Lesbian Fiction: Past Its Shelf-Life?

It's 11am in New Zealand - Sunday morning. Pardon any gibberish. No wait, I shall make coffee. Brb.

I'd like to address some points various people have brought up, but first - thanks all who have weighed in so far. I consider myself privileged to be able to hear what y'all have to say. I'll just quote some extracts and reply.

"I might be misunderstanding this, but are you saying you signed a contract with a lesbian publishing house--on the basis that you're a lesbian?"

  -- No, I signed the contract on the basis that I was an unpublished, inexperienced writer who had contacts. I also thought I could make a point by publishing a story that focused on the mystery as opposed to the lesbianism of my character through a lesbian publisher. I think the point got made, just not in the way I'd hoped for.

"Most lesbian fiction is crap but only because most fiction is crap. Most GLBT films are crap because most films are crap."

  -- Disagree. Youre reading the wrong books and watching the wrong movies.

"The logical extension of your argument is that we don't need lesbian websites, either."

  -- Nope, that's just silly.

"If you're looking for the place that the hordes will jump on the "don't label me" & "I'm not into lesbian culture" bandwagon — you found it."

  -- Excellent.

"If a writer chooses to write for a specific audience, what's the problem? On the other hand, if an author doesn't want to be shoe-horned into that niche then she should only submit her work to mainstream publishers."

  -- I was thinking about Authorial Intent when I wrote this and you make a valid point. To a large degree it's going to come down to why an author writes - is it to put more lesbian stories onto the market? Is it to make a successful career out of writing? And no, you donlt have to sacrifice any integrity as an author in order to make a living from it.

"And you can get GaGa anywhere. Not so with Catie Curtis so why take up already limited shelf space with GaGa?"

 -- Actually, you can get Catie Curtis pretty much wherever you are. It's called Amazon.com

"For some women it's a rush to go into a GLBT bookstore and buy a lesbian book. For them, it's a self-affirming act."

  -- I understand this, but I don't necessarily think it's right. Buying a book, something that most people would take for granted, should not be a self-affirming act. Spending a month on top of the Himalayas with nothing but a tent and the clothes on your back - now that's a self-affirming act right there.

"We should take advantage of the tiny window that has opened by encouraging those in our community who produce literature and art of all kinds to step up with their very best work."

 -- Yes, yes and decidedly yes. But then, you use words like "literature" and "art", and I think that speaks volumes about why you understand what 'm trying to say.

  Ok, I will hunt for more quotes.

  The book I am writing right now is in many ways the story that's been brewing in my head for years; what it really is I want to write. (more here: http://stricklandiaries.wordpress.com/)  The protagonist is queer, yes, but this fact is very incidental to the story; the reader only finds out by an offhand comment. Maybe ... it's because the book is not about a character's sexuality, it's ... For me, there are so many more interesting things to write about - things that affect everyone, regardless of who they sleep with. I mean, we're all human, right? I think the more we reiterate our differences, the longer we will always put ourselves in camps.

 To this you may reply - "So that's how you feel, then write that way". Which naturally, I am doing. But I cannot tell you how many of the well-known players in the lesbian publishing world have scorned me outright for this approach. They feel that, if my protag is a dyke, she has to "behave like one". I mean, what the hell is that, what does it mean? Somehow they feel I have a responsibility to write as a lesbian, not as a writer. And that is what I have a problem with; that's the crux of my argument. Writing is a sacred act; it's above sexuality, above everything.

When I was selecting stories for the Periphery anthology (Periphery - Erotic Lesbian Futures), there was a backlash because I chose to include stories by straight authors. What the hell? It's rediculous.

Writing, at its very core, is not about pushing an agenda  or emporing others. Those are very awesome side-effects that come from doing it right.