Literary Childhood

This writer does not have the words to describe how the death of some childhood icons has been affecting me. This writer said it best here. I am a man of a certain age, influenced by the culture I grew up in. I do feel like a part of Yesterday has vanished, reminding me that all things do eventually pass.

Literary Sentiment

I feel like I'd been writing angry, frustrating stuff. Like this piece on the HIV funding cuts. Read here. I also turned in a piece for an anthology, recalling a vulnerable time in my life when I was 18.

For my own sanity, I felt I needed to write something a little more...uplifting, grateful. I came up with this piece for the Huffington Post. On Father's Day eve, I'm happy I had a father to love and hate. Read here.

Literary Blue

This was orginally on my list of "Must Read Summer Books." It was taken off my list because it was reviewed in a previous issue. So, here's what I wrote:

Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal (Kensington)

Kiran Sharma is a twelve year old doll-playing-ballet-dancing American boy of Indian descent. From the very first page, Kiran will charm the pants off of you. He says, “I’m surprised that my mother still doesn’t know. Surely she must notice her cosmetics diminishing every day. Surely she has noticed that the ends of her lipsticks are rounded, their pointy tips dulled by frequent application to my tiny but full mouth.” And young Kiran wants to be a God, the Hindu deity Krishna. His divine path makes for a memorable journey.

Literary Summertime

My gay Summer reading list was published in Frontiers Magazine. It's in the Pride issue, which mean a ton of people will be picking it up when they come to gay pride this month. It was a tough list to put together. I mean, reading tastes are so vast and varied. I thought of those who enjoyed the light beach read to the more thought provoking tome. Anyway take a look here.

Literary Move

The Promising Reading Series Moves to Skylight Books


(Los Angeles) The Promising Series is the only reading series in Los Angeles that exclusively features Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender writers. A goal for the series is to celebrate established authors and introduce the next generation of writers who will explore the GLBT experience.

“The Queer Voice is more important than ever,” said Series Curator Noël Alumit. “In America, gay rights has become a polarizing issue. In other parts of the world, you have gay men who are being executed in the Middle East and lesbians being raped in South Africa. Those of us who can speak, should.”

With the unfortunate closing of A Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood, The Promising Reading series has moved to Skylight Books in Los Feliz. “A Different Light Bookstore gave a lot of queer writers a launching pad,” said Noël Alumit. “I was saddened with its closure. However, Skylight has always been supportive of queer writers and was kind enough to host the series and support its goals.”

The next reading will be held on Friday, June 5th 2009 at 7:30pm.

The reading will feature:

Cheryl Klein’s first book, The Commuters, won City Works Press’ Ben Reitman Award and was published in 2006. Her novel Lilac Mines was published by Manic D Press in 2009. For more of her writing and blogging, visit http://www.cheryl-klein.com/.

Raquel Gutierrez is a community based performance writer and cultural activist. She is a co-founding member of the queer performance art ensemble, Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, and has written their first play currently in production called The Barber of East L.A., commissioned by a humanities initiative at USC that enabled the troupe to work with Luis Alfaro. http://www.raquefella.com/

Scott Turner Schofield’s first book Two Truths and a Lie (Homofactus Press) was a finalist for two 2008 Lambda Literary Awards, and made the 2009 American Library Association's Rainbow List. His latest performance, “Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps,” plays at Highways in Santa Monica June 12-13. http://www.undergroundtransit.com/

Orlando Ashley is an actor and comedian embarking on a literary career in Los Angeles.

The Promising Series will take place on Friday, June 5 at 7:30pm. Skylight Bookstore, 1818 North Vermont, Los Angeles, CA 90029, (323) 660-1175

Literary Huffington

I'd been a fan of the Huffington Post for quite some time. I am honored to have a piece in it. Click here.

Literary Latest

I'd been anticipating the announcement for the ruling on Prop. 8. Needless to say, but I am terribly disappointed. More on that later.

I wanted to write this post to acknowledge the death of an important Asian American academic, Ronald Takaki. Read more here. I read his book "Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans." It was mind blowing.

Literary List

Frontiers In Los Angeles magazine asked me to put together a reading list this Summer that the LGBT community might want to read. I put out a call to agents, editors, publicists, and authors that I knew. I wanted books that would be published between March and September. The reponse has been overwhelming and compiling a list of just ten books has been daunting.

