Best Gay Stories 2011

In the Lambda Literary Review, Reginald Harris talks about the Best Gay Stories 2011.  He write:

"Collections such as this also invariably bring up the question, “What is a ‘gay story,’ anyway?” Is it simply a story that a gay person has written? Something that features gay characters prominently? How much focus needs to be on the uniqueness of gay life, or can the protagonist be someone who “just happens to be gay?” Does the author have to be gay—or male—to do it justice? With this anthology, Peter Dubé makes the case for stories that show gay men as people, not a stereotyped “sassy gay friend” appendage to someone straight without an interior life of their own. In these stories characters get up, walk around, and speak to the reader as flesh and blood people would. The men portrayed in Best Gay Stories 2011 are wounded, real and above all very human. It is a valuable family portrait, a snapshot of our many different stories and many different lives."

A nice review, and there's a nice shout out for my story, too.  Best Gay Stories 2011 is available at Amazon and independent bookstores. 

Indie reviews

From Indie reviews:

Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up by editor Steve Berman is an excellent collection of thirteen short stories for and about LGBTQ teens and young adults. The anthology offers a diversity of life experiences and covers a spectrum of issues that LGBTQ youth face in living as out, from first crushes, falling in love and relationships, to forming supportive networks, standing up to homophobia and other discrimination, and planning for their future.


There's a shout-out for my story -- yay! Read the whole review here

Beyond Binary

From Brit Mandelo, editor:

Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction will be released by Lethe Press in May 2012 - and here's the official table of contents!

"Sea of Cortez" by Sandra McDonald
"Eye of the Storm" by Kelley Eskridge
"Fisherman" by Nalo Hopkinson
"Pirate Solutions" by Katie Sparrow
"'A Wild and a Wicked Youth'" by Ellen Kushner
"Prosperine When it Sizzles" by Tansy Rayner Roberts
"The Fairy Cony-Catcher" by Delia Sherman
"Palimpsest" by Catherynne M. Valente 
"Another Coming" by Sonya Taaffe
"Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot" by Claire Humphrey
"The Ghost Party" by Richard Larson 
"Bonehouse" by Keffy R. M. Kehrli
"Sex with Ghosts" by Sarah Kanning
"Spoiling Veena" by Keyan Bowes
"The Metamorphosis Bud" by Liu Wen Zhuang 
"Schrodinger's Pussy" by Terra LeMay

I'm delighted to part of this.  I think Terra wins for best title :-)

The Phantom Interview, part 2

Recently I read an interview with William Gibson in the Paris Review.  It's pretty good stuff, even if every single science fiction writer he lists is a guy.  I like when he talks about the end stages of writing a book, when "the state of composition feels like a complex, chemically altered state that will go away if I don’t continue to give it what it needs. What it needs is simply to write all the time...downtime other than sleep becomes problematic."  I'll raise my glass to that.

The Paris Review hasn't called me for any interviews lately, but in my phantom interview, I was asked about what my friends and family thought of my work.  This was a pretty horrifying question.  Why on earth would I show my work to friends and family?  It's like, "What do your friends and family think of your underwear?" or "What do your friends and family about your bank balance?"  Because (1) I wouldn't share my underwear habits or my bank balance and (2) I sincerely hope they don't show me theirs.

Maybe underwear and bank accounts aren't apt analogies, so let's try a baby picture.  You have a baby, and you show a picture of it to your friends. You are not asking them for honest feedback.  You are asking for praise.  You are asking for acknowledgement of this wondrous and sleep-depriving and drooling and amazing thing in your life.  Any friend or family member who says, "This kid's pretty ugly" is bound to get a big black mark in that secret ledger of your heart, even if it's true.

(I remember thinking Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were the homeliest toddlers I'd ever seen.  Guess they took that to the bank, huh?)

I don't want my friends and family to read my work because I protect the baby (and my own ego).  But also, showing it to them would start to change the work - I'd be seeking approval, consciously or unconsciously, instead of being true to whatever inner voice I've listened to so far. Writing the difficult, the strange, the uneasy or the weird is hard enough without worrying if Aunt Jennifer or your best friend from high school will "like" it.

