Coming Out #1: Catherine Lundoff on A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace October 25, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : Coming Out, publications , 2commentsWelcome to Coming Out #1! Coming Out is a series of guest posts in which creators talk about specific newly available works. We based this loosely on John Scalzi’s The Big Idea series, except, since we’re The Outer Alliance, you can expect all the projects to involve QUILTBAG people and/or content. Our first guest poster is Catherine Lundoff, writing about her new collection, A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace.
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I suspect it’s easier to find a single overarching “Big Idea” in a novel than in a collection of short fiction. Part of me wanted to be completely smart-alecky and say, “It’s a bunch of stories by Me” and leave the whole Big Idea notion at that.
But the more I thought about it, the more I recognized that the book does have some overarching common themes. It represents a certain kind of story that I’ve written over the course of the last sixteen years. All the stories in this book have lesbian or queer female protagonists. And all of those characters appear in fictional roles commonly assigned to men: pirate, playwright, private detective, bard, swordswoman. Some of them are very handy with a sword. Some of them are not. Still it is one of the other elements they all have in common: they’re doing the kind of things that I would have loved to read about when I was a teenager and power-reading my way through novels by Dumas, Sabatini, Pyle and Hope. I always loved a good swashbuckler, full of sword fights and deeds of derring-do, where honor trumps almost everything else.
But in those stories, women are love interests to be rescued, or more rarely, villains who are killed like Dumas’ Milady. I always liked Milady. She got a raw deal. She was an entirely memorable character and fiercely, uncompromisingly strong. When I started writing, I wanted to write about characters who shared some of those characteristics: strong women, fighters, though not always with swords. Women I could relate to, but who weren’t me. I tend to write to write about queer women because that’s how many of my characters come to me. The truth is, though, that I want to write about queer women doing things that are about doing things. A writer friend recently pointed out that the majority of my characters take being queer for granted. It’s part of who they are, but it’s not the engine that drives the plot. That would be my worldview working its way through my imagination and looking for inspiration in all sorts of places.
My inspiration for these particular stories was fairly wide-ranging. Some were written because I read about a real woman who fascinated me, like Julie d’Aubigny La Maupin, seventeenth century opera singer and professional duelist or her contemporary, Caribbean pirate Jacquotte Delahaye. Other stories were inspired by editorial guidelines like the one I wrote for the themed anthology that didn’t happen: supernatural mysteries with lesbian protagonists stylistically influenced by Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.
Story inspirations are always a grab-bag, at least for me. I run across a reference and think “what if?” Or a first line comes to me out of the blue. From there, if all goes well, I get a scene, a paragraph or two that kicks things off. After that it’s all about trying to figure out what would happen next to this protagonist in this given situation. I’m not one of those writers who know how the story ends when I start it. I have to follow it on all its twists and turns. Sometimes, the writing flows easily and a story gets written in a few sessions. Sometimes, I go through multiple false starts, working and reworking voice, plot and perspective before the story gels.
For me, putting a collection of those same stories together is all about opportunity. First, I figure out what I have that’s available from the stories I’ve already written: nothing that’s under contract that hasn’t been published yet and which hasn’t reverted back to me, for example. Then I need something to tie the work together so it’s a matter of figuring out what these particular stories have in common. Some will just jump out at me as playing on themes I like to work with, while others are just as clearly a bad fit.
At that point, I also need to figure out what I have that’s unpublished; I always want to give my readers something new. Then once all the selecting and editing and writing of individual stories is done, I get to tackle the magic of story order. Trying to figure out what stories will flow into each other without jarring the reader out of the text is an art in itself.
The truth is, though, that hardly anyone ever reads stories in the order I put them in, but the illusion of control is part of the fun of being a writer in the first place, isn’t it?
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Catherine Lundoff is the award-winning author of Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing (Lethe Press, 2007), Night’s Kiss (Lethe Press, 2009) and A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2011). She is also the editor of Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) and co-editor, with JoSelle Vanderhooft, of Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic (Drollerie Press/Lethe Press 2011). Her website can be found at www.catherinelundoff.com.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #92: Crossed Genres October 21, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, links, news, queer-friendly publishers, submissions , add a commentWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #92. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. Today we’re celebrating Crossed Genres!
Crossed Genres has been actively involved in the Outer Alliance from the start. I interviewed owners Bart and Kay back in 2009 for OA Spotlight #8, and they’ve been industriously celebrating, promoting, and soliciting queer content for the duration of Crossed Genres Magazine‘s run.
