I’ve been struggling with a new
tagline for my books that will encompass all of them—something Jeff Goins calls
a manifesto. I used to use “gay men in love and danger,” but that doesn’t cover
my golden retriever books or some of the other miscellaneous things I’ve
written.
It’s an interesting exercise, to
look at all the thirty-plus books I’ve published and see if there is a common
thread that runs through them. Though most of my work has involved gay
characters, not all has—so maybe being gay or living a gay life isn’t at the
core of what I write, or why I write.
Coming out, and what I call “the
pain of the closet,” which often drives people to do dangerous or unexpected
things, dominated my early work. The early arc of the Mahu Investigations dealt
with Kimo’s coming out process—getting dragged out of the closet in Mahu, making gay friends in Mahu Surfer, finding love in Mahu Fire.
Once he was settled down with
Mike, I wanted to explore further dimensions of the authentic life he was able
to lead—moving in together, getting a dog, fostering a child, eventually
fathering twins. But all of this in the end, is about love—he couldn’t have
that life he deserved until he opened himself to the possibility of finding
love with the right person.
Of course this is rooted in my
own life, and the love that I found once I came out. So I began to see that
there’s a connection in all my books between living one’s true life, and the
ability to find love.
My MFA thesis at FIU, Invasion of the Blatnicks, became my
first published book. Steve Berman has to learn to let go of the expectations
that surround him before he can fully come into himself. Steve Levitan, in the
Golden Retriever mysteries, has to recover from a divorce and incarceration
before he can begin to live fully once more. Rochester helps him with that
process, giving him unconditional love and teaching Steve how to love again.
(And in case you haven’t figured it out, my middle name is Steven, and these
two guys represent big parts of who I am, even though both are straight.)
The same is true for my gay
characters. Though Aidan Greene of the Have Body Will Guard series has been out
of the closet for more than a decade, loving the wrong guy has screwed him up.
And even though Liam McCullough chose to come out rather than remain closeted
in the US Navy, he doesn’t get to live a full life until he falls in love with
Aidan.
And finally, the Love on Series
is all about young guys finding their way after college, and opening themselves
up to love once they know who they are and what they want.
I’m still struggling with the
exact wording for this manifesto, or tagline. One possibility is “Follow your
heart to find your authentic life,” while another is “Living your authentic
life leads to love.”
Neither is quite punchy enough—but
then, since my writing life is a work in progress, why wouldn’t my manifesto be
one, too?
