Something Unusual for Me - Andrew Grey

Yesterday while I was on Facebook, Dreamspinner added a post about Eyes Only for Me and someone posted that the story looks as thought it will be different from my other work.  She went on to say that I'd never written 'Gay for You' or 'Our for You' stories and she would be right.  Those are themes I have stayed away from.  I find those themes difficult to deal with and I thought I'd take a moment to explain why.

The coming out process for me was very difficult.  Of course it was another time and under different circumstances than today.  My company was conservative and I could lose my job, I had no idea how my family would react, and it took a while for me to make the journey where I could accept who I was.  I think the last part was the hardest.  For me coming out was a journey form not liking who I was, to accepting and finally embracing myself.  It took many years, a lot of angst, as well as dear friends who helped show the way.  (Barb and Dottie are both gone now, but they live on with a special place in my heart.) 

Anyway, the concept of gay for you is very difficult for me to understand.  I understand that the concept can seem romantic, but in a way it seems to throw mud in the face of the journey of self discovery that I had to make.  See I have to be honest.  I would not choose to be gay if I had the choice to make.  I'd want to be like everyone else and not suffer discrimination and have to fight for every civil right everyone else gets or worry that I could be targeted just by walking down the street.  Just to be clear if I had the choice to make, I'd also choose to look like Eric Bana in Troy.  Tall, dark, and stunning. :)    Why not go for it all?  Right?  But we don't get to pick and choose and we all learn to accept who we are.

Hence the concept of Gay for You rubs me the wrong way.  I much prefer the concept of Out for You or in the case of Eyes Only for Me, Ronnie learns to discover and embrace the fact that he's attracted to both men and women.  (Bi For You)  :)   So to answer my original question, this is my first story of this type and I chose it because the character and situation were right for me to work with. They had to fit with my beliefs.  Writing Eyes Only for Me was a growth experience for me as a writer and as a person.  I can see where I will write more stories like this so I can do additional exploration. 

Reserve an advance copy if you like:   http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/stor...


This week I did not have a question to answer.  Please send  your questions and Ask Andrew will return.   Ask Andrew is your chance to ask questions of a gay romance author.  The questions can be about the writing process in general, writing sex scenes, gay men, sex, characters in romance, characters having sex... okay you probably get the picture.    I promise to answer your questions as frankly and with as much humor as I possibly can.

So if you have a question, please send it to andrewgreybooks@comcast.net.  This is different from my usual email so your questions don't get lost.  I will answer one question a week.

Please remember this is meant to be all in fun.  (I was going to say good, clean fun, but who wants that.)    So send me your questions and let's see what mischief we can get into.

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