Erik and Isabelle Sophmore Year at Foresthill High

By Kim Wallace

The second in the four book self-published series!

It's Sophmore Year. While Erik's checking out life outside the closet (and getting checked out in the process), Isabelle dives into theater - determined to push Foresthill to be more accepting.

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Erik and Isabelle Junior Year at Foresthill High

By Kim Wallace

The Third book in the four book self-published series!

It's Junior Year. Isabelle creates a public art project to change things in their small town community, and Mandy’s back, trying to regain Isabelle's love. Meanwhile, Erik's secret relationship with Mark (the school's star athlete) isn't such a secret anymore when they tackle one of Foresthill High’s most sacred institutions—the Junior Prom.

This book was a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Erik and Isabelle Senior Year at Foresthill High

By Kim Wallace

The final book in the four book self-published series!

Senior Year, and Erik's in Germany - adjusting, growing, finding love.

Back home, Isabelle and Mandy have to face down hate when their nomination to be homecoming queens is fought by a conservative student group.

Throughout it all, Erik and Isabelle are best friends, on their way to graduation and beyond.

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Tough Love: High School Confidential

By Abby Denson

A graphic novel in the spirit of those Japanese Teen-Boys-In-Love manga!

Gay bashing, suicidal thoughts, a crush, a best gal pal, and coming out are all part of the soap opera of Brian's life in High School.

Abby won the 2007 Lulu Of The Year award from "Friends of Lulu," a non-profit aimed at promoting and encouraging "female readership and participation in the comic book industry."

Go Abby!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

"Winkte" is the Sioux word for a Gay man

Today's Bitchin' Queer Quote AND Poem both spring from the Native American revival of winkte (Gay) consciousness. I find it inspiring to learn about the cultural traditions and respected roles of Gay men in Native American history - I sure didn't learn about this in school! I hope it inspires you, too.

He told me that if nature puts a burden on a man by making him different, it also gives him a power.

-John (Fire) Lame Deer, Sioux Medicine Man

We are special to the Sioux!
They gave us respect for strange powers
Of looking into the sun, the night.
They paid us with horses not derision.

To the Cheyenne we were no curiosity!
We were friends or wives of brave warriors
Who hunted for our cooking pots
Who protected our tipis from Pawnee.

We went to the mountain for our puberty vision.
No horse or lance or thunderbird
Crossed the dreaming eye which would have sent us
Into war or the hunter's lonely woods.
To some song floated on mountain air.
To others colors and design appeared on clouds.
To a few words fell from the eagle's wing,
And they took to the medicine tent,
And in their holiness made power
For the people of the Cheyenne Nation.
There was space for us in the village.

The Crow and Ponca offered deerskin
When the decision to avoid the warpath was made,
And we were accepted into the fur robes
Of a young warrior, and lay by his flesh
And knew his mouth and warm groin:
Or we married (a second wife) to the chief.
And if we fulfilled our duties, he smiled
And gave us his grandchildren to care for.

We were special to the Sioux, Cheyenne, Ponca
And the Crow who valued our worth and did not spit
Names at our lifted skirts nor kicked our nakedness.
We had power with the people!

And if we cared to carry the lance, or dance
Over enemy scalps and take buffalo
Then that, too, was good for the Nation,
And contrary to our stand we walked backwards.

The Author of this amazing poem is Maurice Kenny (b. 1929, Mohawk), as quoted in "The Essential Gay Mystics," Edited by Andrew Harvey, pg. 66-67.

National Coming Out Day: Yesterday, Today, and Every Day

So, you're probably thinking: "Wow. Lee sure missed a great opportunity yesterday with it being National Coming Out Day and all... did he forget?"

Well, YES and NO.

Let me explain:

Coming Out is a process, and even though I've been out for a looong time, there are still moments - on a weekly basis - when I have to "come out" all over again.

The phone rings.

"Hello?" (suspicious tone from my not recognizing the caller ID)

"Can I speak with the lady of the house?"

(in my low, very guy voice) "You're talking to her."

A Salesman: "I bet your wife would love this."

Me: "I'll have to ask my partner what he thinks."

The checkout lady at the grocery store, to my young daughter: "Oh, Mommy's getting a break Today?"

Me: "No, we're a two Dad family. Her other Dad's getting the break."

It goes on and on, all these "teachable moments."

The challenging news is that Coming Out, first to yourself, then to your friends, to your family, and to the world is not a one-time "Ta-Dah!" thing. It's a process and a journey.

