Interview: WIN SCOTT ECKERT 2025

Today I chat with author and friend Win Scott Eckert, as a part of my ongoing series featuring creative folks who will be appearing at Pulpfest 2025. Win is the editor of Myths For the Modern Age and three volumes of short stories featuring The Green Hornet, co-author with Philip Jose Farmer of The Evil in Pemberley House and The Monster on Hold, and author of Crossovers: A Secret History of the World, The Scarlet Jaguar, and the authorized Edgar Rice Universe canonical novels Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, and Korak At The Earth’s Core. He has also written short stories featuring classic characters like The Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, the Avenger, the Phantom, Sherlock Holmes, the Domino Lady, Honey West, T.H.E. Cat, and Irma Vep. Win is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, holds a B.A. in anthropology and a Juris Doctor.

Hi, Win! Thanks for taking some time to chat. I know you’re busy working on the second book in your Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe trilogy, the Dead Moon Super-Arc.

WSE: Hi, Anthony! Yes, Pellucidar: Land of Awful Shadow.

We’ll talk about the new book shortly, but my first question is more general. You’ve had a wonderful career writing in the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip José Farmer, the Green Hornet, The Avenger, Honey West, the Lone Ranger, and others. Talk to me a bit about your earliest memories of wanting to write these characters/in these worlds.

To be honest, I didn’t consider writing fiction until after I started my metafictional Wold Newton Universe site in 1997. My first forays were non-fiction (or rather, metafiction) essays which were writing about characters’ chronologies and family trees, rather than traditional fiction stories. It was only when Jean-Marc Lofficier suggested that I try my hand at straight fiction for his annual Tales of the Shadowmen anthologies that I considered it. This was in 2004.

What is your current writing process like? That is, are you a plotter, a “pantser,” etc.? Do you set daily wordcount goals? And has that process changed at all throughout your career?

I am not a “pantser.” I definitely outline, but at a high level. I know the beginning, middle, and most importantly, the end. Part of this is because it is generally required when writing for licensed properties (although requirements for licensed properties are on the spectrum of detail from “almost no detail, just a pitch” to a strict chapter-by-chapter outline). Even with a strict chapter outline, there is a lot of room for creativity as I actually write the chapters, as additional inspiration inevitably hits while I am writing. And sometimes the chapters end up getting moved around as I write, and so forth. So, the outline is not a strict contract, but rather a demonstration that I know where I’m going in the end, even if the path of getting there deviates from the outline. As for your other questions, when I am deep in a writing project, I do set wordcount goals. My process has not changed much in the last twenty years, with the exception that within the last five years or so I occasionally dictate some portions of a novel; it speeds up my writing, but I’ve also noticed that more errors are introduced which I sometimes fail to catch despite intense proofing, so I am a bit gun shy right now about dictating too much.

You’re on your third novel for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (the first being Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar in the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” that launched the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (ERBU), and the second being Korak at Earth’s Core, the first book in your “Dead Moon Super-Arc”). I’d love to hear a bit about how you came to write for ERB Inc., and how you crafted your pitch for the “Dead Moon Super-Arc.”

Shortly before Christopher Paul Carey joined ERB, Inc. as Director (now VP) of Publishing, I pitched a Korak novel to CEO Jim Sullos, which was accepted. Once Chris joined, and outlined his plans for the ERBU, to be kicked off with the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc,” it was a no-brainer that a Tarzan novel was needed for that launch. I reworked my Korak pitch into a Tarzan pitch which became Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar. After that, Chris and I still really wanted to do a Korak novel. I explained my idea to him in person at PulpFest, to which he burst out laughing, and said, “Let’s do it!”

Philip José Farmer wrote an article originally published in ERB-dom No. 57, April 1972. His ideas were worked into his mock biography, Tarzan Alive. The article has also been republished in my collection Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe (MonkeyBrain Books), Pearls from Peoria (Subterranean Press), and The Man Who Met Tarzan (Meteor House). The article is entitled “The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy” and deals with how Korak, the son of Tarzan, impossibly ages about eight-ten years between the ERB books The Beasts of Tarzan and The Son of Tarzan. Farmer proposes an explanation, and there is another branch of fandom that proposes a different explanation. You can read the article online here. The “Dead Moon Super-Arc” will present a third, in-universe explanation.

We also wanted to explore as-yet untouched (or relatively untouched parts) of Pellucidar, the hollow world at the Earth’s core, and decided that the Dead World and the Land of Awful Shadow would be great settings for this trilogy.

What challenges have you encountered in moving Burroughs’ classic characters forward in time and in expanding the ERBU while still remaining true to his spirit and Burroughs’ original timeline and characters?

Honestly . . . not many. The biggest challenge is ensuring that all the writers’ stories remain consistent with each other, with no contradictions. That is one of the big selling points of the ERBU: the novels, stories, and comics are consistent both in continuity and in character with what ERB wrote, but they are all also consistent with each other. It’s not difficult to portray these characters as honorable and heroic. Perfect? No, of course not. I had a good time portraying Korak as less than perfect, and yet still heroic.

Without spoilers, what can you tell us about the upcoming second “Dead Moon Super-Arc” novel, Pellucidar: Land of Awful Shadow?

Yes! It takes place mostly concurrently with Korak at the Earth’s Core (this was a technique Burroughs used; for examples, see the Pellucidar novels Tarzan at the Earth’s Core and Back to the Stone Age), in which it is mentioned that Rahnak and Kyrianji have set off into the Land of Awful Shadow in search of Rahnak’s mother, Suzanne Clayton. So, Pellucidar: Land of Awful Shadow is the tale of their adventure. Rahnak the Daring is the grandson of Korak, and thus the great-grandson of Tarzan! Kyrianji is a great Waziri warrior princess.

Along the way, they have many adventures in this weird Land of Awful Shadow as they struggle to get back to their friends and allies, including David Innes, with some important information. We’ll also get some insight into what happened to Suzanne (Tarzan’s granddaughter), who was mentioned in Korak at the Earth’s Core (her disappearance set off the events of that book).

It's a lot of fun because the book is probably eighty or more percent focused on characters I was privileged to create: Rahnak, Kyrianji, and Suzanne.

All the plotlines will come crashing together in the third book, Tarzan Unleashed. (You see … there’s really no way to “pants” this. 😊)

You also had a short story in the anthology Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2025, edited by Robert Greenberger. Tell us a little bit about that story and what inspired it.

It was an honor to be invited to contribute to that anthology, with such an awesome lineup of authors, and it was great to flex my short story muscles. My entry was a weird menace tale, bordering on occult, called “She-Devil of Paris.” It was very much a Sax Rohmer homage, and featured Irma Vep, the anti-heroine of a 1915–16 French serial in ten chapters called Les Vampires. (The Vampires are a criminal gang who terrorize Paris, not actual vampires.) But, as with most Rohmer stories, the main character isn’t really the one who appears more “on camera,” Irma Vep, but rather her antagonist, who in 1923 Paris is calling herself Astarte.

Finally, do you have anything else upcoming that you’re able to tell us about?

