“Post Traumatic Dress Disorder” Launch of Noir Drag Novel by F. S. Rosa

Ithrueil's Spear Publishing

Join Sin Soracco, author of Low Bite and Edge City, and Patrick Marks, publisher of Ithuriel’s Spear for a reading from the now completed final noirish novel that F.S. (Francesca) Rosa was working on before her untimely death in 2016.

It’s 1972 — and three Vietnam army veterans, two of them drag queens, and their boss at a social services agency are (reluctantly) employed to track down run-aways who have fled to San Francisco for shelter from their repressive hometowns. One Fresno escapee, on the verge of his majority, has lied about his age and landed a job at the fabulous Finocchio’s Club, where female impersonators ply their trade. A make-up case is stolen, the body count starts to mount, and love blossoms in this noirish tale of finding one’s place in the world.

“Why do I love this book? Perhaps because this sassy story unfolds in 1972, exactly when I arrived in San Francisco trying to figure out my gay identity. Its fascinating cast of characters, its fresh take on the fast-paced detective novel, and of course its all-important focus on fashion, set against San Francisco’s colorful seventies LGBTQIA (long before that acronym existed!) underworld make this a page-turner.” — Jim Van Buskirk, co-author of Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area

” Post Traumatic Dress Disorder got San Francisco right. I would know. I was there.”
— Richard “Scott” Lyons, who performed at San Francisco’s legendary drag institution Finocchio’s under the name Beverly Plaza.

” I loved Francesca’s book, and not only her book, but the work of those who succeeded her in writing it!” — Kevin Killian, poet, editor, and author of Fascination and Impossible Princess

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