BEACH READING BOOKS

>THE BOOKS

   Beach Reading, the series, follows the adventures of Tim Snow and his friends, neighbors and boyfriends as well as his co-workers at ARTS, a fictional piano bar/ restaurant on the 500 block of Castro Street in San Francisco.
    Tim's landlords around the corner on Collingwood are also the owners of Arts - Arturo and Artie - who met in Vietnam. Arturo is the restaurant's chef and Artie tends bar, although he is a frustrated performer at heart, having been a celebrated drag queen at Finocchios nightclub in its heyday.
    Tim also remains close to his Aunt Ruth who took him in years ago in high school when his parents threw him out. He barely remembers his psychic grandmother, whose picture he keeps beside his bed.
    Tim still has dreams that hold meanings he doesn’t understand, but he grew up hoping that his own “clairvoyance, like his first excitement around other boys at the swimming pool, was something that would just go away if he ignored it hard enough.”

In Beach Reading, the Best-selling first book in the series, tourists are arriving en masse for the “party of the decade” at the Moscone Center, a tribute to the late disco star Sylvester. On the same night as the dance party, some of Tim’s activist friends are planning to protest Arlo Montgomery's crusade against gay rights. Tim is so upset about his recent break-up with Jason that he hasn’t paid attention to either of the events and signs up to work at ARTS instead. On the previous Sunday afternoon Tim heads to the South of Market bars on the F-Market streetcar and meets a retired dancer named Vanessa, who tries to involve him in an assassination plot along with her ailing brother Harley and his abundant supply of “medicinal” marijuana.
- Tim sees a picture in the newspaper of his high school track coach David Anderson, the man who brought him out, with the homophobic preacher. By mid-week Dave tracks down Tim at the Midnight Sun and tells him he has a secret weapon to bring down Arlo Montgomery in San Francisco.

Note: Despite any resemblance to living and/ or historical figures, all characters mentioned or appearing in Beach Reading are fictitious except Sylvester, Two Tons o’ Fun, former Mayor Willie Brown, Mavis, Carol Doda, Jan Wahl and Dame Edna Everage, who is only partially fictitious.

One of the reasons I wrote this book is because I’ve always loved the image of a big mirror ball suspended from a helicopter spattering shards of sunlight across the financial district and later, emerging from the fog over Twin Peaks. I've always wanted an enormous party on Alcatraz too, but I could only manage it in Tim's dream. Above all else, Beach Reading is a love letter to San Francisco.

Subsequent books in the series:

Cold Serial Murder -

- also a SF Chronicle Best-Seller

Tim Snow expected to show his visiting Aunt Ruth the wonders of San Francisco, but never expected one of the sights of the city would be the body of his ex-lover. A killer is on the loose in the Castro district. Meanwhile, Tim's cadre of quirky friends and neighbors makes life all the more interesting with their drama of weddings and lost (and found) loves. Cold Serial Murder continues the story of one of the Castro's most adorable characters. Can Tim and his Aunt uncover who the killer is before it's too late?

Excerpt from Cold Serial Murder: Tim bent to put the key in the trunk and smelled… something… something was terribly wrong. The trunk came open and Tim caught his breath. Jorge was no longer missing. He was naked in the trunk of Arturo’s car amid dozens of rotting strawberries in a pool of blood.
Tim jumped back as the bile rose in his throat and he tried not to vomit. He looked around to make sure no one else was close enough to see what he did. Then he closed the trunk again. The seven muscle-bound Cher impersonators were gathering on the sidewalk to have a group picture taken in front of the restaurant for the B.A. R. There was nothing Tim could do for Jorge now and he saw no reason to disrupt Jason’s memorial gathering.
A police car double parked near the bus shelter in front of the Bank of America. There was nothing Tim could do for either Jason or Jorge besides tell the authorities, so he headed toward the corner of 18^th and Castro with Arturo’s car keys still in the palm of his hand.

Russian River Rat:

- The action is divided between the Castro neighborhood and Nick’s nursery in Northern California’s gay resort district when a naked body is found in the Russian River.
- Tim and Nick’s relationship grows serious, but is strained by misunderstandings before Nick leaves for a funeral in New Orleans.
- Aunt Ruth falls for Sam Conner, a wealthy importer from Hillsborough.
- Arturo and Artie hire a new piano player, Phil, who has a more lucrative business on the side.
- Tim is briefly reunited with Nick before being injured in an attempt on Nick’s life and the nursery is nearly destroyed.
- Artie finally revives his drag persona, Artie Glamóur, to perform for a holiday party at Arts.

