As mentioned previously, we have been finalizing arrangements for our new temporary home while we await the Red Lion’s return…which has been somewhat delayed by the filming for Public Enemies, but since it means one last immortalization for our beloved old building we can’t say we terribly mind. Not out loud, anyway.

We are pleased to announce that discussions were successful! Starting July 7 for our monthly open mic night, we will be in the back room at the Irish public house Mystic Celt.

Mystic Celt is located at 3443 North Southport in Chicago. It is roughly one block North of the Southport Brown Line L stop, slightly more than halfway between Belmont and Addison.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the Fixx, specifically Gary but also the whole gang there for being so kind to us when we needed the help. We’ve been told we would be welcomed back any time we need it or to run an event or two there. I’m sure you all join Twilight Tales in thanking the Fixx for their hospitality and kindness.

This week we have three readers for our Featured Reading on the June 30th. Here’s a little bit about each reader and a few questions that will help you get to know them and what they will be presenting at the mic for us.
Martel Sardina is a long time Twilight Tales favorite. She’s an award winning author and former staffer who has recently added editor to her long list of credentials.
Joshua Doetsch is also a returning favorite and has recently had his first book published. He works mostly in the horror and fantastic reality genres, but his talents are sure to delight and surprise.
Nathaniel Gray is a new voice at our mic. He comes to us from Tina Jens’ class. his first appearance at our mic was all too brief and left many of us wanting to hear more of the story he presented that night. Here’s our chance to hear it.

Following are their answers to our interview questions.

Let’s start with the basics, what’s the title of the story you’ll be reading?

Martel: Let’s see…there’s the transgendered Frankenstein story, the noir murder mystery, and two really creepy ideas that are floating around in my brain. I suppose it will depend on my mood.
Josh: I’ll be reading excerpts from my new novel, Strangeness in the Proportion.
Nathaniel: Three pieces. The first is a short short titled “Interlude.” The second is an excerpt from my novel, The Rider. The third is a short story titled “Just Jazz.”

Who or what inspired it, and tell us briefly about the action?

Martel: The transgendered Frankenstein story was inspired by a conversation I had with a couple of teammates after a recent softball game. Ahh, the things you can think of with good friends over a couple of bottles of beer.
Josh: A lot of the inspiration (and the title) comes from the quote I use to open the novel:

“There is no exquisite beauty…without some strangeness in the proportion.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, “Ligeia”

The book is set in White Wolf Publishing’s World of Darkness setting (a real world setting with monsters in the shadows). It is technically a horror novel…but I like to think of it as a love story on the other side of entropy. As for inspirations…there were a lot of them. I wanted to story where a Tim Burtonesque misfit, drawn by Edward Gorey (with shades of silent film comedic heroes like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) is forced into the dark underworld of Frank Miller’s Sin City as if directed by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about an eccentric, absinthe addicted forensic pathologist, Simon Meeks, who falls in love with a Jane Doe cadaver. When Jane disappears, Simon snaps and goes off in search of her (scalpels in hand), plummeting into the hidden supernatural world that lies just under the surface of Chicago. It’s kind of about love and relationships with the dead…like the movie Ghost…only where that movie was more “Unchained Melodies”, my book is more “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” The lyrics and music video of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Perfect Drug” was also an inspiration (in fact, the lyrics work as a very vague plot synopsis). And finally, Count Carl Tanzler von Cosel (the infamous romantic/necrophile of Key West, Florida), offered some inspiration.
Nathaniel: Interlude came from an idea for a series of short stories all involving the same situation in this diner, where each story uses different groups of characters to see how they would play out in isolation. Those stories never got written, but Interlude, a conversation between the Cook and the waiter, did. The Rider is one of those pieces that has been gestating since my young childhood. I’d seen a screenshot for a game called “Full Throttle” which had this badass biker crossing a desert. I knew nothing about this rider or the story, but the image burned itself on my mind and I’ve been trying to get it out ever since. Just Jazz came from an idea about seeing and changing the future and my frustration with the only medium people use for that being weaving. I see the future as this ordered set of outcomes interconnected with other outcomes. This thought reminds me of music and how every note and chord affects the following notes and chords, and changing one will force others to change. So I made that into a story.

What’s the most interesting reading you’ve ever had?