The only one in my family who reads my work is my Mom (hi, Mom!) and that's only after I've sold it.  I value the feedback and input of my critique group and writer friends, but only after I've gone over the draft enough to be know my own goals and intentions.  Some other special readers offer advice, too, and I'm always grateful.

But it's like the saying goes:  friends don't make friends read their stories.

The Phantom Interview part 1

Lily, the publicist for gay teen mystery #1, sent some bad news:  an interview with me was being cut from a newsletter because of space reasons.  So sad!  I enjoyed the questions in that one, and it took time away from actual fiction writing, and I actually ended up doing it after class one night while I had a migraine.  The newsletter editor offered to run it when book #2 comes out next year but by then we might be in the next Ice Age or suffering the zombie apocalypse or all dead from bat-pig-flu (bonus points to you if you can name those 3 movies).

Anyway, one of the questions I answered was "Do you have any suggestions for new writers?"  My first answer to that is always B.I.C. - Butt in Chair.  I didn't come up with that, but it's always worth passing on.  Butt in Chair, fingers on keyboard, turn off the internet (or use Dr. Wicked's writeordie.com, one of my favorites), and make sure that writing is in your top five things to do each day:  if you consistently get the dishes done, but don't get the scenes written, you've accomplished cleanliness but are not any closer to publication.

My second, third and fourth suggestions for new writers have to do with finding reliable critique partners, cultivating a thick skin, and getting things into the mail (or email, since I can't remember the last time I submitted something via USPS).  Other people have written about these tips in ways that are much more eloquent than mine, though I tried to be witty and smart.

Suggestion number 5 comes out of the zazen I've been doing this year.  Zazen is Zen Buddhist meditation, and it means you sit on a pillow and lower your gaze and put your hands and legs a certain way, and you keep sitting, and you keep sitting, and you keep sitting.  There is no goal.  Unlike other types of meditation, you don't chant or focus on your breathing or try to achieve stillness.  You just sit.  And this is the absolutely hardest part of my day.  even harder than trying to squeeze out just 500 more words at midnight or trying to write an important email while senile!cat yowls at the walls.  Try it for just ten minutes.  Hard!

In zazen, we have no hopes or expectations or goals.  There is nothing to achieve.  The only way to do it wrong (whatever "wrong" means) is not to do it at all.
And so my fifth suggestion is to write without expectations.  Write without worrying about whether it will sell, whether others will like it, whether it works or not, whether it achieves anything.  Write the story that arises, and write it as truly as you can, and pay attention to every moment of its creation, and then let it go like a balloon into the sky.

P.S. Here's Lily, who is fabulous!  She and Bob the warehouse guy went out for Halloween dressed as ElectraWoman and DynaGirl.  I'm still trying to get a photo of that.

It's Hard not to Hate You

This week's reading includes It's Hard Not to Hate You by Valerie Frankel.  This was on the new shelves for non-fiction at the library and I had mixed feelings going in - unleashing your Inner Hater is not really in keeping with my philosophy about life.  On the other hand, it's pretty funny.  And then I got to the part about writerly hatred, and I fell in love.  She talks about the opposite of schadenfreude - instead of feeling pleasure at other people's misfortune, we feel misery at other people's successes.

I don't know a single writer that doesn't feel this at one time or another. Frankel writes:

The rich. The thin. The beautiful. I’ve got no problem with them. If the world’s wealthiest, hottest woman walked into my office and asked for a cup of coffee, I’d get it. But if she said, “Guess what? My first novel just hit the New York Times bestsellers list!”?

Hate. She could get her coffee in hell.

I went online and bought the Nook book right then and there.  And I think it's funny that I read this during World Fantasy Convention weekend, where between all the air kisses and back-slapping and genuine happiness for others, there's a good deal of jealousy and cattiness and gossip.  It's part of the package.  Writer A is jealous of Writer B, Writer B is jealous of Writer C - it doesn't end.