I do! After Tarzan Unleashed, I plan to write the fifth and final Secrets of the Nine novel, as yet untitled. You may recall that the fourth book, The Monster on Hold (cowritten with Philip José Farmer from his outline and including large sections of his prose), most of Doc Caliban’s plotlines were wrapped up. Caliban was the POV character, and Phil’s outline and plot did not include anything regarding Lord Grandrith. Therefore, we still have dangling plotlines regarding Grandrith going all the way back to A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees, and The Mad Goblin. Phil’s estate and agent have granted me permission to write a Lord Grandrith-centric novel (I’m sure Caliban will also make an appearance, but its Grandrith’s book) resolving all the plotlines. I want to be clear that we do not have anything in Phil’s files (“The Magic Filing Cabinet”) regarding a fifth book, so this will be solely by me. Believe me, I wish we did have notes or hints. The book will be published by Meteor House, with consistent trade dress, art, and design as seen on the other Secrets of the Nine books.

I also plan to finally return to Patrica Wildman and write more novella-length follow-ups to The Evil in Pemberley House and The Scarlet Jaguar. I’d like to write more Sherlock Holmes short stories, following up on “The Adventure of the Fallen Stone.” And I want to do a series of novels featuring Astarte in different time periods, from the Victorian era, to the 1930s, and perhaps even into the 1960s and ’70s.

Finally, Anthony, I want to thank you for the interview. It’s been quite a while since we’ve done this (2017!), and I appreciate it. I’m looking forward to seeing you at PulpFest 2025 / FarmerCon XX in August 2025!

It was my pleasure, Win! Always fun discussing writing and Phil and Burroughs and Star Trek and The Man From U.N.C.L.E and everything else we have in common. See you in a few weeks!

Readers, it is not too late to register for and attend Pulpfest 2025 (THE pulp magazine-focused convention in the Northeast) and the other three conventions it hosts: FarmerCon (dedicated to the works of Philip Jose Farmer), ERBFest (dedicated to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs) and DocCon (dedicated to all things Doc Savage related). Check out the Pulpfest website.com/ for registration and hotel information!

Interview: FRANK SCHILDINER

Today’s interview is with author Frank Schildiner. Frank’s work has been published by Belanger Books, Black Coat Press, Meteor House Press, and others. He writes in multiple genres, including historical fiction, horror, and adventure.

Hi, Frank! Thanks for taking a few moments to chat with me.

My pleasure, brother, it’s been way too long. I hope you’ve been well!

As well as well can be! Your current Kickstarter project (through the wonderful Belanger Books) is for Let Loose the Falcon. The Kickstarter ends on July 20th, so let’s start there. Tell us a bit about the book.

This is a book that is very important to my heart. I started it when my late wife Gail was in the hospital. I started it as a way of dealing with how rough that time was for me and hiding how bad I felt from her.

The story is one set in 1751 about a Royal Navy Post Captain named Henry Falconer aka the Falcon. He’s an excellent sailor and a very dangerous fighter with weapons and hands. His unwillingness to follow foolish orders has him forced into intelligence work. He picks up a few fellow spies along the way as he tries to uncover a major danger for the king.

What inspired you to write a nautical novel set in the late 1700s, and what influenced the character of Post Captain Henry Falconer?

I love Royal Navy fiction, having become a fan of Patrick O’Brian, Dewey Lambdin, Julian Stockwin, Alexander Kent, and C.S. Forester over the years. I also had an interest in the Georgian era, especially the real Hellfire Club under Sir Francis Dashwood and the 4th Earl of Sandwich. They were an infamous bunch whose stories were both bizarre and exaggerated. It all came together that way and I had fun writing it.

Knowing you, this is intended to be the start of a new series. Have you started on a sequel, and can you tell us anything about it?

The second book is also completed and involves 2 cults of killers whose styles are truly nuts, even for me. I also have an idea for the 3rd one involving a pirate treasure and a few ideas for the 4th and 5th. So yeah, definitely a unique series and maybe one I try and write for many years to come.

Your previous novel for Belanger Books, Caesar Now Be Still was also a historical novel but set in the late 1800s in New York City, an era I know you also have a passion for. Will there be more books featuring Detective Wilson Hargreave?

Yes, I do plan on doing more with him and old New York. I have an idea about a team of burglars who are tormenting the wealthy. There’s also a group of gangsters hoping they can catch them for…well…reasons…

I’d be interested to hear about your writing process. Are you a plotter, a “pantser,” somewhere in between? Do you have a specific daily word-count goal?

I am the living embodiment of a pantser. I sometime start work on something and switch to something else that my evil muse wants written. I have no word count goal but usually do between 1500-2000 a day. I have been known to exceed it when I get going or less when I suddenly go dry. It’s weird.

I’d also be interested in hearing about any literary or filmic influences you haven’t mentioned yet.

Oh my, so many.

 Literary: Jack London, Dennis Wheatley, Frank Herbert, Philip Jose Farmer, Louis Cha, Eiji Yoshikawa, Paul Feval, A.C. Doyle, Donald Westlake, Joe Lansdale…the list could keep going…

Film: Yojimbo, the Zatoichi series, Le Samourai, The One-Armed Swordsman, Brave Archer 1-3, Berserk, Alexander Nevsky, Universal and Hammer Horror films, Memories of Murder, The Dollars Trilogy, a few dozen Shaw Bros. Films with Philip Kwok, Lo Mang, and Lu Feng, The Ringu series, The 3 Mothers Trilogy, Devilman Crybaby…

I watch movies and read books constantly, so the list is nearly endless.

Finally, what’s on the horizon after Let Loose the Falcon?

I finished the 2nd book in the series, and I’m almost finished with a short story in the series called “The Dancing Falcon”. I’m writing the 3rd book in the Atlantis trilogy as well as a samurai era slow building cosmic horror series. After they’re done, I’ll do either a 3rd Falcon, a 2nd Hargreaves, or start a Fantomas novel. There’s also some non-fiction I might do, so I’ll keep busy.

The Kickstarter for Let Loose the Falcon ENDS TODAY (as of when I’m posting this). You can find Frank’s Ceasar Now Be Still and other titles published by Belanger Books on their website. The Atlantis series Frank mentioned, along with his Frankenstein and Napoleon’s Vampire Hunters series can be found on the website for Black Coat Press.

Interview: JIM BEARD

I have my first new publishing credit in quite a few years in Jack of All Comics!, an anthology of essays about Jack “King” Kirby’s work for both Marvel and DC Comics in the 1960s-70s. My essay is about Kirby’s work on the woefully short-lived DC ‘70s series The Sandman. Rather than just blog about having a new book out, I thought I’d chat with the book’s editor/publisher Jim Beard about how it all came together.

IMAGE: Jack Kirby’s head and arms bursting out of an art table, from which an ink bottle is falling. He’s holding a paint brush in one hand, a lead pencil in the other, and the flame from his cigar looks like the Human Torch. He is surrounded by art pages. Cover art by Ron Hill.

First, a little about Jim:

Jim Beard is a writer, editor, and publisher of adventure fiction and pop-culture non-fiction. He is the co-founder of Flinch Books and the founder of Becky Books (which published Jack of All Comics!). His licensed works include Star Wars and Ghostbusters comics, a Spider-Man novel, and Green Hornet and Kolchak the Night-Stalker novellas. Jim’s original fiction creations include the Edwardian ghost-hunter Sgt. Janus and the 1970s globetrotters D.C. Jones and Adventure Command International. He lives in Northwest Ohio with absolutely no pets whatsoever.

