The review of my career
This is the review I hold to my heart whenever the topic of “can women write stories about gay men – or rather ought they to?” comes around. I wrote Captain’s Surrender partly in order to show people that you didn’t have to choose between your sexuality and your faith, you could have both. I thought if even one person got that message, so that they could stop feeling damned and/or condemned, it would justify my writing the books that I wanted to write.
Well, this is that review.
I’m so thankful for it! There are times when I feel the pressure – I’m not gay enough, I’m not male enough, I’m not persecuted enough to speak for this community. (As it turns out, I’m not straight and I’m not female either, but that’s a different story.) And when those doubts strike, I remember this review in particular, and others like it I’ve had since, and I tell myself that nevertheless, I’m still not being entirely selfish in carrying on.
That’s a great review! ‘Age of Sail’ stories aren’t really my scene, but it just about makes me want to read it!
Yay! So happy it’s still getting reviews & making a difference 🙂
I still remember when you posted that you’d won the contest & this book would be published, and I was all “Wait, really? I can aim for more than just posting online? Time to get seriously working on skills so I can follow in Alex’s footsteps!”
Thanks Jay! I have to say that both Captain’s Surrender and False Colors are *really* influenced by Patrick O’Brien, so if you don’t like him, you probably won’t like them. But they’re both also my most ‘Inspirational’ books in the sense that they were the books I was writing while I was wrestling with my own faith. So they’re not just sailing and blowing things up, but there is a lot of that 😉
Hee! Thanks Sandra. Yes, I still remember the huge rush of disbelief and joy when I heard I’d won. And then how much I basked in dropping the words “my publisher” into every conversation 🙂 LOL! I hear you’re at that stage now? Massive congratulations! Do come and do a guest post or let me know how else I can help you promote your new one. Tell us all about your publisher and when your book will be out and what inspired you to write it!
Hi Alex 🙂 Thank you, I’d love to visit with a guest post. I’ll e-mail you (& cross my fingers that it doesn’t land in your spam bin… the perils of having one’s own domain, I find)