Joel A. Nichols

Jane Rule died

2007-12-02T15:43:00.001-09:00

Jane Rule died a few days ago. You can read about it here.

And, in remembrance, two passages:

from Desert of the Heart:
"And they turned and walked back up the steps toward their own image, reflected in the great, glass doors."

and from an essay called "Homophobia and Romantic Love," in Outlander:
"I love the eroticism among women who like their own bodies, the hard discussion between those who require their own minds, the joy among strong spirits."

If that image from Desert of the Heart is such lesbo studies 101, as a version of the classic mirror-scene and one of the daughter-lost mother trope and of doubling desire.

Two New Stories and a new job!

2007-11-04T15:46:00.000-09:00

I'm writing you to tell you about two recent publications, my story "The Day the Governor Came Out" in Best Gay Love Stories: Summer Fling, and "The Night Bus," appearing in the current issue of Velvet Mafia alongside the likes of Lawrence Schimel, Thomas S. Roche, and Trebor Healey.

On Thursday, November 15th @ 7pm, I’m reading with other contributors to Sex By the Book: Gay Men’s Tales of Lit and Lust. We’re reading at the LGBT Center in NYC, address below.

Also got a new job: am now training to become a librarian! In school at Drexel, and working at the FLP...yay for librarianism!

Forget the bars and chat rooms—colleges, libraries, and bookstores are the real hotbeds of gay hooking up. Green Candy Press's new anthology *Sex by the Book* explores the juncture of literature and lust. Come hear NYC-based contributors Stephen Greco, Sam J. Miller, Joseph Manera, Joel Nichols and Don Shewey read from their funny and touching memoirs and stories about two vital obsessions—books and sex.

208 W 13th St, New York, NY - (212) 620-7310
Thursday, November 15th @ 7pm

Also check out my story “The Musicmaker” in QSpec Sampler 2007, a queer speculative fiction collection.

(A celebration of queer speculative fiction. In these pages are writers from across the spectrum of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror. We have big names and small, much-published veterans and promising beginners, Lammy and Spectrum Award nominees and winners, past Gaylaxicon Guests of Honor, and fresh new names. Within these covers are science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction; essays, short stories, and excerpts from longer works; drama, erotica, and comedy. All brought to you by QSpec, a consortium of writers of queer speculative fiction. Includes pieces by Antonio Ruffini, Billie Aul, Brian Frank, Caro Soles, Catherine Lundoff, Don Sakers, Joel A. Nichols, L-J Baker, Laura J. Underwood, Lawrence Schimel, Melissa Scott, and Selina Rosen.)

Velvet Mafia

2007-08-15T17:38:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time since I've posted. I quit my porno day job and Ray and I went on vacation, to Vermont to see my mom and then to Montreal for us. Then back to Vermont, back to Philadelphia, and then to the shore, where I am now.

Heard from Sean Meriwether this morning that my story "The Night Bus" will be in the next Velvet Mafia, which rocks! Velvet Mafia has been a goal of mine for a while--it really is the queerest place around and the stories there are always arresting. Love it. Especially on the heels of recent specfic rejections...

Outland at the Film Festival

2007-07-17T04:01:00.001-08:00

Last night Ray and I saw the International Male Shorts at the Film Festival. My favorite was an adorable Australian movie with an adorable hero who had curly hair and messy, curly sideburns. He's trying to get rid of a date/trick because he doesn't want him to meet the outrageous dorks in his sci-fi fan club, that is his best friends. Not sure what I liked more: action figures that talk and mock the trick's lame Dr. Who jokes, the cute chub best friend perfect comic timing, the multiple Jodie Foster references, etc. etc.. If you get a chance, see Outland.

feast on sideburns:

very porny bookcover

2007-07-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this dirty cover. My story "Rehab Block" is set in a republic where male homosexuality is dictated by the state and men who want to have sex with women are sent to rehabilitation prisons...There's not really any love in my story's lock-up.

the SF future is here! (& the police are even scarier)

2007-07-13T03:23:00.001-08:00

British Police will wear camera on their heads!
"Police officers in the UK are to be given head-mouted video cameras to film incidents and arrests, the footage of which can then be used in evidence.

The Home Office is to give police £3 million to fund a national roll-out of head cameras after regional trials proved they were successful in fighting crime, the Government has announced.

The move, announced by Minister of State for Police, Crime, Security and Counter-Terrorism Tony McNulty, comes after an evaluation of a pilot project in Plymouth by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary." [link]

If only they could put red lights in the cameras and get Jeri Ryan, Alice Krige, and Susanna Thompson to play the cops...

I'm in after all

2007-06-30T19:18:00.000-08:00

Heard yesterday that my story "Greasepaint Teardrop" will be in Ultimate Gay Erotica 2008 after all. YAY!

Retro Near-Future Clown Porn?

