James Beard was a ground-breaker in the culinary world, having had a cooking show years before Julia Child, and bringing attention and prestige to the cooking profession and the food industry as a whole. The thing is, he was openly gay, so it’s kind of ironic that the Scouts would give an award to the president of a foundation created in his hono. Michelangelo Signorile blogged about it over at HuffPost: “It was especially troubling considering that the legendary chef and cookbook writer James Beard was an openly gay man who was thrown out of Reed College in Portland in 1922 for precisely the same reason: because he was gay.”

Yet, the Scouts offered the award to Susan Ungaro and she accepted, despite the fact that the Boy Scouts are notorious for their anti-gay stance.

But Ms. Ungaro did the right thing and returned the award. In a note to Signorile, she wrote: “While I support all the poverty and hunger-fighting programs of the Boy Scouts of America, including sending at-risk youth to camp, your report brought to my attention that accepting the Distinguished Citizen Award implied I support their anti-gay policy, which I absolutely do not. When I accepted the honor, I was focused on supporting the New Jersey chefs and restaurant community. I have informed the Boy Scouts of America that I am rescinding my acceptance of the award.”

Sometimes it takes a little nudge, but people will often do the right thing.

I’m very excited about it. I just hope that I can follow it up with another one in a little less time. I have an idea and a basic plot line, but I have to actually write it. Oy.

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday, and I’ll be seeing you in the new year.

Peace.

Unlike many authors, I did not feel as if I were letting go of a child. I am not mourning the loss of it because I have a full plate of projects to jump into to take its place.

Check out the review at AfterEllen and join in on the conversation.

The Moth Diaries

The reading is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, July 10, at the KGB Bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I’ll confirm here and on my Facebook page when it’s it’s a definite. I hope to see you all there!

Thus begins the introduction to Lesbian Cops: Erotic Investigations, an anthology hot off the presses from Cleis. Yes, there’s something about that uniform. Yes, there’s something about the air of authority and control that emanates from a female police officer. Of course, male officers have those charms, too, but it is, as society dictates, a man’s birthright to enjoy power and authority. Conversely, there’s a special quality about a female cop. It’s a special strength that a woman has to have in order to step into a role that, in the past, has been the domain of men and command respect from her colleagues, subordinates, and supervisors alike. In a universe where woman have been told to be meek, quiet, subdued, demure, “ladylike,” and have been classified as the “fairer” or “weaker” sex, where does a woman get the chutzpah to put on those blues (or browns), strap on that utility belt, holster her gun, and step out into the world ready to kick some ass? It comes from a desire to be more than a pretty face or a “good little girl.” It comes from a desire to be something more, to do something important, to take her rightful place in the world.

And that is HOT. The energy inside a woman like that can be felt physically and emotionally. And it is a turn-on. With that image in mind, the imagination can go to many places and open up countless possibilities. Start with this: If she straps on a utility belt and uses it with skill, what else can she strap on with skill? This is a collection of imagination, fantasy, and desire. Wherever your tastes lie, there’s something in here for you.

I won’t try to summarize the collection because the editor, Sacchi Green, did it so well. So, here is the rest of her introduction to the anthology, followed by the Table of Contents. I hope you’re enticed enough to give this book a try—I think you’ll find yourself quite satisfied.

But there’s something more as well, an irresistible force that these writers have channeled into fiercely erotic stories of policewomen in or out of uniform, on patrol or undercover, in charge or in need of healing, on the case or under the sheets.

The action can be gut-level tough, as in Jove Belle’s ”Hollis” where anti-terrorism boot camp surges over the edge into BDSM; or heart-wrenching, as in Evan Mora’s “A Cop’s Wife,” when death threats give a keen edge to the need for life-affirming sex; or quirky as well as steamy when Teresa Noelle Roberts’s cop finds a way to maintain respect for her own “Dress Uniform” while indulging her anime-girl lover’s cos-play kink.

The settings vary, as well, affecting the mood and feel of each piece. Delilah Devlin’s cops play their “Only Game in Town” in a southern city that’s small without being entirely small-minded. Kenzie Mathews’s Alaskan village is a natural place for the mythic “Raven Brings the Light”.  JL Merrow heats up a British town during one “Blazing June”, and Cheyenne Blue goes Down Under to an Australian rain forest for “How Does Your Garden Grow.”

J.N. Gallagher’s “Officer Birch” inspires undying passion in a Midwestern high school; Terry Mixon’s witness protection marshal finds (and gives) a “Healing Hand” in an unidentified (of course) mountain location; Andrea Dale’s “Charity and Splendor” merge in a nice family neighborhood; and Elizabeth Coldwell’s handcuffed stripper in “Torn off a Strip” meets her match on a suburban porch. Sacchi Green’s state-trooper-turned-bodyguard just keeps “Riding the Rails” from Vermont to D.C., with special attention to the roomy handicapped restroom.

Urban scenes range from R.G. Emanuelle’s sweet and spicy “Cop at My Door” and Ily Goyanes’s “Undercover” hooker who’s way in over her head in Miami, to R V Raiment’s gritty (and lyrical) “Chapel Street Blue” and Annabeth Leong’s searing, stirring, and ultimately redeeming “A Prayer before Bed.”

The characters, of course, are the real heart and strength of any story. I’m not easily impressed, but these writers did the trick; they walked the fine line between fantasy and believability without ever slipping into caricature, and gave us fully rounded people, explicit, uncompromising eroticism, and their own sizzling visions of the complexity and depth, the strength and vulnerability, and above all the commanding, overwhelming sex appeal of Lesbian Cops.

They’ve definitely made me resolve to support my local policewomen.

Table of Contents

Hollis — Jove Bell
Only Game in Town — Delilah Devlin
Dress Uniform — Teresa Noelle Roberts
A Cop’s Wife — Evan Mora
Charity and Splendor — Andrea Dale
Chapel Street Blue — R V Raiment
Cop at My Door — R. G. Emanuelle
Torn off a Strip — Elizabeth Coldwell
Officer Birch — J.N. Gallagher
Raven Brings the Light — Kenzie Mathews
Healing Hand — Lynn Mixon
Undercover — Ily Goyanes
Riding the Rails — Sacchi Green
Blazing June — JL Merrow
A Prayer before Bed — Annabeth Leong
How Does Your Garden Grow — Cheyenne Blue