Long and Short Reviews welcomes Jamie Fessenden who is celebrating today’s release of Small Town Sonata.
For the first ten or so years of my life, my family lived in a small town in northern New Hampshire called Gorham. It’s population is about 2,000 today, but I’m not sure how many lived there when I was a boy. At that time, the “big city” was nearby Berlin—population close to 20,000 until the paper mill closed in 2006.
The town of Springhaven in Small Town Sonata is an idealized Gorham, which was a wonderful town to grow up in. Small and beautiful, surrounded by white birches and crystal clear, fast-moving rivers full of trout, with Mount Washington and the rest of the White Mountain range looming over us. I visited recently and was surprised by how tall the trees were. Where I live now, over a hundred miles to the south, the forests are relatively new, recovering from farmers clearing all the land in the 1800 and some severe blights. Most trees are 30-40 feet high. In the mountains, where most of the land is too rocky and not flat enough for farming, the trees are twice as high.
The locations in Small Town Sonata are largely to be found in Gorham. I lived on Androscoggin Street, where Ben lives. At the end of my street was (and is) Welch’s Restaurant—somewhat renovated now, but still there. I renamed it Townsend’s in my story. Dean and Aiden sit in the red padded booths I remember, eating a favorite dish of mine: poutine. It’s a French-Canadian dish—basically, french fries with gravy and cheese.
Next to the restaurant is the hardware store that features so strongly in Dean’s backstory. And if you head the other direction down Main Street, you’ll come to the town park. As described in the story, one corner of the park is a baseball diamond, but there’s a large area of grass with a bandstand.
At some point during the summer or fall, the carnival used to roll in and set up there. I don’t know if it still does. I remember my brother and I thinking we were tough enough to brave the Octopus and discovering we weren’t. My brother screamed for them to stop the ride and let us get off, but I can’t say I fared any better—I was just too petrified to scream. But that’s why the Octopus ended up in the novel.
The railroad tracks bordering one side of the park are silent now, as most railroad tracks in New Hampshire are, but when I was a boy, my friends would jump up on the outside ladders of passing train cars to impress each other with their bravery/stupidity. I was too frightened by urban legends of kids falling off and being ground under the wheels—something that probably never actually happened in my town, though certainly the danger was real.
The best part of growing up in a small town, in my opinion, was that we were safe enough to walk to school on our own or trick or treat after dark without adult supervision, while still having a lot of spooky places and creepy stories to keep our lives interesting.
Over The Counter Purchases If you plan to purchase Kamagra from pharmacies, you will order viagra sample need to get a prescription from a doctor. It is called the generic medicine of buy viagra sample. Kamagra tablets are available in a range of health issues such as the flu, cheap viagra samples high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, neurological problems, and lifestyle factors such as stress, drugs and alcoholism are other factors. PREVENTIVE MEASURE One must insure complete avoidance viagra professional price of certain products to get over the problem or the sexual disorder which hits the men around the corner and that is erectile dysfunction also known to be impotence. I also remember the fireworks. The fire department put on a fireworks display in the park every Fourth of July. My family and our neighbors rarely went to the park for that, since we could set up lawn chairs in the middle of the street and see them clearly. We just had to scramble out of the way, if a car wanted to get through.
It was an idyllic, Ray Bradbury-ish time for me, and although Dean and Aiden are hardly children, it was wonderful reliving my memories of this beautiful place for them.
Can the trusted town handyman rebuild a broken pianist’s heart?
When a freak accident ends Aiden’s career as a world-renowned classical pianist, he retreats to his New Hampshire hometown, where he finds the boy he liked growing up is even more appealing as a man.
Dean Cooper’s life as handyman to the people of Springhaven might not be glamorous, but he’s well-liked and happy. When Aiden drifts back into town, Dean is surprised to find the bond between them as strong as ever. But Aiden is distraught over the loss of his career and determined to get back on the international stage.