Hi Jim! First of all, thank you for inviting me to be a part of Jack of All Comics!. It's both a pleasure and an honor to be a part of not just a book about Jack Kirby, but also a book in a really wonderful series of books on "Comic Book Culture." Can you talk first a little bit about the inspiration for the series?

Pleasure’s all mine. Always a good feeling to give a struggling young writer a chance at the big time 😉

“Comic Book Culture” is inspired by my own comic interests primarily, but also by the drive to inspire readers to pick up each volume. That means going places they might not expect, while at the same time appealing to their own interests and passions within the medium.

What inspired you to make this latest volume about Jack Kirby, and in particular his 1960s-1970s work at both DC and Marvel?

A Jack Kirby book needs no other inspiration beyond “Jack Kirby.” The length, width, and breadth of the King’s work is banquet enough for a thousand-thousand books, and I had always wanted to add my own to that stack. The key, as with all my non-fiction books, was to “do it my way,” i.e. come up with something that hasn’t already been said and done a million times over—and with Jack, that ain’t exactly easy, given that’s he’s arguably the most discussed comic book creator ever.

Part of that encompasses just what you say: the parameters of 1961-1978. It always helps me to set a framework down to fill up with thoughts about whatever subject I’m addressing, and the three eras of Jack’s work during that timespan worked perfectly for what I wanted to do, which was have a different writer talk about each one of the series Jack worked on at Marvel and DC during those years.

When putting together a book of essays like this, how do you as an editor decide which writers get which assignments?

Sometimes it’s the easiest thing in the world. Writers say, “Ooh! I want THAT!” and you know you’re gonna get magic. Other times, it’s the most challenging thing because you always have the essays no one really wants to write…but I’ve been lucky because when I’ve thrown down a gauntlet to a writer to challenge themselves on one of those topics, they always find they’re the right person for the job. And then you still get magic.

In particular with this book, was there anyone you immediately thought, “That person HAS to write about THIS series”? Conversely, was there anyone whose interest in writing about a particular series took you by surprise?

A few. Cliff Biggers had to write about Fantastic Four. Van Allen Plexico had to write about The Avengers. That said, many of the other topics just fell into place and in the end, nearly everybody got their first choices. This book in particular was so great in that way for me. It was almost an editor’s dream. The excitement was high across the board.

I surprised myself by being the exact right guy to talk about First Issue Special 😉

Your own essay in the book is about Kirby’s issues of DC’s First Issue Special series, and I won’t spoil here which of his FIS issues was your favorite. But what enquiring minds really want to know is: what is YOUR favorite Kirby series of all time, and why?

Hate to be so mundane, but it has to be the obvious choice: Fantastic Four. Stan and Jack just rocked it out on that one, and over a huge amount of time and issues. It still stands as one of the greatest achievements of a creative duo in comic books to this day. And there’s two reasons why: Stan and Jack. Say what you will, and many of you have, but that was some kind of perfection going on there.

Finally (for now, at least), is there anything upcoming from either Becky Books or Flinch! Books (which you co-run with John C. Bruening) that you’d like people to know about?

It’s Flinch Books’ tenth anniversary this year and we’re releasing the fourth volumes in our signature series, me with Sgt. Janus and John with The Midnight Guardian. Frankly, I’m more excited to return to Union City than Mount Airy….

Both settings, and both characters, are great, in this interviewer’s not-so-humble opinion! I’m looking forward to chatting with you more about Sgt. Janus in August, and with John when the new Midnight Guardian book bows in the fall. Meantime, Thanks again Jim!

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEW: Sam Lant

This year’s final official Pride Month (EXTRA!) interview is with actor/writer/director (and my nephew) Sam Lant:

Hi, Sam! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Mostly I’ve taken things slow and allowed myself to use the time as a break. When the pandemic started, I saw a post that said something along the lines of don’t pressure yourself to make the next great work of art during the lock downs and honestly that was really freeing. Taking the time to just take care of my plants, hang out with my dog, and watch some movies has renewed my creative motivation and changed my perspective of what impact I want to have on the world.

You now identify as non-binary, but you’ve had quite a journey from confused kid to accepting who you are. Instead of a specific question, I’m going to just ask you to talk about that journey a bit.

I grew up very self-conscious about my body and my sexuality. Coming from a small town I didn’t get the exposure to the amazing LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles my late teen years.  I had no clue that there was more to sexuality and gender than Lesbian, Gay or Straight. As I grew up, and I expressed more interest in things that fell out of the stereotypical norm for straight boys, I started realizing that I wasn’t a straight male. Without understanding gender and having a very limited knowledge on sexuality I just assumed well I must be gay. The older I got though the more I realized that that assumption I made was ridiculous because I never once had been romantically attracted to a guy. At that point, I thought I was broken. I wasn’t gay, but I didn’t feel like I was a straight male either. For a long time I was constantly at battle with myself hating my body, hating myself for wanting to wear make-up like my female friends, and feeling like I had to hide from the world. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I was exposed a more well-rounded LGBTQ+ community and I realized that all the self-conscious feelings about my body and discomfort around it was due to gender and what I was experiencing was dysphoria. I learned about the transgender community, read about trans people’s experiences, and realized so much of my life made sense. I felt like I had figured out what had been haunting me my whole life; but was still terrified about the idea of telling friends or family. So, I still hid from the world. I did my make-up in secret and snuck my female identity into small accessories like rocking hot pink sunglasses. Eventually I got more confident and I came out to a few people but always would immediately go back into hiding myself again. It wasn’t until I was 18 or 19 that I found a great group of friends that were confident in their sexualities and genders which gave me the confidence to start wearing makeup and feminine clothing around them. The uncomfortable feelings I felt whenever I looked in the mirror started to fade away, the more confident I got the more traditionally female clothing and makeup I wore. After a while though, again, I started to feel discomfort and like I was still missing a big part of myself.  I couldn’t understand it and I felt awful. It was like a was a kid again just lost and confused about who I was. I fell back into depression and self-hate. I thought I was a fraud for a while.  Eventually I just had to say “fuck it.” I’m myself, I’m who I want to be. I don’t fall into any category perfectly, I don’t perfectly fit the ideal male image and I don’t perfectly fit the ideal female image, but that’s perfectly okay. For the longest time I was basing myself on what society deemed to be masculine and feminine and letting my personal identity be determined by how I dressed. For the first time I felt completely free of dysphoria and any self-hate. Instead of dressing a certain way because society deemed those clothes more female or male, I started dressing in clothes that I deemed an expression of who I am. For some people gender and sexuality fall into categories perfectly, but for me sexuality and gender are nonbinary. I fall into multiple categories and am full of wonderful contradictions that make me uniquely myself.

Of course, since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being non-binary influenced or informed your acting and your interest in writing/directing? And is it at all different from when you started acting?

When I was younger, I was scared that if I let people know I was LGBTQ+ that I would limit myself to the roles I could play. I didn’t want people to see me and think he can only play the nonbinary characters or the trans characters. Now I realize that I don’t want to work with people who are going to cast me based on gender, so I’m much more open about who I am. I’ve also realized that I’m very critical of myself and would love to start letting myself be uninhibited by my criticisms when acting much like I had to stop over criticizing my identity.  With directing, writing and acting I’d like to start making films that have characters as unique and wonderful as my friends I’ve made. My friends all have wonderful identities that showcase the beauty of gender and sexuality that if I could make characters even half as well rounded and amazing as them, I’d be happy.

