'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 121

Organic

I recently bumped into two articles. One, this one, is about the cop-out answer of waiting for LGBT characters to appear in a story ‘organically’ as though the muses must deliver them to you, fully-formed, or it couldn’t possibly be craft (said in a nasally stuffy artiste voice).

The second? This article, about the various LGBT characters in books that were turned straight for the movie versions.

They’re a great point-counterpoint. On the one hand, how unsurprising that the LGBT characters get straightwashed, especially as you go back in time even a decade or two. A queer character? Horrors! Unless, of course, they’re campy, die, provide comic relief, die, provide a moral warning, or, y’know, die.

On the other hand, what a great opportunity to highlight that all it takes to change a character’s sexuality is – y’know – craft. Because un-queering shouldn’t be any harder than queering, no?

Well, no. And yes.

When I hear the “I wouldn’t know what to do and I don’t want to do it wrong” argument from (mostly) straight authors about writing LGBT characters, I can empathise in a way. Let’s be honest – it’s easier to write characters that are in your own sphere of experience. There’s a reason most of my main characters are somewhat geeky lanky white gay guys. Often with glasses. Usually without abs.

But the world around them is not full of other lanky white gay guys who often wear glasses and usually don’t have abs.

Also, they’re not every main character I’ve written. And when I didn’t rely entirely on my own experiences, I did this thing I learned about in… gosh, I’m gonna say, grade three? Maybe even grade two? Whenever.

Research.

Okay, I’m being flippant. But truly, the first character I wrote in a published piece was a burly fitness fellow who was a personal trainer. Writing ‘Heart,’ I bugged the crap out of my fitness trainer friend to make sure I understood the character – and boy was he tired of hearing from me – and the reality was almost none of the details and questions I was asking made it to the story, because really, Aiden’s story was more about his relationship with Miah than what he did for a living and how he looked – but I had a very well-rounded understanding of his character.

Ditto Leah, from ‘Old Age, Surrounded by Loved Ones.’ I’m not a quick-decision type of person, a businesswoman, a twin, or a lesbian. I’m not super-close to my family. I’m not sure, in her place, what kind of choice I would make. But she made the choice that – I hope – I crafted her character to make.

And that’s the part where craft comes into it for me. I got some brilliant advice from Greg Herren on writing characters once at Saints and Sinners. He talked about how, when a character was about to make a significant choice, that he worked backwards from that choice and ensured the character’s background and personality connected to make that choice valid. Basically, what would it take for me, if I was in this position, to choose this? Would it take a different family? A different experience in college? A different response to a previous life decision?

Working backwards in that way is a huge part of how I write. It’s not organic – it is, frankly, the opposite of organic. It sometimes fails, too and I realise the choice I want this character to make is wrong, and I need to rewrite or redirect (that diversion may be more organic, but still, it’s craft to figure out a new path) or find that point of authenticity and work backwards again in a different manner.

To take another example, if I look at Kieran from Light, there are similarities to me, for sure. Buckets of them. He’s perhaps a wee bit sarcastic. He’s got glasses. He’s a cat guy. He’s gay.

But he’s also not me in many, many ways. He believes in God, and goes to church. That was a choice I made because I was walking a line with the villain of the book having potential ties to religion himself, and I didn’t want to write a book where the only people with faith were the awful, hateful people in the book. That was a conscious choice, and required a heck of a lot of research on my part (again, much of which might not have made it into the book in the long run, but I learned about Sunday school, what people learn in Sunday school, the difference between a Catholic upbringing and a Unitarian one, etc.) Kieran’s mantra is “I can handle this.” He doesn’t ask for help. I learned – the hard way – that’s a stupid way to be. I ask for help. So I looked at Kieran’s past and wondered what it would take for him to be that way, and decided it would take two things: one, for him to always have managed to handle what had come his way thus far, and two, for him to have assumed it was his job to handle whatever comes his way, even if no one had asked him to.

Again, that’s work. It’s not organic. And I’m still writing a character that has things in common with me.

To my mind, all fiction writing comes down to ‘what-if?’ and ‘then-what-happened?’ Maybe it’s having some roots in fandom and being a queer guy, but when I watch a movie like ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ my natural instinct is to wonder what would be different if the writers and directors had bothered to include a queer character. Jean-Claude Beaubier (Northstar) had the same starting power skillset as Quicksilver, for example – and Northstar is a French Canadian gay guy. What would have changed if the movie had included recruiting him instead of Quicksilver?

Well, how about this: That fun scene in the basement of Quicksilver’s house where there are a few laughs and the wallet-stealing and the like? Instead, we’re in Canada (where Logan is from, I might point out, and a character in canon he would have a likely reason to know just as much as Quicksilver, since they both had ties to Alpha Flight), and – given the time period – how much fun would it be to put Charles, Logan, and Erik at a LGBT rally? Erik, who survived a Nazi death camp, could even take the opportunity to point out the pink triangle (wow, a learning moment!). But if you still want fun, hey, Erik was a snappy dresser, and maybe having a guy flirt with him could be amusing, if handled well (especially if Charles is amused by said moment and Erik decides to pretend to be with Charles to brush the flirt off, which could lead to a bit more amusement, no?) Lord knows I’d flirt with Erik. Hello, Erik. Again, you still get your laugh/lighthearted moment. Thereafter, Northstar is recruited instead of Quicksilver. The rest of the story plays out entirely the same.

