Robert Charles "Rob" Byrnes, Jr. is a 21st-century gay^[1] American, novelist and blogger, whose fiction focuses primarily on gay men and other sexual minorities. He serves on the Steering Committee for The Publishing Triangle, and was also a member of the Executive Council of the International Association of Crime Writers/North American Branch from 2011 to 2015.

Early life and education

Byrnes was born on December 8, 1958, in Rochester, New York. After graduating from Union College (Schenectady, New York) he worked in politics and government. While working as Chief of Staff to two Members of the New York State Assembly, he ran as a minor-party candidate for Monroe County (NY) Legislature in 1981 and the United States Congress in 1986. In 1996, he moved to Manhattan, and has worked as an executive in the not-for-profit business development field since then.

Work

Byrnes's first three novels were gay comic romances. His acclaimed debut, The Night We Met, was released in 2002. His second novel, Trust Fund Boys was released in 2004 and his third, the Lambda Literary Award-winning When The Stars Come Out, in 2006.

Beginning with his 2009 novel Straight Lies, Byrnes began a series of comic crime capers featuring a hapless gang of gay and lesbian criminals led by partners in life and crime Grant Lambert and Chase LaMarca. The second novel in the series, Holy Rollers, was released by Bold Strokes Books in November 2011; and the third, Strange Bedfellows (not to be confused with the 2000 anthology), which was published by Bold Strokes in September 2012.

Byrnes has also published short stories in Best Gay Romance 2014; Men of the Mean Streets (2011), a collection of gay noir short stories edited by Greg Herren and J. M. Redmann; Saints & Sinners 2010: New Fiction from the Festival, edited by Amie M. Evans and Paul J. Willis; Fool for Love (2009), a gay romance anthology, edited by Timothy J. Lambert and R. D. Cochrane; and Strange Bedfellows (2000), a book of erotic political fiction, edited by Dominic Santi and Debra Hyde (not to be confused with the 2012 novel.)

Awards and honors

His 2006 novel When the Stars Come Out won the Lambda Literary Foundation's award for Best Gay Romance, and Straight Lies, published in 2009, was a Lambda Award finalist in the Best Gay Mystery category.

Personal

Byrnes's writing is often set in New York City. He lives in West New York, New Jersey, with his partner Brady Allen.