Kelly Wyre's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
What Have You Done for Love Lately?
If I had a dime for every time I heard, "But why do you write THAT?" ... If I had a quarter for every shocked look, side-step shuffle, arched eyebrow, or curled upper lip I get for telling people I write male/male fiction, I'd say forget royalty checks and live on the incredulity of the masses.
The short answer to why I write what I do is, "Because I want to."
The long version is, well... longer. Some of it has to do with characters and the way I make them. Some people, when they discover what I do and feel compelled to change my ways or to learn more about this alien, misguided creature they've just unmasked, ask me, "But wouldn't you make more money if one of [the characters] was a woman?"
And when I tell the person, "Maybe, but I can't do that," and I get, "But you're the author!" I want to tell them, "Okay. I'm going to write a story about your life, but I'm going to make you gay."
"But I'm not gay!"
"Well, my characters aren't straight."
"But they're not real."
At this point I would sigh and drudge up a common example. "Was Bella Swan a girl or a boy?"
"A girl."
"What if she'd been a boy?"
"But... she couldn't have been a boy."
"Why not?"
"Because Edward wouldn't have loved her if she were a boy."
"Why?"
"Because... he's straight."
"Why is he straight?"
"Because he's a 100-year-old vampire."
"And that's just who he is?"
"Well, yeah!"
"...I rest my case."
My personal dislike for the Twiawful series aside, everyone will agree that a good character is one who seems so real you wish you could find someone just like them.
And about the money thing... What I do isn't about money. It's about love. Okay, it's also a little about obsession and insanity and the voices that wake me up to tell me about that time in the whorehouse during the war that broke out on another planet fifteen centuries ago, but I couldn't listen if I didn't love what I do. If I wanted money, I'd be jumping on the 50 Shades of Crap train or still be in my old career in marketing.
Instead, I choose to be part of a secret society working to change the world.
See, you may not want to think about it, but there's hordes of people out there who are beaten, brutalized, chastised, shunned, disowned, hated, and sometimes killed for having the audacity to love someone.
Hell, we can't even stop despising people who have non-white skin, much less learn to smile and take comfort in two men or two women who have both the affection for one another and the bravery of us-versus-them to allow them to kiss on a public street in the Bible Belt, USA. I love America, and I'm glad to be here, but it still makes me want to scream and pull out my hair when I see evidence that our government, founded for the people by the people, has forgotten that the "...certain unalienable rights... among these, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" were endowed by the Creator -- not courts, social norms, religious groups, or state constitutions.
God gave us the right to be happy. Man keeps trying to take it away.
Maybe it's because I've always felt different. Maybe it's because I was ostracized growing up in a small rural town because I was female, because I had glasses, because I was smart, because I wore weird clothes, because my family didn't go to church every Wednesday and Sunday, because I was outspoken, angry, and even though I was 5'3" and weighed ninety pounds soaking wet, I would stand up for the kid getting shoved into a locker because he was more different than me and was in the wrong place with the wrong people. I've never been sexually abused, I don't secretly want a penis (the sex toy industry has provided me with ways to have more than one, and I thank them kindly), and while I do hate being female for reasons that are well-founded and largely medical, I don't think being male would fix my troubles.
I'm just me, and I feel a kinship with people who are trying like hell to be true to themselves and to find love and companionship despite the odds. I can't say I was always brave enough to try to do something to support this group. I didn't start writing male/male fiction with activism in mind. I just write stories, and I always have. When I was a child, my mother used to ask me why I wrote from a boy's point of view instead of a girl's. I told her, "Because that's the way the story goes, Mom."
And when I started writing two male protagonists fighting, living, struggling, overcoming, and loving... I never saw anything wrong with it. Through some grace of the Universe, I found a way to get those stories to a wider audience, and I followed that path. I don't know where it'll go. I don't know how long I'll be on it. I have many stories in my head, and I hope I live long enough to write even a quarter of them.