Except queer kids in the audience get to see a character that is in some way like them, and the world is shown to actually have some of the diversity it has.

It’s not hard – or, scratch that, yes, it’s hard, but it’s only as hard as every other part of writing you care to attempt to do well.

I’m not throwing stones, either. I have a huge amount of work to do in this area myself. I’m trying very hard, going forward, to be more bi-inclusive with my work (something I realized I’d never done to date). And with Triad Blood, I’m including a Métis character (because, frankly, my book is set in Canada, and I want to include some wonderful Canadian culture). One of the first things I did was reach out to my Aboriginal friends, as well as friends who had ties to Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and asked super-stupid questions (and told them to please tell me when I was being super-stupid, which they did).

One of the biggest questions I asked was, “What pisses you off the most about the representation of Métis in genre fiction?”

The response I got – almost every time – was “What representation in genre fiction?”

Ouch. That really sucks. Believe me, as a gay guy, I know how it feels to read book after book, watch movie after movie, and never see yourself. It’s getting better – in a limited, narrow way – but growing up? I never saw myself. I want to try to help with that, and I want to try to help with that beyond my own narrow identity.

And I’m terrified I’ll screw it up. Scratch that, I know I will screw it up. I’m sure I’ll make mistakes. I made mistakes in Light, I made mistakes with Leah in ‘Old Age, Surrounded by Loved Ones.’ I will continue to make mistakes. I’m not sure of another way to learn, frankly.

This is where, I think, the real hesitancy to try to diversify happens with most writers (and here, let’s be honest, I’m mostly meaning ‘straight white writers.’) I feel it, too, and I know what it’s like to find yet another token queer character in a book or movie whose entire purpose is to die to show you the heroine is in real danger, or to give the hero a moment to appear sad he lost the gay-best-friend. Tokens aren’t great. They’re better than nothing, and they’re somewhere to start, and you can learn from tokens. I’d rather have a token than nothing, and I’d rather see the tokens develop into something better. Do tokens do harm? Yes, if they continue and propagate and stagnate and never, ever change. But if we don’t do anything because we’re afraid to do something less than perfectly, we’re screwed. We won’t get anywhere.

The flip side to that is to listen to the criticism (amend that to the constructive criticism) and learn from the mistakes and do better next time. The character of Miracle Woman in Light is by no means perfect, and I got some specific criticism of her – and praise for her – from readers. I paid extra attention to what black readers were saying, and I hope I’ll do better going forward. It was especially interesting to get different feedback based on geography – what black readers in the US said about the character was different from what black readers in Canada said about her. That struck me – and since the character herself was from the US, I realized there was some disconnect there on my part. I screwed up when the people I spoke to about what I was doing with the character were all fellow Canucks.

This post is already too long, and I hope I’ve not TL;DR’d too many of you. Maybe I should sum up my opinions on including diversity in fiction into bullet points instead.

Diversity in fiction matters.

When you write diversity in fiction, you’ll probably screw up. Do your best not to, but be aware you’ll make mistakes. Research. Talk to people (especially those you’re trying to represent).

Listen to people when they point out your mistakes. Try not to collapse into a defensive heap of tears.

Do better next time.

Anyway. Go write. And ask yourself – seriously – if you’ve never included an LGBT character in your work so far, why? If the answer is “I’m afraid I’ll screw it up,” then consider this permission to screw it up, and an invitation to ask me anything you’d like. I can talk pretty freely about being a queer ex-pat Brit who lives in Canada. I can talk about one of the worst coming out stories I know (I generally ‘win’ when we’re playing the “who had the worst coming out?” game when queer folk gather, which is totally not worth a trophy, by the way). I can point out that if you have a gay guy best friend in a mystery novel with a leading lady sleuth and you kill him to show the heroine is in danger, I will not be pleased because wow has that been done to death (no pun intended). And I will be so happy you asked, because it means you care that queer folk exist.

Sunday Shorts – “Snap,” by Shawn Syms

I went to Montreal this week and got to do a reading from Light. It was a great night, and I have to put my thoughts together for a post, but right now I’m in still the middle of the never-ending-renovation (which is why last week’s Sunday Shorts didn’t happen) and am struggling to put words together that aren’t all variations on “I hate my house so much.”

I don’t, of course, and the feeling will pass… but…

Handling various angry feelings (as well as frustration, and a wee bit of helplessness) got even better when I added an extra boost of anxiety by renewing my passport. Nothing like mailing away every piece of ID you have to make you feel calm and collected.

I considered booking some time with my psychiatrist – I don’t see him very often, and I realize how privileged and lucky I am that my bouts with medication were situational and transient. But I sure learned when I needed to ask for help (the hard way, of course). I have huge respect for the therapy world. They handle so very much.

It turned out I got through the couple of rough days okay, but it reminded me of one of Shawn Syms‘s great tales from Nothing Looks Familiar.

*

“Snap,” by Shawn Syms

There are jobs I cannot imagine doing despite the background I had in university. I was well on my way to becoming a therapist or social worker of some kind before an advisor made it very clear that it would be a terrible idea. In a placement, I learned fast that I didn’t have an “off” switch. I would go home, and think about the horrible realities of the day, and sleep terribly, and go back completely unrefreshed and not at all ready to compartmentalize and be useful.

