Lawrence Schimel

CRITICAS, the English-language review of Spanish-language titles from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and LIBRARY JOURNAL, gives a shout out to my new "Lambda Libros" column in THE LAMBDA BOOK REPORT, covering gay and lesbian titles in Spanish, as well as plugging my new Spanish language poetry collection DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA.

:-)

I meant to go to bed already, since I need to be up early tomorrow, but I opened the file I got today, a new translation for a new client, and, well, I just started tinkering a little, and before I knew it I was halfway done.

It's nice when the work just sucks you in like that.

In some ways, it's even relaxing, if that makes any sense.

I end up feeling contented/satisfied, because I've DONE something.

But for now, to bed with me, since I'm filling in for a morning shift at the bookstore.

Running Press is getting into the fiction market with what it sees as a unique twist in historical romance--gay fiction written by and for straight women. The idea for the line came from Running president Jon Anderson and is based on what he sees as the growing interest in M/M stories reflected in the success of such projects as Brokeback Mountain and the television series Brothers and Sisters. Anderson has acquired the first titles in the line, which will be edited by Lisa Clancy, associate editorial director. The series will launch in April with Transgressions and False Colors. Two more titles are set for fall 2009.

Running v-p and associate publisher Craig Herman said the series will be positioned as a subgenre within romance and while the books will be “erotic, they will not be hardcover explicit,” Herman explained. Running will promote the line through traditional romance outlets including advertising in Romantic Times and outreach through regional RWA chapters. Noting that the books will be shelved in the romance section rather than the erotica section, Running said the book will be “created to mirror romance novels, not gay erotica.”

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Given how many queer presses have collapsed or been shut down lately for various reasons and how few mainstream opportunities there are for books with gay male characters and content, does this mean gay male writers are going to need to start using female pseudonyms in order to get published?

Last night I arrived in Santander and had a presentation of my new poetry book DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA in Librería Gil. You can't quite see from the glare, but they made a lovely front window display with copies of the book and a poster announcing the event.

We had a very nice turnout (evidently, what I as a wimpy Madrileño considered unpleasant weather was nothing for the stalwart Santanderinos) and a very mixed turnout: poetry afficionados, gay readers, a handful of people from the Santander Science Fiction group, etc. Gender breakdown was maybe one third women, which was an interesting change from other recent events I've done for this or other gay books.

Regino Mateo presented me and the book, and then I spoke for a bit and read a few poems and then spoke some more.

We had some dialogue, afterward, although I think people were embarrassed to ask questions in public.

We wound up taking so long, though, that I didn't make it to the TV interview I was supposed to do after (oops!) so we retired to a bar around the corner for more conversation, and then to a restaurant nearby.

Not sure exactly how many books were sold, the bookstore told me they'd been selling some from before the event, as well, to people who couldn't make it last night (evidently there were 5 other readings at the same time, so the literary public was very split up).

Librería Gil is very well-known in the field of children's books (I'd known about them for years even though this is my first visit to Santander) so I had brought some of my kidzbooks for them as well, and between what they had on hand and what I brought those sold nicely as well ('tis the gift giving season and all).

A lovely event.

Right now, I've had to check out of the hotel, but I'm sitting in the cafeteria looking out at the Cantabrian Sea... and, alas, I'm going to have to start working.

I managed to translate close to 2000 words on the train before my battery collapsed, and I switched to editing some printouts I'd brought with me, and then starting to read a Sharon Shinn novel (MYSTIC AND RIDER) that a friend sent me recently (thanks, Mei!).

Este jueves, 11 de diciembre, presento DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA en Santander, en la Librería Gil (Plaza de Bombo).

Aunque llevo casi 10 años en España, será la primera vez que estoy en Cantabria.

Me han organizado una entrevista con un cana de tele local para después del acto.

Y tendré la mañana para explorar la ciudad, si no hay otros comprisos para promocionar el libro que surgen entre ahora y entonces (que no me importa, es para eso que voy).

Estaré en la playa misma en el Hotel Chiqui (http://www.hotelchiqui.com/).

Estoy preparado para mucho frío (¡aunque espero que no está nevando!), pero la playa en invierno también tiene su encanto.

My new book is out!

Woo hoo!

It has a sexy cover photo by Jack Slomovitz, and it looks lovely.

This is the first volume of the Spanish edition of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW GAY EROTICA. The book was so big that the Spanish publisher is splitting it into three separate volumes.

This first one includes: Shaun Levin, Michael Lassell, Andy Quan, myself, Greg Herren, Daniel M. Jaffe, Tom Mendicino, Paul Russell, Robin Metcalfe, Trebor Healey, Rick R. Reed, Alexander Chee, and David May.

Once I get the contributor copies, I'll try and get them sent off to the authors (although since I'll be back in the US in Feb for AWP, I might schlepp them back to the US with me and mail them from there if people don't mind the extra wait, postage from Spain being rather steep and the Euro being high against the dollar still, etc).

It's nice to have this flurry of publishing activity all of a sudden.

:-)

Yesterday was one of those authorially busy days that involves everything but actually writing: I gave an interview about DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA to the GLBT magazine for the Canary Islands (UXXS Magazine), I had coffee with Javier (who'd already interviewed me for Ambiente-G while I was away so we hadn't had a chance to meet in person), and a lovely dinner with a new publisher to talk about possibilities of working together.

And in between things like dealing with galleys, responding to emails about various projects, setting up promotional events for January, and so on.

But no writing, and not sure when I'll be able to get back to it, especially since I have a large translation gig demanding my attention...

Today hopefully will be much calmer, and with any luck I'll be able to focus better with a block of uninterrupted time in which to work.

At least, that's always my hope. But that's why I'm such a sucker for things like the Container Store back in the US; I always think that if I could just organize my papers/life/files/time, everything would be so lovely...
:-)

(I'm much better at organizing or reorganizing others' books/files/life/etc. which is one of the nice things of working at the bookstore occasionally; I can get that little blip of satisfaction from having organized, without actually needling to tackle my own mess.)

...y otras temas también!

Esta vez en el blog de Ambiente-G.