What inspires you?

My mom’s work ethic, she works so hard despite having so much struggle in her life. My friends confidence and attitude toward life even when things got tough during the pandemic. My dog’s ability to be happy and wag her tail over the smallest things in life. Film wise I’m a huge fan of Kevin Smith, I think Chasing Amy is an amazing film. I also love Tarantino. For TV/Film... I’m a huge fan of Stranger Things, Scream, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and The Graduate.

What does your creative process look like?

 Oh gosh, controlled chaos? I don’t necessarily have a set process, I have a lot of tools for acting, writing, and directing but not every project calls for every tool so there isn’t really a set in stone way I do things. Its more about letting things come naturally to what make sense within a scene.

What are you working on now? Do you have anything coming out that you’re allowed to announce yet?

Right now, I’m mostly working on not catching covid-19, I have asthma and my lungs are just trash so staying home and staying healthy is my main focus. I have a few projects filmed before lockdown that I can’t announce yet, but as soon as they get finished and I get the okay to talk about them I’ll let you know.

And finally, where can people find you and your work online?

I am currently not really using social media. I don’t feel it is being used for the greater good. I don’t believe it is being used as intended and it is having negative impacts on our lives.  So, I guess you can check out to my IMDB ... all the projects are updated as I am able to announce them.  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3137618/ 

Sam Lant is actor/screenwriter/director living in Burbank, CA.   Most known for his role of Dave the teenage party crasher in the cult classic Project X, he can also be seen in various independent films and on Fox’s Last Man Standing.  He is currently attending college to earn a degree in directing with hopes to make thought provoking artistic films.  He loves food, flying squirrel onesies, unplanned adventures, playing video games, and his dog Harmony. 

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEWS: John "Jack" Curtin

Today’s Pride Month (Extra!) Interview is with theatrical and television/film hair and make-up artist John “Jack” Curtin:

Hi, Jack! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

When the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down the entertainment industry in March and closed the Make-up Artists & Hairstylists Local 798, IATSE office, I started feeling anxious. I started making masks in an attempt to do something to calm those feelings. It actually worked to up my mood and reignited my creativity for sewing. I sent a bunch of masks to our mutual friend Karen Toth Seymour for her and the nurses she works with. I made them for my staff and Executive Board. Then I had a conversation with a friend who participates in Krew de Pink, a breast cancer charity in New Orleans. They have an annual Art Corset auction to raise money. So I pulled out my patterns and books from college and started making a corset to be auctioned. Now I plan to work through my fabric stock making things!

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being gay influenced or informed your work in the theatre?

Being gay while working in theatre has been a mixed experience. While homosexuality is common in the arts and theatre, there have been issues.

I started out touring the country in the early 1990s as a wardrobe supervisor and truck loader. The touring company was a family where we could all be who we are; when we entered the theatre, we had to gauge how out we could be. In some places it was best not to be ‘found out’, in others we were ‘gay ambassadors’ educating people that we are all the same, no matter who we are attracted to. I have been cursed out, spit on and even been on the receiving end of a gun. Conversely, I had people thank me for being an “out gay man” as it helped them on their journey to come out.

When I started working on Broadway in the late 1990s, I thought I had left all that behind. Sadly, while it was ok to be gay, there were still people who would voice their negative opinion openly. I actually had a stage hand beg me not to let on we knew each other as he was seeing my roommate and we worked on the same show with his father.

Thankfully, we have evolved! The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which Local 798 is a charted member of, created the IATSE Pride Committee. Discrimination based on sexual orientation will not be tolerated. At last year’s Pride March, all Locals of IATSE marched as one as LBGTQIA+ people.

I am the Local 798 Pride Committee Coordinator, overseeing the NY and GA Local 798 Pride Committees, and looking to create committees in every state in our jurisdiction. We need to keep informing people about the LGBTQIA+ community, and win the protections we need to insure our rights.

I would love to hear a bit about your history doing hair and make-up for live theater and for television.

As I mentioned, I started out in Wardrobe as I studied Costume Design & Construction in college. While on tour, I started taking care of the show’s wigs, and started developing an interest in hair styling. I took the time to go back to school and received my Cosmetology License from New York State. I have been fortunate during my career to meet great mentors and found great opportunities. My tenacious attitude and strong work ethic helped as well. Broadway Wig Designer David Lawrence gave me my first break on a Christmas show in Chicago, and then Dream, the Johnny Mercer musical. While working with David at Bob Kelly studio I met many other Broadway designers, and was introduced to Michael Ward. Michael asked me to supervise a little show called The Lion King. It was the pinnacle of my Broadway career.

As you know, it is still running some 20 years later. My experience with work prior was a six to nine month run, then move to a new project. At the end of year two, I should have moved on as there was no creativity for me. At that time I became an Educator for Paul Mitchell as a creative outlet. I worked hard and became a Color Specialist and finally a Senior National Educator. After 5 year on The Lion King I chose to go back to salon work and take a break from theatre.

Theater and the Arts had a different plan for me. I did not take well to salon work, and after about a year was back swinging (filling in) on Broadway shows. I found a home at 42nd Street for the last 3 years of its run. During that time, I studied and took the Journeyman Upgrade test Local 798 offered. After 42nd Street closed, I started working in film and television, “day- playing” as needed. I was working with film legend Colleen Callaghan on a low budget film called Joshua. She recommended me to Department Head Kidnapped, which I had to leave early to again assist Colleen on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (on the Louisiana location) which won the Oscar for Make-up and Hair. This is what sparked my love of working on period shows.

Thankfully, earlier in my career I met Jerry DeCarlo who became my mentor and good friend. I assisted him on Carol and The Knick, both garnered various nominations; Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards, Emmy Awards and BAFTA. I also assisted Jerry when he ran background on Bridge of Spies and Vinyl.  If you would like to see all of the work I have done go to https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2226766/.

Which leads me to ask: what’s the process like for developing a character’s look? How much say/lee-way do you have? And is it different for live theatre versus working on a television show?

The process to develop a character’s look is a long and involved one. After reading the script at a table read with everyone involved, there are discussions with the Director, Costume Designer, Actors and Production. We all bring our research to the table and discuss the direction the character will go. We then have wigs made, hair colored and cut as agreed upon. Then the look is screen tested and any alterations are done to finally reach the final look/s.

Hair/Wig Designers have a good deal of input as we do the research and present it. That said, compromises have to be available to allow all visions room to exist.

What inspires you?

Love and Life are my prime inspirations.

I look back on my life and am happy with the majority of it. I regret we were not able to be our true selves in our youth, and that we were taught the wrong messages regarding LGTBQIA+ people. That said, I am so proud of how far we have come, and having been a voice for change. The beauty of life and its ability to endure and blossom is awe inspiring.

I have celebrated Love in my life, and am grateful and humbled by it. I celebrated New York Marriage Equality while working on Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and by getting married the following November in my home state of New York. The Love my husband and I share is the warm comfort in happy times and the steel needed to endure the hardships. As Whitney Huston said “Learning to love yourself is the greatest gift of all”. That self-love has been my sword and shield against the adversity of life, and has helped me grow into my true self.

