Here I go again

*sigh*

OK, enough of that. Now let me fill you in on what my plans are for my blog. Basically, I wanted to find a simple way to share with you my experiences as an aspiring queer novelist. My hopes. My setbacks. The things I learn along the way. And if you’re really nice, maybe I’ll even podcast some of it.

Perhaps you’re wondering what queer fiction is. In short, as I define it, queer fiction includes short stories and novels that features gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex people and the unique experiences we face. It includes coming out stories, romance, erotica and lesbian murder mystery.

But it also includes a lot more. After all, being queer involves more than coming out, falling in love, having sex and discovering dead bodies. Being gay or gender-variant changes how we see the world and how the world sees us. It may not define who we are, but it certainly shapes our experiences. And it is this that I am hoping to capture in my fiction.

A big part of my life experience, in addition to being gay and trans, involves my struggles with addiction, codependency and suicidal depression. These issues affect queer people three-to-four times as often as straight or gender-normative people. I haven’t come across many queer novels that deal with these issues. So I plan to explore them through the lives of my fictional characters.

Two years ago, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (aka Nanowrimo). The goal is for each Nanowrimo participant to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I did it that year and again the year after that. It is a great experience in turning off the internal editor and learning how to be disciplined in writing every day.

I spent much of 2008 editing my first Nanowrimo novel, then sent it out to a bunch of agents and some small press publishers. The results? A lovely stack of rejection letters. Don’t worry. I didn’t take it personally. So I hired a freelance editor to go through the manuscript and let me know what wasn’t working. From her, I learned that while I have a good writing style, my story structure was severely lacking. So I have been putting the story through a major overhaul.

I was about halfway through this major rewrite when I realized that I just wasn’t feeling it. The story was lacking the excitement it needed. So now I’m going back to square one again and try taking it a chapter at a time. I don’t know if that will help, but I’m willing to give it a try.

In addition to my novel writing, I have begun writing short stories for the first time in twenty-five years. It started when my writer’s critique group decided to have a short story contest. After some prodding from the group organizer, I agreed to give it a shot. I’ve also submitted this same story to Glimmer Train‘s “Family Matters” contest. First prize is $1,200. Results to be announced on December 31st. Fingers crossed!

I’ve also written another short story which started out as a flashback from a previous version of my first novel. I pulled it out and am editing it so that it stands on its own. I will keep you posted on that as well.