'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 108

Sunday Shorts – “I Voted for Biddy Schumacher: Mismatched Tales from the Mind of Brian Centrone” Q&A with Brian Centrone

MI got to meet Brian Centrone at a wonderful moment in New York: I was up for a Lammy for Light, and we got to chat outside the auditorium (and nearly melt, as it was roughly a bajillion degrees in there). He helped keep me calmer (I won’t say “calm,” as I was anything but), and it turned out to no one’s surprise that he was as lovely a fellow in person as he was online.

We’ve always been in synch about our love of the short fiction format, and recently Brian released a short collection of stories, I Voted for Biddy Schumacher: mismatched tales from the mind of Brian Centrone. I had the opportunity to sit down and read them, and now I bring this wee Q&A to you.

I Voted for Biddy Schumacher: Mismatched Tales from the Mind of Brian Centrone is a collection of three short stories from up and coming author, Brian Centrone. The collection opens with “The Life and Times of Biddy Schumacher: A Fantastic Story.” In this bizarre and enchanting tale of small town life, readers are introduced to quirky, religious zealot Biddy Schumacher whose decision to run for political office changes the course of her life. In “A Shade of Gray” (INK) independent, spirited Emma must try and find the courage and words to tell her boyfriend, “it’s over.” Finally, the well-received “Exit” (Voyages, Red Rover) completes this trio of stories, taking the reader on a late night car ride while the driver examines his life, friends, and relationships.

NB: You have a knack for painting characters with a turn of phrase or a simple action (I’m thinking of Biddy’s religious asides, or Emma’s smoking) that telegraphs their character to the reader without obviousness or a lot of prose—which is a fantastic skill to have in the realm of short fiction. Where do your characters come from?

BC: First off, thank you! My characters are usually sketches of people I’ve known or encountered. At times they’re composites of people who represent a shared ideology or behavioural pattern I want to shed light on.   

For instance, Emma, the protagonist of “A Shade of Gray,” is based on a woman I met at a bar many years ago. She was a heavy smoker and drinker, and she struck up a conversation with me outside the bar about the trouble she was having breaking up with her boyfriend. What she told me that night led to the core of that story. Years later I ran into her again at a different bar. She didn’t recognize me, but I sure recognized her. She was still heavy into the drinking and the smoking, but now she was single. The later her inspired a recent flash fiction story I wrote. She’s become a totally different character now–in real life and in my fiction.

Another example would be Biddy. She’s like nobody I’ve ever met! Her character was conceived while I was living in the UK. It was very interesting for me to see the perspective of the US from abroad. This was during the Bush (W.) years, so you can imagine the filter through which America was being viewed at that time. Biddy represented the ultra religious conservatism (and ignorance) that dominated those years (which seem to have made a comeback).

As for the male lead in “Exit,” he’s an everyman/woman. I think we’ve all had those moments late at night where we wake up and say to ourselves, “What am I doing?” So, in a sense, that character was inspired by the human experience in general.

NB: Definitely. I can definitely remember a few moments like that pre-coming out. Now, you’re an editor as well as an author, and you’ve written across various forms, too: plays, a novel, poetry. What’s next on the horizon?

BC: At the moment I am working on my second novel. I’m about three years overdue! That’s going to be my focus for a long time. I have a few short pieces of fiction and poetry I’ve been submitting, so hopefully they’ll be new published work from me to fill the void in the meantime. An anthology I edited for New Lit Salon Press, Salon Style, is getting a much deserved print edition. It originally came out as eBook only, much like Biddy. NLSP has currently been bringing all their eBook only titles into print. The print edition of Biddy has bonus writing from me—I love this edition. Salon Style is a varied collection of fiction, poetry, and art. It’s very much a best of the press because it highlights all the genres and themes NLSP has published, but everything in the collection is new and hasn’t appeared in anything the press has published previously. Though you will find familiar authors and artists in the anthology. That should be coming out the end of summer/beginning of fall, and is a must read. It’s going to be a beautiful print edition.

NB: I can’t wait. You call the collection “mismatched” but I can’t help but notice they’re all about characters on the edge of changing their own lives in some way. Turning points, I suppose, seemed to me at least to be a commonality, alongside their decisions to take charge of some facet of their own life. How did you choose to collect these tales into the single volume?

