Jeffrey Ricker's Blog, page 37
March 11, 2014
They said it on the air on the radio
If you’re in Vancouver, tune in to CITR 101.9 on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and you’ll hear yours truly talking with Arts on Air host Ira Nadel about The Unwanted and writing in general. We recorded it today, and hopefully I didn’t stick my foot in my mouth too far.
Look, visual proof! This was taken on the fly by producer Nicole Gibillini. The mic placement proves I have a face for radio:
Not in Vancouver? You’re missing some lovely weather then. (Last week was rainy as hell though.) More to the point, past episodes are available as podcasts that you can listen to online (or off)—I’ll post a direct link to the episode once it’s live.
Meanwhile, it’s always a good time to listen to some Donna Summer:
March 7, 2014
In case you missed it: Reading at the Cottage Bistro March 13
I know I’ve probably mentioned this already, but just in case: If you’re in Vancouver, BC, I’ll be reading on Thursday, March 13, at the Cottage Bistro on Main Street as part of Locution, the University of British Columbia Creative Writing Program‘s MFA reading series. The event starts at 7 p.m., and I’ll be reading a passage from The Unwanted (Click the cover! Buy a copy! [Did I mention I have student loans?]) and will be joining fellow MFA students Jane Campbell and Rhett Davis, as well as guest Theodora Armstrong, author of Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility.
You can find details at the event’s Facebook page. Hope to see you there! And hey, there’s always the possibility that I will stumble over my words, drop my manuscript, and make a general spectacle of myself. That’s at least worth some entertainment value, hey?
March 6, 2014
But wait, there’s more! Or “Jeff, read the whole thing”
Did I mention that I turned in the second draft of my thesis last night? And that I have a major assignment due tomorrow (more on that later) and a short story for my fiction workshop that’s overdue? (The working title is “Little Bastard,” but it’s been suggested that I change it to “Two Men and an Armadillo.”)
In short, I’m a little stressed.
This can be the only reason I can give for forgetting to add in my previous post that Rebekah Weatherspoon, one of the coolest people I’ve never met, is also a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in the category Lesbian Erotica for her novel At Her Feet, which is easily the hottest thing I’ve read so far this year.
(Yes, I sometimes read lesbian erotica. Big whoop, wannafightaboutit?)
A word of advice: maybe don’t read it on the bus. Your face will turn beet red and you’ll miss your stop.
Sorry about the omission, Rebekah. The memory really is the first thing to go. See what you have to look forward to as you get older?
The Light at the end of the Lambda finalists list
No really, it actually is very close to the end of the list of this year’s Lambda Literary Finalists that you’ll see under LGBT SF/F/Horror my friend ’Nathan‘s novel Light listed as a finalist. This is also ’Nathan’s debut novel, so I couldn’t be happier for him. If you haven’t read it, go order it now.
Yes, right now.
It’s okay, I’ll wait. (This is me waiting.)
Did you do it? Right, let’s move on.
Also on the list you’ll find Greg Herren’s Baton Rouge Bingo, the latest in his Scotty Bradley mystery series, as well as How Poetry Saved My Life, by Amber Dawn, who teaches in UBC’s MFA program. Congratulations to them and everyone else on the list!
March 4, 2014
AWP’d
This past weekend I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Seattle. So did about thirteen thousand other writers, publishers, and educators. To say it was overwhelming would be a tiny understatement. Given the plethora of things to do and books to buy, it’s a wonder that I didn’t come back to Vancouver with more books and litmags than I actually did.
There were many highlights of the weekend for me. One was catching up with the fantastic Jess Wells. I also was able to reconnect with Murray Farish, a fiction professor at Webster University whose workshop I took while I was on staff there. He was a fantastic teacher, and now he’s also got a new short story collection out, titled Inappropriate Behavior. I picked up a copy and am looking forward to reading it.
I was pleased to see how broadly AWP considered representation in the mix of panels and readings that were included in the conference program. One in particular that I found enlightening was titled “Queer Double Agents: Writing & Publishing Between Communities.” I wrote a little bit about this that you can find on PRISM international‘s website, along with my colleagues’ comments on the highlights of the weekend for them. Check it out!
February 25, 2014
Map of the World
Take a look at this map.
It’s not pretty, is it? (And I love maps, so that’s saying something.)
Anywhere you see a nation that isn’t green, that’s somewhere that people like me are basically illegal. People like me get killed.
Let’s not be too complacent about the green places, either. I could tell you about the places I’ve been in the United States where I’ve heard the cat calls and threats, directed at me or at other people. Friends of mine, sometimes. Or complete strangers. But mostly, people like me.
Still, I can stay where I am and be, relatively speaking, safe enough. People who live in those orange and red countries, or that big bruise-colored one and the like, may not have the luxury of pulling up stakes and moving.
So, you know, they fake it or die. And faking it, if you ask me (not that you did, but hey, you’re here, so you must be at least a little curious what I think—heaven knows why), is a kind of death in itself.
So you’ll excuse me if I don’t share your enthusiasm about your country’s hockey medal. When people say that things like someone else coming out don’t matter, or that a law in Uganda is none of our business, showing up to or watching a massive quadrennial sporting event (or not) hosted by a country whose leader is throwing queers under the bus to distract from massive corruption and a collapsing economy doesn’t matter, I have to say, yeah.
It does matter.
