Saturday, May 17, 2014

HAHAT 2014: Writing what I want to be. Being what I want to see.

Be sure to leave a comment  below, as one lucky winner (drawn by random name out of the sorting cup method) will win a $10 gift card to their choice of B&N, Amazon, or ARe, (these are booksellers), and a print edition of  the Lost and Found anthology. LEAVE ME A WAY TO CONTACT YOU OR THE PRIZE GOES TO THE NEXT NAME MY KIDLET DRAWS OUT...
Have fun on the hop. Visit places you'd normally not go. Approach strange things (to you) with an eager mind, ready to learn about someone else's reality. That's how homophobia and transphobia really end. When we all *see* one another.

Also, don't forget to check out the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia page.
To write you look deep inside, to write well you just look around…

Two dear friends of mine, Randy and Brent, wrote those lyrics. I don’t know at this point which one actually penned the lines that still resonate in my soul. I repeat those words to myself often as I write the stories I now write more frequently than the songs I too penned when we all played in smoky little rooms in San Francisco. I still love music, but lately I’ve found a deeper love.
What's that, you ask?
M/M romance. 
See, I adore writing about people of any ilk falling in love, and I especially like to write stories where I can take all the things that are wrong in the world and fix them. There are a lot of odds stacked against those who fit in to the alphabet soup of LGBT-QUILTBAG. I don't even know what everyone of those letters stands for. Eh, mostly because I've forgotten due to a brain injury, but that's another story. For now let's focus on the fact that people fall all over the spectrum of sexuality and gender, and there is no ought to should be that really means anything. 
Look around. You'll see it. And just as quickly you'll see someone who is scared of people being different than them, and chooses to express that in hate. It gives me instant high blood pressure. Cause hey, those people getting hassled? Their my friends. My loved ones. Sometimes it's me. But I have a mighty weapon at my disposal. A pen. 
Yeah, it’s pretty damn therapeutic to take someone who was a complete shit to me in real life, put them in my shoes after they, as the character have been so nasty that you, the reader are ready to write them off. And then I make magic. I let them grow, let them transcend the squashed ugliness of their hate and fear… and they become beautiful.
Pretty Pollyanna of me, I know.
But I have my reasons.
I’d love to live, and have my daughter live in a world where that was commonplace. Where people so routinely got over their prejudices, their small mindedness and fear that we would only find it strange to meet a person who was unable or unwilling to do so. Hell yes, sign me up for that world.
Oh, I get that I can change me, and perhaps be a positive influence on a little piece of the planet, right? Yeah. So I try. I put in the hours. I walk the walk. Sometimes I get burned—sometimes we all get burned. That’s just the way this messy world works. But in my writing, both the published books and the works in progress?
Marriage Equality is already nationally recognized.
People look to the quality of a person’s character rather than the gender of their significant other.   
Men and women are equal. Different, yes, but equal in stature as far as what they can achieve in the world.
Children are loved for who they are, not who their parents think they should be.
And oh, best of all, love flourishes.

The world is hard, and dirty, and mean sometimes. But it’s also full of kindnesses, and acts of love. When I started writing I thought all my characters came from, I dunno, the ether, or some magical recess of my own psyche. But then, just like in Randy and Brent’s song, I started to realize the best characters, the one’s I loved like real people, the stories that shook me right down to my soul, were the ones that came from writing what I saw around me, but letting things come to the most positive conclusions.  
Now I like to look around, tease out the best in people, the best in the way they love and care for friends, family, and strangers. I write that into being on a grander scale than I see in everyday life, because if I can imaging it, couldn’t someone else live it one day? Maybe if I dream it hard enough one day the world can be what I want.
What, you may ask, do I want?
I want a country, indeed a whole world where any parent, when confronted with a child who is baffled and upset because their insides don’t match their outsides would never question what to do. Where the immediate response would be all about making that child comfortable. And perhaps, one day a world where inside/outside didn’t matter, because we wouldn’t be hung up on what either one was supposed to mean. I want a world where there is neither fear nor shame in being other than straight, a world where acceptance is the norm, and the shape of one’s character is the only measure taken of a person.

For now, as we struggle and toil toward that goal, as we blog to raise awareness and march to show solidarity, I’ll keep writing, pointing my words and characters toward those days. 