But now I confess to having this vain, idealistic, silly hope that somehow, these tales will make a difference somewhere, somehow. It makes me want to throw plates at peoples' heads when they imply that what I'm doing isn't "the real writing." I think my family and many of my friends are waiting for me to grow out of this phase. You know, much like a lot of families are hoping their teenage daughter gets over wanting to kiss her female best friend.
It makes me angry, and it makes me ache, because I know how hard it's been sometimes just to write about being gay. Forget living it (though, Hi, I'm bi, by the way). Forget trying to come out, survive high school, find support, or live in a country that doesn't think your love is real enough to warrant recognition, basic inheritance rights, or marriage.
I know in the great, grand scheme of things, this issue is small. Half the damned globe is still caught up in barbarianism. We still kill each other for resources, land, sex, religion... Dear God, how do we come up with so many ways to hate and hurt each other?
I'm no hero, prophet, great mind, or role model. I can't even tell my own father what I write because I'm terrified he'll hate me for it. Usually I just tell people who ask that I write romance and let them take over the conversation from there with the, "Oh, how nice, let me tell you what I would write about if I had all that free time and concentration and didn't need a real job..."
But maybe next time I'll say the truth without prodding. Maybe I'll tell them:
"I write about men and women living in an alternate world where being yourself is widely accepted. Gay marriage is allowed, and sometimes wealthy, beautiful men will help find you wedding planners. Abusers of all sorts get swift justice. Friends support each other. Lovers do their best to learn about and adore all parts of their spouses. People find hope despite incredible odds stacked against them.
"And I write those stories because I like to think that if we read about it enough, we'll want to make it real. If we can get cell phones and automatic doors from Star Trek because we thought it was cool, why not a world where love trumps hate, where there's always someone to hold your hand through rough times, and where fear comes in last place? Sure, it sounds crazy, but in 1966, so did landing on the moon, much less laptops, iPads, or YouTube MySpace, Google.
"It's not the only work I do or will do, but it might just be some of the most important stuff I'll ever write in my life. Because I love it. I'm moved by it. It makes me happy, and my mother always used to say, 'Happiness is up to you.'
"So go on," I'll say, "Tell me I'm strange, it's weird, and it doesn't matter as much as what you think I should be writing."
I'll just smile and shrug and keep doing what I'm called to do.
--Dee, AKA, Kelly Wyre, author of the New Amsterdam Series
The short answer to why I write what I do is, "Because I want to."
The long version is, well... longer. Some of it has to do with characters and the way I make them. Some people, when they discover what I do and feel compelled to change my ways or to learn more about this alien, misguided creature they've just unmasked, ask me, "But wouldn't you make more money if one of [the characters] was a woman?"
And when I tell the person, "Maybe, but I can't do that," and I get, "But you're the author!" I want to tell them, "Okay. I'm going to write a story about your life, but I'm going to make you gay."
"But I'm not gay!"
"Well, my characters aren't straight."
"But they're not real."
At this point I would sigh and drudge up a common example. "Was Bella Swan a girl or a boy?"
"A girl."
"What if she'd been a boy?"
"But... she couldn't have been a boy."
"Why not?"
"Because Edward wouldn't have loved her if she were a boy."
"Why?"
"Because... he's straight."
"Why is he straight?"
"Because he's a 100-year-old vampire."
"And that's just who he is?"
"Well, yeah!"
"...I rest my case."
My personal dislike for the Twiawful series aside, everyone will agree that a good character is one who seems so real you wish you could find someone just like them.
And about the money thing... What I do isn't about money. It's about love. Okay, it's also a little about obsession and insanity and the voices that wake me up to tell me about that time in the whorehouse during the war that broke out on another planet fifteen centuries ago, but I couldn't listen if I didn't love what I do. If I wanted money, I'd be jumping on the 50 Shades of Crap train or still be in my old career in marketing.
Instead, I choose to be part of a secret society working to change the world.
See, you may not want to think about it, but there's hordes of people out there who are beaten, brutalized, chastised, shunned, disowned, hated, and sometimes killed for having the audacity to love someone.
