I had a dream that standing in front of me was a tall pale person with a bird’s head and a long, pointed beak that curved slightly downward. It had black feathers or hair in that style that used to be called a mohawk, from the top of its head and falling down its back, […]
Author Archive | Sylvia Allen
His Heart Was Still Beating (Civil War)
This scene from Like Light from Stars takes place in a mule cart used as an ambulance, late in the American Civil War: In a cloud of red dust, a wagon clattered along a plank road between ravaged fields. The driver, a Union soldier in a filthy uniform, beat at the mule team with a switch. His […]
Third batch of early reader reviews
Here’s the third batch of early reader reviews of Like Light from Stars. I…enjoyed it immensely. I was completely caught up in your character development and felt like I was on an excellent walking tour of San Francisco. Alice Silverstein I started reading your book and can’t put it down! I feel like I’m there. […]
More Early Reader Reviews
Here’s the second batch of early reader reviews of Like Light from Stars: Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down, and ended up devouring it in one gulp. Many times I had to stop for a while because I was crying too hard to see. Ginny Schwingel I read your book cover to […]
Reader reviews of Like Light from Stars
I had some promo copies of Like Light from Stars printed and gave them to people I thought might be interested. Here are the early reader reviews (part 1 of 3): What a fantastic read. I couldn’t put it down although at times I feared what might come on the next page. Suspenseful and beautifully written […]
Those Historic Gay Marriages
I’ve told Martha, “I’ll marry you as many times as it takes.” I guess we’re done getting married now. Here’s a story I wrote about those historic gay marriages in San Francisco in 2004. A version of it was published in Bad Subjects that year. I heard about the San Francisco same-sex marriages on a Thursday afternoon in […]
Father’s Day and a Bike Light
My father wasn’t a good dad; nobody would argue with that. However, a sharp blow to his head in old age improved our relationship. Here I am, after all, posting a photo of him on Father’s Day. The memory I wrote about below is one I later incorporated into the fictional characters’ lives in Like Light from Stars: […]
Reading at Bookstore Benefit
I just got back from reading at a benefit for St. Johns Booksellers, our little town’s beloved independent bookstore. The benefit was at Plew’s Brews, the local craft-beer-and-live-music place, and was lively, beery, cheerful, and noisy. I was one of several writers reading our own work. Also reading, among others: Martha Shelley, Kate de Gutes, […]