Saturday, April 11, 2015
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Business Makes Strange Bedfellows Release Day
Business Makes Strange Bedfellows is set in New York City at the end of the 19th
century. I originally started it several years ago because I wanted to write
something light, something fun, that included some of the more outrageous
elements of late 19th, early 20th century pulp fiction,
and science fiction.
I love steampunk and other forms of alternative history, it's one of the main things I write. So I jumped at the chance to write about a 19th century New York City where back alley occultist practice real magic and abominable creatures roam the streets.
I was also writing a vampire story about a vampire character who was the exact opposite of the
smooth, sophisticated, seductive vampires more common in romance (The Memory of Blood and Lotuses is that vampire story.)
For Business Makes Strange Bedfellows though I thought why not embrace the trope?
Vi De Luca is smooth, sophisticated in her fancy suits. She is out for blood and sex, not above withholding her help in tracking down a monster that is killing innocent New Yorkers unless the other main character agrees to sleep with her.
But Dr. Gert Bower isn't just anyone, she is a doctor and scientist who's spent most of her life trying to use a combination of science and occult magics to reanimate the dead. Making deals with vampires is hardly going to slow her down.
Yes this is basically a mad scientist meets vampire detective story.
And as might be expected neither of these characters are exactly the epitome of good moral choices. Yet I wanted to make both of these characters compelling.
While they do things usually associated with the villains rather than the heroes of the story I wanted to also bring out some of their better traits as well. Vi truly comes to care about Gert. Gert has a strong sense of honor along with right and wrong even if her ambition often overcomes her.
I also wanted to set these two characters against a world that felt much bigger than the story. So I took the late 19th century obsession with the occult and the spirit realm and made it real for those who knew the right people or where to look.
Vi as a vampire is naturally part of that world. While Gert is just entering it, but has come to value it just as much as science. In fact for Gert sees both as very similar working together to obtain her ultimate goal of overcoming death, through scientific (or magical) means.
This is something I love, situations or worlds were science and magic are not pitted against each other but go hand in hand. Certainly this is an important part of the world building for Business Makes Strange Bedfellows and also Gert's character arc in particular.
Lastly I want to talk about the gorgeous cover created by Aisha Akeju. Originally I only asked for something gothic, like the covers to the old gothic romances and gothic horror paperbacks I grew up reading.
With this minuscule amount of feedback Aisha was able to create this beautiful and haunting image. The cover depicts the Bethesda Fountain that stand in Central Park. It was commissioned in 1842 to celebrate New York City's first modern waterway. Designed by Emma Stebbins it is the first public monument designed by a woman in New York City.
______________
Dr. Gert Bower's day goes bad fast when she accidentally releases an
abominable monster of the abyss on the streets of New York City.
Desperate to stop it, she turns to the only person who can help her
track the monster down. Vi De Luca is a private detective and creature
of the night, a vampire more than willing to help Gert—for a price.
In exchange for catching the monster, Gert must spend one night with Vi,
and let Vi have her way with Gert's blood and body. Though she does not
remotely trust Vi, for the good of the city Gert agrees. Yet tracking
the monster turns out to be more than either of them had bargained for.
When Gert embarks on an experiment to try and reanimate a human corpse
things just keep getting worse.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Queer Romance and My Local Libraries
Recently I heard Tracy Timmons-Gray talked about getting queer romances into local libraries both in her opening remarks for Gay Romance Northwest Meetup and in this article she wrote for Queer Romance Month.
After reading her article I was inspired to look at my local library system and see if they had any queer romances on the shelves.
Where I live the local libraries for the four surrounding counties are joined together into one big library system. So when I searched for romance novels and queer romance novels in particular I was looking at not only what my local libraries had but the books owned by all the libraries for my entire part of the state.
Over the course of several days I did multiple searches using a variety of key words and managed to find two things out. First the combined libraries in the system held over a thousand romance books, some of them published all the way back in the seventies but many of them published within the last few years. In fact I could scroll through multiple pages worth of romance novels owned by my library system published in 2014 alone. So these libraries are certainly romance friendly and in fact buy many romance novels pretty regularly.
The second thing I found out was that out of all these romance novels only one was a queer romance. Bound to be a Groom by Megan Mulry was owned by a tiny library in the next county over from where I lived. Of the four public libraries within easy driving distance to me none of them had any queer romance novels at all.
So, just like Tracy suggested in her article, I contacted the largest and best funded of these four libraries to ask if I could request some queer romance titles for them to look into getting. I got a very nice email back only hours after I'd sent mine telling me that yes, I could request books and explaining how that was done.
Which left me to try and come up with a list of queer romance titles to recommend (I guess I should have already done this but I wasn't expect the process to be as fast or easy as it ended up being.) I will be honest the list I threw together was mostly based on two things: a) how much I like/want to read/want to reread the books and b) if the title was available in both ebook and paperback format since I didn't know which the librarians would prefer. I also wanted to suggest more than one or two titles but I also didn't want to go crazy and overwhelm the staff all at once.
A Suitable Replacement by Megan Derr
Apple Polisher by Heidi Belleau
Appetite by Talya Andor
Stolen Hearts by Sasha Miller
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
Spectr: Volume 1 and 2 by Jordan L. Hawk
Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall
I got a nice email back saying my list had been past along to the librarians in charge of purchasing books, and I thanked them for their helpfulness.
Now we wait and see what happens, but so far the entire process was pleasant and painless for me.
I am really hoping at least some of these books are purchased. I would LOVE to see queer romance in any of these four libraries.
The area I am living in now is area I grew up in. The libraries I am now emailing and talking to about queer romance were the libraries I went to as a child and a young adult.
My parents both value books, reading and libraries highly. Growing up we went to the library every week. Often we would go to all four libraries on library day, bringing home stacks of books.
What I read as a child and a teenager was largely determined by what the libraries owned. I learned how to pick out books, what I liked and didn't like by browsing the shelves at the library.
