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Jeff Baker

Ray Bradbury Revisited: jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

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Pumpkin - Jeff Baker

            I haven’t read every story by Ray Bradbury, but Graham George Barber may have. Barber contacted me to point out that Ray Bradbury did write at least two more stories with Queer characters, after my writing about Bradbury’s story “The Better Part of Wisdom “ (Boogieman In Lavender, July 11, 2016.) None of the stories are science fiction or fantasy, and they all speak of attitudes toward the LGBT community that a straight writer would have had back in the 1950s, but they are Bradbury. By the very nature of this exposition, this review will contain spoilers. In “Long … Read more

Thorne Smith and “Turnabout.” – Boogieman In Lavender

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Jeff Baker

  Thorne Smith’s Turnabout                                   By Jeff Baker             The slumber of (this) happily married couple was troubled that night by strangely realistic dreams…Tim got the impression that his body was being critically inspected. Sally later admitted that she had experienced the same feeling. And through all those dreams and dim imaginings the figure of Mr. Ram was inextricably woven…  ——from “Turnabout,” by Thorne Smith             LGBT writers, that is, writers who deal with LGBT characters and themes find themselves addressing issues of gender roles and gender identities frequently. Almost a century ago, a very heterosexual writer wrote a comic novel … Read more

Rambling Through the Year—Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender

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                        Some End-Of-the-Year Rambling By Jeff Baker   The end-of-the year is a time for reflections. On the year, on life, on history. Maybe on the future.  A few weeks ago, we saw “J.F.K.: Reckless Youth,” a mini-series from the 1990s. Watching it made us remember how young the boys were who went off to fight World War Two. And that John F. Kennedy, still to many a symbol of youth and vigor, was born in 1917 while World War One was still going on. World War One, now … Read more

The Last “Wilde Stories” Reviewed – Boogieman in Lavender

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                          “Wilde Stories 2018” reviewed. By Jeff Baker Author’s note: My full-fledged, full-length review of “Wilde Stories 2018” will be appearing in Lambda Literary, so here is a truncated variation on the theme. ——jb The final “Wilde Stories” is out, and is well worth the price. There are delights for LGBT readers, readers of gay-themed literature or just plain readers of speculative fiction. (Groups whose readership does not seem to overlap, laments editor Steve Berman in a reflective Afterward.) The authors include names like Matthew Bright (whose stories … Read more

The Picture of Jonathan Collins; a Queer Horror for Halloween – Boogieman In Lavender

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catalog books

By Jeff Baker Some reading for Halloween, now. First I’ll open a can of worms and recommend a queer-themed story by a straight author, something a lot of readers or LGBT fiction won’t touch on principle, but this one’s good; “The Picture of Jonathan Collins,” by Karl Edward Wagner first appeared in the 1995 anthology “Forbidden Acts,” (edited by Collins, Greenberg and Kramer) which is where I first encountered it. Collins is suffering from amnesia of a sort after his house is bombed during the London blitz. Some fifty years earlier, and he hasn’t aged a day since, and can’t … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender:

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Earth - NASA

Arthur C. Clarke’s Tall Tales Or: A Splash of Science With a Shot of Whimsy on the Rocks by Jeff Baker You come upon the “White Hart” quite unexpectedly in one of those anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment. —Arthur C. Clarke “Tales From The White Hart.” It is among my favorite themes in fiction; the tall tale told in a bar, the “Club Story.” Tales told with tongue in cheek and a soupcon of humor. Lord Dunsany wrote several books full of them (told by “Jorkins,”) L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt wrote the … Read more

Toasting Thomas M. Disch – Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

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Jeff Baker

Lives are short. Literary lives even shorter. When a writer dies, of course, their output stops; there are no new books or stories being produced. Their memory fades from public consciousness. Prolific writers like L. Sprague De Camp, Edward D. Hoch, even Isaac Asimov to a degree are in the process of being forgotten; their novels not reprinted, their stories not anthologized in favor of newer, trendier writers. Such is the case with one of our own, Thomas  M. Disch, writer of science fiction and fantasy; creator of The Brave Little Toaster, and a man who would possibly rather be … Read more

Musing on Endings – Boogieman In Lavender

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                                         “All Good Things…” By Jeff Baker For this month, a brief rumination on the state of the Queer Speculative Fiction short-story. Word has reached us that the upcoming edition of Lethe Press’ fine “Wilde Stories” will be the last. Likewise, “Heiresses of Russ,” the edition reviewed in this column June 12, 2017 will be its last. This is sad news for followers of short fiction, for while there have been and will be Queer-themed short stories published in online, independent … Read more

“Transcendent 2,” review. Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender.

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Transcendent 2

                                       Transcendent 2 a Review By Jeff Baker               As this column was going to press, (read; as I was getting off my lazy behind and typing it up) word came that “Transcendent 2” won for best Transgender Fiction at the 2018 Lambda Literary Awards. Congratulations to all involved, starting with editor, Bogi Takacs. Those who want some specifics about just how good this book is, read on. —J.S. Baker “Transcendent 2,” Lethe Press’ second annual collection of Transgender themed speculative … Read more

Thomas Tryon, Dark Secrets – Boogieman In Lavender

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egg-shaped skulls

by Jeff Baker The strangers find themselves in a small town in the country. A town where the older, quieter, simpler ways are important. A town where religion is important and the people are close to nature, to the land, to the tall, growing corn. By the end of the tale, the strangers realize (too late) that religion and the corn have blended in horrific ways. Stephen King’s “Children of the Corn,” right? No. Thomas Tryon’s 1973 novel “Harvest Home,” which predates King’s 1977 short story. Thomas Tryon broke into the literary scene with his novel “The Other,” in the … Read more