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Speculative Ficiton

Jeff Baker, Boogieman In lavender: Halloween Reading; Clive Barker

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        By Jeff Baker    The year was 1993 (or pretty close.) I was running a delivery route in-town and on my lunch hour I ran into a used bookstore and grabbed a horror anthology I hadn’t heard of. “Masters of Darkness,” edited by Dennis Etchison. In three volumes, the books feature horror stories selected and introduced by their authors, stories they think may not have gotten the exposure they deserved on first publication. Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell. And Clive Barker.             I’d heard the name, but this was where I first encountered Barker. His selection was “In the Hills, … Read more

Review: Migration Flash Fiction Anthology

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Migration

Title: Migration Series: Queer Sci Fi Annual Flash Fiction Contest Author: Various Genre: Speculative Fiction LGBTQ+ Category: LGBTQ+ Publisher: Other Worlds Ink Pages: 256 Reviewer: Linda Tonis, Paranormal Romance Guild Get It On Amazon About The Book MI-GRA-TION (Noun) 1) Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another. 2) Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions. 3) Movement from one part of something to another. Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites. Migration … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Migration – Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction Anthology #5

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Migration

Queer Sci Fi has just released the annual QSF Flash Fiction anthology. This year, the theme is “Migration.” MI-GRA-TION (noun) 1) Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another. 2) Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions. 3) Movement from one part of something to another. Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites. Migration feaures 300 word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers … Read more

FOR READERS: Metaphors for Queer?

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X-Men

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Andrew Kelley: Some speculative fiction movies and books that weren’t specifically LGBT and didn’t even make direct mention of any LGBT issues strongly resonated with and really moved me. Are there movies / books that others felt this way about too? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat

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

REVIEW: A Hymn in the Silence by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood

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A Hymn in the Silence

Title: A Hymn in the Silence Series: Dark is the Night Book 2 Authors: Kelley York and Rowan Altwood Genre: historical, horror, romance, paranormal LGBTQ+ Category: m/m, cis, gay, bisexual Publisher: x-potion designs Pages/Word Count: 291 pages Buy Link: http://mybook.to/DitN Blurb Since graduating from Whisperwood School for Boys, William has found a sense of normalcy in his life with James. He has a steady (albeit secret) relationship, a home, and a job—even if it doesn’t pay the greatest. Nevermind that he lacks James’ reckless bravery when it comes to dealing with spirits; he does his best and it hasn’t killed … 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

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