Sunday, December 26, 2010

What the Queer JuBu Said

I'm giddy that he liked the book. But what's even cooler is that reading it spurred him to go on a search for other gay-Asian-supernatural-historic-revenge-reincarnation-romance fiction. Apparently there's more of it out there than you would think. I didn't even know it was a subgenre; I was just going on what the story of YU demanded that I write.
Mr. Horn does a fine service for readers of gay relationship fiction, and slips in a plug for his own story in this subgenre, which appeared in a 2006 anthology Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling. He says of that story,
"Musuko Dojoji was a retelling of a thousand year old Japanese folktale (Musume Dojoji) framed by a contemporary gay love story. The folktale is connected to the contemporary story by a reincarnation motif. I wrote this story out of love for my late boyfriend, Hiroshi Aoki, as a way of keeping his memory alive through our shared love of folktales and mysticism. It was one way of honoring our connection -- a connection I always felt was something that went beyond my limited understanding of reality."
Although, like some of you, I already have too many unread books on my shelves, side tables, and floor, I can see that there are a few more to be added, from the tempting gems Mr. Horn has found for us.

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