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We love good books, just like you do
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Dear Readers,
It's been a year since we relaunched the Bywater newsletter. Since then, our authors have been nominated for awards–and won them. We've published two first-time authors, and been joined by a best-selling author looking for a new home. And we also created a new-look website.
So, what's coming in the next year? Well, you can expect to meet new authors, and new stories by authors you already know–and to find out what's happened to some of your favorite characters. And we'll also start selling e-books via our website by the end of the year.
Fans of Mari SanGiovanni can find out more about her in the Author Profile below. And yes, there's a sequel coming to her best-selling novel Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer. Watch this space!
Check out P-town 2010 for the more details of what we've got planned.
As always, we at Bywater strive to bring you the finest in
lesbian romance, mystery, and literary fiction.
Till next time!
Kelly Smith
Marianne K. Martin
Val McDermid
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Mari SanGiovanni reckons we may think she's a "total idiot." Here's why:
"I've been told I 'think differently' a million times." (Um, me too.)
"I must dive for Post-it notes within seconds of thinking of something, before the thought evaporates forever." Even then, it sometimes does–"often as I am writing the note. 'What does this mean?' I ask myself, staring at the scribbled-in-panic half-sentence." (Um, I leave paper trails around the house, with scrawls I regularly fail to decipher.)
"Writing makes no sense for me at all."
OK. I'm listening.
It turns out, that this hugely popular author (don't take my word for it; check out her reviews on Amazon) can't actually understand "sentences with too many large words." And she didn't study writing in school ("obviously"). And "I am the slowest reader I know. I always thought I shouldn't write because I could never spell and I abuse parenthesis (constantly) and … other devices … to appear as if I am purposely not following the rules of writing a proper sentence."
And yet in spite of all that "I always wanted to write books."
Um, does that qualify her as an idiot? Or ambitious?
The way I figure it, she's not so dumb that she'll ever let her first manuscripts out of the closet. And she did put herself forward for the Bywater Prize for Fiction. And when Kelly Smith looked at what she sent and liked only the first ten pages, Mari didn't give up. In fact: "Once I realized I was bad at writing traditional romance, Kelly convinced me to grow some lady lips and push the somewhat dirty comedy in my writing." The result was Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer, which has been making readers laugh out loud ever since it was published in 2007. (Did I tell you to check out her reviews on Amazon?) And now Mari has finished the first draft of its sequel, Camptown Ladies. Watch this space for our announcement of its publication date.
You may be wondering why the sequel took her so long. Well, in between times she has adapted Greetings…for the screen. ("I have a few bites," she says, "But in Hollywood 'Love it' means nothing and silence means 'No.'") She's also completed an original screenplay, The Sibling Rule, based on an idea by Val McDermid: "Two divorced women fake a lesbian marriage to keep their kids in the same school. Would have worked perfectly, if they, yup, you guessed it, didn't fall in love." She's written another book Liddy-Jean, Marketing Queen (and yup, we'll be publishing that one too). And she also holds down a full-time job as Vice President of Product Development, heading up a team of designers creating products that most likely have ended up in your home.
All of which leaves me wondering: why does Mari SanGiovanni think that I think or you think or any of us think she's an idiot?
Turns out she has something to confess: "My brain is in a constant panic to fight boredom. … I will do just about anything to avoid being bored." So she paints and sculpts stone, and because she also has a "fear of other people being bored" she writes novels and screenplays. So how about we call
her a "Renaissance Woman"? As she says, it would look much better on a t-shirt than "idiot," plus she's always had a thing for Rubens girls.
She lives in Rhode Island with her "very patient" partner Kim (who might want to give her a pep talk).
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Greetings from Jamaica,
Wish you were Queer
by Mari SanGiovanni
Warning: This book may make you laugh out loud in public.
Marie Santora has always known her Italian family is a little crazy, but when she inherits her grand-mother's estate, they now have a million more reasons to act nuts. It soon becomes clear that the amount of money Marie needs to live comfortably will be decided by her family–if they don't get enough of her money, she won't live comfortably.
Marie plans her escape. She'll give her family a parting gift and then move to Hollywood to chase her dream of writing film scripts. But with millions at stake, it will take more than a free vacation to Jamaica to get the erratic Santora family to toe the line. And the timing couldn't be worse when her hot pursuit changes from screenplay to foreplay. Now she has to stop her loud-mouthed clan from spilling her secrets as fast as they're swilling Jamaican rum.
