Written by Some works of fiction just suck you in and keep you turning page after page for hours. It’s rare to find a work of non-fiction, and a biography at that, that does that. Scott Terry’s autobiography, Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth: How a Gay Child was Saved From Religion
Scott Terry is now an out and proud gay man, a freelance writer and an artist, among other things. He’s come a very long way from some very humble and very abusive beginnings. He lived through a childhood steeped very heavily in emotional abuse, some covert physical abuse (he hung on the edges of starvation and often was cold from lack of proper clothing/covering and shelter) and in the religious dogma of “The Truth” as Jehovah’s Witnesses call their church and their beliefs.
Scott’s mother divorced his father Virgil and then gave up custody of him and his sister (whom he never refers to as anything but Sissy in the book) to his father when he was all of two. His father would go on to remarry a woman (referred to as “Fluffy”) who wanted the man but not the ready made family he came with. Treatment of Scott and Sissy at the hands of Fluffy was poor, to say the least, before the arrival of her own children. After she and his father Virgil had children of their own, life for Scott became all but unbearable.
Scott did not have love, affection, friends, activities (outside of some very limited church activities) or anything else in his life through most of his teenage years. He barely had food, clothing and shelter. He had only his religion to guide him through the tough times. He, because he was raised that way, stood fast in the convictions of his faith. He just knew that his faith would see him through to the promised land on earth after the expected apocalypse. He prayed to Jehovah for salvation from the sin of being gay (which he kept a complete and total secret for many years). He believed completely in the Armageddon prophecy and in all of the teachings of the church that expounded that only Jehovah’s Witnesses had “The Truth”.
3/4 of this book is a look into a childhood fraught with pain built mostly around the abuse of a woman and the indifference of a man who both felt they were acting in the eyes of God as they believed he wanted. The balance of the book is a reflection of Terry’s salvation that came, not in the form of Armageddon, but at the hands of some people that he thought were long lost to him. Even in salvation, life wasn’t easy.
If you can stand the pain of hurting for Terry, and if you have an interest in the inner workings of “The Truth” / the Jehovah’s Witness church, give Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth: How a Gay Child was Saved From Religion
This is available in paperback and for the Kindle.
upon us in April of 2012. For a look at my actual 
which came out in March of this year.
. I’m really glad I took the time to check it out.
.
and 
.
. I read through the info he sent me, decided the book sounded interesting and told him I’d be happy to read it and review it, to please go ahead and send it.
. I just loved the story telling.
which was published in 1991 and which I read way back then. Since the details of the story were not stored in my memory banks, I bought the book and read it again like it was the first time.
but she gained some new fans too. 
returns to her original roots with Scarpetta as a 1st person story teller. Another book is due out later this year.
, some that is highly controversial as well. Several of those non-fiction books are certainly worth a read. If you read or have read “Case Closed” and you’ve read some of the arguments against her theory, I’d love to hear your take on it. Feel free to comment on this post.
. Her book bumps the latest by Gerri Hill, 
, down to number 2. As of this writing, Robin’s book only had a few reviews. Her work though is well known to lesbian themed fiction readers and I have no doubt it will be hanging around on the list for a little while. We also have some brand new books at numbers 5, 6 and 10 on the list. They are, respectively; 
by Bev Prescott, 
by JM Dragon, and the latest by Julia P. Lynde, 
. So, there’s a few new things to look at out there… now to find the time…
. In fact, it’s number 1 in 3 gay and lesbian categories on Amazon and number 375 OVERALL for the Kindle. That’s a hot book!
by Cardeno C. Books 3 and 4 have been on the list for a few weeks but, after them, we have wholesale changes with all new books from #5 through #10! Amazing! As usual, we have a lot of female writers in the mix of all the new books. Gay fiction is not only popular with gay male readers but also with straight women. Maybe straight men should do a little reading in the gay fiction area? Couldn’t hurt, might help… you never know!
, a novel about the lives of black, gay power couple Tyrin and Khalil.
which picks up the story of Tyrin, Khalil, Khalil’s family and friends Kerrion and Spencer about two years or so later. This book too is a wild ride of emotional highs and lows with a whole lot of anger and resentment stirring the pot.
is threatening for the top spot as it stays strong and works up from number five on the list to number 2.
. True to the western romance nature of her previous books, this time we get a female bull rider (if you’re not familiar with the sport, you have no idea how rare that is) and the woman who hopes to pry her away from the arena and all of the associated dangers. I have a nephew who thinks riding bulls is fun. I’m thinking I’m going to have to check this one out.
by Joann Lee, 
by Karis Walsh. And, finally, an old favorite at number 10, to go along with our number 7 entrant, 
by Catherine M. Wilson.
by SJD Peterson and 
by – hang on to your hats – TJ Klune respectively. Nice to see TJ back with some new stuff!
. The story is actually part of a collection of short stories by Cox. I recently had the pleasure of reading the next story in the collection, the 25 page short, 
. Don’t let the title scare you off! If you’re a sci-fi fan, this is good stuff.
. It was published for the Kindle this past October. The plot revolves around middle aged gay New Yorker Ryan Kinkaid and his desire to get out of New York for the oppressively hot summer months. An antiques dealer by trade, he wants to go somewhere that’s cooler and out of the city but close enough to lots of antique hunting with a major city nearby. He settles on Portsmouth, New Hampshire, finds a rental house and moves in for 4 months with his best friend Lauren, a museum curator, in tow.