On the other hand, I've been reading a lot of Brad Warner's Zen Buddhist books lately, and one of the principle tenets that I'm working on embracing is that there is no other.  When I look at you, I am seeing myself look out of your eyes back at me.  Hating a successful writer means hating myself.  And there is no self, which makes it all the more futile.  I'm on a Brad binge - four books in six weeks - so more on him later.

You can read more about Valerie Frankel and writerly hatred here.

You can read Brad Warner's blog here.

Writing spots

This past week I have written in Starbucks, Panera's #1, Panera's #2, the UNF library 4th floor, the UNF library 2nd floor, and from the comfort of home.  Unfortunately the comfort of home is oft disturbed by senile!cat's yowling or kittens!knocking things over, hence Starbucks, Panera's, and UNF.  I did try to write at Barnes and Noble, but the cafe was jammed and this store doesn't have any other seating.

Going to Starbucks or Panera's isn't necessarily good for my waist line or wallet, but it's been good for productivity.  I've been writing about 1,000 new words a day on teen mystery 2 as well as revising earlier chapters.  The manuscript is due on Dec 1 and I'm very confident about getting there, especially with this coming week off from the day classes.  But I did promise to write 2 other stories due on Nov, so I foresee more passion tea lemonade in my immediate future.

I don't usually wear headphone when I'm writing in public because what's the fun in that?  Eavesdrop, baby!  Great for picking up lines of dialogue or new views on the world.  This is from a conversation overheard while clothes shopping:

Woman #1:  You can't wear that jacket with teal pants.  They won't approve.
Woman #2:   Who is they?
Woman #1:  The people who wear clothes that match.

In other news, senile!cat is meowing right this minute because she knows I'm trying to post.  Everyone say hi to Leia!

Writing spots

his past week I have written in Starbucks, Panera's #1, Panera's #2, the UNF library 4th floor, the UNF library 2nd floor, and from the comfort of home.  Unfortunately the comfort of home is oft disturbed by senile!cat's yowling or kittens!knocking things over, hence Starbucks, Panera's, and UNF.  I did try to write at Barnes and Noble, but the cafe was jammed and this store doesn't have any other seating.

Going to Starbucks or Panera's isn't necessarily good for my waist line or wallet, but it's been good for productivity.  I've been writing about 1,000 new words a day on teen mystery 2 as well as revising earlier chapters.  The manuscript is due on Dec 1 and I'm very confident about getting there, especially with this coming week off from the day classes.  But I did promise to write 2 other stories due on Nov, so I foresee more passion tea lemonade in my immediate future.

I don't usually wear headphone when I'm writing in public because what's the fun in that?  Eavesdrop, baby!  Great for picking up lines of dialogue or new views on the world.  This is from a conversation overheard while clothes shopping:

Woman #1:  You can't wear that jacket with teal pants.  They won't approve.
Woman #2:   Who is they?
Woman #1:  The people who wear clothes that match.

In other news, senile!cat is meowing right this minute because she knows I'm trying to post.  Everyone say hi to Leia!

Congratulations to Lt. Ross!

Congratulations to Lt. Gary Ross and his partner of 11 years, Dan Swezy, on their impending nuptials.  They will be getting married tonight, just after midnight, on the day the military officially changes its policies about gay and lesbian service members.

The military still has a ways to go - gay and lesbian partners of military members will not have full benefits the way heterosexual partners do - but this is a huge leap forward, and long overdue.

It's All in Your Head

One of the tricks for beating procrastination is to have a lot on your to-do list.  This way, if you're procrastinating on one thing, you can be busy accomplishing something else.  This week I'm procrastinating on starting YA mystery 2, which must be turned in on Dec 1. I am all heeby jeeby about committing myself to 5 weeks of 1,500 words a day for the first draft in addition to the 5 classes I am teaching this term. So instead, I've been getting short stories out the door, and writing a grant proposal, and doing copyedits on book 1.

But I reached the lowest point of procrastination two days ago, when I cleaned the refrigerator. You know things are desperate when I'm cleaning the refrigerator.