What are you working on now?

I am working for all working people who have been marginalized by reversals of Workers Rights by the current administrations National Labor Relation Board. Specifically, Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists in the Entertainment Industry. 

In 2014 I became the Sergeant at Arms of my Local and became more involved. I also was the Education Director and worked hard to create a Membership Orientation Class for new members. In 2016 I made the choice to step away from working at my craft and to run for the office of Secretary Treasurer. It was a hard decision to make, but I saw a need to work for my Local and the membership. I won my election and took office in December of 2016. I am currently in my second term.

I was fortunate to join Local 798 in 1996, and work under Collective Bargaining Agreements which provide good wages, health, annuity and pension benefit so I will be able to live well now and retire with dignity. It was time for me to step up and insure that what was created by those who came before me to be available to those who will come after me.

Also, as I mentioned previously I have returned to creating through sewing. I’m starting with this Art Corset which I will post on my social media platforms (currently Facebook and Twitter, I have to get back to Instagram). After that I am researching male corsets and may create a second for the Krew de Pink auction. From there who know what else I will create!

And finally, where can people find you and your work online?

Most of my film and television work can be found on many of the streaming platforms currently available. For a complete filmography you can visit https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2226766/.

John “Jack” Curtin is currently the Secretary-Treasurer of Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Local 798, IATSE. Jack is an Emmy and MUHS Guild Award Nominee and worked on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which won the Academy Award for Outstanding Make-up and Hair. Film Credits include Wonderstruck, Bridge of Spies, Carol, Deliver us from Evil, Almost Perfect, A Little Help, Make Yourself at Home, Spinning into Butter and Joshua. Television Credits include The Path, Vinyl, The Knick, The Americans, America’s Got Talent (guests), Kidnapped and Law & Order. Broadway Credits Include  Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, La Cage aux Folle, Grease (2008), Coram Boy, 42nd street, The Lion King, and Dream.

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEW: Bernadette Gambino

Today’s Pride Month (EXTRA!) Interview is with former police officer and current private investigator Bernadette Gambino:

Bernadette Gambino (left) and business partner AnGèle Cade

Hi, Bernadette! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Wow, that is tough! I have been working on a few projects. One is a musical, where I am Executive Producer. It is called Empty Hands, which is the English translation of Karate. It is about bullying. A sort of cross between High School Musical meets Karate Kid.

Retired police officer, actor, business owner, CEO, athlete, parent, grandparent, life coach and private investigator. Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being lesbian influenced or informed your very varied career path?

I came out late in life. I was about 25 years old in 1990 when it hit me that I was gay. When I say hit, I mean jumping off a cliff about a thousand feet high and hitting the ground. I was suicidal. Picture this… I just graduated from the Sheriff’s academy and would sit on my couch with my revolver and my 18 month old daughter asleep in the next room.  It was a very traumatic time not to mention my counselor said not to come out at work because the Sheriff’s department was still firing people up until 1988. Also, my very Catholic parents did not react very well.

As I grew older and through meeting my late wife, I grew to love all of me and recognized that God chose this path for me and now I honor that! For me, it’s not about being a lesbian that defines me but learning to love me who happens to be gay…if that makes sense.

It wasn’t that long ago that it was difficult to be openly gay or lesbian and be a police officer. I’d be interested in hearing your experiences while on the force.

I stayed in the closet a long time. Even when I got together with my late wife in 2002 and wore this beautiful diamond ring she gave me, I still pretended it was from a guy. It took a long while for me to love me enough to be in a position that I didn’t care what others though of me.

I know there were those who spoke behind my back or said things that were homophobic. I came to realize it was their problem not mine. My late wife, Mona Miller, showed me and taught me about loving all of who I am without judgement or shame. It took some time, but eventually I came out and embraced that part of my life without fear of who I was or fear of other’ judgement of me.

I’d also be remiss, given everything that’s going on recently, if I didn’t ask for your take as a retired officer on the nationwide systemic problems when it comes to police and minority populations.

 I believe some of the issues we face as a nation and the issues Law Enforcement faces with the general public and people of color is self- induced. Yes, there are very racist Police Officers who take advantage of the power coupled with their own egos to prey on minority communities, but we also have to be careful not to dismiss the Law Enforcement Officers, of all races and colors, who are an example to the profession and to the communities they serve.  A knee jerk reaction to the current climate is like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

If Law Enforcement agencies took a more proactive approach to community policing….. if the good citizens of the various communities worked in conjunction with their local law enforcement…if problem officers were held accountable sooner… and I can go on.  We are facing a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-faceted solution. It cannot be a one size fits all solution because most of the time there are too many variables.

You’ve recently started up a private investigations firm. What inspired you to move into that sphere?

After I retired, I was asked so many times to conduct or assist in a variety of investigations. I finally decided to open my own firm. In addition, I am a full-service private security firm as well. We have some very interesting specialties. You can check out my website: eipainc.com

You’re a mother and grandmother. Kids today are facing possibly more pressure socially, academically, and in the virtual online world, than ever before. Teen and pre-teen suicide seems to continually be on the rise. What advice do you have for coping with those stresses, and especially those dealing with the added stress of being LGBTQIA in a world that professes acceptance but often acts just the opposite?

Having been in that queue I know that self love without judgement played a significant role in my survival. Learning to love one’s self in spite of the damaging world around us is a journey filled with lots of peaks and valleys but when truth becomes the paramount goal it can change everything.  BELIEF IS STRONGER THAN TRUTH UNLESS YOU BELIEVE IN THE TRUTH. We will create from that which we believe…..what we believe about ourselves.  We can only change ourselves and when we search for self love we find empowerment. It is in that empowerment that we can combat the judgement and hate from others. A miracle is a change of perception. When we work on ourselves from the inside out, find our own self love, leave judgement and fear at the door, others can’t hurt us. Is it an easy task….HELL NO! But definitely a worthwhile one!

In my life coaching business, it is issues such as these that are my specialty. I help people get out of their own way so they can find the person they were intended to be, not the circumstances of their life that made them!

And finally, where can people find you and your work online?

My life coaching website is:  Communicationartscompany.com  or they can email me at:

bernadettegambinocomart@aol.com

My private investigation and security business website is:  eipainc.com  or they can email me at

bernadette@eipainc.com

Executive coach Bernadette Gambino of Communication Arts Company and business consultant AnGèle Cade of Executive On the Go joined forces this year to create Empowering the Business of YOU—presenting conferences and one-on-one coaching to help women who feel stuck, frustrated and unfulfilled. Bernadette has more than 25 years of experience in mentoring, coaching and counseling individuals to help them achieve their goals. For nearly 20 years, AnGèle Cade has counseled more than 15,000 entrepreneurs across the country on starting or fixing their businesses. 

PRIDE MONTH INTERVIEW: Jordan L. Hawk

Today’s Pride Month (EXTRA!) interview is with author Jordan L. Hawk:

Hi, Jordan! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during the current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Hi, and thanks for having me on the blog!

I’ve tried a few different approaches, but focusing on getting what feels like a “small” amount of work done every day seems to work best. What would have been a small amount before is about all I have the energy left to do, so I do that and refuse to feel guilty about not doing more.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: this past year, you announced you are transgender. How has that self-discovery influenced or informed your writing?

