Fiction Writing-Take Me Away

In the mood to do some fiction writing this weekend.  Time to get reacquainted with some characters I created a few years ago and see what's transpired in their lives since the last time I wrote about them.

I also have the option of taking another path and taking the time to say hello to some new ones.  In addition to creating and getting to know them, I get the pleasure of figuring out their likes, dislikes and what exciting things are transpiring in the world that I can create and they'll interact in.

No matter which route I take, the bottom line is that it's been too long since I've done some fiction writing and I did promise myself I'd make more time to do so in 2011.   I just need to do some writing that unleashes some creative juices on a regular basis instead of the 'just the facts' and the editorial pieces I've been doing a lot lately.   

The news has been coming fast and furisously on many issues.  I'm happy to post it here at TransGriot with my analysis for your reading pleasure, and not  thank whose of you who drop by on a regular basis, I thank those of you in this Great Recession who have dropped your hard earned change in the tip jar as well.    

But inside me is a frustrated fiction writer yearning to breathe free....hold on a minute.

Lorynn, what do you mean I'm overdue with 'your' sequel to On The Wings of Love?   Damn, always the diva. 

As I was saying, there's a frustrated fiction writer yearning to breathe free.  Have some ideas for a few stories and they will include some positive trans characters of color since they are sorely needed in the fiction world.
. 
Just need to take some time and create them.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

There's a saying that truth is stranger than fiction.

When I'm in fiction writing mode and think that the chapter or scene I'm creating for whatever short story or novel manuscript may be too outlandish, I soon discover when I compare my scene to real life, umm, no it isn't.

I have one novel manuscript in which I have in laws running against each other for public office. Not long after I penned that imaginary race chuckled when I heard about an estranged husband and wife running against each other for public office.

Talk about drama.

But that's why I love fiction writing.   You get to set up the scene and let the characters go to work in it.   Sometimes they'll take off in directions you didn't expect, either.

Feeling Fictional Today

Today I'm going to spend some time hanging out with Lorynn Thibodeaux, Nia Shakur, Marland Devereaux, David Millard, Niki Banks, Michael Lee and the rest of the gang back in H-town and I won't be hopping a flight home to do it.

All it will take for me to accomplish that is sitting down at my computer and using my imagination to visit the world I created for them in the novel I'm working on called On The Wings Of Love.

I love reading romance novels by author Kayla Perrin in my non blogging spare time along with novels by my other fave authors Eric Jerome Dickey, Omar Tyree, E. Lynn Harris and Marcus Major.

While I'm garnering an increased profile in the blogosphere as a non-fiction writer (and thanks to all you peeps who do stop by TransGriot on a regular basis and even leave comments from time to time, hint, hint) I also love unleashing my creative side and writing fiction as well.

Wings is actually the third novel I've composed, but it's the first in which I didn't have a main transgender character in it. I'm actually working on another one that's centered in 1980's Montrose that focuses on the Black transgender/SGL community there. It's centered on a transgender character named Ebony from my first two novels whose story just begged to be expanded from minor character status. Wings is one in which I drew on my 14 years in the airline industry and all those stories and myriad incidents I've witnessed that beg to be told.

And yes, the names and physical descriptions of the guilty will be changed to protect them.

I've also surprisingly discovered you have to do just as much research or even more for a fictional story than I have to do for some of my blog posts. If you have it set for a certain time period, nothing spoils a story more than for an out of place reference that a savvy reader picks up on.

Wings is set at a fictional Houston based airline and focuses on the romantic travails of New Orleans born Lorynn, who doesn't like Black men. After a nasty breakup with a pilot she caught cheating on her, she meets David Millard, a ramp agent with a mysterious background who is non-revving on a San Francisco-Houston flight she's working on and is attracted to him.

David has issues with light skinned sisters since one broke his heart back during his Southern University college days. That sister, Marland Evangeline Devereaux is newly divorced from her pro ball playing ex, now living in Houston and wants him back.

Then there's gate agent Niki Banks, who's looking for her perfect man, but has yet to realize he's a lot closer than she assumed. There's also Lorynn's roommate and best friend Nia Shakur, who not only dispenses sisterly advice, she's trying to make a love connection with a handsome divorced gate agent who doesn't want to be diverted to Heartbreak City again. At the same time she's being pursued by her ex Quinton, the HPD cop.

The fun thing about writing fiction is that after you create the characters and set up the basic premise of the story, then you go from there. Sometimes the characters...hold up peeps.

Lorynn, what do you mean you have a problem with how I described you in the initial paragraph. Did you not say that the only thing a Black man could do for you was wash your car and shine your shoes? And wasn't the pilot you were dating married?

That's what I thought. Stop rolling your eyes at me, diva. You'll get your chance to prove 'errbody' wrong. So chill, have a beignet and a smile and trust me on this.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, sometimes the characters take you places you didn't expect to go once you start writing and they start interacting with each other.

It's fun to watch it happen as well.

Paternal Hymn For Transgender Daughters

TransGriot Note: This was posted to TSTB since today is Father's Day. Unfortunately I don't know who the author is so I can give them proper credit for this wonderful piece, but it definitely needed to be shared with the world on this day.

Most holidays are bittersweet occasions for transpeople. In terms of our families, next to Christmas and Thanksgiving, Mother's Day and Father's Day can be tough, especially if you have a chilly to nonexistent relationship with your parents as a result of your gender transition.

The person that sometimes has the hardest time with a M2F gender transformation is Dad, since they invest so many of their time, hopes and dreams in raising their sons.

So this is dedicated to all the Dads out there on your day.

***

This is for our fathers who never knew our name
But had so much influence on the road down which we came.

This is for our fathers who shoved us out the door
And bid us learn about the world, the universe and more!

This is for our fathers who taught us to love books
And never judge their contents by the way their covers look.

This is for our fathers who never knew our name
But had so much influence on the road down which we came.

This is for our fathers who taught us “Yes we can!”
Despite the fact they often tried to make of us a man.

This is for our fathers who taught us wrong from right
And reminded us that there are times when you have to stand and fight.

This is for our fathers who never knew our name
But had so much influence on the road down which we came.

This is for our fathers who taught us to be strong
And never to bow our bloody head though we’ve been treated wrong!

This is for our fathers who taught us to read maps well
But never could map inside their heads the place we served in hell.

This is for our fathers who never knew our name
But had so much influence on the road down which we came.

I thank God for our fathers who never knew our name
And I pray God that they never find is us true cause for shame.

Cause we’re our father’s daughters, our mother’s daughters too
Though the world raised a thousand hymn to mom; dad we raise this one for you!

So this is for our fathers who never knew our name
But had so much influence on the road down which we came!

In Memory of Rita Hester

by Nancy R. Nangeroni
from Gendertalk.com

Skating late last night
I retraced the vigil path
Found two candles burning on Rita's step
So I added one more
and wondered how it felt
to feel the knife strike so close to home.
They called her a man
Called her a transvestite
They said she lived a double life
But we know better
We know the truth
We know why Rita died.

I still hear your mama's cries
Haunting the canyons of my mind
You were just too much girl
For somebody else's world

I gazed into the windows
of the bar where you were last seen
I searched each patron's eyes for signs of guilt
I heard again your mama cry
"Who took away my child?"
echoing off canyon walls of brick and steel

I still hear your mama's cries
Haunting the canyons of my mind
You were just too much girl
For somebody else's world

I still hear your mama's cries
Haunting the canyons of my mind
You were just too much girl
For somebody else's world