“Snap” is a blazing story in something of this vein – a therapist who’s job it is to work with convicted sex offenders, reaching the end of his tether. Stress mounts, dreams turn dark, and whether or not Jake has it in him to make it through this time balances on the edge throughout the story.

You can always count on Syms to go somewhere authors rarely go. His tales often involve characters just like these: people removed from sexual “norms” (whatever that can mean varying story by story), the criminal, the psychologically dented, the lost and tossed aside. Syms walks the line of realism but still injects enough empathy that as a reader I’m often left bemused about my opinions on some facet of law, sexuality, or “norm.”

Put simpler? He always makes me think. And that’s a wonderful thing.

*

Until next week, keep it short. And hey – as always – if you’ve read some novellettes, novellas, or short stories you think I’d like, do tell me. I’m always on the lookout.

Writing Wednesday – Being Weird on the Internet

Writing Wednesday is where I do the public admission of how much I’ve been working on writing because nothing motivates me quite like public shame. I realize that’s weird, but, y’know… Weird is pretty cool these days.

Speaking of…

Yesterday, the audiobook of Felica Day’s ‘You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)’ appeared like magic on my iPhone (I’d pre-ordered) and I immediately declared yesterday a ‘no writing!’ day so I could listen. This morning, walking the dog, I finished the book.

Before anything else, I’ll say this: go buy it and read it (or listen to it). It’s awesome, she’s awesome, and – frankly – it was so damned wonderfully timed that I just walked back to my house with the dog believing in stuff and things again.

As all three of you loyal readers know, my second book is due out next May, and right now I’m working on my last tweaks of my last draft before I sent it in to the editor at the end of the month. There’s this thing called “the Sophomore Slump” – where the second of a thing doesn’t live up to the first thing – and it’s a very real fear, and it’s been very front and centre in my mind these last few months.

Okay – let’s be honest. The first thing (in this case, my first novel, Light), was weird. Seriously, I wrote a book about a gay quasi-superhero telepath/psychokinetic battling for truth, freedom, and that guy who looks really hot in a leather harness. It was not Shakespeare. It wasn’t supposed to be. I wanted to write a fun (and hopefully funny) “superhero” story, but I wanted there to finally be a gay guy. And not just any gay gay, a kinda geeky, not-at-all-superhero-material fellow. He has telepathy, and he uses it to play with his cat. He has psychokinesis, and he uses it to… play with his cat. If Pride Week hadn’t been crashed by another, better, psychokinetic, he’d have probably spent his whole life using his powers to play with his cat.

And I wouldn’t have judged that. Not the least of which because he’s fictional.

When Light did well – I freaking got to go to New York as a finalist for a freaking Lammy and it was my first freaking book! – it never occurred to me that this could lead to anxiety later.

Silly man. If there’s anything I have learned from You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) it’s that anything can cause anxiety and panic – but especially successes. I learned a lot more from the book than that, but listening to her describe how she felt when her projects would launch and do well – and then feel the crushing ‘now what?’ that came when it was time to do the next thing?

Well, it resonated.

So – I’ll admit it. I’m terrified of Triad Blood. Seriously. Light was tied up with so much (different) terror: trying to be funny, trying to balance a job I was starting to loathe with getting time to write at all, trying to believe that there were people out there just as amused by the idea of queer superheroes as I was, and – most of all – was it even worth trying? But with Triad Blood I’m terrified of one major different thing: is this too much not like Light and did I totally blow it by not writing something very similar to what people might expect (and oh God, what if I don’t even have people expecting anything)?

But by the time I got to the end of Felicia Day’s book, I was smiling. I remembered why I was writing it in the first place – because I loved those characters – Luc, my somewhat uptight French Canadian vampire; Curtis, my wizard who has almost as many geeky T-shirts as I do; and Anders, the lust demon who’s so freaking fun to write it should be illegal. I wanted to make a thing with these guys – the four short stories I wrote with the characters made them make more noise in my head, not less – and while, yes, I hope people like the book, the reality is I learned this lesson already: I left that job that I loathed because you have to enjoy the work you do, not live for the payoff.

I enjoyed writing Triad Blood. That’s enough.

(But seriously, though, please read it. I promise it’s weird. Did I mention it comes out next May?)

The Novel

Okay, the specifics of what I accomplished this week:

Tweak, tweak, tweak. I’m going over the feedback from my beta-reader crowd and all of it has been brilliant. There’s only one piece I’m rather stuck on, and that’s the contradictory feedback on the prologue. For those who hadn’t already read the four short stories, they like it, and felt it gave them enough to understand my world (or at least, enough to work with to start entering that world). From those who have read the short stories, half suggested the prologue wasn’t necessary. So. I may streamline the prologue as much as I can (shortening it to the absolute bare minimum) and then kick that decision upstairs to my editor.

Short Stuff

Did I mention I worked on the novel? Yeah? Uh…

Look, a pony!

Damn. Okay, seriously, I did squat this week on any short fiction pieces. I had a super-long sprint with the novel and my head was spinning, and then yesterday Felicia Day. So, yeah. I’ll do better next week.

