So the publisher I'm currently working with, Supposed Crimes, does primarily Gay Lit and have other branches for other, such as Acquitted Books which published the poetry book. I turned out to be their first poet, though I didn't know this at the time. After I was contacted, I looked and thought it over and said yes, signing up with my first publisher. The owner of the company and myself email a bunch and pretty early on I saw that we had a connection on art and saw things very much the same.
I checked out the website and they look to have some really cool books. They had/have anthology submissions. Two anthologies that they were taking submissions for were a vampire book called "Canines" and a sexual tension book called "Almost". I looked over their similar requirements and thought them over. There was to be a specific minimum on the word count, the lead had to be gay, and Canines had to deal with vampires while Almost had to deal with sexual tension but no sex, just the want and urge.
I had the very beginning of an old story that was to eventually BE a vampire story and finished it, changing the male lead to a female creating a lesbian vampire short story. It's pretty short, 4-5 pages. I won't know if it'll be accepted for the anthology for months as its release date won't be until September, but here's to hoping. I enjoyed the story and it was written differently than originally thought of but better. These kinds of submissions with guidelines are great writing practice/training grounds.
The other story for "Almost" was going to be harder. I'd never written a sexual tension story before and my history of writing romance is pretty close to zero. As a straight man, it's easier for me to write lesbian characters than gay male characters. With that said/thought, I wanted to challenge myself and write the story about two men. Actually, you'd be amazed how easy it is to write for the opposite sexual orientation as the laws of attraction are the same across the board. That was One challenge of the story, then another; I had to do something closer to my field as, again, I'm not used to this kind of story. I can read and watch these kinds of stories but writing them, for me, was a whole new thing. I decided to make it a ghost story, which, by the way, I've rarely written. So this story alone was great training on three levels for me, 1. working with gay male leads, 2. a sexual tension/romantic situation, and 3. a ghost story, which I'm not used to writing and, in all honesty, I rarely even care for (it's not my kind of horror). So I wrote it in texts to myself and told the story in first person. Had no clue what to call it until I got to the end and the story told ME what it would be called, "Dream of Me". The story was liked and accepted but then bad news came; there weren't enough stories to get the book filled and so it was cancelled. I may put it on here at some point. I like it and it helped my writing. Tip: sometimes it helps to get out of your comfort zone.
Beyond the anthology submissions there was a novel submission. Now, as I've kinda said before, I'm not really a novelist and this whole book thing was a surprise to me. However, with that said, I was curious. The submission was for "Science Fiction as Hard as Ice". The guidelines were a certain word count, the lead has to be gay, and having to do with hard science fiction. Hard science fiction, for those that don't know, is more science driven and less fantastical. Think more 2001: A Space Odyssey and less Star Wars. I love Hard Sci-Fi but the thought of attempting to write it was scary to me. While I love sci-fi very much I honestly haven't written it much, let alone this particular subgenre. I thought, "Okay, I want to write this book. I can show them I can write more than poetry and this could help my writing grow." Followed by the thought, "I just don't think I'm smart enough for Hard Science Fiction, though I don't want to show that. I'm going to have to weave and fake my way through this." I didn't want to skip out on the opportunity because I was self-conscious and definitely didn't want to tell them that I wasn't smart enough or good enough to do it so I'd stick to something 'easier' and 'more my speed'. Sometimes the only way to learn is to jump in and do it. I thought about a lot of the hard sci-fi films that I love so much and thought of how they told their stories. I noticed that in those worlds, everything wasn't flashy but quite lived in as if these extraordinary things were part of everyday life. In those worlds everything seems very dry and not full of heart-pounding adventures on a physical level but on a mental level; as if it's the mere IDEA of these things are the draw and not so much the action caused by said idea.
I ran through idea possibilities in my head like a rolodex. I thought, 'What do I know about that could work in this type of story?' And what I came up with was Medical. My father worked in hospitals for over 20 years but more to my help, I'm in and out of hospitals all the time. I see my doctors more than I see my friends and family. I didn't want it to be on Earth so I chose space (of course). A medical, space travel story. The title is "Last Rites of the Capacitance". Mind you, all of these submissions for them was BEFORE my book was released; in between being signed and released. I thought of my format and hunkered down to write it. I always have projects on the table, a lot of pots on the stove, but I was very committed to do this book for various reasons including growth. I got the first draft done and sent to them before my poetry book was released.
