The Unicorn, The Mystery in the Philly Gay News — hitting “all the universal notes” — #amreading #LGBTQ

I just found out the The Unicorn, The Mystery is featured in the Philadelphia Gay News and I’m excited to share the article with you. Special thanks to Victoria A. Brownworth .

“The Unicorn: The Mystery” hits all the universal notes

The collection of seven individual hangings known as “The Unicorn Tapestries” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at The Cloisters in New York City are, for all who have seen them, a magnificent experience of another time, place and world view. 

As The Met describes them, “these are among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive,” and “vividly depict scenes associated with a hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn.” 

It is these beautifully wrought pieces that Philadelphia writer Janet Mason has used as the background and impetus for her latest novel, “The Unicorn: The Mystery.”

Well-known in the queer, feminist and literary communities in Philadelphia, Mason’s work spans various genres. Her poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in literary journals including the “Brooklyn Review” and the “Exquisite Corpse.” She has been reading her work locally for years at various venues, like Giovanni’s Room, Penn, and the Big Blue Marble bookstore in Mount Airy.

Her work includes the poetry collections “When I Was Straight,” “A F*cking Brief History of F*cking” and “A Woman Alone.”

Mason has been writing complex narratives for years. Her last novel, “They: A Biblical Tale of Secret Genders,” was an exploration of gender fluidity set in Biblical times. Mason’s award-winning memoir, “Tea Leaves: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters,” explored the factory-worker lives of her mother and grandmother in working-class Philadelphia during her mother’s final illness.

Mason’s latest tells the tale of the unicorn, a young (and heretical) monk, some lesbian nuns and their secret cat, and the medieval world they each inhabit in a vivid and complicated thread of alternating perspectives and voices.

This is a world of magic and magical realism that Mason opens in the museum itself: A young child dressed as a princess notes how much blood there is in the tapestry they are viewing — and it is the unicorn who begins that story of violence, threat, redemption, spirituality and life beyond the story of the tapestries.

Unicorns have been an almost universal image of difference, exoticism and magic for centuries. It is, then, unsurprising that men would want to capture and kill one — the original big game hunt of old. But in Mason’s narrative, the monk seeks to protect and rescue the unicorn, which in turn leads to more drama and unintended consequences.

Mason spoke with PGN about her new novel, explaining its genesis, which has roots in some familial history. Her father, who had seen the tapestries with Mason’s mother years earlier, “suggested that I visit The Cloisters — now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — when I was in New York City. I went and was captivated by what is commonly called ‘The Unicorn Room.’ The room contains seven tapestries telling the story of what happened to the unicorn. To this day, the story of the tapestries is called ‘an untold mystery’.”

That room sparked Mason’s interest, intriguing her and setting her on a complex narrative path. “I see everything through a feminist and a queer eye. That’s just the way it works for me,” she said. “The unicorn is a symbol of the queer community because it is elusive and different.” 

Yet people bring their own stories to that symbolic creature, as Mason explained. 

“In traditional literature, the unicorn is always referred to as a ‘he,’” she said. “Some readers identified the unicorn in the novel as a ‘she,’ since I wrote it. And that is fine. However, if you read between the lines, though, gender is not used in regard to the unicorn and the unicorn is non-binary.” 

Conceptualizing life in the Middle Ages was a wholly new experience for Mason. “The Middle Ages was pretty much a big gap in my consciousness, although I had been aware of some things,” she said. “I started wondering what it was like to be queer in the Middle Ages and the story was born.” 

Mason said, “The story takes place in a monastery where the unicorn lives and near where the tapestries were actually found in a barn–where they were used to wrap potatoes — in the French countryside.” 

She said the details of her story evolved with a panoply of characters. “I started writing the subplot about two nuns who live in the monastery and who happened to be in love with each other,” she said. “The nuns end up keeping a secret cat in the monastery.” 

But, Mason said, “Cats were frowned upon in the Middle Ages and considered agents of ‘Satan.’ I found out after I did the writing that nuns often did keep secret cats. So, I had some fun with the research and let the muse lead me along.”

The complexity of the narrative draws on Mason’s interest in theology and the spiritual, as well as her fascination with myriad layers of the literary. It’s a highly poetical and myth-based tale. Mason is a lay minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of The Restoration in Mount Airy and that personal theological connection also imbues “The Unicorn: The Mystery” with verisimilitude. 

Mason said, “I think this novel relates to my other books in that I felt like I needed to learn about something. With “Tea Leaves,” I needed to learn about my family lineage of working class women. With “They,” I needed to learn about the Bible by relating to some of the stories in it.” 

And in “The Unicorn: The Mystery,” Mason said, “I needed to learn about the Middle Ages so I could tell the unicorn’s story.”

