cover, party favors lesbian romance by Jaime Clevenger

Lesbian Storytelling in the New Dark Times – Laurel Bookstore Feb 19

Karin Kallmaker Events and Appearances, Sisters of the Pen

Tap open your calendar or get a Sharpie and write it on your paper calendar or on your hand or your gf’s body part (with consent): Laurel Bookstore, Oakland, 2/19, 4 pm, lesbian event. Really all you need to know right there.

cover, party favors by Jaime Clevenger

Laurel Bookstore is hosting an extravaganza of lesbian writers: “Lesbian Authors Talk About Storytelling – Why We Do What We Do.” Don’t miss out – several are infrequent visitors to the Bay Area. We’re going to talk about why we write the stories we write and how we feel our lesbian voices telling those stories matter. Especially now in what is going to be the suckiest political environment for queer people since the early 90s.

The Peripatetic Lesbian Panoply Participating*

  • KG MacGregor – KG is coming all the way from North Carolina. If you haven’t had the pleasure of the dry wit and southern drawl, your world is incomplete. KG’s latest is Trial by Fury. She’s also the president of the Lambda Literary Foundation and has a wide perspective on the power of our queer storytelling.
  • Jaime Clevenger – This is a welcome back event, because Jaime left us *sob* for Colorado several years ago. Her brand effing new Party Favors will be available (at least that’s the plan). I’ve heard that there’s a bit of a naughty edge to the book. The cover (above) hints at it, I think. Let’s hope that’s true because Jaime does naughty really well. And only Jaime would get a Batman costume into the mix.
  • Pol Robinson – Another Laurel virgin, this one coming all the way from the Seattle area. I called her a virgin because it’ll make her blush and why not? So fun. Pol has a new story in the faboo Bella anthology Happy Ever After.
  • Laina Villeneuve – making the trip again from Southern California, this will be her second time appearing at Laurel. Her latest is Return to Paradise. She finds time to make her voice heard with toddlers around, so she must think it’s kind of important.
  • Heather Rose Jones – Heather’s been at Laurel before to talk about her Alpennia fantasy series which, if you’re not reading it, you’re missing out on smart women controlling their own destiny. The latest addition to this not-quite-our-world-because-magic series is Mother of Souls.
  • Some woman named Kallmaker. She just shows up. Nothing we can do about it.

So yeah, in the political world we’re all pretty depressed and demoralized, and we deal with that in different ways. But at the same time we can plant flowers and at least there will also be flowers in our day-to-day world.

Laurel Bookstore is planting flowers LIKE CRAZY. So help us celebrate resistance, stave off the blues and raise our voices. The store isn’t usually open on Sundays so this is a Lesbians-are-Special event.

To be sure that a book you want to buy is there, call ahead and ask the store to set it aside for you. Totally easy to do, and something the store is happy to do for you. Because they’re like a store with real people who give actual real customer service and want you to be happy and will smile at you and say thank you and mean it. You can also order through the web site and have the book held at the store for pick up on the event date. Here’s a link to the store’s event write up which might have deets that I’ve missed.

Laurel Book Store
1423 Broadway (about 5 steps from 12th Street Bart/Ogawa Plaza exit)
Oakland, CA 94612
510-452-9232
laurelbookstore.com


* Presented in order of rarity. And I mean rarity of appearances in the Bay Area and at Laurel. They are all rare commodities as fabulous women and writers.