The first book by Neil Gaiman I ever read was Neverwhere and I read it because it caught my eye on the newly acquired shelf at one of these libraries. I read authors who have been so influence for me; Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, Anne McCaffrey, Lois McMaster Bujold, Diana Wynne Jones and many more by taking their books out of these libraries. I read my first anthology of Gothic horror stories sitting in the isles of the library I just emailed.
The books these libraries own, the books they choose to buy have been so important to me personally. But the one thing I never read there was queer romance. I would love to see them get some.
So here are my questions for all of you:
What queer romance novels would you have liked your local libraries to have when you were growing up?
What queer romance title would you love a chance to give to your sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old self if you could?
Most importantly what titles would you love to take our of your local library right now?
After reading her article I was inspired to look at my local library system and see if they had any queer romances on the shelves.
Where I live the local libraries for the four surrounding counties are joined together into one big library system. So when I searched for romance novels and queer romance novels in particular I was looking at not only what my local libraries had but the books owned by all the libraries for my entire part of the state.
Over the course of several days I did multiple searches using a variety of key words and managed to find two things out. First the combined libraries in the system held over a thousand romance books, some of them published all the way back in the seventies but many of them published within the last few years. In fact I could scroll through multiple pages worth of romance novels owned by my library system published in 2014 alone. So these libraries are certainly romance friendly and in fact buy many romance novels pretty regularly.
The second thing I found out was that out of all these romance novels only one was a queer romance. Bound to be a Groom by Megan Mulry was owned by a tiny library in the next county over from where I lived. Of the four public libraries within easy driving distance to me none of them had any queer romance novels at all.
So, just like Tracy suggested in her article, I contacted the largest and best funded of these four libraries to ask if I could request some queer romance titles for them to look into getting. I got a very nice email back only hours after I'd sent mine telling me that yes, I could request books and explaining how that was done.
Which left me to try and come up with a list of queer romance titles to recommend (I guess I should have already done this but I wasn't expect the process to be as fast or easy as it ended up being.) I will be honest the list I threw together was mostly based on two things: a) how much I like/want to read/want to reread the books and b) if the title was available in both ebook and paperback format since I didn't know which the librarians would prefer. I also wanted to suggest more than one or two titles but I also didn't want to go crazy and overwhelm the staff all at once.
A Suitable Replacement by Megan Derr
Apple Polisher by Heidi Belleau
Appetite by Talya Andor
Stolen Hearts by Sasha Miller
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
Spectr: Volume 1 and 2 by Jordan L. Hawk
Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall
I got a nice email back saying my list had been past along to the librarians in charge of purchasing books, and I thanked them for their helpfulness.
Now we wait and see what happens, but so far the entire process was pleasant and painless for me.
I am really hoping at least some of these books are purchased. I would LOVE to see queer romance in any of these four libraries.
The area I am living in now is area I grew up in. The libraries I am now emailing and talking to about queer romance were the libraries I went to as a child and a young adult.
My parents both value books, reading and libraries highly. Growing up we went to the library every week. Often we would go to all four libraries on library day, bringing home stacks of books.
What I read as a child and a teenager was largely determined by what the libraries owned. I learned how to pick out books, what I liked and didn't like by browsing the shelves at the library.
The first book by Neil Gaiman I ever read was Neverwhere and I read it because it caught my eye on the newly acquired shelf at one of these libraries. I read authors who have been so influence for me; Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, Anne McCaffrey, Lois McMaster Bujold, Diana Wynne Jones and many more by taking their books out of these libraries. I read my first anthology of Gothic horror stories sitting in the isles of the library I just emailed.
The books these libraries own, the books they choose to buy have been so important to me personally. But the one thing I never read there was queer romance. I would love to see them get some.
So here are my questions for all of you:
What queer romance novels would you have liked your local libraries to have when you were growing up?
What queer romance title would you love a chance to give to your sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old self if you could?
Most importantly what titles would you love to take our of your local library right now?
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Queer Romance Month
Which means that when romance is highlighted or celebrated queer romance gets mentioned maybe once in passing if that.
Queer Romance Month comes out of this. It is an entire month just to talk about and celebrate queer romance of all sorts, note a token post, not a single blog hop, but an entire month long event.
This year Queer Romance Month is October and it starts today.
All sorts of authors and romance genre people are participating in this years event. The organizers of the event have encouraged all of us writing posts to be thoughtful, to think outside the box and not just write the same old posts about why we write/read m/m romance. Instead I suspect there will be a wide range of topics covers from the ultra serious to more fun and light hearted. The topics I've heard murmurs of people writing about on Twitter have sounded amazing and I am looking forward to reading articles that touch on things that are often not talked about during genre events.
The months looks to be packed, there are 3 plus articles going up on the Queer Romance Month website daily.
We've already kicked things off with KJ Charles' super insightful article on the problems with thinking of queer romance as its own genre.
Tracy Timmons-Gray's very practical and helpful article on how to raise community awareness about queer romance. Seriously after reading this article I looked at my local library system and discovered that although they owned almost a thousand romance titles none of them were queer romance. I am going to be looking into changing that soon. And a very cute and funny audio from some of the people involved behind the scenes talking about Queer Romance Month, queer romance recommendations and other queer romance stuff.
There is also a Queer Romance Month launch party over at Joyfully Jay's blog going on today (October 1st) that includes massive give-aways, check it out!
My own post is tentatively scheduled to go up on Halloween. So if that doesn't change I will be chatting with folks and replying to comments while sitting on the couch eating candy and watching haunted house movies.
For Queer Romance Month I chose to write about the personal reasons I write trans romance and why I believe trans romance and the inclusion of trans characters into all branches of romance is important.
It is going to be a lot of more of me talking about my experiences and feelings than I usually do. So that's both terrifying but also I think necessary.
So check out Queer Romance Month, and keep checking out out all the way through October. It is going to be a good time.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Back from Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up 2014
First off I have to say that I had a fantastic time at GRNW!
