I am so excited about the debut of my new course at the Speculative Fiction Academy, Queerness in Horror 101: An Introduction to LGBTQ Representation in Horror for Writers. It is taught with the assistance of my talented partner, the amazing Emily Flummox, a slam poet, role-playing game writer, and streamer. It is an online course taught by queer instructors and geared towards writers. This is an eleven-week core curriculum introductory course that covers the history of LGBTQ characters and themes in horror, LGBTQ horror writers and other queer horror creators, how to write queer horror, and LGBTQ characters/themes in horror. It will cover LGBTQ topics in horror literature, film, comics, and gaming, but is focused on approaching all of these media as a writer.
At the end of this course, you will have a basic understanding of how LGBTQ authors and other creators have used the media to express queerness to the world. You will have an understanding of how tropes have been used in ways that positively and negatively impact the LGBTQ community and queer audiences. You will have an overview of how censorship and morality codes have repeatedly stifled the creation of LGBTQ content and its creators over the course of history. You will have some tools in your toolkit for helping you to successfully write convincing LGBTQ characters sensitively and with understanding if you are not a part of their particular demographic.
The Speculative Fiction Academy offers a variety of other courses, including the Kink and Horror quick dive, a five-week course Emily and I put out last November at the Speculative Fiction Academy, that gives students an overview on horror and other speculative fiction that is kink inclusive.
Writers With Drinks is back after a brief hiatus! And this is gonna be one of our most exciting events yet, including the astounding Malinda Lo. Note: We are strictly requiring proof of vaccination, and audience members must remain masked when they are not actively drinking.
When: Saturday, March 12, 2022 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open 7 PM
Who: Malinda Lo, Sumiko Saulson, Khan Wong, Betsy Aoki and Kar Johnson, plus special guest host Celeste Chan!
How much: $5 to $20 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit a local non-profit TBA
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St., San Francisco, CA
About the readers/performers:
Malinda Lo is the New York Times bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published by The New York Times, NPR, Autostraddle, The Horn Book, and multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts with her wife and their dog. She writes the biweekly newsletter Lo & Behold on writing and culture.
Sumiko Saulson is an award-winning author of Afrosurrealist and multicultural sci-fi and horror. Ze is the editor of the anthologies and collections Black Magic Women, Scry of Lust, Black Celebration, and Wickedly Abled. Ze is the winner of the 2016 HWA StokerCon “Scholarship from Hell”, 2017 BCC Voice “Reframing the Other” contest, 2017 Mixy Award, 2018 AWW “Afrosurrealist Writer Award,” 2020 HWA Diversity Grant recipient. Ze has an AA in English from Berkeley City College, and writes a column called “Writing While Black” for a national Black Newspaper, the San Francisco BayView. Ze is the host of the SOMA Leather and LGBT Cultural District’s “Erotic Storytelling Hour.”
Elizabeth (Betsy) Aoki is a poet, fiction writer and video game producer. Her first poetry collection, Breakpoint was a 2019 National Poetry Series Finalist and published by Tebot Bach as the winner of the Patricia Bibby First Book Award. Its signature poem “Slouching like a velvet rope” won the 2021 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, selected by Jericho Brown. Aoki has received grants and fellowships from the City of Seattle, Artist Trust Foundation, Jackstraw Writers Program, Clarion West Writers Workshop and Hedgebrook. Her chapbook, Every Vanish Leaves Its Trace (2009), was published by Finishing Line Press. Other publications include Calyx, Hunger Mountain, Nassau Review (winner of the 2015 Writer Award), the Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Phoebe, Poetry Northwest, The Seattle Times, Seattle Review, Southern Humanities Review, terrain.org (Letters to America), and Uncanny Magazine.
Khan Wong’s first novel is The Circus Infinite. He has published poetry, played cello in an earnest folk-rock duo, and been an internationally known hula hoop teacher and performer. He’s toured with a circus and produced circus arts shows in San Francisco, where he also worked as a grantmaker with a public sector arts funding agency.