Martel: I’d have to say my first ever reading at the Twilight Tales Open Mic at Love Is Murder 2005. I was so nervous that I was shaking which caused the paper to make a lot of crinkling noises. But after it was over, one author told me that he liked my story. If that hadn’t happened, I might have given up on this writing business then.
Josh: A drumming circle open mic night at Twilight Tales. I was reading an emotionally heavy piece…and the drums got me more into it…and I think that helped the drummer to get even more into it…and round and round and it felt like the most intense reading I’d ever given.
Nathaniel: This is actually my second reading ever (the first also being here at Twilight Tales with Tina Jens’s Fantasy Class through Columbia)

What inspires you to write, or what makes you want to tell a particular story?

Martel: I tend to write about things that upset me or things that scare me.
Josh: There is a ghost tree that grows in my head. On each of those thousand-thousand ghost branches are a thousand-thousand ghost ravens and each raven has a story to tell. When it is ready, a raven pecks at my eyes from the inside. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s best to obey the ravens.
Nathaniel: I’d heard about this condition called graphomania, and I think I have it. The Rider definitely comes from that incessant urge. I’ve been trying to tell his story since Middle School , and only in the past year or so has it really seemed possible.

What insights would you like to share with other authors about the writing process, getting published, or overcoming an obstacle in the story?

Martel: J.A. Konrath once told me that there was a word for writers who never gave up…published. I think that’s the most important thing for writers to remember. Never give up.
Josh: (1) Do not kill the things you love because of other people’s pretensions. Do not throw away your comic books, Godzilla movies, and Halloween decorations because someone says they’re tacky. The things we love fuel our stories and if you really love them, your stories will be deep enough. (2) Do not develop any pretensions. Only spend your energy on enthusiasms. The difference between a pretension and an enthusiasm is the difference between a man showing off his luxury car to his peers as a symbol of affluence…and a boy tearing the hell out of his new bike on a dirt hill, alone and in ecstatic joy. Never use a big word because you worry about what someone thinks. Use a big word because it’s fun and you want to play with it—play the hell out of it—work it to the nub. (3) And do not fall into the hysteria of anti-pretension either. Never throw away a big word because someone tells you you’re pretentious. Remind them that you have no pretensions, only enthusiasms. Make sure you are telling the truth when you say this. Or don’t. You are a writer, and thus a con-man of a sort, after all.
Nathaniel: Oh god, umm… You know? I have no idea. I keep asking those questions and all the answers I get seem too simple to be possible. So to help confound matters further I’ll tell you to: Just write. Get it out in any way possible. And above all be prepared to suck (at first).

Is there anything you’d like to tell us about yourself , or your writing that will help us understand who you are as a writer?

Martel: Just remember that I’m crazy and it will all make sense…LOL!
Josh: When I was a boy, I had a water bed. Water beds tend not to have a space underneath. No space, no monsters under the bed. My writing teacher and mentor in college is still convinced that I’m making up for lost time.
Nathaniel: I am terribly inconsistent. I’ll have weekends where I’ll get thousands and thousands of words out (many of them crap) and then there will be long stretches of time where writing becomes me saying to my friend, “hey I’ve got this great idea” and then not touching it for a long time. It’s very much a little-kid-in-a-house-of-mirrors syndrome. Everything is “ooooh shiny!” and I get distracted easily.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share?

Martel: Yes. I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who has tried to help me become a better writer over the years. I’d name names but I think that would encompass the entire Twilight Tales audience. So thank you everyone!
Josh: My first novel, Strangeness in the Proportion will be out sometime in the near future, by White Wolf Publishing. If you’d like to know anything else about me, you can check out my blog at www.myspace.com/nevermore_66.
Nathaniel: My brain can’t wrap itself around such an open ended question… I can’t think of anything.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday June 30th at The Fixx Coffee Bar (3053 N. Sheffield) to hear Martel’s, Josh’s, and Nathaniel’s fiction and perhaps more discussion!

