If you like short stories, before I changed my sidebar links to various merchants, Houston-based and otherwise, I always had a link to Jeffrey Ricker’s website. ← If you visit that link and sign up for his newsletter (trust me, you won’t be inundated with e-mail from him, and what you do get will be informative, thoughtful, and often humorous, because that’s basically the man I know), you’ll get the opportunity to download a pdf file with five of his short stories.
There’s a reason why Timothy and I included Jeffrey in the anthologies we edited, and why I’ll always read him, even when he writes outside the genres I usually read. Good writing is good writing.
Yesterday, brace yourself, I didn’t watch any RomComs or any movie at all. I did other things, mainly working on my manuscript. Slowly, but progress is progress. I also took a break to glance through the pages of Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal. I followed the direction on a double page to create a nonstop line. Then I realized it looked like “The Long and Winding Road,” so I paged through my sticker books and sheets and turned it into a journey with roadsigns (the “roadsigns” come from Adam J. Kurtz’s sticker book).
Today, along with mending Eva’s favorite dog bed, I watched one romantic comedy, my beloved Notting Hill from 1999 (twenty-five years old, geez). I was reminded again of one of my favorite lines, when Anna and William discuss Russian-French artist Marc Chagall’s painting La Mariée:
“Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat,” Anna Scott, Notting Hill.
Damn right.
Speaking of violinists, in the Neverending Saga chapter in progress, I reference a character who plays violin. Seems like a nudge to get back to my manuscript. Maybe before bedtime, I’ll watch 1989’s Cousins with Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, Sean Young, and William Petersen.
Oh, yeah, bonus: In Notting Hill, Hugh Grant’s character owns a bookstore.
Oh, I will have to have a look at Jeffrey’s website. Is he still writing?
Do you think that you and Timothy will have the opportunity (and inclination) to edit any further anthologies?
Jeffrey’s still writing and working on something now. I’m so far removed from LGBTQ+ publishing now that it would probably be something solo Tim might do.
Whatever I write will have a diverse range of characters because that reflects my life. But until I worked with my writing partners, I never found what I thought was my own authentic voice for a gay POV in fiction. It was never “Becky writes the straight characters and women,” however. We all wrote everything and everybody. We had one another as editors if something didn’t work.
I think it’s a shame that you are removed from it, but I respect your choice. We all move on. Allies are an important part of the LGBTQIA experience.
I’ve never removed or distanced myself from being an ally or from advocacy. I just respect the wish now for those who prefer “ownvoices” to read. Also, to be frank, since I’m less active in that world, there are people who drifted away because I have nothing to offer in terms of connections or forums for them. It’s to be expected. They have something to sell, and I’m not part of their market–except as a reader. I’ll still read when they’re published and wish them the best.
I’m not a gay man, and gay men’s stories are theirs to tell, not mine. I can write gay characters–I will always include diverse characters in what I write– and if for some reason a storyline involved AIDS, I’d do the research needed for the time it’s written. But the knowledge I have about HIV/AIDS and the late 1980s years up until the early 2000s is very outdated. Also, since the TJB books were written, LGBTQ+ marriage has become reality, along with many other things hoped for. That doesn’t mean the work is done. Here in the U.S., bigots spread disinformation to the point that hard-won progress is being eaten away. I’m not silent on these things. Ever. THAT goes back to Silence=Death in the world I’ve known.