Maya Angelou (April 14, 1928 to May 28, 2014)

It has been announced that Maya Angelou: poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor, and renowned author of "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" (1969) died today. A three-time Grammy winner, nominated for a Pulitzer, a Tony, and an Emmy for her role in the television mini-series "Roots," Angelou was a woman whose works are admired, not only in America, but world-wide. On a personal note, Angelou is one of few authors/poets whose written works my daughter and I have shared, loved, and admired throughout the years.


From Maya Angelou's poetry collection I Shall Not Be Moved (Random House, 1990)

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise

I rise
I rise.



Spotlight: Ursula K. Le Guin & The Hainish Cycle Series

About the Author: Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of more than 100 short stories, 2 collections of essays, 4 volumes of poetry, and 18 novels. Her best known fantasy works, the Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in the U.S., the U.K., and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field of its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity.

Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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In the two science fiction books I read by Le Guin, (The Birthday of the World and The Left Hand of Darkness) she seemed to be significantly deliberate in her presentation of race, gender, culture, and social identity. Her characters, in their majority, are racially and culturally diverse, and the examination and exploration of gender roles and sexual identity take center stage. This exploration largely extends to include the psychological and sociological impact that effects individuals as they first interact with diverse indigenous populations, different environmental issues, cultures, and political structures. In some of her stories the cultural exchange shocks one side, however in others, it has the reverse effect and/or is experienced by both sides.

In the introduction to the above mentioned books, Le Guin refers to some of her stories as "thought experiments." I can see why, and believe that she seems to have found the perfect niche to conduct those experiments within the Science Fiction genre. From what I've read so far, I think of her work as social science fiction, although I understand that she's not fond of labels. However, if like me, you are just beginning to familiarize yourself with Le Guin, then I believe there is a need to point out that her science fiction is not composed of epic space battles or fast paced action. Instead, I found that her books are masterful pieces of science fiction written in gorgeous prose, with stories that will make you think, and then think again.

Hainish Cycle Series
Rocannon's World*, 1966
Planet of Exile*, 1966
City of Illusions*, 1967
The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969 (Hugo and Nebula Award Winner)
The Dispossessed, 1974 (Nebula, Hugo, Locus Award Winner)
The Word for World is Forest, 1976 (Hugo Award, best novella)
Four Ways to Forgiveness, 1995 (Four Stories of the Ekumen)
The Telling, 2000 (Locus SF Award, Endeavour Award)

In the Hainish Cycle series, for example, Le Guin conducts her "thought experiments" by utilizing a whole galaxy of worlds inhabited by different civilizations descended from humans originally born in Terra. Throughout the centuries the inhabitants of these worlds have evolved, sometimes physically to adapt to their environment, but more significantly these civilizations have established different cultural and social structures. Using Le Guin's own words, she has constructed a "loose world" in which a galactic civilization composed of different planets are connected by a central organization called the Ekumen. Le Guin describes Ekumen as a "non-directive, information-gathering consortium of worlds, which occasionally disobeys its own directive to be non-directive."

The Hainish are first and foremost observers and collectors of information about other civilizations -- they learn, absorb, integrate, and as a result grow individually and collectively. Their way is not to interfere with the development of the diverse cultures encountered, instead the Ekumen organization first sends out teams of observers to inhabited worlds to learn language, general culture and assess whether the indigenous population is ready to join their galactic civilization in the trade of goods, advanced technology and education. This process may take centuries. Once readiness is established an envoy or "mobile" is deployed to make first contact and to record his experiences. If the first "mobile" fails, they may send another one later on.

The Hain and their Ekumen travel through space and communicate instantaneously through a device called the "ansible." However, although advanced technology is used, they do not possess that of faster-than-light travel. This combination of slow travel with fast communication gives the worlds within the galactic Ekumen organization the ability to trade, but it also keeps the worlds isolated and independent from each other. So there are no nitty gritty details of advanced technologies, instead Le Guin gives the reader enough information to sweep them along with her "mobiles" as they travel and experience different alien worlds, giving her the opportunity of putting into play the exploration of race, gender roles and sexual identity, culture, and social identity, as well as the psychological and sociological impact, I mention above.