The encouraging news is that now there are lots of resources - both external and internal - to help you.

There's a listing of great links always up on this blogsite (scroll down on the right side) called:

Coming Out? Check out:

And I hope you do.

The first listing (under the link to this post) is the Human Rights Campaign's Resource Guide for Coming Out. Click it. Download it. Read it. An excellent overview.

The second, "Brent Says It So Well" will take you to fellow GLBTQ YA author Brent Hartinger's website page where he shares so beautifully about his process of coming out.

The Third is a link to the Gay Straight Alliance Network. While this is a California-specific organization, the information they provide is useful for anyone trying to set up a GSA, anywhere.

The Fourth gets you to the homepage of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, a non-profit focused on issues of schools being safe places for Teens and Kids in our GLBTQ community.

The next, "GLBTQ Groups/Community Near You," is a link to Queer America, a search engine where you enter in your area code and zip code and you get a list of lots of GLBTQ resources. Very cool information to have.

Next is The Trevor Project. It's a link to their web site, but I've also listed their phone number. (866) 4-U-TREVOR. When you need to talk to someone, it's a national crisis and suicide prevention counseling phone line for GLBTQ Kids, Teens and Young Adults.

The second to last link is to the organization PFLAG. This is an amazing group - Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Good stuff for your whole family.

And last, for now, is a link to the Point Foundation, the National LGBT Scholarship Fund. There are still so many stories of kids living in fear that if they come out, they'll be abandoned by their families and that their dreams of going to college or grad school won't come true. Well, the Point Foundation's mission is to give SCHOLARSHIPS to GLBTQ students so they CAN afford to be OUT, be true to themselves, and to get a great education after High School!
They even have a mentoring program!! Okay, I LOVE that these scholarships exist!


And now, one more: Something unusual for me here at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" A movie recommendation.

Check out the amazing, Oscar Winning Documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk." Harvey Milk's belief that the biggest thing you can do for equality is to be OUT and just be yourself is profound.

If every GLBTQ person in the whole country was OUT, discrimination couldn't thrive, because every American would KNOW and realize they CARE ABOUT someone in our community. (Of course, there will always be the disappointments of people like Dick Cheney, who even with a Lesbian Daughter and a grandchild being raised in a Two Mom family is part of an administration fomenting discrimination against his own daughter.) But despite that, I still feel Harvey Milk's premise is sound and inspiring, because I see it in my own life.

Are there people that don't like me simply because I'm gay? Sure. But I'm Out, and living my life, and just by doing what I do - being a good parent, a good partner, and a good person (hey, I try my darndest!) I'm making a difference:

At my daughter's preschool, where the director, through emotional tears, said before we came to the school she never even thought about Gay parents, but after seeing us raise our daughter over the course of a year, she'd be happy to speak in a debate about how Gay people can be excellent parents! (And would we be interested in giving some pointers to some of the other parents at the school...)

At the gas station, where two employees were heckling each other and one twenty-something shouted in a nasty way to another, "You are so gay!" And I stopped him and said that I'm Gay, and that it wasn't cool to use "gay" as a slur. And he was embarrassed, and even though he might still think of using "gay" in a mean way, I'm pretty sure he won't be yelling it at work again any time soon.

At the pottery painting store, when one woman was explaining loudly and proudly at the table next to us about the wedding bowl she was making for friends, how she'd spent hours, with great love and care, to paint on it the names of everyone who had attended the wedding. And how she had made a terrible mistake by putting the names of the one Gay couple up top, and how she had to re-do it to bury their names in the list at the bottom instead. And I walked up to her (holding my Toddler's hand) and I told her that I was Gay, that my daughter has Two Dads, and that while she might think that it's embarrassing to put the gay couple up top, it wasn't okay for her to shout out that there's something WRONG with my kind of love. She can think it, but don't say it. Not in front of me or my kid.

I won't be silent.

So with the Harvey Milk documentary and the links above, that's a lot of external resources, and it's by no means a comprehensive list.

But what do I mean about internal resources to help you Come Out?

Read one of the books listed at this blogsite. Read two. Read these amazing books with GLBTQ Characters and Themes, and feel them feed your soul.

It's what I wished for when I was 16 - I read everything I could but never found a reflection of myself in a book I loved. It's what made me a writer - and when you read a book that DOES reflect that part of yourself, well - that inclusion has the power to transform your self-image.

We, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Queer people are worthy of LOVE.

