Posts Tagged ‘books’
Book Roundup #1: Interviews with Arlene Schindler, Lynn Brown Rosenberg, and J.F. Silver
Arlene, describe your book and what led you to write it:
Midlife was freeing for me. My novel explores relationship possibilities for single women past 50. I used to say, “My dating pool is so small, soon it will be a shot glass.” If I was lucky, a love connection would last about as long as a good haircut. I knew others felt the same. I wanted to shout out the absurdities of these experiences with a madcap, defiantly spirited outlook.
Why would my readers want to read The Last Place She’d Look?
Arlene Schindler Women of a certain age become invisible in our culture. In reality this is the time of life when we become bolder, braver and more adventurous. We’re peaking, and no one is looking. Exploring why we should be noticed, my novel exposes our desires, passions and relationships.
What drew you to write a story about a woman finding herself attracted to other women on her fiftieth birthday?
Too many women think that if they are not with a man, their life is incomplete. Yet friendships we have with other women grow deeper with maturity. A possible alternative for a world of lonely women who’ve been influenced by outmoded values and religious beliefs, but hungry for appreciation, is being responsive and open to deeper, intimate experiences with women whom we know, love, and admire.
Lynn, describe your book and what led you to write it:
My Sexual Awakening at 70 is about my search for sexual freedom at a later age, and at the same time an exploration of my past and the effect that decades of repression had on me. Despite that upbringing, midway through my journey, I was having the best, most exciting time! I realized I couldn’t be the only woman who had a distressing sexual education or no sexual education, and I thought it could help others.
Why would my readers want to read your book?
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| Lynn Brown Rosenberg |
It is a roller-coaster life about my search for love, self-confidence, creative expression and sexual expression that will resonate with other women of our age. Men also enjoy my book because it gives them hope for the future, and helps them understand women better. Plus, it has erotic stories in it that both men and women can get pleasure from, individually or together!
How has your life changed after writing this book?
It has opened up a whole new world for me. I am now speaking about my journey, writing articles, doing podcasts, writing a monthly column for XBiz.com, and most of all, I love that I’m connecting with people who tell me they’ve been inspired and empowered by hearing me speak or reading My Sexual Awakening at 70.
J.F., describe the Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe series:
Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe is an erotic series about discovering new pleasures later in life. Joe and Elaine are baby boomers and empty nesters with a healthy sexual appetite. They had fantasized about inviting others into their bed, and one night the scenario presents itself in a ménage with another woman. From here it becomes a polyamorous tale of two sexually adventurous couples. There are three books available and a fourth releases in November 2015.
What led you to begin writing erotica?
I didn’t start writing until I turned 50, nine years ago, when I wrote my first erotic story as a birthday gift for my wife of 30 years. After receiving that first story, my wife began feeding me plot lines and to this day remains my inspiration and muse. Writing hot, arousing tales for my wife turned into a crazy and secret hobby!
How did this “secret hobby” develop into a published series?
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| J.F. Silver |
About three years ago, we decided to try publishing them. It was a challenge to find a publisher interested in an erotic story about a couple in their fifties, but we did it. Before we’ll write it, it has to work for us. Being a male author in a field dominated by women, my wife helps me keep the stories “women friendly.”
The Right Side of History by Adrian Brooks: book review
whom I may…and with that right neither you nor
any law you can frame have any right to interfere…I trust that I am fully understood, for I
mean just that.
The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism, edited by Adrian Brooks, should be in every bookstore and library and adopted as a textbook in every college-level, American history course.
Adrian Brooks has assembled a formidable body of work that chronicles the events and the people who have worked towards and spoken out for gay liberation and LGBT issues since before Stonewall. Yes, before Stonewall.
I was born in 1943. It hit me hard to realize these injustices were happening during my childhood:
- In 1948, homosexuality and adultery were criminal, masturbation purportedly caused mental illness, and premarital sex was deemed shameful. But Kinsey showed such “perverted activities” to be prevalent, thereby torpedoing a cozy concept of manhood rigorously reinforced. The nation reeled.
