Queer · and · Loathing · in · America

Okay, so I took a momentary break from writing to watch the end of the Saints game.

Oh. My. God.

I'd gone to the gym to train Jean and do an abbreviated (very abbreviated) version of my own workout before coming back home to write, write, write. Paul and I missed each other somehow; he'd left for the gym before I got home, and had left the television on to the game. I checked the score and went uh oh, and went back to my computer to start working. After about another ten minutes, I realized Paul was gone (he never leaves the television on when he leaves) and I wandered back in there to see that the score was 30-20 without much time left. I was all, well, god damn!. As I watched, the Saints kicked a field goal so it was 30-23. Woo-hoo! Much jumping up and down and cheering! Then, the Saints kicked off and the Redskins (and why doesn't anyone complain about THAT racist team name? Just sayin'.) promptly marched down the field. Much swearing and cursing. THEN THEY MISSED THE FIELD GOAL. Much cheering and jumping up and down. The Saints score! 30-30! WOO-HOO! They kick off, the Redskins start moving the ball...no no no! THE SAINTS INTERCEPT! Woo-hoo! But they miss THEIR field goal! Much gnashing of teeth! The Redskins get the ball first in overtime. THEY FUMBLE! SAINTS RECOVER! Saints move the ball! On the one inch line, second and goal! Kick a field goal! WOO-HOO! Oh, no, Redskins had called time out! DAMN! Much gnashing of teeth and swearing. The Saints kick it again! IT'S GOOD! SAINTS WIN!!! WOO-HOO!!! What a comeback!

Oh. My. God.

And I am not ashamed to admit I had tears in my eyes as they kicked the winning field goal as I jumped up and down screaming and launched into my own little "Who Dat?" happy dance.

Sigh.

I don't know if the Saints will go undefeated. I don't know if the Saints will go to the Super Bowl. I don't know if the Saints will win the Super Bowl. But I do know that this has been one hell of a thrill-ride this year, and no matter how it turns out in the end, I will always be grateful to them for this season.

Kind of like LSU's insane roller-coaster national championship season in 2007.

I've always loved the Saints, mind you. I haven't really talked about them much on here--other than that wonderful night the Superdome reopened in 2006 and they beat Atlanta on Monday Night Football. But I do love them, as I love all things New Orleans, and it is just so awesome to watch them play this year.

12 N. O.

Drew dat!

And sacrilegious as it is, I think it's funny people are calling him Breesus. Only in New Orleans.

WHO DAT!

It's cold again this morning. Augh. I did stop at Wal-Mart yesterday and buy two new space heaters--I debated with myself for a while over which to get, went cheap, and am kind of sorry I didn't go for the larger more expensive ones this morning--but at least I have warm air blowing around in the office this morning. I will not talk about college football yesterday, other than to say I still love Tim Tebow; I thank him because he has been a joy to watch for the last three years, and I wish him well in his final bowl game, the Sugar here in New Orleans. And Alabama had better beat Texas. Sigh.

Last night we went to the annual Christmas party at Pat Brady's, which was delightful as always, with the usual cast of characters, the usual fabulous food, and the superlative conversation. I chatted with Susan Larson for a while; Chris Wiltz; Michael's awesomely funny son Jesse and his lovely (and equally amusing) bride Laura; and so on. It was freezing up there in the penthouse, particularly since people kept opening the doors to the balcony to go out and smoke. (Constant Reader will note that I had exactly TWO cigarettes, and only smoked half of each--cold trumps nicotine with Gregalicious every time.)

Man, I have a lot to do today.

So, okay, where were we in the tale of Gregalicious and his books? Oh, yes, proposals out for the next Scotty and Chanse books, touring for Rue Chartres, and getting ready for LSU's shot at the national championship in football (GEAUX TIGERS!). ( who knew? )

Man alive, it is cold in the Lost Apartment this morning. It's gray outside, but at least it isn't raining anymore. If the climate inside the Lost Apartment is indicative of what it's like outside, I am really dreading my daily errands this afternoon. Eep! I've wrapped myself up in a blanket here at my desk, and am hoping my hot coffee goodness will help dispel some of this cold. I might even have to route myself to Wal-Mart to get a space heater. (I already have a little one, but it doesn't do much good and have been meaning to get a bigger one since it snowed last year.)

