Behold -- ACTIVE DUTY!

My short stories have been appearing in anthologies by editor Neil S. Plakcy for almost a decade now.  Neil constantly comes up with fantastic themes and subjects for his releases for the fine folks at Cleis Press -- surfers, blue collar handymen, and the military among them. His books are thoughtful and literary as well as hot reads, and I'm always inspired when one of his fresh calls for submissions goes out. So was the case when the policy preventing gays from openly serving in the United States Military, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, was repealed and, in early 2013, Neil put forth a call for stories where love between military servicemen was not only no longer forbidden, but celebrated.  I was thrilled and had the perfect story idea floating around unwritten called "Candy Man", and quickly set about penning a first draft.

The idea came to me years before, during the early days of the Iraq War.  A news report about a soldier trying to win hearts by giving out candy to the families he met on the streets of Baghdad while on patrol had imprinted upon my psyche.  It was one of those rare feel-good stories during a very dark time -- you couldn't help but fall in love with the man, and I did.  So I dashed the story's first draft off in short time, about a similar soldier who also wins another's heart through his good actions, and readied to edit it on my laptop.  Only during that same time, I and my small family bought a house.  As we lined up ducks and set about for a monumental move from our apartment to our new home, the folder containing my first draft accidentally got packed up into a box and stacked in a corner of my soon-to-be-former Writing Room, lost until the move was complete.  The deadline passed. We moved in.  My new Writing Room emerged from the mountain range of boxes, and the folder for "Candy Man" went into the file cabinet. I figured I'd be able to place it when another appropriate call for manuscripts presented itself. And then in early June, Neil emailed me -- he needed one more story to round out Active Duty, and did I have anything already written that fit the theme?  Did I ever!

Several of my Active Duty co-contributors were kind enough to share the back-stories behind their wonderful stories.

Neil S. Plakcy on "Marine Guard": "As soon as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, I began to read all kinds of personal stories online -- from soldiers coming out to families to sailors marching in pride parades. I realized, in a way I hadn’t before, how this decision affected so many people on a very individual level. That’s when I decided that I wanted to put together an anthology for Cleis, exploring what it would be like for military members to be open about their sexuality. I know what it’s like to long for someone, and I used that experience in writing my story ‘Marine Guard', which is included in the anthology under my nom-de-porn, Dirk Strong. I wanted a location where a military member and a civilian would come in regular contact, and in my research I discovered that Marines guard our embassies around the world. When Adam Burr, the narrator of the story, shows up for work at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, his first encounter is with Lucas Roemer, the Marine at the gate, and right away there’s sexual tension between them. But they can’t act on that because of DADT. It was a fun story to write, and I hope to read."

Logan Zachary on "Ready Reserve": "My dad was a Marine, and he had saved his pup tent and camping stuff.  In the summer, I loved setting up the tent in the backyard and playing in it, no matter how hot and humid it was.  I’d even sleep in the backyard with my dog, or my best friend.  Dad had two heavy sleeping bags that would zipper together and make one big one and that was perfect to use.  Most nights it was so hot, I’d sleep on top of it, but some nights it would cool off and I’d crawl inside.  Sleeping in my underwear was another rare treat, and I didn’t understand the excitement I got from seeing my friend in his briefs.  Those cold mornings when I awoke, snuggled next to him were magic. As we grew up, the sleepovers became fewer and fewer, and he found beer and girls. I stayed home with my books and my studies.  But now I know why I enjoyed that so much.  That memory inspired me to write ‘Ready Reserve’."

Michael Bracken on "Soaring": "My contribution to Active Duty is the story of an Air Force captain near the end of his career who turns his back on the love of his life rather than risk losing his military pension. Then the repeal of DADT turns his life upside down, and the story begins and ends on the most important day of his life."

