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Short Story

“We Mostly Come Out At Night.” On Beyond Cisgender IX. – Boogieman In Lavender

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For this ninth (!!!) installment of the column’s occasional feature “On Beyond Cisgender,” we go into a recent YA anthology perfect for the Halloween Season. This feature is about books recommended for High School readers that go beyond the usual “white, male, cisgender paradigm,” an idea suggested by Amy Liebowitz, (thanks very much!) several years ago. “We Mostly Come Out At Night,” edited by Rob Costello, published by Running Press Teens, Hatchette Book Group in 2024 https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rob-costello/we-mostly-come-out-at-night/9780762483198/ features “15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels and Other Creatures,” to quote the cover blurb. Stories range from variants on a classic fairy … Read more

Looking At A Few Books (Yes, Just Looking!) Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender

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Looking At A Few Books (Yes, Just Looking) by Jeff Baker Not much this month. Just a glance over and recommendation of a few LGBT themed books that have come my way. And full disclosure, I have not actually read all of them, mainly the anthologies I just got in the mail. (I will post links, although I have no affiliation with the books themselves.) First off I just received series editor Charles Payseur’s “We’re Here; the Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2022,” from Neon Hemlock Press. https://www.neonhemlock.com/books This edition edited by Naomi Kanakia and released in 2023. This is the … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender. Broken Metropolis. On Beyond Cisgender VIII

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QSF Broken Metropolis; On Beyond Cisgender VII by Jeff Baker AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the latest installment of this column’s occasional feature “On Beyond Cisgender,” recommending books written by or that feature people beyond the “Old Dead White Cis Hetero Male Literature Canon.” It was suggested by A. M. (Amy) Leibowitz who was lamenting the choices of books for High School reading. I’ve been doing this feature since October of 2018 and it is even more important in an era of censorship and book banning. So, here’s the latest installment.—-jeff Queer-themed anthologies of science fiction and fantasy, while not dominating … Read more

“Potiphee, Petey And Me”: The Last Of Tom Reamy. Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender

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Jeff Baker

Potiphee, Petey and Me; The Last of Tom Reamy by Jeff Baker The final story by the late fantasy master Tom Reamy has been published. It is everything a reader could hope for. “Potiphee, Petey and Me” was written for the final volume of Harlan Ellison’s cutting edge anthology series that began in the 60s with “Dangerous Visions.” But this volume “The Last Dangerous Visions” has never been published, despite several promised release dates (including September 2024.) Now Reamy’s final story has been published in a retrospective collection and it is indeed a dangerous vision. The collection “Under The Hollywood … Read more

New Release: 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan – Eric Alan Westfall

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3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan - Eric Alan Westfall

QSFer Eric Alan Westfall has a new eclectic MM collection out: 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan. A pair of competitive trickster gods strut into a Texas bar…and the Dragon King gives his seventh son an unknown Caravaggio for his hundredth hatchday. What could go wrong? Find out, in… 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan: a 2139-word tale about Loki and Coyote competing for a Greek-named ranch hand in Jake’s Bar, located in Godsawful-Lonesome, Texas. A Caravaggio Hatchday: a 6238-word tale of a more-than-life-sized painting of Alexander and Hephaestion, ah, doing the deed (guess who’s on top) in glorious color … Read more

New Release: The Tale of Kami and a Desperate Man – Odessa Silver

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The Tale of Kami and a Desperate Man - Odessa Silver

QSFer Odessa Silver has a new free gay historical fantasy duet out: The Tale of Kami and a Desperate Man. Under the moon’s gaze even the strongest of loyalties are tested. What consequences befall a lovesick fool? In the world of Yamato, humans live alongside beings of strange power: kami, who see to the world, and fickle yokai that can bless or trap even the most wary of humans. Hotaka follows the guidance of the kami Tsukuyomi, but even kami make mistakes. And Tsukuyomi’s eyes aren’t the only ones that watch that night. Will Hotaka escape with his life, like … Read more

Initially Yours, On Beyond Cisgender VI Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

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Initially Yours: On Beyond Cisgender VI by Jeff Baker NOTE: This occasional series was inspired in 2019 by suggestion from A. M. Leibowitz about a reading list for High School beyond the straight, male paradigm. —jsb I am writing this during March 2023, which is Woman’s History Month. So here (a month or so late!) is a short overview of some (not all!) of the women who wrote sci-fi for the pulps and a little later. I fits in well with this ongoing series “On Beyond Cisgender” which started as recommendations for High School reading but these books are fine … Read more

“We’re Here” For a Best of the Year. New Yearly Anthology Series – Boogieman in Lavender

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What would you have for your last meal? In Ann LeBlanc’s story “Twenty Thousand Last Meals on an Exploding Station,” an engineer on a doomed space station finds herself in a time loop and just has time to eat at a different one of the station’s thousands of restaurants before the end, an end which keeps repeating itself. This imaginative delicacy is just one of the delights in the 2021 edition of the new yearly anthology of Best Queer Speculative Fiction of the Year “We’re Here,” published by Neon Hemlock Press. The series stands as a fine replacement for Lethe … Read more

A Truman Memory – Boogieman In Lavender

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AI Christmas Carol

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We last encountered Truman Capote’s short stories in this column this past February. https://www.queerscifi.com/truman-capotes-queer-tales-of-fantasy-jeff-baker-boogieman-in-lavender/ We close out the year with a look at his most famous short tale and another story for Christmas. A good many readers first encounter Truman Capote’s story “A Christmas Memory” in school, in their textbooks or possibly in one of the many fine recordings of the story by Geraldine Paige or others. A bittersweet recollection of several incidents in the narrator’s childhood, probably based on the Gay author’s own youth as well as on Miss Sook Faulk, Capote’s cousin who seems to have … Read more

Review: Androids & Aliens – J. Scott Coatsworth

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New Release / Giveaway: Androids & Aliens - J. Scott Coatsworth

Genre: Sci-Fi, Cli-Fi LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Lesbian Reviewer: Maryann Universal Buy Link About The Book Androids & Aliens is Scott’s third short story collection – eight sci fi and sci-fantasy shorts that run the gamut from cyborgs to (comedic) alien invasions: Rise: The rise in sea levels caused by climate change swallowed Venice beneath the lagoon half a century ago. But what if we could bring it back? Ping: I was a real estate agent by day, and a museum curator in the evening at a sci-fi museum. What I saw one night changed everything. What the Rain Brings: Miriam … Read more