It was my first ever writing con and I was pretty nervous about it, because a) I'd never been to one and b) I was scheduled to do a reading, giving part of the keynote and sitting on a panel.
I flew out early Friday morning, transfered at Newark airport and then flew to Seattle. As always happens when I travel I was a ball of anxiety but everything went smoothly. I landed in Seattle to discover sunny weather significantly warmer than the freezing temperatures we were enjoying in New York.
I got checked into my hotel room fine after only getting lost once. I was staying at the Moore Hotel which was lovely in a kind of old, quirky, Art Deco way. I took a shower, checked my email, and got ready for the meet up that evening.
The meetup before the reading was a lot of fun. I met a lot of great people, authors, reviewers and readers that I'd known online and a bunch of people I didn't know. I also got to say hi to the Less Than Three crowd, all be it briefly.
About half way through the meetup my nerves kicked in big time.
I have multiple and severe information processing disabilities that affect (among other things) my ability to read out loud. I tend to stammer when I do, stumble over even words I know, stutter and slur words together. I've worked hard to filters some of this out, to get a more natural, smoother style. I've also gotten a lot of criticism about it over the years though, quite a bit of it harsh and mean spirited. Thus reading out loud is pretty anxiety inducing for me.
When I was asked to do the reading I'd hesitated but I do really feel like the fear around reading out loud in public is something I need to try and over come. I need to be more accepting with how I read and the fact that I'm never going to sound like other people and that's okay.
I'd prepared a lot but I was still nervous when the time came. At least I went first, so I didn't have time to stew in the nerves. Once I started though I got into it.
I didn't do the smoothest reading that evening but I felt like I did well -- everyone laughed at the right parts -- and most of all I enjoyed it. I read Selume Proferre and felt really good about that choice and the whole experience. I definitely feel like given the opportunity I'd do a reading again. For me that's a big deal.
Also reading that night was Jordan Castillo Price, Rick Reed, and Radclyffe, all of whom were amazing and did some great readings. I hope I looked attentive at that point because I was really enjoying their readings but while it was only about 7:30pm in Seattle my body was telling me it was coming up on 11:00pm in New York and jetlag was setting in.
The really great questions we had during the Q&A revived me somewhat and it was great meeting readers afterwards and signing books. I was told Selume Proferre sold out really quickly, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who bought it.
There was a meetup (that I was told went great) after the reading but I skipped it in favor of going back to my hotel and passing out.
I slept late (in New York time at least) got up, had a huge Nutella mocha coffee and a bagel at the Moore Coffee Shop and headed off to the Seattle Central Library for the days programing.
In the morning I went to two workshops: The Wonders of World Building and Writing Diversity.
Both were great. I enjoyed them and everything the authors on them had to say. It was so interesting to hear other people's takes on two topics I think a lot about, to hear what process they go through when addressing these two parts of being an author. Both workshops included authors I knew very well and authors I didn't know at all so that was cool too.
After the workshops I finally got to donate the author's copies of the books I'd managed to stuff in my carry-on. One of the volunteers at the table recognized me from the night before and asked if the book I'd read from was in the pile and got excited when it was.
Then about fourteen of us went out for a HUGE lunch of dim sum. I sat on the end of the table with Alex Powell, Megan and Samantha Derr, and Isabella Carter. It was a nice relaxing time to chat and hang out before going back to the library for the afternoon.
Straight after lunch Jordan Castillo Price, Rick Reed, Radclyffe, Tracy Timmons-Gray (reading for Rose Christo who sadly couldn't make it) and I gave the keynote address, with a nice forward by Tracy which was based off of her article here.
I was much more relaxed for my part of the keynote in which I read a letter I'd written to my future self, than I had been for the reading. I did realize right before I went up to the podium that the printed out copy I had was actually an older pre-revised copy but I think I winged it pretty well.You can watch a recording of it here and you can read it here.
After the keynote was the afternoon panels. The first panel was Writing the Rainbow-Exploring Queer Romance Writing, moderated by Anne Tenino with Jove Belle, Ginn Hale, Jordan Castillo Price, Rick R. Reed and Karis Walsh. Everyone one the panel was great, both funny and touching by turns. There were silly answers given and very serious ones. All together it was enjoyable.
We had breaks between each panels and during one it occurred to me that I didn't know if there was any gender neutral bathrooms at the library and didn't really have time to go looking. It might be something to look into for future years that way GRNW staff can just let attendees know where the closest gender neutral/single person restroom is in case they need it.
I also had a really interesting (if unfortunately brief) conversation Emmett Scout about how we wished there was a way to distinguish between trans romance/erotic romance/erotica that is basically fetish literature and the ones where the trans characters are actually people with agency. I've thought about this a lot and I've too noticed the problem especially (sadly but predictably) when it comes stories with trans women or trans feminine main characters. The use of trans women as fetish objects or scenarios like forced feminization/sissyfication/male submission portrayed as synonymous with trans female experience is so common that I now hesitation to read erotica/erotic romance/romance with trans women characters. And that is just sad.
I know in the porn industry there has begun to be trans women led discussions about how to make T-word porn and porn in general healthier and safer for trans women. Including how to stop it from contributing to the narratives about trans feminine identity that are literally killing trans women. I think that conversation really needs to happen in erotica/erotic romance/romance sometimes soon.
Anyway back to GRNW, the second panel was A Discussion with LGBTQ Publishers, moderated by Tracy Timmons-Gray and including Len Barot (Bold Strokes Books), Laura Baumbach (MLR Press), Megan Derr (Less Than Three Press), Tina Haveman (eXtasy Books) and Anne Regan (Dreamspinner/Harmony Ink Press.)
I feel like I could write a whole post just on things that were said on this panel and my feelings about them (I still might.) I'm going to touch on my first reactions to things that really stood out to me.