So, when last we left Gregalicious, ( after the tour )

Last night, I made my potato leek soup, and it was quite fabulous, if I do say so myself. The visits to the various doctors went well; I only have one more doctor to visit and I am finished with that crap for 2009. Huzzah! I also finished reading Donald Hamilton's The Intimidators, and now can dive into this judging thing with both feet. Good thing, as I've gotten about fifty more books since I took the pictures I posted recently.

So, when last we left Gregalicious, he had turned in Murder in the Rue St. Ann and was diving into writing Mardi Gras Mambo. The original outline/synopsis I'd sent to my publisher centered around the murder of the Queen of Iris. I had an ace in the hole; a friend who'd been in Iris for about thirty years, and promised me awesome stories about the ladies of Iris. Iris is my favorite of all the parades. It may not be as big or flashy as some of the others, but I always have a soft spot for Iris. It's always on the Saturday afternoon before Fat Tuesday, the weather is always lovely, and the lovely ladies always throw me tons of beads. Always. I've never been disappointed by the ladies of Iris. As such, I always knew when I wrote the inevitable Mardi Gras book, I was going to write about Iris. In one of those amazingly synchronistic things, I finished Chanse II right before Mardi Gras started, and so in addition to having a lot of fun during Mardi Gras 2004 (none of which, frankly, I remember right now) I was trying to pay attention to what was going on, and soak it all in as atmosphere. I started writing the book, and was making really good headway on my saga of the murder of the Queen of Iris (Scotty's sister Rain is in the krewe). I was confident I could make the July 1 deadline.

Then came Memorial Day weekend, 2004. ( when the world stopped turning )

Okay, I have some time before departing for yet another appointment with yet another doctor. Sigh. Not to worry, Constant Reader; there's nothing wrong. This is all just annual blood work and follow-ups to the cancer surgery a few years back. In fact, the surgeon who removed my lesion has already cleared me this morning; now it's all the other routine medical maintenance that proves so incredibly tiresome.

So, when we last left Gregalicious, Alyson had dropped their option on the Chanse series and as far as I knew, it was dead in the water after I started writing the Scotty series. I made a half-hearted attempt to have a couple of other publishers pick it up, to no avail. So, as far as I was concerned, my planned six to seven book Chanse series was over after barely getting started. So, I had just turned in the manuscript for Jackson Square Jazz and was happily promoting Bourbon Street Blues, while waiting for Kensington to decide if they wanted to publish Mardi Gras Mambo. It was around this time there was a management change at Bella Books, and my services as an editor were no longer required. I was editing some anthologies for Harrington Park Press, and doing some other things, and rather at loose ends. There had also been a change of editorial staff at Alyson in the meantime, and I was wrapping up an anthology for them (the notorious FRATSEX) when the new senior editor called me with some questions about the anthology. As we chatted, at one point she said, "I don't see your next Chanse MacLeod mystery on the schedule anywhere." When I responded that I had turned in a proposal, but was told Alyson wasn't interested, she sighed and asked me to send her the proposal again. It was just postage, I figured, so I printed it out again and sent it in. It's working title was Murder in the Rue Royal. About three weeks later Angela called and made an offer, which I accepted. They wanted it for the Fall 2004 schedule, and it was about June of 2003 at this time. They also wanted me to change the title; so it became Murder in the Rue St. Ann. We settled on a December deadline, and contracts were signed. Around the same time, Kensington made an offer on Mardi Gras Mambo, with a July 2004 deadline. This was going to be tight (little did I know then what the future held on THAT score), but I was confident I could do it. I'd also agreed to write a vampire novella called "The Nightwatchers" for Midnight Thirsts, also for Kensington, which was due in October. Yikes! But I thought it was eminently do-able....

