Today in Labor History December 15, 1973: The American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In the 1950s and 1960s, some therapists used aversion therapy to "cure" male homosexuality. Like in Anthony Burgess’s, “A Clockwork Orange,” they would show patients pictures of naked men while giving them electric shocks or drugs to make them puke. In the 1973 vote, 5,854 members voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM, while 3,810 voted to retain it. In a compromise, they agreed to remove homosexuality from the DSM, but replaced it with "sexual orientation disturbance" for people "in conflict with" their sexual orientation. They did not completely remove homosexuality from the DSM until 1987.
#WritingCommunity: Have you ever pondered the legality of using trademarked brand names in your fiction? Well, check out this helpful article via Sidebar Saturdays for the expert opinion of an intellectual property lawyer. @bookstodon
The Challenges of Being Me comes out tomorrow! This is a coming of age #novel dealing with the challenges of not knowing who you are, yet still supposed to project confidence about yourself to those around you.
I’m excited about this book coming out and would love for you to join me on this journey
If you're in #Massachusetts, please join me at the Writers' Loft's annual #literary extravaganza and winter bazaar on Saturday 12/2/2023! I'll be there starting around noon to celebrate the launch of the #poetry anthology I participated in called #GnomesAndUngnomes and to pick up some #gifts for the #kids in my life from #local#authors and #illustrators.
The address:
The Writers' Loft
43 Broad St.
Suite B404B
Hudson, MA
The Challenges of Being Me is a contemporary young adult #novel coming out on December 1st. This is a coming of age story dealing with the challenges of not knowing who you are, yet still supposed to project confidence about yourself to those around you.
I’m excited about this book coming out and would love for you to join me on this journey
Hello everyone, I hope you’re all having a wonderful day. My book The Challenges of Being Me launches on December 1st. This is a contemporary young adult coming of age story dealing with the challenges of not knowing who you are, yet still supposed to project confidence about yourself to those around you.
I’m excited about this book coming out and would love for you to join me on this journey
Book 5 of The Silk Rope Masters is slowly coming together. I had hoped it would have been completed by now but Cancer arrived to stuff up my progress.
I'm hoping to have it finished by early in the new year and ready to submit.
I really love working in Scrivener!
We've created several free tools that are useful for #authors. Currently, we have four of them, but we will be adding more as time goes on. https://authorhelp.uk/tools/
Welcome to the inaugural #FediBookFair. #authors and #publishers are invited to post about their #books, offer signed copies, etc, using the #FediBookFair hashtag.
#Readers can watch or follow the hashtag to find books to buy, and interesting authors to follow.
My beloved vector shared a virus, as toddlers are wont to do. And I am not up to reading something new. I pulled #PatriciaMcKillip's Ombria in Shadow from the shelf and read it today.
No, it is not a favourite in her oeuvre, but it had some shivering resonances with our current events. A #fantasy tale about memory and perception, before and after, and how culture, society, identity, has complex interconnections between fable and fact.
@bookstodon Notable book releases in the U.S. for October 31, 2023. 🎃👻📚
Nestlings, Nat Cassidy. [So many horror tropes rolled into one. Multiple evils, including maybe the baby? Amazing how many signs of creeping horror one overlooks just to accept a great apartment in Manhattan.]
The Reformatory, Tananarive Due [Reminiscent of The Nickel Boys. This protagonist can see dead people from the past, but the greater horror might be the race-driven violence of the present.]
Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust, Neal Shusterman. [Graphic novel illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez, depicting Jewish folklore, cultural traditions, and spirit of resilience under unspeakable horrors.]
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, Lina Rather. [What if you took Eldritch horror, threw in historical mistrust of midwives along with the usual quest for magic, power, and cosmological destruction?]
The Paleontologist. Luke Dumas. [A Gothic Mystery set in a Museum of Natural History? Yes, please!]
The Totally True Story of Gracie Byrne, Shannon Takaoka. [A heartwarming story with a sensitive take on the "What if you could write a new reality for yourself?" question. Examination of memory, experience, and the responsibility we have for each other's stories.]
Blood Sisters, Vanessa Lillie. [Haunting story about the horrors of both past and present missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The investigation led by a Cherokee archaeologist.]
What The River Knows, Isabel Ibanez. [This novel contains several genres: historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, seasoned with Egyptology and ancient magic.]
The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters. [An emotional exploration of family, secrets, loss, and grief.]
Good Comics for Bad People: An Extra Fabulous Collection, Vol 1, Zach M. Stafford. [Nathan Pyle, of Strange Planet fame, says that this is very funny, weird, and expressive.]
The Glutton, A.K. Blakemore. [Lightly based on the historical figure "The Great Tarare," this is a wild card on the list: a disturbing tale of appetites of all kinds, circa the French Revolution. I'm told that the writing, particularly in the setting of scenes, is exceptional.]
White Holes, Carlo Rovelli (Nonfiction). [Theoretical physics is my jam. You can't get out of a Black Hole, and you can't get into a White Hole (though matter can escape), but both might have played a role in providing everything that eventually became you.]
There was one book out today about which I could find no reviews or ratings, so who knows? I Call Myself Iris, Frank Paolino, Jr. [YA Sci-fi Fantasy about an AI helper bot who goes a little too far in trying to be of assistance.]
Also, I couldn't find much on The Buffalo Butcher by Robert Brighton (modern-day Jack the Ripper story), or The Oracle Chronicles Midlife Olympians Boxset: Books 1-3 (modern day dude gets summoned by the Greek gods) , by T.J. Deschamps. I'm leaning toward the second one, but that's just a guess.
There are an unusual number of books which almost made the list this week.