Tag Archives: angels

A Quickie

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I’m jotting off a little post in the midst of a heavy work week and health insurance headaches (health insurance companies are Evil, medical facilities are Evil, they are all EVIL!!).  But I’m nearly done with an article on John Rechy’s City of Night, and it should be cross-blogged here and at La Bloga soon.  I haven’t returned to editing my novel, somewhat intentionally.  Now with two weeks distance from the last draft, fully de-pressurized I think, I’m ready to go back.  To get a leg up on “angel” novels, I started reading Anne Rice’s Angel Time.

And a word about the Oscars…

Sometimes it’s more about the acceptance speeches than the cinematic performances, isn’t it?  So while I’ve seen neither The Blind Side nor Crazy Heart, I was delighted that Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges won.  I did see Precious and loved that MoNique got Best Supporting Actress.  Beyond that, I decided it was time for me to see The Hurt Locker and Up In The Air.  Wish there had been more of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin and less Best Picture segments.  I agree with the principle of nominating more movies to encourage folks to check out worthy, sleeper flicks, but it sure made the awards show drag.

Angels vs. Vampires

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My work-in-progress is about gay men and angels, and lately I’ve been worried.  This probably happens to every writer:  as you near the homestretch, you start noticing all the recently released books or movies similar to your story and panic that they’re going to cancel out the unique appeal of your novel.  On the other hand, hitting on a trend could be a very good thing for a debut title.  This has certainly been the case with vampire stories.

I don’t read vampire stories so I cast no judgment on them.  Something about vampires clearly taps into our collective unconscious, and there have always been plenty of vampire stories around.  But since Twilight’s success, bookstores have set up entire sections for this fantasy sub-genre.  Like I said, I haven’t picked up one of them, but some of them have some pretty enticing cover art.  And vampire movies are coming out like every other month.  The latest Daybreakers I just might go see.

Some people say the vampire trend is going cold.  Some people said that a year or two years ago.  The bubble has to burst at some point I guess just like the real estate market in the new millennium.

Vampires have infiltrated the gay fiction market as well.  A search on Amazon pulls up pages and pages of gay vampire novels, erotic and otherwise, all released in the past three years.  The only gay vampire book I read, back in the ’90’s, was Vampires Anonymous by Jeffrey McMahan. It was really good.

Angels seem to have a quieter following.  There’s the inspirational and melodramatic stuff out there, but no mainstream angel franchise that I can think of in terms of books and no angel fiction display case at my local Barnes and Noble.  Maybe they’re too sacred to exploit as a fantasy series.  Maybe people prefer to read about angels within the sanctity of the Bible.  Maybe this is why I was drawn to the subject as an excellent target for subversion.  But lately, there’s been a bunch of angel novels in the new release section of the bookstore.  Anne Rice’s Angel Time is out as part of her new Songs of the Seraphim trilogy, and YA author Lauren Kate has the angel-inspired series Fallen.  Plus film-wise, there’s the big budget Legion and James Cameron is working on a blockbuster based on the manga Battle Angel.

This shouldn’t worry me too much, I tell myself.  My story is equal parts contemporary gay issues and angel legend.  It doesn’t feature badass angels wreaking havoc or fighting an epic battle of good versus evil, and it’s not about a teenage girl drawn into the tortured, sexy world of angel boys.  And even though my story touches on the familiar themes of transcending adversity through faith, mercy and divine intervention, it’s not going to get the Pope’s seal of approval.  In fact, I’d be madly delighted if the Pope condemned it as the most heretical piece of literature since Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses.

I guess I’m just worried that by the time I finish my book (3 months off by my most optimistic calculation), agents and publishers will have declared the angel trend come and gone.  The anxiety pushes me along.  Maybe I’ll get the final 50 pages done by April.

Brief Wednesday Post

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It’s the Australian Open Women’s Semi-Finals tonight so I just have a couple of minutes to dash off my weekly update.  What does tennis have to do with writing?  Not much, I guess, although Maria Sharapova was the inspiration for one of my villainous characters.

The creative currents continue to flow as I write the third and final section of WHEN THE FALLEN ANGELS FLY.  I scaled a mental wall over the weekend, and I’m feeling pretty good about where I’m headed.  Right now, Richard is ransacking an attorney’s office for clues on why he was sent back to earth to help his murderer Lee Toback.

I’m moving nicely through Hanif Kureishi’s THE BLACK ALBUM, another book that was collecting dust on my shelf waiting for me to read.  Kureishi’s characterization is masterful.  Next up is a long overdue read of James Baldwin’s GIOVANNI’S ROOM.

Go Li Na!!  I love rooting for an underdog.

Angels

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Those who have been following my weekly musings know that my work-in-progress concerns angels.  Lately, I can’t escape them.  They’re on top of Christmas trees, twinkling in TV commercials and invoked on evening news stories about good deeds during the holidays.  WHEN THE FALLEN ANGELS FLY could be considered a new take on It’s A Wonderful Life, far-derived, I think.  But it’s hard to write about angels without lapsing into Christmas associations.  It should be a perfect time to complete this project.  Even for an atheist like me.

I do maintain a foggy sort of spirituality.  I believe in the goodness of people and figure that goodness counts for something in this world or beyond.  What it counts for – karma or a higher state of enlightenment, I’m not sure.

Anyway, I’ve been moving through my manuscript a little faster.  Now I have a deadline:  I have to get the second section of the novel to my writers group by December 21st.  This will happen.  I’ve only got about twenty pages to re-read and edit.  Right now, Richard is preparing written testimony for the arraignment of James Hartsdale, a guy wrongly accused of Richard’s murder.

The book is more about angels with a lower case “a.”  There’s fantasy elements for sure, but what inspired me most is the randomness of everyday life, the tragedies and miracles that hit from out of nowhere and how people associate these things with otherwordly phenomenon.  I think we’re all capable of being “angels” (as well as “demons”).  I meet an angel just about every day.  The woman who holds the door open when my arms are full with shopping bags.  The co-worker who brings me an iced coffee even when I haven’t asked for it.  The cleaning lady who folds the toilet paper roll into a little triangle so that I can fantasize that I’m living in a luxury hotel.  So yeah, I’ve caught the holiday cheer bug, and this post is approximating mushiness.  It’s the angels on the brain and what the concept entails:  love, good will, believing in the impossible.