I don’t think I’ve had the chance to really notice yet. Certainly it’s shone a light on a lot of the themes present in my work, but I find I’m still drawn to “person with a secret about their identity” stories.

You’ve recently ended your well-regarded Whyborne & Griffin series. Did you always intend for the series to run the number of books it did? I know I’m not the only fan who wishes it were longer!

I’m a big believer in endings, and though I know I could have continued on indefinitely, I felt ending the story would give it weight and meaning. I think we’ve all known series that overstayed their welcome, and I did not want W&G to turn into one of them! I never had a set number of books so much as “here’s a list of what I want for the story, so which part or parts works for the next book.” I’d say by Maelstrom (book 7) I did know it would end with book 11, though.

You’re not done with the city of Widdershins, though. Can you tell us anything about the spin-off series you’re launching?

Rath & Rune follows the adventures of Sebastian Rath, librarian and chief archivist at the Ladysmith Museum’s library, and Vesper Rune, newly hired bookbinder and conservator. There’s murder, evil books, necromancers, and of course romance. Book 1, Unhallowed, will be out July 17.

Since I recently ran a “Series Saturday” post about your Hexworld series, I’d like to focus a few questions there. The world-building is a bit more intricate than in W&G or Spirits – tell us how magic works in Hexworld.

Magic in Hexworld needs three ingredients: a hex (usually a drawing) to hold and shape the magic, a familiar to provide the magic, and a witch to channel the magic from familiar into hex.

Familiars shift between human and animal shapes. They have to form a magical bond with a witch in order for the witch to use their magic, as they can’t charge hexes on their own. Unfortunately this has led to a societal view of familiars more as resources to be exploited than people with their own lives and desires.

The formula for Hexworld so far is that you’ve introduced new witch-familiar combinations in each book and focused on their romantic ups-and-downs. Will there come a point where you’re no longer introducing new couples?

The upcoming Hexworld series, Roaring Twenties, will focus on a single couple.

If I remember correctly, the characters from your novellas “A Christmas Hex” and “Wild Wild Hex” have yet to be tied into the main novels. Is there any plan to see those characters again? (Given where Wild Wild Hex takes place in relation to the novels, that one might be a bit hard.)

Those were both one-offs, and I don’t currently plan to revisit those characters.

What are you working on now? What’s next out of the gate?

I’m currently working on the next SPECTR novella, Harvester of Bones, and doing research for Hexworld: Roaring Twenties.

And finally, where can interested people find you and your work online?

The easiest place to check is my website: http://www.jordanlhawk.com, which has links to all the places my books are sold. You can also find me on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/jordanlhawk and Twitter at https://twitter.com/jordanlhawk.

Jordan L. Hawk is a trans author from North Carolina. Childhood tales of mountain ghosts and mysterious creatures gave him a life-long love of things that go bump in the night. When he isn’t writing, he brews his own beer and tries to keep the cats from destroying the house. His best-selling Whyborne & Griffin series (beginning with Widdershins) can be found in print, ebook, and audiobook.

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEW: Nisi Shawl

This afternoon’s Pride Month interview is with author Nisi Shawl:

Hi, Nisi! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

I’ve been meeting daily with other writers via Zoom and doing a combination of talking about craft, talking about what’s happening in the world, and writing silently.  It seems to have really helped so far--it’s keeping me going and inspiring others, too.  At the moment my co-writers are L. Timmel Duchamp, Joanne Rixon, Kristin A. King, K. Tempest Bradford, Manjula Menon, Teri Clarke, Leslie What, and Eileen Gunn.  There are two distinct groups, and we get together for two separate sessions of two hours each.  Virtual presence seems to provide the right mix of community and solitude for me, and the socializing punctuates the work focus very nicely.  I’ll be adding a series of Saturday sessions in July which are supposed to be attended by some of the participants in Clarion West’s Write-a-thon fundraiser.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being non-binary influenced or informed your writing?

It’s made me open to the possibilities of the many-faceted aspect of life, and the myriad ways of representing that.  It’s also led me away from the trap of mapping the binary onto most elements in life’s literary depiction.  I very much hope that it has helped me understand the marginalization of other identities--especially the intersections of those marginalizations.  I’m sure there’s plenty more--I plan to keep figuring it out as I go along.

It seems like non-binary and gender-fluid folk often get left out of conversations about LGBTQIA rights (and even left out of most acronyms for the community, as evidenced right in this question!), as do queer POC, despite being at the forefront of the movement from the beginning. How do we change that?

I think this interview is a great start!  Also, can we make weirdness equal coolness?  Can we set up some sort of scoreboard where people get geekpoints or something along those lines for every difference from the dominant paradigm?  Because being counted as weird even among the weird should be like a feather in my cap.  It should add to my luster, and the luster of all the other ultra-outsiders.  But in line with my point concerning the interview, the thing is that stories are what move and motivate people.  More relevant fiction, more movies, more songs, will change the narrative and render it much more inclusive.  This will allow people to see themselves in less distorted ways--they won’t have to throw their necks out tilting their heads to get a glimpse of someone with at least one of their traits.  And that atmosphere can encourage yet another increase in examples--another wave of stories to model the next on.  I’ve seen it happen with BIPOC representation, so I know it works.

Back to writing, what inspires you? What does your creative process look like?

Everything inspires me: weather, animals, machines, songs, wounds--you name it.  Ideas are everywhere.  I know I’m onto something when one of these elements stays with me, looping on constant replay, carrying a powerful emotional burden.  Sometimes I’ll see that an issue is touching other people as well, and that’s even more motivation to explore it.

The creative process for me begins when these ideas come together and form a critical mass.  The ideas are usually embodied by characters, the plot by questions.  Finishing the story doesn’t necessarily mean answering the questions; sometimes the end is about understanding enough to ask it.

I always pray when I write.  I practice an indigenous West African spiritual tradition called Ifa.  The divinity in charge of stories is the Trickster, the one who makes the impossible not just possible, not just probable, but true.  Writing is a religious process for me.  I’m creating worlds, inhabiting them.  That’s holy work.

And it’s work readers do too, creating worlds from writers’ words.  Every day.

Everfair was such an amazing alternate history novel, and inspired me to read more about the actual history of the region. Is there any chance you’ll be returning to that world?

Yes.  And no.  I’m drafting a sequel to Everfair.  It’s called Kinning, and I’m a few chapters in, and so far we’ve had scenes in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Kenya.  I’m hoping to reach Everfair’s borders soon.

There are already a couple of Everfair sequels published.  They’re short stories, though, not novels.  And neither of *them* takes place in the country of Everfair, either: one’s in Cairo, and one’s on Zanzibar.  “Sun River” is in the anthology Clockwork Cairo, and “The Colors of Money” is in the anthology Sunvault.

I also published “Vulcanization” at Nightmare Magazine, online.  It’s Everfair-adjacent.  It’s a horror story from Leopold II’s viewpoint.

Finally, I put a few Everfair-related pieces on my website, like an essay about nonstandard sexuality in African countries, and an outline of Matty’s play “Wendi-la.”  Check it out.

What are you working on now and what do you have coming out soon?