Kar Johnson is a writer, performer, educator, and bookseller in San Francisco. Their writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Northridge Review, Foglifter, and the anthology Love is the Drug and Other Dark Poems. Kar has performed their work for series Red Light Lit, The Racket, RADAR, and many others. They received their MFA from San Francisco State University.
Guest host Celeste Chan is a writer and filmmaker, schooled by Do-It-Yourself culture and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx. She founded and directed Queer Rebels (a queer and trans people of color arts project), created and curated experimental films, joined Foglifter Literary Journal as an editor and board member, and toured with legendary feminist road show, Sister Spit. Her writing can be found in The Rumpus, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Gertrude, Citron Review, and elsewhere. In 2016, she launched QTPOC Free School, a monthly writing workshop for LGBTQ people of color. Following that, in 2017, she launched writing workshops for LGBTQ youth at the Queer Ancestors Project. Her work has also been supported by CA Arts Council, Bread Loaf/Rona Jaffe, Lambda Literary, Hedgebrook, Hypatia, Mesa Refuge, Soaring Gardens, and beyond. Celeste is now focused on writing her memoir, examining intergenerational trauma and how her family survived WWII.
About Writers With Drinks:
Writers With Drinks has won numerous “Best ofs” from local newspapers, and has been mentioned in 7×7, Spin Magazine and one of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novels. The spoken word “variety show” mixes genres to raise money for local causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.
“If you enjoy unsettling dark paranormal romances that place power dynamics in sexual relationships under the microscope, look no further. Sumiko Saulson gives us body horror, what feels like an insiders look at mental illness and the mental health system, dysfunctional families, semi-obscure mythological characters, and an excellent depiction of how many of us teeter on the fence between sex and death. Happiness and Other Diseases is a sexy, funny, disturbing, and unflinching tale of the insane lengths people will go to in search of love and acceptance.”
— Michelle Renee Lane, Bram Stoker Award Nominated author of Invisible Chains
“In this entertaining novel, Saulson incorporates mythology into what might appear to be normal, everyday life. However, her characters, Flynn and Charlotte, are far from normal. I enjoyed how ze keeps their relationship lively but honest – even sweet, but not in a saccharine way. Buy this book! For sheer enjoyment, it’s a keeper!”
“It is a very unconventional book that offers a supernatural dimension to the mysterious, sometimes mind-bending world of psychological pathological conditions, psychosis, and disorders.”
Justin Boyer, bibliophilesreverie.com
“Happiness And Other Diseases by Sumiko Saulson is a tragic love story that includes dark humor, Greek mythology… moments of pure horror.”
My niece Franchesca Saulson is putting together a poetry chapbook. She asked me to edit it. I got Emily Flummox to give me a hand with this process. It really brings back memories. Me and my mother started taking Francesca to open mic poetry when she was really little. By the time she was in third grade, she was stepping to the mic with the rest of us.
Her book, Hard Times Dope Rhymes, is filled with works of urban street poetry. The word she’s put in as an open mic poet since she was 8 or 9 years old has finally come to fruition. She has so many poems going so far back. As a kid, she loves movies like Love & Basketball. She also watched movies like Poetic Justice. All of these things had an early influence on how she thought about writing.
Front: Me and Emily Flummox. Back: my brother Scott, his daughter Franchesca and grand daughter Elune
I am really proud of her the work she’s doing. I am very happy to be a part of it. My mother was a poet, so Franchesca is the third generation poet in this family. Back in the seventies when I was a kid, one of my mother’s poems was on a poster that they used to sell in a bunch of Afrocentric shops, as well as in hippie type head shops where you could purchase bonds. It was on velvet backdrop, which had a picture of a beautiful black queen in profile with a large afro.
My mother Carolyn Saulson and niece Elisabetta Saulson. Me and Greg Hug are off in the distance in the background.
