Cecilia Tan (born April 8, 1967) is a writer, editor, sexuality activist, and founder of Circlet Press, the first press devoted primarily to erotic science fiction and fantasy. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the director of media relations for the New England Leather Alliance.^[1] She also writes about baseball, but is not to be confused with a writer of the same name who specializes in Asian cookbooks.

Tan's first professional writing began when she was a teenager and wrote a monthly column for Superteen magazine and also wrote features for Teen Machine, two popular teen titles published by the conglomerate Sterling's Magazines. Her aspiration was to be a science fiction writer, and she idolized Roger Zelazny, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Ray Bradbury.^[2] She attended Brown University and received her BA in linguistics and cognitive science in 1989. ^[3]

Shortly thereafter, she took a job at Beacon Press in Boston. At the same time, she discovered the leather community via the newsgroup alt.sex.bondage and the science fiction/fantasy fan community through conventions like Arisia and Gaylaxicon.^[4] She was one of a cabal of five conspirators who began hosting BDSM play parties at science fiction conventions (known as "asb parties" after the newsgroup). The first one was at the July 1991 Gaylaxicon in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, followed soon after by a party at Philcon in November that drew hundreds of participants. Later, other eager fans took up the duties and Tan ceased hosting these parties.

alt.sex.bondage was also the first place Tan published her erotic science fiction writing, posting stories and vignettes with some regularity in 1991 and 1992.^[5]

By 1992 she decided to leave her job at Beacon Press to pursue a master's degree in writing at Emerson College. On her final day of work at Beacon, she returned home to find her first acceptance letter for the publication of a story waiting in her mailbox. It was for the story "A True Story", which was accepted into the anthology Herotica 4.

While in graduate school, Tan had plenty of time to keep her hand in publishing, with her own small press, Circlet Press, Inc. Circlet's first book was a chapbook of Tan's erotic science fiction stories, entitled Telepaths Don't Need Safewords. Mate by Lauren P. Burka soon followed, as did a host of small anthologies like SexMagick, TechnoSex, and Worlds of Women. Tan received her master's in Professional Writing and Publishing in 1994 from Emerson and devoted herself to writing and running Circlet Press full-time thereafter.^[6]

As of June 2009, Circlet Press has published over fifty titles, most of them erotic science fiction with occasional forays into related genres. ^[7]

Tan herself has had her work published in a variety of outlets. Her stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, Asimov's Science Fiction, Absolute Magnitude, Best American Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Nerve.com, and many, many other places. Her collection of short stories, Black Feathers, appeared in 1998 from HarperCollins. A follow-up collection of erotic short stories, White Flames, was published in 2008 by Running Press. Tan moved into writing erotic romance ebooks in 2009 with the publications of Mind Games and The Hot Streak from Ravenous Romance. Her erotic romance novel series known as the Magic University series was published in ebook form by Ravenous Romance and in trade paperback by Red Silk Editions, an imprint of Red Wheel Weiser. (Unfortunately, Weiser killed the imprint after the demise of the Borders bookstore chain and so only two of the four books in the series appeared in Red Silk Editions.) The Magic University series is also being published in France. In recent years, Tan has been the recipient of various awards. In 2010, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for GLBTQ writers at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. That same year her online serial, Daron's Guitar Chronicles, won the inaugural Rose and Bay Award for Crowdfunded Fiction. As of 2011, her books have been multiply nominated for the Lambda Literary Award and NLA Writing Awards, though she has not yet won one. ^[8]

Her baseball works include The 50 Greatest Yankee Games (Wiley, 2005) and The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games (Wiley, 2006, co-authored with Bill Nowlin), she formerly wrote weekly columns for GothamBaseball.com and YankeesXtreme.com and occasional articles for Yankees Magazine, and she continues to produce the online baseball magazine Why I Like Baseball. In 2004 she won an award for baseball research at the national SABR Convention, the USA Today Sports Weekly award for best poster presentation for her work entitled, "The Women's Baseball Marathon". She has been editing the Maple Street Press Yankees Annual since 2007. In 2011, Tan became the publications director for the Society for American Baseball Research and co-editor of the Baseball Prospectus Annual with King Kaufman. ^[9]

Tan played baseball in a women's league in Pawtucket, Rhode Island known as the Pawtucket Slaterettes, but retired after the 2007 season.^[10] She has also holds a black belt in tae kwon do, receiving her second degree (dan) in June 2009, and is a certified technician in Okazaki Restorative Massage.^[11]

See also[link]

