Welcome to 2019, dear listener, and the first of the fascinating weird/horror fiction and LGBTQ+ interviews we’ll be running this month, along with our usual fare. Today, we’re delighted to make the acquaintance of author/publisher Catherine Lundoff.
And why are we doing this, you ask? Well, we’ve always been about finding and exploring the different, and seeking out new creative thrills. Which means we have already covered a number of LGBTQ+ creators anyway, as a matter of routine. We thrive on inclusive inventiveness.
So when the properly organised review site Ginger Nuts of Horror came up with the idea of highlighting LGBTQ+ authors in horror, and their writing, throughout January, it seemed jolly appropriate for the shambolic greydogtales to join in. Most of the events are at Ginger Nuts, but we have some great pieces coming – thought-provoking, exciting, critical and just useful if you want to try out some new authors. And if you’re a writer or publisher, there’s some interesting stuff to consider as well.
As usual, most of what you need to know is in the interview, so here we go…
NOTE: See also end of post for a forthcoming special offer on one of Catherine’s books
CATHERINE LUNDOFF
Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher from Minneapolis where she lives with her wife, bookbinder Jana Pullman, and the cats who own them. She is the author of over 100 published short stories and essays, which have appeared in such venues as The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast, Tales of the Unanticipated Magazine, My Wandering Uterus: Tales of Traveling While Female, Respectable Horror, Renewal, Callisto, The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Professor Moriarty, The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories, The Cainite Conspiracies: A Vampire the Masquerade V20 Anthology and Nightmare Magazine.
Her books include Silver Moon, Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and as editor, the fantastical pirate fiction anthology, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). In addition, she is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press, a genre fiction publisher specializing in fiction from out of this world.
greydog: Hi, Catherine, and welcome to greydogtales. Obviously we’re going to ask about LGBTQ+ writers and characters in strange fiction, but maybe first you could tell the readers a bit about yourself, to set the scene. And if you wanted to share your personal identity in the context of this feature, how would you do so?
Catherine: Thanks for hosting this! I’m an author and editor, and more recently, a small press publisher at Queen of Swords Press. I identify as queer or bisexual and have been out for over thirty years. I primarily write fantasy, historicals, horror and other things under my own name, with a few other genres thrown in, and erotica and erotic romance as Emily L. Byrne. From the standpoint of what readers of this site might be interested in, my work has included werewolves, vampires, ghosts, madness and several short fiction tie-ins for World of Darkness games like Vampire the Masquerade. Oh, and a queer retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.”
greydog: How do you describe the bulk of your own work – horror, weird fiction, magical realism, speculative, or what? Would you find ‘horror’ an uncomfortable or inappropriate label?
Catherine: My horror tales tend toward the Gothic style of writing and that is also most of the horror fiction that I read. I would probably describe my relevant work this way but then, I also have a hyper-realistic novel about menopausal werewolves and coming out at midlife (Silver Moon) and a lot of published short fiction that runs the gamut of themes from Jack the Ripper to the aforementioned Poe retelling to vampire erotica. I also write a bunch of non-horrific fantasy and science fiction, some literary fiction and the occasional romance, so I’d probably have to go with “eclectic.”
greydog: How did you discover authors who wrote about characters whose identities/positions you could relate to? By accident, word of mouth, or actively hunting their work down on your own?
Catherine: I came out in my early twenties, shortly after graduating from college. I cannot truly say that I suspected that I was bisexual before then, though I possibly should have. At any rate, I came out in the late 1980s when a number of science fiction, fantasy and horror authors were writing about LGBT or Q characters for big publishers, which made their work easier to find. I was active in fandom and I had friends who identified as being on the queer spectrum so I had people recommending books to me, pros I met at conventions and so forth. I was also a collective member at a lesbian feminist bookstore so I got to discover what there was to find of early feminist and lesbian science fiction and fantasy novels too. Some of my favourite queer science fiction from that time period included the Silverglass novels by J.F. Rivkin, The Cage by S.M. Stirling and Shirley Meier and Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett.
greydog: This is a bit direct, but do you feel you’ve ever had work rejected because of your own sexual identity, or that of the characters portrayed?
