Therese (Reese) Szymanski

[Therese Szymanski]

Howdy All!

When they told us to sign up, they said to use our names, so I used mine, Therese. But real people call me Reese. Like the peanut butter cup. Or, I guess you could say the peanut butter cup belongs to me, but if it really did, then I’d be rich instead of poor. Oh well.

Okay, so call me Reese. You can catch me here and at my Web site, www.BigBadButch.com. ‘Cause, like what else would my site be? Only with me being as obsessive/compulsive as I am, it’s under construction. Putting up the site took a detour through learning about ISPs, designing a logo, learning Dreamweaver and CSS and... Well... You get the point.

Anyway, to follow one of the protocols that seems to be happening here on the boards, I’ll start with a bio:

I come from Detroit and live in D.C. I’ve picked up a few playwriting awards, been shortlisted for a few Lammies, a few Goldies, and a Spectrum. My first anthology was chosen for the Publishing Triangle’s list of Notable Lesbian Books in 2004 (every book I’ve edited has been chosen or shortlisted for an award, in fact) and I got an Alice B. Reader’s Appreciation Award in 2008. On top of my novels, novellas and editorial work, I’ve had a few dozen short stories and essays published in a wide variety of places, not including all the writing I do in my day job, which is as a... Writer. Talk about anticlimactic.

[Therese Szymanski]

Oh, I see others listing their books... well, then, here goes...

Mysteries:
Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers:

• 1.   When the Dancing Stops: The 1st Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Naiad Press, Publication Date: October 1, 1997
  2.   When the Dead Speak: The 2nd Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Naiad Press, Publication Date: April 1, 1998
  3.   When Some Body Disappears: The 3rd Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Naiad Press, Publication Date: December 1, 1998
  4.   When Evil Changes Face: The 4th Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Bella Books, Publication Date: October 1, 2000
  5.   When Good Girls Go Bad: The 5th Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Bella Books, Publication Date: March 1, 2001
  6.   When the Corpse Lies: The 6th Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Bella Books, Publication Date: August 1, 2004
  7.   When First We Practice: The 7th Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Bella Books, Publication Date: November 30, 2005
  8.   When It’s All Relative: The 8th Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller, Bella Books, Publication Date: April 15, 2008

Chronicles of Shawn Donnelly:

• 1.   It's All Smoke & Mirrors (Chronicles of Shawn Donnelly #1), Bella Books, Publication Date: November 12, 2007

Anthologies Edited By:

• 1.   Fantasy: Untrue Stories of Lesbian Passion, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: July 30, 2007
  2.   Wild Nights: (Mostly) True Stories of Women Loving Women, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: February 1, 2007
  3.   Call Of The Dark: Erotic Lesbian Tales Of The Supernatural, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: August 30, 2005
  4.   The Perfect Valentine, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: January 31, 2006
  5.   Back to Basics: A Butch/Femme Anthology, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Novella In:

• 1.   Tall in the Saddle: New Exploits of Wild West Lesbians, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: December 1, 2007
  2.   Bell, Book and Dyke: New Exploits of Magical Lesbians, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: October 30, 2005
  3.   Stake Through the Heart: New Exploits of Twilight Lesbians, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: February 1, 2007
  4.   Once upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians, Bella Books (Bella After Dark), Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Oh, and I've also got shorter works—including essays, erotica and other bits—in a few dozen other publications. On top of my regular freelance work and all that I write in my day jobs...

[Therese Szymanski]

Next up on my list of fabulous appearances this year. That makes it sound as if I've been somewhere this year, which I haven't—I even missed being a regular participant in the RWA con since I ran into a surgeon who wanted to cut me open and play with my insides ASAP. Took him 24 big-arse staples to close me up again. {sigh}

Anyway, to compensate (in the way of fun and exciting trips for me), this fall I'll be at:

York Lesbian Arts Festival (YLAF)
York, England
October 23–26

I'll be coteaching a class on self-editing for writers on the opening day. My other panels and such are TBD.