First off kudos to Tracy for making so many of the questions about "diversity." Also I found Len Barot's comments about readership really interesting and would have loved the opportunity to talk more with her about lesbian romance readership and LGBT romance readership in general. I liked that Tina Haveman (I believe it was her) came right out and said that while the assumption was that her press' readership was mostly straight women they had no way of knowing this for sure. The implication being that might be changing.
There was also some "back in the bad old days, m/m romance..." Which I understand came directly from the question Tracy asked but is a narrative I've heard A LOT in the m/m romance usually in response to questions of "diversity" or issues of homophobia/transphobia in the genre. At this point it tends to come off sounding to me like whenever the geek community gets called out over something shitty and someone crawls out of the woodwork to be like "But this one time in high school the football team laughed at me for wearing a Star Trek t-shirt so .... Shut-up!" So in general it's a narrative I don't love to hear unless it's a clever introduction to "and that's why I have chosen to work for the representation of a fuller spectrum of queer identity in romance!" That being said I do understand why it was brought up.
Kudos to Megan Derr who brought up how the rest of the GLBT spectrum still struggles to find a place in romance even before Tracy asked the question about it. Megan spoke really directly about this and how far we still have left to go in the romance community in a way I really appreciated. She also pointed out that in order for things like trans romance or romance with asexual characters to succeed people need to buy them. Because having writers being willing to write is one thing, but unless readers buy the books we're not going to be able to keep on producing them. So if you like trans romance, romance with bisexual or asexual character or even support the idea of having these romances available than buy them.
Also reviewers and review sites need to step up. Gone might be the days when m/m romance had to beg for reviews but I can still testify to the fact that those of us who write non-m/m, queer romance are still very much living that reality.
Given all of this coupled with the fact that I am an author who has written m/m romance and routinely critiques it, I didn't really know how to take Laura Baumbach's "don't blame m/m romance" comment. I'm still not sure how to take it actually.
Lastly I've noticed multiple people commenting that all of the publishers on the panel said that if authors wrote more "diverse" LGBT romances they would consider publishing them. This is not actually true, Bold Stroke Books, Less Than Three, eXtasy Books, and Harmony Ink Press said this. Dreamspinner Press and MLR Press did not, in fact they didn't address it at all. (please correctly if I'm remembering this wrong. Because I know Dreamspinner didn't speak to this but I don't think MLR did either)
Now Dreamspinner and MLR have historically been m/m only presses. That's fine, it's a decision they've made and as much as I would love to see all m/m only presses consider queer romance they don't have to. BUT I do wish they'd said that.
When everyone was like "Yeah, if you sub queer romance and we'll look at it" they should have been like "actually we only accept m/m" and then defined what m/m to them means: does it include bisexual/pansexual men? Asexual men? Does it include trans men, trans masculine people, or nonbinary people?
When I didn't hear any of that it made me feel like they weren't owning their decision to be a m/m only romance press, because they felt like it wouldn't have gone over well with that particular audience. At least that's how their silence read to me. Coming right out and saying they wouldn't accept a wider range of queer romance beyond m/m might not have been popular for that audience, but they should have addressed it anyway.
The next panel was The Evolving LGBTQ Romance Genre, moderated by Nicole Kimberling, with David-Matthew Barnes, Lori L. Lake, Pearl Love, me and Alex Powell. I was tones of fun to be on this panel. I thought everyone had such interesting answers and I kind of loved how into talking with each other about the topics we got. It almost felt like the seven of us should have made time just to hangout and talk about "diversity" and the future of the romance genre. Maybe we should at some point.
I was seated between Alex Powell and Pearl Love both of who were amazing, intelligent and classy. Pearl Love was a particularly hard act to follow and all in all it was just a really great panel to be on.
After the panels GRNW Meet-up was technically over but we all headed over to the Hotel Monaco for the GRNW Book Fest. I was seated next to Alex Powell again which was great because we got to chat a lot and hang out. I was giving away postcards of the cover art for some of my trans titles: A Matter of Disagreement, Song of the Spring Moon Waning and Selume Proferre, all by the talented Aisha Akeju.
It was pretty amazing how many people stopped by to talk with me and take postcards. I loved that authors and other industry people took the time to touch bases with me. I also got to hear from some amazing readers. So many trans and queer readers or loved ones of LGBTQ people came up to me over the course of the weekend to tell me how happy they were that I do what I do. It was truly wonderful and touching.
Finally we all headed over to the Rendezvuous Bar for drinks and 5 Minutes in Heaven readings which ranged from hot to hilarious. Kudos to Heidi Belleau by the way for stepping in last minute and knocking it out of the park.
After the readings I headed back to my hotel and caught a couple hours sleep before getting up at 3:30am (thank God my body was telling me it was 6:30am) to pack and catch my 6:00am flight back to New York.
Then I was stuck in Newark NJ for about four hours, but that's another story.
Overall I loved going to GRNW. I loved the readings and penal I did, I loved meeting readers, authors, reviewers, cover artists and activists. I am definitely planning on going next year.
I guess my only criticism of the event was that Flowers Bar and Rendezvous didn't seem to have the staff to deal with our sheer numbers. The young woman at Flowers was extremely over-whelmed trying to take all of the orders for the table I was sitting at and people had to ask over and over where they're drinks and food were before any of it was brought out. On Saturday by the time we got to Rendezvous the place was so swamped by authors and readers of queer romance that me and Alex Powell never even got the food we ordered. I understand why both venues were chosen. At the same time I'm kind of hoping next year has us meeting at places with bigger dinner menus and more staff.
Also as fun and hilarious and thoughtful as it was, the first penal, Exploring Queer Romance Writing, felt kind of generic. I would like to see something a little more out of the box and maybe more LGBTQ specific next year.
It was my first ever writing con and I was pretty nervous about it, because a) I'd never been to one and b) I was scheduled to do a reading, giving part of the keynote and sitting on a panel.
I flew out early Friday morning, transfered at Newark airport and then flew to Seattle. As always happens when I travel I was a ball of anxiety but everything went smoothly. I landed in Seattle to discover sunny weather significantly warmer than the freezing temperatures we were enjoying in New York.