Emily Moreton on "So, Then": "‘So, Then’ is actually a sequel to another story, published in the Sexy Sailors anthology (‘Home Is The Sailor’). So, picks up where ‘Home Is The Sailor’ left off, pretty much, and it mostly takes place during a Pride festival, because I love gay pride, even though my city celebrates the same weekend as my sister's birthday, so I never make it these days. In the story, Mike and Danny are old friends who hook up whenever Mike, a navy officer, is in town. This visit, Mike brings his shipmate Freddie along, for more than just a trip to the parade. Sadly, hot women never invite me into their beds at pride (more's the pity, though I'm not a naval officer, so maybe that's why!) -- but I did once get a kiss from a stranger when I was marshalling a parade, so maybe there's still hope for me."

From the Bookshelf: The Jesus Injection by Eric Andrews-Katz

One of my happiest acceptances in late 2011 (and contributor copy arrivals in early 2012) was for a short, dark steampunk tale submitted to the brilliant editing team of Eric Andrews-Katz and Vince Kovar -- the latter, the driving force behind the Gay City series of speculative anthologies, the former a respected journalist and new novelist, both fiercely talented powerhouse scribes in their own rights. The fourth Gay City volume, containing my short story "The End of an Era", posited alternate histories (the latest, presently reading, will be chock full of creature features and things that go bump in the night). In notching the acceptance, my experience was further heightened by my introduction to their writing.  I've gotten to know both through our wonderful interactions following the book's release and via their work.  It is my pleasure to welcome back Eric Andrews-Katz, author of the engaging novel, The Jesus Injection, in which a hunky gay spy faces off against a host of threats, the personal, political, and potentially world-shattering.



Eric, The Jesus Injection is bold writing! Please share its genesis with us.
I wanted to write a parody of something meshing two genres that would normally not be mixed -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer was already written, and so I settled on a story about a secret agent that was gay. My partner and I were feeling very giddy and started coming up with names of characters. 'Agent Buck 98' was first, and then came Noxia von Tussell, and eventually Dr. Raven Evangelista. Everything snowballed from there.

The funniest thing is the title itself -- The Jesus Injection. I’ve gotten quite the uproar because people have assumed that somehow it’s going to be sacrilegious material. One person accused me of taking [his] ‘Lord’s name in vain just to sell my book’. He knew nothing about it except the title. I was hoping that having “A Buck 98 Adventure” on the book’s cover would discourage such thoughts. It’s truly a case of NOT judging a book by its title. Personally, I think Bold Strokes Books did an incredibly wonderful job with the cover! 

Take us into your writing lair -- tell us what your creative space is like.

We have a loft outside of the master bedroom in our townhouse, and that’s where I do my writing. I have my desk set up with my computer and printers etc., bookshelves behind me, and inspirational pictures around. It’s an open space so I feel very relaxed there and have a plethora of resources at my fingertips.

How did you come to the Muse?  Did you write stories when you were growing up?

I started writing as soon as I could hold a pen.  I remember writing my first piece in second grade and it got published in the school paper. As for my Muse (aside from my husband), it’s the Great God Pan! I started having dreams of Pan when I was three. They continued up until I was seven. Then he appeared and said, ‘you’re going to follow me the rest of your life’. I agreed in a heartbeat and he’s been an important part of my life ever since. I’m very particular about my Pan artwork, but I have many pieces and several of them are displayed in my work space.

Do you write longhand or compose on the computer.  How many drafts?  In other words, please share some insight into your creative process.

I almost always write on the computer. My brain goes too fast (I’m a Gemini) for my hands to keep up with if I write longhand. I taught myself to type when I was ten, and so can do that much faster. I never have a set number of drafts that I want to complete. For me, a story is complete when I’m satisfied with it. I’ll get an idea and mull it over in my mind for a while. When I’m ready, I’ll sit down and start writing. I usually don’t storyboard because I’m used to writing short stories. When I started my novel, I found it helpful to make outlines of what I wanted to happen and where in the story they were to occur.

If you could cast Buck in the movie version, he'd be played by...

Now this I’ve often thought about as its one of the fun parts of writing. I think someone like Ewen McGregor could play Buck. He’s metrosexual enough to pull off both masculine and feminine aspects of being a gay man. He’s already proven that he has a decent singing voice, and since he’s already done [what are considered] gay films, I don’t think it’ll be an issue. His movies usually include a nude scene, so that won’t be bad, either!