During the visit, I fully intend on spending a night in a castle as research for my new Shawn series!

Oh, btw, the Web site for YLAF is YLAF.org.uk, and one of the pages I'm listed on is http://www.ylaf.org.uk/festival.html. It shows some of what's going on in York that weekend.

Cheers!
Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

Oooo! I just now found a place on the YLAF Web site where they give a description of the class we're teaching from 3–5:30 pm on Thursday, October 23, in York, England: http://www.ylaf.org.uk/workshops.html. Figured I'd post it here in case anyone wanted more of a description of the thing.

[Therese Szymanski]

A private message I just received from Rrrose made me realize that most folks don't realize why I haven't been here much and such. And then a few folks might know why, but want one last gruesome detail.

Anyway, Evecho from Australia, who coordinated an online class I just taught with my girlfriend, managed to talk me into taking a picture of my staples, which she quickly put up on the Web. The staples came from when a surgeon opened me up and took out some things I didn't need. Needless to say, the picture she posted at http://readtheselips.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/and-the-winner-is/ doesn't show quite all the staples.

Now if I can only get my Web site up and running before I return to work, that'd be really cool!

Take care all,
Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

Gaylaxicon 2008 is coming up—October 10–13, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Or somewhere around here. And me and mine are going to be there! Not sure what all we'll be doing there, beyond doing panels/readings and whatnot, but we know we'll be going to the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards banquet. (I know my invite to the Awards mentioned that I got it because I'd been shortlisted for 'em in the past.)

You can visit the Gaylaxicon on the Web at http://www.gaylaxicon2008.org/. And you can see the complete list of guests, as it is now, at http://www.gaylaxicon2008.org/guests.html.

It'd be great to see some gay sci-fi/fantasy fans there!

~Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

 

I just love that great big grin on that emoticon! And right now I do have something more to be happy about! YLAF has put up a schedule! You can see it at http://www.ylaf.org.uk/book-festival-programme.html. Besides co-teaching the self-editing class, I'll be on two panels, A Question of Character and Glorious Gore,[/font][/color][/font] as well as a debate about whether or not we need books anymore.

Plus, I just did a bunch of work on Dreamweaver this weekend (I'm teaching myself it), toward putting up my site. My goal is to have the site done by Gaylaxicon. Of course, that's just before we leave for England, so it'll be a right flurry of activity for me, what with doing the site, putting together my bits for the panels and the debate, doing whatever I need to do for Gaylaxicon, working, sleeping and all that other stuff.

I shall now spend a fond moment reminiscing about the old days, when I was with Naiad, and all this electronic stuff wasn't around, and being a writer mostly meant being a hermit. {sigh}

[Therese Szymanski]

Gaylaxicon sessions that I'm doing:

Friday

11:00 PM
P10 - It's The End of the World - Epidemic, eco-disaster, nuclear destruction, diminishing resources, it seems like we're faced with any number of ways for the world as we know it to end. What's the likelihood of any of these things coming to pass? Are they actually just straw men to make for dramatic tension? Let's talk about the reality of the end of the world versus how it's portrayed in speculative works.

 
SATURDAY

11:00 a.m.
P4 - The Mysterious Intersection - Everyone makes a big deal about the recent growth in urban paranormal romances, yet mystery/science fiction or mystery/fantasy crossovers have long been the backbone of science fiction: Asimov's I, Robot, Clarke's Rendevous with Rama, and Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series. More recently, Steven Harper's LCSI (Luna City Special Investigations): Dead Man on the Moon and The Dresden Files continue the trend. Why do mysteries and scifi/fantasy fit so well together? Why isn't that combination of genres notable while the fantasy/romance is so noticeable? And, of course, what great mysteries have you missed?
 