Earlier this month, they announced that the magazine will be closing. This is sad news for those of us who have loved anticipating each new theme for the past three years, but it’s actually great news, too. The reason Bart and Kay are closing the magazine is so that they’ll have more time to concentrate on anthologies and novels, like Fat Girl in a Strange Land (whose table of contents just went live today!) and Broken Slate (which was the subject of OA Podcast #9).
With a solid track record of diverse content, we can certainly look forward to excellent things once the magazine closes, but first, Crossed Genres Magazine is having one last major hurrah. Issue 36, which will come out in December, has the theme: Different. Submissions are open until the 31st of this month, and they’re accepting all sorts of different things for this one.
For this issue, we are open to all types of media. Previously we haven’t accepted poetry, or podcasts, or photography; now we are. We’ll even consider longer or shorter pieces of writing. (maximum 10,000 words though!) This will make the final issue – well, different from anything we’ve published before.
And we’re looking for as diverse a body of submissions as possible to choose from! We want submissions with characters of color, quiltbag characters, disabled characters, elderly or child M/C’s. We want underrepresented perspectives!
Wouldn’t it be lovely to see a lot of OA members in that last issue? I think so! If you have something Different for Bart and Kay to look at, do send it in!
Outer Alliance Podcast #12 October 17, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, Outer Alliance Podcast , 5commentsIt’s the twelfth episode of the Outer Alliance Podcast! Next month will mark one whole year of OA Podcast goodness! We’ll have to make a cake or something.
Our guest this month is Lynne M. Thomas, Hugo winning editor of Chicks Dig Time Lords. She’s also the moderator of the SF Squeecast, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections (including the papers of over 50 SF writers!) at Northern Illinois University, and she’ll be taking over as editor of Apex Magazine next month.
We had a crunchy, hour long chat, and Lynne was very patient with me as my migraine-fogged brain slipped into incoherence at a few points. I’ve edited the conversation for maximum clarity, but trust me: Lynne deserves a Gracious Guest Award to put on her mantel next to the rocket ship. She made sure our conversation was full of fascinating stuff from reflections on fashion, feminism, and fandom to what kinds of stories she wants for Apex.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing
Notes:
Lynne’s Stuff
*You can watch a video of The 2011 Hugo Awards, and see Lynne accept her rocket ship with her co-editor, Tara O’Shea. Their speech (and fabulous dresses!) are at the 2:30:30 mark in the video.
*Here are pictures of Lynne’s Hugo and Hugo Shoes on her LiveJournal.
*The Hugo winning essay collection by female fans of Doctor Who is Chicks Dig Time Lords (available through Mad Norwegian Press. Other essay collections include Whedonistas and the forthcoming Chicks Dig Comics.
*Lynne’s work blog is Confessions of a Curator, where you can learn more about her Librarian Super Powers.
*Lynne Moderates The SF Squeecast, wherein the contributors each squee about SF things they’ve enjoyed. Episode 4 came out in between the time we recorded this interview and the time this podcast went live, and I highly recommend it–the explanation of why Seanan McGuire is not allowed to read Little Big made me laugh out loud in public.
*Lynne will be editing Apex Magazine starting in November. She’s actively seeking stories which present a diverse picture of the world, including QUILTBAG stories, stories by and about people of color, and stories which subvert traditional tropes.
Other Stuff We Mentioned
*”If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution.” — Lynne mentioned this, but couldn’t remember who said it. The quote is usually attributed to Emma Goldman, but in all likelihood, she never said those particular words. In 1991, Alix Kates Shulman explained the story behind that very popular quote.
*Lynne and I both listen to Galactic Suburbia, which is one of the many Australian SF podcasts I’m addicted to. I also ended the intro to this episode with a reference to another Australian podcast: Notes From Coode Street. “I think we’re rambling,” is a common Coode Street refrain. There’s even a T-shirt for it.
*Lynne mentioned liking The Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy). River Song was the inspiration for Lynne’s Hugo dress.
*Conventions Lynne will be attending include WindyCon, Chicago TARDIS, Capricon, and WisCon (where I will also be, and where there may be an Outer Alliance party and/or a Chicks Dig Comics party).
*We both enjoy Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, which is the intelligent and irreverent blog about romance novels by people who love them. Their books include Everything I Know About Love, I Learned From Romance Novels, and Beyond Heaving Bosoms (which is the one I have read, and recommended to Lynne).
