book reviews, Indy-News

The Independent Gay Writer
all about books & writing

Published Irregularly (about once a week)

at the whim of the Editor

Volume One, # 1, March 1, 2003

This is an independently published newsletter, edited by Ronald L. Donaghe. The views expressed herein are solely those of the writer of each review, article, or column. Writers' work is accepted solely at the discretion of the editor. All material is copyrighted by the submitting writer or Ronald L. Donaghe and cannot be reprinted without the express permission of The Independent Gay Writer© or the submitting writer. To submit material contact ron@rldbooks.com.

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Introducing the Newsletter...

The gay media have been slow to recognize a new paradigm—the independently published gay writer. Most gay-targeted magazines, online or offline, still mainly get their "news" and the books they review (if any) from established independent presses and the big houses from New York, Boston, L.A., and San Francisco. Yet the most exciting and innovative work is actually coming from writers who are tired of being rejected at the whim of some newbie junior editor, who hasn't got a clue.

This newsletter is out to change that. It won't change the world, but it will be a place where independent gay writers can submit their articles, information about their books, website locations, and reviews of other independently published gay, lesbian, bi, and trans--themed books. So let's get started!

Contact Ron Donaghe if you have any book news, articles, reviews, or well-reasoned rants (on the subject of books or writing)

Finding Faith
A Novel
by Andrew Barriger

Paperback $14.95
Pages: 266
ISBN: 0-595-26309-7
Published: Jan-2003 Order Here

Introducing a new writer, Andrew Barriger. He's not afraid to be playful with words.

Leaping the Generation Gap:
How Writers Should Keep the Reader in Focus

Since I was born before the widespread use of plastics, I tend to forget that the majority of the population considers anything before 1970 ancient history. To me 1970 is yesterday. As a writer, however, I ought to keep this gap of perception in mind as I write.
    Just how yawning the depths are between me and the majority of readers out there was recently brought home to me. I had met a very nice librarian on line (we both belong to the same librarians list), and she was kind enough to read one of my books before processing it into the system at the library where the book would be housed. The book was an autobiographical slice of my life from 1970 through 1972, published in 2000 by iUniverse (Writer's Club Press), entitled My Year of Living Hetero- sexually and Other Adventures in Hell. Although she was an excellent reader with very thoughtful comments on the book, she startled me when she wrote that since she wasn’t born until 1972, she didn’t realize how widespread the use of recreational drugs were during the Vietnam era by the United States service men and women.
    In the book, I hadn’t really bothered to discuss the reasons for the drug use. I just wrote about it matter-of-factly—because back then it was rather matter-of-fact. Yet it startled this young librarian and, to her, it was one of the main topics in the book.
    My point? As writers, we should keep in mind not only our targeted audience, but also keep it in the back of our minds who the greater audience might be. My targeted audience for this autobiography in part consisted of other Vietnam service men and women, especially the gay ones who served in silence beside me. But I also intended it for those who wanted a little perspective on what it was like before President Clinton’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy was enacted.
    Now see there? If you’re heterosexual, you’ve just been startled, but I’m keeping it in mind, as well, that some of the writers out there are not gay. Don’t worry, this isn’t a "gay" article; again, I’m just stating factual information.
    Now, where was I? Oh yeah…
    So, even though I had a targeted audience in mind, I neglected to realize that others who just might be interested in the book for "historical" purposes needed to have a little more information about the drug use.
    It doesn’t matter what the subject is, or the genre—either fiction or non-fiction. Keep your targeted audience in mind and write to them; but take the time to fill in some of the gaps for those who might be reading your work from various perspectives. One of these is the generation gap. But there’s the gender gap, the racial gap, and many others. As a helpful exercise, take a few notes about your targeted audience. Why are they going to read your book? Who won’t read your book? And ask why not? In the end, your notes will become valuable and should make your writing much better.

—Ronald L. Donaghe

This Week's
Featured Title

Andy's Big Idea
by Josh Thomas

Paperback $21.95
Pages: 424
ISBN: 0-595-26253-8
Published: Jan-2003

If you were as rich as Bill Gates and you started a Gay and Lesbian university, what would you teach? Business? Sure. Computers, electronic engineering? Absolutely. A core liberal arts curriculum? You d have to, or all your graduates would be nerds. Theater? Puh-lease. Law and political science might help the cause of Gay rights. Medicine, pharmacy, biochemistry and nursing could train soldiers in the war against AIDS.

