Robert Rodi

Biography

Robert Rodi was born in Chicago in the conformist 1950s, grew up in the insurrectionist 1960s, came of age in the hedonist 1970s, and went to work in the elitist 1980s. This roller-coaster ride has left him with a distinct aversion to isms of any kind; it also gave him an ear for hypocrisy, cant, and platitudes that allowed him, in the 1990s, to become a much-lauded social satirist.

After seven acclaimed novels set in the gay milieu, Robert grew restless for new challenges—which he found in activities as wide-ranging as publishing nonfiction, writing comic books, launching a literary-criticism blog, and taking to the stage (as a spoken-word performer, jazz singer, and rock-and-roll front man).

In 2011, excited by the rise of digital e-books, he returned to his first love, publishing new fiction inspired by the work of Alfred Hitchcock. He also organized the republishing of his seminal gay novels under the banner Robert Rodi Essentials.

Robert still resides in Chicago, in a century-old Queen Anne house with his partner Jeffrey Smith and a constantly shifting number of dogs.

Books

Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen from the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps (Volume 2)
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 188,080. Language: English. Published: August 24, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Literature
Novelist Rodi launches a broadside against the depiction of Jane Austen as "the inventor and mother goddess of 'chick lit.'" Instead he sees her as "the most unsparing satirist of her century." In this volume, he combs through her final three novels with the aim of charting her growth as both a novelist and a humorist, and of shattering the notion that she’s a romantic of any kind.
Kept Boy (Robert Rodi Essentials)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 97,450. Language: English. Published: August 9, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay
Dennis Racine is the pampered boy-toy of a powerful Chicago theater impresario, and has been since he was fifteen. Now, however, he’s thirty-one, and discovers he may soon be replaced—prompting him into all-out campaign to preserve his privileged lifestyle. Ranging from on-the-job slapstick to transatlantic intrigue, Kept Boy is Robert Rodi at his uproarious, subversive, unforgettable best.
Avery Overman's Adventures In Underbed
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 19,580. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Paranormal
Avery Overman finds a world under his bed that's bigger than he ever imagined — a world filled with cattle rustlers and mobsters and robots and alligators, and a slippery menace called Copperhead who seems to be after Avery himself. A 21st-century descendant of Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, with an ending that warms the heart.
Baby (Hommages à Alfred)
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 63,480. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Psychological thriller, Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay
Marcus Hyde has never seen anything more horrifying than his newborn nephew — a scarlet, steaming, shrieking lump of raw greed and unchecked will. And when things start happening - terrible things; deadly things - Marcus alone understands why. And Marcus alone realizes that for his own safety and sanity ... Baby must go. Horror and humor mix in the classic Alfred Hitchock tradition.
The Sugarman Bootlegs (Hommages à Alfred)
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 72,260. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Psychological thriller, Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay
When two friends discover old video footage of an unknown saloon singer, they pass it off as bootlegs of a long-lost cabaret legend. But their prank backfires when the viral sensation takes on a vivid - and lethal - life of its own...and as its fame increases, so does the body count. Scaldingly funny, brutally unsentimental, and nerve-shreddingly suspenseful in the Alfred Hitchcock tradition.
Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen from the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps (Volume 1)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 149,360. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Literature
Novelist Rodi launches a broadside against the depiction of Jane Austen as "the inventor and mother goddess of 'chick lit.'" Instead he sees her as "the most unsparing satirist of her century." In this volume, he combs through her first three novels with the aim of charting her growth as both a novelist and a humorist, and of shattering the notion that she’s a romantic of any kind.
Drag Queen (Robert Rodi Essentials)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 75,490. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Humor & comedy » Satire
Mitchell Sayer, a buttoned-down gay attorney at a prestigious Chicago law firm, discovers he has a long-lost twin. But his well-ordered life comes apart at the seams when the separated siblings finally meet and Mitchell discovers his brother Donald is better known as Kitten Kaboodle, star of the city's most infamous drag revue. As chaos ensues, Mitchell is forced to face his own fluid masculinity.
What They Did to Princess Paragon (Robert Rodi Essentials)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 84,740. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Humor & comedy » Satire
Superstar cartoonist Brian Parrish is charged with updating the creaky old superheroine, Princess Paragon. His solution? Turn her sapphic. This rouses the ire of Jerome Kornacker, a desperately unhinged fan. Their battle of wits plays out like Stephen King’s "Misery" in reverse, and raises the question: Who really owns a fictional character? And will anyone survive long enough to find out?
Closet Case (Robert Rodi Essentials)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 107,320. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Humor & comedy » Satire
The riotous follow-up to Robert Rodi’s cult hit FAG HAG, CLOSET CASE turned the genre of the gay coming-out story inside-out and upside-down. Lionel Frank is a workaholic account executive at an upscale advertising agency and a secret gay life on the side. He’s always said he’d rather die than come out. Soon he finds himself facing a situation where the choice is exactly that.
Fag Hag (Robert Rodi Essentials)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 87,590. Language: English. Published: January 17, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Humor & comedy » General
An immediate cult sensation when it was first released in 1992, Fag Hag gave birth to a genre that later reached mainstream popularity in "Will and Grace." Natalie Stathis is a big, flamboyant girl with a big, obsessive crush on Peter Leland, a gorgeous gay artist...and the initially hilarious, then increasingly desperate lengths she goes to win him make this a novel you won't easily forget.