2–3 pm: Reading (with Stacia Seaman)

3 pm
P30 - How Do You Like Your Women? - Who floats your boat? Do you want a hero like Xena or Buffy or Wonder Woman? Brainiacs like Sam Carter or Willow? Or bad girls like Starbuck and Faith? The world has suddenly provided us with a veritable buffet of beautiful women in speculative works. Do you find it amusing that a "speculative" work can't come out anymore without there being some form of "kick butt" or "smart glasses" female character?

SUNDAY
3:00 pm
P58 - Romancing The Genre - Take a look at the bookshelves in the genre section these days and you'll clearly see a wealth of genre-romance crossovers. It's even had an impact on media works - with romantic relationships playing a major role in works like Torchwood and Battlestar Galactica and even Doctor Who. Why have we seen so much romance entering the genre? Has it been a good thing for the genre?

Sunday 11 pm
P57 - Many Closets - In today's world, coming out of the closet as gay or lesbian isn't as traumatic as it used to be, but that doesn't mean closets are gone. There are many closets out there….Do your coworkers know you watch Doctor Who? Does your family know you play World of Warcraft? Do your bar friends know you read fantasy novels? Do your neighbors know you have a sling? Even within our community: Are you a butch who feels incomplete without her lipstick? A bear who shaves? What are the closets you find yourself having to come out of? And why do we feel these things are a closet to begin with?

***
I know I make it sound fairly mundane and boring here, like this, but really--we'll be talking about the end of the world. And that's just at the beginning of the weekend.

And it only goes up from there! Since these all seem to be lightly moderated, there's no telling what I'll say and
ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS... JUST THE BEGINNING OF WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN THEN. After all, it just goes up from there.

All I'll guarantee is maybe one slightly fiery book.

[Therese Szymanski]

In England now, with YLAF starting tomorrow. Stacia and I are one of the first bits with our workshop on self-editing to make fiction better. After that, I'm on two panels and a debate.

I'll post more about the adventures, including about the Very Cool Castle we stayed in for a few nights for our belated second anniversary treat (thank you, Stacia!) Oh, and of course about how an obnoxious woman from Denmark or thereabouts tripped over her own feet in the boarding line and tried to blame me—even AFTER she saw that I was disabled and leaning heavily on a cane. Even AFTER she tried to keep us from preboarding so I wouldn't get trampled by the likes of her.

Oh well, unlike her, I don't judge people by my own limitations (she made a racist comment as we boarded).

The panels to come are A Question of Character and Glorious Gore, with a debate about e-publishing.

And, once I return to the states, I hope to also launch my Web site. Well, fix it and all that sort of thing. But first, I must track down some more of these lovely chocolate chip biscuits they have here...

[Therese Szymanski]

Stacia, my girlfriend, and I just got back today from our English holiday, so while I wind down for sleep, I decided to drop a quick update here. It's a bit similar to the update I posted on my livejournal, but I'll likely continue posting more on the trip—and the musings that wandered into my head during and because of the trip—in my livejournal as time goes on, whereas I won't post too much of all of that here.

But anyway, right now, I'd like to say it was an incredible time, and all parts of it were outstanding—from getting to go to Cardiff, to the castle we stayed at, to the York Lesbian Arts Festival which is, without doubt, my favourite festival of its sort.

With it, the organizers, including Crin Claxton, have done a magnificent job keeping the prices down and putting together an event-packed weekend with something for everyone.

For instance, one of the panels I was on was Glorious Gore. It was mostly readings, with the moderator, Jane Traies, asking each of the panelists a few questions as we went along. This let the readers have a bit of an insight into favourite writers as well as some other writers they're not familiar with yet, but might end up liking. And that was just with the reading element. The questions give readers some insight into aspects of the storytelling that might increase their appreciation of it—AND let's folks who are just starting to write to see some different ideas on how to handle things themselves.

