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.

Steve Berman reading

2007-03-05T10:56:00.000-09:00

On Saturday afternoon, Ray and I went to hear the lovely and talented (and Lammy-nominated!!) Steve Berman read from his novel Vintage at Giovanni's Room. It's a YA novel about a gay goth boy, coming of age in New Jersey and being seriously attracted to a ghost. The three parts Steve read were tender and spooky, smart and made piles of leaves way sexier than I'd ever thought them...

Ray finished the book last night and thumbs-upped it. I am going to sink my teeth in when I finish the China Mieville stories in Looking for Jake that Genne & James gave my for Christmas.

Steve also read his story in Love, Bourbon Street, a funny and dirty coming out exam.

Buy Vintage now!

Le Guin surprise

2007-02-20T14:47:00.000-09:00

I ordered Unlocking the Air by Ursula K. Le Guin from abe.com because I wanted her essays on SF and they also had this one & why pay all that shipping for just one book? And it came today, and the book is signed! Le Guin inscribed it to Ms. Jane Someone in Virginia. (Love it.)

Sex By The Book contract

2007-01-29T18:04:00.000-09:00

Got my contract for Sex By The Book, edited by Kevin Bentley. Looks like it'll be released from Green Candy Press in September 2007. I love getting contracts....getting a story from submission to print is such a long process that I have nothing to do with. So signing a contract makes me feel like stuff's moving & is final confirmation that a story is really on its way into print. I LOVE CONTRACTS!

Octavia Butler class

2007-01-18T05:55:00.000-09:00

A friend at work just gave me a brochure for Germantown Friends School Adult English enrichment courses because she thinks I should try to teach one. I think I want to take one, though: "Wild Seeds: The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler," taught by Yolanda Palacio. Eight weeks of reading and discussing Butler's short stories and "one novel from each series."

I wonder if they'll do Fledgling, and how she has picked which novel from which series. Same for Kindred, which is wonderful but a stand alone and not too science fictiony. I'd go with Dawn from Xenogenesis because you can't beat the exposition of the series. From the Patternists, I guess I'd pick Wild Seed because its so rich, but they are all so different that I might want to chose something like Clay's Ark because it's so unexpected. Or Patternmaster itself, because it might be interesting to study world creation among the first books in this series and Xenogenesis. And from the Parables, I'm not sure. Parable of The Sower is world-establishing and scary and wonderful, but Parable of the Talents gives a happy ending (sort of) and builds just as multilayered a world. And the three part narration would be interesting to study as a fictional strategy that is different from Dawn or Fledgling or Patternmaster. And Olamina's daughter's anguish is so brutal... Here's a wikipedichronology, because it's hard to keep straight.

anyway, I think I'm going to convince Ray to take this GFS class, which shouldn't be hard because he's the one who turned me on to her in the first place. Here are two pictures of me with Octavia Butler, when she read at Robin's shortly before her untimely death. Hopefully you can't see how red my cheeks are and that I was hyperventilating...

Fast Balls acceptance

2007-01-16T14:43:00.000-09:00

Got a contract for Fast Balls: Erotic Stories About America's Favorite Pastime (ed. Jesse Grant) from Alyson today. My story is called "Bennington Boomers," & is narrated by an octogenarian recalling his first baseball sex in 1920s Vermont. Book will be out June 1, 2007. All of Alyson's cover art on the spring books looks hot and I can't wait to see this one.

reading Eclipse by K.A. Bedford

2006-12-21T12:37:00.000-09:00

Was shopping at Robin's (the discount one) & bought Eclipse by K.A. Bedford, an Australian writer. The cover art itself seemed kind of queer: a shadowy close up of a sharp-featured man's head. The jacket copy didn't indicate anything homo but did tell me it was going to be on a space ship. That was enough for me.

It's written in the first person in the voice of a 21 year old newbie space officer. I was immediately skeptical of this P.O.V., because I like my space stories chock full of smart information and not didactic and that's a hard mix for the first person. But the voice of James Dunne is smart without being didactic, is informative without being dry, etc. There's real darkness in the narrative that keeps me turning pages, but I don't actually feel as if the theme is integrated into the speculative elements as much I'd enjoy. I mean, finding aliens affects the crew and how they act/feel, but the emotional verifiability of these characters is not necessarily an organic part of the speculation. (In contrast to something from Joanna Russ, for instance; in The Two of Them, Irene's actions, reactions, etc. completely flow from the realities they move between, the proto-Islamic back to their normal world, & from her lover's attitude about her actions vis-a-vis the girl they "rescue." The story is the speculation, or the other way around.)