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production

The new Dark Shadows flick has come and mercifully gone, and I am able to clearly understand now why I hated it.  That parody lacked most of what made the original so wonderful: elegance, class, romance, and a surreal quality that will endure long past the tragic 2012 footnote of the same name.

I was little more than a year old when the Gothic daytime drama premiered in 1966, and would have been six when it ended its original run on the Alphabet Network.  But from a very early age, Dark Shadows was an indelible part of my youth. I watched the show routinely in the afternoon with aunts, uncles, and my wonderful grandmother, the late, great Bernice Norris -- and just as often suffered nightmares as a result.  One recurring bad dream found me hiding beneath a table in the front parlor as my relatives, all turned into vampires, marched past, searching for me. The dreams grew so bad that at one point, my mother forbade me watching the show. Not that I obeyed.  Not that she had room to make such demands on my babysitters, for on Halloween nights, she put the Dark Shadows soundtrack on the record player and Robert Cobert's haunting score was broadcast down our rural country road, terrifying trick-or-treaters and further imprinting that magical and mysterious world created by Dan Curtis upon my psyche.

The older sister of my best friend growing up in the big woods of Windham, New Hampshire (a realm very much like Curtis's remote Collinsport, Maine) would wander the meadows and forests calling out to Barnabus Collins, the cursed vampire played with such panache by Jonathan Frid.  Like her, Barnabus became my first crush; in the summer of 1978, when local ABC affiliate Channel 9 out of Manchester, NH began broadcasting repeats of Dark Shadows every afternoon at 4:30 following The Edge of Night, I whispered his name, too, and got swept up into the first time travel storyline, which found Victoria Winters traveling back to witness the original events in 1795 that led to Barnabus's curse at the hands of jealous witch Angelique and the loss of his one true love, Josette DuPres (played by the inimitable Kathryn Leigh Scott).  The show's impact upon me deepened when, that same summer, an uncle gave me his complete collection of Dark Shadows paperbacks, penned by Marilyn Ross, those wonderful books (which still occupy a place of honor on the shelves in my Writing Room) filled with Gothic elegance, subtle erotic passion, and melancholy for the past.

A brooding manor with a circle tower and rooms and wings sealed off, filled with heirlooms draped in cobwebs and family secrets.  Another, abandoned deep in the woods -- "The Old House," as it came to be known.  Ancient crypts, unrequited desire, and handsome, tragic anti-heroes, one a vampire, another doomed to transform into a werewolf when the moon rose full, became the territory my young imagination wandered daily.  And also where my pen went when, at fifteen, I discovered a much bigger world through writing.

I loved the 1991 NBC remake starring Ben Cross in the role of Barnabus, with Joanna Going as both Victoria Winters and Josette, but alas that series was not to stay around past an abbreviated season. And so, in the summer of 1992, spurred on by a jealous, fellow writer who delighted in trying to squelch my creativity (until I put an end to both his efforts and our relationship), I penned my own tribute to that dreamlike world, a collection of Gothic romance stories and one novella for gay male readers, Ghost Kisses.  My first book, it sold on its initial attempt to a storied company that had also published works by such greats

as Tennessee Williams and Allen Ginsberg. For several weeks that next winter, publisher Winston Leyland phoned me to say that my small book was vastly different from the 500 other manuscripts submitted to him over the course of every year and that he was thrilled to offer me a contract. Following its release, a regular reader of Leyland Publication books would tell Winston that he and his lover took turns reading the stories to one another at night in bed, which I found wonderfully uplifting then and still do nearly twenty years later.

And I still love Dark Shadows, and likely always shall.  But the real deal, not Johnny Depp's version, which didn't utilize a single marvelous trill from the Robert Cobert soundtrack beyond a bit of rattling bones, and either forgot or intentionally overlooked all that made the original so unforgettable: that flicker of light, love, and hope within the gloom.