Hell, we can't even stop despising people who have non-white skin, much less learn to smile and take comfort in two men or two women who have both the affection for one another and the bravery of us-versus-them to allow them to kiss on a public street in the Bible Belt, USA. I love America, and I'm glad to be here, but it still makes me want to scream and pull out my hair when I see evidence that our government, founded for the people by the people, has forgotten that the "...certain unalienable rights... among these, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" were endowed by the Creator -- not courts, social norms, religious groups, or state constitutions.
God gave us the right to be happy. Man keeps trying to take it away.
Maybe it's because I've always felt different. Maybe it's because I was ostracized growing up in a small rural town because I was female, because I had glasses, because I was smart, because I wore weird clothes, because my family didn't go to church every Wednesday and Sunday, because I was outspoken, angry, and even though I was 5'3" and weighed ninety pounds soaking wet, I would stand up for the kid getting shoved into a locker because he was more different than me and was in the wrong place with the wrong people. I've never been sexually abused, I don't secretly want a penis (the sex toy industry has provided me with ways to have more than one, and I thank them kindly), and while I do hate being female for reasons that are well-founded and largely medical, I don't think being male would fix my troubles.
I'm just me, and I feel a kinship with people who are trying like hell to be true to themselves and to find love and companionship despite the odds. I can't say I was always brave enough to try to do something to support this group. I didn't start writing male/male fiction with activism in mind. I just write stories, and I always have. When I was a child, my mother used to ask me why I wrote from a boy's point of view instead of a girl's. I told her, "Because that's the way the story goes, Mom."
And when I started writing two male protagonists fighting, living, struggling, overcoming, and loving... I never saw anything wrong with it. Through some grace of the Universe, I found a way to get those stories to a wider audience, and I followed that path. I don't know where it'll go. I don't know how long I'll be on it. I have many stories in my head, and I hope I live long enough to write even a quarter of them.
But now I confess to having this vain, idealistic, silly hope that somehow, these tales will make a difference somewhere, somehow. It makes me want to throw plates at peoples' heads when they imply that what I'm doing isn't "the real writing." I think my family and many of my friends are waiting for me to grow out of this phase. You know, much like a lot of families are hoping their teenage daughter gets over wanting to kiss her female best friend.
It makes me angry, and it makes me ache, because I know how hard it's been sometimes just to write about being gay. Forget living it (though, Hi, I'm bi, by the way). Forget trying to come out, survive high school, find support, or live in a country that doesn't think your love is real enough to warrant recognition, basic inheritance rights, or marriage.
I know in the great, grand scheme of things, this issue is small. Half the damned globe is still caught up in barbarianism. We still kill each other for resources, land, sex, religion... Dear God, how do we come up with so many ways to hate and hurt each other?
I'm no hero, prophet, great mind, or role model. I can't even tell my own father what I write because I'm terrified he'll hate me for it. Usually I just tell people who ask that I write romance and let them take over the conversation from there with the, "Oh, how nice, let me tell you what I would write about if I had all that free time and concentration and didn't need a real job..."
But maybe next time I'll say the truth without prodding. Maybe I'll tell them:
"I write about men and women living in an alternate world where being yourself is widely accepted. Gay marriage is allowed, and sometimes wealthy, beautiful men will help find you wedding planners. Abusers of all sorts get swift justice. Friends support each other. Lovers do their best to learn about and adore all parts of their spouses. People find hope despite incredible odds stacked against them.
"And I write those stories because I like to think that if we read about it enough, we'll want to make it real. If we can get cell phones and automatic doors from Star Trek because we thought it was cool, why not a world where love trumps hate, where there's always someone to hold your hand through rough times, and where fear comes in last place? Sure, it sounds crazy, but in 1966, so did landing on the moon, much less laptops, iPads, or YouTube MySpace, Google.
"It's not the only work I do or will do, but it might just be some of the most important stuff I'll ever write in my life. Because I love it. I'm moved by it. It makes me happy, and my mother always used to say, 'Happiness is up to you.'
"So go on," I'll say, "Tell me I'm strange, it's weird, and it doesn't matter as much as what you think I should be writing."