Open Calls I Know About

And this week’s round-up of open calls for submission are…

Torquere Press has quite a few themed submission calls up right now, the earliest deadline for which is August 15th, 2015.

Unconventional Love – Short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention; deadline August 31st, 2015.

The Myriad Carnival – Nominally shared world carnival setting, LGBT; deadline August 31st, 2015

Glitterwolf Magazine: Hallowe’en Issue – Dark, queer, weird or horror fiction, poetry, art and photography from (as per usual) LGBT contributors; deadline August 31st, 2015.

Girls on Campus: Lesbian Erotica – College setting lesbian erotica. Erotic romance also accepted; deadline September 15th, 2015.

Burning Bright – An anthology looking for stories exploring the darker side of Shifter romance; deadline September 30th, 2015.

Bi Guys – Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and their Admirers; synopsis September 1st, 2015; deadline October 1st, 2015.

Ink Stained Succubus – quite a few different calls, including M/f, F/m, M/M, and lots of different genre calls; earliest deadline is September 15th, 2015.

Men in Love – M/M Romance; deadline November 15th, 2015.

Covalent Bonds – Geeks in Love; deadline December 15th, 2015.

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures; Deadline January 1st, 2016.

Other places to always check include the Lambda Literary Calls of Submission page.

Heard of any good calls lately? Pop ’em in the comments, too.

Writing Wednesday – Release Date!

The original title of this week’s Writing Wednesday was going to be “Now What?” As in, “what do I work on next?” I’m aware that I’m not done Triad Blood in the strict sense – it needs editing, fine tuning, etc. – but I’ve sent it out to Beta folk, and I usually stop and breathe for a bit after finishing a rough draft to consider the next project.

I’m in analysis paralysis right now – I have so many ideas, and I’m not sure what to pitch next. It doesn’t help that the endless renovation is endless – everything should have been done by now, but the wood floor we chose has been a nightmare to acquire. Home Depot, I’m glaring at you, buddy.

But instead of “Now What?” an e-mail from the always awesome Angry Librarian (a.k.a. Sandy Lowe) arrived with my actual release date.

The Novel

So, folks, I can now tell you that Triad Blood launches May 18th, 2016. This? This is exciting.

I need to sit down and start planning all the things related to getting the word out and blogging and all that good stuff, but right now I’m just basking in the glow. I had no idea if I had it in me to write a novel within a year. Turns out I do.

Y’know, if I give up the day job.

The Short Stuff

Ah… well, I did submit three things last month, but as per the Jeffrey Ricker initiative, that means nothing now that the calendar page has flipped. It’s August now, and I need to get my butt in gear. I completely fizzled out on the threesome idea I was working on – I’m annoyed about that, as I think the kernel idea is a sound one, but as per usual I couldn’t get the word count right, and I was trying to fit too much in the space of a short narrative.

That said, there are still many calls for submission out there, and I shall apply myself to them.

Speaking of…

*

Open Calls for Submission I know about…

Torquere Press has quite a few themed submission calls up right now, the earliest deadline for which is August 15th, 2015.

Unconventional Love – Short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention; deadline August 31st, 2015.

The Myriad Carnival – Nominally shared world carnival setting, LGBT; deadline August 31st, 2015

Glitterwolf Magazine: Hallowe’en Issue – Dark, queer, weird or horror fiction, poetry, art and photography from (as per usual) LGBT contributors; deadline August 31st, 2015.

Girls on Campus: Lesbian Erotica – College setting lesbian erotica. Erotic romance also accepted; deadline September 15th, 2015.

Burning Bright – An anthology looking for stories exploring the darker side of Shifter romance; deadline September 30th, 2015.

Bi Guys – Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and their Admirers; synopsis September 1st, 2015; deadline October 1st, 2015.

Ink Stained Succubus – quite a few different calls, including M/f, F/m, M/M, and lots of different genre calls; earliest deadline is September 15th, 2015.

Covalent Bonds – Geeks in Love; deadline December 15th, 2015.

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures; Deadline January 1st, 2016.

Other places to always check include the Lambda Literary Calls of Submission page.

Heard of any good calls lately? Pop ’em in the comments, too.

Write this Picture! (#1 – Sunlit)

At Romancing the Capital, I met Kayleigh Malcolm, who is hysterical, talented, and you should be following her and reading her stuff if you’re at all interested in some smoking hot romance. Keeping in touch after conferences is one of the best things about conferences, and Kayleigh has hooked me up with that awesome Camp Nanowrimo thingamabob tracker that I used all through July for my editing of Triad Blood, as well as this new notion: a photo prompt.

Now, “Write this picture!” doesn’t have a lot of rules around it (another reason to love Kayleigh Malcolm), but the bare-bones idea is to once a month use a photo as a writing prompt. Beyond that, what each author does with it is up to them, but as the other authors post their prompts, I’ll link to them here so you can see how a single picture is worth so much more than a thousand words.

The photo reminded me of one of my favourite places – Sooke, B.C. I began writing stories set in a fictional – but similar – town called Fuca a while back, and have been there twice in fiction. This prompt makes the third.

*

*

Sunlit

A momentary lapse in concentration and now here he was.

Wherever here was.

