Justin Pyfrom's Blog, page 14

A Gay Meet Cute

“I fell in love with you a little bit, in that stupid way where you completely make up a fictional version of the person you’re looking at and fall in love with that person.”
― Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory

The duality of gay dating apps

It’s the only LGBTQ+ science fiction short story where it was a high school love story. Well…I can’t say a love story per see. “Meet-Cute” is the more accurate term. I’ve always been a fan of that term because we all had it at some point in our lives. More than once for me. So, I wanted to try my hand at creating a story solely revolving around them. That was the sole intention towards Ice Breaker.

I confess I gave in to the temptation of using cliches. I used the typical high school norms and dynamics for the characters and, oddly, it worked marvelously. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say which ones I used though, if you’ve seen enough romance movies, I can imagine you’ll be able to figure that part out fairly quickly. Even still, it has been done and I will not apologize for it. Ha ha!

Anyway, I didn’t start writing the story until I could figure out what I wanted to look at. What did I want to write about? I knew I wanted to tell a meet-cute story but I wanted to invoke a conversation. Like with all my writing, I wanted to explore the duality of a certain topic but I couldn’t think of anything. So…I didn’t write it. I didn’t write anything for about a month or so. That was until I was on Scruff.

I don’t really fancy dating apps all that much but it’s on my phone.  It was one of those moments for me, I must say. Except, this time around, I didn’t end up hooking up with anybody. Instead, I ended up making a friend through the app. Still friends with him to this day. He’s actually the one with the podcast I spoke about a while back. And then…it clicked. I could take about the sides of gay dating apps.

It became simple for me because, like many others, I’ve used dating apps since college so I’m fully aware of the good and bad sides of such technology. However, since it’s technically high school romance, I wanted to keep the story grounded in reality. Mundane science fiction with LGBTQ themes, if you will. I think I did an okay job with it. But I would rather for everyone else to be the judge of that.  And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

The One Thing in My Community That I Dislike

“It’s an universal law– intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

The duality of “str8 chaser

What if the homos and heteros HAD to work together to survive?

Fair warning, readers, this has got to be my subtlest political work in the LGBTQ realm of science fiction. However, I must confess that I took the events of my ex-communication of a friend as the inspiration for this one. I spoke to my brother and best friend, Tyler, about it and they felt that it was a story worth telling. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself so let me dial it back and tell you how Can We Ever Be Friends came into existence. It’s actually one of my favorite sources of inspiration.

It was in the early 2010s where my brother was not only aware of my homosexuality but very much supportive of it. He’s always been supportive of it but he was also going to gay bars with me that he did security for. My brother was always the type to look past labels and see the person as they are. However, he will make it clear that he’s not gay, but only when he’s getting hit and he does it in a very respectful manner. Too bad, I had a friend who was a self-proclaimed “str8 chaser”.

Right…I need to define it for some of you. An “str8 chaser” is a gay term that defines a gay who specifically – and intentionally – seduce straight men. It’s a deplorable act in my option. I don’t like the idea of forcing yourself onto an individual who identifies as straight. It’s not their right and I don’t care for the numerous reasons that they would give for such an invasion of privacy. But that chaser always had a justification for doing what he was doing and didn’t care to listen to common sense. That was until he got his ass kicked.

I don’t want to get into too much of the details regarding the event but, let’s just say, that he ended up in the hospital. I was at work when I got the phone call; my brother was the one who called me. When I got to the hospital, he was pretty banged up and he was still justifying his actions claiming that they had every right to do what he was doing. Hindsight being what it is, I guess my outburst was bad timing but I let him have it. I told him that he was giving gay men a bad name and that “his kind” was one of the reasons why we were constant targets for violence. After telling him that I want no part of his ignorance, I left the hospital with the memory staying in my mind.

Revisiting it, I decided to pass literary judgment on my former friend and link it to a major “what if” scenario between the LGBTQ+ community and…well…the rest of the world.  Actually, I don’t know if I would call it a “what if” and a pending future. But, nevertheless, I want this story to serve as a cautionary tale for the LGBTQ+ community. I want these “chasers” to understand that the sound-minded of the community will disown them if they continue these practices. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

A Funny Little Coming Out Story

“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”
― Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You

The duality of coming out

My Best Judy was always meant to be a cute little story about a teenager being guided out of the closet by a gentle soul. So, I took quite a liking to writing this story after meeting a foreign exchange student from Lebanon who I helped realize who he really was in the community. It was a gentle nudge where I got to answer all his questions without poking and prodding into his mental state. This was the very essence I wanted to compass the story around. The “science fiction” part of it came in the oddest of places.

