“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted with lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew each other. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
—Carl Sagan
Author and publisher Steve Berman was born in Philadelphia but his family moved to Southern New Jersey when he was 5. He sold his first short story at 17 and has gone on to publish more than 100 articles, essays and short stories. Berman has been a finalist seven times for the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards and four times (as editor) for the Lambda Literary Award. His first novel, “Vintage: A Ghost Story,” was released in 2007 and was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award. He has edited more than 20 anthologies, including “Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe,” which was just announced as a Shirley Jackson Award nominee. Berman is a former member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and one of the few lifetime members of the Role Playing Game Association. He founded Lethe Press, one of the largest LGBT publishers in the nation, in 2001, releasing more than 20 books each year, dominating the queer speculative-fiction field. Some notable titles are the Philly-centric mystery novel “Crimes on Latimer” by Joseph R.G. DeMarco; a lesbian zombie novella by Dayna Ingram called “Eat Your Heart Out”; a period sci-fi fantasy, “Point of Knives,” by Melissa Scott; and an annual anthology Berman edits himself, “Wilde Stories: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction.” He currently lives in Maple Shade, N.J., where we caught up with him and his tabby, Ginger, for a little chat.
PGN: You’re a Philly boy moved to Jersey and I’m a Jersey girl transplanted to Philly. SB: That’s funny. Yes, I was born in Philly but raised in Cherry Hill. FYI, New Jersey is the only state that has an official devil!
PGN: Cool! What were the best and worst parts of growing up in Cherry Hill? SB: Hmmm, best part? Never having to learn how to parallel park. Worst part? Enduring endless New Jersey jokes. Having to defend the title of “Garden State.”
PGN: Any siblings? SB: I’m the youngest of three with two older sisters. My father passed away a few years ago and my mother still lives in the area. Being a momma’s boy, I visit her quite often.
PGN: Where did you get your love of books? Any librarians in the fam? SB: No, Mom was an administrative assistant and my father was an investment banker, but I was taken to the Cherry Hill Library quite often. It was kind of spooky and weirdly built. My parents were big readers, I would always see them with books or newspapers, so I guess I read by example.
PGN: What was little Steve Berman like? SB: Oh, I was very shy and high-strung. I loved horror movies; actually, my mom liked the old black-and-white Universal films and the vibrant-color movies from Hammer, and Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion wonders … films like “Dracula” and “Curse of Frankenstein,” “Mighty Joe Young” and Bela Lugosi movies. My father hated horror movies so my mother would pat the spot on the sofa next to her and I would climb up and watch the movies with her. So my love of horror and things spooky are eternally equated with maternal affection! I was also into all the things a geeky little boy growing up at that time was into, “Dungeons and Dragons” and Legos, etc.
PGN: What got you into gaming? SB: In elementary school, the nurse knew I had a love for monsters. She would bring in her son’s gaming books for me. Sometimes I’d fake being sick so I could read them. Being involved in role-playing games was great because it instilled a love for storytelling and exposed me to high-fantasy novels.
PGN: What was the first movie you saw that made you want to sleep with the lights on? SB: You know, I loved them so much they never really scared me and the old ones weren’t super, super scary. I think the first movie that really terrified me was when I was older, John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” I’ve only seen it once, because I can’t bring myself to watch it again. I think it’s the scariest movie ever made.
PGN: Who was your best friend as a kid? SB: Oh, I was so shy I didn’t have a “best” friend until junior high. Then it was a boy named Andrew, he was also kind of an outcast. I taught him how to play “Dungeons and Dragons,” and we were friends all through junior and senior high school. He never knew I was gay though.
PGN: Other than “Dungeons and Dragons,” what other extracurricular things were you into? SB: I did yearbook, learned I was really bad at chess and I was a member of a science-fiction club but I don’t think we really did anything. I think we just sat around and talked about the latest “Star Trek” movie. [Laughs.] It was very low-key. I was always a geek.
PGN: After high school? SB: I went to Tulane University in New Orleans and got a degree in English. My parents had always wanted to visit New Orleans and this gave them the chance. I was still in the closet during my undergrad but I joined a fraternity, Zeta Psi, because of a crush on a roommate. I kissed my first man in New Orleans and lost my virginity there. After graduation, I briefly moved to Los Angeles, which I detested, then moved back to Jersey when my first love died in a car accident. I still visit New Orleans pretty often, usually for the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, which celebrates queer writing.
PGN: When did you come out? SB: It was in my 30s. By that time, I think my family had figured it out — I’d never had a girlfriend — but we never talked about it. I was living with my parents and I had some friends of mine who were a couple come over. My father was away but came home early and saw one of them sitting on the other’s lap. He left and that night he made my mom ask me about it. He thought he was interrupting some ménage à trios and the whole thing was very uncomfortable. She tearfully asked if I was gay and I said yes. I cried too and the next day my father threw me out of the house for about 10 minutes until my sisters yelled at him and then he tearfully apologized and said how much he loved me.
PGN: Speaking of gay, I understand you worked at Giovanni’s Room? SB: In the mid- and late-’90s, I wrote articles for a lot of role-playing magazines, mostly for Dragon Magazine; then in 2005, I went to Rutgers to earn a graduate degree in liberal studies. Since I was working on my master’s, I couldn’t have a full-time day job and Ed Hermance, the owner, was very accommodating.
