Celebrating National Library Week (with Spoilers)

This week, April 12-18, 2015, the American Libraries Association celebrates National Library Week:

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.

I am a librarian, although I no longer work as such. I received my Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of California at Berkeley way back in the day when it had a School of Library and Information Studies (the School was rebranded in 1994 and no longer graduates librarians). For over thirty years, I worked in a bunch of different libraries and archives – public, academic, and special (corporate and museum) – mainly as a freelance librarian. My specialty was cataloging.

So how does this inform my writing? Plenty. Continue reading

Steampunk Inspiration (Part 2): Burning Man

In Steampunk Inspiration (Part 1), I discussed my family ties to a unique object of inspiration for my very first Steampunk story. I also hinted at the source of inspiration for my second Steampunk story.

For “Delia’s Heartthrob”, my entry in Naughty Hearts the Valentine’s Day release from the Naughty Literati, there was a specific source of inspiration. But before I get into that there’s a bit of very personal backstory. Continue reading

Steampunk Inspiration (Part 1): A Naughty Device

Steampunk? A historian writing Steampunk?

I’m used to writing about characters and situations and places that actually existed or could have possibly existed (I mean, c’mon, it is fiction). I’m definitely not used to writing stories that take place in some futuristic pseudo-past where women wear corsets — leather corsets! — on top of their clothes. Besides I know absolutely nothing about science or mechanics (except when I was young and owned a VW Bug).

What’s the old adage? “Write what you know”? When you get right down to it, what on Earth does a librarian-art historian really know about erotica, much less Steampunk erotica? Continue reading

Two New Erotic Shorts Coming Soon!

May is Short Story Month, and I’m taking the opportunity to announce I’ll be in two upcoming anthologies. I’m amongst some greats in the erotica canon with these books, so am feeling a little amazed and abashed, as well as super excited! Continue reading