*Stories Lynne loves and thinks have the feel of things she hopes to see for Apex Magazine include Memorare by Gene Wolfe, “Ponies” by Kij Johnson, “Ghosts of New York” by Jennifer Pelland, “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky, The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia, Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente, and Sarah Monette’s Kyle Murchison Booth stories as collected in The Bone Key.
*I devolved into squee mode when Lynne mentioned Erasure. Lynne and I share a favorite Erasure album: I Say I Say I Say. I saw them live for the first time ever just a couple of days before I interviewed Lynne, and then I made a fan video thank you note for Andy Bell and Vince Clarke. File under: things I was not expecting to come up on the OA Podcast… Ha.
*The other band you can always find on Lynne’s iPod is Belle and Sebastian, and her never fail comfort and cheer song is “Dancing Queen” by ABBA.
Recommendations From OA Members!
*Tansy Rayner Roberts (@tansyrr) recommends Nightsiders by Sue Isle. She says the story “Nation of the Night” has a compelling teen hero questing for trans surgery as the world falls apart.”
*Cheryl Morgan (@CherylMorgan) recommends Shadoweyes by Ross Campbell. This moody vigilante comic features an intersex character.
*Charles Tan (@charlesatan) recommends Haikasoru’s The Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda. He says it’s an interesting Japanese novel with a race of bi-genders, but a different approach from the one Ursula Le Guin took.
*Kevin McVeigh (@kevmcveigh) recommends “13 Days of Glory” by Scott A. Cupp. He says it, “… brilliantly shows how the cause of equality is the same whatever equality you’re fighting for.”
Outer Alliance Spotlight #91: James Ipse / Kyle Aisteach October 14, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 2commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #91. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. Today our guest is Kyle Aisteach, who also writes as James Ipse.
Kyle Aisteach lives in Fresno with his husband, and writes hard science fiction. His alter ego, James Ipse writes urban fantasy mystery stories, the first of which just came out. Kyle joined me to discuss James Ipse’s The Case of the Basher.
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The Case of the Basher takes place in your hometown of Fresno, California. The book opens with a description of how awful that city is for gay people, though. Is it really that bad? And if so, what makes people like you (and Colm Ramirez) stick around?
I think it’s more accurate to say that Colm describes his world exactly as he sees it. I, personally, don’t think it’s as bad as he describes. I mean, Fresno is one of the places where the bigots outnumber the good people by a significant margin, but there are lots and lots of good people here, and the number is growing. I wouldn’t describe our mayor as “actively hostile” [as Colm does]. I think she’s just ignorant. Which, in an elected official amounts to the same thing, but it’s a matter of perspective. Yes, most gay and lesbian and trans folks who live here have had to put up with the hostility, but at the same time, I was the victim of a hate crime in Beverly Hills, so I don’t see that zip code is as much of a factor as Colm does.
But as for why we’re still here, a lot of that is simple economics. You’ve heard of the “gay tax”? The sad truth is that most of the places where it’s safe to live openly are the most expensive places in the country. We’re here because my husband’s job is here, and we can afford to live on his salary here. We can’t do that in San Francisco, or Manhattan, or West Hollywood. So, instead, I’d rather stick my roots in the ground somewhere that’s more good than bad and refuse to back down, and hopefully if enough people do that kids won’t need to flee their hometowns to major cities just to feel safe any more.
Maybe I’m particularly biased because I was raised in California by a WASP mother and a Mexican Catholic father, but Colm Ramirez seemed like a very believable Californian to me. How did you get the idea for his character?
I wish I could say that he’s based on a real person or that he came to me in a blinding flash of inspiration, but the reality is much more mechanical. I’m very fond of mysteries, and I’m particularly fond of mysteries where the first-person heroine is a three-dimensional, amusing, and fallible individual. Sue Grafton and Sarah Graves’ work, for example. I’d also been reading a fair amount of urban fantasy, and I’d been impressed by all the kick-ass female characters. I started wondering what an urban fantasy would look like with a gay man in that role instead of a young woman. And at the same time I was experimenting with writing a mystery where the snarky detective is a gay man. Neither really gelled for me, until I combined the two. Then the character and the stories started to feel real. The fact that he’s young is simply a story necessity, and so I spent some time sussing out how attitudes and worldviews are different in the younger generation, and he just, little by little, came to life.
The book hints at a very interesting back story. Will we learn more of that in future Colm Ramirez stories? What do you have in store for him?
I don’t think I’m likely to go back and write up those adventures as their own stories. But Colm has a history with a lot of folks, and his circle of friends is a lot larger than you saw in Basher. So it’s safe to say that there’s going to be a little more backstory in each of the stories.