My mom was really proud of that poem, which had been picked up by a publisher, who produced these posters. I was writing poems in third grade, just like Franchesca Saulson. What I wrote was something like the inside of a Hallmark card. I would write these poems and sell them to people for their wedding invitations and things like that. I actually went to a copy shop and made copies of things that have these phones in them. So it was like a little business.
I’m really glad that Franchesca is feeling confident enough to put her work out into the world. I am super proud of her and I love her.
Anne Rice says she never strongly identified with any gender and finds gender confusing in an interview.
Reflecting on the Anne Rice character Gabrielle, who gave birth to Lestat, and was later turned into a vampire by him. Gabrielle is a transmasculine vampire. Although the writer uses she pronouns for Gabrielle de Lioncourt, it is of note that the narrative is written from the point of view of Lestat.
Therefore, since Lestat is an unreliable narrator, this only means that he used this pronoun for his parent. Regardless of whether or not Gabrielle used she her pronouns, the character consistently wore men’s clothing. In a very vivid scene, Anne Rice describes Gabrielle’s action in cutting their hair very short. The next morning, they are horrified when they awaken to having very long hair.
One might surmise that Gabrielle had gender dysphoria. Additionally, over time, Gabrielle’s once warm and close relationship with their son becomes cold and distant. It is mentioned that Gabrielle never wears women’s clothing except for at the insistence of Lestat. One might surmise that the cool off in their relationship is coming from Lestat’s refusal to accept Gabrielle’s true gender.
It is very clear that Lestat wants Gabrielle to maintain the familiar and comforting role of mother, and Gabrielle, after becoming a vampire and traveling the world with her son, wants to be liberated from that role. Gabrielle was, because of the restrictive times that they lived in, pressure to marry very young and have many children, only three of whom survived.
The text makes it very clear that Gabrielle wants to be free of all that. So, the conflict between Lestat and Gabrielle is over Gabrielle’s tender, and also over Gabrielle’s feeling that they should be able to relinquish the task of parenting their now very much adult and immortal son.
Gabrielle is a very nuanced portrayal of a genderqueer character. Considering that The Vampire Lestat came out in 1985, it is also very progressive. Although Gabrielle is often forgotten, as a relatively minor side character to the very charismatic Lestat, for me, and for a lot of other transgender / non-binary / genderqueer/non-gender conforming fans of this literary work, Gabrielle is a very important and memorable character.
Happy New Years 2022! This is the cover reveal for Happiness and Other Diseases, slated for release on March 25, 2022 on Mocha Memoirs Press. Photographer: Garrett Sohnly Model: Wednesday T. Friday
Flynn Keahi has had a rough year. His nightmares are starting to manifest in reality, but no one believes him. Terrifying creatures are trying to cross out of dreams into the physical realm. Only Flynn can stop them – but doing so might cost him his life. Complicating matters further, one of these creatures cannot help wanting him — in every forbidden way. Will she be able to save him from his fate? Can she even protect him from herself?
I started volunteering on the Horror Writers Association social media team this spring, and became it’s social media manager this fall. I spent another year as the host of the Erotic Storytelling Hour. My Mauskaveli business did better than ever before, as I sold a lot of kink-themed art covered wooden paddles at Second Saturdays SOMA, Folsom Street Market and Megahood.
I participated in LitQuake and LitCrawl, Clockwork Alchemy, Horror for the Humanities, HorrorAddict’s Tales of Terror, Horror Writers Association San Francisco’s Haunting Halloween, the Speculative Fiction Poets Association’s Halloween series, AfroComicCon, StokerCon, WorldCon, and SiliCon this year, both in person and online, despite this global pandemic.
I started a relationship with my partner Empress in April, and with my partner Wednesday in August. My partner Princess and I celebrated our second collaring anniversary and will be celebrating our third anniversary in less than three weeks. I got to visit with Empress in DC. I got to do a lot of great things with all of my partners, and had a lovely year.
