"Author to Author: Are You Telling Your Stories?"
written by Max D
Sharing your world matters.
The two predators at the start of "The Lioness" exist in a London I know far too well. The stretch of sidewalks drenched in black tears that have washed litter into soggy piles in the shadows of streetlamps clinging to the streets of Camden Town. I've gone back to that same spot over and over for close to eighteen years. Given the current plans economic development within the area, that bit of London won't exist for much longer. It will be built over, the references in "The Lioness" will no longer be anchored to a physical reality, and that part of my world will have come to an end.
What does it matter? This is the normal state of our existence. We are transient in a landscape that evolves and changes as much as we do. The technology we use, the things we take for granted, and the places we know are moments in time. A friend of mine, now in her late seventies, lamented the lack of stories about the shenanigans and sexual passions of a generation confounded by war and loss over tea, and I asked her what should we know now. "Well," she said, "this whole gays and lesbians thing isn't new at all." She was half laughing expecting me to be shocked and sipped some fancy Whittard blend which was a personal preference before continuing. "We were all huddled together, waiting for the bombers to pass, and my second girlfriend liked to sneak in a quick grope under my skirt when she knew I couldn't make a sound." Unfortunately, there are very few stories about those other relationships. No one told them. People conveniently forgot. My friend's memories will fade with her, and no one will know any differently than the popular fiction and radio shows of that era which largely censored homosexuality to avoid government intervention.
Unable to sleep while winging my way across the Atlantic, my friend's smirk stuck with me long after I forgot the name and scent of her favorite tea. This is our job now. The barriers have been removed. The publishers can no longer bar the gates and prevent the people from being heard. Do you want other authors to speak for you? Do you want their beliefs to eclipse yours? Will you share your world? Or will you let it wither and fade as if it never existed at all?