I got checked into my hotel room fine after only getting lost once. I was staying at the Moore Hotel which was lovely in a kind of old, quirky, Art Deco way. I took a shower, checked my email, and got ready for the meet up that evening.
The meetup before the reading was a lot of fun. I met a lot of great people, authors, reviewers and readers that I'd known online and a bunch of people I didn't know. I also got to say hi to the Less Than Three crowd, all be it briefly.
About half way through the meetup my nerves kicked in big time.
I have multiple and severe information processing disabilities that affect (among other things) my ability to read out loud. I tend to stammer when I do, stumble over even words I know, stutter and slur words together. I've worked hard to filters some of this out, to get a more natural, smoother style. I've also gotten a lot of criticism about it over the years though, quite a bit of it harsh and mean spirited. Thus reading out loud is pretty anxiety inducing for me.
When I was asked to do the reading I'd hesitated but I do really feel like the fear around reading out loud in public is something I need to try and over come. I need to be more accepting with how I read and the fact that I'm never going to sound like other people and that's okay.
I'd prepared a lot but I was still nervous when the time came. At least I went first, so I didn't have time to stew in the nerves. Once I started though I got into it.
 |
| courtesy of GRNW |
Also reading that night was Jordan Castillo Price, Rick Reed, and Radclyffe, all of whom were amazing and did some great readings. I hope I looked attentive at that point because I was really enjoying their readings but while it was only about 7:30pm in Seattle my body was telling me it was coming up on 11:00pm in New York and jetlag was setting in.
The really great questions we had during the Q&A revived me somewhat and it was great meeting readers afterwards and signing books. I was told Selume Proferre sold out really quickly, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who bought it.
There was a meetup (that I was told went great) after the reading but I skipped it in favor of going back to my hotel and passing out.
I slept late (in New York time at least) got up, had a huge Nutella mocha coffee and a bagel at the Moore Coffee Shop and headed off to the Seattle Central Library for the days programing.
In the morning I went to two workshops: The Wonders of World Building and Writing Diversity.
Both were great. I enjoyed them and everything the authors on them had to say. It was so interesting to hear other people's takes on two topics I think a lot about, to hear what process they go through when addressing these two parts of being an author. Both workshops included authors I knew very well and authors I didn't know at all so that was cool too.
After the workshops I finally got to donate the author's copies of the books I'd managed to stuff in my carry-on. One of the volunteers at the table recognized me from the night before and asked if the book I'd read from was in the pile and got excited when it was.
Then about fourteen of us went out for a HUGE lunch of dim sum. I sat on the end of the table with Alex Powell, Megan and Samantha Derr, and Isabella Carter. It was a nice relaxing time to chat and hang out before going back to the library for the afternoon.
Straight after lunch Jordan Castillo Price, Rick Reed, Radclyffe, Tracy Timmons-Gray (reading for Rose Christo who sadly couldn't make it) and I gave the keynote address, with a nice forward by Tracy which was based off of her article here.
I was much more relaxed for my part of the keynote in which I read a letter I'd written to my future self, than I had been for the reading. I did realize right before I went up to the podium that the printed out copy I had was actually an older pre-revised copy but I think I winged it pretty well.You can watch a recording of it here and you can read it here.
 |
| courtesy of MtSnow MtSnow |
We had breaks between each panels and during one it occurred to me that I didn't know if there was any gender neutral bathrooms at the library and didn't really have time to go looking. It might be something to look into for future years that way GRNW staff can just let attendees know where the closest gender neutral/single person restroom is in case they need it.
I also had a really interesting (if unfortunately brief) conversation Emmett Scout about how we wished there was a way to distinguish between trans romance/erotic romance/erotica that is basically fetish literature and the ones where the trans characters are actually people with agency. I've thought about this a lot and I've too noticed the problem especially (sadly but predictably) when it comes stories with trans women or trans feminine main characters. The use of trans women as fetish objects or scenarios like forced feminization/sissyfication/male submission portrayed as synonymous with trans female experience is so common that I now hesitation to read erotica/erotic romance/romance with trans women characters. And that is just sad.
I know in the porn industry there has begun to be trans women led discussions about how to make T-word porn and porn in general healthier and safer for trans women. Including how to stop it from contributing to the narratives about trans feminine identity that are literally killing trans women. I think that conversation really needs to happen in erotica/erotic romance/romance sometimes soon.
Anyway back to GRNW, the second panel was A Discussion with LGBTQ Publishers, moderated by Tracy Timmons-Gray and including Len Barot (Bold Strokes Books), Laura Baumbach (MLR Press), Megan Derr (Less Than Three Press), Tina Haveman (eXtasy Books) and Anne Regan (Dreamspinner/Harmony Ink Press.)
I feel like I could write a whole post just on things that were said on this panel and my feelings about them (I still might.) I'm going to touch on my first reactions to things that really stood out to me.
First off kudos to Tracy for making so many of the questions about "diversity." Also I found Len Barot's comments about readership really interesting and would have loved the opportunity to talk more with her about lesbian romance readership and LGBT romance readership in general. I liked that Tina Haveman (I believe it was her) came right out and said that while the assumption was that her press' readership was mostly straight women they had no way of knowing this for sure. The implication being that might be changing.
There was also some "back in the bad old days, m/m romance..." Which I understand came directly from the question Tracy asked but is a narrative I've heard A LOT in the m/m romance usually in response to questions of "diversity" or issues of homophobia/transphobia in the genre. At this point it tends to come off sounding to me like whenever the geek community gets called out over something shitty and someone crawls out of the woodwork to be like "But this one time in high school the football team laughed at me for wearing a Star Trek t-shirt so .... Shut-up!" So in general it's a narrative I don't love to hear unless it's a clever introduction to "and that's why I have chosen to work for the representation of a fuller spectrum of queer identity in romance!" That being said I do understand why it was brought up.
