• Queer 9-11-2001 • Odd Girls Press • QueerReads.com • Career • Personal • Contact
Visit the bgltwtcvictims.html page that was created in September 2001 to support 9-11 survivors. Remember in 2001 we didn't have marriage rights and members of the military could still be discharged for their orientation. Community support for queer families and friends was vitally important.
Odd Girls Press opened in 1995 as Bluestocking Books but the name was changed due to the fact that another publisher with a similar name existed in California and readers became confused and ended up at the wrong publisher. The name Odd Girls comes from Ann Bannon's 1957 novel "Odd Girls Out" about a lesbian named Beebo Brinker. After "Lesbians in Print" was released in 1995 authors were encouraged to submit manuscripts for publication. Odd Girls published ten books. A hard decision was made to close Odd Girls Press after the massive loss of independent LGBTQ bookstores and the bankruptcy of the press's distributor made the business unsustainable. Our doors closed in late 2002.
The authors published are talented writers and they have continued writing. Many of the books that Odd Girls Press published have been re-published by other presses and are still in print.
A press is nothing without a good editor and Odd Girls was lucky to work with groundbreaking author Katherine V Forrest as our editor. Katherine handled acquisitions and content editing. Katherine may be found at http://www.katherinevforrest.com/ and on GoodReads.com.
BETHLEHEM ROAD by Nancy Crowe, 1887237003, 2002.
MONOLOGUES & SCENES FOR LESBIAN ACTORS by Carolyn Gage, 1-877237-10-0, 1-877237-07-0, cloth bound, 1999.
LESBIANS IN PRINT by Margaret Gillon (editor), 1887237135, 1995.
GASLIGHT by Carol Guess, 1-887237-05-4, 2001.
PELT poetry by Daphne Gottlieb, 1-887237-09-7, 1999.
FIRST RESORT by Nanci Little, 1-887237-01-1, 1998.
NIGHT MARE by Franci McMahon, 1-887237-14-3, 2001.
BLOODSONG by Karen Marie Christa Minns, 1-887237-08-9, 1997.
VIRAGO by Karen Marie Christa Minns, 1-887237-97-6, 1997. Hand bound limited edition of 40 numbered copies.
TORY'S TUESDAY by Linda Kay Silva, 1-887237-02-X, 2002.
The final Odd Girl Press web site can be viewed at the Internet Archive. It includes full synopsis of the books and the original cover art. Odd Girls Press 6/23/2002
In 1995 Gillon published 'LESBIANS IN PRINT' as a large format paperback. The material for this book was stored in a database. The book's information came from book review publications that would review LGBTQ books. There were errors in the first edition and following it's release Gillon went back to the data and started verifying the publishing information against records from Library of Congress and several other University databases that were online in the late 1990s and could be accessed through DSL modems. Gillon purchased complete back runs of "Feminist Bookstore News", "Lambda Book Report", and "Lambda Literary Review" to search for books that should be added to the database.
It was intended to publish a new bibliography in 2000 titled "Checklist: A Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Bibliography" that listed books for all orientations. In 1998 Odd Girls began publishing the growing database online at QueerReads.com. Gillon programmed a static site generator and every week the generator rebuilt the site which eventually grew to 679 pages and listed over 10,000 books. The books were listed alphabetically by Subject, Orientation, Author. The generator also created a master alphabetical index for titles and authors with hyperlinks back to the books.
Galleys of "Checklist" in book format were taken to BookExpo 2001 for attendees to view (1,857 pages long) and the QueerReads database went on a CD that contained the database and software that could be used to search it. "Checklist" the book was never published. The QueerReads.com site was shut down when Odd Girls closed in 2002 but the database still exists. At Archive.org the 679 page final version of the QueerReads.com web site is available. The archive is a complete archive and lists over 10,000 LGBTQ books on 679 web pages. The cross-reference index is at the end of the web site. Queer Reads 6/23/2002
Bibliographer. Publisher. Programmer in main frame languages COBOL and FORTRAN, PC programmer in DOS BASIC, Foxpro, and Visual Foxpro. DOS Novell server administrator. Database administrator for SQLServer and Postgresql. Stored procedure programmer for SQLServer and Postgresql. Linux administrator. Java Web developer. Supporter of opensource operating systems, projects, and languages. Completed the CodeRanch.com / JavaRanch.com Cattle Drive in June, 2014. Retired in late 2014.
Margaret comes from a family with many siblings. Her parents immigrated to California from cold snowy Canada in the late 1950s. Margaret married her partner of many years, Carole, in 2008, and they continue happily cohabitating. Her volunteer work includes helping non-profits with IT issues and running a small local historical society.
Please feel free to email any questions to mmg@MargaretGillon.com