We are worthy of GOOD.

We are worthy of RESPECT.

We are worthy of CELEBRATION.

And we are worthy of some AMAZING Teen novels.

So come out, come out, wherever you are...

COME OUT OUTSIDE, and change the world.

And COME OUT INSIDE, and change your image of yourself by reading the wonderful books listed at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?"

National Coming Out Day. Yesterday. Today. Every Day.

Namaste,

Lee

On Self Publishing and... Graphic Novels!

You’ll notice that a number of the books featured on this blogsite are not from a major publishing house – some are, in fact, self-published.

Now there is a lot of discussion in the kid lit world about self-publishing pros and cons – often self publishing is seen as a last resort by relatively inexperienced writers who are impatient to be published. And their self-published works are not generally perceived to be on an equal “professional” footing.

In fact, even the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' guidelines on what defines you as being a “published” author doesn’t count self-published works unless they have sold over 750 copies. The idea being that 750 is more than your friends and relatives could buy, and it shows your title is commercially available.

Why? The thinking goes that these books haven’t passed through the subjective and ostensibly qualitative hurdles as the books that went through the traditional editing process. In a sense, a book from a major publisher is “vetted” – in that SOMEONE besides the author had to believe it was a work of quality. And had to fight to get it through the system!

Now, we all know that there are books that come from major publishers that are not, in fact, what we might consider works of quality. (A Macy's Day Parade of celebrity authors comes to mind...)

And there ARE the giant success stories, with their own mythologies, of authors who self-published at first, only to find fame and fortune and major publishing house contracts later. Think "Eragon." Think "The Celestine Prophecy."

For an upbeat "go for it" assessment of self publishing, check out this article in USA weekend.

For a more measured take on the prospects, check out this great blog entry by Jim C. Hines.

And if we dive into the realm of graphic novels and comics, we find titles like










And










that are among the growing number of comic and graphic novel titles that have GLBTQ characters and or themes. But 95 % of these are self-published!

That's according to David Paul Brown, one of the team behind the amazing non profit Prism Comics – a non-profit whose mission includes getting the word out about GLBTQ themed comics and graphic novels. Check out their site with links to so many cool titles.


So, I think you can put forth that for a marginalized community, self-publishing enables that first wave of materials to get out to an audience hungry for seeing a reflection of themselves in print.

It's also a way for the maverick authors out there, who are willing to wear the publisher/editor/marketing/sales/distributor/and-everything-else hats, to bypass the traditional path to being published.

But these self-published books are harder to find out about. And harder to get.

So why am I including self-published books on this blogsite?

Because, as a fellow author, I believe these are works of passion, too, that are put out into the world with the hopes that they'll find an audience of Teen and other readers, and I'm glad to help get the word out about their books.

And at the same time, as a fellow reader, I want to let YOU know that their book is one that came to be published in a self-determined way. That's information that, as a reader, I find useful.

So, on this blogsite, you'll see self-published works listed like Kim Wallace's passion-driven and award-winning series
Erik and Isabelle Freshman Year at Foresthill High
Erik and Isabelle Sophmore Year at Foresthill High
Erik and Isabelle Junior Year at Foresthill High
Erik and Isabelle Senior Year at Foresthill High




























And you'll see graphic novels like Abby Denson's "Tough Love: High School Confidential," from a small literary publisher, Manic D Press.









And you'll see novels from the major publishing houses, like David Levithan's "Boy Meets Boy!"










My goal is that "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" is as inclusive and thorough a resource as possible for finding out about all the YA books out there with GLBTQ characters and themes!

Thank YOU for being part of this community, and this discussion. Wanna share YOUR take on self-publishing? Click on "comment!"

Namaste,

Lee

Far From Xanadu

By Julie Anne Peters

Mike (born Mary-Elizabeth) falls for straight Xanadu, the new girl in their small town.

One of many cool things about this novel is that Mike's community in Kansas supports her.

In the author's words: "There are barriers between Mike and Xanadu.
Can a gay person love a straight person? And will the love be returned? Or are there physical and emotional distances that never can - and never should - be crossed?"

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

The God Box

By Alex Sanchez

Paul's a High School Senior. He knows he's Gay, but being a Bible Belt Christian he prays to Jesus to change him. Enter Manuel, openly Gay AND Christian.

It rocks Paul's world. Maybe he doesn't have to choose between the two most important parts of himself: his sexuality, and his spirituality.

Or, does he?