There have been a lot of changes at Twilight Tales recently, from staff to location. This year we
return an old friend to the line-up of special dates and theme nights: Pride Night is making its return to our mic on June 23rd. We’ve gathered four diverse writers to present their own brand of pride for you:
Gregg Shapiro and his Life Partner Rick Karlin are both authors and inductees of Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. They both write for news print about culture or lack thereof and many forms of fiction from poetry to plays.
Sukie De la Croix, noted Historian and journalist, is a returning Twilight Tales favorite who’s humor and insight into the gay human condition have left many a viewer gasping for air with both laughter and illumination.
Jezzi Belle Stewart is a transgendered actor who is equally at home playing Miss Jezzi Belle (and others) in her one-woman comedy show, or playing President Theodere Roosevelt in his one-man show.

Following are their answers to our interview questions.

Let’s start with the basics, what is the title or titles of what you’ll be reading for us?

Gregg: I will be reading selections from my book of poetry, Protection, which was published by Gival Press (givalpress.com) in Jan. 2008
Sukie: Uh .. don’t know. Haven’t thought about it yet.
Jezzie: “The Suffragette Redemption” a transgender fiction story co-authored by my dear friend, Gwen Lavyril

Tell us about your story in a few lines, or give us a line from your favorite scene in it.

Gregg: The book is divided into three sections - one set in Chicago, one in Boston and one in Washington, DC. I will read a few poems from each.
Sukie: Another writer once described me in print thus: “Sukie de la Croix is a literary thug.” I’ll take the compliment. So my life story would be “The Autobiography of a Literary Thug.”
Jezzie: In excerpts from the diary of Emily Wentworth, a suffragette in Seneca Falls, New York cira 1903, we learn the story of Henry Wentworth, her brother, a boorish boy who thinks women should not have the vote because they are flighty creatures fit only to bring comfort and pleasure to men. Because of his anti-suffragette actions, he is first forced and later decides on his own to become Henrietta, During the course of his three day journey as Henrietta, he does a 180 degree about face learning the true strength and intelligence of woman. He goes from a thouroughly humiliated caricature of a woman (where Gwen’s part ends) to a proud trans-suffragette.

What inspired this story (or) what inspires you to write?

Gregg: Most of the work in the book is my experience as a gay man in the city.
Sukie: Instead of speaking to [jerks - ed.] one at a time, I write it down and get it published to reach as many [jerks - ed.] as possible without actually having to meet them.
Jezzie: Gwen wrote the first part of the story which ends with Henry still feeling ashamed and humiliated. I believe that femininity is something to be proud of, so I asked Gwen’s permission to add a part 2, where Henry becomes proud of being Henrietta and works for women’s suffrage.

Has writing fiction outside of what is called the mainstream posed a problem, or does it get your work noticed more?

Gregg: My short fiction publications have been in queer outlets, including Christopher Street, Blithe House Quarterly and the Alyson anthology Bar Stories, to name a few, so I don’t think I can answer that.
Sukie: I do write in the mainstream. I totally reject the word and concept of “Alternative.” I’ve never had anything rejected. No, honest … anything I’ve sent for publication has been published. What I read at Twilight Tales is usually not for publication, but I do it for fun.
Jezzie: No problems because all my non-TG activities are under my drab name.

What do you hope a reader or viewer will take away from your work?

Gregg: I hope they will find something universal in my work.
Sukie: I’d like them to go away having learned that NOT SAYING WHAT YOU THINK IS VERY BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.
Jezzie: If you are transgendered, be proud of it - you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Is there a particular aspect of life gay or straight you try to give insight to?

Gregg: Not to lose your sense of humor.

Sukie: I don’t think of my work in those terms.
Jezzie: How wonderful it is for a male to have the gift of femininity within himself and that we live in an age where, though the battle is not by any means won, he can more and more without fear and with pleasure bring it out into the open and express of it.

Do you have any advice to your fellow writers about writing in general or in this specific niche?

Gregg: Writers of books must be readers of books.
Sukie: This will sound harsh, but if you need advice about writing you should be doing something else.

Jezzie: I can tell you what I dislike: TG stories that are simply excuses for graphic sexual descriptions or descriptions of abuse, particularly if the participants/victims are children. Don’t do it!

Anything else you’d like us to know about you or work?

Jezzie: Whether acting or writing, I have one heck of a lot of fun!

We hope you’ll join us on Monday June 23rd at The Fixx Coffee Bar (3053 N. Sheffield) to hear Gregg’s, Sukie’s, and Jezzie’s fiction and perhaps more discussion!