This morning, I participated in the Poetry Sunday service at the Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia. The YouTube video of my part of the service is above and the text is below.
Good morning
When I first thought of today’s theme, The Poet in the World?, I was thinking of the title of an old book of prose by the poet Denise Levertov. While I did read the work of Levertov and knew of her as an important poet who lived between the years of 1923 and 1997, I never thought of her as a guiding force in my world, even though poetry led me into my life.
I reconsidered when I revisited her work. Consider the following poem:
I now see that poetry has long been a refuge for me. It has been a way to breathe in a world that too often is terrifying.
I was a poet before I was a prose writer. As the poems got longer and included dialogue, I turned to literary prose. I just published my fourth book of prose, titled Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage which was just released from Thorned Heart Press.
The book is a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of the historic current events that led up to the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality in 2015. The novel is very autobiographical but is still fiction. I was writing it during the time that I was joining this Unitarian Universalist congregation and read several excerpts here when I was first a worship associate, including this narration from my main character Artemis:
She wanted it so badly that she could feel it in her bones. She wanted it so badly that she could taste the sweetness of her dreams. The love that she felt for Linda was a fire in her that glowed. The sky darkened. Even in the winter cold, she felt like a firefly. Somewhere in the future, a star winked back at her. It was Linda. They would have a life together. Art wished so hard that her wish had to come true. But first, she and Linda had to get through this last year of high school. Getting into trigonometry would be easy, compared to the rest.
In addition to being a coming-of-age story, this is a Unitarian Universalist novel.
I had a few advance readers in this congregation, and I was delighted in my introverted and awkward way when Tim Styer, who was moderator when I first joined the church and who continues to be an important part of my UU journey, told me that he was loving the novel.
“It’s not boring,” he said, giving it a brief assessment.
It is a story about hope. At the time, in 1977, some might have said that Artemis was delusional for wanting to marry the love of her life. But she wanted it so badly that it did happen.
Ultimately, it is a story about the power of love.
–Namaste–
For information on my novel Loving Artemis click here
I was delighted to find this review today by the novelist Louis Greenstein.
Janet Mason is at her best in this well-wrought, seamless coming-of-age novel. But Loving Artemis is more than a coming-of-age novel. It’s the history of the LGBTQ and feminist struggle seen through the lens of adolescent lovers who parted ways in 1977 at age 18 — and who each lived very different lives through the ensuing decades. From navigating high school politics and teenage yearnings to re-defining themselves in a rapidly changing world, Artemis and Grace take us on a sweeping journey through a tumultuous time for culture and politics.
Artemis is arguably the coolest girl in her ginormous high school in the Philadelphia exurbs. Leather-jacketed, motorcycle riding, book smart, and streetwise with an independent streak as long as I-95, her swagger and her glare can stifle a heckler. But is it really a clever cover for her insecurities and her unstable home life? After a heartbreaking loss, Art hooks up briefly with Grace, who’s dazzled by Art, but confused and struggling with her sexuality, her family’s expectations, and her self-understanding.
Years later, Grace thinks she may have spotted Art at a Pride Parade. The moment rekindles her memories and ignites a story at the intersection of political culture, popular culture, drug culture, the rise of feminism, and the long slow crash of the American Dream.
Mason weaves history, humor, and pathos into a compelling, compassionate narrative with strong, memorable characters, deep insights, and motorcycles too!
For more information on Loving Artemis, click here.
For more information on the blog tours and giveaways on Loving Artemis, click here.
Yesterday, my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage was published by Thorned Heart Press. I found out that the day before that — August 15th — was the feast day of the Goddess Artemis (which is Greek) also known as the Goddess Diana (Roman).
I found this out from Kittredge Cherry, minister and publisher of the important newsletter QSpirit. You can read her excellent article here.
Even though I wrote a novel titled Loving Artemis, I didn’t realize that I was so strongly guided by the Goddess. Since writing for me is an intuitive process, I hadn’t thought about it previously.
However, in exchanging information with Kittredge, I realize that the Goddess has long been with me.