I got to hear Alex read three different sections from "The God Box" and I was really moved by its honesty and the main character Paul's inner turmoil. Heartfelt. Brave. Passionate.

Read more about Alex Sanchez here. And add your review of this book in "comments!"

Samurai Love

Today's Bitchin' Queer Quote is about the Samurai, those warriors of old Japan, men of power, martial arts, loyalty, honor, and... gay love?!?

"The sons of samurai families were urged to form homosexual alliances while youth lasted, and often these loves matured into lifelong companionships."

As the introduction to this book of short stories explains, the author of "Comrade Loves of the Samurai," Saikaku Ihara, lived and wrote in the late 1600s in Japan, during a time when "The code of bushido and the knightly samurai declined in importance. Family security and personal pleasure gave a new meaning to a society that savored peace after centuries of devastating clan wars."

In his stories, "Saikaku provides us with a new view of homosexual love, which has a venerable history in Japan."

Isn't that cool? Wow! I wanna go have sushi - right now!


quotes from pgs. ix, xi, and xvii, Introduction to the New Edition, "Comrade Loves of the Samurai" by Saikaku Ihara, translated by E. Powys Mathers. Introduction by Terence Barrow, Ph.D.

Alex Sanchez: Notes From A Reading

Today I'm going to change things up a bit - and give you the FIRST (drumroll...)

NOTES FROM A READING

Last night I had the great good fortune to see Alex Sanchez














He read from his new book, "The God Box" at a Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood, CA, and answered lots of audience questions.

I'll post on his book on Tuesday, but I thought his reading and the answers he gave were so juicy and interesting, it deserved a spotlight of its own.

When asked about the re-writing process,
Alex quoted Leonardo Da Vinci's famous line "Art is never finished, only abandoned" and he laughed about how he could keep revising the same book for the rest of his life. At some point you have to say you're done with it.

How does he keep from being too topical or trendy so his stories have “shelf life” but still feel universal?
Alex discussed the funny inversion of how the more specific you are with your characters and your detail, the more readers can identify and the more universal your writing becomes. That’s something it took me years to figure out on my own: When you try to write “universal” it ends up being so general and washed out, no one can ground themselves in it. It doesn’t sing off the page at all.

He shared that he’s gotten better at not mentioning specific music groups or trends that will time-out, but that the changes in technology were unexpected. In his first book, “Rainbow Boys”, the guys are listening to cassette tapes. By the second book “Rainbow High” (what’s supposed to be later that same school year) they are listening to CDs! He laughed that in the third book “Rainbow Road” they should probably be listening to MP3s!

Alex talked about sequels,
How the characters in his books seem to come to life for his readers, and he gets many requests to continue their stories. He shared the advice of his editor: It’s great to fall in love with the characters, but you need a NEW story. It’s not just about having a new plot – you have to figure out how are the characters growing emotionally and changing? What’s their arc of emotional transformation?


Why did he write “The God Box?”

Alex talked about how he needs some aspect of himself in it so he can feel passionate about the book he’s writing. He also shared some really heart-wrenching e-mails from Teen readers (just the content, nothing to identify who wrote what) mainly about their struggles with being Gay and Christian. He realized that while he can’t go and individually rescue these kids, he CAN write his books.





On Bible Study Clubs and Gay Straight Alliance Clubs:
Alex regaled us with the ironic story of the religious right’s fight to have Bible Clubs in public schools – how it went all the way to the Supreme Court where they won the right to have their clubs. When Gay Straight Alliance Clubs started to form, the religious right said, hey, no way! But it was their OWN fight to have Bible Study Clubs that made the law defend the right of students to have Gay Straight Alliance clubs! Isn’t that great?

Alex talked about so much more to the crowd of Adults, some Teens, even a public school librarian!

I’ll share just one last anecdote from the evening.
Alex spoke about librarians – how his vision of them has evolved to recognize that they are really outspoken free speech champions. He shared that often he’ll hear from librarians that they find the Gay and Lesbian titles mis-shelved in their stacks. And then they know that someone is too scared to check it out – they’re reading it in the library, and leaving it in a hidden spot so they can go back and finish it when they can. I’m pretty sure almost every librarian in that situation leaves that book right where it is.

I hope you get a chance to read “The God Box,” (the chapters he read aloud sound amazing) and if Alex is going to be somewhere near you to give a reading, check it out.

I'm glad I did.

Happy Reading and Namaste,

Lee

On Banned Books Week and GLBTQ Teen Novels

"Burned! I didn't think people burned books any more. Only Nazis burn books."

