Definitely Loud, Definitely Proud

By some strange coincidence, I find myself kicking off two of BtV's monthly themes in a row.  This time it's "Loud and Proud: LGBTQ Characters, Themes and Plots on Page and Screen".  Unlike fan fiction, this is an odd fit for me.

Well, I'm definitely loud.  All of my friends and family would agree on that point. But I'm not Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans or Queer.  I've got friends who qualify in every category--some more than one--but I'm vanilla.  Even in my fanfic days, I didn't write m/m.  It wasn't that I didn't read it.  It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it.  In fact, some of the descriptive passages I read in those days were hot enough to melt steel, to say nothing of me.  But it just wasn't my area of expertise, so I didn't even try.

Until I did.  "Personal Demons", my contribution to the lesbian fantasy anthology Hellebore and Rue, recounts the story of a tantric sorceress and her lover dealing with demonic possession in contemporary Alexandria, Virginia.  I told the story behind the story when the anthology first reached the virtual shelves.  Even though the story behind the story had a happy ending, it showed that prejudice against LGBTQ characters remains, even in the "anything goes" world of science fiction and fantasy.

But support for LGBTQ fiction is strong and growing stronger among the reading public.  Hellebore and Rue soon made it to print and remains available in paper format, despite the shuttering of our original electronic publisher, Drollerie Press.

Furthermore, the anthology didn't just hang on.  It prospered, winning a 2011 Rainbow Award for Best Science Fiction and Anthology.  It was also named a 2011 American Library Association Over the Rainbow LGBT Book for Adult Readers--an honor shared by less than 75 books out of roughly one million books published in English each year.   To say nothing of more than a dozen reviews, with more appearing each month, a full year after the book's publication.

This tells me that things are getting better.  Every day people grow more accepting of and receptive to the fictional representation of alternate life styles.  Much as some pundits try to deny it, the real world follows fiction.  Life does imitate the good things in art--maybe not as closely or as often as we'd like.  But there's no denying it does, which gives me hope for our nonfiction future.  And something more.

As someone who fought the good fight for two LGBTQ characters, it makes me proud.  Most definitely proud.

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Jean Marie Ward

"Personal Demons" -- the little story that could

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away—well, ten years ago on the Intarwebs, a small press put out a call for stories about the price of magic. According to the editor, fantasy writers should treat magic like any other force in the universe. If it was an energy, it needed a fuel, a power source. If it was an action, it needed a reaction. He used as his example Sokurah, the evil magician in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Every time Sokurah used his power, he visibly aged.

I figured a lot of people would take that course. The problem is natural forces aren’t necessarily so simplistic. Take athleticism. You’d think hard, sustained physical exertion would prematurely age a person. But since I worked in the personnel side of the Department of Defense, I knew, strange as it seems, the reverse is true.

Military retirees live longer with a higher quality of life than their civilian counterparts. Part of that has to do with lifetime annuities and health care. But even taking those benefits into consideration, retirees still live longer and stronger. Why? Because they were routinely pushed to their physical limits and beyond. Their career requires them to maintain peak physical condition into their fifties—sometimes into their sixties. That's the secret to their health and longevity. Why couldn’t magic work the same way, strengthening its practitioners over time?

Which isn’t to say there isn’t a cost to military life. But off the battlefield, the greatest cost of the military lifestyle is personal: broken families, broken relationships, broken lives.

Again, why couldn’t magic work the same way, exacting a price that was personal instead of physical?

So I wrote my story, but the editor rejected it. The note cited my ignorance of telepathy. Huh? Did I mention that before I worked in DoD personnel I spent a couple years answering the public’s questions about the military’s experiments in telepathy and remote viewing? My DoD career was…varied.

My husband Greg said my use of telepathy wasn’t the problem. The problem was my two main characters were lesbian, and the male editor couldn’t handle it. “But he said he wanted diversity!” I yelped.

Greg looked at me pityingly. “Unless you include hot woman on woman action, a guy isn't interested.”

Well, Greg would know. I tried a couple more markets. As it happened, all of them had male editors, and all of those male editors rejected the story for equally peculiar reasons. One objected to the way I had sensation traveling up a character’s spine. Another cited my disrespectful attitude toward pagans (did I mention my protagonist was a tantric sorceress, and she’s a really, really good person?). Then there my “inappropriate” use of irony. Finally, I gave up and consigned the story to the Save file. I believed in the story, but the time and the markets just weren’t right.

Fast forward to February 2010. Drollerie Press issued a call for stories about "queer women magic users". A couple months later I learned my little story, now called “Personal Demons”, had found the perfect home in the Drollerie Press anthology Hellebore & Rue. What made this even sweeter, was the editors, Joselle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff, had won many awards for GLBT fiction. In other words, I’d gotten the relationships right. That was my biggest fear for the story: Did I capture my characters feelings? Were the emotions and non-magical situations realistic as well as real to me? The fact that I got it right had me happy dancing for days.

Hellebore & Rue, containing the little story that could, is now on the virtual shelves. Click here if you’d like a taste. But if you'd prefer to sample the whole dish—and see the fabulous company my little story keeps—downloads are available from Drollerie Press and Amazon.

Happy reading!

Jean Marie

Shameless Self-Promotion: New Short Story Sale

"Personal Demons", a tale about demonic possession and tantric sorcery in Alexandria, Virginia, has been accepted and contracted for Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff. (Insert demented happy dances here. :D) I've loved this story for ages, but people told me it would never sell because my protagonist happened to be a lesbian. Just goes to show the story (and its magically gifted heroine) knew better than anybody. They were waiting for the right home, and what a lovely home it will be. Like Samhain, Drollerie Press has a rep for fantastic covers and amazing content. I can't wait to read the other stories in the anthology. Fortunately, the wait won't be too long. The editors and Drollerie Press hope to issue the ebook in time for Halloween. This year! Color me thrilled.