soc_puppet | Giveaway

Who wants free short stories with queer Jewish characters? :D

Last weekend, online bookseller Gumroad ran a twenty-four-hour promotion, where they donated all the profits from their sales to relief in Puerto Rico. Author Shira Glassman has PDF copies of her stories available at that site and alerted Tumblr and Twitter to the occasion, and I decided to take the opportunity to do a giveaway of some of her short stories!

Unfortunately, because it was such a short period of time, and such short notice on top of that, I had no takers. BUT, because I still wanted to do a giveaway and take advantage of Gumroad's generosity, I up and bought seven copies each of Shira's publications: Knit One, Girl Two and Tales From Perach.

Tales From Perach is a collection of short stories from her larger Mangoverse, a cozy fantasy with a majority Jewish cast set primarily in a fantastical Florida-equivalent. There's a lot of Jewish culture in these short stories, and so much queer representation: A demisexual woman saves an aro-ace damsel in distress, a bi man is comforted by his gay basically-husband, a lesbian sets up a scavenger hunt for her girlfriend to help her get inspiration for a graphic novel the queen wants her to write, an elderly trans woman is having trouble with a local wine seller, a teen trans boy and his girlfriend go looking for flowers for his girlfriend's sister's wedding the next day and find more than they bargained for, and more! They are all super sweet and fluffy, two of them take place on or around major Jewish holidays, and in the one with the two aspec women, their shared Jewish heritage is what helps the demisexual woman save the day. Here's a link to my review of the first book in the series: The Second Mango. If you're intrigued, the short stories are a great place to start, and I can assure you that Shira's writing has only gotten better with time and experience.

Knit One, Girl Two is a contemporary romance between a small batch independent sock dyer and a local painter, both Jewish. My summary and review aren't going to do it justice, so I'm just going to quote the author herself for the former, and a friend and fellow fan on the latter.

Summary: "Small-batch independent yarn dyer Clara Ziegler is eager to brainstorm new color combinations–if only she could come up with ideas she likes as much as last time! When she sees Danielle Solomon’s paintings of Florida wildlife by chance at a neighborhood gallery, she finds her source of inspiration. Outspoken, passionate, and complicated, Danielle herself soon proves even more captivating than her artwork..."

You can find

stilesisbiles's review right over here; it's kinda long, so I don't want to quote the whole thing, but here's the first paragraph:

"I just finished and oh my gosh, I am smiling so much! This story was perfect and so, so sweet! There are queer and trans characters throughout the book apart from the lesbian lead and her bisexual love interest, and even though they only have a couple of lines each (the book is only 68 pages) they have their own individual personalities, and they felt real to me rather than tokens. There are trans characters of all ages, which made me so happy."

Now, the giveaway business! If you are interested in a free copy of either of these books, leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address. All comments will be screened (which means that no one besides me and, if you have a DW or OpenID account, the poster will be able to see them). Alternately, you can like this Tumblr post for Tales From Pearch, or this Tumblr post for Knit One, Girl Two.

In one week, I will randomly pick seven winners for each book, each of whom will I will e-mail a PDF copy. Only win per person, and one entry per book! I'll ignore any duplicate entries. Feel free to spread the word as well :)