BC: This is a multifaceted answer. To start, many readers and reviewers have mentioned that they have seen a connected thread running throughout the stories, similar to what you have pointed out. In that way, they do match. This thread of “turning points,” I believe, runs through most of my fiction.

The “mismatched” concept is very much a play on the characters inside the collection. Each character is mismatched with people they are with. Biddy with Seth, Emma with Richard, the unnamed male with his friends/girlfriend. Yet at the same time, I do feel there is enough difference between all three stories, in the tone, the characters, the individual themes, that they don’t seem, on the surface, like stories that would traditionally belong together, yet they work together. There is a “matched” connection. There is also a nod to Biddy’s horrific fashion sense and decor in the subtitle. Nothing matches! Observant readers will notice that the colours used for the cover match those of Biddy’s clothing and furniture. luke kurtis did a great job in making all those colours work together.

NB: I am not observant, but I had to go back and look and yes. Hat-tip to luke, because the design is gorgeous.

BC: Originally I intended to bring all my previously published fiction together and pepper in a few unpublished stories, but because I write in different genres, I thought it would be best to separate the work. My collection of gay, erotic fiction was grouped together and released as Erotica. I had a few other pieces of unpublished literary fiction I considered including in the Biddy collection but ultimately didn’t. For one, I wasn’t completely satisfied with them as finished stories, for another, those stories all fell into the category of gay fiction. I thought it might be nice, when ready, to do a separate collection with just those pieces (and any others I may have written in the interim). So in the end, three stories were left. Because most people see me as a gay author or a gay, erotic writer, I like the idea of a small collection which highlights another area of my writing. Not everything I write is going to be or has to be about LGBT lives, or sex. Those are some aspects of my work–not all. And in a way, we are back at the start of the question, because for many, the stories in this collection may seem mismatched when held in comparison to my other published work, including my novel, but really, they all share that connective thread of turning points.

NB: Well, I loved them. Thanks for stopping by, Brian!

If you would like a copy of I Voted for Biddy Schumacher, visit New Lit Salon Press here, or check out your closest brick and mortar store (Indiebound is a great way to search for your closest physical bookstore, here.) And, of course, you should be able to find the title wherever quality short fiction is sold.

Brian Centrone is the author of the short story collections I Voted for Biddy Schumacher: Mismatched Tales from the Mind of Brian Centrone and Erotica, and of the debut novel An Ordinary Boy (now out of print, but worth hunting for –NB). His stories and poems have been featured in college newspapers and literary and arts journals.  Four of his One-Act plays have been produced for the stage as part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ The Big Read program. He teaches writing in New York. Visit Brian at www.briancentrone.com for more info. Follow him on Twitter @briancentrone.

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with Evey Brett

Rounding out my Q&A series with the authors of Men in Love is Evey Brett. I hadn’t read her before, so Men in Love was my first brush with her, and I can’t wait to find more. It seems insane to me that I started talking with the authors of Men in Love, Not Just Another Pretty Face, The Biggest Lover, and Threesome way back at the start of the year, and it’s July now. Where does the time go?

Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: What’s first and foremost to you when you set out to write a romance? Is there a seed from which most of your stories grow, or do you (like so many of us) suffer from plot bunnies rampantly breeding while you try to concentrate on one project at a time?

EB: I never set out to be a romance writer. Everything I know about romance, I learned by necessity after I started writing e-books and getting excoriated by reviewers because I didn’t follow the usual romance “rules.” For instance, it’s a bad idea to kill off the love interest in the middle of a story and replace him with a different guy. (Or a sentient lizard, in that case.) Go figure. And I had an editor keep telling me, “Add more happy sex,” and a mentor tell me, “Add more cookies,” which meant add more bits of happiness and levity in between all the bits when I was putting characters through hell. As for as short story romance goes, that, too, I learned by trial and error; after a couple rejections, I got an anthology from the publisher I was trying to sell to, and figured out what they were looking for in short erotic fiction, and *poof*, I started making sales.

As far as where my ideas come from…usually it’s just a bit of dialog or scene that pops into my head and I work from there. I write bits of scene here and there, whatever sounds interesting at the time rather than writing chronologically. My story “Share and Share Alike” from Threesome was originally going to be something of a horror/ghost story with some sex and romance thrown in, but then editor Matt Bright put out his call so I rearranged that story to make it work as a, well, threesome. For other erotica calls, generally I try to figure out something where Character A has a problem and Character B solves that problem with sex in a relatively short period of time. And there’s got to be something more at stake than just sex or romance; the characters have to change, too.

So, no, I don’t have rampant plot bunnies hopping around at the moment. I’ve got more calls than I’ve got ideas for. Arrggh.

NB: I know that feeling, too. Sometimes I live in plot-bunny world, but often I stare at the list of potential calls for submission and hear nothing but static. Those days are rough. That said, when the words do flow, I notice you bring a lot of the magic (or the demonic) to your stories. This is something I completely understand and relate to, but I’m always curious. Why do you like adding that speculative fiction aspect to your storytelling?

EB: I started out as a science fiction and fantasy writer. That’s what I read as a kid and what I trained in with various workshops like Clarion and Taos Toolbox and my master’s degree, and it’s still more natural to think about saving the world or a person from something dangerous (maybe even themselves) than it is to have the romance be the most important piece of the story.  So adding a speculative element is easy for me to do, and usually the first thing that comes to mind. I find it hard to contemplate a story where the romance, and only the romance, is at stake. I don’t enjoy reading those and find them hard to write.

As far as demons…yep, I have a series of books featuring incubi as antagonists and characters dealing with them, their half-human offspring called cambions, and themselves. My story, “El Amor Brujo” in Myriad Carnival has a rather vengeful ghost.  As for why…I’m not entirely sure. I hadn’t realized until you pointed it out just how many demonic creatures I’ve included lately. Hmmm.

NB: Heh. What’s on the horizon? Any new and exciting or recent projects we should know about?

EB: I’m getting the rights returned for three of my books and hoping to re-release them in the near future. One is getting a complete rewrite, the other two are getting some minor upgrades and new covers courtesy of Inkspiral Design. I’ve got a couple more short stories coming from Lethe Press at some point, and if I get my writing brain back and write for some of these calls, hopefully I’ll have a few more short stories coming.

NB: I can’t wait!

If you want to nab a copy of Men in Love for yourself, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

Evey Brett lives in the Arizona desert where she enjoys catching creepy-crawlies like snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and Gila monsters and is the willing servant of two cats and a Lipizzan mare who has a habit of arranging the universe. She’s attended Clarion, Taos Toolbox and the Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging LGBT Writers and has been a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards. She has numerous novels and short stories with Lethe Press, Cleis Press, Pathfinder Web Fiction and elsewhere. She can be found online at eveybrett.wordpress.com.

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with Colton Aalto

Colton Aalto joins me today to talk about his story from Men in Love. Colton’s another “new-to-me” author, which is the best part of anthologies for me: finding new authors to read! Even better? This is a debut short fiction.

Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: Welcome! Tell us a bit about your story in Men in Love. Where did the idea come from?

CA: Professor Sanders, who appears at the beginning of the story, actually exists, although I’ve changed all of his particulars, other than his being incredibly sexy.  As the story suggests, if you troll the internet, you’ll find college student surveys of the sexiest professors and he’s on those lists.  In much of my writing, I start with an image or a fleeting experience and develop the story from there.  So I started with Sanders, but I wanted to take the story in a different direction than the obvious – having Skylar and Sanders end up together – and instead create a surprise.  Skylar is enamoured with Kiel and Leland, but it never crosses his mind that a threesome with them is an option, until they suddenly propose it.  Oops, I’ve just given away the ending!  So much for the surprise.

NB: One of the best things about anthologies is how many new authors I get to meet, and I think this is your first publication. Has the short story bug bitten you? Are there more underway?

CA: You’re right; if you exclude legal treatises (and why wouldn’t you?), this is my first publication.  I’m excited, and I want to thank Jerry Wheeler for the opportunity.  I have a file full of stories and books I would like to see published, but my attention span is too short (whose isn’t in the era of internet overload?), so too many of them aren’t quite finished.

NB: Heh. The plot bunny problem. I’m there.

