amazon: A Strong and Sudden Thaw

The Author: R.W. Day has been writing since she figured out which end of her crayon was 'up.' She's had about a dozen stories published or accepted for publication in magazines, including Deep Magic, Lenox Avenue, Cabinet des Fees, Book of Dark Wisdom, and in such anthologies as Damned Nation, Blood & Devotion, and Best Gay Love Stories 2006. This is her first published novel.

She is a forty-something Ohioan living in southern Virginia trying to build a writing career that she has wanted for as long as she can remember, probably since she put down Peter Rabbit and realized there was an author behind it. She got sidetracked along the way with 2 kids, 4 stepkids, an obsessive teaching career that she has since abandoned for library work, but she is now trying to write about 1,000 words a day and collect rejection slips submit stories regularly.

She currently lives with one husband, one child (the other's off at college), four dogs, two cats and a yard full of mice, rabbits and one snake. In her copious free time, she plays in the SCA and does handspinning and weaving.

http://www.rwday.net/

Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)

*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.

Other titles not in the top 100 list:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM