About Books: Schism

 

 

The very first book I ever completed was Schism, which at the time was classified as Gay Fiction, but now would come under the heading of GLBTQ+ fiction.

When I competed it, I knew there was something wrong with the writing, but couldn’t quite figure out how to fix it. It was one I sent to publishers that accepted unsolicited manuscripts (those presented without an agent), and everyone said it wasn’t what they were looking for.

The time was 1989, about 10 years after AIDS came into our consciousness, and gay fiction was definitely a hot topic. I had just finished reading the non-fiction book, And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts.

Shilts’ book made me angry for the people who had contracted AIDS, and how the government tried to shove the subject under the carpet, effectively saying it only affected gays and gays didn’t matter. Both of those sentiments were lies.

His book also introduced me to Anthony Fauci, the doctor who did so much to bring the AIDS crisis to the fore and investigate its cause. No matter what you think about him because of Covid-19 – and I, as a health care professional, understand that science is real, it takes time to understand many aspects of disease, and as new scientific information becomes available, recommendations may need to change – he definitely did a great deal to advance our understanding of AIDS.  Because my story timeline was the 1980s, and the main character was gay, AIDS required at least a mention.

One of my problems with writing is that I often get various ideas for a story, and if I don’t write them down when they occur, they disappear. For that reason, I don’t always write the scenes in order. I find it difficult to start on page one and write in a straight line to the end. For the most part, however, that is exactly what I did with Schism. I still don’t understand how I managed it.

I recently decided to re-edit the book. I immediately discovered a main problem: it doesn’t grab the reader at the beginning. This is essential. But my story had a rather tedious beginning, with a lot of description.

When I was in elementary school, our teachers told us that descriptions were necessary in novels, and one needed to wade through the first two chapters or so to get the setting and characters of the story set. After that, the good stuff would happen.

Then I had writing classes in college, and the instructors there said that if you didn’t grab your reader by the throat in the first sentence or two, you’d probably already lost them.

I suppose in the 1800s and early 1900s, in the absence of television and other distractions, and definitely without the instant gratification of streaming services and the internet, long-winded descriptions helped wile away the hours between dinner and going to bed. In the 1960s, I found the Bobsey Twins books and Nancy Drew too much of a slog to put up with. Even Louisa May Alcott had the sense to give us an interesting sentence to start her stories, and she wrote in the mid-1800s.

Determined to free my story of a dull beginning, I began a rewrite. The story, as it stands now, is about Matt Nelson, as TV news reporter recently returned to the Philadelphia area where he grew up.

Where the story starts – which is actually at the end – Matt is in the hospital undergoing surgery, his life on the line. The story then moves, using flashbacks and a timeline from his arrival the in Philadelphia area, when he’s a beat reporter through to his becoming the anchor of the evening news.

Matt is definitely closeted, believing that his coming out would jeopardize his career. He has his personal life that he goes to great lengths to keep private.

Flashbacks give us his childhood, his relationship with his older brother, Michael, who becomes a priest, and at times not his best ally, his two older sisters and eventually a younger brother.

People in Bucks County, particularly the village of Oakford, will recognize many of the place descriptions. Some of the settings in Philadelphia, alas, are no longer there. One of the restaurants mentioned burned down in the 2000s, but was definitely a popular place in the 1980s. The same is true of two bars mentioned in New Hope, Bucks County.

Of course, his family discovers his sexual orientation, with explosive results that divide the family, making way for a good bit of guilt when a near-tragic accident happens.

I’ve been asked why I chose to write gay fiction. My first answer is, why not? But I had more pressing reasons. Many of my friends at Penn State were gay, and they allowed me to ask questions. I tried not to be intrusive, but I didn’t want to make assumptions that were wrong.

Another reason was because of a book I read. Said friends recommended I read a book called The Front Runner, which centers on a gay man. While I learned a lot from that book, I was also upset by it. It was * spoilers* once again a story that ends in the gay character getting killed. It made no sense to the story, as far as I could tell. To me that murder only happened because the author didn’t know how to end a book that would allow the gay man not to be punished for his orientation. When I discovered the author was a lesbian, I was doubly disheartened. She should have known better. Yes, people get killed over their sexuality, but what about the boys who live? It was a cheat, as far as I was concerned, and I was determined that I would not end my novel the same way.

In fact, there are four sequels.