Bedford's characters are specific and emotionally verifiable, and interesting, too. The most interesting character, the tough woman (surprise, surprise) doesn't get enough page-time and isn't playing an active role yet (though I'm 2/3 through). So far she's mostly there to make Dunne swoon (also a product of Bedford's use of the first person), but her early characterization showed her to be bold and powerful, so I'm hoping that the author is saving her up for the third act. There's at least one confirmed homosexual who manages to be self loathing and closeted despite the book's assertions that his own family gave him positive images of gay life. And there's plenty of male-on-male rape and rape anxiety.

The violence in the text is interesting in the way it thematizes women in the military and ignores them. According to the Bedford's universe's status quo, men and women are equal and discrimination is dead. But his characters know that's a crock of shit, because, as Dunne says early in the novel, power equals violence and there's a functional and entrenched patriarchy. It's a fascinating text to think about sex, gender and violence in a speculative novel, in particular because it's from the point of view of a straight-identified man but is written in a way that questions the fundamental political assumptions of our patriarchies. It's an attractive and almost hypnotic use of this voice.

Got A Minute

2006-12-19T12:07:00.000-09:00

Heard from Alison Tyler yesterday that Cleis is taking my story "Saturday Afternoon Steam" for the forthcoming collection of short shorts Got A Minute.

It's set to come out in March 07 and has a pretty hot cover.

reading Everything I Have Is Blue by Wendell Rickets

2006-12-12T04:48:00.000-09:00

I'm reading Everything I Have Is Blue: Fiction by Working Class Men About More Or Less Gay Life. I'm about 5 stories in. They have a different texture than other short stories I've read lately, especially different from the gay stories I've been reading. (Although, to be fair, I've been reading mostly queer sf and queer erotica.) But the politics that manifest in these textures from Blue are maybe what is catching me. So many of the stories I've read in the last few weeks have worldviews and politics that are narrow and heterocentric. I want to read some queer stuff, not just stuff about "queers," i.e. "homosexuals." And Everything I Have Is Blue might have some.
Already, too, I recognize the feelings in the pieces I've read as emotionally verifiable in a working class gay sort of way. But there have been some token figures of poor life. I have no doubt that the emotions expressed in these figures are reliable, and honest--and maybe that's what gives it the extra texture I wasn't finding in all those queer sf and horror stories that were written by straight identifieds and in the sex negative erotica--but the token working class figures aren't always as nuanced as they could be.

Travelrotica 2

2006-12-05T17:21:00.000-09:00

My story "Italian Idol" will be in Alyson's Tales of Travelrotica for Gay Men 2, edited by (no relation) Brad Nichols. Check out the original Travelrotica. Travelrotica 2 will come out in August, I think.

on the (midnight) Radio

2006-12-02T06:14:00.000-09:00

OK- so I'm not Hedwig, but I'm going to be on the radio, reading my Peter Altenberg story "Grays of the Morning" on Kate Bonner-Jackson's radio show Open Yr Throat & Speak on Radio Volta, a Project of the Philly IMC.

I've never really liked my voice recorded, so I hope I'm not too freaked out to listen to it.

Sex By The Book

2006-11-22T19:33:00.000-09:00

Kevin Bentley emailed an acceptance today for Sex By The Book, which is set to come out from Green Candy Press. It'll be a whole anthology of "gay men's tales of lit and lust" and I can't wait to see how the other stories use books, writers, librarians, dead authors, etc. to make hot homo sex. My story "Comicboys" is about boyfriends who are writing a comic book together. Their heroes are the Skater and the Punk, who I hope will also turn up in one of the comics-themed anthology whose deadlines are approaching.
.

C is for Co-eds

2006-11-13T11:54:00.000-09:00

Just heard word that my story "I Wanted Him to Feel It" will be reprinted in Alison Tyler's college-themed C is for Co-eds from Cleis Press, which consistently brings out high-quality and interesting erotica.

Of course, there's no contract yet, so you never know for sure...but I'm still happy enough to be this near a Cleis title that I'm posting.

"I Wanted Him to Feel It" was previously published in Just the Sex, from Alyson, in 2003, and was the back jacket copy, too!

Dorm Porn 2

2006-11-11T18:26:00.000-09:00

A contract for Sean Fisher's Dorm Porn 2 arrived on Friday for my story "Cultural Studies," about a college wrestler who tries to seduce his Professor in order to pass "Desconstructing Asian American Identites." It's set for a release. in August 2007. Dorm Porn is fantastic, and I'm sure DP 2 will be even better!

Shane Allison told me they'd taken a story of his for Dorm Porn 2 weeks ago, and since he had heard via email I thought for sure they hadn't taken my story. It was a nice surprise when I got home late Friday.

Still no contract for Second Skin, though, and haven't heard the final word on a couple of other stories that have been submitted in manuscripts, but not approved by publishers.

