Larry Benjamin's Blog: Larry Benjamin's blog - This Writer's Life, page 11

Marriage Equality - It Really Does Matter: My Own Story

It was Tuesday, May 20. We were about to get out of the car to explore a new thrift store in Rehoboth Beach when my Twitter stream went crazy. U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones 3d had found Pennsylvania’s ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional.

My brother called, then texted the news when I didn’t answer.

In the middle of that thrift store, using my phone, I scrolled through the posts on Twitter in elation...and disbelief.

“We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the trash heap of history,” Judge Jones wrote in his elegant opinion.

No Stay.

Then, on Wednesday, Governor Corbett announced, “I have decided not to appeal Judge Jones’ decision.”

On Thursday, May 29, we went to Philadelphia City Hall and applied for a marriage license. There were two straight couples and us. No one looked twice at us.

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Reflections on Pet Tombstones & Love

Perhaps our human relationships and experiences with love can be better because we have loved a dog or a cat.

In this week's blog post, I explore the relationship between the ability to love an animal and the ability to love a person.
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What Binds Us

Yes This Boy Does - Reflections on My Second Reading

On Thursday, May 15, I had the distinct honor of reading with five other Lambda Literary finalists at Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia. Among the finalists reading were fellow Philadelphian and Philadelphia University professor, Phil Tiemeyer, filmmaker and author, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, and poets Michael Klein and Brian Teare.

Two weeks before, I’d done the finalist reading in New York. But this felt different. It was on my home turf. Stanley would be there. I had more time to read from my book.

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What My First Reading Taught Me

I talk a lot about always feeling other, always feeling alien. For the most part this feeling of otherness is something that envelopes me like my skin. I tend not to think about it unless something irritates me, sort of how we tend not to think too much about the skin we’re in until a blemish erupts, or a mosquito makes a meal of us.

Tuesday night I had the great honor of participating in the Lammy Finalist Reading at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York (Yes, Virginia there is such a thing, and if you haven’t been there I urge you to go check it out.) It would be the first time I ever read in public and I admit I was a tad nervous—okay more than a tad. Also New York itself unnerves me: all those people, all that crackling energy, all that movement. My brother met me at Penn Station and we went to a diner for lunch. And then it was 5:15 and we were walking into the museum. I was the first reader to arrive. They were setting up a display of finalists’ books for sale and there it was—on the left at the front—Unbroken. My Unbroken. I stepped back. Was this really happening? I pulled out my phone and took a picture in case it all suddenly disappeared like a dream.
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Wednesday Briefs: The Lucky and the Damned

In this week's, flash fiction, a gay son confronts his father for the last time.

St John and his father were not close though they’d only had one argument in their life as father and son. When St John confessed he was gay, his father had called him immoral.

“Heterosexuality,” St John roared, “Is not a universal truth!”

“You,” his father had countered angrily, “are an abomination! You and your kind, are damned.”

“Damned? Damned, did you say? Hah! We soar, unchained by your righteous morality, your church-sanctioned unions. Our possibilities are unlimited―unlike yours which are limited by the circumference of a vagina!”

The argument had occurred when St John was fifteen. His mother China had intervened and calmed them both down. But the chasm that opened between them that day was to remain open, uncrossable.

After that, when he and his father did speak, they did so cautiously; their language constricted, their wording taut. They asked each other only closed questions, tightly phrased, which allowed no wrong answers and led to no conversations.

Now looking at his father, laying in his coffin, St John thought he didn’t look so much at peace as robbed of malevolence.
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Let's Talk About Sex - A Roundtable Discussion

This week on my blog, we’re trying something different. I have invited several writers: WS Long, Andrew Q. Gordon and Hans Hirschi, all of whom write gay fiction, to join me a virtual roundtable discussion on the topic of sex in gay fiction. Debbie McGowan, author, editor and publisher graciously agreed to act as our moderator.

Read & enter to win a $30 Amazon Gift Card. We’re also giving away eBooks.

Read the post now and join the conversation.

My Writing Process – Blog Hop

In this blog post, I attempt to provide some insight into the creative process that is writing for me, as part of the “My Writing Process” blog hop. Thanks to my fellow writer, the creative and fun Lise Horton for “tagging” me and allowing me to participate in this fun blog tour. Feel free to comment in my writing process or ask me a question using the comments section at the end of this post.

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Return to Aurora: Micah’s Story

In today's flash fiction post I revisit the setting from What Binds Us In the two years since What Binds Us was published, many readers have asked what happened to Matthew and Thomas-Edward after the book ended. This is not meant to be a sequel but it does provide a glimpse into their lives after their original story ended.

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Catching Up With…m/m romance author Dev Bentham

Today, I’m chatting with m/m romance author, Dev Bentham. Dev and I first met two years ago as new authors when Carina Press released our debut m/m romances, Moving in Rhythm and What Binds Us on the same day in 2012. Since then we’ve become friends, though we’ve never met. In honor of the second anniversary of debuts on March 19, I thought I’d catch up with Dev and see she’s been up to.

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Guest Blogger Nikolas Baron

With my stories, with my words, I try to create characters and worlds and invite my readers into those worlds and introduce them to the inhabitants of those worlds, my characters.

With three books under my belt, I have also come to understand the value of good editing, so I am happy to have Nikolas Baron from Grammarly as my guest blogger this week. Nikolas chose to talk about travel writing. As I read through his post, it occurred to me that his advice has broader application because we, as writers, are inviting readers to take a trip with us, to meet new people, travel to new places. Keep reading.