On Friday afternoon, after months of calls for submissions, reading manuscripts, talking to writers, edits, more edits, more emails, and…well, more edits, Tim and I were finally able to have the exciting discussion we’ve been anticipating. I wrote down the names and themes of the sixteen stories that we’ve accepted for Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction on squares of paper, and we arranged, discussed, and rearranged them into our table of contents. Then I put them into one big, beautiful draft:
Now we’ll do a last read-through, incorporate a few final edits from one of the contributors, and get the remaining two author bios in there. Tim will finish his introduction, I will finish my afterword, and we’ll ship this baby to Cleis for final approval. Once we have the official “go,” we can share the table of contents with the world. I know the authors involved are looking forward to that.
When we did Fool For Love, we got in the habit of calling the contributors anthology brothers. One gratifying aspect of that is how they’ve sought each other out when they’ve traveled to New Orleans, New York, and beyond. Several of them have developed relationships in which they pass their works in progress to each other for feedback. They read, encourage, and advise–because though the act of writing is a solitary one, the art of writing requires an audience.
All this has made me look backward to some of the lovely moments I’ve experienced with Fool For Love’s writers.
Rob Byrnes with ‘Nathan Burgoine in New Orleans in 2008.
Tim with Trebor Healey in New Orleans in 2009.
I don’t have a photo of our meeting with Rob Williams in New York in 2007, so I just shamelessly stole this shot of him from his blog.
Mark G. Harris with Tim in Houston in 2008.
David Puterbaugh with me in Houston in 2010.
Josh Helmin with Tim in Houston in 2011.
Michael Thomas Ford wasn’t in FFL, but we shot this photo in New Orleans of him with Greg Herren, Rob Byrnes, and Tim for Houston’s OutSmart Magazine. They didn’t publish it, but we aren’t mad at them, because they regularly support and feature gay fiction and gay writers.
Me with Jeffrey Ricker, Tim, and Jeffrey’s partner Michael in 2009 in New Orleans.
Tim with Paul Lisicky in Houston in 2008.
Tim and me with Felice Picano in New Orleans in 2011.
There are four FFL writers and one editor included in this group in New Orleans in 2009: the kind of shenanigans I want to get up to for future photos with the contributors to and readers of Foolish Hearts. I love writers.
I love that last photo … Lisa and Jeffrey just make it for me … well them and George Glass.
The whole thing just cracks me up, still, most especially because they did something similar for “Lost.”
Beg all you want, he is not coming back for the reunion photo. (That glass is cracked!)
I think your task will be to provide a different George Glass each reunion.
Ha! “At tonight’s performance, the role of George Glass will be played by…”
Oh, Jan …
It’ll be great opportunity for faded-celebrity cameos. We’ll be the new “Love Boat.”
“I’ll be your cruise director…”
Man that was a fun freaking night.
The best. =)
You do know that you’re one of my heroes, right? All these friends you have and the pictures of them!
Looks like there was something in Rob Williams’s Poland Springs water. =D What a lovely grin!
You’re one of my heroes, too!
I thought the same thing about Rob’s grin. I hope he won’t mind that I stole a photo of him.
Oh, what a delightful pictorial trip down memory lane. I think my expression can be explained by Tim’s hand being someplace inappropriate in that picture….
Marika: we need to restage this next time we’re all in New Orleans! (And somehow we should get Dash in the picture.)
Tim’s hand being someplace inappropriate
Slander! You’re speaking of the man who has a halo in the general vicinity of his head three photos later.
my hands are wrapped tightly on his halo … as it is covered in salsa and I wish to lick it clean.
Dial it back, Luther, damn.
I so don’t remember taking that picture.
The OutSmart photo?
Yeah…although I know the reason my hand is behind my back is because I was still smoking then–I always would do that rather than put the cigarette out.
Oy.
So many people have stopped smoking that when I go back through my old photos, it jolts me to see someone holding a cigarette.