Inherit the Lightning

“Gundy’s writing has a you-are-there vividness that perfectly complements his bigger than life characters and the sweeping story he tells.”

– Felice Picano, author, editor, and co-founder of The Violet Quill.

by Bud Gundy
romance, historical fiction, family saga
Order at Bold Strokes Books

Release Date  May 1, 2022

Growing up middle-class in Cleveland, Ohio, Darcy O’Brien and his sisters learn they’re about to inherit a long-rumored, immense family fortune from their great-grandfather Cooper Tiller—until a mysterious stranger from New York City swoops in and claims ownership of the estate.

When his lawyer forbids Darcy from confronting the interloper, it only fuels his determination to protect their rightful inheritance. In many ways a mirror of Coop—a masculine, hard-charging businessman from the early 20th century—Darcy’s uncertain about his ability to find love with the right man, but he secretly longs for Jake Tester and allows him to join his quest.

The journey will change their lives as they uncover Coop’s epic tale, unraveling a seventy-year-old family secret that forces Darcy to face his fears and leads to a breathtaking discovery waiting more than a century to be unearthed.

Reviews:

“Five Stars. Inherit the Lightning is an achingly lovely and compelling book. Its passions soar as high as its sorrows run deep, with a breadth and beauty to the story that is eloquent in its articulation of Coop’s life, his triumphs and tribulations, his courage and the strength of his convictions, and the hard-won happiness he found.”

– The Novel Approach Reviews

“Epic…a riveting, historic tale with memorable characters…beautiful, grand…Highly recommended.”

– Love Bytes Reviews

“A sweeping story…I would have read this book if it were twice as many pages. The author bites off a huge chunk of history and gives voice to a whole range of characters, historical events, and shapes it all into a really beautiful, haunting and hopeful tale.”

– Sinfully Good Gay Book Reviews

Accidental Prophet

“Seizes the reader’s attention like the final stroke of the doomsday clock…Bud Gundy imbues his story with a hurtling urgency…The writing is masterful and sagacious from first to last.”

- Kyle Thomas Smith, author of 85A and Cockloft: Scenes From a Gay Marriage

by Bud Gundy
action adventure, paranormal, urban fantasy, romance
Pre-order at Bold Strokes Books

Released  June 1, 2019

Intelligent, handsome, and struggling to make his rent, thirty-year-old Drew Morten loses his only meaningful relationship when his grandmother dies. A famous television anchor, Claudia Trenton leaves Drew the legacy of her secret memoir. From the fate of a vanished medieval prince to a top-secret NASA study about a mystifying space object, her unreported discoveries hum with wonder. 

But history merges with the present and upends Drew’s life when he has a terrifying revelation. Teaming up with a brilliant woman who receives the same vision and a handsome man whose arrival is either fortuitous or sinister, Drew follows the clues in his grandmother’s memoir and races against time to save the world from an apocalyptic nightmare about to be unleashed in downtown San Francisco.

As catastrophe looms, so does the question: Who, or what, is the real enemy?

Advance praise for Accidental Prophet:

To an age where Russian agents are now household names and dystopia is just a click away, comes a revelatory novel that seizes the reader’s attention like the final stroke of the doomsday clock. At first, Drew is just one more guy trying to find love and make ends meet, all while caring for his hospice-bound grandmother Claudia, in the Bay Area. After he lays Claudia to rest, however, Drew honors her wish to read her unpublished memoir of her days as a pioneering newswoman, only to find a prophecy embedded in its pages—a prophecy that Armageddon is nigh unless her grandson, the Accidental Prophet, can find his tribe and access the supernatural capacities they all share. Right away, the Visions start kicking in for Drew. Through sudden clairvoyance, he discovers that the Kremlin has trained a spy named Victor from boyhood to hack Silicon Valley and bring the nation and the world to ruin. He also discovers that his late-grandmother’s hospice nurse Tisha, a PhD candidate in physics, is also vested with these visions and shares Drew’s newly acquired powers to almost automatically heal from burns and all but a few other forms of injury. Along the way, he falls in love with an upwardly mobile techie named Tom, only to realize that Tom has a past whose implications could destroy more than just their love affair. Yet this rundown does not do justice to the immense complexity of the forces marshaling against the characters, nor the intricate webs that bind their fate. More impressive still is how Bud Gundy imbues his story with a hurtling urgency, all while setting it within a rich and subtle historical framework that spans from Medieval Brittany to 1970s New York to Harvey Milk-era San Francisco to the tech boom that could spell renaissance or ruin for our civilization. The writing is masterful and sagacious from first to last.

- Kyle Thomas Smith, author of 85A and Cockloft: Scenes From a Gay Marriage

Somewhere Over Lorain Road - Lambda Literary Award finalist

by Bud Gundy
mystery, suspense
Available at Bold Strokes Books

For more than forty years, the stain of horrific allegations against their father has haunted the Esker sons. When three little boys were murdered in 1975, their dad was suspected of the crimes. The immense strain of the unsolved case shattered the family, sending the brothers reeling into destinies of death, flight, and, in the case of Don Esker, shame-filled silence.

Years later, Don returns to the family home in North Homestead, Ohio, to help care for his dying father in his final months. His dad longs for the peace that will only come with clearing his name. If Don can find the killer, he can heal his family—and himself. His own redemption begins when he becomes romantically involved with Bruce, who joins the hunt and forces Don to confront the unthinkable answer they’ve uncovered. 