As I said, I’m mostly focused right now on Kinning.  A couple of months back I finished revisions on a Middle Grade historical fantasy called Speculation.  That should be coming out next year.  Sometime this year an anthology called Sword Stone Table will be published with one of my stories in it: “I Being Young and Foolish.”  It’s a subversion of the Merlin/Nimue episode of the Arthurian mythos.

I have an essay due next month on how to describe African-descended people’s hair, and that anthology, Pocket Workshop, will appear this December.

And finally, where can people find you and your work online?

NS: Google me!  I have a very Google-able name, don’t I?

I did just get a piece of flash fiction featuring a nonbinary character published on the Arizona State University website.  The story is called “Fourth and Most Important.”  The character is called Mx. Pickell.  Read it--it’s short!

Nisi Shawl, winner of the 2019 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, wrote the 2016 Nebula Award finalist Everfair about an imaginary Fabian socialist Utopia in the Congo, and the 2009 James Tiptree/Otherwise Award collection Filter House.  Shawl co-wrote Writing the Other: A Practical Approach.  Their story collection Talk Like a Man is part of PM Press’s “Outspoken Author” series.  They live in Seattle and take frequent walks with their cat.

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEW: Ellen Kushner

Today’s first Pride Month interview is with author Ellen Kushner:

Hi, Ellen! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during urrent events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

I’m having the most incredible experience! My wife Delia Sherman and I always leave our apartment in NYC in late February to stay with friends in the magical city of Tucson, Arizona, at the edge of the Sonoran desert, to take a couple of weeks’ retreat to work on our novels. Our friends there have a little guest house, and a big yard with a wall around it to keep out the desert creatures that live all around us and will come in and wreak havoc if they’re not kept out. We were here when the pandemic hit, and decided, wisely, not to go back to New York City. We’ve been here ever since – and for the first time, I’ve seen the desert wildflowers come up after the spring rains, then the cactus flowering, and even a baby monsoon. It’s incredibly stimulating, being somewhere so completely and utterly different from anywhere I’ve ever lived before. I finally understand why Terri Windling wrote The Wood Wife when she lived out here. (We visited her a lot, but never for enough time to see the year turn like this.)

I’m now working on the garden, learning the ways of decorative desert plants in the amazing heat (it hasn’t been under 105F all week! But neither has the humidity been over 12%), as well as what familiar ones like tomatoes and basil will do under conditions that couldn’t be farther from my last garden in Massachusetts. We’ll have to go home eventually…but I hope I get a couple of little tomatoes first!

If by “creatively motivated” you mean “working hard on your overdue novel,” well, I’m not sure any of this counts. But I’m definitely re-filling the well. And working on the novel….some. I love looking out at the mountains when I work.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being lesbian influenced or informed your writing?

Well, for one thing, I find it incredibly awkward to write about women having sex. It’s far too personal. But then, fantasy literature in particular mediates between raw experience and subtle art . . . . My work tends to be very sexy; I just inhabit all the roles.  At this point, I’m coming to realize that I’m not merely bisexual, but genderqueer as all getout. I dislike labels as a rule, and have resisted them all my life; but this one, being so protean, is actually kind of a relief.

As you know, The Fall of the Kings, which you co-authored with your wife Delia Sherman, made a huge impression on me. It was, I think, the first fantasy novel I was able to see “myself” in after I started my coming-out process. So thanks again for that. Over the years from Swordspoint to The Privilege of the Sword to The Fall of the Kings and the four seasons of Tremontaine on Serial Box, plus countless short stories, you have populated the world of the Riverside district and the City that surrounds it with such a wide range of LGBTQIA characters that I think every reader can find themselves. Did you imagine the world growing so expansively when you were writing Swordspoint?

Not at all! In fact, I planned never to write a sequel to the novel. And so my next book was Thomas the Rhymer (which did win some awards, so that was nice). But I found I missed my imaginary city, as well as my characters, and wanted to see how they were progressing. And so I made a rule that I was allowed to return, as long as I kept playing with viewpoints and styles, so it didn’t get stale or repetitive. I hope you can forgive me.

Tremontaine was an adventure in “shared world” writing: we gathered a group of mostly gay and lesbian writers together to write a collaborative prequel to Swordspoint. There’s almost no one straight in the entire four seasons of serial stories we wrote for Serial Box! The only one I can think of, in fact, is one of the villains.  But only one: in Season Two, for example, Tessa Gratton created the most chilling pair of rogues imaginable, who are always having spontaneous hot sex up against a wall when they’re not trying to murder someone. And even most of the “straight” people turn out to be bi, which is very much in keeping with the series as I first imagined it. Of course, I never, ever imagined a project like this growing out of my first novel! But Serial Box invited us, and we had a blast. I’d do it again in a heartbeat – especially with colleagues like Tessa, and Joel Derfner, and Malinda Lo, and Karen Lord.

That was such an amazing crew of writers. I loved every minute of the series, and I wish Tremontaine had continued beyond Season 4, and that sales had supported print versions of seasons two through four. Rumor has it there’s more Riverside/City/Land books coming. What are you working on now and what do you have coming out soon?

My WIP is another novel written out of order in the Swordspoint/Riverside/Tremontaine sequence: It takes place fifteen years after The Privilege of the Sword, and is the story of Jessica Campion, Alec’s bastard daughter, the angriest teenager in the world.

Currently online is a little fantasia made up of some of the child Jessica’s flashbacks to her visits with her father and Richard St Vier on their island of exile: It’s called “On the Island,” and it’s part of Jo Walton and Maya Chabra and Lauren Schiller’s wonderful Decameron Project, which they began the minute the pandemic hit. They have a spectacular array of work up there, ranging from unpublished chapters from the WIP of lesbian genius Laurie J. Marks and SF writer Rosemary Kirstein’s “Steerswoman” series, to work by Usman Malik, Laurie Penny, and many, many more.

I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Coming in November is a story I wrote for Silk & Steel: An adventure anthology of queer sf&f with high femmes & dashing women. It’s another Tremontaine story, featuring a challenge by a new Riverside sword, a woman named Angwar Bec, who loves pastry almost as much as she loves steel. It was a lot of fun to write – and thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, I’m even getting paid for it!

I’m always happy to have more Tremontaine/Riverside/The City in my life! Finally, where can people find you and your work online?

I’m over-active on Facebook and Twitter (@EllenKushner), under-active on Instagram. I have a website, which I try to keep reasonably up to date: www.EllenKushner.com If you got to my Bibliography page, you’ll find links to a lot of the short stories that are up online.