Excerpt from Russian River Rat: Tim awoke to the smell of smoke from a wood-burning stove and remembered where he was… in Nick’s bed in Monte Rio. He opened his eyes to the dim light of late afternoon. The last rays of sun filtered through the silhouettes of redwoods outside the bedroom window. Tim yawned and tried to bring his hand to his mouth, but it wouldn’t move. His gaze moved up the length of his arm and focused on his hand. Both wrists were tied to the bedposts with wide bands of leather.

Snowman:
- Tim heads out for a drive down the coast after his convalescence but only gets as far as Sam Conner’s estate in Hillsborough. While relaxing by the pool he meets Adam, a stunning black fashion model, the only son of Sam’s maid Delia... and Sam.
- Nick helps Arturo with a plumbing problem at Arts and they discover human body parts in the pipes.
- Ruth’s right-wing daughter Dianne arrives from Texas while Ruth tries to reconcile Tim and Nick’s relationship.
- Nick’s grandmother Amanda and Tim’s Aunt Ruth (with the help of her straying cat Bartholomew) uncover a meth lab in the apartment building on Hartford Street behind the restaurant and they are nearly killed trying to catch the culprits.
Excerpt from Snowman: “How do you do, Marcia. I just love your nails,” Dianne said. “What color do you call that? And pardon my asking, but are they real?”“They are now, “Marcia said. “It’s Apricot Frost. My hair is real, too. I wore fake nails and wigs for a long time before mine grew out, but now I have my own nails and my hair is long enough to style just the way I like it.” “I’m so sorry… did you have cancer?" “Cancer!” Marcia shouted. “No, I didn’t have cancer. What I had was a lot worse, as far as I was concerned. I had a penis!”

Wedding Season:

- Local TV personality Rosa Rivera’s series on Bay Area weddings will end with a contest. The winners receive a lavish same-sex wedding ceremony to be broadcast live from Arts restaurant on Rosa's show. Artie thinks this will be his big chance to revive his singing career.
- Ruth and Tim later witness Rosa’s meltdown in the middle of the Gay Pride Parade down Market Street.
- A homeless woman in the neighborhood turns out to be Tim’s estranged alcoholic mother from Minneapolis, who has learned about his inheritance. Ruth manages to get Tim’s mother (Ruth’s only sister) into an exclusive rehabilitation center in the Napa Valley.
- Tim’s dreams bring up long-buried childhood traumas. Ruth whisks Tim away to Chicago long enough for her plans to unfold, getting Tim’s greedy mother out of his life. And the winners surprise everyone.

Excerpt from Wedding Season: Tim ran for miles in his dreams that night. He ran all the way around Lake Nokomis and Lake Harriet and Lake of the Isles. He ran past the Calhoun Beach club and south from there along the east shore of the lake. When he looked down at his bare feet in the sand, there was no more blood and the bandage was gone. His feet had grown from a little boy’s feet to the size of a man’s. He could smell the salt spray of the sea and heard seagulls scolding him. They were probably screaming about Jesus, too, but Tim didn’t listen. He just kept running. When he stopped and looked up again from the sand toward the water, he was still on a beach, but now he was standing beside the Pacific Ocean.

Neutriva Dreams:
- Tim is recruited along with other local psychics who are taking the HIV drug Sustiva to enter a trance-like state every Saturday morning in a clinic in China Basin. They are ostensibly trying to predict and prevent suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge, but soon find out otherwise.
- When Sam and Ruth return from their honeymoon she takes over running the Hillsborough household and discovers an eerie discrepancy in the staff schedule at Sam’s estate. For everyone close to Tim, the living and the dead become difficult to distinguish from one other.
- Artie Glamóur becomes a smash hit at Cabaret Brunch at Arts and a mysterious young man saves his life.
- Nick helps Tim and the other psychics bring down a ring of identity thieves and Tim finally has a rendezvous with his late grandmother in the middle of the Folsom Street Fair.

Love Rules:
- Nick is in Europe on a book tour with his grandmother while Tim is frustrated trying to figure out what the rules are for two guys in a committed relationship to satisfy their sexual needs. Unfortunately, he and Nick have never discussed the situation and realize that this is not the time to do it while they’re thousands of miles apart.

- Artie’s career hits new heights and takes him out of town more often, leaving other performers to entertain the crowds on Castro Street.

- A pair of masked armed robbers hit Cliff’s hardware store, Rossi’s Deli, and several of the gay bars in the Castro.

- Tim communicates via the Internet with a teenage boy from London who is coming to San Francisco with an ulterior motive.

Seersucker:

- Tim discovers his psychic grandmother's diaries.