Catherine: I have not had any obvious negative reactions to queer content in my work from editors or publishers to the best of my knowledge. But then, that’s becoming rarer these days because it’s easier to find a public forum to push back against it. I do know authors who were to told to “straighten” characters out, particularly in YA, and others who got no recognition until they wrote a book about straight characters and I have seen “no gays wanted” calls for fiction within recent memory so I don’t want to downplay those experiences for other authors either or suggest that the playing field is somehow level for everyone. I’m pretty selective about where I sent my work so there’s every chance I’ve just screened those markets out beforehand.
That said, while not intending to be ill-intentioned, there tend to be industry “fads” that sweep through the larger markets and the stories that fit into whatever that category is at the time get more notice and are more likely to be accepted and reviewed. It varies every couple of years (more quickly in the short fiction markets) but the effect is that the same names show up on TOCs with great regularity. Then they often vanish, particularly if the authors belong to sexual, gender or cultural minorities writing about protagonists like themselves, and the markets go on to new things. Many of the queer authors whose work I devoured back in the 1980s and early 1990s are now relegated to the small press or are indie publishing, if they still write for publication at all, for example. That cycle seems to be speeding up as large publishers consolidate and more careers are impacted by midlisting, failing to impress the Amazon algorithms and so forth, which is part of we need a healthier publishing ecosystem with more platforms, options, indie bookstores, publishers and reviewers.
greydog: And have you ever had negative reader reactions because of those factors, to your knowledge?
Catherine: Yep. Generally, it’s coded to some degree, but it shows up in reviews, and more rarely, at readings, book tables and panels. I do a fair number of ‘in person’ events so I get to see a range of audience reactions. Getting one that is clearly homophobic is not a lot of fun, to put it mildly.
greydog: What’s the most heartening response you’ve ever had to portraying/including LGBTQ+ characters?
Catherine: Twice this year I’ve had readers tell me that my novel Silver Moon was their “coming out” novel and helped them get through some rough spots when they were discovering things about themselves. Honestly, this is the most incredible honor I can imagine as a queer writer. I’m so incredibly pleased that my work touched someone and helped them navigate a time in their lives that can be very challenging. Second only to this is having a reader tell me that I’m one of their favourite writers; that never grows stale either.
LGBTQ+ AND THE FIELD
greydog: Are such niche fields as gay and lesbian dark erotica, and the more explicit side of paranormal romance, useful for advancing the presence of LGBTQ+ writers and characters, or detrimental to a balanced portrayal?
Catherine: Well, considering that I got my start in erotica, it would be a tad hypocritical for me to look down on it now. I didn’t write any fiction at all until I was in my thirties so I got a late start on things. One of the first short stories I wrote was a vampire erotica story that appeared in an early Circlet Press anthology. I skipped fan fiction entirely in my writing development, but for a lot of LGBTQ+ writers, this is the first place they discover themselves as writers. Fan fiction tends to have a lot of erotic and romantic storylines and I think that, by and large, this often makes it a safer place to grow as a writer of queer fiction. I also think that writing about sex and doing a good job with it is one of many good ways to hone your writing skills. From a historical perspective, erotica was one of the few genres that was friendlier to positive LGBTQ portrayals when these were hard to find elsewhere. In short, I weigh in heavily on “useful.”
That said, I don’t think these need to be the only kind of LGBTQ+ portrayals available to readers. I find it pretty frustrating when queer writers who don’t write romance, or sexy times stories or sad literary work about broken queer folks, have a hard time placing their stories or finding an audience. More genre diversity is a fabulous thing on every level and I think that applies to the horror field as well.
greydog: We remember that one of our earliest exposures to unabashed gay speculative fiction was through Star Trek fan fiction – Kirkspockiana, with the obvious protagonists. That was fun. Now, getting work noticed at all is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve. Do you think there are more barriers for LGBTQ+ writers in general?