December 15-19, 2021 Washington, DC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel
Wednesday – December 15, 2021
Wed 5:30 PM 1 Hr Kress 205 Undead Shows: TV and Movies That Won’t Die Wed 7:00 PM 1 Hr Older 189 Breaking a Story, Hollywood-Style
Thursday – December 16, 2021 Thu 11:30 AM 50 Min Suite 325 Bedroom Room 961 Kaffeeklatsch with Sumiko Saulson Thu 4:00 PM 50 Min Autographs 2 995 Signing – Sumiko Saulson Thu 5:30 PM 1 Hr Thomas 535 An Avatar of Your Own—Bodies in Video Games Thu 7:00 PM 1 Hr Forum Room 638 Plot a More Fantastic Four Movie
Friday – December 17, 2021 Fri 1:00 PM 1 Hr Kress 181 Reverse-Harem Reform School Omegaverse Romance Fri 4:00 PM 1 Hr Congressional Room (A&B) 215 Taking Care of Volunteers Fri 5:30 PM 1 Hr Forum Room 197 Keeping White Supremacy Out of Fandom
Saturday- December 18, 2021 Sat 11:30 AM 1 Hr Empire Ballroom 477 The Resurrection of Psychological Horror Sat 4:00 PM 1 Hr Older 185 Social Dynamics and Superpowers
As a person who falls under the trans umbrella, when speaking on Trans Lives Matter, which is certainly a subject when speaking on Trans Day of Remembrance, who is also African-American, I am very deeply aware of the fact that every year on trans day of remembrance the vast majority of the names on the list are African-American Transwomen, specifically dark-skinned Black Trans women. This year once African American and Latina Transwomen made up most of the list of more than 400 trans and gender noncomforming people murdered since TDoR 2020.
I feel very sad about what is going on with Dave Chappelle as an African-American. Dave Chappelle punches down on trans people, and that punching down heavily effects African-American trans people because he is a respected figure in the African-American Community who is using his personal power to make a group of people who are in a lot of danger, specifically black Trans women since that is the group of people that he generally directly attacks in his comedy routines, even more at risk than they already are.
Dave Chappelle use the fact that Daphne Dorman, a local trans woman who was a comedian, laugh at his comedy routine, to defend himself and defend that his comments were okay because they didn’t offend all trans people. He put Daphne in and emotionally and psychologically dangerous position in order to defend his own personal privilege. Daphne later committed suicide. He has not apologized, but has actually used this as part of his fodder for his comedy routine.
A person in a position of privilege who claims to be an ally should be using the fact that any people in that group of marginalized or oppressed people agree with them, in order to protect themselves. An ally by definition should be protecting the marginalized persons. The ally should not be using the voice of the marginalized to protect himself, if he is trying to be a good ally.
As an African-American, particularly as an African American who is light skinned and biracial. As I have over the course of my life many times had people in my Social Circles try to get me to be their “Black Friend” who tells them that what they’re saying and doing is okay. Not that long ago, I had my friend who is white and wears dreadlocks try to get me to defend that it was okay for them to wear dreadlocks.
I told them that while I personally was not offended by them wearing dreadlocks, I did not wish for them to use me as their “Black Friend” to defend their decision and to try to argue with other people that are Black about their feelings about it. Nonetheless, my friend did exactly that, which I found personally very hurtful.
If people don’t like it, they don’t like it. Finding one or two people who are a minority who do like it is not going to change the fact that there are a bunch of people who do not like it. I think that it is important to be concerned about the people who don’t like it.That’s my personal feeling. Your mileage might vary.
Local Events for Trans Day of Remembrance
Fluid CO-OP 11/20/21 2pm- 5pm 332 Golden Gate Ave SF Fluid Cooperative Cafe was formed with a vision, one that recognizes the people who are in the best position to nurture, uplift, and advance transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming communities are the community members themselves. While we are centering the trans community, allies are encouraged to join us in supporting our mission.