Sam took a deep breath. As far as accidents went, it was a good one. It was a beautiful spot. A narrow lake, clear enough that the trees reflected in an impressionist’s dream. The air smelled clear and fresh – nothing like the air had been just minutes ago in Calgary – with maybe a hint of rain to come.

Right now the sky was clear, of course, and he glanced at the rising sun, feeling the warmth on his face and – beneath the comfort – that unease tugging at him on some deeper level.

Sam resisted the pull.

He deserved a break somewhere nice. It wasn’t like anyone was at home waiting for him. And, really, given how long it had been since he’d slipped up like this, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been trying.

Sam turned, taking in the full length of the lake, and jolted when he saw the large cabin. It was fairly new, and well tended, and had a long upper deck running along the view of the lake. He looked around, worried that someone might have seen him, but…

He looked at the sun again. It was rising. He frowned. Sunrise had been an hour ago in Calgary, which meant he was quite a way west. Given the mountains to the east and the trees all around him, he was going to guess he’d ended up on the west coast, or near to it. He looked out at the lake again and wondered – it was narrow, and there was an island opposite, yes, but could the water lead to the ocean?

He had no idea.

On the plus side, local time being so early, it looked like no one had seen him.

Sam pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and started walking up to the cabin, curious. As he came around the side, he saw a small parking lot with about a half-dozen cars, a large placard with what looked to be local trails marked, and a sign above the entrance to the cabin itself.

Fuca Cabins – Green Cabin Rentals – Relax. Breathe. Enjoy.

Sam froze. His body tightened, and he took a physical step back from the sign.

Fuca? He was in Fuca? He looked back over the water and – sure – now he could see that it could very well be a part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but this place was new. Panic rose inside him. He looked at the sign again. Relax. Breathe. Enjoy.

Right. Maybe if you weren’t the dark cautionary tale of the entire town, that could be possible.

He had to get out of here.

“Hello,” someone said.

Sam jumped, letting out a startled yelp.

The man who’d come round the side of the cabin raised both hands. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Sam did his best to recover, putting on his game face. Years of practice nearly failed, he was so shaken, but he managed to smile and shake his head. “No, no. I was just lost in thought.” He took a moment to look at the man who’d come around the corner of the cabin. He was slim, and handsome, in a scruffy way that said he’d only had passing acquaintance with a razor in the last couple of days. His hair, a sandy blond, was a bit messy and a bit too long, and yet the overall unkemptness suited him. Even his t-shirt, a faded yellow that had seen better days, seemed to fit the man in some way that Sam couldn’t put his finger on.

His eyes were a rich brown, and the smile lines around them put Sam even more at ease.

“It’s easy to do that here. You checking in?”

Ah. Sam maintained his smile, thinking quickly. He didn’t know how long he’d be here, exactly, so checking in was definitely not on the list.

“No,” he said. “I’m just scouting around. I grew up around here.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them. Why in the world had he admitted that?

“Really?” The man tipped his head, smiling. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks.” It came out a little stiffer than Sam had intended.

The man’s expression softened. “Not a welcome visit?”

Sam exhaled. “Unexpected.” Which was one way of putting it.

“I’m Ashley.” The man offered his hand.

“Sam,” Sam said, shaking.

“I thought so.” Ashley coloured, a blush coming easily to his cheeks when he saw Sam’s alarm. “It’s your eyes.”

Right. Amber eyes weren’t particularly common, and Sam’s were more striking than most. People commented on them all the time, and remembered them.

Even, apparently, after almost twenty years.

“I’m sorry,” Sam’s voice was a bit brittle. “I don’t think I know you.”

“You were friends with my brother,” Ashley said. “Doug?”

“Doug Bradley,” Sam said, barely breathing the name. He blinked, and looked at Ashley again. “You’re Sprout.”

Ashley groaned. “That would be me.”

Sam’s hands were shaking. “Sorry.” If anyone should know the desire to throw off something from the past – even a nickname – it was Sam. He felt sick, and a little dizzy. This was Sprout? He remembered him as the kid brother Doug never wanted around, buck-toothed and always covered in mud. Not lanky and handsome, with dark eyes that seemed to know very well just how much Sam didn’t want to be here.

Fuca. Why the hell was he in Fuca?

He could feel the sun at his back, the warmth spreading through him, and the strange pull that had been growing since he’d arrived.

He needed to get out of here.

“I have to go,” he said, blurting it out.

“Sam, wait,” Ashley said, and reached out. He caught Sam’s wrist, and the touch sent a jolt up Sam’s arm. Ashley let go almost immediately, taking a step back from Sam and looking at his hand like he expected it to be burned.

The two stared at each other. The pressure was building inside Sam at an alarming rate. He’d never felt it like this before, not even when he’d been a kid and…

Oh God. It was going to happen right now.

“Ashley,” Sam said, and that was all he managed to say. The sunlight caught him, and he couldn’t resist as it snapped him back. He rode the light – those few beautiful seconds of warmth and motion and weightlessness – and then he was standing on the deck of his small apartment in Calgary, his cup of coffee still hot on the little glass table where he’d left it.

The last thing he’d seen before everything had turned that blinding, golden white was the look on Ashley’s face. It hadn’t been fear, or surprise, or even shock.