Catherine: I think it depends on the writer and the specific genre or subgenre they’re writing in. Many out LGBTQ+ writers writing queer work tend to end up self-publishing or writing for smaller presses. This cuts across genres for the most part, though certainly romance in all its flavors has a particularly large cluster of queer writers. Romance also has the largest readership so that’s not terribly surprising, but it’s also very competitive and that makes it harder for new writers or writers who don’t have much of a network to get discovered.
One of the things that a lot of us talk about that is germane to horror readers and editors is a storyline that relies heavily on “Kill Your Gays.” There are variations on this, but basically, this is a story where the out queer character exists solely to die. There’s generally only one and they may be bumped off because they are monstrous and expendable or for reader sympathy or to motivate the other characters. There are whole generations of LGBTQ+ and straight readers who have grown up with this as the main story line where they see any queer characters at all. It remains an on-going problem, particularly when writers get pushed into this trope by publishers who think this is only “real” story for queer characters or when that’s the only kind of tale that attracts critical notice and acclaim.
Add to all of that the social forces of homophobia and other issues and it can be difficult to impossible for an out writer to get their work out in the world and read, particularly if they are also a “minority within a minority,” such as being a person of color, a non-English-speaking immigrant, a queer person with disabilities, etc., especially if their work is deemed “unmarketable.” The barriers are very real and I don’t have any brilliant solutions other than to encourage readers to look for work outside the mainstream and the best sellers list. Try new books and authors, check out some indie published work and small press books. You can find some amazing things out there.
greydog: It’s the ethos of our entire site – explore, with an open mind and a generous heart. Finally, on the field, we hesitated over this last question, as we’re strong supporters of indie and specialist publishers, but we have heard the occasional discussion over this one, so we might as well settle it. There are a number of presses dedicated to LGBTQ+ fiction. Do you view these as a good thing, or do you think they risk perpetuating exclusion from mainstream presses?
Catherine: Since I run a small press, I am completely biased. Small presses are in a position to take bigger risks and publish different voices and different kinds of work than larger houses. For the first decade and a half that I was out, small presses were often the only place to find good representation of LGBTQ characters and stories. And I think that for some kinds of stories, they still are, along with indie published-authors. As mainstream publishers consolidate and are taken over by larger media companies, the emphasis shifts from good storytelling and risk taking to marketability. Not that you can’t have both, but often genre fiction books with queer protagonists, particularly if they are by queer authors, are viewed as “less marketable.” Lesbians are “less marketable” than cis gay men, bisexuals and transgender characters are “less marketable” than lesbians and so forth on down the line. This happens more often if a character is, for example, a person of color as well as being queer or has a disability and is out and queer (or heaven forfend, all of the above). Small presses can provide representation and stories that are either not available or are much harder to find in the mainstream.
greydog: A good argument. And what have you planned in the way of work for 2019?
Catherine: I’m currently working on Blood Moon, the sequel to my novel, Silver Moon, and I hope to put that out through Queen of Swords Press in 2019. I’m also working on a new gaming tie-in story to one of the World of Darkness games and on a proposal for a new game that blends elements of Lovecraftian mythos with the fight for women’s suffrage. We’ll see if I can pull that off. I’m also working on a couple of new short stories in different genres, and of course, publishing new books.
greydog: Cool. Many thanks for taking part!
Catherine Lundoff can be found at: www.catherinelundoff.net
And: www.queenofswordspress.com
As part of this feature month, Catherine has kindly agreed that her short fiction collection, Out of This World, which includes a couple of her horror/dark fantasy tales as well as a mix of her other fiction, will be on sale for the 21-27th January, so do check it out.
FOR A WHOLE RAFT OF LGBTQ+ ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS ALL MONTH, HEAD OVER TO GINGER NUTS OF HORROR AT: