Tan, Cecilia (Maureen) 1967-

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TAN, Cecilia (Maureen) 1967-

PERSONAL: Born April 8, 1967, in New York, NY; daughter of Sergio Sia and Margaret Ann (Brady) Tan; companion of corwin (an entrepreneur, software developer, and Internet security specialist). Education: Brown University, B.A., 1989; Emerson College, M.A., 1994. Hobbies and other interests: Playing baseball, Tae Kwon Do, cats, motorcycles, cooking, skiing, playing the guitar, flute, and mandolin.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Circlet Press, Inc., 1770 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 278, Cambridge, MA 02140-2808. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: WPLJ FM (radio station), New York, NY, announcer, 1984-85; freelance writer, 1984—; WBRU FM (radio station), Providence, RI, disc jockey, 1986-89, air staff director, 1988-89; Beacon Press (publishing company), Boston, MA, marketing assistant, 1989-91, special sales coordinator, 1991-92; Windwood Flutes (flute shop), Chapel Hill, NC, associate to flute maker Billy Miller, 1990; Circlet Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA, founder, 1992, publisher, president, and editor, 1992—. Jae H. Kim Tae Kwon Do Institute, Boston and Cambridge, MA, Tae Kwon Do instructor, 1998—. Also worked as a lecturer, cook's assistant, ski instructor, Spanish and mime instructor, and in a birdfeeder factory; director, Fetish Fair Fleamarket.

MEMBER: National Writers Union, Science Fiction Writers of America, MOB (social and support group for "leatherwomen"; founder), New England Leather Alliance (director of media relations), Biversity Boston, Society for American Baseball Research, Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM).

AWARDS, HONORS: Best American Erotica selections, 1996, 1999; honorary mention, "Best of Soft Science Fiction" contest, 1997; Independent Publisher Book Awards finalist for Fantasy/Sci-Fi, 2001, for Sexcrime; National Leather Association Woman of the Year Award, 2001; Independent Publisher Book Awards finalist for Erotica/Sexuality, 2002, for The Velderet; Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award nominee, 2003; New England Regional Award finalist.

WRITINGS:

EDITOR OF ANTHOLOGIES

Forged Bonds: Erotic Tales of High Fantasy, illustrated by D. Cameron Calkins, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1993.

TechnoSex: Cyber Age Erotica, cover illustration by Andii Briggs, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1993.

The Beast Within: Erotic Tales of Werewolves, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Blood Kiss: Vampire Erotica, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Wired Hard: Erotica for a Gay Universe, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Of Princes and Beauties: Adult Erotic Faerie Tales, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

Selling Venus: Futuristic Tales of the Age Old Tradition of Exchanging Money for Sex, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

S/M Futures: Erotica on the Edge, cover illustration by Michael Manning, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995, 2nd edition, 2001.

S/M Pasts, illustrated by Lee Seed, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

S/M Visions: The Best of Circlet Press, Masquerade Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Erotica Vampirica: Sensual Vampire Stories, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Genderflex: Sexy Stories on the Edge and In-Between, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

The New Worlds of Women, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

SexMagick: Women Conjuring Erotic Fantasy, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

SexMagick 2: Men Conjuring Erotic Fantasy, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Tales from the Erotic Edge: A Circlet Omnibus, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Cherished Blood: Vampire Erotica, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

Wired Hard 2, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1998.

Fetish Fantastic: Erotica on the Edge, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

Stars inside Her: Lesbian Erotic Fantasy, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

A Taste of Midnight: Vampire Erotica, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

Wired Hard 3, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Sextopia: Stories of Sex and Society, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Sexcrime: Tales of Underground Love and Subversive Erotica, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Mind and Body, cover illustration by Melanie Fletcher, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Color of Pain, Shade of Pleasure, Blue Moon Books (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Bill Nowlin) The Fenway Project, Rounder Books (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

OTHER

Telepaths Don't Need Safewords and Other Stories from the Erotic Edge of SF/Fantasy, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 1992, also published as Telepaths Don't Need Safewords and Other Stories of Erotic Science, 1992.

Black Feathers: Erotic Dreams (short stories), Harper-Perennial (New York, NY), 1998.

The Velderet: A Cybersex S/M Serial, Circlet Press (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

The Fifty Greatest Yankee Games, J. Wiley and Sons (Hoboken, NJ), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Best American Erotica 1996, edited by Susie Bright, Scribner (New York, NY), 1996; Switch Hitters: Lesbians Write Gay Male Erotica and Gay Men Write Lesbian Erotica, edited by Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel, Cleis Press (San Francisco, CA), 1996; Best Lesbian Erotica 1997, edited by Tristan Taormino, Scribner (New York, NY), 1997; The Mammoth Book of New Erotica, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1998; Best Lesbian Erotica 1999, edited by Tristan Taormino, Cleis Press (San Francisco, CA), 1999; Herotica, Volume 6, edited by Marcy Sheiner, Down There Press, 1999; A Woman like That, edited by Joan Larkin, Avon (New York, NY), 1999; Best Lesbian Erotica 2000, edited by Tristan Taormino, Cleis Press (San Francisco, CA), 2000; The Academy: Tales of the Marketplace, edited by Karen Taylor, Mystic Rose Books, 2000; Sex and Single Girls, edited by Lee Damsky, Seal Press, 2000; Hot and Bothered 3, edited by Karen X. Tulchinsky, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001; That Takes Ovaries!, edited by Rivka Solomon, Three Rivers Press, 2002; The Burning Pen, edited by M. Christian, Alyson Publications, 2002; WET: More Stories of Aqua Erotica, Crown (New York, NY), 2002; Best Women's Erotica 2003, edited by Marcy Sheiner, Cleis Press (San Francisco, CA), 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including the Lambda Book Report, Penthouse, Ms., Publishers Weekly, Paramour, Blue Blood, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Absolute Magnitude, Strange Horizons, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Slow Trains, Blue Food, Yankees Magazine, Baseball Today, and Taste of Latex.

