I believe it is a pitfall to think that fiction for lesbians is all that different from/than fiction for straight people. And I can say that as a person who reads largely mainstream fiction, and very little of what is termed “lesfic.” I grew up reading mainstream, and I continue to do so, and I am quite picky about what I read. It’s hard for an author to get and keep my attention, if there are any thin spots in his/her craft. I think I might be in the process of forming a new list of Favorite Authors. So far, there are only a few names on that list. But it’s just as well, at the moment, since I have very little time for leisure reading. My Kindle and my bookshelf are both full of books waiting for me to read them. I’m too busy reading and editing my own books right now. Hopefully, soon, I will be done with the new tweaks to my print versions and the marketing strategies I’m implementing to my entire body of work.

But I do enjoy writing fiction about and for lesbians, because I am part of that orientation, and it’s more comfortable for me to write about it.

My newest book, Pitfall, has evolved into something unexpected; although to some degree, every book I write is like that. But this one is a new species.

Perhaps appropriately so, since it really is about evolution of species, of characters, of ideas and preconceived notions. I secretly hope this project will begin –at least in my little corner of the literary world–another sea change; one predicated on the samenesses we share rather than the differences we have chosen to focus upon historically.

There’s a practical reason for the variety of literary genres and subgenres. Just as the human brain understands the world around it by categorizing data, relating new experiences to previous ones, so genres help readers find the types of books they are interested in. But this convenience can also serve as a terminus–a limiting factor.  It can lead us to narrow our literary interests and never read outside a prescribed set of parameters, and in so doing, cheat ourselves out of what could be an enriching and enlightening experience found just beyond the boundaries of our knowledge and experience.

With the recent sea change of marriage equality, more and more average citizens have become aware that same-gender-loving sexual orientation is not the bugle call of the fall of civilization.

In the natural world there are variations within a species. And humans are part of that natural world. Emphasis on the word *natural. *

In my blithe ruminations about what project I will tackle next, I always try to think of something I haven’t done. And also something that hasn’t been done to death by other writers.

One night, my partner and I were re-watching Jurassic Park, and I thought it would be fun to write a story about dinosaurs. Since my comfort zone is writing lesbian characters because I am a lesbian character, I thought, Hmmm. Lesbians. Dinosaurs. IIIIInt’restiiiing…. {And if I’d had a handlebar mustache to twirl in my fingers, I would have}. I began to create the book, Pitfall, with the usual lesbian-oriented platform.

I thought it was going to be a satisfying, quick, fun project. It’s been satisfying, yes, but not quick, and sometimes, not so much fun. I kept getting stymied in the writing by having to do research. I was constantly reminded of how much I didn’t know about the subjects, and I had to know enough about them to use them in the plot, and I had to be able to make the plot do what I wanted, while still being as factual as possible with the scientific data. I am a stickler about that. I pretty much base everything in my fiction on facts. I don’t fudge on the details. But that makes my job harder, and sometimes sucks the joy out of a process that is supposed to be largely creative.

First, I was writing one of the main characters as a paleontologist. I have not a single friend who is a paleontologist, so I had my work cut out for me.

Also, in my initial research amid the Theoretical physics and time-travel theories,

 paleontology, geology, paleogeography, paleobotany, and such, I wanted to also read other novels with dinosaurs in them. There was the obvious Michael Crichton book-that-became-blockbuster-movie, Jurassic Park, but I wanted to read “the others.”

What I found was a dearth of choices in that subgenre. Considering the insane popularity of the Crichton book and Spielberg movie, how was it even possible that there were so few novels with dinosaurs? There were plenty of books in nonfiction; plenty of books aimed at children; but the only novels I did find were ridiculous, poorly-rendered, and appropriately, got terrible reviews.

So. I was excited by the idea of throwing my literary hat in that ring and offering a good book in that category; maybe tap into some virgin market. It’s always a challenge these days to compete with the gazillion other Indie writers who are publishing their work (whether they should or not). An Indie author must always work to stand out from the crowd. I thought this was a chance for me to do that again, in a different way.

As I wrote my way into the belly of the story, the inevitable hand-wringing began. Will lesbians even care to read this book? I knew most of them would be interested in the romance, for sure, if the stats are any indication. Romance is by far the most popular category in lesbian fiction.

[side bar: I have my own theory about that phenomenon. In a nutshell, it is that same-gender-living people have been relegated to the fringes so long, and have been so ensconced in a hetero-dominate culture that they are hungry for overt representations of themselves focused on the one thing that divides them from the mainstream: sexual orientation. ]

But time-travel? And dinosaurs? Those are mainstream things, right? Then I thought, hell, maybe I should make this a mainstream book.

But then I would be faced once again with not only writing hetero-romantic bits, but with being a little fish in a big pond. A big pond that has perhaps become more like an ocean. While still being a little fish. (Insert your own shark metaphor here).

Then, I just became once again aggravated by this divisiveness in our culture. Why can’t I write these mainstream books with lesbian characters? Why won’t mainstream readers care to read them? One answer to that is: because some can’t relate to SGL people; some still hold old world prejudices, stereotypes, and preconceived notions. But the same could be said for hardcore lesfic readers. They won’t read anything that doesn’t have a gay character in it.

Furthermore, if I just want to write about PEOPLE, regardless of orientation, why won’t the same-gender-loving people read that, too?

Then, in both camps, there are some who aren’t interested in romance but prefer action, adventure or other genres. Fortunately, my books have always blended genres–a fact that becomes vexation when it comes time to publish, and Amazon has such a restrictive genre selection for lesbian writers’ work–but must I be relegated to a fringe-group as a writer as well, when all I have ever done was write the best books I could, no matter what the subject matter? Isn’t it about (and shouldn’t it be about) GOOD writing, no matter what category it’s in?

Then I thought, Dammit. If the lesfic genre is so confining, maybe this should be a mainstream book. Meaning main characters who are hetero-oriented.

Then I thought, What if I wrote both?
And that’s when the idea took root.
And it evolved.
I started thinking about how having one book written in two versions for two markets would allow me to cover my bases and also might have deeper implications and more pervasive sociological implications, even if it was only an isolated and anecdotal social experiment.

But it might illustrate in a very visceral way, how we are alike. It could be still another bridge between straight and gay society.

I thought about writing a companion article (like this one) and put it on my blog, and submit it to Huffpost, so that the idea might reach a bigger audience, and have some type of positive impact. Whether or not Huffpost will publish it, remains to be seen. But this is where things stand for now.

Pitfall is finished except for the final tweaks I’ll do after my editor is finished with it. Then I will clone it into another file and make the changes for the mainstream novel, merely changing one character to a male, and making the romantic parts hetero. I firmly believe that not that much will have to be changed. I guess we’ll see.

I continue to hope that one day, I can just write what I write and it won’t be pigeon-holed in LESBIAN literature, but just be identified by genre. I really don’t consider lesbian fiction as a genre. A genre is Romance or Science Fiction, or Speculative, or Supernatural or Horror or Chick Lit….to relegate fiction directed at lesbians to some separate category, is to some degree an affront to me. People are people. Love is love. Life is life.

I’m profoundly curious to see where all of this will go.