As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Boogieman in Lavender

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender. Discipline, Control, Rejection and Other Things it Took Me a While to Figure Out

by
Typewriter - Pixabay

Discipline. Control. Rejection, and Other Stuff It Took Me a While to Figure Out by Jeff Baker I’ve been writing in some form since I was in grade school. I actually sent something off to a contest in a kid’s magazine when I was about eight years old. Didn’t win. (Dick York was still on “Bewitched,” that’s how long ago this was.) In Junior High and High School I wrote comic book parodies in my notebook (in class. Yes, I know!) In High School I worked on the Yearbook and wrote for the school paper. Seeing my work in print … Read more

“On Beyond Cisgender IV: Or, Shirley You Can’t Be Serious” – Boogieman in Lavender

by
books - deposit photos

On Beyond Cisgender IV, or: Shirley You Can’t Be Serious by Jeff Baker AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is an occasional feature of this column where I spotlight (or at least mention) writers who aren’t in the White, Male, Cisgender paradigm as possible reading material for High School age readers. She was a housewife, a mother, a writer and (she claimed) a witch. Her work remains familiar today and may not be as obscure as some of the writers mentioned for “On Beyond Cisgender.” In fact when I was in Grade School in the 60s, her novels were still sought-out in school … Read more

“See Jeff Write, Write, Jeff, Write” – Boogieman in Lavender

by
Typewriter - Pixabay

“The Great Pause,” as Scott calls it, has been an opportunity for some. Extra time off of work, a chance to pursue other goals or re-invent oneself. For me, I lucked-out. I was able to, as they say in the biographies, “Quit His Job To Write” about a year ago, thanks to some savings and the need to help with some family who were pretty much confined to their retirement home. In the intervening year or so, I’ve managed to do a few columns (I do two monthly ones now!) as well as the weekly flash fictions but I almost … Read more

Fantasy TV – Boogieman In Lavender

by
rainbow TV - deposit photos

“Warning; this column contains spoilers.” —–Anonymous “Blast it, Madame!” —–Capt. Daniel Gregg Two (or is it three) of the greatest fantasy TV series may have gotten overlooked in both the mists of time and the glut of fantasies available for viewing now. And they have some (not-that-obvious LGBT connections.) First off; “Avatar, the Last Airbender,” a Nickelodeon cartoon created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko takes place in a mythical world based on Asian and martial-arts imagery, with just a bit of “The Wizard of Oz” thrown in (maybe unintentionally.) In the world of Avatar, the Earth is home … Read more

House, or Where’d My Watch Go? – Boogieman In Lavender

by
toilet paper - pixabay

Science fiction writers are by and large pretty rational people. So are fantasy writers. Isaac Asimov said something like: “Fantasy writers don’t talk with rabbits.” So, I assure the reader that I stand with both feet firmly planted on the ground. So take this information in the manner which it is offered: My house is haunted. It’s about sixty-five years old. Not ancient. It’s a small, suburban ranch-style home. Nothing Gothic. There’s no graveyard on the premises, no dark history of a brutal series of murders (not even one.) When the men replaced the roof last Fall they didn’t find … Read more

On Beyond Cisgender, part Three: Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

by
crossover - deposit photos

                     QSF On Beyond Cisgender Part Three                                        By Jeff Baker             For a year or so now, I have been posting about authors who do not fit the “white, male, cisgender” paradigm most familiar from recommended reading lists in schools. Three books on the list this time, three books that I discovered by accident.             “Cosmos Latinos” (ed. by Andrea L. Bell and Yolanda Molina Gavilan, published by Wesleyan University Press) is a large collection of fiction by Latin American authors from the turn of the last century to the present century. Most surprising to some readers unfamiliar with … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender: The Groovy Gay World of Victor Banis

by
crossover - deposit photos

    The Groovy Gay World of Victor J. Banis                                          By Jeff Baker             It was the Swinging Sixties.             Spies were everywhere. Fictional ones, anyway. James Bond was all over the place. The Man (and the Girl) from U.N.C.L.E. were plying their trade. And there were spoofs; Maxwell Smart klutzed his way through five years of television misadventures. The British movie “Carry On Spying” pre-dated Smart by about a year.             And the coolest, grooviest, most flamboyant superspy of them all wore outrageous outfits, used super-gadgetry as well as his good looks, charm and a fair amount of sex … Read more

There Was A Crooked Man, A Queer Tale By A Master Of Words – Boogieman In Lavender

by

Once upon a time, in an era where LGBT relationships did not have even the acceptance they do today there was a grand master of words who envisioned something entirely different. Charles Leroy Nutt, a heterosexual writer who had published in science fiction and fantasy magazines and written for comic books, penned a “daring” story titled “The Crooked Man,” which first appeared in the August 1955 issue of Playboy and followed a man, “Jessie,” described as a “pervert” through a world of furtive hookups and clandestine sex (even if the sex could only be implied.) Charles Leroy Nutt’s other published … Read more

Light in Dark December – Boogieman in Lavender

by

“This is a strange Christmas Eve…” –Winston Churchill, from Christmas speech to Congress in U.S., December 1941. There have been grim times in this country before, but there has not been a Christmas like this one. The darkness has covered the commercial glitter. In person events are cancelled. Families are celebrating the holidays separately. LGBT people are not really strangers to this sort of thing. People on their own, chosen families, making do or having something really traditional, this is how many of us have lived our lives. I have been seriously fortunate, having accepting family and good friends. I’ve … Read more

“On Beyond Cisgender; Part Two.” Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender.

by
books - pixabay

                            On Beyond Cisgender Part Two                                          By Jeff Baker             About a year ago I posted a column suggested by A. M. Leibowitz’ list of suggested reading for High School of sci-fi/mystery authors outside the usual straight-white-male paradigm. These next few may be considered addenda of sorts, but are not as readily available.             I have a thing for science fiction of the Nineteenth Century-early Twentieth Century and recently got the Dover Publications book “The Feminine Future.” Subtitled: Early Science Fiction by Women Writers, the book presents fourteen stories of sci-fi published between 1873 and 1930.  Cyborgs, mysterious rays, … Read more