More book updates!
No, don't worry, I haven't written another four chapters in the few hours since I posted my last update. I'm fast, but not *that* fast! I have, however, been working on the plot line and character notes for books 11 and 12. Up until yesterday I knew what book 12 would be about, I just hadn't gotten round to planning it yet, but I had no idea what to do for book 11.
When we were clearing the boxes in the house and shredding things, I found the first few pages of a book I had started after the first Dying Thoughts and I read it over, laughed at my writing and realised that had I completed the book it would have just been another book about teen pregnancy. I liked the idea of super religious parents having to deal with something outside their comfort zone and then I started to think. I have a number of gay, lesbian, bi and trans* friends. I am bi myself and I realised that there are not that many books on how a teenager can deal with that. Now, I don't know enough to write about a trans* character and not end up offending so many people and I was going to make the main character - as in written from her POV - black, but after some thought and discussion decided to switch it round so that I wrote from the POV of the only white major character. I didn't want to do the same with a black character that I would ultimately do with a trans* character. I am bi and I was a bi teenager, but I was a WHITE bi teenager and I have no idea what black bi/lesbian/gay/queer/trans* teenagers go through and again, I didn't want to offend people.
I have my plot, I have my story line, I have my character cards and I will have to do A LOT of research to do the story justice. I've written a post on my tumblr asking for help from people going through it in 2013, with the promise to keep everything confidential and I wanted to reach out here too.
I will be writing about a white, bi 16 year old girl, a black, lesbian, 16 year old girl, a middle eastern, gay, 16 year old boy and a eastern European, 16 year old boy. All the families come from a different culture. I will mostly be including Christianity, but will need to do some research on Islam. All the families have different views on homosexuality and will be reacting differently. The Islamic family are more traditional about the culture, but not actively practising the religion. I plan to google a lot of things, but I would like to know more about the cultures I will be writing about, here's some more information if you're interested.
The black girl has parents who were born in the UK, but whose parents emigrated from Western Africa in the 1950s. They follow Christianity strictly but would have their own culture that I would like to know more about. I would like to know what sort of difficulties she would face not only as a black person, but as a lesbian in a strictly Christian household, with the cultural background she has.
The middle eastern guy has parents who emigrated from Iraq when they were younger, so about the time of the first Gulf War. They are very traditional and follow more of the cultural rules of Islam than the religion. I would like to know about what sort of difficulties he would face as a young gay teenager living with strict parents from an Islamic background. I would also like to know any major cultural differences that would be present in his life.
The eastern European guy has strict Catholic parents who emigrated from Croatia before he was born. He is gay, and has an on/off relationship with a younger boy at the same school. He has not told his parents he is gay because he wants them to still be proud of him. I would like to know what difficulties he would face as a young gay man from a Catholic background. Some of that I already know, but like I said, it's been a long time since I was a teenager and I am also white.
I would also be interested to hear what kind of lifestyle gay teenagers have in the UK. What resources are available to them? Is there much support? Do they have a place to go to just hang out? Or is it all just for the older gay crowd? Anything you can tell me would be great and as I said on Tumblr, would be kept between you and me. If you don't feel okay posting as a comment, feel free to email me at joeybug44@virginmedia.com or PM me here at LJ. And please feel free to share the relevant parts of this post with anyone you think may be able to help me.
Thanks
So thanks to anyone who read all of that and is able to help, or knows someone who might be able to. The last thing I want to do is write it badly and offend a bunch of people. I want it to be as real as it can be, being that's it's fiction and I have some artistic license. So thanks :D If you want to direct people here, I'll make this entry public and can activate anonymous commenting if you all think that would help get a better response.
Thanks for reading.
When we were clearing the boxes in the house and shredding things, I found the first few pages of a book I had started after the first Dying Thoughts and I read it over, laughed at my writing and realised that had I completed the book it would have just been another book about teen pregnancy. I liked the idea of super religious parents having to deal with something outside their comfort zone and then I started to think. I have a number of gay, lesbian, bi and trans* friends. I am bi myself and I realised that there are not that many books on how a teenager can deal with that. Now, I don't know enough to write about a trans* character and not end up offending so many people and I was going to make the main character - as in written from her POV - black, but after some thought and discussion decided to switch it round so that I wrote from the POV of the only white major character. I didn't want to do the same with a black character that I would ultimately do with a trans* character. I am bi and I was a bi teenager, but I was a WHITE bi teenager and I have no idea what black bi/lesbian/gay/queer/trans* teenagers go through and again, I didn't want to offend people.
I have my plot, I have my story line, I have my character cards and I will have to do A LOT of research to do the story justice. I've written a post on my tumblr asking for help from people going through it in 2013, with the promise to keep everything confidential and I wanted to reach out here too.
I will be writing about a white, bi 16 year old girl, a black, lesbian, 16 year old girl, a middle eastern, gay, 16 year old boy and a eastern European, 16 year old boy. All the families come from a different culture. I will mostly be including Christianity, but will need to do some research on Islam. All the families have different views on homosexuality and will be reacting differently. The Islamic family are more traditional about the culture, but not actively practising the religion. I plan to google a lot of things, but I would like to know more about the cultures I will be writing about, here's some more information if you're interested.
The black girl has parents who were born in the UK, but whose parents emigrated from Western Africa in the 1950s. They follow Christianity strictly but would have their own culture that I would like to know more about. I would like to know what sort of difficulties she would face not only as a black person, but as a lesbian in a strictly Christian household, with the cultural background she has.
The middle eastern guy has parents who emigrated from Iraq when they were younger, so about the time of the first Gulf War. They are very traditional and follow more of the cultural rules of Islam than the religion. I would like to know about what sort of difficulties he would face as a young gay teenager living with strict parents from an Islamic background. I would also like to know any major cultural differences that would be present in his life.
The eastern European guy has strict Catholic parents who emigrated from Croatia before he was born. He is gay, and has an on/off relationship with a younger boy at the same school. He has not told his parents he is gay because he wants them to still be proud of him. I would like to know what difficulties he would face as a young gay man from a Catholic background. Some of that I already know, but like I said, it's been a long time since I was a teenager and I am also white.
I would also be interested to hear what kind of lifestyle gay teenagers have in the UK. What resources are available to them? Is there much support? Do they have a place to go to just hang out? Or is it all just for the older gay crowd? Anything you can tell me would be great and as I said on Tumblr, would be kept between you and me. If you don't feel okay posting as a comment, feel free to email me at joeybug44@virginmedia.com or PM me here at LJ. And please feel free to share the relevant parts of this post with anyone you think may be able to help me.
Thanks
So thanks to anyone who read all of that and is able to help, or knows someone who might be able to. The last thing I want to do is write it badly and offend a bunch of people. I want it to be as real as it can be, being that's it's fiction and I have some artistic license. So thanks :D If you want to direct people here, I'll make this entry public and can activate anonymous commenting if you all think that would help get a better response.
Thanks for reading.