2007-06-28T08:18:00.001-08:00

I didn't make the cut for UGE 2008. :( But that's what I get for writing clown porn set in a retro near-future Weimar nightclub that doesn't have very much actual sex. But it's worth it, because I just got to write that description of my story. :) Maybe it'll find a home eventually. Big congrats to Rachel, Jeff, Ellen, Shane and all the other smutty smutsters who will be featured in UGE 2008.

Naughty. Not really very nice.

2007-06-21T06:47:00.001-08:00

My story "Nog" will appear in Alison Tyler's Naughty or Nice: Christmas Erotica Stories. See, I do have some Christmas (or at least X-Mas) spirit!

Distant Horizons TOC

2007-06-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

The DISTANT HORIZONS TOC from Lynne Jamneck's livejournal:

- Introduction (Greg Herren)
- The Mines (Max Reynolds)
- Runs in the Family (Bob Angell)
- Bel Canto (Caro Soles)
- Empty Noise Between the Stars (Joseph Baneth Allen)
- Negative Event at Wardell Station, Planet Arriga (L. Timmel Duchamp)
- The Musicmaker (Joel A. Nichols)
- The Visitor (Fiona Glass)
- Double Moon (Max Pierce)
- Bass City Blues (Lynne Jamneck)
- All the Wrong Places (Michael Wilde)
- Europa Siren Song (Jay Starre)
- Secrets of the Abandoned Monument (Felice Picano)

People are confused, though, because this doesn't seem to have all the stories. Steve Berman's is missing, Erastes's is missing. I think Jeff Funk's, is, too and Claude Lalumiere's...I'm pretty sure that I remember Greg Herren saying something about splitting the book into two volumes, though. So stay tuned.

New Sale & Audio Clips

2007-06-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Heard today that my story "Share Their Freedom" will appear in MEN ON THE EDGE from StarBOOKS Press. No word on release date or cover art yet. This story is dirtier than my normal...it's set in a forced mining camp near the (now militarized) Canadian border, and narrated by a mechanic who doesn't quite belong with the soldiers when there's a workers' uprising and two miners kidnap him.

Scary stuff.

Also the archive of my reading on Radio Volta from back in December has finally gone up. You can hear me read my Peter Altenberg story "The Grays of the Morning" here, about 20 minutes in or so.

Last Saturday I read in the Chapter and Verse series at the Chapterhouse. I tried out my pinball and magic story "Attack from Mars" that I sent to Jeff aka aerialscribe for TOUCHED. I think that a recording of it will be available soon, too.

Best Gay Love Stories: Summer Flings cover

2007-06-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

This book will have my story "The Day the Governor Came Out." Check it out.

Reading, June 9

2007-06-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

The writers in the group I belong to (Junior, Jr) are having a reading on Friday, June 9. So come see Rachel Toliver, Rachel Laramee, Joshua Trott and me!

All readings are at the Chapterhouse Cafe and Gallery, 620 S. 9th St. (between South and Bainbridge), at 8pm.

Free Wine and Coffee (not free)!

& check out their site for other readings.

Want to see something gross?

2007-05-20T08:43:00.001-08:00

I was following links from Ralan.com, looking at new calls for spec. fic. submissions. One link led me to Journey Books Publishing, which is reading for a book called UNPARALLED JOURNEYS 2. Sounds exciting, eh? Well:

We do not accept work that promotes gay lifestyles.

Says their guidelines. Hmm. That language, both "promotes" and "lifestyles" makes me feel gross. I wonder if they will accept work speculative work that interrogates gender ? Or that dismantles sex roles? Or that challenges heteronormativity? You know...all those things that excellent science fiction can do, has done, should do, will keep doing...

I just wish they would say that instead of "promotes gay lifestyles." YUCK.

Best Gay Love Stories & Delany Reading

2007-05-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to see Samuel R. Delany read. He was one of my teachers at Temple and I adore him. Adrian, Shinelle and I met up (& Junior, Jr was representing too: Emily and Rachel L.!) and Chip read from his newest novel, Dark Reflections. It's not spec.fic. in any way and is, according to Chip "highly structured." One excerpt he read was set in the pre-Stonewall Stonewall, when it was a black gay bar instead of the (white) Homothermopylae historiography has made it. Very interesting look.

The lovely and talented Don Belton was there. After the reading, the six of us went out for dinner and talked about the Temple program, and because Don and Adrian were there, how fierce Diana Ross and the rest of the Supremes (but especially Flo) were...Chip and Shinelle and I might have tried to talk about something less diva-riffic, but we probably didn't. Don is launching a website soon!!

Just heard from Alyson: my shore story "The Day the Governor Came Out" will be in Best Gay Love Stories: Summer Flings, edited by Brad Nichols. No cover art yet, but the last Best Gay Love Stories volume is here.

Anyway, as a newish Philadelphian trying to make it in a hardcore family of shore goers, I'm thinking that publishing a story set in Wildwood can only help..