TDoRSF – Virtual Event 11/20/21 6pm-7:30pm Facebook Live We hope you will join us on November 20th to honor those we have lost, and build momentum to end the violence against trans (transgender) and GNC (Gender Non-Conforming) communities. TDoR specifically addresses the deaths of trans and GNC folks. Despite increased visibility, trans people continue to be murdered in unprecedented numbers, and trans women of color are bearing the brunt of it.
Where to Donate
Transgender Law Center Transgender Law Center changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.
Center Link CenterLink was founded in 1994 as a member-based coalition to support the development of strong, sustainable, LGBTQ community centers. A fundamental goal of CenterLink’s work is to strengthen, support, and connect LGBTQ community centers, and to help build the capacity of these centers to address the social, cultural, health, and political advocacy needs of LGBTQ community members across the country. CenterLink plays a vital role in addressing the challenges centers face by helping them to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity, access public resources, and engage their regional communities in grassroots social justice movements.
Oakland LGBTQ Center The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center is dedicated to enhancing and sustaining the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, our families and allies, by providing educational, social, and health related activities, programs and services.
My partner Emily Flummox(Staci_Everheart)’s thoughts on TDoR
I’ve commemorated prolly >75% of the TDoRs since they were started in 1999, publicly or privately. I remember the story of the youngest name ever on the list ~ a 2-month-old Native American child from the Northeastern US ~ & the year that Transgender Europe improved data collection. That year, what had been 30min of sadness turned into an hour of despair.
The numbers have only grown since. Many commemorations no longer read the stories of the dead, just their names, because the list has gotten too long. 375 names are on the 2021 list, the longest list yet (7% more than last year which was 6% more than the year before). That number may not sound like much to you, but consider that while there may be 8bil people, this represents a number of smaller divisions:
* trans people are about as common as redheads, so that brings the number down immediately *
We don’t have perfect knowledge of all deaths. This year, we have our first records from Greece, Kazakhstan, & Malawi * when people kill us, they tend to not only kill us but to mutilate us so that we cannot be recognized.
And then the police, media, even our families COOPERATE with our murderers by deadnaming us, misgendering us, & refusing to identify us as trans * finally, remember that some of those killed because they were trans may have been so closeted that we simply cannot know that they should be on this list. Those are the ones that break my heart the most.
96% of those murdered globally were trans women or transfeminine
58% were known sex workers
Murders in the USA doubled from last year, with PoC making up 89% of the 53
43% of the European murders were migrants
70% of all the murders registered happened in Central & South America (33% in Brazil)
36% took place on the street & 24% in their own home
Average age of those murdered is 30 years old, the youngest being 13 years old & the oldest 68 years old
[ONLINE] SFPA Awards Ceremony & Social Hour October 17, 2026 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am
Come join , Diane Severson Mori, SFPA membership chair and VP, and Kate Ristau, president of SFWA, on a trip to the stars! On Oct. 17, 2026 at High Noon (Eastern US time!) blast off by live-streaming the first annual SFPA Awards Ceremony, followed by a social hour for attendees to meet in small groups…
[IN PERSON] Read the Room: Books Not Bans @ Kerouac Alley October 17, 2026 at 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Jack Kerouac Alley, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
[IN PERSON] The Rise of Speculative Poetry at WFC October 22, 2026 at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Sunday, October 25, 2026 10AM-11AM Room 201This year the World Fantasy Convention recognizes its first-ever Poet Guest of Honor, poet Linda Addison. Last year Brandon O’Brien was recognized as the first Worldcon Poet Laureate, and Marie Brennan won the first-ever Hugo for Best Poem. We’ll discuss the broadening recognition for speculative poetry, and why it’s…
[IN PERSON] World Fantasy Convention October 22, 2026 at 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607, USA
Reimagined Identities & Fantastic LiteratureWorld Fantasy Con 2026 Oakland: A Beacon of Becoming and Belonging