It had been a kind of recognition.

Sam took several deep breaths, staring out unseeing into the Calgary skyline, and beyond, to the mountains. On the other side of the Rockies, in a little town called Fuca, he knew Ashley Bradley was standing outside a cabin rental building and looking east.

Sam picked up his cup of coffee and sipped.

Maybe it was time to go back to Fuca for real.

*

If you’d like to read more about Fuca, you can meet Keith Bradley (yep, same family as Sprout up there) in Tales from the Den, where the cabins mentioned above are first being built in a story called “Wind and Tree.” You can also meet the local artist-done-well Dylan Hurley and his own return trip to Fuca in “Time and Tide,” found in The Touch of the Sea.

Want to see what other authors did with the same photo?

Kadian Tracey shows us a man who might be beat (and maybe even broken) but who has a place he goes to when things go wrong. I met Kadian at Romancing the Capital, too, and she’s fab.

Sunday Shorts – The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2)

A while back, like many Sci-Fi readers, I learned about the whole sad puppy/rabid puppy thing and hit my daily quota of bigotry. However, I did find some good things that came out of that awful situation, including that two of the authors that said bigoted group promoted asked to withdraw from consideration, rather than be associated with said slate.

Now, I believe that the moral high road in this case might very well have cost said authors some cash – the Hugo award list was something people mentioned often at the bookstore, and I know it made sales bump when the winners were announced. So it behooved me to purchase something from those authors to hopefully offset the potential negatives they’d have.

One of those authors, Annie Bellet, was on the list for her short story, “Goodnight Stars,” which is included in The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2). Now, I’ve been having a craving for apocalypse tales, and I nabbed this collection (as well as the first novel in the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series, because paranormal and gaming nerd!)

Uh. Where was I?

Right!

*

The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2), edited by John Joseph Adams

There are so many ways the world can end. There are, of course, zombies – I’m really quite tired of zombies, by the way – but it’s the varied tales in this collection that really gave me pause. There is absolutely something here for everyone.

To whit:

An Earth where everyone is starting to be born “Sweet.” These people can’t handle acting in a way that harms others – no violence, no ecological impact, nothing – because when they do, their very bodies reject it and they can die. The world begins to implode between horrible victimizers and these perfect victims who can’t even fight back – and yet, can something worse be on the way?

A mold that is slowly eating everything – and everyone. The woman who help design it has already lost her wife (note: yay for diverse Sci-Fi!) and is desperate to keep her daughter alive as the stuff continues to grow and spread.

An impact shatters and destroys the moon – flinging a rain of fragments down on Earth; for a young woman who’s mother was an engineer on the moon-base, this has double the fear – did she make it off in time? Can she make it to somewhere safe herself? Is there such a place any more? (This is the story Annie Bellet wrote – it’s very good).

And, like I said, zombies, wars, economic collapses… This anthology is definitely worth a gander if you’re at all interested in the genre. Sub-genre? Sub-sub-genre? Uh, if you like apocalypses.

*

Until next week, keep it short…

Writing Wednesday – The End (ish).

It’s Writing Wednesday, where I hold myself accountable in public. If I didn’t, I’d probably never get anywhere near as far as I do, because… uh… lazy? Shame motivates me? I don’t know. I don’t delve too deeply into my own psychology.

The big news this week, of course, is I made good on my promise of last week: I’m done.

Well, “done” would be more correct.

The Novel

Rough draft completed. I have a month before the book is due into the publisher, so now I’ll go over and over and over the rough draft, snipping out words, fixing spelling to US standard, watching for slip ups in repetition. The stuff you do as much as you can before your editor points out the thousands of other times you’ve done it and didn’t notice.

I’ve got some beta readers who’ll be getting this version – I always have such mixed feelings about releasing a beta version to readers, because – frankly – before an editor helps me with a manuscript, I’m aware it’s nowhere near what I’d like it to be. Still, blessed are the beta readers, for they point out massive issues.

Anyway. The book. Boom. “Done.”

Y’know, other than edits, copy edits, line edits…

The Short Stuff

I have been so darn good – and so darn bad – about short fiction this month. I’ve submitted three things this month, which is a record for me. I have not, however, finished the story that’s basically due the 31st, so… Eep. I know what I’ll be doing the rest of the month. Y’know, both days.

Damn it.

Fingers crossed.

Still, one of the best parts about being done the draft of Triad Blood is now I can step away and work on short fiction without feeling at all guilty, and – deep breath – get back on track with those open calls for submission I’ve been listing below without often managing to contribute.

*

Speaking of open calls for submission, here are the ones I know about…

Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History – An anthology of YA historical fiction from the point of view of marginalized people; deadline July 31st, 2015.

Crazyshorts! Contest – You can enter with 1-3 short-shorts of up to 500 words each for $15 (which includes a subscription to Crazyhorse); deadline July 31st, 2015.

Solarpunk Dragon Anthology – Think dragons + steampunk + sustainability, diversity, and community; deadline July 31st, 2015.

Threesome: Him, Him, and Me – Matt Bright is editing for Lethe an erotic anthology dealing with one of the more adventurous of trysts, the threesome; deadline August 1st, 2015.

The Engorged Book of Gay Vampire Stories – Reprints of gay vampire fiction; deadline August 1st, 2015.