Where the story for this book came from was, quite simply, yet another one of my jobs after I moved to New Orleans, when I'd gone to work for a small gay monthly publication here. It was a great job, actually--my co-workers were great, we did some good work, and it was a lot of fun. The only fly in the ointment was the guy running the business was--well, a criminal. None of us knew he was committing all kinds of fraud, none of us knew that he was actually out on parole for credit card fraud--and had fallen back into his old habits. This was the job that resulted in my being interviewed by the FBI. I always thought it would be interesting to write a mystery around the experiences I had with that job. It was also during this time that a group of Miami investors had opened a gay bar called Club 735 on the wrong side of St. Ann Street on Bourbon, and were having all kinds of trouble being made for them by the other gay bar owners in the Quarter. (At least, that was the story I was being told at the office.) I thought that was another interesting hook to hang story on. In the original Chanse, he had a friend named Dominique DuPre, who was a jazz singer and a photographer who owned her own club in the Quarter called Domino's--I thought it would be fun to have a fictional bar where Chanse hung out. That was among the things jettisoned when I started writing Rue Dauphine, so I rescued it, made her the club owner having trouble, and voila! I was ready to get going on the story.

This was also the book where, in my original Chanse plan, his boyfriend and he broke up over some things in Paul's past he never told Chanse; and this also fit with the theme I was starting to explore--how well do you really know anyone? I always intended for Chanse and Paul to get back together again--in about Book Five. The things in Paul's past was that he had done soft-core porn wrestling videos, and been a nude model, etc. Chanse, who has never truly shaken his incredibly strict Church of Christ upbringing and morality, naturally was appalled about this; and while rightfully upset Paul never told him about it, the true core of his problem with it was what Paul had actually done. I also created a stalker from his video days, based on my own very first stalker.

( here there be spoilers )

If you want to see the height of douchebaggery, read this:

LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS OF NEW YORK
STATEMENT ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY VOTE

ALBANY, NEW YORK-In response to today's marriage equality vote in the New York State Legislature, Log Cabin Republicans Legislative Advisor Jeff Cook made the following statement:

"Today we share in the frustration and disappointment that the Senate did not pass the marriage equality bill. We are deeply saddened that the Democratic Conference failed to secure the votes they promised, undermining the possibility of a credible bipartisan vote of conscience on the merits of marriage equality.
Winning marriage equality in New York requires the Democrats to keep their promises, and Log Cabin will continue to work to ensure that Republicans vote their conscience when that finally happens."

About Log Cabin Republicans: Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's only organization of Republicans who support fairness, freedom and equality for gay and lesbian Americans. Log Cabin has state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time office in Washington, D.C., a federal political action committee and state political action committees.

Um, I would say the Republicans in the New York Senate DID vote their consciences. After all, marriage inequality has been a national party plank for years.

Nice to see the Queer Quislings still trying to justify voting their wallets.

Damned Democrats, anyway. Apparently had all the Democrats voted for equality, the "Bash Me Please" people seem to think that some of their sacrosanct, precious bigots might have voted for it as well.

And had every Democrat voted for it, and not one Republican had, what would they be saying now? Nothing.

You can bet your ass they wouldn't be calling out their party. They haven't yet. This press release is so unspeakably vile the people who wrote it, approved it, and released it should be ashamed to call themselves human beings, let alone Americans.

What this says to me is, See? We NEVER blame our party when it perpetuates hatred and bigotry against us. Please, please, can we have some crumbs from your table, O Wonderful Republicans? Please?

I've often wondered how Log Cabin Republicans can live with themselves.

It's called "Stockholm Syndrome," I believe.

It rained all day yesterday; and while it is still a bit cold out there today, at least there's no sign of rain--yet. As it was World AIDS Day Josh, Evil Mark and I got our shots and passports together and crossed the causeway to the North Shore. We gave an hour talk about HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment to employees of Chevron, as well as explained the services NO/AIDS provides for the community. Man, it was cold yesterday.

A while back, I explained how I created the characters of Scotty and Chanse, and indirectly talked about how both Bourbon Street Blues and Murder in the Rue Dauphine came to be written. I thoroughly enjoyed writing about that process, and as such, thought to myself Self, why don't you blog about how your other books came to be written? This blog was originally intended to talk about writing and publishing, after all.

( so, without further adieu )