Kudos to Megan Derr who brought up how the rest of the GLBT spectrum still struggles to find a place in romance even before Tracy asked the question about it. Megan spoke really directly about this and how far we still have left to go in the romance community in a way I really appreciated. She also pointed out that in order for things like trans romance or romance with asexual characters to succeed people need to buy them. Because having writers being willing to write is one thing, but unless readers buy the books we're not going to be able to keep on producing them. So if you like trans romance, romance with bisexual or asexual character or even support the idea of having these romances available than buy them.
Also reviewers and review sites need to step up. Gone might be the days when m/m romance had to beg for reviews but I can still testify to the fact that those of us who write non-m/m, queer romance are still very much living that reality.
Given all of this coupled with the fact that I am an author who has written m/m romance and routinely critiques it, I didn't really know how to take Laura Baumbach's "don't blame m/m romance" comment. I'm still not sure how to take it actually.
Lastly I've noticed multiple people commenting that all of the publishers on the panel said that if authors wrote more "diverse" LGBT romances they would consider publishing them. This is not actually true, Bold Stroke Books, Less Than Three, eXtasy Books, and Harmony Ink Press said this. Dreamspinner Press and MLR Press did not, in fact they didn't address it at all. (please correctly if I'm remembering this wrong. Because I know Dreamspinner didn't speak to this but I don't think MLR did either)
Now Dreamspinner and MLR have historically been m/m only presses. That's fine, it's a decision they've made and as much as I would love to see all m/m only presses consider queer romance they don't have to. BUT I do wish they'd said that.
When everyone was like "Yeah, if you sub queer romance and we'll look at it" they should have been like "actually we only accept m/m" and then defined what m/m to them means: does it include bisexual/pansexual men? Asexual men? Does it include trans men, trans masculine people, or nonbinary people?
When I didn't hear any of that it made me feel like they weren't owning their decision to be a m/m only romance press, because they felt like it wouldn't have gone over well with that particular audience. At least that's how their silence read to me. Coming right out and saying they wouldn't accept a wider range of queer romance beyond m/m might not have been popular for that audience, but they should have addressed it anyway.
I feel like if they had it would have allowed for much needed transparency because other people did walk way from that panel thinking that the only thing standing in the way of a fuller spectrum of queer romance was authors' lack of interest in writing it. Which is not entirely true.
Like I said, I have lots of thoughts and feelings.
 |
| courtesy of GRNW |
I was seated between Alex Powell and Pearl Love both of who were amazing, intelligent and classy. Pearl Love was a particularly hard act to follow and all in all it was just a really great panel to be on.
After the panels GRNW Meet-up was technically over but we all headed over to the Hotel Monaco for the GRNW Book Fest. I was seated next to Alex Powell again which was great because we got to chat a lot and hang out. I was giving away postcards of the cover art for some of my trans titles: A Matter of Disagreement, Song of the Spring Moon Waning and Selume Proferre, all by the talented Aisha Akeju.
 |
| courtesy of Alex Powell |
It was pretty amazing how many people stopped by to talk with me and take postcards. I loved that authors and other industry people took the time to touch bases with me. I also got to hear from some amazing readers. So many trans and queer readers or loved ones of LGBTQ people came up to me over the course of the weekend to tell me how happy they were that I do what I do. It was truly wonderful and touching.
Finally we all headed over to the Rendezvuous Bar for drinks and 5 Minutes in Heaven readings which ranged from hot to hilarious. Kudos to Heidi Belleau by the way for stepping in last minute and knocking it out of the park.
After the readings I headed back to my hotel and caught a couple hours sleep before getting up at 3:30am (thank God my body was telling me it was 6:30am) to pack and catch my 6:00am flight back to New York.
Then I was stuck in Newark NJ for about four hours, but that's another story.
Overall I loved going to GRNW. I loved the readings and penal I did, I loved meeting readers, authors, reviewers, cover artists and activists. I am definitely planning on going next year.
I guess my only criticism of the event was that Flowers Bar and Rendezvous didn't seem to have the staff to deal with our sheer numbers. The young woman at Flowers was extremely over-whelmed trying to take all of the orders for the table I was sitting at and people had to ask over and over where they're drinks and food were before any of it was brought out. On Saturday by the time we got to Rendezvous the place was so swamped by authors and readers of queer romance that me and Alex Powell never even got the food we ordered. I understand why both venues were chosen. At the same time I'm kind of hoping next year has us meeting at places with bigger dinner menus and more staff.
Also as fun and hilarious and thoughtful as it was, the first penal, Exploring Queer Romance Writing, felt kind of generic. I would like to see something a little more out of the box and maybe more LGBTQ specific next year.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up 2014 and Other Events
In in a little over a week I will be flying to Seattle WA to take part in Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up 2014 and several other romance writing events.
This is every exciting for me since it will be the first writing con I've attended as a professional author, and boy I am starting out with a bang.
I chose to attend GRNW even though I am an East Coast author because I had heard amazing things about the con from people who attended in 2013. Also because I was/am impressed by how proactive the organizers of the con were in seeking out authors who wrote a wide spectrum of queer romance. Unsurprisingly romance novels about white, cis, gay men and the authors who specialize in them tend to dominate these kinds of events. GRNW though has worked very hard, and I hope been very successful, making sure their events including a wider range of GLBT romance.
So the events themselves, where will I be?:
On September 19th I will be taking part in Queerly Yours: A Celebration of LGBTQ Fiction
7:00pm – University Book Store (University District Location)
Gearing up for the Sept. 20 conference “2014 Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up” at the Seattle Central Library, GRNW presents a special reading event at the University Book Store with five authors attending the Meet-Up—Rose Christo, E.E. Ottoman, Jordan Castillo Price, Radclyffe, and Rick R. Reed. From coming-of-age stories to paranormal mysteries to contemporary romances, each writer shines a spotlight on LGBTQ lives, loves and relationships, and promotes the theme that there’s Happily Ever After for everyone.