But Andy Coulter's more ambitious than that. He wants to teach physical education, all four years. He wants his own Kinsey Institute, to study human sexuality rigorously, comprehensively, and fearlessly. Most of all, he wants to find out how to prevent internalized homophobia and teach 18-year-olds to live life fully.

He's even got one little plan so sinister, so culturally terrifying, it s top secret. He calls it Project W.

You may not agree with his methods, but then, you're not Commando Colt, and he is.

And Something with a twist...

The Transition of Sinful Sadie
by Dann Hazel
ISBN 0-595-21170-4
Published: Jan-2002

A riveting exploration of fanaticism and terrorism.

Dann Hazel’s riveting psychological thriller explodes with passion and conflict as three people “in transition” struggle—with each other, with a culture that misunderstands them, and with themselves—to find comfort in a world in which they do not belong. Paul Lyles (a.k.a. Sadie Bedenbaugh), a male-to-female transsexual, fights desperately to remain in a deteriorating relationship—and his upcoming surgery certainly won’t help. Wally Bedenbaugh, a closeted gay televangelist, finds himself on a collision course with his faith, his spouse and a domestic terrorist. And Duncan Trace, a religious extremist losing touch with reality, follows a murderous path as he plots the destruction of a media empire.

Something for the Intellect...

Pour yourself a little brandy, pull your chair up to the fire, and read Duane Simolke’s Stein, Gender, Isolation, and Industrialism: New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio. Better yet, dust off your copy of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and then read Simolke’s remarkable explication of Sherwood Anderson, the influence that the great Gertrude Stein had on his writing style, and the equally important effect of turn-of-the-century industrialization on Anderson and the stories he tells. In this straightforward, yet literary accounting of Anderson’s Winesburg narratives, you will come to a fuller understanding of what motivated Anderson to write his story cycle, what part homoeroticism and homophobia played in the story "Hands" and "The Untold Lie." This work should be required reading in any college course involving the art and craft of short-story writing as well as in courses on Sherwood Anderson, himself. I found the greatest pleasure in reading a while from Simolke’s work, then reading from Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Simolke’s book is a great reading guide, as well as a thoughtful and measured reading experience all by itself.

—Ronald L. Donaghe

This article first appeared in Foreword Magazine—University Press Issue 2001

Diversity in a Parallel Universe: Independent Presses and Visionary Writers are Redefining this "Genre"

—by Ronald L. Donaghe

In 1974, a young sportswriter published her first novel about a gay athlete and his love relationship with his coach. It was the first time a novel portrayed an athlete as gay hero, in one quick stroke challenging the stereotypical notion that gay men could be neither athletic nor masculine. The Front Runner went on to become the best-selling gay novel of all time, occupying the New York Times best-seller list for many weeks. It sold millions of copies and was eventually translated into eight foreign languages. As well, Patricia Nell Warren’s novel attracted "straight" readers in droves, doing what no other gay novel had ever done—crossing over into the general reading public’s consciousness.
BeeboBrinker

    After that, gay and lesbian literature exploded. Major publishers devoted whole imprints to it, while independent gay/lesbian presses were established and brick and mortar bookstores devoted exclusively to this literature opened their doors.
    At the forefront of gay publishing are the independent publishers and visionary new writers with different voices and many stories to tell, while major publishers have become increasingly bound to the "bottom-line." Independent and university presses have been engaged in a quiet revolution, so that today, gay/lesbian/transgender literature is a parallel universe alongside straight literature, with a whole range of genres: suspense, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and general and literary fiction, with just as diverse a selection in nonfiction, including self-help, psychology, spirituality and religion, and autobiography—you name it.
    Seal Press, Cleis press, Naiad Press, New Victoria Publishers, and Haworth Press, to name a few, have been in business for at least a quarter of a century. Seal Press, alone, produces a wide range of literature in both fiction and nonfiction. One of its most recent novels, Navigating the Darwin Straits is written from a son’s point of view, which provides an interesting twist on the issue of lesbian parenting. Cleis press, is bringing out a new line of lesbian classics from the 1950s, including a book entitled Beebo Brinker, about a "butch" 17-year-old farm girl newly arrived in Beat-era Greenwich village after she is kicked out of her Wisconsin home.

