hrj | Entries tagged with lhmp

This is probably the smallest audience of all my social media (no, wait, the blog on my website is probably the smallest) but since I'm trying to broadcast this as widely as possible,you get it here too.

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast is open for short fiction submissions throughout the month of January. We're a paying market ($0.08/word) and publish on the podcast and the associated website. Length up to 5000 words (hard limit). Stories should feature a lesbian/sapphic character but need not be "romance" stories (in fact, romance stories should have some other prominent plot element as well). Stories should be set in an actual real-world culture, before 1900. Fantastic elements *may* be included if they are organic to the culture of the setting and/or involve elements that might appear in literature of that time and place.

For the full details (and additional discussion of what tends to catch my interest) see the CFS here: https://alpennia.com/lhmp/essays/call-submissions-2023-lesbian-historic-motif-podcast-fiction-series

I'm pretty sure it's the continuing smoke in the air that's causing my constant dull headache. It feels similar to the constant low-grade headaches I used to have from poor sleep, but with louder tinnitus. I periodically take analgesics but don't know that they help.

* * *

I have a lot of cookbooks, most of them historic. And given that I'm not doing SCA cooking any more, it would be nice to be getting some use out of them. So when I was staring at some lovely eggplants from the garden and thinking about lamb, my mind turned to a cookbook I hadn't yet used: Scheherazade's Feast: Foods of the Medieval Arab World by several members of the Salloum family. This isn't a scholarly edition of a historic text, but more of a coffee-table book that gives a background for medieval Arabic culinary literature, a discussion of various aspects of culture and cuisine, and then a careful selection of recipes in translation and modern adaptation. And when I thought "lamb and eggplant" I said to myself, "I bet that book has something relevant!"

Sure enough, the dish titled "Stuffed Eggplant" was just what I was looking for. I further adapted the recipe to see if I could use mostly ingredients I already had, and the major place I compromised with in minor changes of the spices. This is all from memory, since I made the dish almost a month ago (which is 10 years in normal time-passage).

Prepare dried chickpeas by soaking them for a couple days and then coarsely grinding them. The recipe called for both cubed lamb (for the broth) and ground lamb (for the stuffing) which I somehow didn't clearly notice in advance, and since I couldn't get ground lamb easily I just ground my own. Saute lamb in oil with onions then add water to cover, add salt, ground coriander seed, and a cinnamon stick and cook into a broth.

At this point I had to pull the lamb out of the broth with a slotted spoon to use it in the stuffing (the original recipe calls for cooking it similarly before preparing the stuffing, so all it meant was there was less meat in the broth). Mix the lamb and ground chickpeas with cumin, pepper, spice mixture, saffron and cinnamon.

Prepare the eggplants by slicing the top off then carefully hollowing it out. Stuff with the stuffing. Close the hole at the top (I had some smaller Japanese-style eggplant as well, so I slice off small rounds to use as a "plug" then held it in place with toothppicks.) Place the eggplant in the broth and simmer for about 40 minutes, periodically moving the eggplant to keep them from sticking to the pot.

Serve sliced into rounds with the sauce spooned over them.

Notes: I had more stuffing than I could use, so I just dumped it into the broth while it cooked. So my broth may have thickened more than intended because of the chicklpeas. It was very tasty. A bit heavy as a sole dish (which is how I tend to cook for myself) and would have worked better as "one slice per diner with other stuff on the side." The eggplant held up fairly well to the cooking, and by the time the "plugs" had dissolved, the stuffing had firmed up a little and didn't leak out. Would I cook it again? Not sure. The recipe was a bit fussy and complex compared to how I usually cook on my own.

* * *

The biggest ongoing project in the last month has been setting up the new, independent channel for my podcast (The Lesbian HIstoric Motif Podcast). My current podcast group/host will be going away and I wanted to make sure to keep all my older shows available. So of course I went a little overboard and re-mastered the shows to have a new intro/outro that explains the context and removes direct references to the host/group. The transfer also gave me a chance to standardize my show notes, since I needed a new version of everything for the new site. I got all that set up before announcing the move (at the beginning of September) and the rest of the month has been actually setting up the new account and starting to upload all the older shows. (Which also involves lots of revisions to the related blog entries.) I'm doing one month's episodes every day and am slightly more than halfway done.