“The Unicorn: The Mystery” hits all the universal notes — it is about passion and longing, desire in its myriad forms and the eternal quest for belonging and connection. Lush, lyrical and always surprising, it is a compelling addition to Mason’s body of work, and your own library.

To read the article in its entirety in the Philadelphia Gay News, click on the following link.

https://epgn.com/2021/04/28/the-unicorn-the-mystery-hits-all-the-universal-notes/

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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The healing power of plants — #FoodRevoltionSummit2021 #vegan

For the second year in a row, I am listening to The Food Revolution Summit hosted by the father and son duo John and Ocean Robbins.

This year’s Summit is the 10th Annual Summit as well as my second year of attending. I’ve been vegan/plant-based now for about a year and a half. I can attest to the fact that I feel better than I have in decades — perhaps ever.

I was motivated to go to to a healthy plant-based diet with a medical scare that left me with a strong motivation to take care of myself so that I would avoid (when possible) another trip to the hospital. My partner and I had gotten to know some cows on a dairy farm, so we had been wanting to go vegan for a few years before we did, out of compassion for the animals. Then I read up on how a going to a plant-based diet is the best thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprints for the planet.

My partner who has been mostly vegan for the past year and a half, feels great also.

Because I am no longer a “new” vegan, I was surprised that I learned so much already from my second Summit. What was really brought home to me was the fact that our bodies are so well designed to heal themselves given the right fuel. (I have known this intuitively since my acupuncturist suggested going to a healthy plant-based diet, but it’s nice to have my feelings confirmed.) I also was heartened to hear that a healthy plant-based diet can actually reverse the aging process. And I also took note when someone said that the nutrition inherent in plants has so many benefits for us. ( From my reading on how meat is processed, including fowl and fish, I could see how the eating of flesh causes disease.) But I really did not think (at least not consciously) about the healing nature of the plants that I ate and loved everyday.

The Food Revolution Summit is free and available to the public. There are a few days left. I believe you can just go their website to register and they will send you a link. It is worth listening – whether you are new to the plant-based lifestyle or an old hand. Not only do have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain!

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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Living in a time of change — #BlackLivesMatter #amchanging

The other week going to and from the Unitarian church (the Unitarian Universal Church of the Restoration) that we are part of to pick up some tulips, I commented to my partner that the world had changed drastically. She nodded slowly and looked out the window at The Black Lives Matter signs that were everywhere, the new rainbow flags with black and brown and pink and blue stripes, and two vegan food trucks. We both agreed that we are proud to be part of the change.

Of course, this change hasn’t come out of nowhere. We live in the blue bubble of the multi-racial and multi-everything Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia and there have been many outward signs that the world is changing.

This was before a jury found the murderer of George Floyd guilty on all counts. When the verdict was announced yesterday, I yelled one word — Guilty — downstairs to my partner. She couldn’t believe it and neither could I. We are both in our sixties, and even though the evidence was damning, expected the verdict to be consistent with U.S. history that has always gotten race wrong.

Of course, I know that there is much work to be done and that this victory is bittersweet because George Floyd cannot be brought back to life. But hopefully, it has been of some solace to his family because they know that George did not die in vain.

That we are in a time of change is undeniable. The change is long overdue but still the relief is palpable.

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“I was captured but I am free” — a reading from The Mystery, The Unicorn — #amreading #unicorns

I recorded a reading from the beginning of my novel The Unicorn, The Mystery. This is the same section of the book that I read through the Big Blue Marble Bookstore last December. Below the YouTube video, I pasted the text in case you would like to read it. Enjoy!

Chapter One

“There is too much blood.”

The child pointed to the bright red blood dripping down my otherwise pure white side — and to the gash my horn had gouged in the side of the hunting dog. I do not normally hurt other animals – or humans for that matter – but the hound belonged to the hunters who had trapped and cornered me with their long javelins.

“That man is bad. I can see it in his eyes,” continued the child.

The child had a point. The man’s eyes are flat and glittering. Even as he points his javelin toward my head, you know that this kill – if it comes to pass — will not be enough for him. He will want more. I can see this but even now I still wonder – why would anyone want to capture me? Why didn’t they just leave me alone? Was I that important?

To distract myself from being bored, I watch the groups of people that pass through this room.

Today, the most interesting person in the room is small and is wearing a shiny and long magenta dress. I’ve heard little girls so adorned called princesses. Really, they are imitating a time long gone, and they are re-living a myth. It’s true that in my day princesses lived in castles.  But little girls were not passive. They had to be bred to be passive. The myth-makers thought that they would make future little girls passive through the repetition of fairy tales. But young women did not dangle their long blond locks from towers and wait for the handsome prince to come and save them. They did not sit beautiful behind locked doors, waiting to be rescued.  They may have had to do it in secret, but many princesses developed their muscles. They learned to use javelins, shields and spears. They unleashed their power — even though they were frequently opposed and overpowered. I hear the tradition continues – despite the myth. This little princess may free me from the tapestry to tell you my story. Just remember that it is a real story — not a fairy tale.

