The Wordsmith's Forge

Romance Writers Association has officially come out as homophobic and discriminatory, banning same-sex romances from their contest. Okay, anyone who makes a contest can make up the rules for it. But it's more than a little counterproductive for a genre based organization to cut out part of its own content, just because it makes some people "uncomfortable." You know what makes me uncomfortable? Bigotry. That's as romantic as a knee in the crotch.

A good way to express such disapproval is with a boycott and a round of Poke a Bigot in the Eye. Instead of writing and reading a het romance, write or read a queer one instead. Instead of giving money to RWA for dues or anything else, take the same amount and put it somewhere queer.

Maybe drop something into the fundraiser for Plunge, a webzine dedicated to queer women in genre literature. Fund a few verses of my poem "The Morose Mascot," where two lesbians help a porcupine escape his evil mistress. [Unknown LJ tag] has Nadia, a vampire who prefers female partners; in this project characters may be adopted, stories requested, stories sponsored, etc. ("Morgan - First Feed Part 1" is a Nadia story waiting for sponsorship to become public.) Looking for a sweet male romance? Check out "The Less Than Epic Adventures of T.J. and Amal," currently in the running for a Rose & Bay Award in the Webcomic category. Over in Torn World we have various options including the adorable series about Dini and Lalya by [Unknown LJ tag] (most of which are public, one waiting for sponsorship) and my story "Owlheart" about Tekura and Osro (also waiting for sponsorship). There's plenty of romance in alllll combinations in the crowdsource fandom Schrodinger's Heroes. Feel free to play with any of the characters. "French Military Victories" has male/male romance; it's a crossover fanfic and thus not fundable, but you can read it and giggle. [Unknown LJ tag] has all kinds of queer characters spanning various superhero soap opera plot threads.

Want more queer romance? Ask for it in any prompt call where it seems to fit. (See a list of February crowdfunding projects.) The February Creative Jam here has a theme of alternative sexualities / QUILTBAG -- my, how timely! Bring your prompts, your muse, and your money. Torn World Muse Fusions are always wide open. [Unknown LJ tag] is running an asexual romance fest for Valentine's Day, spanning Feb. 7-21; if you like queer romance for its own sake, without expectation of sex, there's an opportunity to celebrate it. My Poetry Fishbowl this month has a theme of "wild animals" and I'm open to covering any of the thousand or so species that are homoactive.

Do you run a crowdfunded project? Consider setting "queer romance" as a theme, or touching on this topic in your ongoing work.

You could also look through the Rose & Bay Award nominees to see which ones have queer content; there are several.

I've thrown out a handful of examples here, stuff I've written or read regularly or remember off the top of my head. If you write, draw, filk, or otherwise portray queer romance and want to promote your project then please describe it in a comment.

Romance is for everyone. In crowdfunding, nobody has to take "you can't play" for an answer. So let's give the dirty laundry a good steam-cleaning!

This poem came out of the January 17, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from ellenmillion and kelkyag.  It was sponsored by janetmiles.  It belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman, and you can read more about that on the Serial Poetry page.

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Here is today's first freebie poem.  It was inspired by prompts from rowyn and moon_fox.  This is a sequel to "Fiorenza and the Witch-son," in which Fiorenza and Giacinto further explore the attraction and challenge of their relationship.  Visit the Serial Poetry page to learn more about this series.

After the Fermo market closed for the day
Giacinto the striòs  turned to Fiorenza and said,
"Would you like to go walking with me?"

So the two of them strolled
through the narrow cobbled streets of the city,
not quite touching
but very conscious of each other's presence.

Giacinto bought a bouquet of flowers.
He tucked a cyclamen into his vest and
Fiorenza put orchids in the black curls of her hair.
She bought a packet of becciate  to share,
savoring the sweets made from raisins and pine nuts.

"It is a difficult thing," Giacinto said presently,
"to fancy someone who lives in another village."
"So it is," Fiorenza agreed.
Their long skirts swished against the stones of the street,
Giacinto's in deep marine blue, Fiorenza's in forest green.
For a time they walked in silence
except for the soft whisper of the fabric.

Fiorenza thought about her home,
the little cottage with its garden and orchard and
the precious glass house that sheltered the delicate plants.
She thought about Mad Ercole who lived with her,
and Don Candido who would wear himself out if allowed,
and all the other people who relied on her.
A wisewoman accepted a certain immobility
along with the privileges and duties of her station.

"I like you very much, Giacinto,
but I cannot leave my village," said Fiorenza.
"The people need me.  It is hard enough for them
to accept me so young,
after my mother and grandmother died."

"I understand," Giacinto said sadly.
"My mother is old and I cannot leave her.
My villagers count on me for much already.
It is hard enough for them
to accept a son instead of a daughter."

So they kissed cheeks and parted,
saying in chorus,
"See you next market day."