PGN: So sad that it’s closed. I know when I came out, it was much more than just a place to get books, I used to call them for all sorts of information and they were always patient and accommodating. Do you remember anyone in particular you helped through their first foray into the community? SB: The people I remember the most was a deaf couple from Canada. My sign-language skills consist of “hello” and “thank you,” so it was hard to communicate, but they were so sweet and so happy to find a place that had the large selections of movies and books that we had. Then there were the regulars that came in. I can think of four or five right off the top of my head, who would make a pilgrimage every week to the bookstore from all different parts. I still talk with many of them regularly and one of them, George Hoover, and I go to film festivals and things like that together.
PGN: So what does a publisher do? SB: My role covers finding authors, reading books. I help the editors make the books the best they can possibly be. I oversee the production of everything from the cover to the interior design. I make sure the books are promoted to bookstores and readers around the world. I help authors spread their voice and make some money to boot. I’m always on the hunt for new work. Lethe Books specializes in gay books with science-fiction/fantastical elements. I’ve been doing it for 13 years.
PGN: That must be exciting. SB: Yes, I just signed this hilarious young British boy who tweets about bad gay dates, so he’s going to compile an anthology about “Worst Gay Dates Ever.” It’s a fun job.
PGN: What was your worst date ever? SB: I went out on a first date and the guy asked me right off the bat if I wanted kids. I was a little taken back and said I didn’t know. He told me that he had to have kids because he was Asian and his parents insisted. Then he looked at me quite seriously and said, “And by the way, I will be doing it the old-fashioned way.” I did not know what to say. Here we are on a first date and he’s basically telling me, “FYI, I will be sleeping with a woman.” There was no second date.
PGN: I read that you have subcultures within your subculture at Lethe. SB: I guess so. In addition to speculative fiction, fantasy, science-fiction and horror for LGBT people, we also have an imprint, Tincture, for gay people of color and we have an imprint for bears, Bear Bone Books. The bear line does exceedingly well; there’s no one else that regularly publishes books geared just for that community. In fact, one of our better-selling authors is Jeff Mann, who’s written historical fiction and a young-adult novel and he’s a bear. People just adore him. I’ve published books by Asian-American authors, Latino authors, African-American authors. Those voices just aren’t heard enough. We try to make sure that no readership goes unmet.
PGN: What challenges do you face as a publisher? SB: There’s more competition for reading than ever before. Fifty years ago, if you were a gay person, your primary escape was through books. Occasionally there might be a movie, or more often you’d see a movie and fantasize some gay subtext and that was about it. Nowadays, there are gay movies, gay characters on TV, the Internet, games, clubs, etc. It’s easier to be distracted and harder than ever before to convince some people to read. And the number of gay books being published has dramatically increased, which is a good thing. It’s just more competition. A few years ago, there were just a handful of gay publishers; now Lethe Press is one of many. The good news is that a gay man living in Sioux City, Iowa, can get a gay book with a click of a button, where before he would have had to travel to a big city to find one.
PGN: I understand there was a terrible incident early on. SB: Yes, when I was working on my first novel, “Vintage: A Ghost Story,” the protagonist at one point attempts suicide. During the revision process, a teen friend of mine who was one of our test readers took his life. It was devastating, he was only 14 years old. The book is dedicated to him and a portion of the royalty goes to two charities that help to prevent gay youth suicides.
PGN: Sheesh, well at least something positive to counteract the tragedy. On to lighter fare, I read that you did some traveling. SB: Yes, I went to China and Mongolia to study Buddhism as part of my graduate studies. It was very interesting being the ethnic minority for a change. I recommend that everyone experience it. And I almost fell off of a cliff in Mongolia. Some of the temples are located cliffside and I slipped on my way down from one. Fortunately, I fell on my rear instead of tumbling off the mountain. I drank fermented mare’s milk — a local delicacy — that they would sell on the side of the road in recycled two-liter Pepsi bottles. I had an amazing time there.
PGN: Geekiest moment? SB: When I was a teen, I had my mom knit me a Dr. Who scarf and I got to meet Tom Baker, who was the fourth Doctor. I still have the scarf.
PGN: Collect anything? SB: I’m a huge collector of stuffed animals! My favorite one has sentimental value. It’s a large owl my folks bought me as a child. I have a lot of the ToyVault releases (their Lovecraftian and Godzilla lines are amazing) and I adore Edwin Morose, from Teddy Scares, because he’s all about the broken heart, which appeals to my maudlin tendencies.
PGN: You have a large collection of young-adult fiction. Why was that so important to you? SB: When I was a teen, I was not aware of any books meant for teens that had gay content. Turns out there were a couple, but few of them had happy endings. I remember the first story I ever read with a gay character was a Clive Barker horror story. I was so excited to read a story about someone gay, it was like, “Yay!” I firmly believe that if a gay teen can’t find a book with characters that they can relate to, with a happy ending — or even better, just a story with a kid that just happens to be gay who has all sorts of adventures — that gay kid will never feel equal to straight people. Same thing for someone lesbian or transgender or whatever. I get emails from men in their 50s and 60s who say, “Wow, I wish I’d had this when I was young. What would life had been like if I’d been able to have positive role models?”
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