Novels portal

• Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction

References[link]

1. ^ LLC Boston Committee member bio list, [1]
2. ^ Biography - Tan, Cecilia (Maureen) (1967-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online. Published by Gale Research.
3. ^ Biography - Tan, Cecilia (Maureen) (1967-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online. Published by Gale Research.
4. ^ "Interview with Cecilia Tan" by Mary Anne Mohanraj. Strange Horizons. [2]
5. ^ "Interview with Cecilia Tan" by Mary Anne Mohanraj. Strange Horizons. [3]
6. ^ Alumni Notes, Expressions Magazine, (Emerson College Alumni Magazine), June 1998
7. ^ "About Us" Company Profile & History of Circlet Press. [4]. Retrieved June 16, 2009
8. ^ "About the Author" Cecilia Tan, Ravenous Romance web site [5]. Retrieved June 16, 2009
9. ^ "Andy McCue and Cecilia Tan Recognized at National Convention for Outstanding Research Presentations," press release dated July 22, 2004, Society for American Baseball Research. [6] Retrieved June 16, 2009
10. ^ Leslie A. Heaphy & Mel Anthony May, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WOMEN AND BASEBALL. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006.
11. ^ Bio at Eastern-Healing.com. [7] Retrieved June 16, 2009

See also: Tan, Cecilia. Cecilia Tan's Bio. Retrieved October 28, 2005.

External links[link]

• Cecilia Tan's Homepage
• Circlet Press homepage
• New Bedfellows: Sex & Science Fiction, a dialogue between M. Christian and Cecilia Tan
• SceneProfiles Interview, by Sensuous Sadie
• Strange Horizons Interview, by Mary Anne Mohanraj
• Mind Caviar Interview, by Jamie Joy Gatto
• Ms. Magazine The "pick three books" featurette
• SABR Award Press Release
• Interview from Hyphen Magazine by Claire Light
• Alternet column/interview by Annalee Newitz
• Nerve.com essay
• Interview with Michael A. Ventrella, May 2010
• Cecilia Tan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Fito Páez
Fito Páez in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Rodolfo Páez Ávalos
Born	(1963-03-13) 13 March 1963 (age 49)
Origin	Rosario, Argentina
Genres	Rock
Occupations	singer-songwriter, film director
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Warner Music/Distribuidora Belgrano Norte/Sony Music
Website	http://www.fitopaezmusica.com.ar/

Rodolfo "Fito" Páez Ávalos (born March 13, 1963 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province) is an Argentine popular rock and roll pianist, lyricist, Spanish language singer and film director.

Biography[link]

Early career[link]

Fito Páez in 1982

His real name is Rodolfo Páez, like his father. When he was a child people called him "Rodolfito" (in Spanish, an affectionate form of "Rodolfo") to distinguish him from his father. With the passage of time, this nickname became just "Fito", and that is where his stage name came from.^[1]

He formed Staff, his first band when he was 13. In 1977, he played in El Banquete with Rubén Goldín and Jorge Llonch. He began to perform solo in pubs the following year.

Straight out of high school, he began touring with several bands and soon after that produced his first solo album, "Del '63", which was released in 1984. It was promoted first in his home town, but later earned attention in Buenos Aires. The recording was put together with the help of some of Argentina's most prominent musicians, including Daniel Wirtz, Fabián Gallardo, Tweety González and Paul Dourge. The disc won him critical acclaim as a songwriter and helped lead to future projects, including a 1985 album, "Giros".

The demo of that album earned him the praise of Luis Alberto Spinetta, as well as a partnership - Paez's next album, 1986's "La La La" was a duet with Spinetta. The duo supported that album with a tour that reached all the way to Santiago, Chile. The same year, he participated in the Thousand Days of Democracy festival with Spinetta, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Silvina Garré and Antonio Tarragó Ros.

His 1987 recording, "Ciudad de Pobres Corazones", marked a dark, political turn for his work. It was dedicated to the memory of his aunt and grandmother, who were assassinated in Rosario. The album seethed with anger, but it was also more rhythmic and showed greater songwriting depth than his previous recordings. Páez got his first taste of production work with "Ey!", which was released in 1988. Recorded in New York and Havana, it also showcased many of the musicians that he had worked with previously, including Guillermo Vadalá, Daniel Colombres and Osvaldo Fattoruso. It also featured the trumpeters and saxophonists of the group, Afrocuba. Less harsh than his previous recording, it was one of his most balanced records.