Two recent interviews that are very thorough but not yet on the website are:
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2019/11/interview-with-ellen-kushner-swordspoint/

http://locusmag.com/2017/01/spotlight-on-ellen-kushner-tremontaine/

Ellen Kushner usually lives in New York City with her wife, writer Delia Sherman. They also spend a lot of time in Paris, which hardly influences their writing at all not even a little bit, no. During the CV-19 lockdown, they are sheltering in a friend's guest house in Tucson, Arizona, where they happened to be on a writing retreat when the Virus hit the fan. Kushner's novel Swordspoint introduced readers to the city to which she has returned in two more novels (one co-written with Delia), a growing handful of short stories and the collaborative serial prequel, Tremontaine (SerialBox.com). A longtime performer and public radio host, she narrated all three as audiobooks for Neil Gaiman Presents. Her award-winning Thomas the Rhymer is a Gollancz “Fantasy Masterwork…..” But wait! There’s more!  EllenKushner.com

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEW: AW Burgess

Today’s Pride Month Interview is with author and educator AW Burgess:

Hi, A.W.! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

What a great and terrible question, in the same way that OZ is the great and terrible. I feel like I almost need to distract your dear readers with some fanciful magic that would have them believe I’ve been muddling through just swell! The truth is, the pandemic and other issues, like what is happening with the Black Lives Matter movement, have done a toll on me, emotionally and physically. It has been very difficult to be creative. I’m not the kind of thinker or writer who does my best work in times of strife; I know that a lot of writers thrive on turmoil and uncertainty, but I find that it is when I’m most at peace that I am able to focus and to put out my best (and greatest amount) of work. That said, since my output has been low, I have increased my input. I’ve been reading a lot; fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I’ve been finding inspiration in the bodies and voices of people on the front lines, and I’ve been trying my best to avoid social media so that I can actually and effectively take in all that is happening, all that I’m thinking about, and all that I’m feeling about it. This has always been a cycle of mine, though; a year of furious output followed by a year of immersion in others’ works. So, perhaps I’m just on that particular swing. I do have a complete draft of a novel that I need to get to work revising (beta reader feedback has begun to come in!) and I’ve been writing and submitting some poetry. I may turn my attention more to poetry in the coming year, to be honest, which is new and unsettling, but also wild. Speaking of which, I was interviewed in a 5-part series at Poetry Mini-Interviews, if anyone is interested: http://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Adam%20W.%20Burgess.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being gay influenced or informed your writing and blogging?

Well, being gay has turned out to be a rather important part of my academic and creative life. Much of my graduate work focused on LGBTQ history, particularly literature, and I wrote my dissertation on gay literature in the United States before Stonewall. Similarly, my creative work has been inspired by what I learned as a student, both in terms of being a student in dozens of classes where gay issues never came up, and feeling so very alone; but also in terms of my work, which very much came of those lonely experiences and the curiosity it generated. Did gay people not exist before the 1960s? Does it not matter that these writers, male, female, and other, were not heterosexual? Why do all my professors avoid these issues, these questions? I did not want to be that person, that kind of professor. And that commitment has overflowed into my creative writing, insofar as I try to write the stories that I wish I would have found when I was a kid. The ones I needed desperately, sometimes.

In 2019, you published From a Whisper to a Riot: The Gay Writers Who Crafted an American Literary Tradition, covering a period in the development of gay literature that has been under-represented in other histories. Tell us a bit about the inspiration for the book, and about your research.

Thank you for mentioning my book and for reading it. Your review was absolutely wonderful, and I’m very grateful to you for it. That book came directly out of my doctoral work mentioned above. It was an interesting journey, really. I chose a specific PhD program because the University was ranked highly for LGBT+ inclusion and because it offered a graduate certificate in LGBT Studies (which I pursued and earned). It was my time in that certificate program more than my time in the literature classroom that influenced me, really, because even in graduate courses, I was getting very little from my professors as far as diverse representation in the required reading. Ultimately, I created my own course of study, which meant I had to come up with a list of 100+ texts to read, a course to take with a faculty advisor, and then an exam based on that extensive reading and study (supplemented by my certificate program in LGBT Studies). When I managed to complete all of that, I was allowed to propose a dissertation topic. That topic? Openly gay writing by openly gay writers before Stonewall. Gay history is so long, has so much depth, but nobody knows about it. Everyone knows Stonewall. Everyone knows what has happened since Stonewall. But the reality is, so much was happening before the 1960s. Before the 1900s, even! I thought it was important to get this information collected and put out there into the world, if only so we can have a healthy rebuttal to that dismissive attitude we sometimes face, that gay/trans issues are just “too new.” They’re not. They’re a human constant.

You’re an English Professor, specializing in LGBT Studies and American Literature among other things. I’d love to hear about the process, and challenges, of developing an LGBT Studies curriculum, especially with the boom in LGBT fiction (and especially genre fiction) in the past decade or so.

Yes, it has been a blessing and a curse! You want to teach all the things, particularly when there’s such a new interest in this field. College is the time that a lot of people are coming of age, which means, for many, coming out. I want to do justice to everyone who might be in my classroom, whether they signal anything personal about themselves. One of best ways I know to do that is to diversify my reading lists in every course. A colleague recently commented, after a review of my last three years’ syllabi, that I always have more women than men on my reading lists. That’s true. And I also have writers of color, queer writers, translated writers, writers with disabilities, etc. The toughest part is still the debate about who and what to include, especially now that I know how long and rich our history is. My goal right now is to offer as much of a historical and contextual experience as I can for my students, which means regardless of the class topic, I try to include readings that cover a broad timeline, many places, and multiple perspectives. Something I hear repeatedly from students is that they have seen themselves represented for the first time in something they’ve read from my class, whether that be a text by a Latinx writer, or about a transgender experience, or a translated text from a Filipinx native. This is the most rewarding comment I can ever hope to receive, because I know how valuable it is to see ourselves represented in what we are expected to study. When a professor elevates your experience to something worthy of scholarly consideration, it is beyond validating.

What has “distance learning” looked like for you and your students over the past few months?

Fortunately, I have taught some of my courses online and in hybrid formats for many years. To be honest, though, this has been a challenge. It is not just the fact that all classes moved online, but that combined with the circumstances that required it, which have everyone feeling stressed, confused, and sometimes defeated. When we moved online mid-semester in the Spring, I did everything I could to keep my students motivated and encouraged, from allowing extra time on assignments to incorporating “mental health break” activities, like visiting a virtual zoo or going “star-gazing” online. The funny thing is, I think these challenges, these experiences, have added an entirely new and welcomed perspective to my pedagogy, things I will keep in mind and keep adapting even when (if?) we return to a more traditional environment.

You’re also a well-published essayist and book reviewer, and you’ve talked about working on short stories and a novel. So what are you working on now? Do you have anything coming out in the near future?

Ah, did I give away the game already? I have two major projects right now. The first is revising my young adult novel (it is so queer!) based on feedback from beta readers. I hope to then send that off to publishers and agents for consideration. I had received two full manuscripts on it already, but the work simply wasn’t finished. The other thing I’m working on is my poetry. Poetry is something I’ve been reading and teaching for years, but I hadn’t really tried writing much of it. But in the last year or so, it has been calling to me. The worst thing a writer can do is ignore whatever is calling to them. So, if anything comes out soon, and I hope it will, it will be either my very first novel, or some poetry. I’ll be sure to share any updates to my blog and on social media.

And finally, the usual: where can people find you and your work online?

The best place to keep up with me will be my blog, Roof Beam Reader. I have a love-hate relationship with social media, so while I do have a few accounts, my impulse is not to use them very much. Thanks so much for having me, Anthony, and happy pride!

A. W. Burgess is a southern Nevada writer whose works of fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various creative and academic publications, such as Towers Magazine, Brave Voices Magazine, America’s Emerging Writers, and Watermark Journal. Among his greatest inspirations are Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Didion, Ocean Vuong, and James Baldwin. Currently, he lives with his husband in Las Vegas, where he is an Instructor of English and a frequent explorer of Clark County’s trails, mountains, and wetlands. In 2019, Burgess began work on his first novel. More information can be found on his website, http://www.roofbeamreader.com.