Starting in November, I'll be releasing the show in parallel on both channels so I have two months to really talk up making the switch. Then in January I'll both be releasing only through the new site, but I'll also implement some format changes. I'll be going to 2 shows per month (rather than a weekly show), not counting the 4 fiction episodes. The essay shows will be essentially unchanged, but I'll be combining the interviews, book rec shows, industry news, etc into the "On the Shelf" episodes. This takes a lot of the pressure off needing to have an interview *every* month, though it's still my goal. It also means I can be more casual about asking my guests to mention book recs since it won't be a separate show.

After the backlog is transferred, I've promised myself to do some more formal setup of social media promotion of the existing material, not only for the podcast but for the blog.

So I periodically create (physical) chapbooks so that I'll have a free giveaway item when I attend writerly events. The last two have both been fiction ("Three Nights at the Opera" and "The Mazarinette and the Musketeer") but as stocks of the latter are getting low and it's time to think about a new item, I've decided to do an LHMP promo item this time. So I'm thinking of a collection of representative (and interesting!) texts from the LHMP blog and podcast.

What items do people think would make interesting reading for someone being newly introduced to the Project? What blogs or podcast transcripts are likely to make them want to learn more? Which ones stuck in your memory enough to suggest?

For convenience, here's a link to the index of blog posts

And here's a link to the index of podcasts

Just a reminder for those who haven't been bombarded by the information elsewhere that the call for submissions for stories to be published on The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast will close at the end of January 31. (Realistically, it closes at the point when I open up my computer the morning of February 1, in the Pacific Time Zone. But I don't advise cutting things so close that you need that information.)

CfS: http://alpennia.com/lhmp/essays/call-submissions-2020-lesbian-historic-motif-podcast-fiction-series

I'll be blogging this article eventually, but wanted to toss out an extended quote simply because it so clearly articulates a transmasculine identity in a historic context when unfiltered, non-judgemental reporting of such things is rare. The article identifies the couple as "lesbian" because this is how the 19th century author categorized a relationship between two female-bodied persons. I've retained the female pronouns in the original text since this is a verbatim quote. The article is:

Engelstein, Laura. 1990. "Lesbian Vignettes: A Russian Triptych from the 1890s" in Signs vol. 15, no. 4 813-831.

“When only fifteen she first became aware that she was made to be a man, though mistakenly endowed by nature with female sexual organs. She experienced a man’s attraction for girls and women but none at all for men, whom she merely found pleasant and intelligent to talk to. She long ago recognized her peculiar condition, as she calls it. Though she realizes she does not resemble other women, she does not consider herself a monster but only an error of nature. All her feelings are exclusively masculine; she unconsciously, instinctively does everything in a masculine way. She would very much like to dress as a man and restrains herself only for the sake of propriety. She does not wear her hair in a feminine way and always dreams of herself as a man, sometimes even with whiskers. In the company of women she knows well, she feels entirely manly and is always in excellent spirits. In the company of men, by contrast, she feels shy and constrained, like a school child in the company of preceptors and teachers.”

Brand new audio story on the podcast. Check it out!

I wanted to do something special for the 100th episode of my podcast The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast. And after pondering the logistics of several ideas, I decided to produce an extra audio fiction episode, featuring my Italian Renaissance short story "Where My Heart Goes" about Duchess Margaret of Parma and Laudomia Forteguerri.

Here's the link to the podcast.

Here's the link to the transcript.

Sometimes you send a query out into the universe and the universe writes back and says, "We'd love to have you on our podcast!" I had so much fun doing this interview with Sarah at Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Check it out!

One of the hardest things about launching a project is seeing it fail for lack of interest. This is the last day for submissions to the LHMPodcast 2019 short fiction series and currently I don't have enough submissions to fill all the slots in the series, much less having enough after going through a selection process. If you've been holding on to your story thinking, "Nah, there's no point, she won't be interested," please don't self-reject! At this point, it looks like I may end up cancelling the fiction series due to lack of interest. And not even lack of listener/reader interest, but lack of interest in writing these stories.

Everyone tells me there's a hungry desire for lesbian historical fiction. It's a tough field to find an audience for, but I have the audience all lined up and listening to my podcast. All I need is the fiction to offer them.

I've been trying to perform "public positivity" about this so as not to put people off, but this is it: the last day. So I'm letting the desperation show.

Submission Information here.

