Michael T. Ford writes children's fiction. He moonlights writing lesbian erotica.

Self-proclaimed "smut writers" Ford and Cecelia Tan read graphic excerpts from their gay erotic works to a crowd of three dozen undergraduates at Harvard Hall last night. The reading and subsequent discussion was part of Queer Month at Harvard, funded by Open-Gate, an alumni organ that actively subsidizes campus events for gay students.

Both Tan and Ford read two short stories apiece, one intended for gay men, the other for lesbians.

"As writer, you can pretend you are any gender, any sexuality", Tan said.

Nicole L. DeBlois '99, co-chair of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and supporters' Alliance, organized the readings, saying she hoped that the stereotype of "lesbians being sexy to straight people but gay men only being sexy to gay men might be refuted".

Tan began writing erotica as a teen under the guise of "celebrity fan fiction".

Tan proudly introduced herself as the "only person who has ever published smut in both Penthouse and Ms. Magazine".

While most of Tan's current stories-published by her personal company Circlit-are in the erotic/science fiction genre (hers feature "phallic plant people") last night’s excerpts came from her earlier period.

Her first story, "Daydreaming", mirrored her own coming out experience at Brown University through the eyes of a male college first-year student.

"Penetration", her second story, focused on a S&M lesbian sexual encounter.

Ford, primarily a writer of children's books, began writing lesbian erotica under the pseudonym of Lillian August because, he said, the gay community did not originally accept male writers in that field.

His first story, "Live Through This", detailed the sexual encounter of Courtney Love with a 15-year-old punk-rock groupie just beginning to explore her own sexuality.

Refuting the idea of the male inability to write effective lesbian erotica, Ford commented that arousing women is simple in that there are only a "limited number of sexual things you can do to make a woman feel good".

His second story, "November 22", part of an anthology, centers around a sleazy gay encounter with Lee Harvey Oswald immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy'40.

Ford said his readers have been extremely disenchanted with "November 22" and the notion of exploiting the death of a beloved president.