In the novel Loving Artemis, my main character promises her Greek grandmother, Yiayia, on her deathbed that she will never marry a man — which (while I didn’t know it at time of writing) the Goddess Artemis or Diana vows also.
Also, there was a time when I spent many hours at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where a sculpture of the Goddess Artemis (Diana) is at the top of the main staircase.
For more information on Loving Artemis, click here.
For more information on the blog tours and giveaways on Loving Artemis, click here.
I’m very excited to announce that my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage from Thorned Heart Press is now available in eBook form, paperback and hardback.
Reading Loving Artemis is a full-body immersion into the 1970s, with the smells of joints and musk oil, the tastes of beer and lip gloss, and the sounds of motorcycles roaring down a highway. It captures perfectly the days when young queers searched library catalog cards to find “homosexual” books, when teen lesbians felt they were the only ones in the world. More than a coming-of-age story, more than the love story of Artemis and Grace, the novel is also an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable journey through the decades. I cared about these characters and loved seeing their lives come full circle by the book’s end in the 21st century.
I’m very glad to be able to repost this review by Trudie Barreras of The Unicorn, The Mystery. Special thanks to Kittredge Cherry. Click here to learn more about the QSpirit newsletter.
“The Unicorn: The Mystery” by Janet Mason is yet another book brought to my attention by author Kittredge Cherry and her extremely important QSpirit ministry that deals with the interface between sexuality and spirituality. Mason’s fascinating novel uses a room in a museum containing seven tapestries featuring a Unicorn as the impetus for an intricate meditation on the conflict between mythological spirituality and the rigid dogmatism of a Christianity totally submerged in fear of heresy.
The two narrator-protagonists are the Unicorn and a Monk. The setting is an Abbey somewhere in France which includes an attached convent of female religious. The Monk, a young mystic who none-the-less has earthly ambitions of achieving power and prestige by becoming a priest, has been steeped in “pagan mythology” by stories his mother has told him. As the story opens, he sees the Unicorn basking in the sunlight and falls in love, both spiritually and erotically. The trouble begins when he naively describes his experience to his priest-teacher, and sets in motion a chain of events leading to the hunting of the Unicorn, all of which are depicted in the tapestries upon which the Unicorn reflects while relating the story.
For information on my upcoming novel Loving Artemis (August 16, 2022; Thorned Heart Press) click here
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
To learn more about my latest published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
I wanted to let you know that my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage from Thorned Heart Press is now available for pre-order in eBook form (click here). The release date for the paper back and hardcover is August 16.
Below is a write-up on the book followed by a presentation related to marriage equality that I did some years ago at the Unitarian Church where I am still a lay minister.
Loving Artemis appeals to a wide readership, with particular interest to the LGBTQA+ audience. As a love story and a coming-of-age narrative, it holds universal appeal. It is also an important slice of American history — enticing to those who have lived through it. It also attracts a younger audience who want to learn about the events that led to marriage equality.
Artemis found the love of her life when she met Linda, but their passionate relationship fizzles when Artemis lands herself on the other side of the law. Pulling the pieces of her life together, Artemis rekindles her relationship with Linda, and together they raise a daughter.
Meanwhile, Grace, running from her past, starts a life with Thalia. At a pride parade, Grace spots someone who reminds her of Artemis, who she was briefly involved with in her youth. Old feelings are rekindled. A lifetime of rejection, abandonment, and fleeing rears its head. Now she must come to terms with her past, put her relationship with Artemis to rest–or risk losing everything.
Artemis and Grace embark on a journey of revolution, love, and marriage and discovery that love finds us when we least expect it.
Janet Mason is an award-winning creative writer, teacher, and occasional blogger for such places as The Huffington Post. Her book, Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters, published by Bella Books in 2012, was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 Over the Rainbow List. Tea Leaves also received a Goldie Award. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (Adelaide Books – New York and Lisbon) was featured at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. Adelaide Books also published her novel The Unicorn, The Mystery late in 2020.