50 comments:

  1. please count me in

    leetee2007@hotmail.com

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  2. Great post! Thanks for the giveaway!
    aegger.echo @ yahoo .com

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  3. Thanks for the chance to enter! wendynjason04@gmail.com

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  4. This is very moving for me. Just lost my sister who was a lesbian. I miss her so much. No matter what people said to her about being with someone of the same sex she proudly held her head up. She was a great inspiration to all of us. This is a wonderful blog post <3

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  5. Great post! Thanks for the giveaway!

    parisfan_ca@yahoo.com

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  6. Keep dreaming about that world, Cherie. Remember John Lennon? "Imagine". caddyauthor(at)gmail(dot)com

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  7. Love the post! Thanks for the chance!

    crystal_2_18(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  8. Thanks for the giveaway. :)
    nomoretears00 @ hotmail.com

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  9. I love that- a world where things are as they should be. I think on how I've made that for my own characters and sometimes need to take them out of their comfort zones a little :D authorjoellecasteel at excite dot com

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  10. I love your post- I agree about writing in a LGBT Realm. I write it all, and I love it. Wouldn't change it for the world. Everyone should be created equal.
    Name- Stephanie
    Email- Stephanienkylie@yahoo.com

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  11. Loved the post. Thank you for the giveaway.
    marsh10(at)netzero(dot)com

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  12. Great post love bug. You've helped so many with your words and books. Each one of us is a small ripple in the big pond, we can make a difference. *hugs*

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  13. Great post! You summed up a lot of the reasons I love to write fantasy- it's my world and my characters will love who they want to. alexisduran1177(at)gmail(dot)com

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  14. Wonderful post, Cherie <3 I'm sure we're on the right track to acceptance. Just a couple of more generations and at least half the world will be there. It may take longer in other areas though...

    Erica
    eripike at gmail dot com

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  15. Please count me in. rojoroaors@yahoo.com

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  16. I want that world too. Great post, sweets.
    Taylor

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  17. Great post!
    rockybatt@gmail.com

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  18. Great post. I see the world slowly getting there, just hate the one step forward two steps back, marriage equality and then some African countries pass laws that are well I'm lost for words on them.
    ShirleyAnn@speakman40.freeserve.co.uk

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  19. Liked your post. Each day shows equality belongs to everyone .
    cvsimpkins@msn.com

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  20. Thanks so much for sharing. kbmckee at mail.com

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  21. Thanks for participating in the hop and sharing your insight :)

    penumbrareads(at)gmail(dot)com

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  22. Thanks for sharing the reason why you write with us, Cherie. I love that you take these characters and make the world as it should be for them. Don't ever stop. It's a beautiful thing. *hugs*

    bloodandfires (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  23. Thanks for the great post!

    jasdarts at hotmail dot com

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  24. Thank you for contributing to making the world a better place. michelle_willms at yahoo dot com.

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  25. Your dream country is many of our dream too. I wish it comes true in our lifetime itself. "I want a country, indeed a whole world where any parent, when confronted with a child who is baffled and upset because their insides don’t match their outsides would never question what to do. Where the immediate response would be all about making that child comfortable. And perhaps, one day a world where inside/outside didn’t matter, because we wouldn’t be hung up on what either one was supposed to mean. I want a world where there is neither fear nor shame in being other than straight, a world where acceptance is the norm, and the shape of one’s character is the only measure taken of a person. "

    ladyunwritten[AT]gmail[DOT]com

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  26. I hope you know a lot of people are dreaming of that world with you, Cherie.
    Thanks for a beautiful post.

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  27. Great post, Cherie. Hopefully one day that world will exist. And thank you for all your hard work in helping to organise this Blog Hop x

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  28. Great post, Cherie. Thank you!

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  29. I. too, hope to see such a world. I believe that children have the potential to create that world--if narrow-minded parents don't obstruct that potential first.

    Thanks for hopping along, Cherie!

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  30. Hi Cherie!

    I support your vision full-heartedly. Thanks so much for all the work you put into HAHAT!

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  31. Great post.
    red_tigergirl2(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  32. What a lovely post, Cherie. Dreams are what make things happen, I firmly believe.

    ashley.vanburen[at]gmail[dot]com

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  33. Sure!
    sadie @ sadieforsythe dot com

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  34. This wad an awesome post, I want that pollyanna world too. This is a fantastic hop.

    Mhupp20032003[at]yahoo[dot]com


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  35. Great post! & please count me in.

    Deborah H
    Deborahhansen52@yahoo.com

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  36. Wonderful post!
    Thanks for the chance to win :)

    raynman1979(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  37. I love to imagine a perfect world. Maybe that's why I write romance...because it has the happily ever after. Great Post! Don't enter me in your drawing since I'm a participant!

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  38. Thanks for this wonderful post!
    amaquilante(at)gmail(dot)com

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  39. This was really interesting to read...thanks

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  40. Awesome post and I wish for a world like the one that you describe too.

    nidabland@msn.com

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  41. Thank you so much for your very thoughtful post.
    OceanAkers @ aol.com

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  42. Great post, Cherie! Thanks. Yeah, the best characters are the ones that are the people we love, and the people we'd love to be, only more so, right? <3

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  43. What a lovely post! Hopefully, one day we'll achieve your vision. Here's hoping!

    Thanks for hosting the giveaway. Fingers crossed to win.

    Happy a great weekend!

    skeeterlee63 @ gmail.com

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  44. Loved the post. Thanks for the giveaway.
    sstrode at scrtc dot com

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  45. Thanks for posting! sophia-martin at hotmail dot com.

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What's your take?