Tag Archives: Fiction

New Children’s Book Simply Normalize Same-Sex Relationships For Children – ‘Rumplepimple’

Rumplepimple is a new book for children, which weaves in same-sex relationships into the storyline in a very subtle way.

Written by Suzanne DeWitt Hall and illustrated by Kevin Scott Gierman, this book is the story of a dog named Rumplepimple who runs out of a car and into a grocery store to help a little girl who is being teased by an older boy.

Like much of Hall’s work, Rumplepimple tells the story of being misunderstood by those who love you most when you’re trying to do the right thing.

The queer element comes from Rumplepimple’s caretakers – who are a same-sex couple. The story also mirrors the reality of Hall’s own life.

Rumplepimple-01 Rumplepimple-02

Hall told The Huffington Post.

I think the time has arrived when there is less need for books that explain same-sex parents and more need for books which simply feature characters who happen to have them. That’s the way things get normalized in literature over time. After all, we no longer need a book titled Teacher, Teacher: Why is Sammy’s Skin That Color?”

 

Pussy Galore Returns to James Bond Series, But is She Still a Lesbian?

You may not have know this, but in the original James Bond books, the infamous Pussy Galore, was a violet-eyed lesbian gangster dreamed up by Ian Fleming for Goldfinger.

This fact was never mentioned in the film – only hinted at when Bond tried to charm her, to which she replies “I’m immune”.

However, now she is set for a reboot in Anthony Horowitz’s new James Bond tale Trigger Mortis.

The Foyle’s War creator unveiled the title, the plot outline and the cover or his new Bond thriller this week. Set in 1957, the story takes place two weeks after the events of Goldfinger, placing Bond in the middle of the Soviet-American Space Race as the US prepares for a critical rocket launch.

As well as bringing back Pussy Galore, Horowitz has also dreamed up a new Bond girl, Jeopardy Lane, as well as a “sadistic, scheming Korean adversary hell-bent on vengeance.”

Pussy Galore last appeared at the end of the 1959 novel Goldfinger, in “nothing but a grey fisherman’s jersey that was decent by half an inch”. She and Bond pair had just been rescued from a life raft after they made it off Goldfinger’s plane.

Pussy asks 007 “not in a gangster’s voice, or a Lesbian’s, but in a girl’s voice, ‘Will you write to me in Sing Sing?’” Bond looks into her “deep blue-violet eyes that were no longer hard, imperious”, and says: “They told me you only liked women.” Pussy replies: “I never met a man before,” and Bond’s mouth “came ruthlessly down on hers”.

Pussy Galore 02

The plot for Trigger Mortis includes Fleming’s own treatment for an un-filmed episode of a television series, Murder on Wheels, in which Bond gets involved in a Formula One race in Germany.

This is thought to be the opening scene of Trigger Mortis.

It was great fun revisiting the most famous Bond girl of all – although she is by no means the only dangerous lady in Trigger MortisI hope fans enjoy it. My aim was to make this the most authentic James Bond novel anyone could have written.”

Lucy Fleming, the niece of Ian Fleming, said

It was almost as if Ian had written [Trigger Mortis] himself. It does feel like a Fleming book. It takes place a couple of weeks after Goldfinger – Pussy’s back, which is fantastic, and we’ve got a particularly good villain in Sin – he’s absolutely horrible, a megalomaniac type, but fascinating as well. Pussy Galore is one of the iconic characters from the films and the books . It will be interesting to see what the public make of that.”