Secret Matter, a neat, sexy & adventuresome science fiction novel

Table of Contents Search Site Also on this website: Toby Johnson's books: GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe SECRET MATTER, updated, revised & expanded eidtion from Lethe Press GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE PLAGUE: A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING. TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life With the Navajo, with Walter Williams CHARMED LIVES: Gay Spirit in Storytelling Books on Gay Spirituality: White Crane Gay Spirituality Series   Articles and Excerpts: The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate Why gay people should NOT Marry Wedding Cake Liberation Gay Marriage in Texas What's ironic Shame on the American People The "highest form of love"  The cause of homosexuality What Jesus said about Gay Rights The purpose of homosexuality Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men Varieties of Gay Spirituality Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium "It's Always About You" The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara Joseph Campbell's description of Avalokiteshvara You're Not A Wave Curious Bodies What Toby Johnson Believes The Joseph Campbell Connection, The Nature of Religion Being Gay is a Blessing Freedom of Religion The Gay Agenda Gay Saintliness Gay Spiritual Functions The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives.  "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the Cross & the Dark Night of the Soul." Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.  Eckhart's Eye Let Me Tell You a Secret Religious Articulations of the Secret The Collective Unconscious Driving as Spiritual Practice Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah Hu: "God is present here"   Adam and Steve Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery" Seeing with Different Eyes The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis The Techniques Of The World Saviors Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Part 2: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Part 3: Jesus and the Resurrection Part 4: A Course in Miracles The Secret of the Clear Light Understanding the Clear Light Mobius Strip Finding Your Tiger Face How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated About Alien Abduction In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. About Michael Talbot, gay mystic About Guy Mannheimer The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the  "Statement of Spirituality"

Click on cover to read the excerpt "The Arrival of the Visitors" The winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Science Fiction and bestselling novel, Secret Matter returns to print in a revised edition for the 21st century. Digital montage artist Peter Grahame created this beautiful new cover for the 2009 edition. This edition also includes a BONUS: Toby Johnson's whimsical but profound tale "Adam and Steve" -- what were they really doing in the Garden of Eden. ---- Kevin Anderson is moving along through his life, finishing up college, and getting ready to leave New York for an internship rebuilding San Francisco after an immense earthquake. Then the Visitors arrive; a race of human-like aliens touch down in several cities around the globe, including SF, and nothing will ever be the same. When Kevin’s company is given a contract to build a facility for the Visitors, he forms a friendship with 'Bel, one of their number. But is 'Bel so alien after all? They seem so human, but they possess some odd characteristics and seem to be hiding something. What secrets do they carry, and where, exactly, are they from? Before Kevin can get to the bottom of his questions, political disasters and miscommunications occur, and the Visitors are expelled. 'Bel and his emissaries are very clear that certain actions on the part of the U.S. will have grave consequences upon his people and their world, but no one listens except Kevin, who has fallen in love with 'Bel. Now the young man is on a mission to unravel the Visitors' secrets in order to prevent the death and destruction of Visitors and millions of Americans.  Purchase and download PDF now. Pay through AmazonPayments. Digital edition priced at $7.99 read on your computer or download to iTunes and transfer to iPad, kindle or other ebook reader. Buy from the author, autographed if desired, $15.00  (Free freight) Order from amazon.com What Are You Looking for in a Gay Science Fiction Novel? First Lethe Press cover design by Sou MacMillan scroll down to see more of 'Bel (and to learn about the back cover photograph) 'Belwyn Tuarul is the amazing Visitor who meets Secret Matter's protagonist, Kevin Anderson, one afternoon in earthquake-ravaged San Francisco at Jackie O beach. And for both them, life is never the same again. 'Bel's a lovable, sweet character with a wonderful gimmick. A romantic comedy with an undercurrent of tension and suspense, a lovable and unforgettable character, the right touch of science fiction, and, as fans of Toby Johnson's will recognize, just the right measure of mystical wisdom to make this a novel you'll thoroughly enjoy and long remember with a pang of fondness and pride. While Toby Johnson was writing this book, he had a photo from a gay calendar framed next to his desk. That photo by renowned gay photographer Roy Blakey colored Toby's vision of what the Visitors would look like. We're especially pleased to be able to use Blakey's photo on the back cover of the new edition. Photo by Roy Blakey Goliath Books publishes Roy Blakey's 70s Male Nudes Edited and with an Introduction by Reed Massengill English / Deutsch / Francais / Espanol / Italiano size: 8,5 x 10 inches / 21 x 25,5 cm 160 pages / ISBN 3-9807602-1-9 Here's Blakey's beautiful photo without the special FXs: The updated, expanded, and revised edition for Lethe Press has an Afterword by Mark Jordan. Mark Jordan teaches at Harvard Divinity School.  He writes about sexuality and religious imagination.  He is author of  The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism, Telling Truths in Church: Scandal, Flesh and Christian Speech, and numerous other titles. A discussion of science fiction as modern day myth appears in his book Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusions of Christian Marriage. Read an excerpt from Mark Jordan's Afterword Toby Johnson introduces the new edition with an elusive and evocative question about the nature of time and a reference to The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness What Are You Looking for in a Gay Science Fiction Novel? The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness by Samuel Avery offers a model for how the mind generates the experience of a five dimensional material world in the process of sorting sensory input from the five human senses. Toby Johnson extrapolated upon and fictionalized Avery's ideas to explain the origin of Secret Matter's Visitors. Read an excerpt from the Preface to the Lethe Press Edition Read a description of Samuel Avery's ideas by Toby Johnson The Dimensional Strucutre of Consciousness is available from Barnes & Noble Read a wonderful review of SECRET MATTER by Arthur Breur on rainbow-reviews.com: "...the book resolves in a very enjoyable and satisfying way, and the author's many-layered revelations about the Visitors is both intriguing and pleasantly startling. (I shouted out loud at the most critical revelation, and was very relieved when the author powerfully backed it up with science and reason.) Recommended!"  read the rest back to top

10/10/2009

Toby Johnson, PhD is author of eight books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, three gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality. In addition to the novels featured elsewhere in this web site, Johnson is author of IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD and THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET (Revised edition): AN APPRECIATION OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL.

Johnson's Lammy Award winning book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness was published in 2000.

His Lammy-nominated book  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was published by Alyson in 2003.