Recently I was asked to write an introduction for one of my writing idols an mentors (can't say who, yet, as I don't know much of the project beyond it being to support queer fiction and writers) and came across an interview in which the author said they don't consider themselves a queer author. They are in a same-sex relationship and the novels they write involve same-sex relationships, but if a label needs to be applied to the author, they're a writer. A good one.
Which got me thinking about the characters I write. The vast majority are gay or bisexual. That's just the way my writer brain spits things out. And I don't think I've written anything where the characters worry about being gay or coming out and worrying what their friends or family are going to think. My stories aren't about being gay and coming to terms with it; that fact is just a part of who they are and they have other things to worry about, like saving the world or killing an incubus before it kills them.
I recently found the movie
A Single Man at the library and picked it up. It's a gorgeous film based on the book by Christopher Isherwood (whose boyfriend has a brief cameo in the movie, as does the director's.) It's set in 1962, and notable in that there's only one overt reference to discrimination toward same-sex relationships. Otherwise, the characters just are who they are and love who they love. In the "Making Of" special feature, the director mentioned that the film wasn't about being gay; Colin Firth's love interest
could have been a woman, and the overall message of the film would have been the same. Colin, too, said he didn't worry about "being gay" for the character. The character was a man who'd loved and lost and it didn't matter what sex his lover was. (Colin Firth is an amazing actor in this movie, and there are several nice shots of Nicholas Hoult's bare behind.)
One time I did a critique for an author who wanted my input on the gay sex scenes. I looked at it--and not only did they not work as gay sex scenes, they didn't work as sex scenes in general. They were flat and emotionless and did nothing to further the story. In the end, I told the author the same thing--Love is love. Sex is sex. The emotions involved are the same. In the end, we're all just people, whomever we love.
And, speaking of all types of love, my next book,
Eliana, will be out on Feb. 19th from Loose Id. M/M/F BDSM.
Evey Brett