Second Skin & New York weekend

2006-09-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

Spoke to Christopher Pierce at the end of last week. He & co-editor Rachel Kramer Bussel are taking my story "On the Night Bus" for the next Fetish Chest book Second Skin. It's stories of leather and latex. "On the Night Bus" is set in a near future Berlin where everybody's recycling car and truck tires into fetish and club gear.

Went to New York this weekend to visit Ruth. Went to the Oscar Wilde Bookshop for the first time, and found Steve Berman's book of stories Trysts, which is the exact book I went there for: weird, creepy (& hot) stories and a hot cover, too. Ruth & I watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy.

Jeopardy and Female Otherness

2006-09-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

So Jeopardy was exciting tonight because two contestants tied, and I don't think I've ever seen a tie. (If only I could have watched the Oscars in 1968...)

But what's with Jeopardy's sexism? One question was about "Tim McGraw and this beauty" singing some song. When the contestant answered "Faith Hill," Alex said, "yes, his wife." Because McGraw is called by his name, whereas Hill is marked twice, once as "this beauty" and again as "his wife." Nice. But it gets better. In a category about the words of women artists, the answer referred to Virginia Woolf as "this authoress." AUTHORESS? Why not just lady author? After all, the category was already women artists, so why call one a fine modernist an authoress? AN AUTHORESS? Fuck Jeopardy.

Distant Horizons: Queer SF Anthology news

2006-09-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

Signed and returned my contract to Greg Herren for Distant Horizons: A Science Fiction Anthology. My story is called "The Musicmaker," and is set thirty years in the future in Vermont. My first non-erotic professional sale! Greg is fantastic; check out his writing and his troublemaking over here. He published my first story, in Alyson's Full Body Contact in 2002. There's no TOC for Distant Horizons, but I know that Steve Berman's story "Caught by Skin" will appear in it, too. It's forthcoming from Haworth Positronic, which has a pre-preview page here.

Ultimate Undies & Sexiest Soles on sale, with Tables of Contents

2006-06-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

Am*zon has the pages for Ultimate Undies &
Sexiest Soles, and if you scroll down enough past those fantastic covers, you'll get to Rachel Kramer Bussel's introductions and the Tables of Contents.
And when you're done lerking at those pages, head on out to a LOCAL INDEPENDENT bookstore and show that you like to buy queer books! If you're in Philadelphia, that's gonna be Giovanni's Room or Robin's. If you're in Brandon, it's Briggs Carriage Bookstore. And if you're somewhere else, go to BookSense and find one near you.

My story "Storm of Me" in Ultimate Undies

2006-06-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

from "Storm of Me"
I got my first transmission today: a packet of emails I can’t respond to, a news report, a mission update, which was the only reason for the transmission. I spend hours and hours monitoring the seedlings and still have hours and hours to stare out the portholes at the curving, blue halo of Earth or into the black. I wish I’d brought something other than Ulysses because I even though I have nothing else to do, it’s still practically unreadable. I should have brought the collected Steven King.
There’s another problem developing, too: I’m as horny as I’ve ever been and there’s nothing to do about it. I spent most of day two jerking off and except for the novelty of cum sluicing through the capsule in zero gravity, all that’s happened is that I’ve rubbed myself raw and am still painfully hard.
I got an email from a couple I’d fucked around with, people who lived in my building, that had naughty innuendo but nothing really sexy. I fantasized about the last time I was with him, with the guy eating out my ass while I fucked his girlfriend. And soon enough I was poking out the front of my flight suit, my cock pointing straight out in between halfway between the two thick nylon straps. If only there was room for porn in on board computers.

Read more about Ultimate Undies & see the Table of Contents over at Lusty Lady, RKB's blog.

"Skate Shop" in Sexiest Soles, coming out July 1, 2006

2006-06-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

from "Skate Shop"
The customer had taken a seat on the bench in front of the sneaker shelves, and had kicked off his torn canvas slip on.

“I’m sorry to ask you, but can you help me get it on?” He looked down at his cast, and said, “I broke my elbow, too.”

Dave bent down on one knee, and lifted box lid. “Do you want the left one, or the right?” The customer chose, and Dave grabbed the hell of the torn shoe and pulled it from his foot. The guy’s foot smelled a little sweaty-sweet, and Dave smiled as he leaned in and finished lacing up the shoe.

“I’m sorry I don’t have a sock, but I couldn’t get it on.”

“No problem.” Dave pulled a thin white disposable sock from a tissue-style box and stretched it over his foot, trying not to make contact with hit.

“My feet got scraped, but not too bad. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. I really appreciate it this.”

Dave reached for the guy’s foot again, holding it firmly with the heel cradled in his palm. The disposable sock was soft against his hands. He had loosened the sneakers as much as they would go, and guided the toes in, and easing the guy's heel over the hell of the shoe. When it was in, he squeezed the heel and said, “how’s that feel?”