Seventeen years ago Dean made a sacrifice and let Aiden walk away. Now, with their romance rekindling, he knows he’ll have to make the sacrifice all over again. This time it may be more than he can bear.
About the Author: 
Jamie Fessenden is an author of gay fiction in many genres. Most involve romance, because he believes everyone deserves to find love, but after that anything goes: contemporary, science fiction, historical, paranormal, mystery, or whatever else strikes his fancy.
He set out to be a writer in junior high school. He published a couple short pieces in his high school’s literary magazine and had another story place in the top 100 in a national contest, but it wasn’t until he met his partner, Erich, almost twenty years later, that he began writing again in earnest. With Erich alternately inspiring and goading him, Jamie wrote several novels and published his first novella in 2010. That same year, Jamie and Erich married and purchased a house together in the wilds of New Hampshire, where there are no street lights, turkeys and deer wander through their yard, and coyotes serenade them under the stars.
Buy the book at Dreamspinner Press or Amazon.
The next man in Macy Rollins’s life must be perfect. She’s had enough impostors and isn’t willing to settle for anything less. All she has to do is get through the company contract negotiation season and she will get that promotion she has been working so hard for. Avery Malveaux – one of Philadelphia’s most eligible bachelors – has been hired to work with her as legal counsel for the company. From the moment they are forced to work together tensions are high and expectations are low. He questions her ability, she questions his intentions. After Macy is suspected in an accounting shortage, she accuses Avery of betraying her confidence. Has she once again been deceived by a man she thought she could trust? Can she clear her name and win her job back? And can there be any hope for Macy’s pursuit of perfection.
Men and women have always sought the promise that only love can offer. Jacki invites you into an intriguing world where romance abounds around every corner and down every street. You’ll be amazed at the crazy things we do and don’t do for the promise of love.
Theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza is back at Treemeadow College directing their Nutcracker Ballet co-starring his spouse, theatre professor Noah Oliver, their son Taavi, and their best friend and department head, Martin Anderson. With muscular dance students and faculty in the cast, the Christmas tree on stage isn’t the only thing rising. When cast members drop faster than their loaded dance belts, Nicky and Noah will once again need to use their drama skills to figure out who is cracking the Nutcracker’s nuts, trapping the Mouse King, and being cavalier with the Cavalier, before Nicky and Noah end up stuck in the Land of the Sweets. You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining eighth novel in this delightful series. Take your seats. The curtain is going up on the Fairy—Sugar Plum that is, clumsy mice, malfunctioning toys, and murder!
Joe Cosentino was voted Favorite LGBT Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Author of the Year by the readers of Divine Magazine for Drama Queen. He also wrote the other novels in the Nicky and Noah mystery series: Drama Muscle, Drama Cruise, Drama Luau, Drama Detective, Drama Fraternity, Drama Castle, Drama Dance; the Dreamspinner Press novellas: In My Heart/An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, the Bobby and Paolo Holiday Stories: A Home for the Holidays/The Perfect Gift/The First Noel, The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland with Holiday Tales from Fairyland; the Cozzi Cove series: Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out, Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings, Cozzi Cove: Happy Endings (NineStar Press); and the Jana Lane mysteries: Paper Doll, Porcelain Doll, Satin Doll, China Doll, Rag Doll (The Wild Rose Press). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. Joe is currently Chair of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and he is happily married. Joe was voted 2nd Place Favorite LGBT Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards, and his books have received numerous Favorite Book of the Month Awards and Rainbow Award Honorable Mentions.
Zoey DeLucca is a successful Michigan divorce attorney. Growing up the center of a bitter custody battle between her neglectful mother and her caring father convinced her to become a Family Law attorney and champion the father’s that seldom won in court.
E.M. Bannock grew up in the Detroit suburbs. She is the second child of seven and eldest daughter of a working class family. Her parents had traditional, old style, European ideals which clashed with her modern, adventurous personality. The daughters were not encouraged to attend college. Instead they were expected to get married, have children, and be homemakers. 
