Cecil Wilde's Blog, page 3

Cover Reveal: No Straight Boys

Here’s the cover for No Straight Boys! It’s scheduled for release August 11th, and it’s about love and friendship and finding yourself by way of late-night texting. Look out for it, I guarantee you’ll love it!

 

15 Things

My grandmother told me the other day, with all the pride she could contain in her tiny, frail frame, the story of how she made my uncle throw away all his makeup as a condition of living with her after he moved back down to Melbourne from Sydney.

There’s a boy–a man, really, he must be in his 40s–in my class who always genders me correctly. He’s never been prompted to do so, he must know someone else like me. He used to be a chef and he’s getting out of the game because he’s tired of working his fingers to the bone for shit money and ridiculous hours and no thanks.

One of my teachers spits my name at me like venom because it doesn’t match what’s on the roll. She knows better than to refuse to call me by it, but it rolls off her tongue like an insult every time. She’s the coordinator for the tiny department I’m in.

A friend of mine showed me one of my old business cards the other day, that used the wrong pronouns and the wrong name. They’d edited it neatly in purple marker, because they wanted to keep it, but they didn’t want it to misrepresent me.

My other teacher likes me. I like her, too, so I’ve never corrected her on my name or pronouns. She told me once that she never gives full marks, but I’d earned them. I’m doing very well in that class.

I saw the phonebook entry for myself in my brother’s phone the other day. I’m listed under the right name, even though he calls me the wrong one out loud. I told him how much it meant to me, and he told me he knew.

An editor once made a note on a manuscript of mine that a trans* character didn’t seem trans*, and that was a pleasant surprise. I thanked her.

A press I’ve just signed on with is happy to use the name I’ve given them. They’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a boy, but I’m not about to correct them. It’s a nice change of assumption.

A girl I knew once told me that bisexuals were only good for sex. Her girlfriend was bisexual. I never told her I was, too. We still talk sometimes.

I filled in a form with an option for gender that’s something other than male or female a week ago. They make my day, every time I see one.

I went to Captain America on opening night, by myself. A woman walked past me as I was washing my hands, telling their friend loudly that the men’s room must be crowded if they’ve started coming in to the women’s.

I’m thinking about getting ‘it’s just a phase’ tattoed on my arm, to save other people telling me so. I’m thinking of confused, genderspecial, greedy, transtrender, liar. I’m thinking they’ll remind me not to let my guard down.

A woman in my class today told us that she didn’t remember a lot of her previous education because she spent most of the time trying to sleep with the other girls in the class. Everyone laughed, without pause, without awkwardness, without judgement.

My girlfriend of three years insisted that she would just call me by my birth name, because that was who I was to her and she couldn’t bare to call me anything else. I let her do it because I didn’t want to lose her.

I’ve met most of my closest and most wonderful friends by virtue of shared queerness. People from all walks of life who I have nothing but love for, and wouldn’t trade for anything.

I’ve lived in queer skin a long time. Sometimes I’d like to slither out of it and leave it behind for someone else to take up. Sometimes it’s armour, protecting me from the worst of the blows the world has to throw. Mostly it’s just an organ keeping all my other organs where they’re supposed to be.

Mostly, I’m really not that different.

Originally published in WORDLY

IDAHOBIT: Freedom of Expression, Representation, and Parties

Today, as you may or may not know, is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.

This year’s focus is Freedom of Expression, and those of you who live in or around Melbourne should definitely come to the Freedom of Expression event at Hares and Hyenas (your friendly local queer bookshop). There’ll be a bunch of talented writers and artists, a talented musician, me, and food. What more could you want from an event? COME PARTY WITH US it’ll be great.

Freedom of Expression is, obviously, an important concept to me. I got my first exposure to queer media through fandom, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to watch queer romance, as a genre, really take off. It makes me ridiculously happy to see the queer experience edging its way into mainstream media and I’m honoured to be a part of it.

Another, related issue close to my heart is that of representation. There’s a quote from Laverne Cox floating around at the moment that I think sums up the issue and the importance therein perfectly:

“So many students have said, trans students have said; now I can have a point of reference when I talk about who I am. My friends are like, ‘Oh, like Sophia from ‘Orange is the New Black?’’ and they’re like, ‘yeah,’ and then they just move on and it’s not an issue,” she said. “I got a letter from a young, from a trans youth’s mother who said that he transitioned because of me and because of seeing me on the show it gave him the courage to talk to his parents about who he was and they’re supportive and loving and now he’s started his transition. It’s insane. It’s really beautiful.”

MTV.com Interview with Laverne Cox

Representation is the obvious follow-on from freedom of expression. I want all of you to take your voices and make them heard, in whatever way your art takes form, and make sure that people like you who may not know they’re not alone or have words to explain how they’re feeling have someone to look to. Take your voices and make yourselves and people like you visible so the world can’t ignore you any more.

Every one of us has the power to make a little difference, just by speaking up. By making our art about us, turning the camera around, putting our words to paper and saying ‘I’m important, too’. You are important. You are so, so important and we need people like you, baby queers and older queers and everyone in between to express yourselves, loud and often. Make people see that you’re here, you’re queer, and you sure as hell aren’t about to shut up about it.

If you do nothing else to celebrate IDAHOBIT, do this one thing. Use your words or your brush, your voice, your camera, your interpretive dance routine, your art, whatever it is, and speak up.