Now, let me go back a minute. While writing it, I kept coming up with ideas that I thought were cool but I didn't think they'd be accepted because they didn't really seem to fit the "hard sci-fi" mold. They weren't fantastical ideas but they were certainly pushing it in a slightly more horror/sci-fi direction. So all those ideas were sidelined but, as I've mentioned on here before, ideas are rarely forgotten in this head. I got my notes back and were far more extensive than expected. It wasn't hurtful to see the changes needed or suggested to be made. Again, I need to grow as a writer. But there was something very interesting in these notes. I said up at the top ^^ that my publisher, Christy Case, and myself have a chemistry. I'd say %90 to %95 of the notes were suggesting the VERY ideas that I discarded. I was flabbergasted. I emailed back immediately with all kinds of "I swear to you, I'm not lying, A,B,C, & D were going to be in there!" lol It's funny how things work out. The other notes struck me at first but then I read the reasoning and it all made sense. Note: There's a difference between constructive criticism and just critiquing or putting something down without reason; i.e. if you're going to say "no" or "that doesn't work", offer a reason and perhaps a solution. One of the notes, another idea I'd discarded, changes the format of the book almost entirely, which will be where most of the work on the rewrites will come in.
Since getting the copy of the book back with all the notes, I ended up getting hit with other projects. Before getting the notes I started on a horror anthology (now being looked over by Supposed Crimes) in hopes to be their first horror writer as I was with their poetry. My wife and I were planning on co-writing a different horror anthology but it wasn't supposed to happen for some time. Once my personal copies of Gun Control for Polar Bears arrived at the house, something in my wife clicked and she was very adamant about us doing our book NOW; something I wasn't really expecting and wasn't on my schedule for some time.
The plan was for the book to be sent to Supposed Crimes. Part way into writing the book my wife and co-writer revealed that she didn't want to go with them; she wanted it to be bigger and go farther than an indie company. Since this was going against the original plan and what I'd been already talking to my publisher about, I decided to finish work on the solo anthology of mine, "Sharp Items & Bad Intentions" and send that in. I finished mine and sent it in and the co-written book was finished not too long after (both completed in April). With My book now being looked over, I'm currently reading the co-written book which my wife has edited. Upon doing my own edit, I was stopped and told that she likes everything the way it is lol. Keep that in mind when you co-write, folks. So at the moment, I'm currently reading it and won't be editing it. She's discussing self-publishing. All I can really say is whatever is going to happen with it will happen.
With two horror books down this year I'm very excited to get back to Last Rites of the Capacitance. It's really cool and different and unlike other things I've written. Since the first draft being done, I've thought of other sci-fi ideas for the company; one I shared with them and they liked.
After telling a friend about these "gay lit" based stories, they asked me something to that of "I dunno, you think it might be kind of embarrassing though? I mean, you're straight, and you're going to be writing gay stories." As if I were getting my foot in the door as an actor by doing gay porn. There's nothing wrong or embarrassing writing Gay Lit as a straight writer. For starters, it's not all I write. I also pointed out the fact that these stories don't have to do with being gay as they're just stories that happen to have gay characters. I noted the wonderful horror film High Tension; one of my favorite horror films. In essence it's a lesbian horror film. My friend didn't think about it like that; just saw it as a good horror film. It's a fantastic creepy movie that just happens to have a lesbian character as a lead but it's not pushy, doesn't shove a lifestyle in your face. I ended with telling them that those specific stories/books I write for Supposed Crimes, I push for them to be like that: great stories that happen to have gay characters as opposed to GAY CHARACTER (story in the background).
So there it is, the road to Capacitance. I will be getting back to my rewrites this week and I hope it won't take long to do - I like to work fast. I'm excited for the changes and where it'll take me. Between the first and upcoming draft I already feel I've grown, having worked on several projects in between (not just the two anthologies). Last Rites of the Capacitance will be my first sci-fi book and while I was nervous about it, it let me know that I can do it and I'm excited to get it out and work on more in the genre.
Again, I may post the "Dream of Me" short story at some point.
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