Ann Herendeen

There is a disparaging quotation about Russia (more often now applied to the USA), claiming that it went directly from barbarism to decadence without passing through civilization. I thought of this after reading Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, last year's multiple-award nominated novel, only in this case it's bisexuality that has been skipped over. Not to equate bisexuality with civilization but .... it sometimes feels as if our society has moved within the span of a human life from homophobia and persecution to (in some places) acceptance of sexual and gender fluidity--without ever acknowledging bisexuality.  Read More 

New York City offers amazing opportunities for writers and artists, even as prices are forcing many of us out and as bookstores are closing. A new queer bookstore opened earlier this year with the tongue-in-cheek name of Bureau of General Services--Queer Division. Located on the real Lower East Side of Manhattan, at 83A Hester St., BGSQD shares its space with a performance group called CAGE.  Read More 

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a terrific book, one that goes far beyond most of what has been published on bisexuality and bisexual activism--which is not to belittle the great work that has preceded it. It's a book that could not have been written until now, when the definition of bisexual is expanding to be more inclusive, and when the concept of bisexuality is moving beyond the limited idea of attraction to "both" sexes. Because this is nonfiction, and political, I will not be discussing the writing style, except to say I think Eisner did an excellent job of writing clearly and avoiding jargon. I am giving the book four stars, not five, because I think there is one substantive flaw in Eisner's approach, which I'll discuss at the end of my review. Read More 

Like many authors these days, I've decided to self-publish my backlist as e-books. Recognition, a $.99 novella, the first installment in what I'm calling the ECLIPSIS series of Lady Amalie's memoirs, is now available for the Kindle and Nook, and will be up in other formats soon.

My backlist is a little different  Read More 

This proves what I've always suspected: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife—and a husband.
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I read something recently that made me angry. It was an article in the New York Times about Joseph Lelyveld’s biography of Gandhi, Great Soul.

I’m a novelist, a writer who tells made-up stories. This blog is not political, and I don’t want to get bogged down in discussions where I have to be “fair and balanced,” something that is not the novelist’s job (thank goodness!)

But this thing makes me crazy and I have to write it out of my system.  Read More 

There was an interesting juxtaposition of events for me recently, the kind of thing that feels like the heavens opening up to send an earth-shaking message that will Change Everything. Then you mull it over for three days and it’s not such a revelation. But I’m going to post it anyway because it’s all I’ve got for material, and the message, such as it is, bears repeating. Besides, my new computer arrived earlier this week, and what better way to inaugurate it than by talking about my favorite subjects?

The more spectacular event was actor/scholar Ian Kelly’s presentation on Beau Brummell for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA).  Read More 

Most of us have heard about “Tea Party” candidate Sharron Angle telling a group of Hispanic students, “Some of you look a little more Asian to me.” I read one interpretation which claimed Ms. Angle was attempting to show that she didn't “see race,” but reactions were, naturally, mostly negative. Nobody wants to be labeled by an outsider telling us what category she thinks we belong to.  Read More 

In the third season of Mad Men, Don Draper's latest extramarital interest, a freethinking schoolteacher, asks that unanswerable question: How do we know what you call “blue” is the same thing I see and call blue? Now a new book goes even further, telling us English has more color words that many other languages, and that ancient Greek appeared to have no word for blue at all. (Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, by Guy Deutscher. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
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My second novel, Pride/Prejudice, as the / in the title indicates, is a kind of "slash" fiction, a version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with same-sex relationships between the characters. Of course, by describing the story this way, I seem to be implying that the original novel is "heterosexual," and that by "slashing" it I've changed the characters or the story--that I've "homosexualized" it. Even the publishing contract describes the book as one in which Austen's characters are "turned" bisexual.  Read More