Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing

By Michelle Tea

Carroll & Graf, $14.95

Michelle Tea, San Francisco’s spoken-word star and accomplished queer author (Valencia, Rose of No Man’s Land) has compiled a fresh collection of stories by a group of talented, queer girl writers under 30. Highlights of the anthology include "Coming Out versus Sex versus Making Love," in which spoken-word veteran Meliza Bañales’ explores the gray areas where class, sexuality and sex meet. Politics and coming out collide at a tough New York high school in Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's "Snow Fight.” Claudia Rodriguez's "Juan the Brave" examines the conflict between gender identity and the body, following the adventures of a young, tough tomboy and the trauma where puberty and gendered expectations meet.  Jess Ardnt spins an amusing tale of pigeons and poop. Dexter Flowers' "Titties at Stake" chronicles the topless political actions of a righteous narrator in vegan activist public space. "Keep Your Goals Abstract" follows the path one girl takes from family and a dying relationship toward a uniquely West Coast re-invention and new life in San Francisco in Page McBee's self-conscious short.

Ignore the horrible cover art, and trust me: This new anthology is diverse, strong and fierce. Read it.—Lindsay Marsak

The Master of Seacliff

By Max Pierce

Harrington Park Press, $16.95

Given the sales power of Gothic romance novels in the popular fiction market, it is surprising that there are so few gay takes on the classic formula. Vincent Virga's 1980 Gaywyck broke ground by celebrating the genre with a deliciously gay twist, but few have ventured there since.

With The Master of Seacliff, local author Max Pierce seems intent on reclaiming the genre for a gay audience, complete with an idealistic young hero, Andrew Wyndham, and the requisite setting —an imposing, fog-enshrouded castle named Seacliff along the Atlantic Coast outside New York City in 1899.

The 20-year-old orphaned Andrew leaves Manhattan to take a three-month assignment tutoring the troubled only child of the chiseled but chilly widower Duncan Stewart, the titular master with long-simmering secrets. An overly friendly woman from a neighboring estate, her gay brother, a happy servant couple and the obligatory disapproving valet are among the colorful supporting cast that pulls Andrew into a whirlpool of history and pent-up passion, threatening not only his Paris plans but his life.

A hybrid of mystery and Gothic romance, Seacliff is earnest, not campy, with the passion kept to an effectively slow boil rather than the explosive bursts typical of the bodice-ripper genre. The period formality that Pierce imposes on his carefully constructed prose sometimes calls too much attention to itself, but in an age of Queer as Folk explicitness, his Victorian restraint is refreshing. Overall, Seacliff is an entertaining gay entry in a genre usually dominated by damsels in distress. —Christopher Cappiello

Max Pierce will sign copies of The Master of Seacliff on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m. at A Different Light Bookstore, 8853 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.