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast is open for submissions throughout January 2019 for short stories in the lesbian historic fiction genre, to be produced in audio format for the podcast, as well as published in text on the website.

Technical Details

We will accept short fiction of any length up to 5000 words, which is a hard limit. We will be buying a total of four stories. (If we get some really great flash fiction, there’s the possibility of more.)

We will be paying professional rates: $0.06/word.

The contract will be for first publication rights in audio and print (i.e., the story must not have appeared in either format previously) with an exclusive one year license. (Exceptions can be arranged by mutual consent for “best of” collections within that term.)

Instructions on how to submit are given below. NO SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED OUTSIDE THE SUBMISSION PERIOD OF JANUARY 2019.

What We’re Looking For

Stories must be set in an actual historic culture--i.e., a specific time and place in history--and the plot and characters should be firmly rooted in that time and place. (No time-travel or past memories, please. And no supernatural elements, just ordinary history.)

Stories must be set before 1900. We’d love to see stories that reach beyond the popular settings of 19th century America and England unless you do something new and interesting in them.

Romance is optional, and romance stories should have some other significant plot element in addition to the romance.

We are not looking for erotica. Sex may be implied but not described. (It’s difficult to include both a substantial non-romantic plot and erotic content in short fiction. I’d rather that stories focus on the plot and characters.)

Stories should feature lesbian themes. What do I mean by that, especially given the emphasis the LHMP puts on how people in history understood sexuality differently than we do? This is where we get into “I know it when I see it” territory. The story should feature protagonist(s) whose primary emotional orientation within the scope of the story is toward other women. This is not meant to exclude characters who might identify today as bisexual or who have had relationships with men outside the scope of the story. But the story should focus on same-sex relations.

Stories need not be all rainbows and unicorns, but should not be tragic. Angst and peril are ok as long as they don’t end in tragedy.

Authors of all genders and orientations are welcome to submit. Authors from traditionally marginalized cultures are strongly encouraged to submit, regardless of whether you are writing about your own cultural background.

Please feel free to publicize this call for submissions. See this link for full technical details of how to submit.

As I've been announcing for the last few months, my podcast, The Lesbian HIstoric Motif Podcast will be buying and publishing short lesbian historical fiction on the show. We're paying pro rates for at least two stories (possibly more, depending). Submissions will be open during the entire month of January so if you have a story waiting (or are inspired to write something) check out the details and consider sending something.

Details on the submissions call here.

(LHMP #161 Traub 2016 Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns)

Usually I just post the link to the week's LHMP entry, but this time I think I'll reproduce my entire introduction

* * *

This is a very theory-intensive book -- historiography rather than history, and not well suited for the casual reader. But there are some great discussions that made it worth tackling. The writing is very dense and my summary only touches on the outlines of the discussion rather than its specifics. Although theories about how we study and interpret history might seem rather removed from the process of writing lesbian historical fiction, from another angle, the two fields have a great deal of overlap. Consider the question of whether our approach to history is focused on finding identity with our own specific experiences and relationships, or whether we are seeking to understand and appreciate people whose lives have connections with ours but also wide areas of difference. Do we seek to find/write "lesbians in history" from a very narrow definition of the word "lesbian" or do we seek to find/write themes of women's same-sex relationships expressed in a multitude of ways? Do we consider sexual activity to be a necessary defining aspect of those persons we study/write under the rubric of "lesbian" or is it only one of a cluster of important themes? Historical fiction (not just lesbian historical fiction but the entire field) has a pervasive uneasiness around how closely similar historical figures need to be made to modern mindsets in order to be sympathetic to modern readers. In the specific case of lesbian historical fiction, this concern can work to delegitimize the very concept of lesbians in history, just as some historical theories work to erase lesbians as a topic of valid study. And that's why I love finding the parallels in books like this to my own thought processes around the project of writing.

Some thoughts on the depiction of same-sex relationships in history inspired by the Frankentastic podcast (a re-gendered reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein).

A careful and meticulous examination of the meaning and circumstance of a medieval English memorial brass commemorating to unrelated, unmarried women with the forms and symbolism usually found for married couples.

The usual recap of what the blog is doing, announcing the month's author guest (Farah Mendlesohn), and a fun Ask Sappho question about how pre-modern women communicated same-sex interests. Also: the podcast version of the announcement of the call for submisisons.