So I was on the Glorious Gore and A Question of Character panels, as well as involved in a debate about e-publishing. Stacia and I also taught a class on self-editing for fiction writers, and we were fortunate in that when we discovered the students were a bit more advanced than we originally thought, we were able to quickly move it up and teach even more. It's always great when things like that happen. It's even more amazing when one has students that truly look forward to a class AND enjoy it. (While we were setting up the class, Crin, the YLAF head-honcho-what's-in-charge, asked if we wanted a 2 or 2.5 hour session and although neither of us enjoy public speaking we knew we'd be more likely to cover all the material we wanted to in the 2.5-hour slot, so took that one.)

Oh, so anyway, the festival had panels, discussions and debates as well as plays, performance art, concerts, comedians, a big dance and all sorts of nifty add-ons, like a love lottery—which was even more than the name would imply, since, apparently, one lucky winner got to have lunch with Val McDermid at some nice restaurant in town.

So although I sometimes thing that some conferences lose something by spreading themselves too thin, YLAF seems to continue its ability to do so with its own remarkable flair.

If anyone ever gets a chance to attend, I recommend it HIGHLY. Of course, it is much easier for folks in England to make it there, or even folks from most of Europe, but just figured I'd mention that it's quite fun. Beyond all the sightseeing, and just the knowledge of how deep the history (and herstory) is there, there are the people. I've got a bunch of British friends that I completely adore (but a few didn't make it this year, alas), and they make it all even better.

Anyway, I'm a history slut, and just going to Westminster Abbey and seeing Poet's corner, and standing near Chaucer's grave and walking near the final resting places of Mary Queen of Scots and... so many truly amazing women and men brings tears to my eyes.

And I don't care who says what—there really are some bits of English cuisine that are quite tasty  AND they've got some quite nice beer that they'll pour very cold. Even though an unusual number of pubs in the country seem to have the word slug in the name

Now, if I could only find the {insert extraordinarily foul invective here} who stole my doormat while I was gone, I'd be a touch happier. (It was a wonderfully fitting doormat for me to have, what with its Shakespearean quote, If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief.)

And I saw lots of Bella Books being sold—well, Bella AND Spinsters Ink—and that's ALWAYS a cool thing to see!

Reese, who is obviously jet-lagged, but gets to gain TWO extra hours this year! We fell back last weekend and will do so again THIS weekend! YAY!!!!

[Therese Szymanski]

I've finally gone and done it now -- a real launch of my Web site, http://www.BigBadButch.com! There's still some problems with it, but now substantially more works than doesn't.

I've gone ahead and included some sizeable chunks of my books, so if you haven't read me yet, you can really get a chance to see a bit about what you'll get if you invest in some of my books. Additionally, I've included some fun materials (like some of the Chain Gang Chronicles, wherein myself, Peggy Herring and Laura Dehart Young did some playing around together -- which, unlike my more public escapades with Karin Kallmaker, Barbara Johnson and Julia Watts, most people don't know about).

My idea is to finish fixing it now, and then, about once a month, add some fun new content. I've laid out the site so I can do that, and I've got loads of additional content to add, since I was first published more than a decade ago--AFTER having four plays produced, and one produced AND revived! And that's in addition to all of my freelance work (much of which will never see the light of day... again. Nor will most of my day-job writing, either.)

Meanwhile, if you'd like to see some pictures of Stacia's and my trip to England -- along with some YLAF photos -- visit my blog, at http://reeseszymanski.livejournal.com/. Since our return, I've posted several sets of photos, so you might have to go back a bit to catch them all -- and you, too, can feel free to post on which one should be my new official author photo!

Cheers to all!
Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

The triple crown? Or the third base? Hm. Whichever, I feel like I'm doing it now.

Earlier this year, my girlfriend Stacia Seaman and myself co-taught an editing/betareading/self-editing class online. (Evecho, publisher of the free online book Read These Lips talked us into it. She also took care of all the admin work.) Anyway, that class went very well, so we did a variation of it for the York Lesbian Arts Festival, though this second one was definitely more of a self-editing for fiction writers sort of class. In fact, it might have been called something like that. Plus, since it was all at once, one class, we had to do some things differently. But still, waaaayyyyy cool that we could probably now say we've guest lectured at the University of York since we were, in fact, in a classroom of that institution.