- In 1950, a Senate subcommittee issued a report, calling homosexuals a threat to national security…Even the appearance of homosexuality—butch women, effeminate men—became grounds for firing and arrest…it was still a crime to be a gay man or lesbian with myriad sodomy and lewdness laws on the books.
- In 1953, one of President Eisenhower’s first actions in office was to issue an executive order barring all gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from federal employment.
- Cops would walk in slowly like they owned the place, eyeballing everyone, pushing people with nightsticks. If they put you in a paddy wagon, you’d be hauled off to the Tombs (jail). If they put you in a car, they’d take you to some alley or empty parking lot, make you suck their dick, take all your clothes, throw them in the trunk of their car, and tell you to go home naked.
Look at the diversity of topics and the big names in the table of contents:
Part I: Before Stonewall
- The Divine Discontent of Isadora Duncan
by Adrian Brooks
- Henry Gerber’s Bridge to the World
by Hayden L. Mora
- The 1934 Longshoremen’s Strike
by Adrian Brooks
- The Cradle Will Rock
by Eric A. Gordon
- Bayard Rustin: Offensive Lineman for Freedom
by Patricia Nell Warren
- The Kinsey Reports
by Anahi Russo Garrido
- Criminals and Subversives: The Mattachine Society
and Daughters of Bilitis
by Victoria A. Brownworth
- The Beats: Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac
by Neeli Cherkovski
- Frank Kameny: Advocate for Freedom
by John D’Emilio
- Josephine Baker’s Dream without Fire or War:
An Interview with Jean-Claude Baker
by Adrian Brooks
- April 4, 1968
by Adrian Brooks
- Ground Zero
by Miss Major Griffin-GracyPart II: After Stonewall
- The Revolutionary Joy of Gary Alinder
by Paul Gabriel
- Lesbian Nation: Jill Johnston and the
Revolution of Women
by Victoria A. Brownworth
- The Angels of Light: Paris Sites Under the Bourgeois
Sea
by Adrian Brooks
- Anita Bryant’s Anti-Gay Crusade
by Jeanne Córdova
- “The Mayor of Castro Street”
by Adrian Brooks
- Interview with Charlotte Bunch:
Human Rights and Gender Equality
by Anahi Russo Garrido
- The Enemy Is Me: Becoming a Man inside a Feminist
World
by Max Wolf Valerio
- My Battle with the University of California
by Merle Woo
- The Quilt
by Julie Rhoad
- The Red Camaro
by Matt Ebert
- Between the Sexes
by Tiger Howard Devore
- A Hero in Search of a Myth: The Navajo Journey of
Jack C. Jackson, Jr.
by Max Wolf Valerio
- Interview with Judy Shepard: Remembering Matthew
Shepard
by Adrian Brooks
- Interview: Barney Frank
by Brenda Knight and Adrian Brooks
- Black, Gay, and Muslim
by Sultan Shakir
- Bullying
by James Gilliam
- A Conversation with Evan Wolfson: Freedom to Marry
Leader
by Angela Dallara
- Diana Nyad
by Rita Mae Brown
- Our Lives, Our Words: Newspapers, Bookstores, and
Gay Liberation
by Victoria A. Brownworth
I recognized many of the writers and subjects — others were new to me, and I’m grateful to know them now. Most of the writers in of The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism are of our generation. We grew up not knowing this information. Let’s change that now. I hope you’ll read this book and purchase another for a friend. I did.
Adrian Brooks (born 1947, 68 at the time of the book release), who curated this book and wrote several of its essays, is a social and political activist, poet, performer and writer who has been working for change since the 1960s.
Best Sex Writing of the Year 2015 review
I love the Best Sex Writing series from Cleis Press. I’ve been a loyal reader since the first edition in 2005. I collect them, give them as gifts, read them cover to cover. This year’s edition (titled inexplicably “Best Sex Writing of the Year, volume 1” instead of “2015”), edited by Jon Pressick, has the breadth and quality I’ve come to expect.
