Do you feel your little gay heart racing at the news? What about the other one?
Us gays LOOOOOOOOOVE Doctor Who, right? (If you are but you don't then obviously you haven't been sat down by my two friends Josh and Dave and been shown Tooth and Claw (the very origin of Torchwood), The Girl in the Fireplace, and Blink all in one sitting.) We're a dedicated audience and frequently given to delightful cosplay. That love has been rewarded and returned by showrunners in rich and dynamic queer characters and themes throughout the series and Alex Kingston in Louboutins.
Now we're giving EVEN MORE love back in the form of passionate essays: Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It, coming this summer from Des Moines, Iowa-based publisher Mad Norwegian Press.
From their press release (you can tell they're positively vibrating with excitement):
Mad Norwegian Press is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It, an essay collection in the tradition of the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords. In this new release, award-winning authors from across the rainbow celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, examining the characters and stories that they love.
The book is edited by Sigrid Ellis (Chicks Dig Comics) and Michael Damian Thomas (Apex Magazine). The introduction is by Doctor Who and Torchwood star John Barrowman, and his sister and frequent collaborator, Carole E Barrowman (Anything Goes, Torchwood: Exodus Code). The book’s cover art is by Colleen Coover (Small Favors).
Essay contributors to this collection include Tanya Huff (Blood Ties), Melissa Scott (Trouble and Her Friends), John Richards (Outland), Paul Magrs (Hornets’ Nest), Gary Russell (Doctor Who script editor), Rachel Swirsky (Through the Drowsy Dark), Hal Duncan (Ink: The Book of All Hours), Amal El-Mohtar (The Honey Month), Brit Mandelo (Beyond Binary), Nigel Fairs (In Conversation with an Acid Bath Murderer), David Llewellyn (Night of the Humans), Susan J. Bigelow (Extrahumans), Jennifer Pelland (Machine), Mary Anne Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), and Jed Hartman (Strange Horizons).
So, that's pretty fucking awesome.
What's even more awesome is that the book (and Vastra and Jenny!) got a great shout-out over at Entertainment Weekly. That's some pretty powerful mainstream press for a book—a book!—that on the surface would seem to appeal to so small and obscure an audience, namely us.
Also, I gotta say that, as one, I really enjoy the use of "Queer" in the title. Not that any other word could encompass such a wide and mobile swath of humanity, but "queer" certainly suggests a sort of punkish pride, and I think it's especially appropriate used in the context of a fandom as enthusiastic and sincere as Whovians'.
Pre-order your copies now, nerds!
Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who By the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It will be published June 4, 2013 by Mad Norwegian Press.
Mad Norwegian Press is a publishing company specializing in reference guides to television shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Doctor Who, plus the Faction Paradox range of novels. The company was started in 1999 by former Wizard Magazine staffer Lars Pearson.
Just because, here's 11th Doctor Matt Smith and ultimate cuddlebear James Corden (The Lodger) being matey:
