in no particular order…
I hope you are enjoying Lamb—the feedback has been incredibly heartening, and to everyone tuning in: THANK YOU, from the bottom of my cockles.
The episode next week will feature a short story “by Lamb” ostensibly discovered in his papers—the first of several I hope to share, another snapshot into the world unfolding in the story. These are meant to be an exercise in writing from another POV, i.e., how would this character write? What would his writing voice sound like, and how is it different from the narrator’s, and my own?
It’s intended to be experimental, stretching my writer muscles, and will also feature the first occasional trigger warning. Perhaps the entire series might be labeled libertine by some—I don’t really think so, though there could be some eye-watering moments in future episodes—I’m working very hard to provide the full flavor of a particular gay cohort without making anyone faint. (For that, you might have to wait until I figure out what’s happening with my novel, Watrspout. 🤪)
If you were feeling especially clicky, you might give some extra ❤️ to our darling
’s Note below to signal you are appreciating Lamb. “Historic even”…? Darling!GAYstack: LGBTQ+ Substack (and an awful post about queer stories)
I’ve mentioned that queer content is a bit limited on Substack, but realized that was pretty anecdotal on my part—maybe I just hadn’t encountered many other queer writers because I hadn’t really looked? I decided I better do my due diligence.
*UPDATE: It really is a shallow field—lots of stacks started and abandoned, spotty regularity, super-niche, etc. GAYstack has a ways to go yet. I’ll plan to do a Round Up in the new year after I’ve had a chance to dig around.
I did find perhaps the largest LGBTQ+ news Substack, with 10K+ subscribers and a surprisingly international view on the state of things.
But wouldn’t you know their very next post mused about how queer stories are becoming irrelevant (?) because only a very small fraction of queer youth today suffer the kind of alienation, discrimination and violence as previous generations (??), and that this is a good thing because “resilience” is not something to be celebrated when the discrimination should never have happened in the first place. (WTaF???)
The piece went on to declaim that, as traumatic as family rejection, suicide rates, criminalization, and hate crimes may have once been, the stories of all the people who have historically suffered from homophobia are so commonplace as to be insignificant, barely worthy of a Bravo movie.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I was poised to unsubscribe almost immediately, but decided I wanted to be supportive of what good work they are doing, and also maybe I better stay and keep my eye on them. I’m not sure where this writer lives, maybe Mars? So oddly out of touch considering the catalog of horrendousness contained in their weekly updates. Apparently, some of us are suffering from a sense of local complacency before the global battle is actually won.
I really don’t want to get into all the whys and wherefores anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination remains a very real problem around the world, on every continent—even gay penguins are vilified!—but I guess I do just want to make myself full-frontally explicit on the specific issue of queer stories.
We cannot lose sight of the overarching message—the trajectory may be personal, but the target is universal.
When we write about queer people with all the compassion, insight, and intelligence we can muster, we are writing about humanity—how we live, how we love, how we hurt, and how we die—all of us, everywhere. There is no expiration date on the relevance of our shared human experience.
I will keep saying this if necessary.
BTW, I think it’s rather wonderful that since the original 8-stripe rainbow flag was designed by artist and activist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the ever expanding community of people for whom it is a symbol of hope, pride and liberation has seen fit to create MORE versions, inviting more people into the embrace of our solidarity (however imperfect it may be in the breast of any one of us) rather than narrowly limiting whose identity is worth defending.
Put on your sunglasses if you must, we are rather sparkly. /End diatribe.
FICstack* and
(*Yes, I am trying to coin a couple new labels: GAYstack for LGBTQ+ Substack, and FICstack, because TikTok has BookTok, why shouldn’t fiction on Substack have its own cute name?)
Lots of talk on Substack lately about the state of fiction on this platform, and being a relative newbie, I’m mostly just trying to keep my head down and do the work. “Discoverability” is one of the big bones of contention—how, for example, there is only one category—FICTION—for all genres, all forms (short, flash, serial, novels, etc.) making it more difficult for readers to find the kind of writing they want to read.
While everyone’s been over on Notes discussing the ins/outs of Substack’s commitment to fiction writers,
is over in a cozy nook quietly doing something about it, with an index of authors and offerings including poetry and nonfiction, and links to independently published books by Substack writers. Masterminds and are rendering a tremendous service to writers and readers alike—VVilliam and I tip our hats to them. 🖤🐈⬛🎩Yours truly was announced in last week’s post—take a look!
“There is no expiration date on the relevance of our shared human experience.” — well said brother. :)
I was disheartened by my initial search for adult neurodivergent content. I stopped looking. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. But as a neurodivergent, ironically I find it hard to look for things on Substack (or anywhere) without getting overwhelmed pretty quickly.
Glad you've stayed subscribed to that newsletter, to keep seeing what else they have to say, but I'm with you regarding their proclamation that individual stories are irrelevant - wtaf indeed!