{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F87dd28e0-0f18-423d-913f-73bad76f252d","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Episode 178: What is love and friendship? \u2013 Tom Conner","description":"Remember when you were 11 years old? Or maybe not. But for most of us, those younger years were filled with admiration towards older siblings or friends, especially when life gets rough. Add to it, the confusion of pre-adolescence and the stirrings of \u201cWho am I?\u201d and you\u2019ve got the making of a typical made for TV movie\u2026or a at least a great novel. In this case the novel is Goodbye, Saturday Night.\r\nAuthor Thomas Conner steps into the Coming Out Lounge to share his passion for writing, love of his LGBTQ community, and the story behind the story of Goodbye, Saturday Night.\r\nShow Highlights\r\n\r\n* Not being able to identify with anyone led to struggle for this guest\r\n* Writing his book was his \u201cfinal come out\u201d\r\n* Why Tom\u00a0felt he needed to develop a macho man character over the years\r\n* The word \u201cqueer\u201d will never sit well with him\u2026\r\n* Be patient with yourself \u00a0\u2013 when you\u2019re comfortable you will come out!\r\n\r\nConnect with Tom Conner\r\nThomas Conner, also known as Tom, Tommy, and TC by friends and family, was born in Florida two miles from the Alabama state line. He spent most of his early years living on the Alabama side. He graduated from the University of West Florida in Pensacola with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities. Conner wrote his first novel when he was 12 (which burned in a house fire) and has been writing ever since. He published a family history book in 2000 entitled The Conners of Conecuh County, Alabama,\u00a0and has published several articles.\r\nSince 1980 he has resided in Central California\u2019s Big Valley, where he has worked in higher education at a prestigious private university in Student Life. He served four years as the university\u2019s staff advisor to Pride Alliance, the campus LGBT community. When not writing or working his daytime job, Conner is involved with classic movies, serving on a classic cinema committee and promoting a summer classic movie series.\r\nAbout Goodbye, Saturday Night\r\nA Southern story of love and friendship, of betrayal and redemption. It\u2019s early May in 1956 in the small South Alabama town of Farmington and eleven-year-old Bobby Crosby\u2019s life is about to change forever. He\u2019s still anguishing over the death of his father even though it\u2019s been five years and he\u2019s come to despise the life centered around his mother\u2019s cafe, a place that becomes the revelrous hot spot of the community when the sun goes down. Bobby escapes his real world by going to the movies every night. There, sitting alone in the dark, he leaves Farmington far behind and melts into the world of the silver screen. Bobby\u2019s best friend is Hucker Nolan, a twenty-two-year-old drop-out from the swamps across the tracks who drives a taxicab in the daytime and works concession at the movie theater at night. Now, Bobby\u2019s world seems to be collapsing and there\u2019s nothing he can do to stop it; his mother has a boyfriend Bobby deeply resents and his feelings for Hucker are confusing and ever changing, often filled with anger and jealousy Bobby doesn\u2019t understand. Then, the worst thing possible happens\u2014 Bobby is betrayed by the one person he trusts the most.\r\nFacebook\r\nBook Trailer\r\n<a class="a2a_button_twitter" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/twitter?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Frickclemons.com%2Fepisode-178-love-friendship-tom-conner%2F&linkname=Episode%20178%3A%20What%20is%20love%20and%20friendship%3F%20%E2%80%93%20Tom%20Conner" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow ...","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/4b9b6c41-474a-4fd0-a374-cbb2a7aa23a4/1400x1400_uncloseted_artwork-01-573.jpg"}