Book Eight
Regarding the magnificent man on the cover, he's a friend from the gym and volleyball in Cheesman Park. I had asked him if he would mind posing for the photographer friend of mine at his farm in Fort Collins, and he graciously agreed to consider my unusual request. A few days later, I was in the locker room of the gym, getting ready to work out, when I spied a man across the floor, also getting dressed whom I thought, from behind, would make a perfect cover model. Then he turned around and I realized that it was my friend and that I had, indeed, made the correct choice for my cover guy. He finally told me that he would be happy to pose but that we could not show frontal parts. I was perfectly fine with that requirement because I was looking for art not pornography.
We arrived at the farm and my photographer proceeded to take shot after shot, indoors and out of doors. Most of them turned out well; however, even though this particular pose was not what I exactly had in mind--I had thought an erotic pose in bed was more in fitting with one of the scenes in the book--this particular pose called out to me as, by far, the best of them all. I could visualize it as the cover shot for A HOUSE DIVIDED. We presented the slide to Anita, and I gave all the remaining ones to my friend. No, they would not find their way onto the Internet even though they were wonderful. Anita again employed her digital magic by darkening the background and adding highlights to the form--making it look bronzed instead of marble. When she was finished, I and my friend were stunned. It looked even more artistic and beautiful than the original photograph. The irony, of course, is that that particular shot was taken in what had once been a cinderblock chicken coop. All I could afford to pay my friend for his contribution was to drive him to Fort Collins, buy him lunch, and give him ten copies of the published book, in addition to my heartfelt thanks.
The sole customer review on amazon as of this writing is from Rob Harris, a comic book lover who helped place my books at a library at a Virginia university. I would finally meet him at an annual ComicCon convention in San Diego several years ago. Sadly, a few months after that chance meeting at the Con, and only a few weeks, I believe, after writing his review of the novel, he suddenly and tragically died. So, I will always think of his sole review as a postumous expression of his generosity. He was a rare individual, a nice guy. And his input and posts to the gay comic book group, the gayleague, where we first met, are sorely missed by everyone all these years later.
The back cover photo of me was taken by the same photographer on the same farm near Fort Collins, CO. He took the photos that were used on the final two volumes in the series after Treva Looney, a local Denver lesbian professional portrait photographer, took the back cover photos for volumes one through six.
Prior to publication, now that there were ten of my GLBT characters with superior abilities, I felt that, in order to take the series to the next level if there were to be future volumes, I ought to have them acquire superhero names and superhero costumes. I could not draw, and my expertise regarding modern superhero names was woefully inadequate to the task. I called upon members of the Gayleague comic book group to help with a contest--free RAoF books being the prizes for any submissions--more free books for those whose designs or names were chosen. Rob Harris, in fact, created the name for Greg's partner, Paul. The list of winning names follows:
- Michael: Warp, from Stan Wong
- Dino: Wild Card, from Sean Welker
- Jane: Redwood, from Jed Shumsky
- Cleo: Haunt, from Michael DeMarsico
- William: Pulse, from Rod Townsend
- Joseph: Harvest, from J.A. Fludd and Duncan Milner
- Marina: Firefrost, from Kyle Minor
- Joan: Enchantra, from J.A. Fludd
- Paul: Elemancer, from Rob Harris
- Greg: Oculus: from me
The contest winners for costumes are located on the column on the left. Hardy Mulyadi created the ones for Joan, Dino, Michael, Greg, Paul, and William. Rob Harris created the costumes for Cleo, Joseph, and Jane. Hardy Mulyadi slight modified a costume submitted by Tank for Marina.
The following are three reviews of A HOUSE DIVIDED. You may not wish to read the second or third reviews since significant spoiler information exists in those two.
"The good thing about the book is that Sanchez has no illusions that RAINBOW is anything but fun, a sort of mega-comic book. Sanchez's heart is in the right place. His views on disunity in the community and injustice strike a noble chord."
-The Lambda Book Report
"The eighth installment of local Colorado writer Gregory Earl Sanchez's continuing series of Denver-based superhero happenings gets positively comic-bookish when a terrible civil war threatens to destroy the heroic and spiritually evolved members of the Rainbow Arc of Fire. When four villains are given fantastical abilities (including shape-shifting, invisibility, and teleportation) by the Greek goddess of discord with the instruction to foment drama in the world, the queer quartet arise to harass, financially ruin, and finally defeat the original six as the price for retaining their own awesome abilities."
-Drew Wilson
Out Front Colorado
Perhaps "A House Divided" cannot stand, but it makes a pretty good read. I just finished it last night, and I think this one may tie with HARMONY OF SPHERES as my favorite.
This, obviously, is the most comic-book-like of the RAoF books (so far). Early on, it became obvious that this was going to be the Rainbow Arc version of those clashes between the FF and the Frightful Four, the Avengers and the Masters of Evil, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and so forth. And it delivered, in its own unique way. The twist of the villains not being out to conquer the world or destroy the heroes, but just keep what they've got (ill-gotten as it is), was a surprising and inventive one that somewhat stands the usual super-villain motivation on its ear. Very nice.
As for the nature and character of the adversaries themselves, this was very thought-provoking. The rift between Greg and company and Dino and his posse over the latter's baseness, venality, and less than sterling ideals was a good jumping-off point. Alienation and resentment are a ripe breeding ground for mischief, if not outright evil....
The other painful part of the story, for me, was the economic devastation that Dino and Michael brought on Greg and Paul....I thought the Rainbow Arc crew should never forgive Dino et al and never trust them again. But then, your characters have a marvelous knack for taking the high road....
And the whole bit about the four adversaries having powers that described their personalities--as is very often the case with super-heroes and villains--was very apt and nicely handled.
Well, I guess the journey of the Rainbow Arc to legitimate super-herodom has taken a big step with this book. I've enjoyed the series and I'm looking forward to seeing the next one in print.
Click here to buy this book from Amazon.com
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