There were some books that I really enjoyed, but I wondered if they were "Summer" reading. I don't want to insult readers, assuming they just want fluffy beach books. I'm hoping to have a spectrum of books available. But just ten?

I e-mailed the editors and hoped they would consider more book features because something I've witnessed: there are a lot of great queer books coming out!

If anything, I hope to feature them on this blog. Oy!

Literary Cat

This is why I believe in reincarnation. You can't tell me that this feline, named Fidel, didn't have a past life as an avid reader. Read more here.

Thanks, Allen, for the heads-up.

Literary Black Berry

I got a black berry, something I'd been torn over. I worried that it would distract me from my writing. We'll see...

Literary Weho

If anyone is in the West Hollywood area on Wednesday night, May 6th, round 7pm, check out this reading at Book Soup. It sounds like an interesting read.

For more information, click here.

Literary Manong

I got word that poet and activist Al Robles passed away over the weekend. He was mostly known in northern California, but his work sent ripples to Fil-Am communities across the country.

I saw him read at a conference at UCLA years ago. He was known as Manong, loosely translated as Uncle. Read more about him here.

Literary Vid

Literary Check

You are a professional if you get paid. I got my first writers check of 2009. Woo-hoo! I am a professional writer for yet another year. It was for a hundred and fifty dollars. Papa's going to by some groceries!!!

Literary Northridge

I spoke an Asian American fiction class at Cal-State Northridge. I showed up and was surprised at the very warm welcome. They had a potluck with some incredible food. What I loved about going to this Asian Am. Fiction class was that it was very diverse--there were non-asians taking the class!

There was something personally uplifting about this for me. I read the spectrum: from John Irving to Toni Morrison. Seeing young people making an effort to read about other cultures other than their own was really inspiring. And isn't that the way it should be?

All of the students, probably born in the late 1980's, had never heard of Montgomery Clift or the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. In that way, I'm glad my novel had educated them.

Here's a pic of the dignified author (in tan jacket) with a melee of students. Maria, the woman in front of me, teaches the class. They were really great.

Literary Smarts

Come one, come all. I am honored to serve as host for another Dead Poetry Slam produced by Smartgals. It's this Sunday night, April 26th. It really is one of those events you must experience. It's a hoot seeing professionals artists interpreting the work of poets no longer with us. Read more here.

Literary Torture

It's torture to read and watch news accounts of America torturing people. The physical and mental abuse inflicted upon another person disgusts me. I hear pundits who think that torture is necessary to keep America safe. I've researched torture. When I wrote both my novels I read about how humans inflict harm on others. The reasons vary: to protect our country, to protect what's mine, to defend a belief system. In the end, the people who torture are ALWAYS the bad guys, lacking moral fortitude.

Waterboarding is not torture, says a person for truth, justice, and the American way. I don't know. Simulating drowning sounds like torture to me. Reading about the American doctors and psychologists who helped torture people sound like the same medical personnel in Nazi Germany who experimented on Jews. Those people stained the profession and shouldn't be called doctors.

I thought this from Fox News Shepard Smith said it all:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/shepard-smith-torture_n_190350.html

We don't fxxking torture!

Literary Voice

Last night, I spoke to the new group of Emerging Voices fellows at PEN Center USA West. My collegue Jenoyne Addams and I have done Author Nights with them for the past several years. I do this because eleven years ago, I was an Emerging Voice.

The writer's life is hard. It's filled with insecurity and fear. However, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Somewhere in this life is the satisfaction of creativity and the belief that I'm doing something to help the world somehow.

Literary Revisit

After nearly eight months of not looking at my novel, I pulled it out this week. You know, my first reaction WASN'T to vomit. There might be something there.

I'd been toying with making a drastic change to the protagonist's profile. It would layer the character, but it scares me. It would open a whole a new, uncharted door.

Literary Glitch

I got an e-mail this morning. She explained that she posts lists on Amazon. She's most interested in gay reading lists. Apparently, I was an author on her list that Amazon deranked because my work was considered "adult" material. Rather, they think it's porn.

Yeah, I spend years researching stories about love, war, injustice but what I'm really writing is smut! Read more here.

Amazon is calling the deranking of gay books a glitch. Does anyone hear the sound of back pedaling?