hrj

I really do know better than to throw myself at new projects without taking a long time to think about it and consider logistics. But...

It seems odd to me that there doesn't seem to be any sort of organized, in-person lesbian-books-related group or event in the SF Bay Area. Now maybe there is and I simply don't know about it. (Wouldn't be the first time in my life that happened!) But if my impression is correct, it seems rather odd.

The best known lesbian publishing events tend to be focused on authors and publishers as opposed to readers. They also tend to be on the expensive side. At the other end of the scale, there are readings and whatnot. I've also become aware of a small handful of more reader-focused local (can't even seem to think of them as regional) events, like the one I went to in Austin earlier this year.

Maybe it's just my background in sff fandom skewing my notion of the possibilities, but it seems to me that there's scope for the equivalent of small regional conventions that bring local readers and authors together, along with the possibility of attracting a sprinkling of non-local people if an attractive enough program is put together. And if such a thing were possible anywhere, I should think it would be possible in the Bay Area.

I can see all sorts of hazards and pitfalls. My impression of the industry/community is that the failure mode of enthusiasm is cliquishness. Far more than I see in sff fandom, there seems to be a tendency toward a prickly loyalty to specific authors or specific publishers. (I saw a bit of this failure mode at the Austin event, where it felt very much like people attended to interact with specific authors, rather than to engage with the community in general.) I don't get it, but it does seem to exist. And there are other potential pitfalls I can imagine. But to be aware is to be able to avoid.

I love having fans of my work all around the globe, but there are a lot of times when I think how nice it would be to have a local, face-to-face community for the lesbian side of my writing, the way I do for the sff side. And I do have a teensy little bit of experience in my past at working on small, special-interest conferences and conventions....