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I've had The Dispossessed (1974) in my Kindle for a while, but I decided to explore Le Guin's work through short stories (just a taste first, I thought). As a result, I began reading this series from back to front and then proceeded by picking up a book out of sequence.

I picked up The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories (2002) first, a collection of short stories of which six of the eight are connected to the Hainish Cycle series. I read the first two stories plus the last one, stopped reading the collection, picked up The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), went back to the collection and was hooked. Now, I have the entire series in my possession (some in print and others in ebook format) and hope to read as many books as I can this winter (in order!).

My December posts will all become part of my participation in the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.


*The Worlds of Exile and Illusion omnibus contains the first three novellas of the Hainish Cycle series: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions.

Highlighting... The Rest of Us: Stories by Guy Mark Foster

The Rest of Us: Stories by Guy Mark Foster

Releasing February 7th

''Love makes us all vulnerable. Guy Mark Foster's exquisitely crafted new collection The Rest of Us cradles that vulnerability in crystal-clear yet cryptic language. And story after story within this deeply engaging book portrays what it means to love even more dangerously, to live for love that's marked by race, sex, age, and class as 'other.' From visions of clubbing immortals to elegiac letters written by regretful adulterers,The Rest of Us rings true notes, dances surely through complicated steps, and offers intimate, detailed vignettes of heroes who surprise readers and themselves with their despair, determination, and hope.'' --Nisi Shawl, acclaimed co-author of Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction

A remarkable collection of short stories that embrace the breadth and depth of being a gay African-American, The Rest of Us approaches life from the angst of youth and first love to the familiarities of cruising and romancing later in life. The boys and men in Guy Mark Foster's tales refuse to be bound by the heavy chains of oppressive religion in the family household or racism encountered on campus. And this strength will be needed to face the passions stirring in their chests, their bedrooms, their lives. From the restlessness of "Lasius niger (The Black Ant)" to familiar discord in "Legacy" and the promise of love in "This Man and Me," Foster's is a voice that will resonate with all readers.

I love the idea behind Lethe Press' Tincture imprint. Tincture showcases quality fiction written by authors whose stories bring to the forefront the gay experience as experienced from different cultural perspectives. I've read and loved a few of the books from their catalogue: The Abode of Bliss: Ten Stories for Adam by Alex Jeffers, Slant by Timothy Wang, and From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction edited by Charles Rice-González and Charlie Vázquez. All winners! Needless to say my expectations for The Rest of Us: Stories by Guy Mark Foster are high.

Gay Fiction / African-American Fiction
A Tincture imprint of Lethe Press
Paperback, 180 pages

Author Spotlight: Lee Thomas, Jan Steckel, Eduardo C. Corral

On June 4th, the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Award winners were announced. Congratulations to all the winners! I was particularly happy to see winners from LGBT dedicated small print presses like Lethe Press, Bold Strokes Books and MLR Press.

Today, however, I'm highlighting two winners whose works I read and highly recommended because they were both such excellent reads: Lee Thomas whose book The German was on my 2011 top ten favorite books list, and Jan Steckel whose poetry book The Horizontal Poet I particularly enjoyed reading earlier this year.

Lee Thomas - The German (Lethe Press, 2011)
A finalist for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Science-fiction/Fantasy/Horror title.

Set during the height of World War II, The German examines the effect a series of ritualistic murders has on a small, Texas community. A killer preys on the young men of Barnard, Texas, leaving cryptic notes written in German. As the panic builds all eyes turn toward a quiet man with secrets of his own, who is trying to escape a violent past.

Ernst Lang fled Germany in 1934. Once a brute, a soldier, a leader of the Nazi party, he has renounced aggression and embraces a peaceful obscurity. But Lang is haunted by an impossible past. He remembers his own execution and the extremes of sex and violence that led to it. He remembers the men he led into battle, the men he seduced, and the men who betrayed him. But are these the memories of a man given a second life, or the delusions of a lunatic?

Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker Award and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained, Parish Damned, Damage, The Dust of Wonderland, and In The Closet, Under The Bed. His latest novel The German was released to critical acclaim in March, 2011.

Lee currently lives in Austin, TX, where he's working on a number of projects.

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Jan Steckel - The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011)
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction title.

Jan Steckel is an Oakland, California writer, a Harvard- and Yale-trained former pediatrician (now retired due to an acquired physical disability), and an activist for bisexual and disability rights. Her first poetry chapbook, The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006), garnered critical acclaim and won the Rainbow Award for lesbian and bisexual poetry. She won the 2008 Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Award, and Gertrude published her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks.

Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have appeared in Yale Medicine, Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, Red Rock Review and elsewhere. She has won numerous awards, and her work has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, Hew Wolff.

The Horizontal Poet is her first full-length poetry book. (Zeitgeist Press, 2011).

Congrats to both!

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And since I'm highlighting winners, LGBTQ authors, and it seems as if poetry is in the air, here is a bit of information about a poetry book I read this past week by Eduardo C. Corral, Slow Lightning. (actually my husband and I read this book together and to each other) Although I'm highlighting a tiny excerpt from his amazing poem "Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso," I'll quickly say that "Variation On A Theme by José Montoya" is by far my (and my husband's) favorite section of the book. Carl Phillips words from the Foreword describe Corral's style quite eloquently. This is an "A grade/5 star" read for me -- one I'll be enjoying for a while -- and a book that I highly recommend.

Slow Lightning by Eduardo C. Corral (Yale University Press, 2012)
Yale Series of Younger Poets Volume 106
The Yale Younger Poets Prize

"We can make of what would blind us a conduit for changed vision, suggest Corral. In these poems, a cage implies all the rest that lies outside it; any frame frames a window through which to see other possibilities unfolding. . . . Like Robert Hayden, Corral resists reductivism. Gay, Chicano, 'Illegal-American,' that's all just language, and part of Corral's point is that language, like sex, is fluid and dangerous and thrilling, now a cage, now a window out. In Corral's refusal to think in reductive terms lies his great authority. His refusal to entirely trust authority wins my trust as a reader." Carl Phillips, from the Foreword 

Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso

My soul is whirling
above my head like a lasso.
My right hand
a pistol. My left
automatic. I'm knocking

on every door.
I'm coming on strong,
like a missionary.
I'm kicking back
my legs, like a mule. I'm kicking up
my legs, like
a showgirl.
         [excerpt - Page 21]

Eduardo C. Corral's poems have appeared in New England Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry, as well as other journals and anthologies. He received a Discovery/The Nation award and was selected for residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. He is a recipient of a 2011 Whiting Writers' Award.

The Yale Younger Poets Prize is the oldest annual literary award in the United States. The competition is open to any American under forty years of age who has not previously published a volume of poetry.

Cover/Author Spotlight: Purgatory by Jeff Mann

During the Civil War, two young soldiers on opposite sides find themselves drawn together. One is a war-weary but scholarly Southerner who has seen too much bloodshed, especially the tortures inflicted upon the enemy by his vicious commanding officer, his uncle. The other is a Herculean Yankee captured by the rag-tag Confederate band and forced to become a martyr for all the sins of General Sheridan's fires. When these two find themselves admiring more than one another's spirit and demeanor, when passions erupt between captor and captive, will this new romance survive the arduous trek to Purgatory Mountain?

Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War by Jeff Mann

I know... I just posted a review and it has been a looong time since I highlighted one book or a cover in this blog, but I couldn't help myself after receiving a newsletter announcing that this book is releasing in March. I've been keeping an eye out for it ever since I first saw the cover highlighted at Lethe's website.

There's something about this cover that just does SOMETHING for me. Maybe it's the eyes, the beard or the gorgeous eyebrows on that soldier (that face!), or maybe it's the composition of the picture, but I love, love this cover. It makes me want to hold the book in my hands.