1990 - present[link]

During a concert in 2003

Fito Páez in Casa Rosada, 2006

"Tercer Mundo", released in 1990, explores Latin American cultural influences and showed the harsh world of poverty and exploitation. It, too was critically acclaimed, but it was Paez' 1992 album, "El Amor Después del Amor" that marked the pinnacle of his commercial success. The album sold more than 750,000 copies and when Paez toured to support it, he found himself playing to sold-out shows for 40,000 people. Shortly after its release, he played a benefit concert for UNICEF which raised more than $420,000.

The follow-up, "Circo Beat", had impossibly high expectations and though it had several hit songs, including "Mariposa Tecknicolor" and "Tema de Piluso," as well as a companion album, Circo Beat Brazil, which featured Brazilian remixes of its hits, it only sold around 350,000 copies.

Several other projects were completed in the late '90s, including a live album, Euforia and 1998's Sabina & Paez: Enemigos Intimos, with Joaquín Sabina. The year 1999 brought another balanced, superbly produced album, "Abre". He also took home two Grammys at the first annual Latin Grammy Award in fall 2000. He lived with Argentine actress Cecilia Roth for some years, with whom he adopted a child in 1999.

Paez' 2003 album "Naturaleza sangre" marks a return to his musical past, featuring appearances from Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta and Brazilian artist Rita Lee on the previously unreleased version of "Ojos Rojos". At 40 years old, Paez finds himself at his musical peak.

In 2006, Páez was given an escopetarra (a decommissioned AK-47 converted into a guitar) by Colombian musician and peace activist César López in honor of his music.^[2]

The album El mundo cabe en una canción won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Solo Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2007.

In 2008 recorded, No se si es Baires o Madrid, in Madrid, Spain. He invited several important musicians, such as Pablo Milanés, Joaquín Sabina and Ariel Rot to participate. In 2010, presented the album Confiá. In December 2011 he has recorded a new album which has song that were made by other artist, but this time Páez is going to be the singer; the album is called "Canciones para áliens"

Discography[link]

• Del 63 (1984) ("Of 63")
• Giros (1985) ("Turns")
• Corazón clandestino (1986) (Maxi-single) ("Clandestine heart")
• La La La (with Luis Alberto Spinetta) (1986)
• Ciudad de pobres corazones (1987) ("Poor heart's town")
• Ey! (1988)
• Tercer mundo (1990) ("Third World")
• El Amor Después del Amor (1992) ("Love after love")
• Circo Beat (1994) ("Beat Circus")
• Euforia (live) (1996) ("Euphoria")
• Enemigos íntimos (with Joaquín Sabina) (1998) ("Intimate enemies")
• Abre (1999) ("Open")
• Rey Sol (2000) ("King Sun")
• Naturaleza sangre (2003) ("Blood nature")
• Mi vida con ellas I (live) (2004) ("My life with them")
• Mi vida con ellas II (live) (2004)
• Moda y pueblo (2005) ("Fashion & people")
• El Mundo Cabe en Una Canción (2006) ("The world fits in a song")
• Rodolfo (2007)
• No sé si es Baires o Madrid (live) (2008) ("I don't know if it's Baires or Madrid")
• Confiá (2010) ("Trust")
• Canciones para Áliens (2011) ("Songs for Aliens")

Compilations[link]

• Grandes éxitos (1990) ("Greatest hits")
• Crónica (1991) ("Chronicle")
• Lo mejor de Fito Páez (1993) ("The best of Fito Páez")
• Lo mejor de los mejores – Volume 1 and 2 (1995/1996) ("The best of the bests")
• Lo duro/Lo suave de Fito Páez (1996) ("Hard/Soft of Fito Páez")
• Serie de oro: grandes éxitos (1999) ("Gold series: Greatest hits")
• Antología (2002) ("Anthology")
• Músicos, poetas y locos (2003) ("Musicians, poets and fools")
• Super 6 (2003)
• Gran reserva (2005) ("Great reserve")
• Grandes Canciones (2008) (live) ("Great songs")

Tributes[link]

• Homenaje a Fito Páez (2006) ("Tribute to Fito Páez")

Filmography[link]

• Vidas privadas ("Private lives") (2001)
• ¿De quién es el portaligas? (2007) ("Whose is the garter belt?")

References[link]

• Horacio Vargas: Fito Páez - La biografía - La vida después de la vida. Homosapiens, Buenos Aires 1994, ISBN 950-808-044-2.

External links[link]

• (Spanish) Fito Páez Biography (1/5) on YouTube