Here it is – The Rainbow Book Reviews Blog Hop – just click on the picture for a list of all participants and hop from blog to blog for a chance to win prizes.
There are some terrific authors and some very generous publishers – Amber Allure, Bold Strokes Books, Dreamspinner Press, Less Than Three Press, Riptide Publishing, Silver Publishing, Torquere Press and
Untreed Reads – so it’s well worth having a bash.
But far more important than prizes are the blog posts on the theme “What writing GLBT means to me”. I can’t wait to see some of the answers.
I too offer a prize – a copy in the format of the winner’s choice of Alike As Two Bees – winner to be chosen from commenters who say they would like to enter the draw, please provide an email address, and the draw will be done by picking a bit of screwed up paper out of a hat. The old ways are the best and I’ll be using a pirate hat just because I have one handy [doesn’t everyone?]
My post is below the cut. Content warning – it contains, history maths and somewhat shaky logic but made sense when I wrote it.
What Writing GLBTQ Literature Means to Me
I work in a museum. It’s a fabulous job because it’s a very small museum, so everyone does a bit of everything whether they have letters after their name or not.
When people visit the museum they see our displays, walk around the castle [the museum is in a genuine 13th century castle], buy some bits in the shop and maybe have an ice cream. The regular visitor doesn’t know that what they see exhibited is just the tip of the ice berg, the “best things” that are intact enough or attractive enough to display. Behind the scenes, there is more, much more, neatly packed away in boxes if small, or under dustsheets if big.
This little museum has nearly 25,000 separate records for the artefacts. Some of these records are for collections of items – documents and photographs mostly, though we have crates full of archaeological material. I estimate that we have many more than 100,000 separate items.
A photo of a 19th century ladies’s hockey team, with solemn faces , long skirts and swept up hair.
A corroded scrap of bronze that was once the hinge of a Roman legionary helmet.
A last will and testament leaving bequests to family and friends including “my dear X in remembrance of times past”.
A facsimile of a Victoria Cross won by a local man at Rourke’s Drift [we couldn’t afford the real thing when it came up at auction].
At a conservative estimate – and please correct me if I’m wrong about this – at least one percent of the population identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer or asexual. It’s probably far more but I’ll go with one per cent because I’m rubbish at maths.
Again please correct me if my logic is wrong, but if at least one per cent of one hundred thousand is one thousand, then it stands to reason that at least one thousand of our artefacts – photos, documents, pieces of clothing, sherds of pottery, weapons, coins or paintings – most probably belonged to or were made by or were used by someone who identified themselves as that period’s equivalent of LGBTTQA.
A delicately embroidered camisole
An 18th century court sword with a silvered scabbard
A very worn ring with the hidden inscription “Love me onelie”
A scrap of parchment with a stave of music and a few words of a song
The castle itself, every stone of which was selected, shaped and set in place by skilled and thoughtful hands.
I have worked here a long time, have handled many of those 100,000 items and not one of them is known to commemorate any person who might now identify themselves as fitting somewhere onto that rainbow spectrum. Not one. Not a photo, not a letter. Yet we know they must have been here. We know that their stories have rarely been told elsewhere but here all is silence.
In no way am I suggesting that I am qualified to write the authentic experiences of LGBTTQA men or women in either a historical or a contemporary setting. However, with care, respect and research I am going to try to tell some stories that could have happened. Stories of people who were brave, skilled, determined, joyful and adventurous – people who lived their lives to the full even if they did have to be careful over how they displayed their affection for their loved ones.
History is famously written by the victors but fiction can be written by anyone with the will and imagination to do so and we can make sure that there are happy endings.
Elin Gregory 
Great post, Elin. Thoughtful and imaginative, and definately food for thought. I would love to see that ring with its beautifully quaint sentiment “love me onelie”. Sweet. 😍
Please count me in.