But Heather (you say), you don't write horror! You don't write supernatural fiction! What do you mean you want to feature Halloween content today?

Halloween marks the end of the ancient Celtic year--the time when doors open between this world and the next--and what better day to have set the beginning of the action of "Hyddwen", my Mabinogi-inspired story about a woman who repays her debt to an otherworldly queen by being her champion in a very strange battle. Morvyth follows the footsteps of many an ancient Welsh hero in crossing that boundary on the day that falls between the years. No one who does so comes back unchanged. And one of these days I'll start writing "Gwylan" which deals with some unexpected fallout from that visit.

For my other Halloween-themed link, I invite you to re-visit the podcast I did last year for the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast, where I discuss Christina Rosetti's poem "The Goblin Market", including a full reading of the poem at the conclusion of the podcast. It's a spooky and frightening poem, but what I loved most was the shifting musical rhythms of the verses, with their repetitions and change in tempo. I've really started enjoying reading poetry as part of these podcasts just for the delicious taste of the language. (Hmm, maybe "delicious taste" isn't the best metaphor when talking about Goblin Markets!)

Margery Kempe and the homoerotics of women bonding over the Passion.

New Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast: "Female Knights in Shining Armor". Click through to my blog for a link to the podcast and a transcript.

I've been playing around with ideas for how to use the occasional "fifth week" in the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast schedule, and the idea that keeps coming back to me with the tenacity of an affectionate cat at feeding time is to publish audio short stories that fit the theme of the Project. I bounced the idea off a few people and other than the occasional reaction of, "You know...this means you have to read a slushpile," no one tried to dissuade me.

So I'm making it official. This announcement should give enough time for inspiration, writing, and polishing, while providing a close enough deadline to keep people focused. (For those of you who find NaNoWriMo too daunting, maybe it would make a good project?) The one thing that I was absolutely certain of the moment the idea came to me was that I would be offering professional rates. I want to provide incentive for writers to submit great stories. Stories that fulfill the goal of the LHMP of encouraging the writing and enjoyment of truly great lesbian historic fiction.

Details on how to submit will be available closer to the submissions window. For now, fire up those keyboards and start writing!

Call for Submissions: Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Fiction Special

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast will be open for submissions during January 2018 for short stories in the lesbian historic fiction genre, to be produced in audio format for the podcast, as well as published in text on the website.

Technical Details

We will accept short fiction of any length up to 5000 words, which is a hard limit. We will be buying at least two stories, possibly more, depending on length (if we get some really great shorter works). If the experiment is successful, it may be repeated in the future.
We will be paying professional rates: US$0.06/word.
The contract will be for first publication rights in audio and print (i.e., the story must not have appeared in either format previously) with an exclusive one year license. (Exceptions can be arranged by mutual consent for “best of” collections within that term.)
Instructions on how to submit will be made available on this site closer to the submission period. NO SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED OUTSIDE THE SUBMISSION PERIOD OF JANUARY 2018.

What We’re Looking For

Stories must be set in an actual historic culture--i.e., a specific time and place in history--and the plot and characters should be firmly rooted in that time and place. (No time-travel or past memories, please. And no supernatural elements, just ordinary history.)
Stories must be set before 1900. We’d love to see stories that reach beyond the popular settings of 19th century America and England unless you do something new and interesting in them.
Romance is optional--by which I mean story lines focusing on the establishment of a new romantic relationship--and romance stories should have some other strong element in addition to the romance.
We are not looking for erotica. Sex may be implied but not described.
Stories should feature lesbian themes. What do I mean by that? Especially given the emphasis the LHMP puts on how people in history understood sexuality differently than we do? This is where we get into “I know it when I see it” territory. The story should feature protagonist(s) whose primary emotional orientation within the scope of the story is toward other women. This is not meant to exclude characters who might identify today as bisexual or gender-queer, or who have had relationships with men outside the scope of the story. But the story itself should focus on lesbian themes expressed authentically within a historic context.
Stories need not be all rainbows and unicorns, but should not be tragic. Angst and peril are ok as long as they don’t end in tragedy.
Authors of all genders and orientations are welcome to submit. Authors from traditionally marginalized cultures are strongly encouraged to submit, regardless of whether you are writing about your own cultural background.

Please feel free to publicize this call for submissions. Further details when available will appear on my blog at Alpennia.com. I recommend following it if you're interested.