Which One Are You Again?

There's an issue I want to talk about that same sex couples face, one that sadly fails to gain much attention because we don't let it happen in fiction.

I refer, of course, to the issue over names.

When I was in college, I had a friend named Beth. In due course of time, Beth had a girlfriend. Named Beth. BethnBeth, as we called them, were both blondes of roughly the same height and weight, both sporting short hair. Adorable, I know, but picture yourself in this conversation:

"Hey, Beth was looking for you."

"Which Beth?"

"Uhhh—"

It would never do in those days of radical feminism to declare Beth (my initial friend) as butcher than Beth, her girlfriend, lest you be accused of gender stereotyping and antediluvian role assignment, but in fact, "butcher" was about the only differentiation between BethnBeth that could be accomplished in fewer words than would make up a five-page essay, one-inch margins, double-spaced for my Intro to Feminism class.

Now over the course of my life, I have met opposite-sex couples named Don and Donna, Dean and Deanna, and even Bobby and Bobbie, but they have a fairly uncomplicated way to differentiate, relying on words such as male and female. And it's not just same-sex couples with the same name like BethnBeth. My wife and I both have names that start with the K sound (if not the same letter). Many people who meet us as a couple say with an apologetic grimace, "Which one were you again?"

When I was working on Life, Over Easy, which is set on a college campus that may or may not be the one still hosting the evil intergalactic bureaucracy that conferred my assorted degrees, I couldn't help but remember my old friends BethnBeth. As the John in the book starts his new life, he acquires a group of friends, one of them a couple named Gavin and Garrett. For the rest of the book, John cannot tell them apart. I made them both blonds, of equal height and weight. Somehow I think Beth—and Beth, who parted ways not long after presenting us with that fascinating name game, would be amused.


This just in: Thanks to hard work and the correct application of the U.S. Constitution, a TomnTom or a BethnBeth can look forward to equal protection under the law, at least in California. I'm no good with graphics, but insert a burst of confetti and popping champagne corks here (in your mind's eye will do nicely.)

Hello, Have You Seen My Comfort Zone?

Hello, have you seen my comfort zone?

It's got to be around here somewhere. I only meant to leave it a little bit. But a thing happened. I wrote a sort of paranormal (no fur or fangs) and while I do enjoy the genre, I never thought I'd be writing in it. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, but the story just wouldn't leave me alone.

I didn't write in a different genre to stretch or push myself as a writer; I'm way too lazy for that. I didn't even do it with a mercenary eye on the ever-growing popularity of paranormal romances. I did it because it was the best story I could tell at this particular moment. I fall back on my favorite defense: the characters made me do it.

Now I didn't go off the deep end and write m/f or menage or even something (gasp) non-erotic. At the core, it's still a story about two guys figuring out if they can make something work between them. Something besides the steamy sex, of course. But it's definitely different. Maybe that's why it wasn't until I was typing the last few pages that I found a title I really liked. (And I have to add that I have the most awesome editor in the world to put up with my dithering over titles.) Life, Over Easy will be out on August 3 from Samhain. It's the story with John and Mason, for those of you who saw my excerpt—oh, okay—smutty tease over at my live journal. Although things get wrapped up for them, there's more going on there than fit in one book, and I hope people like them enough for a sequel or two.

So if anyone around here has seen my comfort zone, I'd really like it back. I'm feeling kind of like Linus without his blanket, because the next story yammering for attention is dragging me to a time period I've done no research on and have very little experience with. Not only that, but I can't even explain the plot to myself in a way that makes sense. I have the feeling that as soon I let these characters get started, I'm going to really wish I had my blanket back.

Hey guys, I know you're eager, but could you wait for me? I'm doing this without a net, you know.