I would like to enter the draw. thank you for the giveaway!
jessica_klang(at)hotmail(dot)com
I love m/m fiction and am loving this blog hop, and discovering new, to me, authors. Thanks for including me in the draw 🙂
Excellent logic but far beyond my capabilities to say whether it’s correct or not. But just thinking of the adventures that your museum’s contents have experienced is thought-provoking indeed. I love the sound of the will – who was “dear X”?
i so agree with your logic there! spot on!
parisfan_ca@yahoo.com
I always love these blogs hops, getting to know new-to-me authors and a deeper understanding of my favorites. Thank you for that.
kimberlyFDR@yahoo.com
I think LGBT literature and erotica has shown me a fuller range of human experience, because the characters are more varied than in het romance.
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
Erin, I enjoyed your blog today. I am a history buff and love the fact you work in a thirteenth century castle. Neat! I’ve never considered your POV but will do so now when I am out and about. Thanks for sharing.
What a lovely thought. I work on a geusstimate 10% rather than 1% so that means ten times as many of your fascinating items have a secret LBGTQ link. 🙂
Count me in for the draw, mara.ismine “at” gmail.com
Elin, you wrote about those objects so poetically! You ignited all these little sparks of love stories off in my head. Lovely post. 🙂
Hi, Elin. Thanks for joining the hop. I enjoyed reading your article, and some of the others on your site. I love “the comfy chair” section! You are obviously very imaginative. 🙂 I haven’t had the pleasure of reading your work yet, but I look forward to it.
madisonparklove@gmail.com
please count me in for the draw. thank you for the giveaway and participating in this blog hop.
forgot to add my email here…
lohahmooi(@)hotmail(.)com
I am interested in the draw and love your description of your workplace.
lawless523 at gmail dot com
Very interesting post. Glad to be introduced to authors who are new to me. Thanks for the contest.
strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com
I love this “Yet we know they must have been here. We know that their stories have rarely been told elsewhere but here all is silence.”
lovely post!
A fascinating theme for the hop. I’m always fascinated to know who owned very ordinary (for their time) artefacts in museums.
I enjoyed your post. Fiction CAN be written by anyone. That is so true, with the exception of me. I dislike and suck at writing but LOVE LOVE to read. So thanks for writing what I love to read!
Hi, Elin.
This was quite an interesting and entertaining post; I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks,
Tracey D
booklover0226 at gmail dot com
Great post!
Hi, Elin, I’m pleased to meet you.
I found your post interesting – how lucky to work in a museum! I envy you surrounded by the past like that, with little reminders every day of lives from so long ago. No wonder you wrote ‘Alike as two bees’.
I’d love a chance to win a copy.
Sue
corieltauviqueen at yahoo.co.uk
Lucky you getting to work in a museum. I love musuems. Whenever hubs and I are in the city, it’s where we first stop. Great post. I’m loving this blog hop.
Loved your post. Thanks for participating in the Hop. Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks!
Thanks for the wonderful post and please count me in.
Yvette
yratpatrol@aol.com
[…] Comments « Rainbow Book Reviews Blog Hop […]
I am so jealous that you have such a fabulous job in such a fabulous place!
You bring up some though-provoking points. I have read that in cultures where being gay or bisexual was accepted, nobody needed to mention it in letters or anything because it was as natural as anything else. So that could be one reason why we don’t seem to find references to it.
Plus, people are notoriously vicious about things they feel are threatening. Cultural leaders who found paintings or writings that did show gay or bisexual relationships threatening would have destroyed them. As more cultures shifted toward marginalizing that type of lifestyle, evidence of it would be destroyed.
Sad that so many people think violence can improve anything. Thanks for your post.
Your job sounds amazing!
Lillywriting@gmail.com
Loved this post! Thanks for sharing!! Please include me in the drawing.
seritzko AT verizon DOT net
Very nice post.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Nice post. I’m enjoying all the different answers everyone is giving to the same question. Thanks for participating 🙂
penumbrareads(at)gmail(dot)com