Torquere Press has quite a few themed submission calls up right now, the earliest deadline for which is August 15th, 2015.

Unconventional Love – Short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention; deadline August 31st, 2015.

The Myriad Carnival – Nominally shared world carnival setting, LGBT; deadline August 31st, 2015

Glitterwolf Magazine: Hallowe’en Issue – Dark, queer, weird or horror fiction, poetry, art and photography from (as per usual) LGBT contributors; deadline August 31st, 2015.

Girls on Campus: Lesbian Erotica – College setting lesbian erotica. Erotic romance also accepted; deadline September 15th, 2015.

Burning Bright – An anthology looking for stories exploring the darker side of Shifter romance; deadline September 30th, 2015.

Bi Guys – Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and their Admirers; synopsis September 1st, 2015; deadline October 1st, 2015.

Ink Stained Succubus – quite a few different calls, including M/f, F/m, M/M, and lots of different genre calls; earliest deadline is September 15th, 2015.

Covalent Bonds – Geeks in Love; deadline December 15th, 2015.

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures; Deadline January 1st, 2016.

Other places to always check include the Lambda Literary Calls of Submission page.

Heard of any good calls lately? Pop ’em in the comments, too.

Sunday Shorts – Discovery: QSF’s Second Annual Flash Fiction Contest anthology

I often feel very self-serving when I talk about anthologies in which I have a story included. I generally discuss them without mentioning my story at all. In this particular case, not including myself there are over a hundred other authors, so I’m feeling very little shame in talking about this anthology.

The blurb really covers the structure, so here it is: The rules are simple enough. Write a complete story—either sci fi, fantasy, or paranormal. Make sure it has LGBT characters and/or an LGBT vibe. And do it all with just 300 words.

The stories in this volume run the gamut, from platypus shifters to alien slug monsters, from carnival horror stories to haunting stories of ships with souls. There are little jokes, big surprises, and future prognostications.

*

Discovery, from Mischief Corner Books

Broken into a few chapters, each of these flash fiction pieces clocks in at 300 words or less. There are two sections of Science Fiction that bracket sections of Fantasy, Horror, and the Paranormal. With over a hundred entries, I can honestly say there’ll be something in here you’ll enjoy. As we all know how squeamish I can be about horror, there was a whole section I was actively dreading, frankly, but even that piece had entries that caught my attention and made me smile.

Are there reoccurring themes? Yes and no – I noticed quite a bit of romance tied into the various flash fiction pieces, and there was a larger ‘G’ component from the LGBTQ spectrum than any of the other letters (though I was super-stoked to see an Ace story, and that’s not to say there were no L’s or B’s or T’s in there).

Here’s the thing, though – I’m not usually a reader of flash fiction, and I have to admit that reading it was quite relaxing. Maybe that’s not the right word for it – there was not a lot of effort required. Each story was there so briefly that I got to enjoy it and smile, and then I was ready to turn the page or turn out the light (it was my bedside book for a couple of weeks) and I didn’t have to remember anything for my next reading of the book.

It’s fun to read that way. I couldn’t do it every time, but I really appreciated the book for the opportunity to do so. Especially while my house is under renovation and concentration is limited, this was the perfect book. It’d be great for a book-bag, work breaks, or any other “Catch-as-catch-can” reading time.

And even when I didn’t connect completely with a story it wasn’t a big deal. Investment wise, I’d spent very little time, so I didn’t feel as let down as when I’m fifty pages into a book and decide I’m done (that’s my own personal rule: if I’m not there by page fifty, I stop). And for all that there are over a hundred stories here, I didn’t have that moment very often. I liked them.

Perhaps because they all have that “discovery” theme, there’s most often a little sideways twist involved in the micro story, and as such, it feels like reading a series of “aha!” stories. Micro mysteries, almost, or cunning reveals. And I like those.

Did I have favourites? Of course. I really got a chuckle out of Storm Grant‘s “A Rock and a Hard Place,” where a man’s ex attacks the new boyfriend, and the poor guy discovers things are not at all what they seem in a very big way. I also really liked Astrid Amara‘s “Anomalous,” and Jenn Burke‘s “Self Actuating,” which won the contest – both were a little dark and sad, but so clever.

So, I’m stoked I took part, happy that the anthology includes my little story, and really quite pleased to have discovered what was – to me – a very different reading experience.

(Oh, and as always, when I get a new book out, I do a Goodreads Giveaway – if you click that link, you can enter yourself into the draw.)

*

Until next week, keep it short…

Writing Wednesday – By This Time Next Week…

This is Writing Wednesday, where I hold myself publicly accountable for how the writing is going. And this time? This time I’m even making a promise.

Okay, I’m going to say it out loud.

By this time next week, I will have completed the draft of Triad Blood that I’ll be then sending out to beta readers.

Woah.

That? Felt. Awesome.

Renovations being what they are (read: loud and constant interruptions) and my ability to focus being what it was (read: easily distracted by said loud and constant interruptions), I’m glad I was in the position I was in before the renovations began, as they slowed me down. A lot.

But – on the plus side – almost done.

