Monthly Archives: June 2010

Support Independent Book Stores!!

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Just received this e-mail from White Crane and felt compelled to post it here.  Gay Independent bookstores are going the way of the dinosaur, and it’s a real shame considering the (general) lack of depth of the big chains in regard to LGBT literature.

I remember my first time at A Different Light in NYC.  I was blown away by entire bookshelves filled with mysteries, science fiction, poetry anthologies, and tons of non-fiction on so many subjects.  Anyway, here’s the message, and while the only branch that’s left is in San Francisco, I’m going to support the appeal by ordering some books on-line.

A Different Light Bookstore and ADLBooks.Com

A Different Light Bookstore opened it’s doors in November 1979. As with all of the independent gay bookstores during that time, our stores became meeting places to promote GLBT writers, as well as gathering places for GLBT activists. And our independent gay bookstores served us well in working towards the equality we have achieved today and are working for in the future.

As you are aware, from surfing the net to reading the few newspapers and magazines that are still in print, our gay community bookstores, publishers and many other gay community small businesses are closing their doors. It is a fact that businesses are only as good as their customer and vendor bases. And as history as shown us, change is inevitable.

It is my belief that the GLBT community is the best read and highest achieving groups of people anywhere in the world. I also believe that in the future when the digital revolution has settled down that community based businesses will again serve as a place of social interaction that the human condition needs so badly.

In saying this, A Different Light Bookstore and ADLBooks.com “need your help and support” to continue to be a presence in San Francisco and online for our communities that we ship to all over the world.

If every customer in our store and online who receive our new product updates would commit to investing $10, $20 or more each month in purchasing our products, that would be an enormous step in continuing to preserve this very important part of our community.

The effect of this action is more then just keeping our business operational, but it also trickles down to our vendors. Equally important, your support will help keep and create local jobs that are so important to our community.

There are two actions that I would like you to consider. The most immediate action is of course stopping by our store or signing onto our website and buying a great book, gift, movie, magazine or DVD’s.

A more serious request, and one that I think would set a stage for preserving GLBT literature for the future is that you might consider buying 1-10 copies of each Queer Classic and “donating” it to a school, university, GLBT Center Library, local libraries or any of your favorite organizations. In addition to our GLBT archives around the world, this would put our literature in the hands of readers who might otherwise not have access or are being censored.

We are asking for your support. We sincerely appreciate and are thankful for our customers who visit and buy from us on a regular basis.

Thank you for your consideration and taking the time to read this note.

Bill Barker

A Different Light Bookstore and ADLBooks.Com

The Authors Speak Interview Is Up!!

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Bizarro author Eric Mays’ interview with me went up on The Authors Speak website!!   This was a great opportunity to get the word out about my projects and toss back and forth our perspectives on the publishing industry, the state of LGBT fiction, retold fairy tales and dreams of turning books into musicals.

What does “bizarro author” mean you might ask?  Well, bizarro fiction has emerged as a specialized genre described delightfully by its proponents as “the genre of the weird,” created by a group of small press publishers in response to the demand for good weird fiction, and “Franz Kafka meets John Waters.”  Having read Eric Mays’ “Naked Metamorphosis,” I’d call it urban fantasy meets “The Evil Dead” series.  I haven’t read much bizarro, but the titles are pretty damn brilliant– Cameron Pierce’s “The Ass Goblins of Auschwitz” for example.

So I’ve been basking in a little sun-shower of publicity and trying to get back to work on revising my latest manuscript.  Wish I could say it was cruising along but between work and social obligations plus a bit of a mental gnarl, it’s barely inching along.

Next week, my blog goes dark while my partner and I entertain house guests.  In July, hard core writing starts anew, I promise.

Gay Pride and Political Awakenings

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June 2010.  LGBT Pride events are happening across the country to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots.  Some nifty trivia: in Germany and Switzerland,  the Pride celebration is called Christopher Street Day (CSD) because the riots,  considered the spark that ignited a Gay rights movement in the US and around the world, happened on Christopher Street in New York City.  Another reason why NYC really is the center of the universe.

Gay Pride rankles some people.  And not just non-gays but gay folks too.  You hear the angry questions:  Why do gays need a parade?  Why isn’t there a Straight Pride march?  Why does Gay Pride have to be so in your face with drag queens, dykes on bikes and leather daddies?

My thoughtful answer is:  Gay Pride is about community celebration and empowerment.

My less thoughtful but more gratifying answer is:  Sorry but you just don’t get it.

I saw my first Gay Pride parade when I was five years old.  My family went to Provincetown every summer for vacation , and it’s a great oddity of my childhood that years before I would come to terms with my sexuality, I was immersed in the gayest community in the Northeast.

I remember the parade seemed to just up and happen all around us—men in wigs and impossibly high heels, shirtless guys holding hands, floats filled with people wearing so much make-up I thought they were clowns.  I wasn’t scared, more curious than anything, and I certainly had no idea what it was all about.  But my parents quickly ushered me and my brother down a side street and away from the commotion.

