Me Time
Semi Everything
Being semi-retired is a bit like being in limbo. You're kinda working and kinda not. You have more free time that fills quickly. You say yes to too many things and you worry about money. And you can't wait to retire fully.
Maybe that's just me.
It's been an okay summer. A bit rainy but nothing like the heat and rain in other parts of the country. We have this small place in Cherry Grove on Fire Island (a gay resort town off the southern coast of Long Island). It's partially rented out and partially used by us. So we've spent some time there, which feels like a nice escape from the city.
As I thought about writing this section of the newsletter, I wondered whether to address one of the elephants in the room--the emergence of a new literary organization for lesbians and women-loving-women. While they say they aren't competing with the Golden Crown Literary Society, where I sit on the board, even if I believe that, competition cannot be avoided. If they are raising money and collecting stakeholders (they call them members), then competition is inevitable.
This news knocked me for a loop since I've been devoting so much energy to moving GCLS forward. I hate when communities are divided so needlessly. But I guess the best thing to do is to keep on keeping on and strengthen the almost 20 year organization we have, stressing its inclusiveness and its commitment to the books as well as those who write, narrate, edit, publish and read them.
Sapphic Lit and Other Book Stuff
How to Be a Creative Writer With a Day Job | by Writer’s Relief | Jun, 2023 | Medium
the time-management experts have some tips and advice on how to be a creative writer with a day job
TikTok Sells A Lot of Books. Now, Its Owner Wants to Publish Them, Too. - The New York Times
Along with an advance and royalties, the company was offering comprehensive online marketing services, according to several authors and publishing professionals with knowledge of ByteDance’s offers.
Building Your Brand on TikTok Isn’t Curation, It’s Authenticity | Jane Friedman
When I shed the idea of “curating” content and started to discuss the things I cared about, my views went up and so did my book sales.
Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers - Sisters in Crime
Applications for the 2023 Pride Award are open June 1 - July 31
Great Expectations: Hope Versus Happily Ever After – Writer Unboxed
What is the best way for writers to strike a balance between telling a story that’s meaningful to them that will also be meaningful to readers and give them sense of satisfaction at the story’s conclusion?
Can Book Critics and Writers Be Friends? | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog
Had the mutual respect between us been predicated on the idea that I would only do promo pieces and never engage with her work as a critic? And if so, could what we had be considered friendship?
Catfishing in the sapphic fiction community - Jae
At this point, it seemed pretty clear to me: AC Adams wasn’t a young lesbian woman; he is actually Adam Gaffen, a straight man in his fifties. Not even the job or city mentioned in AC’s author bio are true.
Queer Book Blogs You Need to Read – The Lesbrary
a quick primer to some of the most helpful sites on the internet where you can find queer books, especially sapphic books
Penguin Random House Launches LGBTQ+ Zine to Support Queer Voices
The company plans to publish the zine annually. It’s a collaboration between the Penguin Random House brand marketing department and the internal LGBTQ+ Network Employee Resource Group. The theme of this year’s issue is “Change,” speaking to how books change individuals and society.
Queer Indie Bookstore Splits Profits With LGBTQ Authors
ShopQueer.co is working to combat this issue by splitting profits with the queer authors they feature in their store. Not only that, they’re working to make LGBTQ books more accessible for everyone by creating a safe, queer-focused book community
Readers Swoon for The Ripped Bodice, Brooklyn’s New Romance Bookstore - The New York Times
The Ripped Bodice, a shop devoted almost entirely to romance novels. Many fans had planned their weekend around the opening. Some traveled a significant distance to be there.
I Was Wrong About Trigger Warnings - The Atlantic
In giving greater weight to claims of individual hurt and victimization, have we inadvertently raised a generation that has fewer tools to manage hardship and transform adversity into agency?
A.I.’s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity - The New York Times
The author and journalist Stephen Marche worked with three A.I. programs to produce a book called “Death of an Author,” which was published this year. He ran a plot outline and extensive plot points through one program. Next, he changed the tone, length and style of the writing with another. Then he used another program to elevate the language in individual sentences.
AI-generated books are infiltrating online bookstores
Publishing expert Jane Friedman made headlines last week with a blog post chronicling her discovery of fake books likely generated by AI that claimed to be written by her and used her name.
Amazon responded to her initial protests, she said, by asking whether she had trademarked her own name. The company later took the book listings down after Friedman's posts received attention. As this fraudulent practice spreads, though, Friedman wonders, "What will authors with smaller profiles do when this happens to them?"
Why Generative AI Won’t Disrupt Books | WIRED
But when the tech industry approaches readers with ways to “fix” what isn’t broken, their proposals will always ring hollow—and right now, plain old reading still works for huge numbers of people, many of whom pick up books because they want to escape and not be the main character for a while. “That’s a good thing,” Kreizman says. And as AI true believers sweep through with promises that this technology will change everything, it helps to remember just how many disruptors have come and gone.
