Three short fiction excerpts of my novel The Unicorn, The Mystery were shortlisted in the Adelaide Literary Award 2018 (short stories, Vol. One). To read the flip version of the 2018 anthology, click here.
The Adelaide Anthology is also available for purchase as a print copy. To learn more about the print copies of the Adelaide Literary Awards, click here.
You also can view excerpts of me reading from The Unicorn, The Mystery on short YouTube videos below.
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
Thursday night, July 26th, I had my book launch party for THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (Adelaide Books — New York/Lisbon; 2018) at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. It was a truly wonderful experience that included a packed house and a very interesting discussion about writing and gender among other things.
Below are some short YouTube videos of me reading and some photos of the event.
We also had unicorn cupcakes in honor of my recently completed novel (which I read a very brief excerpt from) The Unicorn, The Mystery.
Enjoy!
Janet (right) with Emily Pena Murphy — another Adelaide author!
with old friend (from the feminist writing group days) and author extraordinaire Becky Birtha!
and good friend and true unicorn the artist and poet Gloria Rohlfs!
and there’s me again — mingling with guests and my partner Barbara!
My partner Barbara (center) is looking smiling with our yoga and Qi Jong teacher Jane Hulting and her husband Jim Cohen (who along with the multi-talented Jane is a musician)!
This morning, I led a Unitarian Universalist Memorial Day service on the topic of forgiveness. In my talk about forgiveness, I debuted my latest novel The Unicorn, The Mystery. The YouTube video of part of is below. The complete text of my talk is below that. The service took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration on Stenton Ave. in Philadelphia.
For me, forgiveness is a thorny issue. I suspect I’m not alone. I may forgive – but I do it on my own terms and this means taking the time that I need to understand the deeper reasons of why I was offended by someone’s actions. So, for me, learning to be more forgiving is wrapped up with protecting myself and having good boundaries.
As a practicing Buddhist, I understand that forgiving others is a way of forgiving yourself. But as I did research on forgiveness, there were so many conflicting theories, that really the only thing that ultimately made coherent sense to me was this quote from Oscar Wilde:
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
A few years ago, I was leafing through a slim book on Christianity and was surprised to read that forgiveness is expected in the Christian tradition. As a tenet, this one is not so bad. But it did occur to me that a reason why traditional religion has never appealed to me is that, on principal, I would never believe what someone tells me I should believe.
So when it comes to forgiveness, I process things the way that I usually do – in my writing. The novel I am currently writing The Unicorn, The Mystery, is set in the late Middle Ages and addresses some religious themes. I am going to read you a short excerpt of a monk talking with his Latin teacher, also a Priest:
“One of the things that Augustine is known for is his ‘doctrine of love.’ He wrote about forgiveness – which of course is related to love. In addition to forgiving others, it’s important to forgive ourselves. In fact, some argue that you cannot forgive another without first forgiving yourself,” said my teacher.
I smiled and nodded. This all made sense. No words were necessary from me.
“He also was the first to write about loving your neighbor as yourself. In saying this, he infers that it is first necessary to love yourself. When you truly love yourself, then you can love your neighbor and you can love God unconditionally,” he stated.
The Priest was silent – and so was I for a moment.
My curiosity got the best of me and I asked, “What if you are ashamed of yourself – how can you find it in your heart to forgive yourself? And if you can’t, how can you ever love your neighbor and how can you love God?”
The Priest looked at me oddly.
“That’s a good question,” he replied finally. “I do not know the answer. Perhaps I am not the best person to talk about love. I take the Christian writings seriously. I try to follow them. I follow my heart and each time it is a disaster. I love teaching and I love my students. But each term, things go too far, and I have my heart broken again,” he cried.
I looked at him with sadness. He had his reasons for hating himself. Perhaps that’s why he was snippy at times. How could he forgive himself, when the church told him he should be ashamed of himself?
This time I cleared my throat. I looked at him with tears in my eyes, and said, “Father – it is true that you know how to love and it is true that you are worthy of love – from others, from God. I came to your office that night after vespers a few months ago. I saw you bent over the desk with Gregory – I saw the love that surrounded you.”
The Priest looked at me as if he had seen a ghost.
I attended the Episcopal Church until I was about five — when my mother became a card-carrying atheist. It’s a long story. I remember reciting the Lord’s Prayer. When I think about forgiveness, I think about the lines:
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us;
As I did my research, I was fascinated to learn that in the “Book of Matthew,” chapter 6, of the New Testament, the line after the Lord’s Prayer says:
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
Of course, in my Unitarian Universalist interpretation, God the Father could be the Universe, the Great Spirit, or the Mother/ Father God or God the Father. It depends on what day it is.
If I’ve offended anyone, please forgive me.
Namaste.
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (just published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
Janet Mason, author 