Nigel Gordon

There was a mention of Mary Renult on one of the book programmes on BBC Radio 4 earlier this year, I forget which one, and the comment was made that she did more to raise the profile of homosexuality and gave gay men a more positive image of themselves, in the English speaking world during the 1960s than nearly anyone else. The Charioteer did in literature what The Victim did in film. She is well worth reading.

This is a spin off from some conversations that have been taking place in the Green Room. The BBC Radio 4 programme Open Book will be looking at Gay Literature on the 21st of November, this is related to the republication of Mary Renault's The Charioteer. If you have not read that book you should. I would ask any of you who can to go onto the BBC Web Site, www.bbc.co.uk and find the Open Book page http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp6p, then click on Contact Us tab and select email. You can then email them and suggest that they should look at the Gay Literature that is on the AwesomeDude web site. Unfortunately programmes like Open Book tend to ignore gay writing on the web as they just look at Nifty and think that is a representative of the whole genre.

Just to clarify matters the folk beliefs described in this story are not based on any particular Caribbean folk beliefs. Before I started this story I wrote a back story based on an East Indian Merchantman taking indentured workers from the Spice Islands to Aruba. The Merchantman gets wrecked in a storm on The Island bringing the first population, to this I then added escaped slaves and pirates. Then I took it from there are tried to work out what sort of society would develop and what the folk culture would be. So the folk culture in the story and in the ones that I hope will follow base on the island, are totally my own invention.

Another remarkable story from this young writer who certainly knows his lore. A story well worth reading.

There is a tightness to this writing that keeps you caught on the hook as the author starts to reel you into what is no doubt going to a great story. We all know how difficult squeals are to pull off but from the start this feels far more like a new story with the same base character set as "Falling Down" rather than the followup on the old story. Can't wait for the following chapters to appear..

This is a fantastically well structured story which leads you exactly where the author wants you then socks you with one. Well worth reading. Well done Cole, I enjoy all your writing but this is one of the best.

Try this link, it appears to work at least for the moment, The one Dabeagle put up was taken down, so this one might be. http://www.examiner.com/article/virginia-mother-under-fire-for-allowing-her-son-to-wear-a-kkk-costume I agree with Dabeagle, words fail me at least words that I can publish fail me, I can think of quite a few I would like to use for this woman.

Maybe we could get Mills and Boon to publish some gay romances, there must be a market for it.

It is also a good comment about a lot of gay fiction and the stereotypes therein.

Thanks for the offer, I hope we are both able to find one before then. It's no use me offering to be a temporary editor for you as I know I am totally crap at that job.

I'm looking for a editor who is able to give some long term support. I have a number of stories that I am currently working on but need someone who can act as a proof reader and editor. I must point out that I am dyslexic and sometimes make the biggest blunders. If anybody can help I would appreciate it.

Isn't that the definition of an artist these days. Listen to Grayson Perry's Reith Lectures. Now there is one exhibitionist narcissist who knows how to do it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9

It seems to have hit the home counties, no doubt drawn in by the low pressure created by all the hot air in Westminster or was is all a cover blown up by the press to keep attention away from a certain trial starting today?

That's the third da Vinci discovered in the last year, what is that doing to the art market?

Best Wishes for your birthday, hope you are not up all night coping with the Halloween stories.

No the Fire Brigade don't go out to them, not since the politicians cut their pension rights.

It appears that certain parties in the British Government are now talking about making it a criminal offense to possess written material that contains sexually explicit descriptions of an "extreme or unacceptable" nature. Was listening to the radio in the early hours of this morning and heard a Conservative MP state that they would be looking at introducing legislation to prevent the distribution, possession or creation of written material that depicted, advocated or supported unacceptable sexual activities. All right, I think most of us on this board have some idea of the type of material they have in mind, you only have to look at some of the stuff on other internet sites and we might even find ourselves in sympathy with the idea. However, you need to get worried. Laws like this are the thin edge of the wedge and you can never know where they will be taken. Who is to define what is unacceptable? A story with no explicit sexual content may well be deemed to be advocating unacceptable sexual activities on the grounds that it is depicting characters who might be presumed to be involved in such activities. I suggest that those of you who are based in the UK start writing to your MPs, those of you who are outside of the UK might start to look at your own legislative bodies, once one government starts to go down this line it is easy for others to follow. Maybe you should start to raise the issue about the British Government plans to limit freedom of expression.

If you have not listened to this programme I suggest you do, it was really interesting and gave insight into homosexuality in a Muslim country that is very different from what one expects.

The basic problem is that the Skyes-Picot Treaty (officially the Asia Minor Agreement) is finally coming home to rest. The whole division of the Ottoman Empire between England and France was a mess and took no account of demographic issues. Syria did not and never has made demographic sense. It should really be about five or six different countries. The problem is that there are too many vested interests in trying to keep it as a single entity, one way or another. Maybe it is time for another secret treaty. The USA and Russia should come to an agreement whereby the Russians go in and sort the mess out, in return for those part of Syria that they have always had a claim and giving up parts of Syria that others would like, e.g. Kurdastan and the bits Turkey would like back. Unfortunately I fear that those who think the big stick will solve everything will no doubt use it. Maybe they should consider the fact that the biggest stick does not always win.

There was a comment on a BBC Radio programme last week that Privacy was a 20th Century phenomenon. Prior to the 20th Century you were either living in a semi-communial environment, often three or four families to a house, or you were surrounded by servants. Now with the 21st Century the intrusion of social networking and information gathering has again stripped the personal privacy we enjoyed in the 20th Century from us. Coming out of the Univerisity Library today I heard one young man say to another that he wish that the fact that he had been in a local pub last night had not been put up on Facebook as his mother had phoned up to ask why he was not packing for them to pick him up tomorrow.

Somewhere I should have a shirt with "Serendipity Rules OK", must dig it out. If I can't find it I'll get a new one printed.

Chris asks "why use a dictionary when the internet will define something for you", there is a simple answer, when looking for the answer to one thing in a dictionary you are likely to come across other words that will come in useful later. The same is true about old fashioned encylopedia, I can't count the number of times I have gone to look up something and found myself reading about something totally different. I was fortunate enough as a teenager (I think I was about 15 at the time) to meet Bertrand Russel. He told me I should open an encyclopedia at random every day and read the article it opened at. That chance finding of information is something we have to an degree lost with the internet, when we search on something we tend just to find information on that subject.

First, let me explain that I am not American. There are times when reading stories by Americans and Austrialians that I find some references confusing. However, they also add to the colour and fabric of the story. If I am reading a story written by an American and set in the USA I have to accept that it will have local flavour and use the resources I have, like the internet, to sort out any confusion I may have about terms and references. The only thing I would say is that if you are using any highly specific terms like Native American language or terms it may be useful to put an explanation in some notes at the end of the piece. What is far more important is to make sure that you get any references you make to facts and events correct, especially when writing about things outside of the USA. In recent stories I have read a number of things which have been totally inaccurate, just because the writer presumed what was true for America applied elsewhere. In one instance there was a reference to a crossing the border between Spain and France, set in 2012, with a mention of passport control. There have been no passport controls on that border for nearly twenty years. In another story the mother of a character in the UK was supposed to be in prison for driving under the influence of drink and serving a three year sentence. The maximum sentence she could have got in the UK for that offence would have been six months. Ian Fleming used to say that as long as you got your facts right you could go anywhere with your fantasy. That is correct. Don't worry too much about Americanisms in your stories, either the context will explain them or the reader can look up the meaning, they add colour and fabric to your writing. Do, however, make sure you get your facts rights. Nowadays they are easy enough to check.