“★★★★★ – Highly recommended!”
-    Gay Book Reviews

“I was absolutely enthralled with the story from the opening paragraph until the final moments. Moving, gripping, and unforgettable.”
-    The Novel Approach Reviews

“While the chapters in the present kept me riveted to the unfolding mystery, the chapters in the past damn near broke my heart. The writing is impeccable and the plot enthralling.”
-    Love Bytes Reviews

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that grabs me in the first paragraph and does not let go even when I have finished reading it. I was totally mesmerized.”
-    Reviews by Amos Lassen

“This book, with its tight narration and unexpected turn of events, kept me glued to its pages until the very last one. It’s riveting – a page-turner, and masterfully written.”
-    My Fiction Nook

Praise for Somewhere Over Lorain Road

Horrific events in a small town set off a chain of aftershocks that rocks a community, and one family in particular, for the next forty years. This is a believable and engrossing story of a pre-teen child navigating a series of devastating family tragedies, and his much older-self trying to fit the pieces together.

But this story goes far beyond a simple murder mystery. It is also a story of rebuilding family relations, of gay-bashing, of coming out and becoming comfortable with your sexuality, and also a touching romance.

The author pulls all the stops out in this gripping story of love, tragedy and redemption, set against a backdrop of a murder investigation. An emotional roller coaster that will keep the reader guessing until the last, fully satisfying page.

There is beauty here as well, and wisdom. You come away from this book understanding yourself and humankind a little better, and a writer can’t do any better than that.

In the end, the author scores a five-star win with the best mystery novel I have read in years, because ultimately, I realized that the mystery the author is sharing is not the murders of a small town, but the mysteries of Life.

- Alan Chin, author of The Plain of Bitter Honey and Buddha’s Bad Boys

Elf Gift

Nominated for an Over the Rainbow Award by the American Library Association

by Bud Gundy
thriller suspense
Available on Amazon
Kindle - Paperback

Something is happening. Something big.

In Ireland at the time of the potato famine, a young servant discovers that he is part of a mystery he could never have imagined. In modern San Francisco, two more unsuspecting people are drawn into the same vortex.

Crashing through the centuries, the mystery snares young and old, rich and poor, the religious and the skeptic. And sometimes, it carries those people along with it through the ages. People walk the earth for hundreds of years, burdened by knowlege they never wanted, and tormented by visions they can’t understand.

Some of the clues lie in plain sight, like the obscure form of a woman on the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the world’s greatest medieval works of art. Other times, the mystery makes itself known in more subtle ways. A scratch on the skin. An empty room.

Sister Mary Rose Harlowe and Broderick Ellis have never met, yet find themselves thrown together, racing to get answers that can prevent disasters and save countless lives. And just as they’ve solved the mystery, they discover that the most shocking revelation is about their own lives.

A secret can live forever, or it can hide forever. It can’t do both.

"A page turner...there are times when I couldn't read it fast enough...Bud Gundy has created a truly innovative romp through history, captured in a voice that is magical and amusing."

In current day San Francisco, Sister Mary Rose Harlowe and Broderick Ellis are brought together by a mysterious old woman to solve a mystery that began in Ireland at the time of the potato famine. Mary Rose and Broderick find themselves in a mad rush to get answers that can prevent disasters and save countless lives. What they uncover is truly remarkable, secret powers that have been in play for centuries. It is something that the holy authorities in Rome will do anything to crush. But as remarkable as this mystery is, Mary Rose and Broderick discover that the most shocking revelation is about their own lives.

Bud Gundy has created a truly innovative romp though history, captured in a voice that is magical and amusing. The plot is chock full of twists and turns and the two protagonist must use their considerable wits to maneuver between the landmines.

Like most good stories, it is the characters that make this tale so interesting. Sister Mary Rose is a devout nun, but she is also a headstrong woman who will not be pushed around by her ‘superiors’. Broderick is a fun-loving gay atheist. Together, they clash in a fun way, much like the Odd Couple or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The plot is both serious and fanciful. It is fast paced and there are times when I couldn’t read it fast enough. It is a page-turner with a surprise ending.

There are times in the story when Sister Mary Rose climbs onto her soapbox to convince Broderick there is a holy power, and to me (a non-Christian) it sounded too much like preaching. I would have preferred that the author have gotten his point across in more subtle ways.

This is a wonderful read that I highly recommend to all readers who love well-drawn characters and a superb story.

     - Alan Chin, The Examiner

Bud Gundy reads an excerpt from his new novel Elf Gift at Under One Roof in San Francisco. December 12, 2012.

Butterfly Dream

by Dave Lara / Bud Gundy
historical fiction
Available on Amazon
Kindle - Paperback

Based on a true story...

At 86 years old, Banat Frantz recalls the first 21 years of his life, growing up Jewish and gay in Hitler’s Germany. He brings the wisdom and perspective of nearly nine decades to the observations of his younger self, laying waste to the delusions and madness of the times.

In Jewish camps throughout Europe, Banat befriends the last of Germany’s Jews to realize what was happening – the movie stars, producers, directors, writers and other artists who were formerly pampered and influential. They form a brilliant, triumphant cabaret that became the most acclaimed in Europe.

Even in the grip of Nazi control, Banat explores his emerging sexuality and falls in love. Soon, he is swallowed by the great darkness of Auschwitz, and among the most profound horrors in history he learns to seek survival in the most private, flickering corners of his heart.

Nothing can kill truth, and love shines in even the bleakest worlds.

"One of the most powerful books
I have ever read."
   - The LL Book Review

"A fascinating inner journey."
   - Alan Chin, Examiner.com