Things could be worse.  Truman Capote worked for 19 years on his unfinished novel Answered Prayers and then died. Ralph Ellison worked for 40 years on his second novel and then died. Writer's block or severe procrastination?  You decide:  It's All in My Head, by Jessica Winter.

Happy Friday to you, and may your weekend be most excellent!  I hope you don't have to clean your refrigerator

Weekend news

Spent most of the weekend at the fabulous UNF-FWA Writer's Conference.  Thanks to all 127 attendees who came to my workshop on character arcs and my fabulous critique group of 9 fiction writers and those who bought my books.  Excellent, excellent conference and it was great to be part of it for the second year in a row.

Very sad to hear about the SEAL deaths in Afghanistan, however - I can't even read the news stories without tearing up.

And very irate to read about the gay men married in Massachusetts 7 years ago, they've lived together 19 years, one of them an Australian citizen, the American suffering from AIDS, and now the federal government is trying to boot the Australian out of the country using the Defense of Marriage Act to say he can't have permanent residency.  If the Australian leaves, who will take care of his husband?  And if the husband goes with him to Australia, who will cover his extensive medical needs?  So ridiculous.  SF gay married couple loses immigration battle.

Happy Release Day!

Happy Release Day to this new anthology!

Very happy to be in it with Laird Barron, Rick Bowes, and other fine writers.

Read more about it indiebound.org

Reading, reading, reading

New to my physical shelves (fake links):

Shadow Walkers by Brent Hartinger.  This is paranormal romance gay YA, and the opening reminds me a lot of being on an island in Lake Erie.

Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This is a big fat hardcover that a friend of mine scooped up at RWA Nationals-- the first Kenyon I've read. Intriguing start so far . . .

The Full Spectrum edited by David Levithan and Billy Merrell.  This is a non-fiction anthology of essays by LGBTQ youth - powerful and painful, very well done.

New to my Nook:

Harry Connelly's Child of Fire, scooped up for 99 cents.  I have the paperback already but this was a bargain, and it's a great read - fast-paced urban fantasy with a male lead. 

Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson.  Another bargain, and Jackson is a popular romance writer.  She's also local here to Jacksonville, though I've never crossed paths (well, Jacksonville is 800 square miles big, so no surprise...)

Plus I added in 3 Borges stories, 5 more SGA fanfics (oh my am I rediscovering my Rodney and John love!) and Lois Bujold's The Warrior's Apprentice (free from the Baen library).

Reading, reading, reading!  What are you reading?

Sherman Alexie says every word posted to your blog is a word not written in your novel.  Ouch.

So here's a picture instead.  I'm sad to see the space shuttle program end; sad for the scientists, engineers and others who are now jobless; sorry that for millions of kids, there is no career path to being an astronaut in the United States anymore.

The last American space shuttle, re-entering Earth's orbit in July 2011

Willpower

Yesterday I procrastinated on writing all day long and finally wrangled myself into nearly 2000 words.

Today I am procrastinating with the internet and by re-arranging my bedroom furniture. But I'm planning to get 2000 done anyway.  Plus editing. After a nap.

This article on procrastination is an interesting one, and I agree with the concept that self-control is a limited resource.  For the month of July, I have been concentrating a lot on healthy food.  That's paying off at the waistline, but my wordcount is only about 15,000 tops.  I also agree that self-control is like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets.  Until one day you overstretch it to the point of uselessness, and then you eat chocolate all day and surf the internet until your eyeballs fall out of your head.. . or maybe that's just me.

23 days so far without diet soda!

Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen's latest film, Midnight in Paris, is a valentine to writers everywhere.  It's a charming little movie, beautifully shot, with laugh-out-loud moments. I saw it in a small independent theater and it was jammed full on the second weekend of playing; my friend remarked on the size of the crowd, and I said it was because everyone in the audience was a writer.  I should have recruited for a writer's group right there and then.

