America?
Who are you
now?
Your
Ghettos as
Cruel as
The Warsaw-
Your murders
More sanitized
Than
Mass graves-
Less focused
Than
Kristallnacht
More subtle than
A little AIDS here
A little crack there–
They’re crazy!
Not human!
They’re takers!
Not us–
Like the killer
Who joins
The
Search for his
Victims
And fakes
Shock
When the
Bodies
Are found —
Death is Life
America?
Who will have
The courage
To march
You
Through your
Crimes?
(c) Rob Goldstein 2015-2017 All Rights Reserved
There’s knowing you’re gay and coming out.
I came out before before the L the B the Q and the T.
In April of 1969 anyone who wasn’t straight was a fag.
People who came out risked everything and those who were
‘found out’ often killed themselves.
How does one cope with laws so punitive public sex is safer
than bringing another man home?
Most of the older men I knew hated themselves .
They also hated the movement that came after Stonewall.
They didn’t see how we could win and they didn’t understand
Gay Pride.
“You’re proud of what?” some asked.
Gay life in 1969 stank of oppression and internalized homophobia, but there was something else going on; there was an emerging awareness that gays could say no to the System.
I came out on April 6th 1969 when my Mother took me to Charleston’s
only gay bar for my 16th birthday.
There was only one queer bar in Charleston.
It was off on a musty alley behind the Old Slave Market.
You had to kiss the doorman the first time you went in to prove you were queer.
There was this narrow strip of stage of stage above and behind the bar where some of us boys would dance when the drag queens weren’t doing a show.
The first time I went to the Stardust Momma brought me so I didn’t have
to kiss anyone.
Momma lent me some creamy Peach Cover Girl and a hot pink blouse.
I sipped my Pepsi and watched the queers gawk.
Aretha Franklin was on the jukebox wailing Respect and I
said: “Hey Momma. Let’s dance!”
Well she hauled me up on that stage and we did the dirty dawg.
There was this one dyke named Roxie.
She sometimes worked the door.
She was so butch she could give the kiss test.
She sometimes let me in when I came to the bar alone but if the cops stopped in for a ‘bar check’ I’d have to hide in the lady’s room and get “discovered” and throwed out.
Sometimes the cops came and didn’t do a bar check.
Sometimes the cops came and took money and left;
Sometimes the cops came came to watch the ‘dirty little faggots’ play:
Three straight white dudes with mean little smiles on their faces.
One night I was cruising the Battery when this vice cop
stopped me and ordered me into his car.
“Whatcha doin’ out all gussied up?” he asked, “solicitin’?”
“What does that word mean, solicitin’,” I smiled. I had just finished
reading The Little Prince.
“Sellin’ yer ass to the fags!” he replied.
“Oh that ain’t what I’m doin’” I said. “I gotta little Sister at home and Momma
says I gotta set a good example by fucking every girl I see!”
Well, he drove around town, trying to get me to say I was pushin’ drugs. “I bet you’re gonna turn that little Sister of yours into an addict!”
“Oh I wouldn’t do that at all sir! I warn her every day against such wickedness!
God strike me dead if I don’t!”
I guess we wore each other out.
The cop took me home to the projects. “Keep up the good work with yo’ Sistuh!” he sneered.
***
At the Stardust a boozy ex‑priest named Mother Rachel did the weddings.
One guy dressed like the bride and the other wore a tuxedo.
At the Stardust The Miss Queen of Hearts drag show was the major event.
The drag queens trashed every dress shop on King Street.
On the big night the butch dykes wore three-piece suits and their women wore gowns.
Mother Rachel was the emcee and he’d open every show with a report on how safe the Greyhound bus station was to cruise.
“The place is jus’ hoppin’ with cops! So ya’all be careful–OK?”
There was this one drag queen who called herself Miss Tillie who always lip synced My Life.
At the end of the song where Shirley Bassey screams,‘ This is myyyy liiiiife,’ Miss Tillie ripped off his wig and thew it into the audience.
Then at the close of the show everyone in the Stardust joined hands
and sang There’s a Place for Us.
I first wrote ‘The Stardust’ in 1984.
I’ve posted other edits of it to Art by Rob Goldstein
This is the original edit.
At the Stardust and all other artwork (c) Rob Goldstein 2017 All Rights Reserved
from Michael Dellert
The thought of selling yourself as though you’re a new watch or a can of fizzy soda may strike you as crass and make you want to stick a fork in your eye, but if you’ve written a book and you’re looking for new readers, then you’re selling more than just your writing.
You’re selling your author brand.
When we talk about an “author brand,” we’re talking about building an identity that creates an emotional attachment, a perception of high quality, and that “je ne sais quoi,” that little “I don’t know what,” that no one else can offer.
When readers love an author’s stories and are moved by them, an emotional bond is created. This in turn leads readers to believe that they’ve formed a relationship of some type with the author and understand that author. Because of this emotional attachment, they are…
View original post 1,005 more words
This is a re-boot of a monthly feature on Art by Rob Goldstein, the Featured Blogger.
This month I’m honored to feature Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene of
Teagan’s Books.
When did you start writing?
Answer: My seventh-grade teacher gave us an assignment that truly inspired my young mind — Write a story. However, we only had two options about the story 1) Write it from the point of view (POV) of a cartoon character, or 2) from the POV of the shoes of a famous person. Well, 12-year-old me watched talk shows after school, not cartoons. So, I saw plenty of “famous people” and “used to be famous” ones too, on Merv Griffin’s TV show. I liked the ones who talked about their pets. So, I wrote my story as a pair of red pumps belonging to actress Doris Day. (Back then I don’t think she was still making movies, but she was known for all her dogs.) I had so much fun that I also gave half the class verbal outlines for their stories.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I did a few stories on my own. My teacher wanted to see them. She said good things about the one for the assignment so (not that I thought I had any choice) I let her have the stories. They were Twilight Zone-ish stories and one was about child abuse. They got a lot of attention…
My teacher spoke to my parents.