(I presented this at the Unitarian Universalist Church where I am a lay minister. The segment is also on YouTube. Unitarian Universalism is a faith that encompasses all religious/spiritual backgrounds (including atheism, agnosticism and Buddhism) in a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”)
When I heard that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage, I was sitting in a diner in Levittown with my 96-year-old father and his 91-year-old lady friend. The sound on the TV was muted when the news broke so I read the captions and then read them again to make sure that I wasn’t imaging things. I clapped and loudly exclaimed “we won!”
I was the only one in the diner who was paying any attention to the news. As my father and his lady friend quietly agreed with me, I noticed a white man about ten years older than me, with a bandanna on his head and who sported a grizzly beard, staring at me with a hostile glint in his eye as if thinking, “so you’re one of those.”
I stared back, pleasantly, until he lowered his gaze.
I grew up in Levittown — a working class suburb of Philadelphia. In the 1980s, several years after I had moved away, a young gay man named Anthony Milano who lived in the area was brutally murdered by two men who confessed to killing him and are still on death row.
I always thought that it was some kind of innate survival tactic that I came out after I moved to the relative safe haven of Germantown/Mt. Airy (liberal, diverse neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Pa.). My partner Barbara and I have been together for 31 years and during that time have occasionally come to this church — mostly for Folk Factory concerts. When we first started attending somewhat regularly several years ago, I mentioned to Barbara that it was nice to come to a church that was so accepting of gay people.
“If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be here,” she replied without missing a beat.
I had to admit that — once again — she was right.
Lots of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) people avoid religion because we have experienced religious intolerance.
When I started attending this church in earnest, I learned that Unitarian Universalists (UUs) have been marching for
marching for LGBT social justice as long as I have, if not longer. The Unitarian Universal Association website states that, “As Unitarian Universalists, we not only open our doors to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, we value diversity of sexuality and gender and see it as a spiritual gift.”
When I heard that the theme for this month is abundance, I wanted to do something on marriage equality. For me, there is an abundance in being yourself. This probably fits every UU principle, but it especially resonates in the First Principle of “The inherent worth and dignity of every person.”
It was, fitting, perhaps that I was in Levittown when I heard the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. I had no idea how amazed I would feel that marriage equality is actually a reality in the entire country. And I am proud of my country because this ruling is having a ripple effect around the world: in countries where people are still being imprisoned because of who they love.
But the man staring at me with hostility was a reminder that much work needs to be done — especially in small towns and in the South, especially in the areas of discrimination in housing, employment, and for the rights of transgendered people.
In being myself, in being out, I feel the abundance of being able to change the world by being who I am. By being myself, I make room for others to be themselves. Perhaps that is true for all of us — regardless of our sexual orientation. If we are ourselves and if we are secure in ourselves, we make it easier for others to be themselves.
In researching and writing my latest novel titled Art: a novel of revolution, love, and marriage, I explore how social movements in the lifetime of my characters (who are adolescents in the 1970s) overlapped to re-shape society. These movements include Civil Rights and racial justice, feminism and reproductive rights, labor and economic justice and gay liberation which became LGBT rights.
Add climate change, another UU priority, and it’s easy to see how these issues are all connected. We are all human and we live on this planet.
We are all connected. We are larger than ourselves.
I participated in a service on Buddhism and Creativity at the Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia. The YouTube video of my part of the service is above and the text is below.
When Maryellen asked me to do a service with her on creativity and Buddhism, I immediately agreed. She meant creativity or Buddhism, but I thought she meant both. For me, they have always worked together. For the past eight years or so, I’ve had a meditation practice that allows me to get out of my own way. I think of it as vacating the premises and honoring the emptiness inside of myself. I’ve found the more skilled I get in meditating, the easier it is to get out of my own way and the more likely it is for the muse to come visit me. I think of the muse as that bubble of inspiration that leads me along into new projects.
The bubble descended on me about a year and a half ago when I was out taking my daily walk. Ever since then I have been obsessed with whales and have been learning as much as I can about them. The novel addresses some of the issues that I was already interested in–such as veganism and being a voice for the voiceless (or in this case, since whale language is currently being studied, a voice that speaks for the animals who we don’t yet understand).
