New lesbian romance novel by acclaimed Mt. Airy author
by Len Lear
Mt. Airy author Janet Mason has done it again. Her new novel, “Loving Artemis, An Enearing Tale of Revolution, Love, and Marriage,” published last month by Thorned Heart Press in Oregon, is a labor of love as well as a love story between two young women.
“It came out of my own life,” Mason said last week. “So you could say I worked on it for over 50 years. In terms of the actual writing, it probably added up to four or five years.
I really enjoyed two previous novels by Mason, an award-winning creative writer, teacher, and occasional blogger for outlets such as the Huffington Post. His wonderful book, “Tea Leaves, a Memoir of Mothers and Daughters” was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 “Over the Rainbow List”, and he received a Goldie Award, given annually by the organization The Peer Choice Awards.
Her work has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her novel, “THEY, a Biblical Tale of Secret Genders,” was featured at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. Janet is also the author of three books of poetry and another novel, “The Unicorn, the Mystery”.
Reviews of “Loving Artemis” have been uniformly rave. Maria G. Fama, author of “The Good for the Good” writes “We are transported back in time to the turbulent end of the 1970s, when the civil rights, gay rights and women’s rights movements forays into the national consciousness…’ Loving Artemis offers within its pages stories of romance, danger, disappointment, love and the ultimate vindication of the human spirit.This novel is very rich and satisfying and is Do not miss.
While almost all authors aspire to write full-time, “day jobs” are usually a necessity since only a tiny number of authors are able to pay all the bills with their novels alone.
However, Mason, a lay minister at the Unitarian Universalist Restoration Church on Stenton Avenue in East Mt. Airy, told us she was an exception to that rule.
“I was able to devote myself exclusively to my writing,” she told the local. “I’ve done so many other things over the years, including teaching and working for nonprofits, but…I really feel like this is the right time in my life to focus exclusively on my creative writing.”
In one of the compelling sections of “Loving Artemis”, the character of Yiayia (Greek for “grandmother”) recounts Artemis, her granddaughter, how she herself had a girlfriend when she was a girl in Greece, but that her mother understood and quickly sent her to America, where she eventually married Artemis’ grandfather.
“Yiayia is a pretty salty character,” Mason said, “and I had a lot of fun learning the big Greek words she used, which I put into the novel. I think Yiayia was born out of my travels to Greece a few decades ago and my obsession with the lesbian poet Sappho.
In one chapter, Grace is in high school when she goes on an acid trip and imagines that Artemis, whom she recognizes from her English class, is one of the Saints.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on Catholic.com researching saints,” Mason said, “and was thrilled to learn recently that ‘Loving Artemis’ was selected for inclusion in a list important for LGBTQ Christians published by the publisher of the important newsletter ‘Q Spirit’.
Mason and his partner, Barbara, have lived in Mt. Airy for nearly 40 years, and there’s no cheerleader more enthusiastic about the community. “It’s always been a great neighborhood,” she said, “a very welcoming neighborhood for the LGBTQ community and a neighborhood where, frankly, sexual orientation didn’t matter.”
And in recent years, she said, she’s seen a different kind of inclusion.
“Young people, many of whom have young children, tend to be liberal and carry Black Lives Matter placards with the new Pride flags which include brown and black stripes,” she said. “In my neighborhood, only a few of those who carry Pride flags are actually part of the LGBTQ community. The others are allies, which is, of course, fantastic! »
For more information, visit thornedheartpress.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