My parents told me very sternly to never do that again!
That said, I guess I started writing in my late thirties. Throughout my life novels were my only escape from the personal difficulties (yes, abuse too) that I faced each day. I had read a couple of interviews with writers, and decided to write a fantasy novel. I did a lot of research and work, read more interviews, and then I dove into it. With that start, I never stopped.
You started your blog as an adjunct to self-publishing, how do you define your blog now?
Answer: I’m sure you’ve seen the same advice I always see for us Indies – You must have a blog to promote your work! Well, I couldn’t bear the thought of droning on about my novel with every post. Instead, I modified a writing exercise I created for myself long ago. I brought that exercise to my blog (Teagan’s Books). I had the readers send me three random things. I let the random things drive every detail of a serial story, setting, plot, and characters. That resulted in The Three Things Serial Story, which gave birth to my current release, a culinary mystery. However, this time the “things” are food related — or ingredients. So that one is Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I. I’ve published both of those serials in book form.
That “pantser” style of writing, combined with engaging my audience (having them send “things” or otherwise promoting them) seems to have defined my blog.
I also mean for my blog to be a sanctuary for everyone. I keep it free from religion and politics, even though there are issues about which I feel strongly.
Where were you raised and how does that affect your style?
Answer: I’m a southerner by birth, but I was “enchanted” by the desert southwest of the USA when I moved to New Mexico. Like the old John Denver song, I had come home to a place I’d never been before. The truth is, I wish every day that I had never left. However, many things about the southeast – the deep south made an impact that remains with me. Following the advice, “Write what you know,” many of my stories have a southern setting.
What writers give you inspiration?
Answer: Robert Jordan (the Wheel of Time series) inspired me with his detailed world-building. Charlaine Harris influenced me with writing in first-person. That was something I never cared to do until I did my first National Novel Writing Month and created my début novel, Atonement, Tennessee. To my surprise, all the serial stories at my blog turned out to be written in first person as well. David Eddings influenced me with the way he showed his sense of humor, particularly in the Belariad series.
What are your top 3 tips for new bloggers?
Reciprocate. Answer every comment, and try to do so with more than just “Thank you.”
Don’t “act/look like an expert” if you are not. If you have credentials then say so – and make that information something the reader can find without digging. If you found useful information, and you just want to share it, then say so.
Make it easy to read. Light colored (or splotchy, speckled) backgrounds with medium colored text are hard to read, no matter how good your content. Also, those horrid pop-ups, soliciting subscriptions. If I’ve barely started reading and one of those things blocks me from that read, I don’t care to continue.
Thank you Teagan! A short section from one of your books would be great way to close the interview.
Answer: Since I’ve been promoting the release of Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I, I want to share a short story. It is not in the book, but it’s still from that “universe,” and features the heroine of that 1920s series.
Here goes:
Pip’s a Chicken
“Bock, bock-bock. Bock! Baaawk!
Of all the nerve! My mouth dropped open. I was speechless. Granny Phanny bocked at me like a chicken. She bocked. She put her fists under her armpits and flapped her boney elbows — and she bocked at me!
Then, to make matters worse, she laughed.
Why that banty little old woman. Of all the self-important, cockalorem…
“Oh Pip, if you could see the look on your face,” she said, still chuckling. “It’s not like you to chicken out. Now tie on your apron and we’ll look at this recipe together.
Granny hung an apron around my neck, and then put her hands on my shoulders to forcibly turn me around. She tied a bow in back that I knew without looking was perfectly symmetrical.
“But Granny, I nearly set the kitchen on fire last time,” I complained, sincerely afraid of what damage I might cause.
“Hush that nonsense right now, Sweetpea. We’ll not be having any fires. Just because your fried chicken turned out as tough as an old rooster doesn’t mean you can quit.”
“An old rooster?” I exclaimed, mortified.
I looked at the recipe card. “Chicken Fricassee…” I read aloud. “Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture; coat well. Oh Granny, this sounds pos-i-lutely like a repeat of the fried chicken disaster. Granny?”
Phanny Ilene Peabody was gone. Her purse was missing from the corner table. I called out again and she hollered from the living room.
My eyes fell on the calendar that hung on the wall. Wong’s Chinese Restaurant made one annually for Chinese New Year. Granny was going to an early dinner with friends.
“No wonder she wasn’t worried about me ruining dinner again,” I grumbled. “Granny!” I yelled.
“I’ll be back this evening, Pip. Just keep the stove set to low while you fry that chicken, and follow the instructions for the fricassee.”
I blew a raspberry as the front door closed with a thud. My hand plopped down on the plump poultry with a smacking sound.
“Old rooster, huh? I’ll show her,” I muttered and went back to the recipe card.
***
Copyright © 2017 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene
All rights reserved.
The Three Things Serial Story
Amazon USA, Paperback and Kindle
Murder at the Bijou
Amazon USA Paperback and Kindle
Atonement, Tennessee Amazon Kindle and Paperback
You can also connect with Teagan at:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/e/B00HHDXHVM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/teagangeneviene
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeagansBooks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/teagangeneviene/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoM-z7_iH5t2_7aNpy3vG-Q
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teagangeneviene
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