You Should Make that a Mainstream Book! Hop Against Homophobia

That’s right, ladies and gents; it’s The Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia in honor of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia! Woo hoo! I’m always excited to be involved in this amazing hop and to be in such fantastic company. Be sure you bounce around this week to catch all the awesome posts and maybe win some LGBT-related prizes! Check out my Rafflecopter below for a chance to win one of my e-books.

The other day I was telling my BFF/plot sounding board an idea I have for a dystopian series. “It’ll be MM, of course,” I said, and then launched into what I have so far.

“That’s a really good idea!” she said. “It’s similar enough to some books out there, but still original. You should make that a mainstream book instead!”

I didn’t say much, except that I’d probably be stuck self-publishing it if I did, not that there’s anything wrong with that; it just isn’t a pool I’ve swam in yet and I’m not sure I’m ready for it. I suppose I could spend a few years trying to shop it out to agents first and then settle on self-pubbing, unless of course the market for those books was saturated by the time I realized no one was going to take it because it was one of millions, and then it could just collect dust on my hard drive like that vampire YA I wrote.

Those, alone, seemed like good enough reasons to stick with my original plan, but then I kept thinking about it.

I thought about all the times my mom has said, “You should write the next Hunger Games instead of those other books!” Yeah, Mom. I’ll do that tonight.  For one, non-authors have a skewed sense of how the industry works and how people make it big. If only success could be had by simply writing a great book (sometimes, success is had without even writing a somewhat decent book, but that’s another topic).

But also, I thought about how I’m expected to conform to something that society views as more normal.  I hate to be the one to burst anyone’s bubble, but sex is normal. Gay people are normal.

Here are some definitions for mainstream from Dictionary.com:

main·stream  [meyn-streem]

noun

the principal or dominant course, tendency, or trend: the mainstream of American culture.

a river having tributaries.

regular school classes or regular schools: keeping autistic students in the mainstream.

adjective

belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc.: mainstream Republicans; a mainstream artist; mainstream media .

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of jazz falling historically between Dixieland and modern jazz; specifically, swing music. Compare traditional (  def 4 ) .

I dare say that gays are a widely accepted group, and if not, then I’m spending my time wisely if my writing helps make literature featuring same-sex couples more accepted.

I dare say, also, that sex is a dominant course, tendency, or trend everywhere and by everyone (including non-humans).

Furthermore, I’ll venture to say that both sex and gay people are infinitely more mainstream than jazz. I mean, it’s jazz. What the fuck? 😉

So, why can’t I write my dystopian, paranormal/sci-fi epic with a gay love story in it? If the plot is good enough for mainstream, then the damn mainstream readers should just freakin’ read it. Why should I change what I like to write for them? They should change for me, dammit.

Anyway, to all you LGBT readers, lovers, writers, and supporters, I say thanks. Keep pushing back. Let’s redefine mainstream one idea/person/book at a time until all of our tributaries are recognized as integral pieces of a whole, indispensable and absolutely normal.

-Kimber

Win your choice of one of my Shooting Stars e-books–Forever is Now or Double Takes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

———-

Look at the size of this thing, will ya? 🙂