Jan’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2008)

Jan’s comments from the Guilty Pleasures group.

Lesbian poet and writer Malke Singer and bisexual poet and writer Jan Steckelwill be featured at the Dirty Old Women Erotica Reading, Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 7:30-9 PM, at Octopus Literary Salon at 2101 Webster St. (at 21st St.) in Oakland, CA, USA.

Older women: Wise enough to tell the truth about sex – what they want, what they've done, what makes them hot. Dirty Old Women, a monthly series at Octopus, celebrates erotic writing by self-identified older women of all orientations.

Open mike starts at 7:40 and is open to all; featured readings begin at 8 pm. Dirty Old Women takes place on the fourth Tuesday of the month. This event is free and accessible!

It's that time of the month again. I'm delighted that my poem "Intersections" (about bisexuality and gender fluidity) is a finalist for the November Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest, along with fine poems by a couple of my friends!

Please vote for your favorite at
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
by Monday, October 30, at midnight!

Best,
Jan

I'm delighted to announce that my first full-length poetry book, The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011), won a Lambda Literary Award last week in one of the two bisexual categories.

The "Lammies" in New York City are the premier international queer book awards. I'm now busy selling copies of the book to pay off my credit card bill for the trip to Manhattan, where I got to meet lots of wonderful queer writers, editors and publishers. Among the speakers at the ceremony: lesbian feminist thinker and writer Kate Millett, actresses Olympia Dukakis and Ally Sheedy, and Armistead Maupin (author of Tales of the City).

Copies of The Horizontal Poet are now on sale at the following fine independent bookstores: The Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, California; The Beat Museum in San Francisco, California; Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, California; and Bluestockings, the last queer bookstore in New York City.

You can also order the book directly from its indie publisher Zeitgeist Books at www.zeitgeist-press.com. If you prefer a signed copy, you can order one from me for $14 plus $2 shipping ($16 total) as a check or money order sent to Jan Steckel/PO Box 18797/Oakland, CA 94619, or for $16 sent to me via PayPal to Jmsteckel at aol dot com. Be sure to include your mailing address and to whom you want the book signed.

Jan Steckel
https://www.facebook.com/TheHorizonta...

The Well of Loneliness by Radcliffe Hall. I hadn't figured out yet that I was queer -- I read it because my best friend had decided she was lesbian. I told her I loved the book, but she said she hated it -- both the idea that a lesbian had to be a masculine "invert" and that her love had to come to a tragic end, sacrificing so her lover could be "normal" and be with a man.

Have you submitted your own books yet to Rainbow Reviews at http://www.rainbow-reviews.com? J.M. Snyder there just posted a wonderful review of my chapbook The Underwater Hospital at http://rainbow-reviews.com/?p=1418. It's the only bisexual poetry book on the site -- so far! If you'd like a copy, you can buy it online from Zeitgeist Press for $5.00 at http://www.zeigeist-press.com.

Jan Steckel
http://www.jansteckel.com

I really liked your first chapter, Lisa! It reminded me a little bit of two of Nick Hornby's four narrators in A Long Way Down.

I'm sorry to hear that the economic situation is putting your dreams on hold, Lisa, but I wish you the best of luck with the shorter story. Thanks for your congrats!

You know, one of my facebook friends, J.M. Snyder, writes gay romance and erotica, books about love between men, yet I'm pretty sure J.M.'s female. You might want to take a look at her website, http://jmsnyder.net, to see who has published her. It looks like while her novels are self-published, she's had short stories published and anthologized by outfits like Cleis Press and Alyson Books. Have you considered submitting your novel directly to those smaller publishers instead of going through an agent?

Hi Lisa,
My story "Mixing Tracks," whose narrator is a man in love with another man, won the 2008 Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Contest for LGBT writers. It will be coming out as a chapbook in 2009 from Gertrude Press. Don't sweat it -- those editors who were taken aback just need educating, and other editors will love your work.
Jan

On some of the other networks I belong to, people are saying we shouldn't boycott because it allows the Pro-Prop. 8 forces to cast themselves as victims. Personally, I think if it worked for the black civil rights movement, it ought to work for us, too. Remember the Montgomery Bus Boycott? I'll bet that alienated some people, too. I draw the line at defacing or destroying property, threats, verbal abuse and physical intimidation. What do you all think? Anybody writing about this issue?

I was one of the people out protesting today. About 200 of us rallied outside the Oakland Mormon Temple at noon to protest their excessive involvement in getting Proposition 8 passed (the amendment to the California constitution specifying that marriage is between a man and a woman). There were much larger rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a bigger one planned for tody in Sacramento.

If you're on Facebook, you can join a group growing exponentially (20,000+ when I joined) calling for simply putting a repeal measure on the California ballot next election restoring our constitutional right to marry whomever we choose. If they can take it away with a simple majority, we can keep putting it on the ballot until we take it back. Time's on our side.

Yes indeedy, Charmless.
;-)

Of course, I love anything by the inimitable Pansy Division, but since I'm bi, how about a sweet bi lyric from Magnetic Fields:

Underwear

A pretty girl in her underwear
A pretty girl in her underwear
If there's anything better in this world
who cares
La mort, c'est la mort
mais l'amour, c'est l'amour
La mort, c'est seulement la mort
mais l'amour, c'est l'amour
A pretty boy in his underwear
A pretty boy in his underwear
If there's a better reason
to jump for joy
who cares....

Regardless of whatever Obama himself believes, an Obama presidency will be so much better for queer people than a McCain presidency that it mystifies me that a couple of my lesbian friends are actually voting for McCain.

Let's not forget that Lincoln wasn't an abolitionist when he got elected, either.

Have to agree with Kay about The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Leguin. And also about being bi.

Mine was The Well of Loneliness, by Radcliffe Hall, which I read when I was fourteen. I cried at the end.