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The Queen of Steeplechase Park

By David Ciminello
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Brief Description
The Queen of Steeplechase Park is the absolutely, positively, practically, almost-true story of infamous burlesque queen and magic meatball maker Belladonna Marie Donato. Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighbourhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, Bella is robbed of her baby by a... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$5400

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Queen of Steeplechase Park is the absolutely, positively, practically, almost-true story of infamous burlesque queen and magic meatball maker Belladonna Marie Donato.

Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighbourhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, Bella is robbed of her baby by a pack of nefarious nuns, and her embittered papa has her sterilised without her consent (legal in 1935). With the help of a besotted Francis, her newfound family of queercentric outcasts, and a top-secret meatball recipe, a devastated Bella embarks on a riotous quest through Depression-era Coney Island sideshows, the tawdry world of peekaboo striptease routines, a doomed mob marriage, and a tasty collection of wisdom-filled recipes to find her lost child, herself, and maybe even true love.

It all leads Bella back home, to the scene of her original sin, where she boldly faces matters of life and death, questions of forgiveness, and a holy mess only the healing properties of great Italian cooking can fix.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781942436614

Publisher: Forest Avenue Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 20 June 2024

Country: United States

Imprint: Forest Avenue Press

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 228.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 470

Collections

David Ciminello Fantasy Fiction General Fiction LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi & Fantasy

About the Author

David Ciminello is a Lambda Literary Fellow and the proud recipient of a Table 4 WritersFoundation Grant. His fiction has appeared in the Lambda Award-winning anthologyPortlandQueer: Tales of the Rose City,Nailed Magazine, and in fine artist Stephen O'Donnell'sTheUntold Gaze. His original screenplayBruno, an Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwritingfinalist, was made into a motion picture directed by Shirley MacLaine and stars Kathy Bates,Gary Sinese, and Jennifer Tilly. As an actor David has guest starred onSeinfeld("The Barber"),Murder She Wrote,Matlock, andKojak. David and his husband, photographer and podcastartist Brian Delaney, reside in Portland, Oregon.

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