Owen Wilson does a fine job as the befuddled, Woody Allen-esque hero.  Marion Cotillard is enchanting as an artist's muse.  She played Leo DiCaprio's wife in "Inception" but she's in finer form here, with more to do and say.  A number of fine actors show up in supporting roles, including Kathy Bates and Corey Stoll (why have I never noticed him before? Excellent!).  Paris herself is a lovely character, glass and stone and light.  The first five minutes makes you want to go book a vacation there, asap.

One review I read post-movie talked about magical realism, because of course we wouldn't want to say that Woody Allen made a science fiction movie.  A lot of debate has swirled around "magical realism" and what it means, but to me it simply signifies that no attempt will be made to explain the phenomenon at work.  As with John Cheever's story "The Enormous Radio," something strange happens, and the consequences are more important than the cause.  The very first Woody Allen movie I ever saw, The Purple Rose of Cairo, did this as well.  I liked Purple Rose up until the ending, which was disappointing.  Midnight in Paris does it better.

Also disappointing is the Rachel McAdams character here. If the best you can say about a woman is "shrew" then she hasn't really been fleshed out.  Just a little more time spent showing us why Owen Wilson's character loved her, or why she would have ever agreed to marry him in the first place, would have been helpful.  I was happy to see Kurt Fuller (Zachariah from Supernatural) as her dad, and laughed at some of his lines defending the Tea Party.  Boy, is he tall.

In the end, two thumbs up.  Maybe even worth buying on DVD, for those rainy weekends playing writers' movies - Wonder Boys, Shakespeare in Love, Screenplay, Capote, The Player, Finding Forrester . . . okay, maybe not Finding Forrester.

One of those covers

This is an anthology honoring Frederick Pohl, edited by his wife Elizabeth Anne Hull and published by Tor. 

Men, men, men, men, men!  Because sf is for men, men, men!

I counted 26 stories or appreciations or other works inside.  There are 6 women authors or co-authors, including Connie Willis.

Men, men, men!

Media roundup

1. Watched "Strictly Ballroom" yesterday.  Fun!  A bit loud at times.  Love the leads.  And I'm pretty much a sucker for any variation of Cyndi Lauper's "Time after Time."

2. Also watched "Road to Bali" with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.  I like when they break the fourth wall and the special effects.

3.  Up to season 1 episode 7 of White Collar.  I like the cat and mouse, and how you never know whether Peter is the mouse or cat, and Neal too.  But oh my goodness do they need some characters of color in this show.  It's a sea of white actors. And for all its wittiness, it's not a "keeper" - I have no desire to buy the DVDs.  Most of the fanfic I see on delicious is of the Peter/Neal/Elizabeth variety, which is pretty funny to me - the first fandom I've seen that popularizes threesomes.

Loving my Nook

There are 4 types of reading material on my Nook:

1. Subscriptions to MacLife and Asimov's
2. Sample books
3. Books I've purchased
4. Fanfic

The biggest category is the fanfiction - story length, novella length, and novel length.  Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, Inception, Torchwood and even some Merlin.  Either I download them from the marvelous Archive of our Own, or from the Ebook Library or I copy and paste into Sigil (thanks Jenn!>). So far I've got about 60 of my favorite works and I'm very happy to re-read them time and time again.

Book purchases - well, I've got Greg van Eekhout and Nick Mamatas and Michael Faber and Megan McDonald and a bunch of others, but here's the thing - my purchase limit is 4.99.  More than that, it goes on the wish list for later.  I can't sell the ebook back at the used book store or a yard sale, so I'm a lot pickier about what I spend the money on. I needed a copy of Pat Conroy's The Lords of Discipline and the ebook was 9.99, a used copy 2.99 at the store. So hello used copy! 

I'm a sucker for many ebooks at 0.99 and 1.99, that's for sure.

Magazines - well, now that I'm not in SFWA anymore I would buy the Bulletin, but it doesn't seem available.  Clarkesworld is available on Kindle but not Nook yet.  I would love to get Tin House but alas.

The sample books are actually for studying openings of bestsellers.  I don't usually buy them, but I can study structure, tension, mood, etc.

I heart my Nook more than I thought I would.