Marie Sexton's Blog, page 43

A bitter rant or, Congratulations to the Christian Right

I'd like to congratulate the conservative Christian Right.  You go on and on about the gay agenda, and how we must work to thwart it.  I admit I've talked to a lot of gay men and women, and the only agenda they seem to have is to be able to live their lives, to marry the people they love, to be able to go to work or school every day without being persecuted or harassed.  That's a pretty radical agenda!  I'm glad you're all here to help stop them.

Speaking of agendas, you've really gone a long way toward accomplishing your own agenda, haven't you?  After all, high on your list seems to be to reduce the number of gays in the world.  Well, congratulations.  The number of gay teens committing suicide has been increasing steadily since the start of the school year.  I'm sure you're rather proud of the work you've done, helping to reduce the number of gays in our school system.  I'm sure your wrathful Old Testament God is happy to see those poor young kids off themselves.

Of course, there are many people who aren't specifically part of the Christian Right but who still think homosexuality is a sin.  That's fine.  That's what your religion says, and I understand that.  Of course, some might say that there's an awfully fine line between following your religion and spreading outright hate, but what do they know?  I think somewhere in your Bible there's bound to be a quote about how it's for the best that you tell your kids all about how wrong it is.  It's important that you share those values, even if it means going to rallies and holding up signs like this for all to see.  I mean, after all, that's not hateful.  It's not sick and disgusting.  It's simply you exercising your First Amendment rights.

And there is absolutely no denying that the First Amendment protects your right to call homosexuals names.  It protects your right to call them sinners, or fags, or worse.  After all, God says homosexuality is a sin, and if he's not here to judge, then somebody needs to do it, right?  Who cares what that silly old carpenter had to say!  He didn't know much anyway.  That's why they nailed him to that darn cross!  We know that God does want us to judge those who might be different.  It says so right there in Leviticus.

And what about our children?  It's important that we protect them.  Because they go to school every day with other kids who might be gay, or who might just be a bit different.  And since we as adults aren't there to judge these kids and call them names, it's important that we teach our children how to do it.  It's for the best, isn't it?  This way, our children will know who to mock. They'll know who to ostracize.  They'll know that it's okay to exclude Susie, because she has two moms.

But it's true that you can't look at a person and know for sure whether or not they're gay.  So really, the only thing you can do is accuse anybody who might be a bit different of being gay.  That way, you're sure not to miss anybody.  So if Sally doesn't like to wear dresses, or Tommy is too small to play football, it's perfectly acceptable to assume they're gay and harass them appropriately.  After all, you have a right to protect yourself from their potential depravity, right?

And congratulations to those who have worked so hard to keep sexual education in the schools specifically hetero-centered.  Because it's important that young people, who are already struggling with so much with their own identities, be taught that they may wrong.  They may be sinners.  They may be an abomination in God's eye.  We wouldn't want these kids to erroneously think that they might be fine.  We certainly wouldn't want them to believe that being confused during puberty is normal!

And if a few kids kill themselves, what of it?  You know you're right.  You know God's laws.  I'm sure He's happy to see young kids, scared and alone and ashamed, hanging themselves in their closets rather than being perceived of as gay.  Because half of these kids are so young, they don't know yet whether they were gay or not.  But other kids called them gay.  Other kids teased them for being too small, or too girly, or just being different.    And so the Christian Right has succeeded.  Not only have you convinced kids that it's wrong to be gay, you've convinced them that it's better to end their own lives than to even be perceived of as gay.  And that's quite an accomplishment.

So congratulations, conservative anti-gay agenda Christians.  You've really made your nation, America, the so-called land of the free, proud.  I'm sure you've made your wrathful Old Testament God proud as well (and who cares about all that stuff in the New Testament anyway, right?).  And if that Lava soap isn't quite enough to wash the blood from your hands, try a little bit of self-righteous indignation.  I hear it works great.  And I'd sure hate for you to go to bed with a guilty conscience.

Upcoming Excitement

In a few short days, I'll be leaving for Iowa, and on Monday, August 4th, Heidi Cullinan and I will embark on Heidi and Marie's Excellent Manlove Adventure.  We'll be making stops in seven cities, including St. Louis, Memphis, Shreveport and McAllen, Texas.  We have promised not to rob any banks or drive off any cliffs, but beyond that, all bets are off!  I think we can both guarantee blog posts when we return, but if you're interested in keeping up with us on our adventure, be sure to watch one or both of us on Facebook and/or Twitter.

In writing news, Jaime and Levi finally have a title: Between Sinners and Saints.  I had hoped to have this story completely finished and off to a publisher by the first of October, but alas, it is not to be.  The first draft is finished, but I need to re-write the ending before I send it to the rest of my trusted beta readers, after which there will undoubtedly be more revisions.  I swear to you, I will finish this story by the first of November or die trying.

Once that's tucked away, I promise to finish Paris.

Celebrate!

The first draft of Jaime and Levi's story is complete.  Now, about a hundred rounds of revisions to go, and then off to a publisher.  Oh.  And I still don't have a title.

You guessed it. Another random update.

I realized I haven't done one in a while.  The truth is, there hasn't been much to update you on.

August was a busy month.  Strawberries for Dessert was released.  Ethan Stone and I went to Folks Fest. I had a friend from my childhood drop by not once, but twice.  It was all a lot of fun, but the result was, I basically took the entire month off.

So now it's September, and I'm back in the game.  I think.  Do you all remember Jaime and Levi?  It's been a while, so let me reintroduce you.

This is ...

In the Flesh

Ethan Stone's novel In the Flesh is available now!

Reno Detective Cristian Flesh lives his life by a strict set of personal rules, preferring one-time flings and anonymous encounters to committed relationships. His rules work for him… until his life is turned upside down when first, a former lover, a famous televangelist, is attacked, and then one of his one-night stands is murdered, making Cristian the prime suspect.

When handsome lawyer Colby Maddox takes his case, Cristian finds himself...

Why, oh why…

are straight women writing m/m fiction?  I could try to tell you my thoughts, or I could just direct you to Heidi Cullinan's answer, which is absolutely perfect.  Heidi, you are amazing!

Phew!!

Strawberries for Dessert has been out for almost a week, and so far the feedback has been overwhelmingly good.  I'm actually a bit floored by just HOW good.  But I'm not complaining!  I want to thank every one of you who has bought it and/or read it, and everybody who's left a comment or sent me an email.  I really, truly appreciate it.

Tomorrow morning, my good friend Ethan Stone will be here and we'll be heading off to Rocky Mountain Folk Festival.  Yes, this is the same Folk Fest where I...

Strawberries for Dessert is available now!

Go here to buy the ebook from Dreamspinner Press.

Go here to buy the paperback.

It should pop up on other merchant sites (i.e. Amazon and ARe) in the next few days.

Enjoy!!

Jude Mason and Jenna Byrnes' Blog Tour – Day Two!

Hi folks! Our blog tour rolls on and we'd like to thank Marie for hosting us here today. All week long we're talking to readers about our latest project together, book 3 in the Kindred Spirits series, Alex's Appeal. Yesterday at Janna's blog http://erotromreader.blogspot.com/ we introduced you to the series. Today, we thought we'd tell you what inspired us to write it.

Our favorite and most popular genre to write right now is definitely M/M. We'd just finished Untamed Hearts, our animal...

Being Taught

Being Taught by Ethan Stone is available now from Dreamspinner Press.

Check it out here.

Note: This picture has nothing to do with Ethan's story.  I just thought it might get your attention.