Climb aboard this hilarious rollercoaster ride where Marie is left wishing "out" was the new "in," and where every lounge chair is a hot seat when the Santora family ventures this close to the equator. The island of Jamaica just may not be big enough.
Greetings from Jamaica… was a runner-up for the first annual Bywater Prize for Fiction.
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The news keeps getting better and better for Lisa Gitlin. We told you last time about the rave review for I Came Out for This? now appearing on Amazon. Its author urged readers to get it now "before the demand for it becomes too great." Well, he got that one right: sales of the book are very strong! (Maybe because it's summer right now, and the beach is one public place where you won't get too many odd looks for laughing out loud.)
And now Lisa's just picked up another great review from the Akron Beacon Journal. Check it out here!
In November this year, we'll be publishing Stella Duffy's Parallel Lies. In the meantime, her latest novel has just been published in the UK. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore tells the (true) story of the Empress Theodora, wife of the Emperor Justinian. Stella explains: "While there's little actual history written about her (when have women ever merited much historical attention?!), there's always been plenty of speculation, from her starring performances in the early theatre, to utterly salacious stories about what she might–or might not–have got up to on and off stage, as well as possibilities of numerous affairs and especially misogynist accounts of her enjoying her own passionate and vibrant sexuality. The fact that the law was later changed to allow her to marry well above her own rank, that the Emperor Justinian called her his 'pious consort,' and that she herself worked on the law 'On Pimps and Prostitutes,' meant that not only were there some good historical 'truths' to play with, there's also been lots I can simply make up–I am a fiction writer after all!"
Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore will be published in the United States next year. Meantime, it's been enjoying delicious reviews in the UK, including this from the Financial Times: "A bravura performance; a witty, moving, sexy book that bursts with as much colour and excitement as the city of Constantinople itself."
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Lisa Gitlin
· will be appearing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cleveland on Thursday, August 12 at 7 p.m.
Legacy Village,
14519 Cedar Road,
Lyndhurst, OH 4412.
For more information: 216 691-7000 or visit the website.
· will present her book at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center, as part of Jewish Book Month, on November 11 at 7 p.m.
Amberley Village
8485 Ridge Road,
Cincinnati, OH 45236.
Elena Dykewomon
will be appearing at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) in New York on October 8-10, as part of the event In Amerika they Call Us Dykes: Lesbian Lives in the 1970s.
This is "a weekend-long event/conference/festival of lesbian history, culture, arts, scholarship, discussion, and performance from Friday, October 8th to Sunday, October 10th. The event will call upon experience, memory, and scholarship to represent as fully as possible the broad and wide experience of lesbians in the 1970s."
Elena will sit on two panels and give a reading.
The Graduate Center
City University of New York, Room 7.115.365
Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
For more information: (212) 817-1955 or clags@gc.cuny.edu
Stella Duffy
· will be reading from new novel Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore as part of Bristol Pride at the Arnofilni Centre, Bristol, UK on Wednesday, August 18.
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol BS1 4QA.
For more information: 44 0117 9172300 / 01 or www.arnofilni.org.uk
· will be leading a Starting to Write workshop for New Writing South on Saturday, September 18.
De La Warr Pavilion
Bexhill
East Sussex TN40 !DA
For more information: www.dlwp.com/default.aspx
· will be at the Small Wonder Short Story Festival in Charleston, UK on Thursday, September 23.
For more information:
www.charleston.org.uk/smallwonder/programme.php
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Details haven't been finalized, but Bywater will again be part of Women's Week, running this year from October 8 to 17.
Bett Norris and Mari SanGiovanni are both now confirmed and will be taking part in events on Thursday 14th, Friday 15th, and Saturday 16th.
As in previous years, we will be holding A Night of Wine and Cheese. This will again be hosted by Womencrafts, and will take place on Thursday 14th.
And on Saturday morning, Kelly Smith and Marianne K. Martin will be on a panel chaired by Kate Clinton, talking about Lesbian Fiction and publishing today.
We'll have exact times and locations for you in the next newsletter! |
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PO Box 3671
Ann Arbor MI 48106
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