Canada Day Delay

by Jean Roberta

Please excuse me for being slow to post on my assigned day, yet again. (I'll probably be more punctual in the months to come, since I am now on sabbatical -- no teaching duties for another year!)

Today Mirtha and I had to fill in for the manager of the local queer club, and we watched fireworks from the newly-expanded deck. They were so impressive that we kept watching despite the light drizzle and cyclone warning (which seems to have been overstated).

The club flew the flag of Canada, in place of its usual two rainbow flags, because today is Canada's national holiday: not the anniversary of a battle but of a document-signing that created a nation out of a collection of British colonies in 1867. (One of those colonies had been taken from the French in 1759.)

Several months ago, I volunteered as judge in an annual queer book contest with deadlines. Ack! the deadline for the first 2 books assigned to me was June 30, so after adding up and submitting my grades for my latest class (final exam on June 28), I had to finish reading.

The two books I read (for the purpose of giving them numerical scores in 4 different categories) are very different: Backcast by Ann McMan (a large, ambitious contemporary lesbian novel with 13 major characters) and Games of Rome #2 (second in a series of historical m/m erotica set in ancient Rome) by J.P. Kenwood.

I hope it's not a conflict of interest for me to describe these books here before the contest is over. I won't say how I rated them.

Stay tuned for a more detailed description tomorrow.