Author: Kelley

Nicola’s reading on video

In May, Nicola appeared at Hugo House in Seattle, reading two excerpts from her memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party (which, in case I haven’t said it loud or often enough, just won the Lambda Literary Award).

Thanks to the generosity of Nicola’s publisher Payseur and Schmidt, and the excellent skills of the filmmaker David (whose last name I hope to learn someday so I can credit him properly) Wulzen, both readings are on video. Watch below, or follow this link to Payseur and Schmidt.

See for yourself why an evening with Nicola is one of the best ways on the planet to spend some time. Enjoy!

Part One: No Pants Griffith

Part Two: Father Lucy

Nicola won the Lammy!

Last night, Nicola won the Lambda Literary Foundation Award for women’s memoir. It was a lovely event at the Silver Screen Theatre in the Pacific Design Center in LA, attended by many of the best queer writers in the world.

Nicola was awesome. She gave a heartfelt, moving speech that clearly touched the audience. And it was absolutely terrific to see so many people approach her with such genuine admiration and good wishes. A grand evening.

Or, as I love to say, my sweetie rocks!

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. Thank you to the organizers who worked so hard to put the event together. And thanks especially to all the people with whom we had great conversations and from whom we felt such goodwill.

LA la la

So here we are in LA. Today (apart from a screenplay notes phone call) has felt closer to a vacation than anything I’ve done in years. Not just because of the vacation-like activities (breakfast in the room in a corner between two windows open to an absolutely gorgeous day, shaded by flowering trees, followed by lunch by the pool and a very satisfying hour in the shade of an umbrella reading The Lost Colony and thank you again Scalzi for a really excellent trilogy, I have enjoyed an SF series this much in dogs’ years) — but also because I feel, I dunno… I feel good. That’s not unusual, but it doesn’t always happen when I am away. There are times when the stress of managing the new can overwhelm the benefits of being away from the old. This, so far, is not one of those times.

You can tell I’m really relaxing because I’m not even going to fix that enormous run-on sentence up there. It can just putter on to itself.

We’ve already been made to feel wonderfully welcome by Jennifer (who left us a perfect welcoming gift of fruit, chocolate, water and armagnac) and Lisa (who just published her first book so go check it out, and gave us a lovely dinner and conversation last night, just the sort of thing I enjoy).

In a couple of hours we are off to the the Lambda Literary Awards. Win or lose, it’ll be a massive party of the queer nation, and I’m looking forward to it.

But really I hope she wins!

AfterEllen interview

A new interview on AfterEllen.com with Lillian Faderman, Nancy Garden, Sarah Waters, Sammin Sarif, Val McDermid, Charlotte Mendelson, Ariel Shrag, Amy Bloom, Joan Larkin, Rebecca Walker, Karin Kallmaker, and me.

I love this format — a roundup of writers answering similar questions in so many different ways — and I’m honored to be in the company of all these writers. Sarah Waters is brilliant, Val McDermid is a funny, gracious woman in whose company I’ve spent some really good time, Nancy Garden is one of my YA writing heroes, and so on… It’s very cool to read the thoughts of so many smart, intense women who are so diverse as writers.

The link at the top of the post is the direct link to my part. But please don’t stop with me — here’s a link to Part 1 of the article, and the entirety of Part 2.

Because we should all be able to marry as we choose

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court ruled that the “fundamental right to marry” extends to same-sex couples.

Nicola and I would marry in a hot second if it were a federally-recognized legal relationship, and this ruling in California is an important step towards that higher goal.

The Office of the Governor of California has set up a hotline for a public opinion vote on this decision. Please call in and support the ruling.

ANYONE can vote in the poll. You don’t have to live in California. You don’t have to speak to a human being — it’s a fully automated system. All you have to do is:

1. call 916-445-2841
2. press options 1 (english); 5 (to vote on a hot topic); 1 (LGBT issue); 1 (vote yes).

If you are lesbian or gay or bisexual; if you have family or friends who are; if you want to be an ally; if you think that we all have the right to marry the person of our choice — then please call in with your vote.

Thank you very much for any support you choose to give. I appreciate it.

Reading May 30 – Los Angeles

Just a reminder that Nicola and I will read at A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood on Friday, May 30 at 7:30 pm.

If you’re in LA, please join us — and feel free to bring a dozen or so friends. Here’s a nifty flyer (thanks so much, Nancy and Jennifer!) to forward to anyone in the world you think might be interested.

Come hear some stories. Have some conversation. Find out if Nicola won the Lammy. We’ll have fun.

The Mirrored Heavens

Congratulations to Dave Williams on the publication of his first novel, The Mirrored Heavens.

I had the pleasure of working with Dave at Clarion West last year. All the writers who attended Clarion are special to me — they were intense, interesting, passionate and committed — and I can’t wait to see what they all do next. But today is Dave’s day. Dave, I’m thrilled for you: publication days are special, and one’s first novel even more special still.

The Mirrored Heavens is already getting great buzz — and you can find out more yourself in this way-cool book trailer (and I think these trailers are a big part of the future of book publishing, highly viral and highly effective. Visuals work…).

Dave’s also got a website. So go check it out, and buy his book!

Dave, I can’t wait to read it! Congratulations!

Old Man’s War

A friend recently discovered an author she likes (J.M. Coetzee, for inquiring minds) and immediately embarked on the adventure of reading everything she can find by him. I envied her. My life of late has been all screenplay, all the time, and that has had some unexpected consequences, not the least of which is that I read much less new-to-me fiction than I did. That’s partly because all the learning about screenwriting is enough “new” for me right now; and because I spend more of my leisure time (hah, such as it is) watching films (more with the learning); and because most of my new-reading bandwidth is taken up with YA as I continue to make notes and build the framework for the YA novel that’s coming up on my project list.

And because I’m so damned tired a lot of the time that all I want is serious comfort. Comfort food (my mom’s tuna casserole, Nicola’s Portuguese soup, the kick-ass marrow-bone vegetable beef soup that I make that we call shtoup because it’s thick like stew but it’s not stew, no matter what Nicola says). And comfort reading. I’ve been revisiting a lot of old favorites lately — Travis McGee, Bone Dance, and I’ve got my eye on a bunch of Stephen King novellas.

But I’ve been reluctant to engage with writers whose work I don’t already know. And then along came Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I’ve been reading Scalzi’s blog for a while, but not his fiction. And I really enjoyed this book.

I loved Heinlein from the first book of his I read (Time Enough For Love, if I recall correctly), and I love that Scalzi has captured the best spirit of RAH without rehashing him — this isn’t Heinlein-lite, it’s post-Heinlein, with a good story, interesting characters, cool ideas and accessible science. And as much to say about war — what it is, what it isn’t, how it changes those who wage it — as The Forever War or Ender’s Game. I love the voices, the relationships, the details of moving from one life into another… all the stuff I like, wrapped up in a story that has particular resonance for me right now.

And so now I too have found a new writer to read. Very exciting. Thanks, John, I liked your book.

And I would love to hear what new-to-you writers others have found — there’s nothing like sharing the wealth!