As for what’s in store for him, I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say there’s a reason why I decided that every pantheon in existence is equally real.
This is your first book as James Ipse, but you’ve written other things as Kyle Aisteach. Why did you choose to switch names for this one?
I’d actually originally intended to publish Basher as Kyle Aisteach, but then something interesting happened. I sold a bunch of hard science fiction, and folks at cons and online kept commenting that they were looking forward to my next story because they love how I work in real science and engineering. Well, Basher couldn’t be more different.
I tend to think of an author’s byline as being like a brand name. I like Pepsi. I like root beer. But if I pick up something labeled “Pepsi” and it turns out to be a root beer, I’m probably going to be disappointed, because it’s not what I was expecting. I don’t want folks who are looking for hard science fiction to have a bad reaction to this story just because it’s not what they thought it was going to be. And, similarly, I don’t want folks who like this story and seek out my other work to be disappointed because it’s radically different in tone and style. If folks like both genres, that’s great, I’m happy to have them read both. Just like I’m happy to grab either a “Mug” root beer or a “Pepsi” cola even though I know it’s all PepsiCo.
What sort of science work do you do in your non-writing life, and how do you use it in your SF work? Can you tell us a little about your SF stories?
I don’t actually do science myself. I’m actively dangerous to have in the lab. Seriously. If there’s a way to make an experiment spew toxic gasses, I’ll find it every time. And if there isn’t, I’ll find a way to break it. $100,000 microscopes fail catastrophically when I walk by. If there’s 300 vials, 299 of which contain water, I’ll spill the one that contains concentrated acid. I don’t try to be a jinx on all science. I just am. Murphy runs very strong in my family.
But I love science. I read other people’s results voraciously. I debate the implications of various studies with people who actually do the research, and hold my own. Most people assume I’ve got a science degree. But I don’t. Not really.
It’s actually kind of a long story.
I was a Geology minor in college, but I didn’t finish it. I was a double major, carrying more than a full load, and the student loans were piling up. I hit a point in my senior year where I just couldn’t keep up, and something had to go. If I’d stayed an extra semester I could’ve still finished, but I decided to graduate on time instead, and so I dropped the minor. I love Geology. I was a lot less dangerous in the field than I am in the lab — which means I only injured myself — and I was especially interested in geomorphology and planetary weathering. Whenever I could get away with it, I did my research papers on extraterrestrial analogs to whatever we were studying, so I know more about SNC meteorites than anyone ought to, and I’m sure I got myself on a government watch list by trying to find as much Soviet data from the Venera missions as I could. I don’t read Russian. I was so glad when the Magellan data started being published. I still wish the U.S. would put a few landers down on that planet. Those basalt fields are incredible, and we’ve never seen the continents up close.
So when I have to give a short answer when people ask me what my field is, I tend to say “Planetary Science.” I spend a lot of time moving in the Astronomy community these days. I used to work in the Education and Public Outreach team for one of NASA’s space telescopes, trying to make the astronomy understandable to non-scientists. I still freelance back to NASA occasionally, mostly as a science writer at this point but occasionally as a video producer, too. So I still follow Astronomy results pretty closely, and if you follow my twitter feed I occasionally mouth off when the press is screwing up a result. And I’m particularly interested in the moons and the terrestrial planets.
And that’s what led me to write “Pressure and the Argument Tree.” It’s part of a cycle of science fiction stories I’m working on about the colonization of Venus. The engineering is real. That came out of conversations I had with the folks at JPL whose job it is to come up with strategies for doing exactly that sort of thing. What I love to do is to look at real science and engineering, and then ask myself what could go wrong if and when we actually do this. So as I was writing something else, I had a character who fell from 55km above the surface. So, being the sort of writer I am, I looked up the density of the atmosphere to see what a body’s terminal velocity would be. And then I realized that the atmosphere was dense enough that a person in a space suit might go neutrally buoyant. And I thought, here’s a story! What if someone fell and survived? So I pinged the physics teachers I know — my mom’s one of them, by the way — and we worked out how far down a space suit would start to float. And the answer was “just above the surface,” which is far to deep for a human to survive, even in a space suit. Which created that gruesome image of dead bodies drifting away from the point where they fell, and what poor person is going to have to go down there to fetch them?
