Gay Rights or Wrongs?

I was doing something earlier today that involved writing down information on some of my books and checking for reviews and ratings. I was curious on how many I had on a few books because I’m considering some advertising that requires minimum numbers of reviews and ratings on the books being listed. To that end, I’m also hoping to ramp up some reviews rather quickly on my next new release, Guardian.

And since I mentioned it, if you’re a fan of the Lost Girls series and want a pre-release copy of Guardian in exchange for a review being posted on Amazon’s US site when it launches, let me know. I’ll happily hook you up. This, however, is not the reason for my blog post.

So back to this morning when I was checking reviews on my Wanted series. Accidentally I happened to glance at a couple. Really, it was an accident – I didn’t mean to and I didn’t read the entire thing. But what I fixated on was someone bashing the book for the open minded attitude the characters had about sexuality at the end. Really. A novel that has practically nothing to do with sexual orientation gets picked on because a couple of characters in it happen to be confused about their own orientation and / or sexuality. Seriously, WTF?

It made me think though. Not about gay rights, straight rights, or any of that stuff. As far as I’m concerned people can do whatever the hell they want as long as they stay off my lawn when they’re doing it. Want to marry someone of the same sex? Good luck! Seems like half or more marriages don’t fare well these days, regardless of the plumbing (mine is doing awesome, by the way).

What it made me think about was whether a lot of the characters in my books are too open minded. Am I driving away readers because I have a subconscious agenda I’m not aware of? I think the world would be a lot better off if we stopped worrying about who was screwing who and what sort of positions and / or assistance they needed to do it. Just the same that I think we should stop worrying about which flavor of religion our neighbors follow (and they give us the same respect).

But have I pushed people away by hinting or mentioning these things in my books? Maybe. I have one series (The Lost Girls) where the main character starts out as the kind of lesbian you have nightmares about (except she’s short and cute, but she’ll still rip your nuts off if you look at her funny). Her sexuality is integral to the story, but it’s not something that I preached or flaunted in the books. Come to think about it, I’ve probably had less flack about that series than some of my others.

In my Vitalis books, particularly the second one (Resurrection), I’ve got two gay characters that almost get hot and steamy before disaster strikes. I put them in there to prove a point, I admit. I wanted to show that yes, homosexuality is one flavor of humanity and it happens in the future just like it happens now. In short, it’s not a big deal. But I had some very upset readers because of that scene. I say shame on them, not me, but I’m biased.

What’s my point? That this is a damn shame. What’s worse is that I’ll probably try to tone down any such relationships or details like that in future books to avoid pushing readers away. I’m not happy about it on one hand, but on the other hand it helps to teach me a lesson about focusing on the story and making sure I show the characters more than I show any subtle and unknown quirks I may have about convincing people to stop being judgmental dicks. Otherwise they might wield their power of judgment against me!

Some days the art of balancing freedom of speech and creativity with the need to sell books and make a buck is harder than others. I suppose if I can get the Westboro Baptist Church to picket my funeral when I die, at least I’ll have that going for me.

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

 

Picking Up The Pieces

Five days and four nights in Las Vegas can be a traumatic experience. Like the infamous film “The Hangover,” I stayed at Caesar’s Palace while I was in Vegas. There was also some alcohol involved and someone in my small group of people had a partial blackout… but the similarities end there.

Instead I had a great time and came back spending less than I expected. I know, that shouldn’t be possible, but my wife hit a nice jackpot on a slot machine our second day in at New York New York and we lived off those winnings the rest of the trip. Along the way we had a great time with friends we haven’t seen in a couple of years and stayed very busy.

I’d hoped to see some of the Mr. Olympia show or expo while we were there – I know I was asked countless times how the show was going and if I was competing (yes, I was really asked that on numerous occasions, as well as an invitation to join an arm wrestling contest and another guy advising me not to get mad and hit anybody). Instead we saw the sights and took in some great food. Mesa Grill and Hiyakumi were the two best dinner experiences, with the sushi and sashimi at Hyakumi taking our top spot. The new Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s was impressive too, but overpriced considering there’s no way we could eat the amount of food offered. Especially when the chefs took a look at me at the meat station and said I needed one of everything. Eating all that meat damn near killed me (prime rib, spare ribs, lamb, turkey, chicken, a couple of sausages, brisket, and a few others I can’t remember).

The pools at Caesar’s Palace were great too. Nine pools, including the European Style Venus pool. And by European I mean tops optional. We wanted to check it out and almost went over to it…until we found out there was an additional $20 cover for men to go there. Disappointing, we really wanted to experience everything Caesar’s Palace had to offer but we weren’t going to spend the money for that purely on principle.

Our last night there my wife and I went to see Zumanity, a Cirque Du Soleil show at New York New York. It’s claimed to be a very sensual show that will leave you wanting to tear your significant others clothes off by the time it’s over. It doesn’t do that. I’d also heard that it hits every fetish imaginable in its exploration and exhibition of human sexuality. It doesn’t do that either. Now granted, my experiences as a writer have left me a bit jaded in the realm of human depravity.

What Zumanity does do is entertain. It was a lot of fun and I was very impressed with the different acts and feats of strength, skill, and poise. And yes, there were some rather sensual acts in it, as well as a lot of humor. The only thing that left me wishing I could un-see what I’d seen was one member of the troop who was faintly reminiscent of a raging homosexual version of Prince. This character stayed in the background mostly, other than when he was supposed to sweep across the stage with a Batman like cape that covered everything. Even with that particular character creeping me out I highly recommend the show to anyone who’s not afraid of a little adult humor. Just be warned, if you sit in the front row or two you might find yourself becoming a participant.

But what about the research? I did a lot of that, and I’m very happy with what I saw and experienced. Loads of material for Bounty, and maybe someday I’ll write something else that takes place in or near Vegas. I do wish I’d had the time to see a couple more sights and to corner one waitress at the pool so I could ask her more questions. I don’t know what her name is but she had an awesome tattoo on her side that read, “I’m a Barbie Girl in a Barbie World.” So yes, I instantly took to calling her Barbie. Barbie was a waitress five days a week and then her second job was that of a go-go dancer. I wanted to get the behind the scenes on that second career.

On the off chance anybody reading this has experience at that sort of thing, shoot me an email – I’d love to pick your brain! Until then, I’ll just have to make things up and fill in the blanks with glamorous fun. Bounty won’t stand for anything less than being an over the top sensation!

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.