CA: The best thing for me is to go on a long bike ride or spend a day skiing or sit through a symphony; without distractions, I can work through a plot in my mind or create a scene of dialog.  My other problem is that I’m a tinkerer when it comes to writing, so I can’t stop re-reading my work and changing this word or that, or tweaking a scene a bit, maybe introducing a new character.  For me, deadlines are a good thing.  But I’m hoping to get more of my stories and books across the finish line and into publication.

NB: I await them with anticipation. If you could wave your magic wand and make an anthology call with any theme appear, what would you like to take a crack at? Is there a theme that you’re itching to write?

CA: Surprise!  As with my story in Men in Love, I like elements of surprise in fiction.  I’m not keen on stories or books in which the reader knows from the first word how the story ends, and the only mystery, how the characters get there, is predictable.  Will Bob and Joe get together? Of course they will, it’s a HEA romance…  I’d like my readers to think, “Wow, what an awesome plot twist; I didn’t see that coming!”

NB: Well, here’s to more happy surprises! Thank you.

If you want to nab a copy of Men in Love for yourself, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

Colton lives in a century-old brick warehouse in Denver with his husband and two spoiled cats.  After collecting college degrees for a decade and a brief criminal justice career, Colton left the east coast for the sun and ski slopes of Colorado.  He practices law, except on powder days.

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with Michael Bracken

Michael Bracken was a new name to me, and another example of the joy of anthologies and how I find so many wonderful new authors when I open a collection. He joins me today for a chat about his story in Men in Love.

Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: You’re no stranger to short fiction and have a long backlist of titles from a crime/confessional point of view. Do you enjoy stepping into the world of romance, and is it a natural fit? Do genres blend for you?

MB: Though I’m known more for crime fiction and women’s fiction, I’ve written something in nearly every genre. So, writing a romance for Men in Love was not a step into unknown territory.

Genres often do blend in my work, with a bit of romance often included in even the most hardboiled crime fiction, and occasionally—as in “Bathhouse Backstabber”—there’s even a little crime fiction included in my romances.

NB: It’s a great story. I love seeing authors who blend and bend genres. Tell us a little bit about it. Where did the idea spark from?

MB: “Bathhouse Backstabber” is the story of a recently dumped would-be mystery writer whose friends set him up with a photographer who is new to town. The new relationship turns out to have unexpected benefits and, in the tradition of romances, a happy ever after ending.

I’ve written several romances over the years with all manner of meet-cutes, but I had never written one where friends set up the two would-be lovers. Once I decided on that as the premise, I drew on my memory of what it was like to turn a dream into a reality when few around me believed I could, and I drew on my experience living in a city where the goings-on at the local university provide all manner of fodder for gossip.

NB: What’s next on the horizon for you? What should we be watching out for?

MB: I’ve had one or more short stories published each and every month for 153 consecutive months, with contracts extending that streak into the future, so I have trouble remembering exactly what’s coming out when. The story I’m most excited about, though, is “Chase Your Dreams,” which just appeared in the June issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

NB: I am now officially overwhelmed. But I look forward to reading more!

For those wanting a copy of Men in Love for themselves, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

Michael Bracken is the author of several books, from the young adult romance Just in Time for Love to the hardboiled private eye novel All White Girls, but is better known as the author of more than 1,100 short stories, including stories in Best Gay Romance 2010 and 2013 and many other anthologies and periodicals.

He lives and writes in Texas. Learn more at www.CrimeFictionWriter.com and CrimeFictionWriter.blogspot.com.

#ThrowBookThursday – Murder in the Rue Dauphine, by Greg Herren

The idea of #ThrowBookThursday was a hashtag I bumped into on a virtual book club, and I love it. Instead of a Throwback Thursday photograph, you post a book you loved from back when. You all know how I feel about book reviews and bringing attention to missed gems, so…

Murder in the Rue Dauphine, by Greg Herren

Read in April, 2006:

I read this in the space of a day. Sometimes that makes me feel guilty—writers work for months or years on a novel and then I tear through it—but when the book is good, the mystery catches me, and I’m intrigued… sorry, it won’t make it through the day.

Chanse MacLeod is a PI living in New Orleans, and he gets a pretty straightforward case: someone blackmailing a closeted fella for a lot of cash on the threat of outing him to his very rich family. The fella’s boyfriend hires Chanse, and turns up dead shortly thereafter, with a hate-crime slur written in the victim’s blood.

