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The Beautiful-Strange-Fantastic Bookstand: 

Novels

Portraits of Familiar Strangers

Trade Paperback 2019
Digital Version 2018



Patrick Whidby faces the ultimate midlife crisis … cancer.  

As illness takes its toll on his teaching career and marriage, he must choose whether or not to accept help from those who have often brought him more grief than happiness.  The experience brings him closer to his son, Sean, a lost and dispirited gay teenager. 

 

In addition to Patrick and Sean, Portraits of Familiar Strangers offers an ensemble cast of misplaced millennials.  The inhabitants of Flowery Grove include a heart-of-gold mortician, a lovelorn transgender woman, and a crippled basketball player, each struggling to endure the hardships of America’s Bible Belt.

Trade paperback available via Amazon for $12.99
Digital version for Kindle also available
Visit Amazon for purchase

 

 

 

Poetry Books

A Garden of Storms

Physical Version, 2015      Digital Version, 2017



Written and illustrated by Don Gaddis, A Garden of Storms gives an autobiographical account of the modern South as seen from the point of view of a young gay artist.

 

Whether lounging poolside with a beautiful yet handicapped Texan man, leaving a nightclub in the wee small hours of the morning without hope of meeting someone, or coming to terms with the death of a close relative, the author takes the reader on a candid journey. 

 

This limited print run includes black & white as well as color illustrations.  62 pages.  Approximately 7 by 8.
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To purchase the physical version, send payment of $25, along with your name and mailing address, via Paypal to: art.tree@dongaddis.com.

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The digital version is available via Amazon for $5. 

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Sample from book:
 

"A Drop of Honey"
 

"Bye, honey."

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He said it

with a casual

Southern-sugar-daddy-gentlemanly drawl.

Surely I misheard,

or he misspoke.

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Honey.

My mind drifted

and pilfered back through the years,

as if rummaging through a tin

of empty candy wrappers.

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Nothing.

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No "Baby-doll."

No "Sweetie-pie."

Just the one, platonic drop of honey,

newly planted on my cheek-ear

via random phone call;

the sonic equivalent of a reflexive kiss,

that which seldom passes

from one man to another,

even when blood

sticks the two together

amiably.

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I... didn't... know... how... to... feel,

other than embarrassed.

I had rolled around in it.

A meager drop.

Alas, my honey starved soil was human.

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Either he misspoke,

or I misheard.

Or he really loved me.

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A Sip of Earth 

Physical Version, 2011     Digital Version, 2017



The poems within A Sip of Earth bring the reader fully into a Southern Gothic realm of abandoned farmhouses, suicidal fugitives, and vain ghosts.  

 

Written and Illustrated by Don Gaddis, this collection also includes poems that recount his coming of age in the Bible Belt.  

 

Limited print run. Text interior.  44 pages.  Approx. 5 by 8. Kindred Spirit Press.​

 

To purchase, send payment of $15, along with your name and mailing address, via Paypal to: 

art.tree@dongaddis.com.

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The digital version is available via Amazon for $4.

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Sample from book:

"A Sip of Earth"

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Out of breath,

with no time to think

as they

come up over the hill,

I make the choice without pause or reflection.

​

The bullet.  So sweet

to deliver me

away from it all.

​

There

at the edge of the lawn, by the hickory tree,

my body falls

among the delicious, wild roses.

As I take a final, humble sip of earth,

​

the earth

takes a sip of blood.

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And then...

a short time passes.

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Morning.

Sunrise.

Sunlight.

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Art Anthologies

Completely Stripped, 2010

&

Stripped Uncensored, 2009



Published by Bruno Gmunder, each book features gay themed illustrations from an international array of artists. 

Completely Stripped is a revised edition of the previous book and features reprints of all material contained within Stripped Uncensored, as well as additional bonus works.
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Completely Stripped features cover art by Ismael Alvarez.  

Stripped Uncensored features cover art by Joe Phillips.

Each book is 200+ pages.  Full color interiors.

 

Both of these Bruno Gmunder anthologies are available through Amazon and finer bookshops.

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Sample from books:

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