The Novel

I’m going to clock in somewhere around 75k, which, given my estimate of 70k, surprised the heck out of me, though it shouldn’t. When I write short fiction, I’m almost always over my word count and then need to claw back. But with Light I came in under my estimate. And then, once edited, it was even lower. So, I’m taking this 75k with a truckload of salt. Any bets on going below 70k, once my editors look at it and remind me that “that” is a superfluous word most of the time?

(Also, see what I did there?)

I’m not gonna lie, guys, I’m also very nervous. I don’t know if my pacing is right. I don’t know if I’m screwing up with some of the characterizations. I don’t know if the big-bad is… well… big or bad enough. But beta readers are like gold (beta readers who’ll tell you what they hated are like platinum and diamonds), and I’ll be doing my best Elsa next week.

Phew.

The Short Stuff

So. Far. Behind.

And yet, ahead.

So, on the one hand, I’ve submitted three pieces (!) this month. One the other hand, none of them were for the ticking-clock deadlines that are approaching at the end of this month. That threesome story I’ve been working on is trying to kill me, and after that there’s a carnival theme I can’t quite wrap my head around, and… and…

Anyway. Also, I’m doing a giveaway for a copy of Discovery, the anthology of flash fiction LGBT sci-fi that includes my little story ‘Entangled.’ If you like LGBT sci-fi and fantasy and horror, and don’t mind reading stories that only make it to about 300 words? Go and click. You could win.

I’m also not going to lie – one of the most awesome things about nearing the end of Triad Blood is knowing I can refocus on some short fiction.

At least for a while, until the Beta folk tear Triad Blood to shreds hand me back its bloody corpse, upon which I will sprinkle the tattered remains of my ego.

*

Open Calls for Submission

Here are the calls for anthologies I have bumped into over the last while…

Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History – An anthology of YA historical fiction from the point of view of marginalized people; deadline July 31st, 2015.

Crazyshorts! Contest – You can enter with 1-3 short-shorts of up to 500 words each for $15 (which includes a subscription to Crazyhorse); deadline July 31st, 2015.

Solarpunk Dragon Anthology – Think dragons + steampunk + sustainability, diversity, and community; deadline July 31st, 2015.

Threesome: Him, Him, and Me – Matt Bright is editing for Lethe an erotic anthology dealing with one of the more adventurous of trysts, the threesome; deadline August 1st, 2015.

The Engorged Book of Gay Vampire Stories – Reprints of gay vampire fiction; deadline August 1st, 2015.

Torquere Press has quite a few themed submission calls up right now, the earliest deadline for which is August 15th, 2015.

Unconventional Love – Short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention; deadline August 31st, 2015.

The Myriad Carnival – Nominally shared world carnival setting, LGBT; deadline August 31st, 2015

Glitterwolf Magazine: Hallowe’en Issue – Dark, queer, weird or horror fiction, poetry, art and photography from (as per usual) LGBT contributors; deadline August 31st, 2015.

Girls on Campus: Lesbian Erotica – College setting lesbian erotica. Erotic romance also accepted; deadline September 15th, 2015.

Burning Bright – An anthology looking for stories exploring the darker side of Shifter romance; deadline September 30th, 2015.

Bi Guys – Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and their Admirers; synopsis September 1st, 2015; deadline October 1st, 2015.

Ink Stained Succubus – quite a few different calls, including M/f, F/m, M/M, and lots of different genre calls; earliest deadline is September 15th, 2015.

Covalent Bonds – Geeks in Love; deadline December 15th, 2015.

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures; Deadline January 1st, 2016.

Other places to always check include the Lambda Literary Calls of Submission page.

Heard of any good calls lately? Pop ’em in the comments, too.

Sunday Shorts – “Whet,” by J.D. Romann

I’m sure y’all know I adore short fiction, and by now you probably also know I love stories that step sideways into the paranormal or the speculative. You probably also know how much I love that the world e-publishing has allowed the short story a new ability to be experienced – authors can release a single story, or even a small collection that would never be enough for a print publication, and readers – and authors – benefit.

There’s a great example of said benefit in today’s Sunday Shorts.

*

Whet, by J.D. Romann

The four erotic pieces that make up Whet have all the hallmarks of good speculative fiction, and are frankly finely written to boot.

Previously published in other anthologies, there are four Romann short stories collected together here: a singer who has lost his voice; a pair of sailors who are lovers who fish a nearly frozen man out of the sea; a big Hawaiian hunk who is courted by someone or something dark; and a man whose fame has left him adrift in the sea, only to be washed ashore at the door of another lost soul – an encounter which might help both of them chart a new course.

The erotica in of the stories is presented in a very literary and fantastical style – which is not to say the scenes aren’t hot. They are, but those seeking a more earthy or gritty take on the erotic will likely find themselves having to adjust a bit. Go in with the expectation of a that different level of prose, and you won’t even blink (but you will blush). The narratives themselves are very good – I liked the characters, who feel real even when reality is melting around them, and the stories are fully fleshed even though they are short fiction pieces (always a delicate balance). And loosely, the four stories all have at least a few moments of cold and/or water to tie them together in a what makes them a themed quartet.

These tales are really striking, and I’ll be looking for more Romann.

*

Not that I’m in any way lacking for new tales to plunder, but have you read any awesome short stories lately that I should know about? Let me know – I’m always looking. And until next time, keep it short.