Of course there's the most important part of it, the content! This book is by Jeff Mann. Just read the blurb. If anyone can do justice to a Civil War fiction yarn and make passions erupt convincingly between a Confederate and a Yankee soldier, it's Jeff Mann. Cant't wait!

Book releases March 15, 2012
Gay Historical Romance
Bear Bones Books

ETA: Read My Review Here

Author Spotlight: Mary Balogh

One of my favorite historical romance writers, Ms. Balogh has a new upcoming release and a couple of re-releases, all within the next three months. I'm a Mary Balogh fan and always look at her new releases to see if they interest me.

In October, 2009, you'll find her work in "The Heart of Christmas."

In this anthology she collaborated with Nicola Cornick whose contribution will be "The Season for Suitors" and Courtney Milan, "This Wicked Gift." Ms. Balogh's "The Gifts of Christmas," a story first published in 1998 is the story of Julian Dare, Viscount Folingsby and Verity Ewing. The story of a lord, a dancer and Christmas wishes.

In November 2009, Bantam/Dell will re-release "A Precious Jewel."

The story of Sir Gerald Stapleton whom we first met in "The Ideal Wife." A man who is quiet and unassuming, but who has needs that must be met. He meets Lady Priscilla Wentworth at a brothel. Yes, she is one of those ladies who due to circumstances beyond her control finds herself working for a living and well.... you know the rest. So here you have the prostitute as the heroine from Mary Balogh's point of view.

December 2009, brings a new release. "A Matter of Class" is a novella. I'll be reading this one. Here's the summary:

Reginald Mason is wealthy, refined and, by all accounts, a gentleman. However, he is not a gentleman by title, a factor that pains him and his father within the Regency society that upholds station over all else. That is, until an opportunity for social advancements arises, namely, Lady Annabelle Ashton. Daughter of the Earl of Havercroft, a neighbor and enemy of the Mason family, Annabelle finds herself disgraced by a scandal, one that has left her branded as damaged goods. Besmirched by shame, the earl is only too happy to marry Annabelle off to anyone willing to have her.

Though Reginald Mason, Senior, wishes to use Annabelle to propel his family up the social ladder, his son does not wish to marry her, preferring instead to live the wild, single life he is accustomed to. With this, Reginald Senior serves his son an ultimatum: marry Annabelle, or make do without family funds. Having no choice, Reginald consents, and enters into a hostile engagement in which the prospective bride and groom are openly antagonistic, each one resenting the other for their current state of affairs while their respective fathers revel in their suffering.

You can visit Mary Balogh here.

M/M Author Spotlight: Gavin Atlas

Rafael, a gorgeous and promiscuous bottom boy, has always been the favorite of every top in his town. However, Rafael knows he won't be young forever, and a part of him wants more than just night after night of giving up his rump to an endless array of men. Worse, a psychic predicted that if Rafael didn't find love by the time he turned twenty-eight, he would never have anything more than meaningless sex.

When the eve of his twenty-eighth birthday arrives, Cavan, a mysterious and handsome stranger, strips Rafael naked at a popular club and abducts him. Cavan is the most dominant and talented top Rafael has ever experienced, but he even has more to offer. Cavan is a vampire, and he desires to make Rafael his eternal bottom slave. Cavan has the power to keep Rafael young, beautiful and healthy forever, but he requires the one thing Rafael has never been capable of: monogamy. 

Will Cavan's unstoppable lust and unceasing love make Rafael give up what he craves most for one man?

Slave to Shadows, Gavin Atlas' vampire story, will release August 24, 2009 from eXcessica Publishing.

This month I am featuring one M/M author.  Gavin Atlas has been writing since the fifth grade, but started writing erotica in 2004 and was first published in 2007. His stories, Claiming Danny and Simple and Easy were bestsellers for Forbidden Publications. He also has stories in anthologies: Cleis Press - Hercules to the Rescue in Hard Hats and Blue Star Boy in Surfer Boys; Alyson Books - The Only Bottom for a Thousand Miles in Island Boys and Business with Pleasure in Ultimate Gay Erotica 2009; and from Ravenous Romance Which Way to Dominance in How The West Was Done. His short story, La Playita is available at All Romance eBooks.

