Just a Couple of Girls

I have a stationery collection called “The Reading Woman” that includes this lovely painting by Harry Wilson Watrous. It hangs in the Brooklyn Museum, and I’m going to make a special trip to see it next time I’m in New York.

I was writing cards today to thank some of our supporters at Lambda Literary, where I’m president of the Board of Trustees. We’ve just kicked off our Fall Challenge Grant with $25,000 in donations from seven generous donors: Darla Baker, Al Baum, Steven Coulter, David Ebershoff, John Faubion, Chuck Forester and Kay Percy. Two of those names might be familiar to those in the lesbian community. I met Darla Baker at GCLS in Alexandria, where she introduced us to her series featuring a sex therapist. No, seriously! And some of you may know Kay Percy, who administers the Alice B. Readers Appreciation Awards. I was honored to receive the Alice B. Medal in 2012.

Lambda Literary’s Fall Challenge Grant is one of our most important fundraising efforts of the year. With this generous challenge in hand, we ask our supporters to match it, to bring us to $50,000 total that we can apply to administration of our programs: the Lammy Awards, Writers in the Schools, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and our website, LambdaLiterary.org.

I’m always humbled by the profound support you’ve shown for this organization while I’ve served on the board, and there are never enough ways to say thank you. In the past I’ve offered early copies of my upcoming release, but I have nothing imminent this fall. Real life got in the way of my second book for 2016, so it’s been delayed until next summer. I do, however, have backlist titles which I’d be happy to send you as thanks for a donation of $100 or more to help us meet our challenge. I know most of you who collect autographed books already have your favorite titles on the shelf. Perhaps you’d consider a gift to someone, a story you think they’d enjoy. I’ll sign it however you want and take care of the shipping.

How to do this? Please visit our Fall Challenge page and click on the Donate button. In the memo line on that form, write the title of the book you want. The staff will forward that to me and I’ll send them out within a few days. If I don’t have your book in stock, I’ll order it.

And in case I don’t say this enough, I truly appreciate your support. I was looking at contributions the other day and ran a query on how much we’ve raised together in my nearly six years on the board. I’ve made my required minimum gift of $3,000 each year, plus more when you inspire me. Our grand total stands at over $34,000. That’s just amazing, and I deeply thank you.

*****

For those of you in the Dallas area, I’m headed your way. Tuesday, October 18th. Women With Pride Book Club.

And I’m in the home stretch of my next book, which I’ve decided to call Shining Warrior. It’s due to the editor next month, so back to work I go.