Hey, so if you’ve stumbled across my little page on the web and you’ve made it to the blog page you might have noticed I’m a wannabe author. I’m currently working on my first books. Yes, I said books. I’ve committed the fatal flaw of starting more than one project. This has generally been due to my indecisiveness and having too many ideas for books. So I’ve jumped from one project to another as they all seem exciting to me.
I now realize however this has meant I’ve not made as much progress as I would have liked. So in the last week, I’ve had the hard task of picking one project to focus my attention on. With the plan of getting something finished and out into the world as soon as possible. As I’m really eager for my author journey to begin. I’ve also picked a secondary project for those days when the words won’t come for the main project. As we all get those days.
So what am I writing?
The first project I plan to finish is an urban fantasy novella that could possibly be expanded into a short series at a later date. It’s may be classed as YA when it’s finished, but then again it may not. It all depends on if I feel like censoring myself! I’m in two minds at the moment, as there is a lot of crossover between YA general adult fiction, so not quite sure where I will be placing myself. Perhaps I may even be able to write both in the long term.
Which feeds into what I mentioned in the title above. I plan on writing LGBT characters because growing up I really didn’t feel represented in fiction as a teen or for most of my twenties. Which can make things quite lonely if you’ve yet to meet your tribe.
Things have taken steps in the right direction recently, but all too often LGBTQ+ people still only appear as minor side characters. All too often these characters only appear to be an accessory, the gay BFF or the gossipy hairdresser. They seem to be an acceptable or goto character for some writers. Although I think I prefer these to the “are they aren’t they” characters, where it’s never made clear if they are queer or not. Or worse, they come out many years after the event. I’m looking at you Dumbledore!
Gay guy focused – For now…
I do plan on writing as diversely as possible in the long term, but at the moment I want to write what’s tugging at my heart. One of the biggest drivers for me is to write the stories I wished I could have read all those years ago. Dealing with some of the issues and thoughts that I faced at the time.
Some of these characters have been with me since my late teens when I first dabbled in writing. There may still be some record of Dylan’s, Ollies and Finn’s journeys out there in the off topic section of some long forgotten message board. No doubt complete with the obligatory dancing banana gifs and an emo heavy avatar picture.
Which genres?
I would love to write all manner of fiction. I have ideas for Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy in all it’s various identities. Most will include a sprinkling of romance, as one of the subplots or not. It may be the common thread if you wish, as I crave to write about long term LGBTQ+ relationships. I’ve been in one for thirteen years, so I’m proof they do exist!
My focus at first will be on vampires, demons, witches, mages and the like for the time being, with hunters, werewolves and plain old humans sprinkled in for good measure. Heck, just these cast of characters could keep me busy for a decade or so. So on with the writing and the next stage will be posting some sample chapters.
If you’ve stumbled across this post and read this far, a big thank you. Perhaps you might like to sign up to my mailing list so I can let you know when the journey begins and when the obligatory free story appears for download. You might not, but you can’t blame a guy for trying!
Jonny Clark