As I’ve said numerous times, science fiction is in my blood and brain. I grew up on The Twilight Zone and always love how a story can be told without actually making the real world obvious. The appeal is in the symbolic nature and the symmetry and that’s what I’ve always been thriving for in my writing. Now, this story wasn’t so hard. Aliens. All members of the LGBTQ+ community see themselves as aliens to others at some point in their lives – present company included. So, it made sense to me to have an alien in this story; I just had to figure how to do make it unique as I didn’t want to repeat myself.

So, this time around, I wanted to use art as a plot device from the start. And since art is meant to provoke an emotional and mental response to its viewer, it actually made sense for the artist to have some form of empathic and telepathic ability.  Thinking with this line of thought, I ended up finding myself using another of my favorite plot device: parallel storytelling. I don’t think that’s the proper term but my mind is drawing a blank at the moment.

Anyway, the title is a little funny little thing, too. Fun fact: It’s based on a famous slang from the 1900s. When homosexuality was being viewed as a social virus,  people would ask “Are you a friend of Dorthy?”. If the recipient knew the term, they would respond in kind and both parties would then know that they both belong to the same community. The best part was that was term used for discussing sexual orientation WITHOUT others knowing its meaning. It was funny to read about law enforcement trying to actually find this “elusive Dorthy”.

My aunt and all my LGBTQ+ friends figured out that historical anecdote and were quite pleased with it.  My best friend, Tyler, praised the fact that I even remembered him telling me about that little nugget of history. I had to remind him that just because I don’t look it doesn’t mean I’m not. I think I might revisit this story in the future. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

36th Short Story Released

A Chinese doctor falls for a wonderful foreigner and began a life of blissful happiness. However, their lives get a little complicated when the father enters their home with life-changing news.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

35th Short Story Released

An awkward high school bookworm relies on a unique dating service to learn more about her athletic crush. But, as always, it appears that the service provided was more “invasive” than he originally thought.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

34th Short Story Released

It’s a matter of life and death when a gay man is hospitalized after a gay bashing. Too bad the two tribes hate each other enough to let the other burn despite the fact that there’s a ticking clock on all their lives.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

A Grim Possibility of A Future

“The beauty of standing up for your rights is others will see you standing and stand up as well.”
― Cassandra Duffy

The duality of LGBTQ+ narcissism

What if the LGBTQ+ community rose against their oppressors?

During my research for my LGBTQ Crimeverse, I came to understand that the LGBTQ+ community – both out and closeted – actually outnumbers the “straight” community in various cities and towns. That bit of information was interesting to me because, not only does it make sense, I found myself thing about all potential versions of the future if others realize this. Then, the darkest outcome came to mind and that’s how An Inevitable Uprising came to be.

It was interesting because, while I was reading all the stories from the survivors of gay-bashing, I thought to myself about the possibilities of the LGBTQ+ community creating an uprising against all of their oppressors. Remembering what happened after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The thought terrified me because the likelihood of it happening was fair plausible. And since it terrified me, I figured it would be a good premise for a story. Actually, if I remember correctly, An Inevitable Uprising was the first short story idea that I had for the LGBTQ+ science fiction section of my project.

Writing for this particular story was tricky because I didn’t want to glorify any wrongdoing. I didn’t want the readers to think that it would be okay to attack, harm, or even kill their oppressor. In fact, I wanted this story to be a cautionary tale for everybody. I wanted people to understand what could happen if you continue to bully a tribe of people just because they don’t fit the norm. I cannot tell you how many times I had to stand my ground against homophobic remarks. Luckily, it had all been verbal smackdown because I truly detest violence. I mean, seriously, whenever I got into a fight, I would only do just enough to get the person’s attention.

Anyway,  I decided to write the story in the style of In medias res (in the midst of) because it made the most scene for me. I didn’t want to tell the whole story of the events leading up to the titular uprising because, though important, I wanted to show the effects of it all. Now, I did talk about it but I only keep it to the main parts i.e. the beginning of the end. I also wanted to make sure that the protagonist is clearly against what the “evolved” community stands for. It was interesting to see the duality of the aftermath unfold in the story.

