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Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender at the World Fantasy Convention

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Panel LGBT Characters Done Well” L to R: Ellen Klages, Naseem Jamnia, Alex Jennings, Elizabeth Leggett. Photo by Jeff Baker. World Fantasy Convention 2023 by Jeff Baker The World Fantasy Convention, a celebration of all things in Light and Dark Fantasy was held in Kansas City, MO right before Halloween. And LGBT people were well-represented. Held this year at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center it featured author readings, panels and interviews as well as the Dealer’s room with everything from posters, the latest paperbacks and even a 1970s magazine with a first publication of a Stephen King … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender “Found Family”

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Found Family by Jeff Baker “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” —-Chas. Dickens 2023 was either an awful year or a good year where some bad things happened. War, violence, death, political upheaval. Open bigotry and divisions everywhere. But an awful lot of years are like that. On the other hand, there were births, triumphs, love, bliss. Continuations of lives. All the things that make the world and its people go ‘round. And little personal discoveries that sometimes “make” your day, sometimes without our knowing it. A concept very well-known to the LGBT Community … Read more

Jeff Baker: Boogieman In Lavender. Lou Rand’s “The Gay Detective.”

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Lou Rand’s “The Gay Detective” by Jeff Baker Bay City…Early Nineteen-Sixties…Fog rolling in across the bay…the famous bridge…you know which city this is supposed to be. Bars that are clandestine rendezvous for furtive meetings between men in back rooms…bodies found in the darkness. Not warm, welcoming bodies but Gay men, murdered. No suspects. Few clues. One looks like murder-suicide. It isn’t Into this foggy mess steps Francis “Frank” Morley, detective for hire. The classic private eye with a dingy office, a loyal secretary and a hulking mass of muscle for an assistant. And Morley is as openly Gay as you … Read more

Night Of the Living Queers; On Beyond Cisgender VII – Boogieman in Lavender

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This is the seventh (wow!) installment of our “On Beyond Cisgender” feature, where we look at books for YA readers (whether written for them or not!) It was initially inspired by a Facebook post from A. M. Leibowitz lamenting the lack of LGBT, non-cisgender, non POC books for High School readers several years ago. There aren’t a lot of good original anthologies aimed at LGBT YA audiences out there, and this one is appropriate for the season. —–jeff Just in time for Halloween, Wednesday Books has published “Night Of the Living Queers,” a YA anthology edited by Shelly Page and … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Debris

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Earth surrounded by debris.

The announcement of the mission extension for the ISS gives me mixed feelings. I mean, I love the Station. Wrote about it here a few times. Hell, wrote a whole trilogy on board the “little” thing. I’m such a nerd about it that I’ve got the Haynes manual. It’s a thing I plow through regularly. I’m pretty concerned about it though. Not the drama over Russia’s will they, won’t they attitude in regards to continuing with the Station’s mission. I always knew they’d keep on with the ISS. I’m talking about all the little bits and bobs of debris up … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender: A Visit to XY Bar, Or My Glimpse of 2023

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A Visit to XY Bar or My Glimpse Of 2023 by Jeff Baker A month ago I did something I haven’t done in a couple of decades. I went to a gay bar at night when the joint was jumping. Let me explain. The last few months I’ve gone out to a few times to places where I can casually socialize. (I’ve missed having somebody around to talk too.) A nice little coffeehouse, the Public Library in the afternoon (which are also good places to write!) and a couple of Gay bars. Also in the afternoon when there aren’t a … Read more