I am going to start in the middle of the story of how they captured me. I’ve always wondered myself. How was it possible? Part of my legend and lure was that it was impossible to capture me. But this was not always true. People have hunted my kind for many reasons. They may have claimed that they were chasing my horn which they fancied as imbued with all types of powers. My horn was said to be a cure-all for everything, including mortality – as if that could be cured. They were especially keen on insisting that a ground-up horn from my kind acted as an antidote to poison. This was an untruth of course. Everything was false. They were chasing that which cannot be caught.

Let me start at the beginning – or rather in the middle. Of course, I defended myself. What other choice did I have? I see in this tapestry, that I am cornered and there is blood. But I am still surrounded by beauty. There is a stream flowing in front of me. Another day, I would have bent my head, lowered the tip of my horn into the stream, and cleansed it so the other animals could drink.

There are a few birds: the common gray goshawk, the noble falcon with its long wings who is not taking any notice of the hunters behind me as it stares down at the stream; and several types of ducks, including the mallard with its regal white ring circling its neck. Far in the background, at the top of the tapestry, is the pomegranate tree I have just eaten a ripe fruit from before I wandered away. To tell you the truth I was savoring some fermented fruits on the ground – which always makes me feel a little giddy. That may be why I didn’t see the hunters come up behind me until it was almost too late.

My hindquarters raised, I was poised to jump over the stream. The person who did the drawing for the tapestry maker caught me between galloping away and the moment when I realized that I had to give a swift kick, with both of my rear legs, to the hunter behind me. He was so close that I could feel the steely wind from his javelin on my rear quarters. As I mentioned, I am not usually aggressive. But I do like to be alone. It seemed that these hunters — suddenly surrounding me, with their javelins, bugles, and dogs — wanted to disturb my solitude and more.

I am surrounded by flowers:  white lilies, wild red roses, St. Mary’s thistle and my favorite, the pungent stock gillyflower. I can smell their mingled sweet and spicy scent. I see the blurred colors of lavender, pink and white as I gallop by. Nonetheless, I could still tell that the throng of hunters, that was gaining on me, meant to do me harm.

Now that I have time to really look at the scene depicted in this tapestry, I see that most of the men wear brown cloaks atop red tunics. Three of the men wear shiny blue cloaks crinkled like crushed velvet. All are wearing hats — more than a few are red, others brown — perched on their heads. One man, standing in the back, the man with a bugle hanging on him, wears a fancy red hat with a feather plume curling up from the brim. He holds his javelin straight up with the wooden pole near the ground. He looks down like he is musing. A poet, perhaps? He appears to be someone who thinks he is above the fray. Given his fancy dress – and the fact that there was always a hierarchy, he could be a representative of the King. It is said that the King represents God. If it is true – as I’ve heard it said — that I was a symbol of the son of God, then why would He want me captured? Wouldn’t He want me left alone to be part of the beauty of nature? There is so much in this world that doesn’t make sense.

I remember being in the grounds of the abbey. I was drawn there because there seems to be more room for solitude. The village inside the stone walls of the abbey was quieter and the people more contemplative. There was a church and a pig trough. The well was frequently unattended, so I could drink to my heart’s delight. There were more likely to be virginal maidens here – especially in the nun’s quarters – than other places. In the village that I had to pass through to get here, there were no virginal maidens at all. I had wandered into the burial ground, thinking that I could find some solitude. But then I had to flee from the people living there in makeshift tents and women plying their wares – and I do mean all of their wares.

At the top left of the tapestry, behind the trees, the cherry, the pomegranate, the walnut, the bushy oak, is a castle in miniature. On the middle tower, a red triangular roof that appears tiny in the distance flies an equally small flag, a triangle with a point on the end. Perhaps the castle is within view of the abbey to remind the holy ones – even the Bishop – that they work for the King.

I admit that I was afraid of the hunters. I was especially concerned about their intent to invade my solitude. But I was not fearful of going to the castle, because I heard that the princess there – the king’s only daughter – was a warrior princess. She was a beautiful and virginal maiden. Surely, she would save me.

At the very top of the tapestry is a cerulean sky that has never seen smokestacks. The air was clean then. The forests were new, the land almost untouched by human hands and machines that were yet to be invented. The mountains smiled upon us. Everyone believed that I existed. It was undeniable that the earth was as alive as you or I. I could see the breath of trees — the vibration of everything.