RSVP on Facebook.
I will be reading from my lesbian, trans, paranormal romance novel Selume Proferre. I will also be mingling and chatting with folks after the reading. Selume Proferre will be available for purchase as a gorgeous paperback through the University Book Store.
On Saturday September 20th the Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up itself will be held.
1:00pm I will be giving part of the Keynote Address: Write with Pride.
Coming off of the successful June 2014 event “Write with Pride” at Gay City, we’ll be doing a similar format for this year’s keynote where five writers will be sharing letters to their past and future selves. and celebrating looking back and looking forward with love, respect, hope, strength, and pride.
The participating writers are Rose Christo, E.E. Ottoman, Jordan Castillo Price, Radclyffe, and Rick R. Reed.
I will be reading an open letter to my future self about my hopes for my future as an author but also for the future of the genres I write in.
4:00pm I will be on The Evolving LGBTQ Romance Genre Penal.
Otherwise known as the return of the popular Diversity Panel! This panel explores special topics such as diversity (or lack thereof) in LGBTQ romance, and how the genre is evolving.
Moderator
Nicole Kimberling (Author, Turnskin, Primal Red)
Panelists
I will have an author's table at the book festival where you can come talk to me, buy a book or pick up some cool free swag. I'm super excited about the swag I ordered and I'll have plenty to give away. I will also be signing books during this time if you are interested.
My books that will be avaliable in paperback form are:
Selume Proferre
Like Fire Through Bone,
The Memory of Blood and Lotuses,
Private Dicks: Undercover anthology
Other than these specific events I will be wandering around, attending panels and workshops. Come track me down and say hi. All of the crazy things I talk about online I am more than happy to also talk about in person.
Particularly if you are a author/reader/editor/publisher with an interest in non-binary/trans romance I would love to talk to you. What would you like to see in the future? What are you hopes/fears concerning this tiny subgenre? I am especially interested in talk to you if you are an author/publisher with no prior experience with nonbinary/trans romance but is looking to branch out.
All in all I am definitely looking forward to this trip.
This is every exciting for me since it will be the first writing con I've attended as a professional author, and boy I am starting out with a bang.
I chose to attend GRNW even though I am an East Coast author because I had heard amazing things about the con from people who attended in 2013. Also because I was/am impressed by how proactive the organizers of the con were in seeking out authors who wrote a wide spectrum of queer romance. Unsurprisingly romance novels about white, cis, gay men and the authors who specialize in them tend to dominate these kinds of events. GRNW though has worked very hard, and I hope been very successful, making sure their events including a wider range of GLBT romance.
So the events themselves, where will I be?:
On September 19th I will be taking part in Queerly Yours: A Celebration of LGBTQ Fiction
7:00pm – University Book Store (University District Location)
Gearing up for the Sept. 20 conference “2014 Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up” at the Seattle Central Library, GRNW presents a special reading event at the University Book Store with five authors attending the Meet-Up—Rose Christo, E.E. Ottoman, Jordan Castillo Price, Radclyffe, and Rick R. Reed. From coming-of-age stories to paranormal mysteries to contemporary romances, each writer shines a spotlight on LGBTQ lives, loves and relationships, and promotes the theme that there’s Happily Ever After for everyone.
RSVP on Facebook.
I will be reading from my lesbian, trans, paranormal romance novel Selume Proferre. I will also be mingling and chatting with folks after the reading. Selume Proferre will be available for purchase as a gorgeous paperback through the University Book Store.
1:00pm I will be giving part of the Keynote Address: Write with Pride.
Coming off of the successful June 2014 event “Write with Pride” at Gay City, we’ll be doing a similar format for this year’s keynote where five writers will be sharing letters to their past and future selves. and celebrating looking back and looking forward with love, respect, hope, strength, and pride.
The participating writers are Rose Christo, E.E. Ottoman, Jordan Castillo Price, Radclyffe, and Rick R. Reed.
I will be reading an open letter to my future self about my hopes for my future as an author but also for the future of the genres I write in.
4:00pm I will be on The Evolving LGBTQ Romance Genre Penal.
Otherwise known as the return of the popular Diversity Panel! This panel explores special topics such as diversity (or lack thereof) in LGBTQ romance, and how the genre is evolving.
Moderator
Nicole Kimberling (Author, Turnskin, Primal Red)
Panelists
- David-Matthew Barnes (Author, The Jetsetters, Swimming to Chicago)
- Rose Christo (Author, Gives Light, The Place Where They Cried)
- Lori L. Lake (Author, Gun Shy, Under the Gun)
- Pearl Love (Author, The Uncertain Customer, ‘Til Darkness Falls)
- E.E. Ottoman (Author, Selume Proferre, The Memory of Blood and Lotuses)
5:00pm-ish the Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up Book Festival will start.
My books that will be avaliable in paperback form are:
Selume Proferre
Like Fire Through Bone,
The Memory of Blood and Lotuses,
Private Dicks: Undercover anthology
Other than these specific events I will be wandering around, attending panels and workshops. Come track me down and say hi. All of the crazy things I talk about online I am more than happy to also talk about in person.
Particularly if you are a author/reader/editor/publisher with an interest in non-binary/trans romance I would love to talk to you. What would you like to see in the future? What are you hopes/fears concerning this tiny subgenre? I am especially interested in talk to you if you are an author/publisher with no prior experience with nonbinary/trans romance but is looking to branch out.
All in all I am definitely looking forward to this trip.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Writing Update: Coming Soon and Cover Reveals!
So I have a bunch of stories and books out over the next few months. Here is some about them and their covers.
Duende is out on September 10th!!! You can preorder it here!
Famed opera singer Aimé has a lot in common with Badri, the Royal Ballet Company's most popular male lead. They have both dedicated their entire lives to their art, and struggle to be taken seriously among the Empire's elite. And both harbor a secret admiration and desire for the other.