I was inspired by the_vulture's charming ink sketch based on one of my Sketch Fest prompts, "He gave her not his heart, but his lungs, for she was his breath."  The result is this poem about an everyday hera and her gentleman in distress.

When he nearly drowned,
she came to save him
and pulled him to shore.

She kissed him back to life,
plucked away his flippers,
peeled off his frog-green wetsuit

and told him to be more careful.

All that summer,
he watched her,
and when the dune grass turned
from green to gold,
he pledged his troth.

He gave her not his heart,
but his lungs,
for she was his breath.

Theirs is a love like air:
invisible yet ever-present,
encompassing everything,
powerful enough to move

even the ocean.

This poem came from the May 3, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon.  It was sponsored by Shirley & Anthony Barrette.

The rock of our love
is smooth as water,
polished by all
that has gone before.

The rock of our love
is heavy as an anchor,
weighted with all our
thoughts of gravity.

The rock of our love
is shiny as a mirror,
filled with every moment
of our reflection.

The rock of our love
is both folklore and fact,
both symbolism
and jewelry.

The rock of our love
is not something that we buy,
but something that we
build upon.

This poem came out of the December 6, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a comment from aldersprig and sponsored by Anthony Barrette.

One day she was sitting
in an ice cream parlour
with her fiancé,
her future laid out before her
like a dessert buffet.

She lifted the cherry
from the top of her chocolate sundae,
all dripping with whipped cream,
and offered it to him.

He refused.

In that moment she knew
that her engagement would bear no fruit,
that their love was slowly shriveling
like the stem of a picked cherry,

and it left a bitterness in her mouth
as sharp as the aftertaste of saccharine.

This article about poetic justice and character influences contains some great tips.  These apply to all fiction, and the rest is mostly focused on paranormal romance:

1) "The key the writer needs to grasp is how a character's free will choices combine with the prevailing influence in her life to produce events which, though decades apart in time and place, nevertheless are related poetically."

2) "Literature teachers sometimes demand that a "book review" written by students to prove they read the novel in question should point out how the ending demonstrates poetic justice. Old classic novels all had this element, though it's harder to find in recently published SF Fantasy or Romance."

I'm always looking for those aspects in my own writing.  The first deals with character virtues and flaws, motivations, and setting.  In a good story, there will be humming tension between what a character wants and what they can easily reach.  They should have to navigate a lot of challenges to get what they want.  Choices don't always turn out as planned.  (Another handy rule is, "The first thing a character tries, never works.")  So then, it's interesting when the character pulls one way and the world pulls another.  I set up for that when I'm doing a character build for roleplaying or Torn World, etc. -- and I watch for it when exploring characters I meet through fiction.

I also love poetic justice, although not everyone does and it needn't be in every  story.  But I have an abiding joy in watching villains Come To A Bad End, and I find that especially gratifying when their own bad choices and actions play into what happens to them.  Real life doesn't always come with a sense of justice.  If I wanted to be depressed, I'd watch the news.  I read fiction in part to remind myself of those occasions when the wheel of karma runs over jerks like an express train crushing a grape.  Plenty of people like to indulge in a little literary schadenfreude, so it's a useful thing to include. 

Schrodinger's Heroes  is an apocryphal television show about quantum physics and keeping the Earth safe from alternate dimensions.  If you're not familiar with it, you can browse the menu page.  The following images may make more sense if you have read the descriptions for Melannen's characters and my characters.  LOL_Heroes is a branch of LOL picspam inspired by Schrodinger's Heroes.

Previous batches have introduced the black cat Schrodinger from the core team, who is good; and his white alter, evil!Schrodinger.  This batch of images features good!Schrodinger and evil!Schrodinger interacting; see my LJ scrapbook G!S-E!S for full-size images. (They are sometimes abbreviated as E!S and G!S in LOL_Heroes, to save space.)  Naturally, they start out as mortal enemies.  But this is fandom, so then things get interesting...

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Nicola Griffith has a cool post on the way her characters talk about love.  It includes the observation that she can't stand being in the heads of characters who don't know and speak their own feelings.

Me, I find it entertaining to watch the sparks fly between a character who is emotionally fluent and one who is not.  There are other things I strongly dislike, though -- stupidity is a big one for me.  Both as a reader and a writer, I hate it when characters do obviously stupid things, or especially, keep making the same mistake over and over again.  I also dislike characters who let other people mistreat them and don't do anything about it.

What are some of your literary turn-offs?

I encourage you to read "Prosy: A Conversation of Thought & Mind."  clare_dragonfly created this haunting, beautiful story about two women in a broken relationship.  Per my prompt, they are conversing entirely in the language of flowers, in a wet late-season garden.  The description and mood are just so evocative.  *wist*  I would love to read more of it, and the author has an idea where the story would go.  Extensions are available for $1 per ~100 words.