-Nancy Garden on the burning of "Annie On My Mind."

You'd think she was right - haven't we, as a society, grown past Burning, Banning, and Challenging books - all with the goal of "protecting" others from ideas we don't like?

The shocking answer is... No.

There are still people who want to control even the ideas other people have access to. Remember that saying about "the pen is mightier than the sword?" This is where it comes from. Words ARE powerful.

What if you're a Transgender teen? Think about the power of a novel like Ellen Wittlinger's "Parrotfish" that's about a Transgender teen, where it's not a tragedy.

Think about all the teens who identify as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Question the compass of their sexual orientation or gender identity... And take a look at ALL the books listed on the right side of this blogsite!

Now imagine you couldn't GET any of these books to read. Scary, isn't it?

That's why there's Banned Book Week. Check out this amazing comic history of Book Burning by Matt Bors!

And the attempt to ban books is not just about books with GLBTQ content. Just this year, there was an amazing - almost laughable if it weren't true - controversy over the use of the word "scrotum" in Susan Patron's Newbury Award-winning novel, "The Higher Power of Lucky." I'm not kidding. (For a funny take on the controversy, check out the Disco Mermaid's Newbury Jewels!)

What gets me is that it isn't sufficient for the people (usually parents) who object to a book to keep it from their own children (something that will probably only make their kids want to read it more...) but they feel it's their responsibility to keep it from EVERYONE ELSE'S kids, too.

That sense that they are right and they have some right to impose their view on the rest of the world because of it... That's gotten humanity into a lot of trouble.

So how do we fight back?

First, we can read these books!

Second, it's important to know that the First Amendment to our nation's constitution backs up intellectual freedom:

The first amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. For more on the First amendment to our nation's constitution, click here.

Third, we can find out about the fight against banning books happening right now.

Check out AS IF! (Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom.) It's a group that champions those who stand against censorship, especially of books for and about teens.

Here's a list of just SOME of the challenges happening to books THIS YEAR, from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression's website, which lists, by title, some of the books challenged. More than 1/3 of all the books challenged on their partial list were books with GLBTQ content! (28 out of 75)

And there are other organizations, like the ACLU, that are there to help and give guidance in the fight to keep these books on the shelves! (They helped those Teens in Kansas successfully fight back the ban on "Annie On My Mind!)


So, this week, take a moment and think about how fortunate we are to have these books to protect. To have them in our libraries and homes. And to have them to read!

Doesn't it make you wanna run out and read a banned book, right now?

Namaste,

Lee

Annie On My Mind

By Nancy Garden

Liza's a High School senior who falls in love with Annie. Now Liza's coming out, dealing with parents and school.

Okay, this seemed a perfect book to feature for Banned Book Week. (Check back Tomorrow for more on Banned book week and GLBTQ YA novels...)

"Annie On My Mind" was not only banned - it was burned. Seriously. In 1993 (yeah, only 14 years ago!) Here in the United States of America. In Kansas City. (The Olathe School District, to be specific.) What happened then? As Nancy puts it:

Finally, it was the subject of a First Amendment lawsuit when a group of courageous teens sued to have it returned to school library shelves. After a trial in 1995, a federal district court judge ruled in the book's favor.

It's amazing to think that people had to fight to have the right to read this book! And also amazing that it was teens that carried the torch of our rights!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Hero

by Perry Moore

Okay, you gotta LOVE this premise.

Gay teen Thom has supernatural powers but can't let anyone (especially his Dad) know about his two secrets. Then the super-power secret gets out. He apprentices to the big-time League of Superheroes. When he comes out as gay he's kicked out.

But then someone's murdering Superheros and it's up to Thom (with the help of some Superhero friends) to pull it together and become a true...

Hero.

Did I mention there's even a romance?

Read more about Perry Moore (and the feature on him in "People" Magazine) here. And add your review of "HERO" in comments!

Rumi birthday countdown 1 - Happy Birthday!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Okay, so it's 800 years and one day since the amazing mystical poet Rumi was born.

And for me it's a testament to the power of WORDS, of language, that thoughts he had so long ago can still resonate inside us Today. And not just the power of words across time, but across cultures as well!

To celebrate, here's two Bitchin' Queer Poems by the Sufi Master:

When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

pg. 106

and this:

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

pg. 122

both poems are from "The Essential Rumi," translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne.

With that as inspiration for a great week,

Namaste,

Lee