A New Business Model - Bindery's Influencer Curated Imprints Where The Influencers Get a Stake In the Success of the Books
The goal is to have micro-imprints where an influencer, in concert with their fans/followers, chooses one book that will get published by the publishing house that year. The success of that book, ostensibly driven by the influencer's authentic enthusiasm (a.k.a. promotion), is then shared 50% for the author, 25% for the publishing house, and 25% for the influencer.
The Influence of BookTok and Bookstagram on Book Publishing Merch
many publicity and marketing campaigns are created with influencers in mind, with TikTok video-worthy PR boxes and branded swag that’s designed to create a social media moment upon a book’s publication. The question, then, isn’t if influencer culture is changing book marketing and publicity, but how.
News You Can Use
Barbie Shows Us That Queerness Is The Path To Liberation
Queerness is a beacon, model, and safe haven for the Barbies throughout the movie. It’s queer Weird Barbie who encourages Barbie to choose the Birkenstock (queer freedom) instead of the high heel (heteronormativity). When the Kens have been corrupted by the patriarchy of the Real World, the un-brainwashed Barbies go to Weird Barbie’s house. Weird Barbie is dripping in sapphic coding.
How the Indigo Girls Brought Barbie ‘Closer to Fine’ - The New York Times
A 1989 song about soul searching has maintained cultural relevance for three decades, but the band has also long been the target of homophobic jokes. Fans are savoring a moment of vindication.
Opinion | Why the Indigo Girls Are So Popular Right Now - The New York Times
The Indigo Girls are a pair of middle-aged lesbians, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, who have been friends singing together since they were kids in 1970s Atlanta. They make a good living as working musicians, touring regularly to delight a loyal fan base that certainly includes a lot of middle-aged lesbians (guilty as charged). But their music — songwriterly, acoustic-forward, aggressively emotional — hardly seems a good fit for our strange and cynical times. They are, as the kids would say, cringe.
As ‘Oppenheimer’ debuts, FBI’s secret spying on women in Manhattan Project revealed | The Seattle Times
A group of women, recognizable by their matching bold red hats, had already been meeting weekly for years at the restaurant of a well-known Santa Fe hotel, La Fonda, where they openly discussed their lives as lesbians. They’d become known around town for their hats and loud conversations.
A Brief and Very Online History of the Lesbian Pride Flag | Them
If you want to know how we ended up with the beautiful seven-striped flag we have today, along with a few important variations of it, we’ve got you covered.
Rebel Wilson Is Giving Us A Queer Dating App | GO Magazine
“This is the first dating app where you don’t have to actually define yourself or tick a box to say ‘I’m straight, I’m gay, I’m bisexual,’ and you don’t have to describe what you are looking for. […] It’s kind of love with no labels,” Wilson told People.
Netflix’s New Queer Dating Show Is A Beautiful Disaster | GO Magazine
The internet has not stopped collectively freaking out over this chaotic trailer, and we are all waiting with baited breathy until its premiere on May 24.
Nicole Conn Launches First-Ever Lesbian Dating Show in the U.S.
Coming Out for Love brings together 16 queer women living under one roof in Palm Springs and competing for the love of activist, basketball player, and social media influencer, Amber Whittington. Hosted by out actress Jessica Clark (A Perfect Ending), Coming Out for Love sees contestants competing in emotional and physical challenges including a dress to impress catwalk, blindfold kissing, and a lingerie contest. The show will also feature what Conn says are a number of “legacy lesbians” as guest judges, including pansexual filmmaker Caroline Giuliani and Franco Stevens, who founded Curve Magazine.
From FYP to Girlfriend: How TikTok Helps Lesbians Find Love
The biggest game changer is TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) algorithm. It could drop your potential mate right on your screen.
The Documentary Examining the History of LGBTQ+ Comics
Discussing folks as crossover famous as Alison Bechdel, whose rise to fame was paved by years of devotion creating Dykes to Watch Out For, and the late Howard Cruse of the graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby and the strip Wendel, which appeared in The Advocate in the 1980s, No Straight Lines attempts to give a historical perspective on the rise of queers in comics, beginning with illustrations.
Lesbian and STI Expert Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo to Succeed Fauci at NIAID
Marrazzo, a lesbian, is an expert on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and some of her research has involved pre-exposure prophylaxis, a.k.a. PrEP, and microbicides. She is also known for her research on hormonal contraception and infections of the female reproductive tract,
I Was Taught to Hate My Lesbian Neighbors. They Took Me In Anyway.
The summer my parents’ marriage was falling apart, my best friend’s two moms saved me—even though my dad said they were going to Hell.
"The Unlikely Story of the Lesbians of First Friday" recalls a community of connection in the '80s - News Is Out
a group of lesbians living in Roanoke, Va. and surrounding areas began opening their doors to other lesbian and bisexual women. What started as strangers meeting at private homes, evolved into lifelong friendships, unforgettable events and a legacy for a younger generation of queer women to look up to.
Your cat can recognize your voice. Yes, really.
Filling a long-standing gap in feline research, a small study shows that cats can distinguish their owners' voices from those of strangers.
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