Say the Magic Word

If you've attended a Perfectly Queer book reading in this our first year, you're aware that we award door prizes.  Why?, you say.  Isn't that a little cheesy?  No!, we say.  Well, maybe but we have an ulterior motive: to reward promptness.  We "do door prizes" at the beginning of the event so, if you're late, no soup for you.  Or door prizes.

We were using little red double coupons, which take time and kill trees, time we'd much rather spend talking with you and making sure that everything is set up with the reading.  Therefore, this month we're going green.

Well, okay, not physically but door prize wise (thank you, President Eisenhower).  No more little red coupons.  We're trying magic words instead and compelling you to read our blog or Twitter feed in order to discover what this month's word is.  BTW, it's debut.   

Here's how it works, you read the feed or the blog, make a mental or written note of the magic word--debut, debut--and, when we ask for it at the reading, raise your hands.  No yelling out because, you know, it would increase the chances of you not winning a door prize if you let everybody else in the room know what the magic word is.  This month, the first four hands--and mouths--with the correct magic word--debut, debut--win a prize.

And here are this month's prizes!

The Dark Between the Stars by Hilary A. Zaid

from the first page...

“'Do you think it’s possible for an accountant to be romantic?' My little sister MinJae was sitting on the floor of my bedroom, sparkly and pink in one of the Sex-In-the-City tutus she’d recently started wearing. She was flipping through Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, trying on careers the way she used to try on Mom’s costume jewels. MinJae was 22, just out of college, and whatever career MinJae chose for the rest of her life wouldn’t last too long, because MinJae had taken the DNA test for Huntington’s, and, like Mom, she had it. C-A-G, C-A-G, C-A-G – like a vinyl record with a scratch in it, MinJae’s fourth chromosome kept playing the same bad tune, 43 flat notes in a row.

Could accountants be romantic? From the time MinJae was born, she needed me to have the answers. Why is Mommy dancing naked in the back yard? Why did Mommy throw her soup bowl at the wall? I was eight years older than my little sister, and the one who had cared for her as our mother slipped into the solitary confinement of her own head. She didn’t even have gray hair. MinJae, Minjou, Minjae, MinJou! Mom would rock and cry against the kitchen sink, her pants soiled, repeating, over and over again, the only two words she could say when she couldn’t say the thing she meant: the names of her two daughters. For what it was worth, I had told MinJae not to take the test. 

'Cathy’s an accountant,' I reminded my sister. Cathy was my first and only girlfriend. On those days when we’d come home from school to find all of our clothing tossed out the bedroom windows, Cathy would grab a Hefty and help me drag everything back into the house."

Hear the rest Monday, October 10, 7 p.m. at Dog Eared Books Castro, 489 Castro St., in San Francisco.  www.facebook.com/events/1765349943718579/  AND, the magic word to win door prizes is debut.

Murder Under the Bridge: A Palestine Mystery by Kate Jessica Raphael

From the first page of the novel:

"Rania placed the little brass coffee pot on the flame, resting one hand on the long handle so she could snatch it up before it boiled over.  Her mouth tingled in anticipation as she inhaled the cardamon-laced steam.

'The boss wants you,' said Abdelhakim at her elbow.  The man must wear sheepskin soles, he crept up on her so silently.  His cherubic good looks were spoiled by a permanent smirk.

Rania reached for the knob to quench the flame, but he held out a hand to stop her.  He grasped the pot's handle as she let it go, taking care that their hands did not touch.  She tried not to let the thought of him drinking her coffee gnaw at her, as she went into the captain's office.

'There is a situation in Azzawiya,' Captain Mustafa said.  His roly-poly frame spilled out of his overstuffed leather chair.

'What kind of situation?' asked Rania.

'One requiring great tact.'

Rania knew the captain well enough to take this as a warning, not a compliment.  She was not known for her tact."

Hear more from Murder Under the Bridge at Perfectly Queer's "Fall Fiction" book reading Monday, October 10, 7 p.m. at Dog Eared Books Castro at 489 Castro St. in San Francisco.  Free admission, free refreshments and door prizes!  www.facebook.com/events/1765349943718579/  And remember: the magic word for door prizes is debut.  When we ask for it at the reading, you might win!

The Hedge Tree by Laura J. Merrell

From first page of the novel...

"My younger brother Trilby weighed ten pounds when he was born in 1971.  I was only three then and he seemed relatively close to my size, or at least closer than anyone else I knew.  I could tell from all the fuss being made over Trilby that he was different from me in some fundamental way and people often found me staring at him through the bars of his crib, my face puckered into a worried frown that amused my parents and gave the impression that mischief was the last thing on my mind; an anxious child was supposed to be a trustworthy child.  Sometimes I proved otherwise, which made me look dishonest for failing to meet expectations.

'Now your mommy and daddy have a boy,' our neighbor Ethel Gabbard said to me during a new-baby visit to our house, where she'd arrived with a box of Pampers and a Raggedy Andy doll pillow, a gift I was allowed to unwrap for my brother.  Ethel said 'boy' like it was a synonym for happiness.  It probably is in some languages."

Hear more Monday, October 10, 7 p.m. at Dog Eared Books Castro, 489 Castro St., San Francisco.  www.facebook.com/events/1765349943718579/  And remember: the magic word to win a door prize is debut.

Debut Books at Fall Fiction October 10

Three new books, debut fiction by Laura J. Merrell, Kate Jessica Raphael, and Hilary A. Zaid, will be featured at Perfectly Queer's Fall Fiction night, Monday, October 10, 7pm at Dog Eared Books Castro. Need more info? Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1765349943718579/

And don't forget: you have to know the magic word to win a door prize.  It's debut.  Yep, debut.