I'll just smile and shrug and keep doing what I'm called to do.
--Dee, AKA, Kelly Wyre, author of the New Amsterdam Series
Back in Black (and Blue!)
Good morn-er, AFTERNOON, oh cats, kittens, ladies, gents, and gentlefreaks!
I am back from my tour through the entirety of New England, and can now officially say I've been in 41 of the 50 states, including both Alaska and Hawaii. There's a blog post coming over on LJ about all of that (I have about 300 pictures, a dozen videos and notes... and am recovering from driving about 2800 miles in nine days, so do forgive the delay. I can't feel my anything.), but first, wanted to give a small heads up on New Amsterdam progress...
The Next Full-Length Novel
...is in the works. We've actually written it once, scrapped it, and are doing a take three (take two was a false start). I can tell you that the star of the story was referenced in Winter's Knight . We really, really hope to have that one together and in good hands in spring.
Another Novella?
I've got a kid rolling around in my head (and by "kid" I mean "twenty-two-year-old") who would really like a word with the reading audience. Much like Shot in the Dark , it'll be another stand-alone novella that will introduce at least one character who will play a major role later. Or, well... I HOPE this kid will get a role later, as while the novella in my head now has a happy ending, I don't think it's the guy's, "Forever-after" happy ending, if you will.
Shorts and Other Things, Oh My
Torquere has an amazing new Leather line that's all BDSM, all the time. Oh my does THAT sound appealing. We've got something cooking for Lucian and Shea, (Winter's Knight, other). There's also another Daniel and Clark (Hearts Under Fire, "The New Deal," others) in the works with a possible third party cameo from Ellis (Shot in the Dark). AND, if that's not enough playing around, we're thinking of something entertaining with a gang of the men. And I think Raine wants to bring Sorrenson back in sometime sooner rather than later. You read about him in "Swing Shift."
Ellis is getting his own book. Oh, and yeah... we agree that Tim Akkard and Kris Fawkes definitely need books. Ya know... soon.
(And yes... Tim IS straight.)
So... right. Busy we are! And happily so.
A Note on New Amsterdam Connectivity
The New Amsterdam world is designed to be a series of "major arc" books and various novellas and short stories that are good to stand alone but also play well with others. Usually the shorts/novellas will introduce characters that will later play a part. There is an "order" to all the stories, full-length and short-stuffs alike, so to speak, but reading the books out of said suggested order shouldn't disrupt the ripples in space/time fabric too much. We hope. No guarantees, though. If Cthulhu shows up on your back porch for ANY reason, we did NOT have anything to do with it!!!
Other Projects
Raine and I are working on a website that's going to consolidate Raine's, mine, and ours. It will make following us and the updates a TON easier, we hope. For us and for you! Updates on progress shall be announced with the trumpet bellow of 500 naked bandmen. You'll hear about it, no worries.
Until Then...
Check out the The Whole New Amsterdam Series or Read the Freebies and Extras!
Now then: to follow all this chaos, here be your links of note:
♠ Stalk. ♠ Us. ♠
We like it roughed up in the dark.
♥Demented, Inc. Headquarters
♥Kelly's Facebook
♥Kelly on Goodreads
♥Kelly's Blog
♥Raine's Blog
♥Raine's Facebook
♥Raine on Goodreads
Much ♥!
-Kelly
I am back from my tour through the entirety of New England, and can now officially say I've been in 41 of the 50 states, including both Alaska and Hawaii. There's a blog post coming over on LJ about all of that (I have about 300 pictures, a dozen videos and notes... and am recovering from driving about 2800 miles in nine days, so do forgive the delay. I can't feel my anything.), but first, wanted to give a small heads up on New Amsterdam progress...
The Next Full-Length Novel
...is in the works. We've actually written it once, scrapped it, and are doing a take three (take two was a false start). I can tell you that the star of the story was referenced in Winter's Knight . We really, really hope to have that one together and in good hands in spring.
Another Novella?
