Thursday, July 31, 2008

Larry Townsend and a call for submissions

Larry Townsend passed away a couple days ago. I didn't hear it on the news. Unfortunately, his passing is going unnoticed, so I decided to bring it up here. A longtime leather andBDSM writer, Larry had an article in Drummer for years and then moved over to Honcho when Drummer closed. My copy of the Leatherman's Handbook is well used. While I enjoyed the info he gave about BDSM play, it's his anecdotes that riveted me. They provided an incredible glimpse into the gay community pre- gay rights, when men in a bar risked being arrested just for touching each other.

I do not know this publisher, so this isn't an endorsement, but for those of you who have The Leatherman's Handbook in your library, you might be interested:


Call for Submissions

Palm Drive Publishing
Mark Hemry, Publisher
mark@palmdrivepublishing.com
San Francisco CA

"Untitled Larry Townsend Memorial Anthology"

He
Who Dies with the Most Column Inches Wins. When the prolific and
beloved and controversial pioneer activist of leather politics and
leather literature Larry Townsend passed July 28, 2008, the legend
became myth. The new anthology The Untitled Larry Townsend Memorial
Anthology invites personal and professional manuscripts from anyone who
has a reminiscence or analysis of Larry Townsend's impact on leather
heritage, on Drummer magazine, and on their own personalleathersex
lives, on gay popular culture, etc. The extraordinary concept is to
memorialize Larry Townsend as a person as much as an author. Proposing
aLeatherfolk anthology similar to the classic book by Mark Thompson (1990), Mark Hemry
, an intimate friend of Larry Townsend, has poised his Palm Drive
Publishing to produce for Spring 2009, a collection of writing and
photographs and drawings memorializing Larry Townsend for the force he
was in helping people exit the leather closet, enjoy legitimate gay
literature with leather andBDSM and futuristic themes, and be safe and
sane in their S&M and edge play, etc. Articles can be positive or
affirmatively negative.

Submissions may have been published before in any medium.

Full
Disclosure So You Know Where You Stand: A suitable contract will be
signed for all editions paper and electronic of the book. Editing,
other than for grammatical clarity of sense, may be suggested for any
submission but not without permission of the author. Manuscripts will
mostly be "published as received." Therefore, authors are counseled to
say exactly what they want to say cleanly and perfectly in their
final-final and very proofed copy. (You are the keeper of your own
literary reputation, and can re-publish your work at will citing the
title of the "Larry Townsend Anthology.") Contributors of writing and
photography and art work, who must sign that they own their own
copyright, will keep ownership of their own copyright.

"Honorarium Payment" is five copies of this historically important anthology.

Deadline: December 1, 2008

Publisher Mark Hemry
is accepting for consideration: Personal Essays about Larry Townsend;
Interviews of Larry Townsend; Pop Culture and Academic Articles on
Larry Townsend or on Any of His Novels or Fiction or Nonfiction; GLBT
and Leather-Heritage Historical Essays on How Townsend's Influence
Molded Leather History; Incisive Character-Catching Poetry about Larry
Townsend; Analysis of Themes in the Writing of Larry Townsend's Fiction
and Nonfiction, Especially TheLeatherman's Handbook; Significant
Letters to and by Larry Townsend; even Fantasy One-Act Plays of, Say,
"My Dinner with Mr. Townsend" That Capture Something about His
Character and Influence; as well as Photographs and Drawings. Authors
are encouraged to be inventive in capturing the truth of Larry Townsend.

Email submissions to Mark Hemry at mark@palmdrivepublishing.com

Please put "Larry Townsend" in the subject line.

Payment: Five copies of published book.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Thank Goodness Vacation Is Over.

I need the rest.

It was nice taking time off work, up until the point where I walked into work and found a mound of troubles waiting for me. It's good to be missed, but come on people. Solve a few things yourselves.

I spent last weekend in San Francisco with friends. I got a good chuckle out of the tourists waiting in line at Powell for the cable cars who were wearing shorts and short sleeves. I had on a scarf, a jacket, leggings, and a hoodie, and even though we hiked all over Haight-Ashbury (sad to see how many teens still feel compelled to run away from home) and Golden Gate Park, there were times when I was cold. Thank goodness for the warming properties of a martini.

I also got to read a lot. Finished the first of the Dresden Files series, will read the next one, told the SO it was his kind of book. Read Ginn Hale's Wicked Gentlemen. Thank you for the recommendation, Syd. It was great. Also read Madder Love from Rebel Satori Press, finished J.D. Salinger's short stories, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, and The Good Thief by James Buchanan (recommended). I haven't done this much pleasure reading in a long time.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

"We Run About 90% Dungeon Here"

Setting. What is it about settings? In a conversation with Sage Vivant about a year ago, she told me that a high percent of the people buying erotic stories through her Custom Erotica Source company requested tropical settings. But why? Is it the idea of being removed from everyday life that makes it seem like the best place for an erotic adventure? What's wrong with finding the cunt's or cock's desire in our own backyards? Let me know what you think. Or let me know your fantasy setting.


BTW - the quote heading this entry is from an interview I heard a long time ago. My morning show radio guys were talking to a man who ran a small "star in your own porn film" studio. They were talking about the different sets. He said they had a dungeon, a Victorian bedroom, the back seat of a car, and a sheik's tent (I think. It's been a long time, so my memory my be faulty.) When asked what was the most popular set, he said: "We run about 90% dungeon here." I don't know if this means that BDSM folks are more likely to be exhibitionists or if they tend to be comfortable enough with their bodies and sexuality to want to star in their own porn film, or if it means that people who make personal porn films want an exotic setting and a dungeon fits the bill. It might be shades of all that. I just love that quote.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

I Can't Believe I DId This

Even worse, I can't believe I'm admitting it in public, but here goes: I wrote in the dreaded second person.

I didn't mean to. Honest. Lord knows I hate to read that voice. For Scarecrow's Bible I was willing to grit my teeth and plow through it, but that was my limit. So why did I write a story that way? I have no clue. It just sort of slipped out like a huge faux pas on the first draft and I didn't even realize it until I read it through. Then horror dawned. I/You. Ack. Cringe. Mortification!

*Back away slowly from the computer and shake head in disbelief while a low groan rips from my chest.*

So now you know my dirtiest secret, and my shame.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Waiting...

Supposedly, Lethe Press sent out the contributor's copies of Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades a week or so ago, but I haven't seen mine yet. I'm curious to read the other stories. M. Christian always writes such good stuff, and I want to see Jean Roberta's contribution. I've already had a nice fan letter for my story, so I know someone has a copy....

I'm expecting the editor for my menage line short to send the edits any day now. I'm carrying those characters over into a novel, which I'll start as soon as CM III
is submitted. In my down time (hah!) I have to finish stories I've promised. I finally finished my Phaze short and submitted that to Beth, and D.L. liked my submission for Where the Girls Are, but I made the mistake of mentioning a different story, and now she's prodding me to let her see it. See it? Yikes! I haven't written it yet. I know many writers (at this stage) get the contract and then write the story, but I think I'll go back to my spec style - write it, and then look for a place to submit it. I'm more comfortable that way. Lately it feels as if I have too many things presold and the pressure to get them out is a bit much considering that I'm looking at the huge time suck of another novel so soon. And did I mention that Shawn wants to see my YA novel, but I want to do a massive rewrite before I submit it? Aiyeee. It'll be December before I have free time again. Meanwhile, other projects I want to submit to are piling up. I have two weeks to get something into Circlet for their latest anthology. At least I didn't promise it, so they won't ever know if I miss that deadline.