Now I am doing the "Fly little birdie, be free!" bit because my work has decided that I need to teach a class for my department. This will be much more on the writing side of things, however, but I'm not above lifting whatever materials I need to from the other classes for this one.

The biggest worry for me right now is that... Well, I didn't have to worry about my fear of public speaking when I did the class online. And then, in York, Stacia was with me when we taught the class, but this time I'll be on my own.

I'm just hoping that some of the confidence I had for my panels and other things at YLAF rubs off for this one. When I do finally give it, in likely January. If it's successful, however, they might have me start teaching it to the rest of the Foundation. (My boss's boss mentioned that I'm THE prototype—that if my class is successful first for them, then if we export it to other departments, we might start teaching other classes.)

Nope, no stress here. It does make me... Well, considering what sorts of things I usually teach and write outside of work, well, I'll just have to remember to not slip into that outfit at work. The sleazy-lesbian-mystery-writer façade, that is. That could be slightly embarrassing. And I'd rather like to keep my job.

Oh, in the meanwhile, I've finally joined Facebook and MySpace. Not that you'd notice much, since all I did was create a name, but hopefully sometime rather soon, I'll create my pages there. Just to send folks along to my blog at http://reeseszymanski.livejournal.com/ and to my Web site, www.BigBadButch.com, though, since that's where all the fun and action are at.

Of course, just mentioning it reminds me that I haven't updated my Amazon presence (Amazon blog) in a long, LONG time, so I maybe ought to go on over there and do that.

Yes.

Cheers all!
Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

What I've been up to:

1) Well, first of all, I'm now on MySpace and Facebook. I don't have too much of a presence there yet, but I plan on fixing that in the near future. (I'm reading books on both of those, but that's at home, and I'm in Austin now.) If anyone wants to friend me there, just drop me a note -- and if you can mention this, please do, so I'll know where I know you from!
2) Blogging a bit on LiveJournal: http://reeseszymanski.livejournal.com/
3) I've added the full script of my first play -- which picked up an award -- on my Web site, as well as some other materials from that play. The formatting's a bit off on the play, but oh well. Just know that the page of materials from the play is rather graphics heavy. I'm planning on adding something new to the site about once a month this year, so you can look forward to the site being constantly updated.
4) Working on the next Brett Higgins.
5) Doing various experiments from the kits I've bought. I reckon this might open my mind up a bit more to all the science in crime fighting these days. Also attending Sisters in Crime luncheons with speakers on various writerly or criminal things, AND the upcoming Sisters in Crime field trip to the Crime & Punishment exhibition.

There just aren't enough hours in the day for everything that must be done!

I hope y'all had a merry and wonderful holiday season! Well, first part of it—and I hope the rest is just as brilliant!
~Reese

[Therese Szymanski]

February on the Web site:

Well, I thought I'd put the play stuff up during January, so that meant my next addition to my new Web site should be in February, so I loaded the next bit... in February! So feel fee to pop on over to my Web site to catch the free short story, Who Were You, I've just put up there!

Hope you enjoy!
Reese

P.S. My Web site is at http://www.BigBadButch.com. The story can be found at http://bigbadbutch.com/whowereyou.html

[Therese Szymanski]

I am falling WAAAAYYYY far way behind in my blogging in my Livejournal and with all these other venues. I truly am going to try to pick up my blogging again after this weekend, but things have been exceedingly busy of late. For instance, in the past 3 weeks I have:

1) Spent at least 16 hours in the hospital for an outpatient surgery, then with various adjustments of the things they temporarily shoved up my back, then with taking it out. The most interesting part of it all is that in Target I apparently had some very interesting looks on my face. What had happened was that they'd put these electrical leads that would deliver and electrical current in my back. I turned it way up in Target because I was hurting quite a bit and having electrified legs was an interesting distraction from the pain, even though it apparently made me have a weird look on my face as I walked around almost unable to feel the floor.