While the city simmers toward a boiling point as activists clamour for action against the hate crimes, Chanse keeps getting brushes with bullets and hate-mongers. But something doesn’t feel right, and Chanse is pretty sure things aren’t as they seem.

The mystery to the tale was solid—I had a good time figuring it out, and the characters (especially the supporting cast around Chanse: his cop friend, his reporter friend) weren’t just two dimensional add-ons: it was nice to meet a crime reporter who railed against her fear of crime, and a gay cop being frustrated for being thought of as gay first, and a cop second. Chanse’s predilection for guys in shirts “one size too small” and his vague unease at the thought that maybe—just maybe—he’s falling in love with his current three-month lover gave me a few wry smiles.

Having since had a chance to go to New Orleans a few times (and even meet the author!) I can say this book quite literally “brought me there.”

 

What about you? Got a book you read years ago you always hand to friends? Tell me about it here (or, if you’d like, I’d be happy to host some guest blogs for #ThrowBookThursday posts in the future.)

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with George Seaton

I haven’t met today’s author face-to-face, but I can’t help but feel a deep kinship with George Seaton, as we’re both owners of very winter-focused (and food-focused) dogs—we were actually digitally “introduced” by mutual friend (and editor) Jerry L. Wheeler. When I saw he had a story in Men in Love, I couldn’t wait to dive in, and was pretty much sucker-punched by one of the most sweet stories I’ve read.

Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: First off, tell us a bit about your story in Men in Love, and where the idea came from. Did it have a lightbulb moment?

GS: The genesis of “Continuum” had no lightbulb moment. David and I actually lived for twenty-eight years in a Victorian home constructed in 1893, the year Tchaikovsky died. We shared the home with benign spirits and raised six four-legged children there. And, as the story reveals, we daily walked the neighbourhood, chatting about one thing or another. The historical context of the story—the advent of AIDS, and David’s and my history—is, for the most part, true. So, the story was simply there waiting to be written.

NB: I’ll get in trouble if I don’t mention the dog thing. I happen to know we both have very winter-friendly dogs who perhaps gain a lion’s share of our attentions. I haven’t yet written a story with a dog featuring, but I couldn’t help but notice a pup in Big Diehl. Is your big guy inspiring for you as a writer?

GS: I don’t believe I’ve ever written anything without a dog(s) in it. The dog in Big Diehl– The Road Home—a Border Collie named Jack with one eye blue and one brown—is definitely a major character in that storytelling. Over the years, David and I have shared our lives with Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes, as well as several other breeds. Our latest rescue, an Alaskan Malamute named Kuma, does not so much provide inspiration when it comes to my stories, but remains a reminder that stories are made so much better when a dog appears in them. Just like in real life.

NB: As a recent dog convert, I can attest to finding stories with dogs make me smile now. Okay, lastly, if you could have an anthology call for submission pop up with any theme you’d like, what would it be? What theme would you love to explore?

GS: Contemporary western. Not necessarily cowboys, but simply the character of men and women who respect the land and the critters upon it. Nearly all of my storytelling touches on this theme. A theme I’d love to explore? My passion and imagination have already been captured by the theme I mentioned. (Teaching old dogs new tricks is an exercise that may prove futile.)

If you want to nab a copy of Men in Love for yourself, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

George Seaton lives and writes in the Colorado mountains. He shares his life with his husband, David, and their Alaskan Malamute, Kuma.

Seaton’s writing—novels, novellas and short stories—has been published by MLR Press, Untreed Reads, Wilde City Press, and Dreamspinner Press.

 

 

#ThrowBookThursday – It Had to Be You, by Timothy James Beck

The idea of #ThrowBookThursday was a hashtag I bumped into on a virtual book club, and I love it. Instead of a Throwback Thursday photograph, you post a book you loved from back when. You all know how I feel about book reviews and bringing attention to missed gems, so…

It Had to Be You, by Timothy James Beck

My review, from April 2003:

Wow. Okay, first off, I read this entire book today—and it’s nearly midnight, so forgive me if I ramble a little.

When I read He’s the One by Timothy James Beck, there was a character introduced that I was dying to learn more about: Daniel Stephenson. I identified with him a lot more than the main protagonist of He’s the One, and moreover, he was just a wonderfully developed secondary character with some great stuff in his well-written past.

