Naked Reader Book Club Discussion

I've been moderating the online Naked Reader Book Club discussions for several months, but I haven't posted much about them here because the books they choose, while all excellent (and from Cleis Press,) are for the most part straight erotica. This week, though, Tuesday Jan. 24, we're discussing an anthology no one should miss: Tristan Taormino's Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica. If you haven't read the book, you can find out a great deal about it during the discussion. Here's the blurb I've been posting here and there:

Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica, 8-10 pm EST tomorrow evening on the Naked Reader Book Club. Not to be missed. If you identify as transgender, or have friends who do, you'll be glad a book this fine has gone there at last. If you don't know much about the trans folk in our communities, you'll be glad to know them at last. Some of the finest writers I know offer searingly hot stories that range from sweet to sadistic, tender to torrid, kinky to achingly lovely. http://www.edenfantasys.com/sex-forum/clubs/naked-reader-book-club/naked-reader-book-club-29/

Heiresses of Russ 2012: Call for Recommendations

And now for something (almost) completely different! My speculative fiction alter-ego has a new gig. If you don't have any recommendations yet for this, now's the time to go forth and read!

Heiresses of Russ, the new annual anthology series created in honor of the late writer, academic, and feminist Joanna Russ, is now taking recommendations for the 2012 edition. We’re looking for lesbian-themed speculative fiction first published in 2011.

The 2011 edition, co-edited by Joselle Vanderhooft, is available now, including work by Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Rachel Swirsky, and other outstanding writers. This year Steve Berman of Lethe Press has invited Connie Wilkins to co-edit the 2012 edition with him. Connie also edited Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories for Lethe Press, and has edited seven anthologies under an alternate name in an alternate genre.

We're looking for the best lesbian-themed speculative fiction published in 2011, with a length limit of 2,000-10,000 words. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, interstitital, just plain weird--we'll know it when we see it. We can’t succinctly define superlative writing, either, but we know it when we see it.

Recommendations from readers, authors, and publishers will be welcomed. We don't need the stories themselves just yet, but if we're interested and can't find copies on our own, we'll ask for manuscripts.

Our deadline for recommendations is March 15, 2012. The payment for these reprinted stories will be $25 each and two copies of the anthology. Recommendations and queries can be e-mailed to conniew@sff.net.