I was found and captured – my story stitched into the warp and weft of centuries. Most of the threads are common and natural such as linen and cotton. But some of the threads are metallic. The glitter is magic — not only the stuff of my life but of yours too. These are the years that led to yours.

There were so many javelins coming toward me that I couldn’t stop to wonder then. But I do now. Who struck the final blow – if indeed there was one? Was it my human friend? I think of him as my friend, because he was the closest I’ve ever gotten to having a human friend. (I’ll tell you about him later.)  I’m not saying that I was above reproach. Perhaps no one is ever really innocent. Looking back on that day, I realized that many wanted me dead. But I did not understand why – or perhaps I should say I refused to. To tell you the truth, I never thought of myself as dying. I know it is inevitable, but perhaps I was too vain. I thought that what happened to all other beings wouldn’t necessarily happen to me.

I found myself musing and arranging words that came tumbling out:

“You will find that I am the creature written about in holy books, and the one associated with evil.

You will find that I am the rareness that is everywhere.

I am many. I am one.

I desire to be alone — yet I am always with you.

Wise men have written that I cannot be taken alive. Others say I am dead.

Worse, others deny that I ever existed.

Why do you belittle me, when I am wiser than thought?

I am the revered and the scorned one

I am the one who is always seen and the invisible one.

I am your purity, your hallucinations run wild.

I am said to represent your salvation – with my one horn.

But I existed long before this was said.

My will extends further into the future than you can see.

I am in the clouds above you.

I am the darkness of the woods.

I was captured, but I am free.

I answer to no man.

Even as you deny me, I am you.”

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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Being in community (and staying strong) through aaduna — #writingcommunity #amreading

One of the things that I’m looking forward to in the upcoming Spring issue of the literary journal aaduna is to being in community with other poets and writers as well as visual artists. aaduna was founded as a multicultural literary and visual arts journal.  I can’t think of a community I’d rather be in!

Being in community keeps us strong. It allows us to be vulnerable and to be together even as we are isolated — especially in these days when isolation for many is an unfortunate fact of life.

So, in the upcoming issue, I’m looking forward to reading more of the work of Howard Nelson and Kiel M. Gregory as well as Sarah Wyman, Ph.D., and seeing the visual artwork of Janet Kozachek.

For a preview, click here:

https://aadunanotes.blogspot.com/2021/04/curtain-upthe-encore.html

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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New Memoir Piece Featured in aaduna — #celebratediversity #amreading

Many thanks to Bill Berry, Jr., CEO of aaduna, Inc., for featuring a section of my new, yet unpublished memoir The Lens of Eternity: Love from Two Pandemics in the Spring issue. I write about the life of American photography Berenice Abbott and her partner the art critic Elizabeth McCausland as well as my own life.

The piece of nonfiction is called “Surveillance” .

I first met bill berry in 2015 when he published my story “The Mother” which is an excerpt from my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books in 2018). He later nominated “The Mother” for a Pushcart.

aaduna was begun as magazine of literature and visual art with the mission to create a diverse, multi-cultural online literary and visual arts journal.

The Spring issue of aaduna will be launching soon and you can read more about it on the aaduna blog by clicking the link below. Another featured writer is Sarah Wyman, PhD. We are pictured together in the photo below.

Thanks again to bill berry! It’s great to be back!

The Diversity of Exuberance: Celebrating Graciousness, Spirituality, Unbound Creativity (aadunanotes.blogspot.com)

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

For more information on THEY. a biblical tale of secret genders, click here: “A Perfect Mind” segment of THEY published in BlazeVox15 — #amreading | Janet Mason, author (wordpress.com)

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Spring is here — #admiringflowers #amreading

Spring is here! I heard somewhere that the flowers are happy when we look at them.
Yesterday I took a walk, and was admiring this flower.

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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You can be the change — #govegan Happy Spring #amreading

This interview is fantastic! I saw Dr. Will Tuttle speak at a vegan potluck and then I read his book, The World Peace Diet helped me become vegan and that changed my life.

The book and hearing him speak turned out to be very important to me in my vegan journey!

Going to a plant-based diet changed and saved my life.

Tuttle talks about the fact that scientists warn that we have until 2050 to make changes so that the planet is not doomed. He also talks about how we ingest the suffering of animals when we eat them.

My partner and I have been vegan for a year and half and we both feel incredible.

I’ve been thinking that thirty years is not a long time.

So today on this day of radical love, remember to embrace the change.

It’s’ never too late to change. And there is no time like the present.

Go vegan for yourself, for future generations, for the animals and for the planet.

You can do it.

To learn more about my recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders, click on the following link:

“A Perfect Mind” segment of THEY published in BlazeVox15 — #amreading

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