I've got a kid rolling around in my head (and by "kid" I mean "twenty-two-year-old") who would really like a word with the reading audience. Much like Shot in the Dark , it'll be another stand-alone novella that will introduce at least one character who will play a major role later. Or, well... I HOPE this kid will get a role later, as while the novella in my head now has a happy ending, I don't think it's the guy's, "Forever-after" happy ending, if you will.
Shorts and Other Things, Oh My
Torquere has an amazing new Leather line that's all BDSM, all the time. Oh my does THAT sound appealing. We've got something cooking for Lucian and Shea, (Winter's Knight, other). There's also another Daniel and Clark (Hearts Under Fire, "The New Deal," others) in the works with a possible third party cameo from Ellis (Shot in the Dark). AND, if that's not enough playing around, we're thinking of something entertaining with a gang of the men. And I think Raine wants to bring Sorrenson back in sometime sooner rather than later. You read about him in "Swing Shift."
Ellis is getting his own book. Oh, and yeah... we agree that Tim Akkard and Kris Fawkes definitely need books. Ya know... soon.
(And yes... Tim IS straight.)
So... right. Busy we are! And happily so.
A Note on New Amsterdam Connectivity
The New Amsterdam world is designed to be a series of "major arc" books and various novellas and short stories that are good to stand alone but also play well with others. Usually the shorts/novellas will introduce characters that will later play a part. There is an "order" to all the stories, full-length and short-stuffs alike, so to speak, but reading the books out of said suggested order shouldn't disrupt the ripples in space/time fabric too much. We hope. No guarantees, though. If Cthulhu shows up on your back porch for ANY reason, we did NOT have anything to do with it!!!
Other Projects
Raine and I are working on a website that's going to consolidate Raine's, mine, and ours. It will make following us and the updates a TON easier, we hope. For us and for you! Updates on progress shall be announced with the trumpet bellow of 500 naked bandmen. You'll hear about it, no worries.
Until Then...
Check out the The Whole New Amsterdam Series or Read the Freebies and Extras!
Now then: to follow all this chaos, here be your links of note:
♠ Stalk. ♠ Us. ♠
We like it roughed up in the dark.
♥Demented, Inc. Headquarters
♥Kelly's Facebook
♥Kelly on Goodreads
♥Kelly's Blog
♥Raine's Blog
♥Raine's Facebook
♥Raine on Goodreads
Much ♥!
-Kelly
VISION QUEST: Free Read From LT3!
Vision Quest - M/M Fantasy Erotic Romance Novel – Free Read
Co-Authored with A.F. Henley
NOW AVAILABLE FROM LT3 Press
When Arik Beltrán checks into a hotel on business, he expects the tedium of unfamiliar beds and boring meetings. He expects to meet a financial client and be home before the solitude of being a stranger in a mundane land becomes too much to bear.
Instead Arik finds Blaze: a mysterious man with an inner fire that lives up to the name. Nothing in Arik’s life, not his deranged father nor even his faint brushes with the magic only Arik can see in the woven web of life could have prepared Arik for the man in the hotel lobby who casually invites Arik to room 1109 for late night…Well, anything at all.
Blaze Zaituc, on the other hand, knows exactly who Arik is and what Arik needs: Blaze. He has crossed land and sea to find the man who has appeared in Blaze’s Visions as the next target in the Quest that comprises Blaze’s life. Arik is someone for whom the Universe has plans, and Blaze must make sure Arik complies. Or else.
Unaware of the lives and risks hanging in the balance, Arik untangles himself from the sheets in the silent hours of the morning. He wonders if he will find the door to 1109 open and waiting. He’s not a risk taker, but this one time, just this once, maybe he’ll take a chance…
And seal both his and Blaze’s destinies forever.
***
Coming Attractions & Points of Interest
Howdy gang!
New and shiny blog post about the coming soon, currently in-progress, and on the writing docket news.
Check it out here!
Light & Love!
<3Kelly
New and shiny blog post about the coming soon, currently in-progress, and on the writing docket news.
Check it out here!
Light & Love!
<3Kelly