2) An idiotic driver caused the wreckage of my beautiful Nissan Altima. The insurance company, of course, severely undervalued it and didn't cover all of my rental car needs. (I bought a 2009 Nissan Sentra to replace her. The final decision was between a Civic and the Sentra. Sentra felt more adult, what with all the extra toys it had.)

3) I'm participating in the 3rd annual National Walk for Epilepsy this weekend. If you'd like to sponsor me, bop on over to http://efa.convio.net/site/TR/Walk/walk?px=1010361&pg=personal&fr_id=1840.

4) Work's been crazy busy, especially since we chose the absolute busiest time of the year to switch the online forums. {headdesk}

5) Much more importantly to folks here, I'm working on my next book -- the very last Brett Higgins Motor City Thriller!  Because it's the last I'm trying to layer in more things and make it truly memorable. We'll see if I achieve my objectives! BTW, for any of my readers out there, I've actually, obviously, already started a new mystery series and have at least one more baking in my head.

6) I've also been taking a health writing class, which was interesting just for it's health aspects, but it was even more interesting for all it's bits about freelancing.

I'm going to try to make my Livejournal blog focus on writing -- craft, ideas, all of that. If it's about writing, I want to consider it fair game for that journal. But of course my life might pop in on it occasionally. You can find my main blog at http://reeseszymanski.livejournal.com/. I've also started a Facebook identity, but I'm not able to do too much with it. I need to figure out how to just put some info up in Facebook and MySpace that just tells folks a bit about me and then points them to my Journal or Web site (http://www.bigbadbutch.com).

What would be interesting and good for me is that, if you're interested in any of the following, you bop over to my Journal (http://reeseszymanski.livejournal.com/) to give me feedback on it.

The following is this:

1) I'm trying to keep my Web site somewhat fresh and alive. I tried to make it interesting and filled with all sorts of stuff from the get/go, but I've vowed to add something to it every month this year. Anyway, for April I'm thinking of putting up one of two things: 1) A play. Probably a shorter one, like maybe a one-act one. Or it might be a full-length one. I'm not sure. Or 2) A story of some sort or other. So bop on over to the Journal and let me know what you'd like to see there!

2) Stacia and I are thinking about teaching another self-editing for fiction writers, beta readers and beginning editors class. Please let me know on my journal if you'd be interested in such a class. If we get some feedback it will help us decide whether or not to teach the class again. (It would be updated from the last time, but not enough for folks who took it last time to take it again, IMHO.)

3) I've been asked to teach a thriller writing class. I'd likely teach it with Stacia, since I think an editor's viewpoint is very important and can add quite a bit to such a class. Now, I'm well aware that I'm an editor and, according to quite a few folks, I'm a pretty darn good editor. Anyway, Stacia is a better editor than I am (I'm a better writer than she is, though. Or at least I think so.) I think we make a good teaching team because we cover two very different but very important parts of the publication process. Not only do editors usually do all of the acquisitions for publishing companies, but they also work closely with writers to make books even better. Stacia and I have worked together very well in the past and I think having an editor of her standing (I won't go over her credentials, but they're very impressive) really adds to the class. Anyway, if you'd be interested in taking such a class (thriller writing), again, run over to my Journal and let me know about it there. I'll post an entry for folks to put comments about these things on, but I'm not too picky -- you can put your comments on any entry from now on. Oh, and also feel free to let me know what you think about this editor/writer teaching team.

BTW, the reason I ask for any feedback to be put on my Journal is that you can't reply to this thread or this post, and I always get told when someone posts something new to my journal, so it means that I don't miss things, which I am wont to do!

Cheers everyone!
Reese