I was very dismayed just recently when I listened to a scientific expert on whales say that the larger ocean mammals are expected to be the first to go extinct. In this worse-case scenario of climate change, if humans don’t change their ways, the oceans will become unsustainable by the year 2050. That’s less than 30 years from now. I’m no scientist but I do understand that the planet needs the sea to survive; the oceans need the whales; and the human beings need the oceans. Hence, human beings need the whales.
I found that many native cultures worship the whales and that these people who live closest to the earth have a memory of the whales being their ancestors and their relations. I also found out that there are people in Vietnam, the country that the Buddhist monk Tich Nhat Hanh is from, who worship the whales in special temples dedicated to the whales and that if some people there find a beached whale who has died, they bury the whale in a ritualistic way in the same manner as if the whale was a family member. I also read that a deceased whale is thought to be likely to reincarnate into the soul of an enlightened being, a sort of Buddha.
Uncovering this was one of my aha (or wow) moments when I learned about the significance of the whales.
There have been many of these moments. In my first year and a half of learning as much as I could about the whales and writing down notes, I was working on other projects as well. I wanted to work on this project, but it seemed that the other projects kept getting in the way. Finally, less than a month ago, I decided that I needed to start writing, so I did. I have my own superstitions and traditions about not rushing or angering the muse. I didn’t want her to get disgusted and to think that I had abandoned her.
What I didn’t expect was how this project would be all-consuming for me. Whales are now my constant companions. Sperm whales who I am primarily writing about live in matrilineal pods made up of Great Aunts, Grandmothers, Mothers, juvenile cousins, female calves (which is what young whales are called) and pre-adolescent male calves. When male whales reach sexual maturity, they are thrown out of the pod and live on their own or form pods with other teenage males. I figure there is probably a reason for this.
Often before or during my writing time, I listen to recorded whale and dolphin songs, which I learned are used for healing. Dolphins, who are mammals, are part of the whale family.
The novel that I am writing has the working title of Dick Moby which is what the narrator names herself after reading Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick which she finds floating in the sea. Like me, my inner whale has some anger and trust issues which she is working on. Unlike me, the narrator is pregnant and wants to resolve her issues, or as many as she can, before her calf is born and she passes her trauma on to another generation.
The chapters are short. I’m going to read you a couple of paragraphs from chapter two where the whale tells you about the name she has given herself:
After I read the book—okay scanned it—I decided to call myself Dick Moby.
Dick means different things to different beings. Reversing the order of the words makes sense to me. When I use the word “Dick,” I use it in the most vulgar sense. I use it as a verb. Like the made-up whale in Moby Dick, I want to ram the whaleship until it sinks and all that is left is splinters floating on the calm sea. The sharks will feast on the carcasses of the drowned. The splinters will settle on the bottom of the sea and be lost to eternity.
I have never heard of a great white whale named Moby Dick. What was the author thinking–calling the book that? Did he mean the whale had a large…ahem…member? Was he appealing to something in the collective subconscious that would respond to such a thing?
Yet, when I looked through the book, I remembered the story on which it was based, the one my grandmother told me. I realized the story has always been with me. It seems that I long have been motivated by fear and rage. Although when it comes to human behavior, I have come to expect the worst, and I am no longer outraged.
I was never hunted personally. But when I was a calf and my grandmother told me this cautionary tale about the humans who used to hunt us, the story stayed with me. I understand now that humans no longer hunt whales—for the most part–but that we must remain vigilant.
The chapters are coming much faster than I originally anticipated. I am careful not to rush the writing, but at the same time I recognize that the whale wants me to tell the world her story before it is too late.
So, I am usually writing. Writing from the point of view of the whale has become a kind of meditation for me.
As I write, I honor the whale inside of you and inside of me, just as I honor the Buddha (or the light) inside of me and inside of you.
–Namaste–
For information on my upcoming eBook Loving Artemis click here
o learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
To learn more about my latest published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
Janet Mason, author 