And if you wanna share what you’re doing, how you’re expressing yourself today, I’d love to hear about it.

Contract: No Straight Boys

Have I ever mentioned that I have little bursts of productivity that result in everything happening at once? I’ve just signed a contract with Liquid Silver Books  for No Straight Boys, a novella which I described earlier today as being about a manic pixie dream boy writer-type banging his neighbour. I stick by this description but would add not without complications because there are a lot of those.

I also don’t have a publication date for this yet but I’m told about 100 days from contract to release is standard for Liquid Silver. Either way I’ll provide updated information as and when I have it!

Contract: Defying Convention

I’m extremely pleased to announce that I’ve just signed a contract with Less Than Three Press for Defying Convention as part of their Geek Out collection. This is a solo release of about 20,000 words, and trans*/genderqueer geeky romance.

It’s about a pair of geeky friends who’ve quietly been in love with each other for years, but only ever known each other online. They meet up for the first time at a comics convention and, as you may have guessed, sparks well and truly fly.

More information as I have it to offer, but for now, look out for it if adorable trans* geeks are your thing!

The Story That “Needs To Be Told” Probably Doesn’t

AKA “Inspiration” can absolutely be wrong.

I know what you’re thinking. “What the fuck are you talking about, Cecil?”

I’m actually shocked and amazed that I’m still seeing this among otherwise intelligent, switched-on writers but the thing is, inspiration does not happen in a vacuum. Inspiration is also not a magical gift from any kind of artistically inclined magical being. It’s an idea in a ballgown and you know the thing about ideas? They can be terrible. They can be offensive. They can be the kind of thing that you never, ever need to express and would be wrong for doing so.

I’m not saying you can’t write whatever the hell you want. I am saying that you can’t hide behind being ~inspired~ (or conversely, not being inspired) to write things that are actively offensive. ‘It just came to me that way’ is the writerly equivalent of saying ‘I am literally incapable of preventing myself from voicing every stray thought I have’.

Aim for a higher standard. You are not a helpless vessel at the mercy of some kind of trickster-muse who forces you to write every single thing that pops into your head. Or to fail to edit thoughts so that they don’t end in really unfortunate implications.

I have faith in everyone who puts pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard) that they can do better than regurgitating stereotypes or writing the easiest possible thing because it’s just what came to them. The most magical thing about being a writer is that you get to mold whole universes with your words. You have that power.

Use the power. Don’t fall into the ‘I just felt like this story needed to be told!’ trap. Be aware of showing your ass to the whole world through your actions. Phrase your ideas in their most basic terms to yourself and see if it pings any ‘oh, should I really be saying that?’ radars in your head. Then run it by someone you trust to see if they notice anything you wouldn’t want to be seen saying in public.

Write with a purpose instead of just letting things come to you. Own your purpose. Take your ability to craft with words and use it to say what you really want to say. Because everyone reading your books is going to assume that was really what you wanted to say, anyway.

Let’s Talk About (Realistic) Smut

I feel like there’s a disconnect in (M/M especially, though this is pretty pervasive) erotica/erotic romance where there’s a camp of people who seem to think realism is the goal for sex scenes. Those people are wrong, and have weird ideas about how fiction works.

Actual sex is messy, uncomfortable and extremely boring to write about. “And then they sort of rocked awkwardly for two or three minutes until one of them got a cramp in their leg and demanded the other hurried up,” does not make for good storytelling. It definitely doesn’t make for good porn.

The point is that the way you tell a sex scene should add to the story. Not add tally marks to the ‘has this author actually engaged in this sex act?’ column. Because firstly, I don’t actually want to know that (and I’m pretty sure you don’t either) and secondly, it assumes the reader has, which is one helluva personal assumption if I say so myself.

I feel like this is connected to the general idea that erotica isn’t ~mature~ (I realise how weird that sounds but think about it for a second), so in order to age it up, as it were, we should be adding details like friggin’ preparatory enemas (which are actually not good for you but w/e) and the possibility of your partner’s stubble making you bleed when these things aren’t actually called for (I am, for the record, happy for people to write about those things in appropriate contexts). This is bullshit.

I mean, the people reading erotica are not reading it for a sex manual. (If anyone is actually doing that, can I suggest you go get a real sex manual?). There are probably a few boring pedants who want to talk about rug burn and wet spots and how ridiculous human anatomy and biology is regardless of whether it’s relevant information or not. I, for one, will take pleasure in upsetting them.

My stance on this is basically that realism is wholly unnecessary at best and the sign of someone who isn’t exactly sure what the purpose of a sex scene is at worst.

But if you think I’m wrong, have at me in the comments (also if you agree you’re welcome to do that, I could use the support and reassurance, I am a writer after all and we are delicate fragile creatures).

Blog Launch Giveaway!

Hello and welcome to my brand new and incredibly exciting author blog. To kick things off, I’m giving away 6 months of serial subcription time with Less Than Three Press. If you’re into good LGBT fiction, this is a prize you want!

Entry is simple, painless and free. Please be 18+ and otherwise legally allowed to access adult content if you’re going to enter this giveaway. Otherwise, off you go:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s it! Welcome once again to the new blog, stick around for more fun things. I don’t know what the fun things will be, but I know they’ll be fun.