Now I know why.

Turns out that It Had to be You is the story of Daniel Stephenson, getting up to just about the point where he’s in in “He’s the One.” This was great, even if I did already know the ending as I’d read them out of order. Daniel is an easy-to-identify-with character for me (no buff jock, just a slim guy; no massively successful career, just an entry level second-attempt-at-a-career). He’s still hurt over the betrayal of his last boyfriend, still a little damaged over the revelation that yet another friend is dying of AIDS, and just about ripe for falling head over heels with the hunky guy across the street.

Except that guy lives with a woman, seems about as straight as they come, and probably won’t react well to his previous career as a female impersonator who mostly did Lady 2Di4, a Princess Diana tribute.

The wit is just as sharp in this one as in “He’s the One,” – and just as often nicely balanced with some poignancy that never over-sweetens to saccharine levels. And I must say I am now a firm fan of all things Timothy James Beck. I really hope to see more books out of him.

The story behind reading this book continues from last week. See, when I wrote the review of Rob Byrnes’s The Night We Met, I sent him an e-mail saying how much I loved the book and asking if he’d written more, and the answer (unfortunately) at the time was “not yet.” But he suggested I try Timothy James Beck and a few other authors. I grabbed a Timothy James Beck book (the second one, by accident, as the review up there mentions), and loved it, and then found the first. When I wrote this review thirteen years ago, I also e-mailed the author, only to find out that Timothy James Beck wasn’t a person. He was four people.

From here, my reading exploded in a bunch of different directions and authors, and if it wasn’t for these two books, I’d have never met the people who gave me my first real chance in the writing world, either. But that’s a story for another time, maybe.

Writing Wednesday – Guilty, Crazy, Panicky, Lazy edition

I’ve barely been writing. My ‘Writing Wednesday’ updates are to keep myself honest, in line, and on track, and I’ve completely derailed. To the point where I was too guilty to post Writing Wednesdays for a few weeks.

Partly, it’s Orlando. I’ve got three major writing projects right now—the novel, Triad Soul, my village novellas, and another joint author project. The third project involves a character I was allowing myself to write for the first time: a guy dealing with the aftermath of losing control of his body to violence and hate. Now, it’s an upbeat, fun, sexy story, but I wanted to have the character be realistic, and delving into his head is like stepping back in time and after Orlando?  I just can’t seem to. I can’t find that “upbeat, fun, sexy” feeling. The love interest of the character is a cop, also, and after the raid on the NYC beach, I’m not feeling particularly sexy thoughts about cops, either.

I’m also having trouble catching the village vibe. Especially after Toronto Pride (which, for the record, I support the actions of BLM-TO) and all that it has brought out in “my” community, I feel cynical, and jaded, and bitter in spades, but that feeling of solidarity and strength? Not present. So I open the file, look at the pages set in my fictional version of the queer village and… Nothing. They’re supposed to be a little bit magic, cheerful romances with a light tone, and… I’m not there.

Triad Soul hasn’t ground to a complete halt, but it’s stuttering at best. I’ll have a day (often with a writing buddy who’s been dropping by) where I get 2,500 words out, and then days of nothing or negative or less than a hundred.

The foot isn’t helping. I don’t think I’ve mentioned here, but I managed to roll my foot while walking the dog, and a week later, although it had felt better in the meanwhile, it ballooned up. I went to the doctor, got X-rays, and it turns out I did a number on it. I’ve got three more weeks of wearing an air-cast. So I’m not having my nice long head-clearing walks with the dog. I feel lazy. And guilty. And panicky.

So. No word counts. No updates on the writing front beyond “not so much.”

The Crazy

That said, the Crazy Canuck Canada Day Blog Hop is still underway. Seven authors, eight prizes (including a copy of Light by yours truly), and you’ve got two more days to enter.

You enter the individual giveaways at each individual author’s site, which I’ll list here. There are posts to read and comment upon, and a Rafflecopter link to work with.

If you want to win said copy of Light, you need to go read this post, and make a comment there.

Here’s the short-version list of the other authors taking part, and the prizes they’re offering.

Which blogs? What prizes?