This year for his birthday Aimé treats himself to a night at the ballet seeing Badri perform, and after the show decides to meet Badri and confess his admiration for Badri's skill. But when that first awkward meeting turns to more, they are left wondering if there is room in their lives for both career and romance...
Duende is a 15,000 word m/m novella and the second in the Mechanical Universe Series. It's sweet and fluffy with a kind of kinky, dirty sex scene that I very much enjoyed writing.
Business Makes Strange Bedfellows is coming out on October 29th. You can preorder it here as well.
Dr. Gert Bower's day goes bad fast when she accidentally releases an abominable monster of the abyss on the streets of New York City. Desperate to stop it, she turns to the only person who can help her track the monster down. Vi De Luca is a private detective and creature of the night, a vampire more than willing to help Gert—for a price.
In exchange for catching the monster, Gert must spend one night with Vi, and let Vi have her way with Gert's blood and body. Though she does not remotely trust Vi, for the good of the city Gert agrees. Yet tracking the monster turns out to be more than either of them had bargained for. When Gert embarks on an experiment to try and reanimate a human corpse things just keep getting worse.
Right now the website has Business Makes Strange Bedfellows listed as a 15,000 word short, but don't be fooled it is in reality a solid 25,000+ novella. This is a lesbian, gothic romance, replete with monsters, mad scientists, vampires, two very dapper butch women and lots of hot slightly kinky, very dirty sex.
A Touch of Mistletoe will be Less Than Three Press' Holiday anthology. I am happy to say it will include my short story Ad Meliora. Ad Meliora is exciting because it is a An-An/M.C. short.
It is Christmas Eve and An-An and M.C. had planned on spending Christmas in Texas with An-An's family. Their plans on cut short however when M.C. takes on a last minute case, a case that should be an easy exorcism, or so they think.
But that's before they arrive at the Morgan family's lodge in the woods and come face to face with a demon wolf the likes of which neither have ever encountered before.
Ad Meliora is a 14,000 word, trans/lesbian short about An-An and M.C.'s first Christmas together. It's very sweet, with a creepy demon and all the smoking hot, raunchy, kinky sex fans of Selume Proferre have been wanting.
And if you have yet to read about An-An Li-Johnson and M.C. Anderson's exploits pick up Selume Proferre and then check out A Touch of Mistletoe come December.
Winter's Bees is scheduled to come out in February 2015. It is the third story in the Mechanical Universe Series.
Winter's Bees is 33,000 word, m/m steampunk fantasy romance. Where A Matter of Disagreement was enemies to lovers, Winter's Bees is friends to lovers with an awkward arranged marriage thrown in to make things even more complicated.
Famed opera singer Aimé has a lot in common with Badri, the Royal Ballet Company's most popular male lead. They have both dedicated their entire lives to their art, and struggle to be taken seriously among the Empire's elite. And both harbor a secret admiration and desire for the other.
This year for his birthday Aimé treats himself to a night at the ballet seeing Badri perform, and after the show decides to meet Badri and confess his admiration for Badri's skill. But when that first awkward meeting turns to more, they are left wondering if there is room in their lives for both career and romance...
Duende is a 15,000 word m/m novella and the second in the Mechanical Universe Series. It's sweet and fluffy with a kind of kinky, dirty sex scene that I very much enjoyed writing.
Dr. Gert Bower's day goes bad fast when she accidentally releases an abominable monster of the abyss on the streets of New York City. Desperate to stop it, she turns to the only person who can help her track the monster down. Vi De Luca is a private detective and creature of the night, a vampire more than willing to help Gert—for a price.
In exchange for catching the monster, Gert must spend one night with Vi, and let Vi have her way with Gert's blood and body. Though she does not remotely trust Vi, for the good of the city Gert agrees. Yet tracking the monster turns out to be more than either of them had bargained for. When Gert embarks on an experiment to try and reanimate a human corpse things just keep getting worse.
Right now the website has Business Makes Strange Bedfellows listed as a 15,000 word short, but don't be fooled it is in reality a solid 25,000+ novella. This is a lesbian, gothic romance, replete with monsters, mad scientists, vampires, two very dapper butch women and lots of hot slightly kinky, very dirty sex.
It is Christmas Eve and An-An and M.C. had planned on spending Christmas in Texas with An-An's family. Their plans on cut short however when M.C. takes on a last minute case, a case that should be an easy exorcism, or so they think.
But that's before they arrive at the Morgan family's lodge in the woods and come face to face with a demon wolf the likes of which neither have ever encountered before.
Ad Meliora is a 14,000 word, trans/lesbian short about An-An and M.C.'s first Christmas together. It's very sweet, with a creepy demon and all the smoking hot, raunchy, kinky sex fans of Selume Proferre have been wanting.
And if you have yet to read about An-An Li-Johnson and M.C. Anderson's exploits pick up Selume Proferre and then check out A Touch of Mistletoe come December.
Lord Marcel de la
Mont de Anges, the Marquis de Montespan is a brilliant mathematician, member of
the mechanical animation movement and all around dandy. He's been in love with
Gilbert, shy entomologist and youngest member of the royal family, since they were children. So the Emperor's plans to arrange a
marriage between Marcel and Gilbert seems like the answer to all
his secret fantasies.
Prince Gilbert
André XVI is still reeling from a nasty breakup, on top of that he thinks of
Marcel as a brother and has never even considered
the
possibility of them being lovers. So when the Emperor arranges their marriage
to each
other as far as Gilbert is concerned the entire scheme is bound to end up being a nightmare.
Indeed from the moment their engagement is finalized everything between Marcel and Gilbert changes. Soon their
marriage is threatening the one thing both Gilbert and Marcel hold most dear; their friendship. And they must ask themselves what they willing to sacrifice in order to save it.
Winter's Bees is 33,000 word, m/m steampunk fantasy romance. Where A Matter of Disagreement was enemies to lovers, Winter's Bees is friends to lovers with an awkward arranged marriage thrown in to make things even more complicated.
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