I think I’m also especially interested in space travel because my dad spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy. I’m one of the few civilians who has spent time in a working, nuclear submarine. I think that experience is the best analog we’ve got for what living on another planet would be like. Think about it. When you’re in a submarine, you’re completely surrounded by an atmosphere you can’t breathe. You’ve got to keep it out. You’ve got to keep your atmosphere in. You’ve got to keep the pressure at a safe level, and if you screw up, you die. And you’ve got to do all that in as compact a space as possible, while still giving yourself room to move and work. Seriously, if you’re going to write space travel or colonization stories, go find a retired submarine you can tour. That’ll knock you out of the Hollywood sensibilities real quick.
And I think any science is fair game. I’ve got a story I’m shopping right now which is entirely based on sociology. I’m very proud of that one, but it’ s a really uncomfortable look at the direction society is moving, so I’m not surprised it’s having a hard time finding a home. It really gets the most complimentary rejection letters, though. But that’s the joy of e-publishing. I can release what I believe in. And I’m sure a short story collection is coming. It’s just a matter of when the right time is going to be.
What else do you have in the works, and where can we find it?
Well, there’s at least two more Colm Ramirez stories written, and I’ve got ideas for, oh, at least a hundred more. I’m not putting them out right away because I’m hoping I can convince a couple of the traditional publishers to buy first rights to them so I can introduce the character to their readers. Unfortunately, that takes time. The top market for supernatural mysteries is also one of the slowest to respond to submissions, so I’ve just got to be patient, and I hope readers will be, too.
On the hard science fiction front, I’ve got a new story in Pressure Suite – Digital Science Fiction Anthology 3 — “Pressure and the Argument Tree” by Kyle Aisteach — which was just released last month. I’m sharing a table of contents with a couple of authors I really like, so that’s actually really exciting for me. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
I also just released another e-book, just slightly longer than Basher, called The Survivors’ Menagerie (also by Kyle Aisteach). It’s a time-travel story, which runs really counter to all my “get the science right” instincts, but I did a lot of research and I think that even though the science is fanciful it’s still rooted in reality, and I put a lot of emphasis on getting the history right — to the point where the story bears almost no resemblance to the story I set out to write, because the research kept shooting holes in my original ideas but at the same time suggesting even better possibilities. I totally don’t find research limiting at all. It’s where my best ideas tend to come from. You can find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and hopefully soon in a couple of independent online bookstores.
And, of course, The Case of the Basher is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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Thanks, Kyle! That’s it for today, but coming up very soon we’ll have OA Podcast #12 with Lynne Thomas. In the meantime, check out The Case of the Basher!
Continuing the Conversation October 7, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : events, links, news , add a commentThe world of specfic is all about conversation. Individual pieces of work are in dialogue with society, and anyone who cares enough to read this blog is part of that dialogue. Given that, I thought I should point out some places where the conversation is open and actively inclusive of LGBTQIA-relevant topics.
I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read?: Lee Wind’s awesome book recommendation blog. He reads all kinds of things and shares his thoughts with the rest of us–and there’s always an open comment thread. Seriously excellent resource. Right up there with…
Bibrary Book Lust: Sally Sapphire’s super book recommendation resource. Sally’s open to all sorts of genres, and super interested in keeping the conversation going–she started the Gender Identity and Expression Book Challenge at the beginning of this year. There’s still time to participate, if you like!
Twitter #FeministSF Chat: This happens every Sunday at 2pm EST. Every week there are one or two host/moderators who guide discussions on particular themes. This Sunday, Catherine Lundoff and Kathryn Allen are going to be talking about outsiders and cyberpunk. Sign into Twitter and follow the #FeministSF hastag. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to meet other people and get book recs.
In Person in New York This Month: On the 24th, The Center for Fiction is hosting an Outsiders in SF panel with Steve Berman, Samuel Delaney, Andrea Hairston, Carlos Hernandez, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Ellen Kushner. And on the 10th (that’s Monday!) Bluestockings is hosting a reading from Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry. Rose Fox will be a part of that one. Honestly, if you’re ever in New York, it’s worth checking out the Bluestockings events calendar, since they have stuff going on nearly every day.
In Person in Washington DC This Month: Capclave is next weekend, the 14th-16th in Gaithersburg, MD. Catherynne Valente is one of the Guests of Honor.
In Person in San Diego This Month: The World Fantasy Convention is on the last weekend of October. It’s already completely sold out, and has been for some time, but it promises to be full of exciting conversations, which I’m hoping will spill over onto the internet so that people like me, who can’t be there, can join in the fun.
If you know of other places where excellent conversations are happening, please tell us in the comments here or on the google group. And if you’re going to any of these in-person events and want to share your experience with us, we’d love to hear those, too!