My best friend gave this story a read and instantly became interested in me filling in the blanks. I couldn’t help but laugh for numerous reasons. The main reason was that I didn’t know what happened in between the parts narrated in the story as that wasn’t my focus at the time. I was more intrigued by the when, how, and the years after. But it does offer up the opportunity to fill in those gaps in other media. It couldn’t hurt, right? And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

A Repeat of A Favorite

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”
― Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

The duality of murder

I must confess that this story, A Killer’s Confession, was something that was going to be incredibly dark. But the original writing gave me enough pause that I had to redo it. There’s a delicate balance between light and darkness that has to be maintained in my theme of duality. This story was no different from the others but the process was a bit more difficult than the rest.

Writing this story was a process that took over a week for me to complete; it was the longest I’ve ever spent on a story.  I already had it in my mind that I wanted to revisit the letter format because it was a wonderful narrative device for me. If you remember, the first time, I did it was with my 26th short story, The Silver Plague, and it was marvelous. Of course, I didn’t want to repeat the whole thing. Instead, I decided to create two stories in one as I did with The Burden of Parenthood.

Still, with all that being said, I had to work really hard to find a balance between light and dark because I always want my readers to start up a conversation with each other. Sure, there’s a clear protagonist and antagonist but that doesn’t mean it all black and white. Not everything in this world is black and white, especially when it comes down to crime and punishment. So, I took the murder route because…well…honest…it just made sense at the time.

Now, only the protagonist is LGBTQ though I never made it clear which tribe he belongs to. The reader just knows that he isn’t straight…and that he’s in prison. However, for the letter, I didn’t want to mirror the protagonist’s predicament. See, one killed because he didn’t see any other options at that moment while the other one killed purely out of grieving rage. But I’m not going to spoil the story for you. I will say that I might expand the short story into another medium when I get the chance because I didn’t think it was going to be that fun. Truthfully, I was getting very annoyed by the writing because I couldn’t keep the balance for the longest time. I was half tempted to scrap the story entirely until I realize that it did have the potential to be a good story.

Glad I stuck with it, though. I’ve been told that the story was pretty good. Still dark but pretty good which was music to my ears. I was even told that I was stressing over nothing but (a) there was no real way to balance the light and dark when it comes down to murder (fair point) and (b) a conversation was able to be had so I saw that as a “Mission Accomplished”. I hope you all think the same way. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

A Response To A Conversation

“Race, gender, religion, sexuality, we are all people and that’s it. We’re all people. We’re all equal.”
― Connor Franta

The duality of gay-bashing

Now, when I began writing Who’s The Bitch, Now?, I found myself in a position where I get to play out a lot of my darker fantasies. One of them being that a homophobe gets his arse beat by a gay guy. Granted, I have knockdown my fair share of homophobic bigots during my time as security. I’ve never been a fan of bullies – of any kind. They have always been a plague on my youth and I’ve always found them to be pathetic cowards who always need an entourage to make themselves feel important.  Even though there was a specific order in which I was writing the stories, when I got the chance to write this story, I went all in.

Okay, so, point of order, in the original story, the main character was a trans man of African American descent and I did that because it was something familiar to me. Although, when it came down to the photoshoot, I realized that I didn’t have enough representation for the other tribes of the LGBTQ+ community. See, I already had a trans character for my 29th short story, A Damn Shame, Really, and I didn’t want to repeat the process so I changed the character’s name and ethnicity.  However, I did keep the antagonist the same; I didn’t feel the need to change him.

This story was very easy for me to write for many reasons. One of the main reasons was because it was loosely based on a conversation I had with my younger brother. I’ve never been a victim of gay-bashing – and I pray that I never do – but I know what I would do if I was going to become one. I would be out for blood because I promised myself when I was younger, that I would never allow myself to be a victim. So, my brother asked me what I do after defending myself. That’s where this story picks up.

I wrote it out in a way where the main character is in complete conflict with himself,  much like how I would be in that scenario. The reader was going to learn very fast why he was there and I didn’t want to pull any punches on what was going on in his mind. I didn’t put too much focus on the timeline because that wasn’t important to me this time around. Really, I wanted to focus on the immediate chain of events and the inner turmoil that was ensuing. I must say that it was a lot of fun getting inside the protagonist’s head to play out everything that I would think of at that moment and time.

The twist ending was something that took a lot of revisions because I didn’t want anybody to die. I didn’t want the antagonist to die; I can’t remember why. Nevertheless,  I decided on the final twist ending because it left all parties involved hopeful for the future.  Granted no one is a winner, but no one loses, either, hence the title. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

33rd Short Story Released

A high school theater student is forced to do community service at a nursing home. It’s there where he meets an interesting woman which proves to be exactly what he needs – even if he doesn’t realize it, yet.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.