ADAPTATIONS: Story "Dragon's Daughter" is included on an audio-tape/CD of sf/fantasy short stories, Nova Audio/SI Images, 2002. Black Feathers is available as an e-book, with extra interviews and bonus pieces, from Perfect Bound, 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Banbino Road, a novel about a quest to overturn the "Curse of the Bambino"; The Book of Want, a novel mosaic on the theme of erotic communication.

SIDELIGHTS: Cecilia Tan founded her own publishing company, Circlet Press, in 1992. As its president and its primary editor, Tan has used Circlet Press to provide an outlet for science fiction and fantasy erotica featuring elements of bisexuality and other alternative sexualities. "Reputed to be the only publisher dedicated exclusively to erotic science fiction and fantasy," Katherine Gleason reported in the Lambda Book Report, "Circlet Press has an excellent reputation among fans of the genre." Through Circlet, Tan has edited numerous anthologies of erotic fiction, including Forged Bonds: Erotic Tales of High Fantasy, Blood Kiss: Vampire Erotica, Wired Hard: Erotica for a Gay Universe, and Wired Hard 2. Tan has also written erotica, including the short story collection Black Feathers: Erotic Dreams and The Velderet: A Cybersex S/M Serial.

Tan's collection of short erotic fiction, Black Feathers includes the stories "Daydreaming," "Heart's Desire," "Pearl Diver," and "Rough Trade." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the stories in Black Feathers "porn for people who don't like sex," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor described its tales as "hot" and "twisty."

In her novel The Velderet Tan tells of two discontented citizens of a future utopia where equality is the rule. Kobi and Merin wish to be sex slaves, something solidly resisted by the establishment. Their personal story of secret rebellion is contrasted with the larger story of their society's contact with an alien civilization in which inequality and violence is the norm. John Green found in Booklist that "Tan does well at wedding futuristic fantasy and sex."

Anthology projects that Tan has edited for Circlet Press include The New Worlds of Women, a collection of science fiction erotica by female authors. "The tropes of fantasy and science fiction can inspire erotica that stretches the imagination of both writer and reader," Susanna Sturgis noted in the Lambda Book Report. "No need to argue that point anymore: The New Worlds of Women proves it." In Fetish Fantastic: Erotica on the Edge, Tan collected stories on the "eroticism of power exchange—S/M—in futuristic and alternative-reality settings," as a critic for Publishers Weekly explained. According to Susan Branch Smith in the Lambda Book Report, sadomasochism "is staking its claim in the next millennium . . . and Fetish Fantastic may well be its handbook." Tan has also edited anthologies featuring vampire erotica, including Blood Kiss and Cherished Blood: Vampire Erotica. In a review of Cherished Blood from S & M News, a contributor noted that "each and every story in this book is a gem." David May of the Lambda Book Report reported that Tan has edited "a series of well-written, well-received, and eminently readable collections of erotic fantasy and science fiction that excite the reader between the ears as much as between the legs."

Tan once told CA: "I always thought I would be a classic science-fiction writer like Roger Zelazny or Marion Zimmer Bradley. But I was writing erotica when I was a teenager and never thought much of it. The idea to combine erotica and science fiction dawned suddenly as a natural fit in 1991, and I never looked back. I write literary, real fiction, too, but that field is crowded and I share erotic science fiction with few peers."

More recently, she told CA: I write about sex and sexuality with the hope that people will become more accepting of variation and alternatives. Fiction is singularly good at creating empathy between the reader and the character, no matter how different the character is from that person. We escape into the lives of these characters and live like them for a while and hopefully gain some understanding and tolerance for desires or lifestyles different from our own. It has also been important for me to write shame-free sex stories. So much of the modern 'pornography' industry is built on the thrill being illicit, it teaches people to be ashamed of their desires.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2001, Paula Luedtke, review of Sextopia: Stories of Sex and Society, p. 2102; October 1, 2001, John Green, review of The Velderet: A Cybersex S/M Serial, p. 306.

Boston Herald, July 3, 1998.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1998.

Lambda Book Report, September-October, 1996, Katherine Gleason, review of Tales from the Erotic Edge, p. 17, and Susanna Sturgis, review of The New Worlds of Women, p. 34; February, 1997, David May, review of Erotica Vampirica, p. 34; November, 1999, Susan Branch Smith, review of Fetish Fantastic: Erotica on the Edge, p. 24; March, 2001, review of A Taste of Midnight, p. 30.

Locus, July, 1993, p. 46; October, 1993, p. 55; November, 1994, pp. 56-57.

New York Blade, July, 1998, review of Black Feathers: Erotic Dreams.

New York Review of Science Fiction, October, 2000, review of Black Feathers.

Paramour, fall-winter, 1998, review of Black Feathers, p. 42.

Publishers Weekly, May 4, 1998, review of Black Feathers, p. 205; June 14, 1999, review of Fetish Fantastic, p. 56; May 1, 2000, review of Sexcrime, p. 55; July 23, 2001, review of Sextopia, p. 55; August 27, 2001, review of The Velderet, p. 61.

S & M News, Volume 5, number 4, 1998.

Science Fiction Chronicle, August, 1993, p. 38; December, 1994, p. 54.

Skin Two, summer, 1996.

True Review, October, 1998, review of Black Feathers.