Blade, Sept. 2008: Books Following in Annie Proulx's Sneakers
This interview with Ginger Mayerson of Wapshott Press originally appeared in the Orange County & Long Beach Blade, Sept. 2008.
Annie Proulx, Anne Rice, Patricia Neil Warren, Mary Renault--all are part of a long and venerable literary tradition that links women writers with homoerotic stories. Now joining that tradition, Ginger Mayerson, 48, a Los Angeles writer, says, "To paraphrase Mrs. Parker on Edna St. Vincent Millay, I would say we ... are following the exquisite footsteps of Annie Proulx in our own comfy sneakers." She's referring to Chase and Other Stories, her recent collection of short stories by herself and several other women, published by her own Wapshott Press.
"If Ms. Proulx can get her story published in The New Yorker and made into a major motion picture, what's to stop other women from writing homoerotica?" asks Tally Keller in the book's introduction. "This erotica playfully thumbs its nose at conventional morality, tastefulness,and all other things proper young ladies are supposed to happily consider their lot."
Mayerson composed chamber music for a while, until she burned out--a background that's reflected in her Chase short story, "The Accompanist" (written under the pen name Amy Throck-Smythe) about inhabitants of the classical music world. For some years, she went through spells of reading what she calls, "gay porn." She became involved with a Star Trek slash community, where fans have been known to damn the copyright laws and go full speed ahead with homoerotic fiction inspired by the classic sci-fi franchise.
She started the online Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society (JLHLS) several years ago for a "literary society" of one--herself. She admits that originally she just wanted to get a press pass to San Diego Comic Con so she could interview Molly Kiely, a comic artist who specializes in gay porn. Now Mayerson says the JLHLS website has perhaps 12 regular contributors who review every type of literature and just about everything else, from toys to perfume.
Three Chase stories began as unsold scripts for graphic novels--Anastasia Witchhazel's title story, Mayerson's sci-fi "Chiaroscuro" and "The Accompanist." Chase began when Iris, a small-comics publisher, rejected "Chase" and Mayerson offered to publish it instead. Thus Wapshott Press was born, financed by Mayerson's day job. She credits the Internet for the tools to start her "nanopress" venture, "Amazon makes it very easy to produce these books."
The writers featured in Chase were rounded up from the JLHLS and the Star Trek slashers. While the title story and some others relate to sci-fi, others such as Mayerson's own "Dipsy Doodle Inn" (written under the pen name Karman Ghia) fit a Southern Gothic tradition. Mayerson comments, "William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner are my idols. If I lived to be 100, I'd never write that well. There's something about Southern authors that's just amazing. My father was from Tennessee and was more of a film buff than a literature buff. But his taste in movies, particularly John Ford Westerns, was very literate. Now our Kitty Johnson is from the South and her "Omega Men" [about an Alabama fraternity] is a wonderful story."
She adds, "["Omega Men"] is so Gothic but the gay character doesn't have to commit suicide in the third act to explain why his widow is insane."
Mayerson says Wapshott is just a name with no particular significance but adds, "Fabrice Eugene Wapshott, the most fabulous gay man ever, [would] make Proust cry!" The character on the Wapshott logo resembles Oscar Wilde, but Mayerson thinks he looks more like Mick Jagger. Kiely drew the logo and did an illustration of another character for the Chase frontispiece.
Besides Chase, Mayerson has an original online novel, The Pajama Boy, that she expects to have available in hard copy by October. She also is readying a second anthology of stories about gay men, which for the first time will feature two male writers--Chad Denton, and Logan who also draws the gay Deimos comic. Then there's a side project, Bloglandia, for which she's looking for blogs on any subject.
2019 update: Wapshott Press titles remain available via the Wapshott Press website.
Annie Proulx, Anne Rice, Patricia Neil Warren, Mary Renault--all are part of a long and venerable literary tradition that links women writers with homoerotic stories. Now joining that tradition, Ginger Mayerson, 48, a Los Angeles writer, says, "To paraphrase Mrs. Parker on Edna St. Vincent Millay, I would say we ... are following the exquisite footsteps of Annie Proulx in our own comfy sneakers." She's referring to Chase and Other Stories, her recent collection of short stories by herself and several other women, published by her own Wapshott Press.
"If Ms. Proulx can get her story published in The New Yorker and made into a major motion picture, what's to stop other women from writing homoerotica?" asks Tally Keller in the book's introduction. "This erotica playfully thumbs its nose at conventional morality, tastefulness,and all other things proper young ladies are supposed to happily consider their lot."
Mayerson composed chamber music for a while, until she burned out--a background that's reflected in her Chase short story, "The Accompanist" (written under the pen name Amy Throck-Smythe) about inhabitants of the classical music world. For some years, she went through spells of reading what she calls, "gay porn." She became involved with a Star Trek slash community, where fans have been known to damn the copyright laws and go full speed ahead with homoerotic fiction inspired by the classic sci-fi franchise.
She started the online Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society (JLHLS) several years ago for a "literary society" of one--herself. She admits that originally she just wanted to get a press pass to San Diego Comic Con so she could interview Molly Kiely, a comic artist who specializes in gay porn. Now Mayerson says the JLHLS website has perhaps 12 regular contributors who review every type of literature and just about everything else, from toys to perfume.
Three Chase stories began as unsold scripts for graphic novels--Anastasia Witchhazel's title story, Mayerson's sci-fi "Chiaroscuro" and "The Accompanist." Chase began when Iris, a small-comics publisher, rejected "Chase" and Mayerson offered to publish it instead. Thus Wapshott Press was born, financed by Mayerson's day job. She credits the Internet for the tools to start her "nanopress" venture, "Amazon makes it very easy to produce these books."
The writers featured in Chase were rounded up from the JLHLS and the Star Trek slashers. While the title story and some others relate to sci-fi, others such as Mayerson's own "Dipsy Doodle Inn" (written under the pen name Karman Ghia) fit a Southern Gothic tradition. Mayerson comments, "William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner are my idols. If I lived to be 100, I'd never write that well. There's something about Southern authors that's just amazing. My father was from Tennessee and was more of a film buff than a literature buff. But his taste in movies, particularly John Ford Westerns, was very literate. Now our Kitty Johnson is from the South and her "Omega Men" [about an Alabama fraternity] is a wonderful story."
She adds, "["Omega Men"] is so Gothic but the gay character doesn't have to commit suicide in the third act to explain why his widow is insane."
Mayerson says Wapshott is just a name with no particular significance but adds, "Fabrice Eugene Wapshott, the most fabulous gay man ever, [would] make Proust cry!" The character on the Wapshott logo resembles Oscar Wilde, but Mayerson thinks he looks more like Mick Jagger. Kiely drew the logo and did an illustration of another character for the Chase frontispiece.
Besides Chase, Mayerson has an original online novel, The Pajama Boy, that she expects to have available in hard copy by October. She also is readying a second anthology of stories about gay men, which for the first time will feature two male writers--Chad Denton, and Logan who also draws the gay Deimos comic. Then there's a side project, Bloglandia, for which she's looking for blogs on any subject.
2019 update: Wapshott Press titles remain available via the Wapshott Press website.
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