Realize that this series isn’t erotica (although Cleis is known for erotica) — it’s a collection of non-fiction essays about all colors and stripes of sex-themed topics. Some of the essays are intensely personal (e.g. my own contribution, “Sharing Body Heat”), some are commentary on sexual issues in the news, some are sex-nerdy opinions, many open windows to sexual practices and worlds that might be new to you.
The best way to convey the range of topics and writers is to share the chapter titles with quotes from a few of them:
- Foreword • Belle Knox
- Captain Save-A-Ho • Fiona Helmsley
- How a Former Porn Star’s Sex Tape Helped Him Reclaim His Sex Life • Christopher Zeischegg aka Danny Wylde: “I’d done it a thousand times with people I’d barely met, and in the most stressful environments. Yet, I couldn’t get my cock hard while in bed with the girl I loved.”
- What Should We Call Sex Toys? • Epiphora: “I own over five hundred dildos, vibrators, and anal toys, which I routinely hold against my vulva (not my ‘lady bits’), stick in my vagina (not my ‘vajayjay’), press against my clitoris (not my ‘love button’) and push up my butt (not my ‘backdoor’).”
- We Need a New Orientation to Sex • Cory Silverberg
- I Am the Blogger Who Allegedly “Complicated” the Stuebenville Gang Rape Case—And I Wouldn’t Change a Thing • Alexandria Goddard
- Porn Director: I Changed My Mind about Condoms • Nica Noelle
- Pregger Libido • Ember Swift
- The White Kind of Body • Alok Vaid-Menon
- Sex, Lies and Public Education • Lynn Comella
- Sharing Body Heat • Joan Price
- Being a Real-Life Accomplice • Cameryn Moore
- Oops, I Slept with Your Boyfriend • Charlie Nox
- Pump Dreams • Mitch Kellaway: “I don’t have a clitoris. Or, rather, I used to have one. But since starting my gender transition a year ago, my relationship to it has become quite complex.”
- Prostitution Law and the Death of Whores • Laura Agustín
- Fisting Day • Jiz Lee: “What I love about fisting someone vaginally is feeling them take me in. There’s a moment where the person just opens up to you. Once inside, they’re so warm, wet, and every little movement you make can be felt.”
- Tell Me You Want Me. • Mollena Williams: “What about submitting, what about service, what about taking a thorough flogging, what about menial chores, what about being useful, is sexy? Why is it eroticized? What makes it hot? In a word? Passion.”
- The Gates • Tina Horn
- The Choice of Motherhood and Insidious Drugstore Signage • Stoya
- Kinky, Sober and Free: BDSM in Recovery • Rachel Kramer Bussel: “Can you be clean and sober and still engage kinkily?”
- Crazy Trans Woman Syndrome • Morgan M. Page
- Let’s Talk about Interracial Porn • Jarrett Neal
- When I Was a Birthday Present for an Eighty-Two-Year-Old Grandmother • David Henry Sterry [see below]
- What an Armpit Model Taught Me about Sexual Language • Jon Pressick
- Growing Through the Yuck • Ashley Manta
- I Was a Teenage Porn Model • Lux Alptraum
- Disability and Sex • Jason Armstrong
- Fumbling Towards Humanity: How “Trans Grrrls” Helped Me Open Up to My Partner • Amy Dentata
- In Defense of Celibacy • Lauren Marie Fleming aka Queerie Bradshaw: “There are times in your life when a quick fuck can be beneficial, but sometimes all sex does is add to the confusion that is life. Sex with others muddies the emotional waters; take sex away and there’s a better chance of finding clarity within yourself.”
- No Restrictions • Dee Dee Behind: “My very first session with a client with severe disabilities was while I was working as a professional dominatrix on the third floor of a dungeon in an elevator-less building.”