We stopped going to P-Town a few years later when my mom heard about a deadly disease infecting gay men and worried that it was contagious.  Our family vacation moved to “safer,”  more “family friendly” places like Nantucket and Kennebunkport, Maine.

I wouldn’t see another pride parade until I was twenty-two years old.

But my social-political consciousness started growing before that and continues to grow today.  The seeds were planted early, and I credit my mom.  Notwithstanding her past squeamishness about gay people (she’s become a quiet but adamant supporter of gay rights since then), she instilled in me strong values, wrapped up in something she told me at a young age:  “Your only obligation in life is to help make the world a better place.”

I took her words to heart.  In grade school, I used part of my allowance to make contributions to the National Wildlife Federation.  In junior high, I passionately debated gun control against my NRA-influenced peers.  For my high school newspaper, I wrote op-eds against censorship in music and anti-youth discrimination by local merchants.   And while lacking the ability to accept myself personally, I always stood up for gay rights.

My first real foray into political activism happened when Operation Rescue, Randall Terry’s pro-life extremist group, came to Buffalo to picket abortion clinics.  A bunch of us, all guys, decided to participate in an early morning counter protest.  Admittedly, it was an impulsive decision—we’d been up all night drinking beer (we were college students).   We held up signs, chanted and stared down the faux-fetus-wielding bible-thumpers.

In the dim light of wintry upstate New York, that was my moment of recognizing political power.  It was some parts internal and some parts external.  I felt with certainty that what I was doing was important and right.  I was surrounded by people who also believed as I did, and they believed, we believed together that we could make a difference.  I sought out that experience again and again at college demonstrations for divestment from South Africa, Earth Day rallies, anti-war protests (the first Persian gulf war:  NO BLOOD FOR OIL) and many, many gay rights causes.  And in recognizing my political power, I began to recognize myself.

Nowadays, I go to Gay Pride events to support the organizations, hold hands proudly with my partner, and feel the rush of thousands of us taking over the streets.

Somewhere at every parade there’s someone, young or old, taking part for the first time.  Somewhere,  someone is awakening to his or her political power.

Happy Pride!!

Alex Sanchez interview on La Bloga

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My interview with Young Adult author Alex Sanchez went up on La Bloga today.  Alex’s fresh, matter-of-fact portrayals of American gay teenagers have taken YA LGBT lit into the mainstream and garnered a good heaping of critical praise.  He was also a wonderful guy to interview.  You can check out the article here.

Angel Fiction Wars: Anne Rice vs. Danielle Trussoni

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Some months back, I read Anne Rice’s Angel Time and posted my impressions here.  I just finished Danielle Trussoni’s Angelology, so it’s time to throw the literary gauntlet down.

A quick synopsis of Trussoni’s book:  The story is about Evangeline, a young nun/librarian, who is pulled into the secret world of Angelology by a seemingly routine request.  A scholar Verlaine, hired by a mysterious, ailing man, wants information about a correspondence between her convent’s founding abbess and the philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller.   Quickly, Evangeline’s quiet and secluded world unravels.  The two women’s archived letters point to a conspiracy to protect Evangeline from a brood of fallen angels (the Nephilim) and a hidden society of angel “scientists” determined to release mankind from Nephilim oppression.

While Rice and Trussoni take inspiration from Catholic angel lore, the contrasts between their books could hardly be greater.  Rice’s angels are beneficent otherworldly souls; Trussoni’s are re-imagined creatures, some led astray by their lust for mortal women (The Watchers), and their hybrid offspring (the Nephilim) are as status-hungry as the 18th century French aristocracy.

Rice treads the themes of lost love and redemption.  Trussoni’s story is essentially a young woman’s coming of age against a backdrop battle of good versus evil.  Stylistically, Rice writes lush prose infused with startling emotion.  Trussoni is a story-weaver who threads biblical, art history and ancient mythological intrigue at a pace that draws comparisons to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code.

Another contrast is the two books’ reception in the market.  Angelology wins out big in terms of press reviews.  Angel Time received measured praise but actually edges out Angelology according to readers (at least based on Amazon reviews).

Rice delivers an elegant, tragic tale that starts out slow but draws you in with a great sense of character and place.  Trussoni gives you an awesome page turner that stumbles a bit in the middle, picks up steam again, and then the ending, ugh the ending (no spoilers here, but you can check out what readers have to say at Amazon).  Trussoni sets the bar high with an amazingly researched, complex premise so I give her points for that.

When the people speak (per Amazon), Angelology gets 3 stars and Angel Time gets 3 and 1/2.  I think that’s about right, and I’m the first one to be surprised by recommending an atmospheric, slow-burner over a gripping, layered mystery.  But they’re both good reads, and I’ll entertain all protests on Angelology’s behalf.

On the Gay-o-Meter, it’s no contest; Angel Time wins hands down.  Angelology’s Verlaine is a self-proclaimed Metrosexual, and if you squint real hard you could possibly imagine him as a sexy guy.  But Angel Time has dark, brooding hitman Toby O’Dare who plays the lute, and the portrayal is totally believable.  I’m afraid you just can’t beat that.