The first piece I read by Gavin Atlas was Wet Pass. It's a short story about a single encounter between an Olympic Water Polo player and a journalist. The encounter takes place in the locker room when the journalist goes to do an interview -- hmmm.... what an interview! Explicit and hot, this piece is definitely not romance, but raw erotica. A short hot piece that definitely gave me a taste of Mr. Atlas' raw style. 

Which Way to Dominance in the How the West Was Done Anthology is a short piece that I found to be disturbing but also one that made me think -- it stayed with me. I know that I discussed this short story with friends more than other M/M novels. I reviewed this piece.

After a recent breakup, Jamie a college student who has always escaped boring life through books, travels to the warmth of Costa Rica. His fantasies about surf and sand and boys, of course, may just come true thanks to some very friendly local waiters.

La Playita has received many accolades and comes highly recommended. This book and Mr. Atlas' latest release Slave to Shadows are two of my planned M/M reads for the month of August. I've been saving it for a beautiful summer day and now its time is coming!

You can visit Gavin Atlas here.  Or you can find Gavin at his LJ Blog "No Rest for the Wicked." 

On Favorite Books and Endings

I love nothing more than a great ending to a favorite series or trilogy. I know... it's a double-edged sword, we look forward to that next book anxiously and with some series we love, we wish they would never end. But all good things must come to an end.

I started reading a trilogy in 2005. The first book was one of my 'random picks' and BOY did I get lucky! It was one of those books that grabbed me and wouldn't let go from beginning to end. I liked it so much, I re-read it as soon as I finished and then I re-read it again.

The book was The Traveler (First Book of the Fourth Realm) by John Twelve Hawks.

This trilogy is difficult to categorize, it has been compared to films like The Matrix, Star Wars and Kill Bill, but I can't say that it's similar or the same as any of them. It deals with good vs. evil, social control, free will and alternate dimensions. John Twelve Hawks uses current science and technology, makes it feel like science fiction and at the same time makes you look around and wonder. He even gives us a taste of string theory to go with the rest.  

We meet Travelers -- able to attain pure enlightenment by traveling to other dimensions and bringing back knowledge, they are considered prophets who have influenced the course of history for untold generations. In the Fourth Realm Trilogy we meet two Travelers, Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, brothers who are just discovering their gifts.

Every Traveler must have a Harlequin to protect them. Harlequins are a fierce group of warriors willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their appointed Traveler. They are trained from childhood in different martial arts styles, samurai swords and a myriad of weapons and undercover strategies they use to defend themselves and their charge. In The Traveler we meet Maya. She has been chosen to protect the Corrigan brothers and must travel from Europe to the United States, find them and keep them safe.

The brothers are being hunted by The Tabula --- a global society composed of very powerful men and ruthless mercenaries who have hunted Travelers for generations. This is a group determined to inflict order on the world by controlling it, and they view Travelers as a threat that must be eliminated. 

This is the basis of the trilogy and how it all begins. 

The second installment The Dark River (Book 2 of the Fourth Realm) was released two years later in 2007. Of course, you know I bought it as soon as it was released. In this book Gabriel, Maya and Michael's story continues and is expanded. The three of them make choices that take us along for a dangerous ride. Maya and Gabriel's relationship is developing and there's more than a tentative bonding between the two. But Twelve Hawks left us at a crucial point in the story and I've been waiting a long time for the end to arrive.

Of course I've been following all news about the upcoming book. Recently it was announced the last book of the trilogy was to be released September 2009, but there was no actual date on the announcement. I didn't want to get my hopes up... and then, finally! Last week, a final date and a Cover! Yes! 

The Golden City (Book 3 of the Fourth Realm) will release September 8, 2009.  I will be there with bells and whistles on! Ends and favorite books... it's a beautiful thing.