PD Workman – Summer is Short on the Prairies Canadiana Prize Pack, including paperback copy of Questing for a Dream
Jessica Subject – a paperback copy of Alien Next Door – the Complete Series
Romarin Demetri – A Mirror Among Shattered Glass
Lisa Emme – a signed copy of Home Again
Nathan Burgoine – a copy of Light
Kayleigh Malcolm – $20 CAD Amazon Gift Card
Cori Vidae – a paperback copy of Rough Edges


Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…

Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.
This Wish Tonight – Holiday M/M Genre romance, Mischief Corner Books, Deadline: August 15, 2016.
Over the Rainbow – Fairy Tale Retellings, Exile Editions (note: Canadian requirement), Deadline: August 31, 2016.
A Scandal in Gomorrah: Queering Sherlock Holmes – Queering the canon or something more transformational, Lethe Press, Deadline: January 1, 2017.

Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)

 

Gamers, Automotive Enthusiasts, and General Fuckwads of the Internet. Pay Attention.

Because it’s the small things, the micro-aggressions, and standing up in those awkward moments.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

I don’t know what a trigger is for most people. But I’m gonna suggest that this is at least slightly triggery for racial and homophobic epithets, and the implied and historic violence that goes along with it.

Wendig writes, because Wendig writes. And as usual, he hits something close to me. I’ve DONE some of these things: Sometimes, you don’t catch yourself in time, or you’re not thinking, and you thing “well, fuck, I’m an asshole”. And the good news, I think, is that because you think that second bit, you’re probably OK. But it doesn’t mean we can’t be better.

Now, this leads somewhere.

Specifically, We all are, in a way. Whether we let that subconscious shit rule us, or we try our damnedist to do something about it, that is what makes us the people we are.

So, I’m trying to be a better person. I…

View original post 1,947 more words

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with Gregg Shapiro

Today I’m sitting down with Gregg Shapiro, another one of the many wonderful authors I’ve “met” through sharing a table of contents in Men in Love. I broached whether or not he’d be willing to visit my little corner in the short fiction world, and he was kind enough to chat with me about his piece.

Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: Hello, and welcome! First off, can you tell us a bit about your story in Men in Love?

GS: “6th & E” is set in the NE section of Capitol Hill in Washington DC during the mid-to-late 1980s. I lived in the neighbourhood at that time and it was still a bit edgy; bars on windows, etc. This was before the remodel of Union Station, which transformed the decrepit building and train terminal into a bustling mall and destination, was complete. The story is ultimately about flirtation and fidelity.

NB: I really enjoyed it—it wasn’t a “typical” story expected in a romance anthology (which is absolutely both a compliment to you and your writing as well as to the anthology as a whole, which really surpassed my expectations). When it comes to romance (be that as a writer or a reader), what’s something you always hope to find?

GS: Humor. I want to laugh and I want to be able to make readers laugh. Romance has to have a sense of humor.

NB: Yes! And, let’s be honest, love is funny. Y’know, when it’s not soul-crushing. Lastly, if you could submit to an anthology with any theme you’d like, what would it be? You’ve written a collection of Chicago stories, and How to Whistle just launched. What theme would you like to explore?

GS: Geography and place figure prominently in my work. The stories in Lincoln Avenue all take place in and around Chicago. The stories in How to Whistle are set in Chicago, Boston and Washington DC (three cities in which I’ve lived). I now live in South Florida which has begun to work its way into my fiction and poetry. I had a poem in Full Moon on K Street, an anthology of poetry about Washington DC edited by Kim Roberts and a poem in Windy City Queer, anthology of queer writers writing about Chicago. I suppose I’d like to submit work to place-related anthologies about Boston and Wilton Manors/Fort Lauderdale.

NB: It occurs to me that other than perhaps a collection about New Orleans, I’ve never read one devoted to a place before. I’m adding that to my list. Thank you!

If you want to snag a copy of Men in Love for yourself, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

Entertainment journalist Gregg Shapiro is the author of Lincoln Avenue (Squares and Rebel Press), GREGG SHAPIRO: 77 (Souvenir Spoon Press), Protection (Gival Press) and How to Whistle (Lethe Press). His interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBT and mainstream publications and websites. He is the co-winner of Seven Kitchens Press’s Robin Becker Chapbook Prize, and his chapbook, Fifty Degrees, was released in May 2016. Sapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his husband Rick Karlin and their dog k.d.