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| Jon Pressick |
Who could resist a book with this range of topics from such a variety of writers, sex educators, performers, sex workers, and other juicy, sex-positive activists? As Pressick puts it,
Some of the topics you will read about here are very specific while others speak to all of us. Bringing them together is an attempt to throw open those doors. Pull the thoughts out from under the mattresses. Talk about sex in meaningful, thoughtful and creative ways.
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| David Sterry |
One of my favorite essays — you might guess this! — was “When I Was a Birthday Present for an Eighty-Two-Year-Old Grandmother.” Author David Sterry was 17 when he was hired as a sexy birthday gift for a woman who was 65 years his senior. Although he told his employer yes, his brain was imagining “an ancient naked wrinkled saggy droopy granny spread-eagled in front of me and my poor placid flaccid penis …a lifeless piece of useless meat… What if she wants to do some weird old person sex thing I don’t know about?” The experience, of course, was nothing like his nightmare-fantasy, but I don’t want to reveal more and ruin the surprise.
I consider myself a sex geek. I’m interested in all things sexual. Whether or not I’m personally interested in exploring a particular behavior, belief, or milieu, my mind wants to take it all in. This book really satisfied my sex geekery. Thank you, Jon, contributors, and Cleis Press.
Order Best Sex Writing from your local independent bookstore or at this Amazon link.
The Years by Nicholas Delbanco
It isn’t often that I find a novel to recommend to you that portrays characters our age in a way that’s relevant, realistic, and insightful about aging and relationships. As a reader, I want to connect with characters and plot lines that I can relate to at this time of my life (age 71 as I write this) via beautifully crafted fiction.
The Years by Nicholas Delbanco is a splendid example of the kind of book I love to read. It’s literary fiction, not a quick or mindless read. It’s achingly honest about aging.
How did it happen, Lawrence wondered, that the person in the mirror was sprouting liver spots and wrinkles and hair in his nostrils and ears?
You’ll invest some brain power in following the non-chronological sequencing. We meet Lawrence and Hermia when they re-meet in 2004 on a cruise ship after more than 40 years apart. He’s 64; she’s 63. The book flits back and forth from 2004 to their past. We learn how they met and fell in love in college, how they broke up and drifted apart, different relationships that shaped each of them as they journeyed through their lives, and the scars and regrets they carry with them.
They leaned toward each other, pressed against each other, and she wondered what her breasts would feel like if he kissed them as he used to, and what would happen next. She saw them in the mirror, two bent gray heads adjacent in the ornate gilt-framed glass, saw them touching lips and cheeks as though performing for the camera in some sort of time-lapse photograph, a present overlay upon the past.
Yes, we can anticipate that this chance meeting will lead to a renewed love connection, but the book is still not predictable. In the latter half of the book, we move forward through the time after they reconnect. There are surprises, which I won’t reveal, and even the predictable parts are nuanced, never trite.
It’s rare to find a novel that speaks realistically about love and aging and includes sex. The sex scenes are tender, slow to unfold, and not graphic. For example:
They had been passionate together the way the young are passionate, and nothing in her life before had readied her for how they fit together or how she, holding him, felt … That passion was not spent. It was spent in the physical sense, of course; she could no longer manage, and he could not manage, the revels of the young … But it was like The Tempest; it was everything restored, made whole, old treacheries forgiven and old arguments resolved. What had been lost was found. They were gentle together now, slow. It was strange to be so much in love with someone she had loved before and known so well and parted from and then spent more than forty years not knowing….
I found the writing masterful. I put post-its throughout my copy to remind me of pages I wanted to return to, and this photo shows what my book looks like now.
The Amazon ratings are mixed, and I’d love to know the age breakdown for those who loved and those who were bored by this novel. I suspect that the negative reviews were by younger readers or those who don’t have patience for literary fiction that is slow to unfold. At our age, we know that life is slow to unfold, and we don’t need to rush a book any more than we have to rush sex these days! I can’t imagine readers in their sixties and beyond being unmoved by this novel.
If what I’ve written here intrigues you, I hope you’ll read The Years and post your own comments.
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| Nicholas Delbanco, born 1942 |