Guest Post: Dennis Upkins Reviews Witch Eyes October 5, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : reviews , add a commentIn the recent conversation about LGBTQIA characters in YA specfic, several people mentioned Scott Tracey’s book, Witch Eyes. Here’s OA member Dennis Upkins with a review:
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A boy who can see the world’s secrets and unravel spells with just a glance.
Braden’s witch eyes give him an enormous power. A mere look causes a kaleidoscopic explosion of emotions, memories, darkness, and magic. But this rare gift is also his biggest curse.
Compelled to learn about his shadowed past and the family he never knew, Braden is drawn to the city of Belle Dam, where he is soon caught between two feuding witch dynasties. Sworn rivals Catherine Lansing and Jason Thorpe will use anything—lies, manipulation, illusion, and even murder—to seize control of Braden’s powers. To stop an ancient evil from destroying the town, Braden must master his gift, even through the shocking discovery that Jason is his father. While his feelings for an enigmatic boy named Trey grow deeper, Braden realizes a terrible truth: Trey is Catherine Lansing’s son . . . and Braden may be destined to kill him.
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Ladies & gentlemen, it’s a wrap. The gauntlet has been thrown, the bar has been raised, the standard has been set. THIS is how it’s done! I haven’t been this excited about a novel featuring a gay protagonist since Perry Moore’s Hero.
Braden proves to be a strong protagonist. He’s a three-dimensional character. He makes mistakes, he’s fallible, he’s human and sympathetic. And even when he gets himself into trouble, this is still a character you can root for. While there’s angst aplenty, he has more than enough legtimiate reasons for said angst (which keeps him sympathetic) and Tracey does an excellent job not allowing said angst to pummel and warp Braden’s characterization and development. Tracey also avoids making him stilted and obnoxious like a lot of writers do with their characters.
Tracey’s description and prose is quite impressive. It didn’t overburden you with filler and purple prose. Between the descriptions and the first person narrative, you could easily place yourself in Belle Dam and easily visualize the town and its inhabitants. The mythos and the plot immediately sucked me in and I was dying to find out what happened next. Many of the characters have secrets and agendas, and you’re eagerly awaiting them to show their hands. And more than once I got impatient with intel the audience finds out early on and was wanting to scream, REVEAL ALREADY. The anticipation was killing me.
Forgive the vagueness of this review but I’m trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible.
And can I stress how much I love the book cover?
Braden’s orientation was also handled as-a-matter-of-factly, with nuance, with insight and respect. Witch Eyes could’ve easily have worked with Braden being a heterosexual and it was a relief to read a story that wasn’t a formulaic coming out tale or a tragic gay angst tale or Braden being the formulaic gay guy whose sole raison d’être revolves around his orientation.
What was also a relief was that the romance didn’t overwhelm the story like you see too often in countless YA, gay novels, and urban fantasy books. The romance was one (albeit important) part of the complex and interwoven plot. The romance was well-executed, as was the mystery, the action and the drama. But it was all well-balanced which made the story that much stronger and that much more enjoyable.
And speaking of romance and love interests, Trey’s a dick. Braden is too good for him and can do so much better. I’m down for Team Somebody Else. And that objective analysis has nothing to do with the fact that Trey reminds me of my ex. Nope, not at all.
[shakes head solemnly]
When it comes to storytelling, Tracey proves that he knows his craft and I found myself having to pace myself with the story because I didn’t want the book to end too soon. There isn’t much resolution at the end which I initially found distressing. But said distress was quickly relieved when I found out that Witch Eyes is the first of a series and the next book is scheduled to be released next year. Thank God. From what little I’ve researched, it appears that Witch Eyes only answered a few questions only to unlock more mysteries. Shorthand, to quote Jim Ross, business is about to pick up.
And if Tracey is this impressive in his debut novel, I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes next.
It saddens me that it took three years for me to find another enjoyable book that features a queer male protagonist. The last one I read was Hero. When you stop and think about the number of books that get churned out each year which feature cis straight white protagonists, it’s all the more infuriating.
But hopefully Witch Eyes is a sign of things changing. We still have a long ways to go obviously but maybe novels like this will lead to more.
Witch Eyes is available now.
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Dennis R. Upkins was born and raised in Nashville, TN. A voracious reader, a lifelong geek and a hopeless comic book addict, he knew at an early age that storytelling was his calling. His debut novel, Hollowstone, was released in June 2011 by Parker Publishing. More information on Upkins and his other projects can be found at http://dennisupkins.com/