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Welcome to Maggiore Queeries – Homepage of Author Dolores Maggiore

Lesbian Fiction Books, LGBTQ, and Young Adult Novels

I am so glad you found my webpage – writing about queers, queries, LGBTQ questions and answers. Here’s queer stuff – les-fiction and non-fiction, from my lesbian mystery novels to lesbian history, from lesbian YA fiction to lesbian child custody info. Here in blogs and essays I query myself, pondering the meaning of home and place and spaces we occupy: me the ex-new york queer writer, me the Portland, Oregon lesbian literature author, me the California queer desert rat.

What does it mean to edit Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp, a lesbian YA story set in the pine incense of Maine woods, while sweating under a desert palm? Maybe that’s why things heat up so quickly between Pina and Katie. Yup, heat plays a role in the lesbian mystery I cooked up in Portland, Oregon to sprinkle in a dash of lesbian paranormal, a pinch of lesbian history, a handful of young lesbian romance, into the tale of a twisted twenty year old murder. The young lesbian lovers live on in Death and Love’s sequels Love and Lechery at Albert Academy and Lechery and Love on the Watchtower: Till Death Do Us Part (in edit).

Love and Lechery at Albert Academy finds Pina and Katie in a lesbian young adult domestic thriller. Pina’s queer query goes something like this:

do I betray myself to save myself? Do I risk holding my head up to resist a toxic authority? Her answer lies in her dedication of the book:

I owe a debt of gratitude for this book, my story, to my sweetheart Katie and her parents, Doc McGuilvry and Joe Gallo. Thank you for your love and belief in me.

And especially to my parents, Giusy and Sebastian Mazzini, for having the courage to stand tall for things they never thought they’d believe in. Well, the newspaper article by me, Pina Mazzini, and Joe Gallo already told so much: about the threats and the fear, the stalking and the spying. It had all happened before and was about to happen to me.

I wasn’t always who I am now. So she could have taken me, she who will be nameless here. Shame could have cowed me into her clutches.

And so, I finally dedicate this book to any among you who did succumb and as a warning to others: may courage and goodness guide you to love yourself and the ones you choose.

PINA MAZZINI, December 1959.

Soon we will join Pina and Katie in Europe two years later in Lechery and Love on the Watchtower. Pina’s shadow still stalks her, probing and questioning. Is it safe to move on with my life? Will love last if I don’t?

When I ask what it means to be a Portland, Oregon Lesbian Author, I see myself as a very new lesbian mystery writer, proudly hamming it up—as a former teacher and psychotherapist I am used to performance–at Another Read Through or a more seasoned lesbian thriller author at Annie Bloom’s. I swell with lesbian pride when Portland area veteran lesbian writers Kate Gray and Kate Carol de Gutes invite me to read at Literary Arts Incite: Queer Voices Read and to present as a Lesbian Literature Author at Lit Crawl, and I smile ecstatically at the thought of sharing a lesbian literature table with Karelia Stetz-Waters at Portland Gay Pride. My personal lesbian pride overflows when Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp wins a Lesbian Rainbow Award for best LGBTQ YA novel and best debut Lesbian novel.

As a lesbian young adult author I join the ranks of Portland SCBWI’s (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) PAL (Published and Listed) Authors. I am also a member of Willamette Writers and POLEWGS (Portland Lesbian Writers Guild), and attend LCLC (Left Coast Lesbian Conference) sponsored by my publisher Sapphire Books and GCLS (Golden Crown Lesbian Literary Society Conference). Finally, this lesbian fiction writer belongs to a Portland lesbian-friendly critique group to whom she dedicates this website and continues to query and move on with her life.

Words of Praise

Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp is a tough story to resist, sculpted by an artist who knows her craft well and hopefully will continue to create books in the realm of this one. Recommended.

Grady Harp, Hall of Fame Top 50 Amazon Reviewers

Dolores’s passion for her subject comes through in this lively book.

Emily Whitman, award winning YA author

Well written story focused on the young adult story line. Nostalgic look back. A little bit of everything in this one, romance, mystery, paranormal. The settings were well written in this book. Felt like I was right there.

RAINBOW Award Winner for ’17 Best LGBTQ YA

In Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp, we are taken back in time to that year where Pina and Katie became adolescents and faced the typical teen issues of insecurities and fears along side of the senses of hope and young love and a very mysterious ghost story. Dolores Maggiore beautifully brings together mystery and adolescence and has us turning pages as quickly as possible.

What a wonderful combination— coming out and coming of age and a real mystery.

Amos Lassen, Top 50 Amazon Reviewer

In this ghost story mystery Dolores incorporates her experience and knowledge of gay culture in a subtle manner that serve to enhance her novel. She conjures up the 1950s and summons the change that will be occurring in the 1960s and beyond, all in the context of an imaginative and thrilling psychodrama mystery.

Grady Harp, Amazon, Top 50 Reviewer

Here is a YA novel that is both a good read and a platform for further discussion – DEATH AND LOVE AT THE OLD SUMMER CAMP by Dolores Maggiore From her singular perspective, the main character, Pina, leads us to explore with her topics of interest to young adults today: sexual identity and awakening, bullying, independence, and friendship. DEATH AND LOVE AT THE OLD SUMMER CAMP Death is the first in a planned trilogy that follows the adventures and maturing of the duo Pina and Katie.

Barbara Murphy, author, writing instructor.

The setting of Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp at a 1950s Maine resort, next door to an old, abandoned summer camp, is drawn in rich, evocative detail — you can almost smell the pine, hear the creaking of a screen door.

Kylie Schachte, YA author, editor

Maggiore’s first novel blends a real mystery with the mysteriousness of growing up. Whether the reader longs to get back to 1959 or just to the magic of last summer, this debut novel is sure to delight.

Karelia Stetz-Waters, author of YA, Forgive Me if I’ve Told You This Before

Maggiore has skillfully woven together a complex twenty-year-old mystery, a Sicilian based sub-plot, family dynamics, emotional/ mental struggles, and typical teenage rebellion against conventional mores. This coupled with a fast- moving plot and well-developed characterization makes for a great read. Kudos!

MFS712, Humanities Instructor

Here is a whodunit set in a psychological and emotional landscape.

BL Murphy

The plucky humor of the two girls is totally endearing, and their fearless wit in the face of true horror makes you root for them at every step of the way!

Kylie Schachte

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Latest Title

Love and Lechery at Albert Academy - Dolores Maggiore

LOVE AND LECHERY AT ALBERT ACADEMY:
Pina & Katie & the Stalker of Albert Hall

by Dolores Maggiore

In September 1959 Pina’s got only one thing on her mind at the elite Albert Academy: four years of blissful rooming with her heartthrob Katie, pursuing their taboo relationship of the previous summer—only one thing until Pina stumbles over the lecherous Head Mistress Craney, lurking in the hall.

Read more and pre-order a copy today!