Naid press is well known for both their romances and mysteries and have a whole line of successful titles. Haworth (known mainly for academic and professional titles) is, for the first time, bringing out a line of gay and lesbian novels, among them Metes and Bounds, a gay-surfer story, by Jay Quinn. Quinn has been described as a worthy successor to such Southern writers as Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Jim Grimsley.
New Victoria Publishers, Bella Books, and Renaissance Alliance Publishing, Inc. (RAP), are betting on their successful line of lesbian romance and mystery/suspense novels to continue attracting lesbian readers. New Victoria just won the Lambda Literary award for "Best Lesbian Mystery" for their title Mommy Deadest, the story of a high school principal, called "Mom," who is murdered. The suspected killer is a young black male student, last seen in her office. Private Investigator Meg Darcy sets out to solve the case. Renaissance Alliance, which I describe as a modular publishing company takes advantage of the computer/internet age. Their offices are spread throughout the United States, with each editor working from his/her own location. They stay in touch and pass manuscripts back and forth via email, and they take advantage of print-on-demand technology (POD) to keep initial costs low, while at the same time working as a traditional publisher and making their books available at the traditional discount rates to brick and mortar bookstores. RAP’s author Belle Reilly continues her series of suspense-thrillers with the upcoming publication of Storm Front. Heroine Captain Catherine Phillips is caught up in a desperate race against time to stop a terrorist instrumental in downing a jet airliner. In addition to mystery, suspense, and romance, (RAP) has moved in a big way into science fiction and fantasy. BelleReilly

In gay male non-fiction, University of Minnesota Press is offering a memoir of the 1940s, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s, about postwar, pre-Stonewall Midwestern gay life as it is played out in a downtown St. Paul gay bar. It is already topping the charts at several online bookstores. A historical gay fiction piece offered by Wildcat Press, entitled The Wild Man, which begins in Spain in the mid-1960s and moves into present-day America, tells the story of a gay bull fighter who, against all odds in fascist Spain under dictator Franco, manages to find an enduring gay love.

I suggest The Wild Man. Visit Wildcat Press for the latest work by this legendary writer. Let her know that Ronald L. Donaghe suggested you take a renewed look at her work.

The University of Wisconsin Press is bringing out an adventure memoir Outbound by William Storandt about sailing and finding a male life-mate. Both Evening Crowd and Wild Man explore historical oppression of gay men, while The Wild Man and Outbound reveal that even the most "macho" of men can be gay. This year, Rutger’s University Press published Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South by James T. Sears. Another work of gay history, this book tells the stories of queer history in the South through characters who shaped, and were shaped by, the events that ushered in the antiwar, civil rights, women’s liberation, and gay movements following the 1969 clashes at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York.
    GLB Publishers of San Francisco publishes POD titles as well as traditionally printed gay male fiction. The Sand Dancers is a coming-of-age story, which has been described as "like a heart attack—unexpected, sharp." GLB’s Boys of Swithins Hall recalls the English boys’ schools of the early 20th century, another story of sexual awakening.
    In more gay/lesbian non-fiction, Amazon Press, Rainbow Pride Press, and Seal Press have each published titles meant to be inspirational, uplifting, and challenging. Says Martha Mattson of Amazon Press about Amazons the Forgotten Tribe, this title "is used by psychologists, family therapists, and church counselors." Seal Press’ Restricted Access is about lesbians with disabilities, while Rainbow Pride Press’ Journeys Across the Rainbow has been called "a heartfelt book that will inspire all who read it to a bigger, better, and happier life."
    So, in the truest sense, the trends in gay/lesbian/transgender publishing among independent and university presses is toward diversity, especially with the advent of POD technology and ebooks, so that previously unpublished writers more than ever have a legitimate shot at being published. For example, a major POD publisher, iUniverse, has among its nearly 10,000 self-published titles 63 gay/lesbian/transgender books. A good two dozen of these have shot to the top of online best-seller lists, including a coming-of-age story entitled A Better Place by Mark A. Roeder and a murder mystery entitled Murder at Willow Slough by Josh Thomas. Although still sparse in number, a whole new segment of publishing involves transgender and transsexual literature. A biography entitled Fixed for Life: the True Saga of How Tom Became Sally by Irene Preiss has been published by iUniverse. More than ever, the reinvention of gay/lesbian/transgender literature lies with visionary writers and independent presses that publish their work.

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