Friday round up

2007-05-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

Three things happening to me this week:

I got paid for DORM PORN 2. Whoo-hoo cashing checks for writing.

I got a yes for a new Alison Tyler book, a Christmas-themed anthology. But you never know 'til there's a contract! (thanks to RKB for the link.)

My BF has a column in the Citypaper this week. And it's his birthday.

Is That Post-Structuralism In Your Pants?

2007-04-25T05:01:00.000-08:00

Or are you just happy to see me? Last night I got my copies of Dorm Porn 2, which has my story "Cultural Studies." It's a story about an eager wrestler who doesn't want to fail and his weak-willed graduate student instructor who lets himself be taken advantage of. (And it's hot!)

There are also fantastic stories from Shane Allison, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Jeff Funk--those are just the ones I read last night. Shane's is kind of like my story's evil twin, so I'm glad they are in there together. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

DP 2

2007-04-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

Jeff Funk emailed me and said that his contributor's copies of Dorm Porn 2 arrived. Cross your fingers that mine are waiting for me at home! Buy yours today.

ERWA blog launched

2007-04-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

The folks at the Erotica Readers & Writers Association have launched a blog! They are the best place for erotic subs calls and have great author resources. Check them out.

ps: Jeff Funk got some copies of Dorm Porn 2, which means it's in bookstores. Can't wait to see it.

Holy.Hot.Bookcover

2007-04-13T03:20:00.000-08:00

Coming in September is a book I'm really excited about Sex By the Book: Gay Men's Tales of Lit & Lust, edited by Kevin Bentley. My story is about boyfriends who are writing a comic together. But look at that cover! It's so the chicken or the egg forever...(of course, a guy's body that looked a little less muscled and shiny and smooth and beauty-standardy would be even hotter.) But this is one cool cover. Thanks to Green Candy Press.

G is for Good News!

2007-04-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

(title shamelessly stolen from Alison Tyler's email).

Just found out that my story "Think of Baseball" will be in Cleis's G is for Games. It's about a guy who needs a little extra stimulation after he and his wife have sex, so he goes out to the garage to relive some college baseball memories. Book will be out at the end of July.

Gay Mayor & online notetaking

2007-04-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

Lots of deadlines, erotic and otherwise, approaching. if you're a writer, check out ERWA.

And also useful to writers is this website I found that lets you create a page of electronic post-its notes. It's called webnote and makes jotting down notes in front of a computer super easy. no more emailing myself.

And finally, I wrote a post at Young Philly Politics about a mayoral candidate here in Philadelphia who would be really bad for the gays.

amazing lungs of death...or, Joel & Buck Angel

2007-03-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

last week I read at RKB's In The Flesh. It was a FANTASTIC time, although Rachel told me that Alyson canceled the book Second Skin. But I think I'll find a fine home for my near-future Berlin where people are wearing recycled tires and two hot dudes get it on on the bus, so I'm not too bothered.

On Saturday, I went to the GLBT Expo on behalf of my work, GayHotMovies, and met Buck Angel. Now I stalked around the Hustlaball in Berlin last October looking for him, was torn up when I found out he wouldn't be at the GayVNs in San Francisco, and then just accidentally found him. We had a nice chat and I took a pic. And I resisted going down on him, so that's something, right? And he gave me a longshoreman's cap so I can look tough.

Then that's where the amazing lungs of death come in...I got really sick and had to flee back to Philadelphia. (And I thought my sprained ankle was bad!)I've been homebound for days on antibiotics and worrying that my lung with deflate because of some mysterious monstrosities called blebs. But now I have an inhaler and it's changing my life and helping me fully oxygenate my blood for the first time in a week!

C is For Coeds

2007-03-19T17:44:00.000-08:00

Just came home and found my contributor's copies of C is For Coeds, which has my story "I Wanted Him to Feel It" along with 11 others from the likes of Rachel Kramer Bussel, Thomas Roche, Andrea Dale and editor Alin Tyler. The book is so tiny and cute and perfect...how can you not love that cover art?

So go and buy it at the Cleis Press site or somewhere else. Will post an excerpt soon. It's about a guy who just wanted to try it once (and may or may not have written a letter to the school paper about it later).

reading in New York on March 21

2007-03-05T11:41:00.001-09:00

Come and check me out on March 21, reading at In The Flesh.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

This month, join Cheri Crystal (Erotic Interludes 3, 4, 5), Joel A.
Nichols (Dorm Porn 2, Travelrotica 2), Carol Novack (Mad Hatters'
Review), memoirist Suzanne Portnoy (The Butcher, The Baker, The
Candlestick Maker), who's making an appearance all the way from
London, and Claire Thompson (Golden Boy, Slave Castle), along with
host erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He's on Top,
She's on Top, Caught Looking) for hot stories from across the sexual
spectrum. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served and authors'
books will be available for sale.