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Jeff Baker

Boogieman in Lavender: The Tiptree Solution, or The Woman Men Didn’t See.

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Jeff Baker - Boogieman in Lavender

James Tiptree, Jr. was the pen name of science fiction writer Alice B. Sheldon. The previous sentence is probably the least complicated information about Alice Sheldon. The first fiction under the Tiptree name appeared in the 1960s. Most of her work was in the short-story form, stories of science fiction, fantasy or horror. This was in the era of the “New Wave,” when sex was beginning to show up in science fiction. Tiptree was believed to be a male writer by the public, and she did nothing to dissuade that belief. Several famous science fiction writers asserted that the kind … Read more

Lewis Padgett’s “Mutant,” Jewelle Gomez’ “Gilda” – Boogieman in Lavender

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Jeff Baker

LGBT people are regarded as “the Other,” and sci-fi and fantasy specializes in characters who are “the Other.” And “the Other” is often perceived as a metaphor or stand in for minorities and the oppressed. Queer people were not a regular topic of public discourse in the closeted world of the Golden Age of Science Fiction of the ‘30s through the 50s. And in this world, two very heterosexual writers wrote a series of stories about a very science-fictional form of “the Other.” Beginning with the story “The Piper’s Son” in February 1945, Lewis Padgett told of a near-future group … Read more

Boogieman In Lavender: On Beyond Cisgender: Books for High School

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Jeff Baker

On Beyond Cisgender: Books For High School                                                By Jeff Baker    A. M.  (Amy) Leibowitz has grumbled on Facebook about the “Old Dead White (mostly/presumed) Cis Hetero Male Literature Canon,” and how high-schoolers mainly read books from the aforementioned canon. No authors of color. Rarely any women. “Only literary fiction and other genres are typically not only disallowed but actively sneered at.” A. M. goes on to ask that if you could add any 4 books to a high school literature curriculum (one for each year of US High School) which would you add and why? Among the Facebook users … Read more

A Post From The Stone Age – Boogieman In Lavender

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Stone Knives and Bearskins By Jeff Baker                                                 Our computers are down as I write this. At least, the modem and Internet are out. (Word processor still works.) Should have it back up sometime tomorrow. For the weekend we’ve been basically living in the 1970s, except with cable. It says a lot that I capitalized “Internet” above. We’ve come to depend on this thing. A lot. It has helped me get some of my writing published professionally and a lot of it posted. (It also brought my husband and I together but that’s another story.) We’ve had the T.V. on … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman In lavender: Halloween Reading; Clive Barker

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        By Jeff Baker    The year was 1993 (or pretty close.) I was running a delivery route in-town and on my lunch hour I ran into a used bookstore and grabbed a horror anthology I hadn’t heard of. “Masters of Darkness,” edited by Dennis Etchison. In three volumes, the books feature horror stories selected and introduced by their authors, stories they think may not have gotten the exposure they deserved on first publication. Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell. And Clive Barker.             I’d heard the name, but this was where I first encountered Barker. His selection was “In the Hills, … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender: Of Dracula and Dragons

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                                                            By Jeff Baker             He is one of the most famous characters in fiction, certainly the most famous vampire. He is Dracula, also known as Count Dracula. Not popular fiction’s first vampire, or even the second, but the template from which the others either followed or diverged.             And any writer, reader or fan of vampire-themed fiction should read “Dracula,” the novel from which all the movies sprang. Published in 1897 it is an epistolary novel; that is, one told through letters and journals and diary entries of the characters. Dracula himself does not appear in much of … Read more

When Carmilla Ruled the Night – Boogieman in Lavender

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Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender             But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.                                                   ———from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu She prowls the night, looking for blood—and women. She sleeps in late, usually rising at one in the afternoon, but it is at night that she seeks what she truly desires. She is Carmilla, seemingly a victim of a carriage accident recovering in a neighboring castle. The residents of the castle see nothing too unusual, even as … Read more

A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Urine and Thou – Jeff Baker

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Writers have day jobs. It’s a plain fact of economics, writing doesn’t pay that much unless the writer is very lucky. We supplant our creative careers with a nine-to-five (or six to three, or some such.) A lot of writers have been teachers. Stephen King taught high school English. Jeffrey Marks juggles teaching and editing, the British ghost story writer M. R. James was a Provost of King’s College, Cambridge and Eaton. Some writers, like Steve Berman, have worked in publishing. And others, like me, have jobs that have nothing to do with writing at all. For the last 25 … Read more

Jeff Baker—Boogieman In Lavender: “Remembering Dennis Etchison.”

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                       Remembering Dennis Etchison                                                  By Jeff Baker             A fine writer I know, well-versed in the field of horror, had never heard of Dennis Etchison. This seems to have been a problem for Etchison who was continually being referred to as a “new discovery,” even though he began publishing fiction when he was in school in the early 60s. Etchison published horror stories in the girlie magazines (then a thriving market) about the same time Stephen King was breaking in to print. Etchison passed away at the end of May. I never met him or even spoke … Read more

“How I Do It” – Boogieman In Lavender

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                          By Jeff Baker                                                Not every writer writes short-stories. The form has been described as “difficult” and “challenging.” Some fiction writers don’t write short-stories. I write almost nothing but short-stories. I haven’t discussed the process very often, and I don’t always do it the same way, but this is more or less how I do it. (Sometimes.) First, there’s the idea. Ideas are easy. Everybody gets them. It’s what we do with them that counts. About four years ago we had a storm here and the power went out. It was Friday evening, we had no place to be the next … Read more