R.L. Canupp

Five novels. Four novellas. One queer, haunted, analog‑stitched universe is finally complete.

On May 13, the entire Forever Tapes saga becomes available to read in full:

THE NOVELS • The First Recording: Side A • The First Recording: Side B • The First Broadcast • The First Tape Recording • The Final Tape Recording

THE NOVELLAS • A Quiet Becoming • Clean Slate • Blurred Fading • Last Summer

A full universe. A full emotional arc. A full binge‑ready experience.

If you’ve been waiting to dive into The Forever Tapes, this is the moment. If you’ve been following since the beginning, this is the completion of the cycle.

The tapes are ready. The story is whole. The world is yours on May 13. Re-released novels available May 13: • Silence Hollowed • Summer of Electric Weeds

Coming to Amazon.

Coming Soon.

Silence Hollowed has found a new home. The revised edition (new cover, new formatting, same emotional weight). Re‑releasing on May 22, 2026, exclusively on Amazon.

Summer of Electric Weeds returns June 1, 2026. A revised edition of the novella inspired by true events, now part of my unified Amazon lineup.

(insider look of my proof copy)

I got my proof copy of Side B today… and honestly, I’m still processing it.

This is the first time I’ve held it as a novel. Not a draft. Not a test print. Not the old 8×11 version from years ago when Side B was still called Forever and was meant to be the first story in the saga.

Back then, it was a short story trying to be a book. Now, it’s a book that finally knows what it is.

I opened the old prologue, skimmed chapter 2, and then read the same moment in the new Side B: darker, sharper, more honest. The growth between those pages is wild. It feels like holding two versions of myself at once.

There are a couple tiny cover tweaks I need to fix before release (trim lines, a dotted spine mark), but the story itself… it’s exactly where it needs to be.

The First Recording – Side B releasing Juneteenth, 2026 on Amazon. Press play — the tape resumes soon.

Silence Hollowed: May 22, 2026, A fully revised edition with a new cover, new interior, and the version of the story I always meant to share.

Summer of Electric Weeds: June 1, 2026, A stand‑alone queer novella inspired by true events. A season of sparks, secrecy, and the moment that changed everything. I’m revealing the revised cover today.

Both titles will be available on Amazon, and if you want to step deeper into the universe, The Forever Tapes: The First Recording — Side A is already out and waiting.

More soon... but for now, here’s the first look at Summer of Electric Weeds.

(insider excerpt)

While polishing the revised edition, I reached one of the moments that has always lived at the center of Julian’s story; raw, quiet, and devastating in the way only truth can be.

For the re‑release, I wanted to share a small insider glimpse. Not a spoiler, just a moment of honesty.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

When they finally came, they were fractured, halting. “My father… he… he hated me.” Sebastian didn’t move, didn’t interrupt. His posture remained open, his eyes steady, his silence deliberate. He let Julian’s voice fill the space, however broken, however raw.

Julian swallowed hard, his breath uneven. “Four years ago… park… summer. I was with someone. A boy. My friend.” His voice cracked, the memory pressing against him like a blade.

“We were close. About to… kiss.” He shook his head, tears threatening. “My father saw. He… he screamed. Called me… called me a disgrace. A fag.” The word left his lips like poison, his voice trembling as though speaking it aloud burned him all over again. His shoulders hunched, body curling inward, as though he could make himself smaller, invisible.

“He dragged me. Pulled me off the table. My friend tried to fight him. He shoved him… hard. He fell. I screamed. I cried. It didn’t matter. My father didn’t care.” His voice broke, the fragments spilling out like shattered glass.  “He threw me into my room. Hit me and slammed the door. Said I was nothing. Said I’d never be anything.”

Julian’s breathing grew ragged, his chest tight, tears slipping down his cheeks unchecked. He pressed the blanket against his face, muffling a sob, but he didn’t stop speaking. “That was the first time… the first time I knew I wasn’t safe. Not at home. Not anywhere. He made me believe love was wrong. That I was wrong.” His voice dropped to a whisper, fragile, almost childlike. “And I believed him.”

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The revision is almost complete. The story has been reshaped. The title has evolved, and now the cover has finally revealed itself.

This is the first look at Silence Hollowed, the true form of a novel that’s been rebuilt from the inside out.

A quiet re‑release. A new beginning. A return to the Hollow.

Re‑releasing on Amazon May 22, 2026 Cover reveal:

Press Play, Side B is playing soon.

The Forever Tapes

The First Recording - Side B coming soon to Amazon and Barnes and Noble June 19, 2026.

Book 1: The First Recording - Side A is now out on Amazon

Are you into queer reads? A new vision? Something fresh and different? Here are 4 links to two novels and one novella (short story) that I believe you should check out.

The First Recording - Side A (The first novel of a 6 novel series called The Forever Tapes) -> Amazon.com: The First Recording - Side A: 1965 (The Forever Tapes): 9798253036747: Canupp, R.L.: Books

The Forever Tapes: The First Recording - Side A: follows Daniel Vargas, who flees his judgmental home in 1960 for Chicago, where he finds a roommate and initial sanctuary with Rick, a writer struggling with his own identity. Daniel begins working at a record store and becomes captivated by Artie Price, a raw and soulful jazz singer whose voice Daniel views as "the sound of survival". Over the next few years, Daniel and Artie build a life together, creating a private "sanctuary" that withstands poverty. While their bond deepens and Artie's musical career begins to catch the eye of a calculating talent scout, the era's pervasive homophobia remains an ever-present threat.

A pause. The sound of a lighter flicking, a sharp intake of breath.

“This isn’t a story about how we burned. It’s a story about how we lived while the world was holding the match.”

The tape hisses again, a long, lonely sound.

“My name was Artie Price. But before the lights, before the records, before I became a ghost in my own life… I belonged to him.”

Click. The recording stops, but the silence it leaves behind is loud. It pulls you in, backward through the years, through the smoke and the neon, to a Chicago autumn where the wind cut like a knife and two strangers were about to collide in the dark.

Order At -> Amazon.com: The First Recording - Side A: 1965 (The Forever Tapes): 9798253036747: Canupp, R.L.: Books