(And for the person who will inevitably say, “Yes, but a) the United States is guilty of equally heinous atrocities abroad” or b) “there are 17 states in the U.S. where it’s hell being queer so hypocrisy” or c) insert ad hominem “yes but” argument here, let me just cut to the chase and say hooey. Those things are awful, yes, and your bringing them up does nothing to negate the original position. Try harder. Better yet, try telling that to the one who was burned to death by a mob in Nigeria. Or the one who got trampled in Russia, or the transwoman gunned down in D.C.
(You can’t, of course. They’re dead.)
February 17, 2014
Library Pirates!
“This doesn’t make sense,” Baxter said, but the picture was getting clearer. He turned to Rodrigo. “Where were you before you found yourself here?”
Rodrigo’s brow furrowed. “We were on our ship, The Crimson Flame, being pursued by Sam Pike and his agents.” For a moment, he looked sheepish. “We had an—ah—surreptitious shipment to deliver to the coast of Italy.”
“Smugglers,” Baxter said, not noticing Rodrigo’s look of indignation. They started climbing again. “That makes sense. Is Sam Pike the law?”
Rodrigo smirked. “He’s a despicable rogue who uses the facade of the law for his own diabolical purposes.”
It was Baxter’s turn to smirk. “Whereas you’re a lovable rogue who fortunately can’t read the letter of the law.”
At first it looked like Rodrigo wasn’t sure which comment to take offense at, his roguishness or his illiteracy. Then he smiled. “So you find me lovable, guapo?”
Remember when I said I was taking part in a Round Robin writing project on Goodreads? Well, I finally finished my installment and posted it in the wee hours of yesterday morning. You can check it out here. (I don’t think you need to be a Goodreads member to see it, but if you are a member, go ahead and add me, and check out my next novel—and that ends today’s obligatory blatant self-promotion). I’m the fourth writer in the round, so be sure to start with part one and check out the others as well. It’s pretty fun! Especially considering that the story prompt was the phrase “library pirates.”
February 12, 2014
Give it away, give it away now
Remember when I said one of my goals for 2014 was to blog more? Yeah, I’ve clearly been having trouble with that over the past couple weeks. I’ve been trying to line up some promotional things for The Unwanted, and then there’s the whole grad school and thesis business, plus the literary magazine’s contest deadlines may have closed, but that means the reading and the judging has started, which pretty much requires most of my brain’s RAM to keep track of.
Sleep? I vaguely remember sleep.
But! I do have one thing to mention, and it’s not about The Unwanted. As I mentioned earlier this year, Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction came out. It’s the follow-up to Fool For Love, which contained my first fiction publication, “At the End of the Leash.” Foolish Hearts contains my story “Tea,” and I’m giving away a copy on Goodreads! Check it out:
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Foolish Hearts
by Timothy J. Lambert
Giveaway ends March 11, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
You like free, right? Of course you do. Normally I like to describe myself as cheap and easy, but this time I’m FREE and easy. What’s not to like?
February 5, 2014
Interview by Juliann Rich now up!
This went live last night but for anyone who missed it, there’s an interview with me by Juliann Rich now up over at her blog Rainbow Tree. Check it out!
Juliann has a YA novel coming out in June called Caught in the Crossfire. I’m really looking forward to reading it:
Two boys at Bible camp; one forbidden love.
That is the dilemma sixteen-year-old Jonathan Cooper faces when he goes away to Spirit Lake Bible Camp, an oasis for teen believers situated along Minnesota’s rugged north shore. He is expecting a summer of mosquito bites, bonfires with S’mores, and photography classes with Simon, his favorite counselor, who always helps Jonathan see his life in perfect focus.
What he isn’t expecting is Ian McGuire, a new camper who openly argues against phrases like pray the gay away. Ian is certain of many things, including what could happen between them if only Jonathan could surrender to his feelings. Jonathan, however, tosses in a storm of indecision between his belief in God and his inability to stay away from Ian. When a real storm hits and Ian is lost in it, Jonathan is forced to make a public decision that changes his life.
Keep an eye on her author page at Bold Strokes Books for preorder information. I’ll be doing a Q&A with her closer to the release date for her novel. She’s both a PFLAG mom and the daughter of evangelical Christians, so I’m really looking forward to a conversation with her on sexuality, identity, and faith.
And her two chronically disobedient dachshunds, as I have a little experience with those myself!
February 4, 2014
Billy was trouble
The Unwanted doesn’t officially come out until next month, but advance review copies have gone out and I’ve gotten my first review, which is by my fellow writer ’Nathan Burgoine. To say that he liked it would seem to be an understatement. On his blog Sunday he also highlighted one of my short stories, “Tea” in the new anthology Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction.
As I’ve mentioned before, the three main characters in The Unwanted—Jamie, Billy, and Sarah—first appeared in “The Trouble with Billy,” a short story in the anthology Speaking Out, published in 2011 by Bold Strokes Books. That book was recently included on the list of Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults by the ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association. It’s a great anthology with a lot of wonderful stories in it.
I’m thinking of ways I might try to offer “The Trouble with Billy” as a bit of a free taster for the characters in The Unwanted. It’s a much more realistic story than the fantasy of the novel, and I’ve changed a few things about them between the story and the book (Sarah’s dad is a single parent in the story, but not in the novel, for example), but I think it would be great to give people a chance to meet the characters that way too. I’ve been reading a lot about e-publishing on your own and have wanted to give it a shot anyway.
And hey, who doesn’t like free? Personally, I love free.
