November thoughts...

Sometimes, I hear folks say that they don’t read fiction, because it isn’t real, that non-fiction has more value as it concerns events that actually happened.

And of course that is true, I love reading history. I love learning. There is much to be learned from non-fiction books.

But I disagree on the notion that fiction is inherently untrue. Well-written fiction simply explores Truth in a different way. Fiction is about exploring ideas. What if? All change begins with a what if? The impossible things written by Jules Verne, or seen in old Star Trek episodes are now quite commonplace.

Having not grown up in a world in which gay folks can easily meet, court, and live long lives together, I find I have a hunger for stories in which gay folk can connect and build lives. I want to rewrite the norms that were forced upon me when I was young. I want stories of heroes who conquer dragons and also meet a handsome man along the way. Or maybe if it is a shifter story, the dragon IS the handsome man – and the villain is the character who wanted the dragon dead.

Straight folks are raised with all the protocols in place with regard to how to fall in love and start a life together. It can be confusing when you come out long after puberty and it isn’t clear exactly how one is supposed to go about living one’s life and discovering romance. We have stories of historical gay couples in non-fiction of course, but when one includes the wealth of fictional stories incorporating LGBTQ characters, we are exploring our own codes, our own protocols for how to live as a gay person. Our stories clarify our norms. What is any society, but its myths? What it chooses to entertain itself with? Whether the story is about ghosts, or mermen, or zombies, I do think that beyond the fantastic elements, there is substance. There is Truth.

Autumn Reading

The Purple Fantastic Book of the Month

Tomte 

This is a fun winter holiday read.


RYAN ANDERSON has known something was wrong since he was a teenager. He’s been tormented by a sense of emptiness and loss—but what did he lose? He has no idea. Then a mysterious man appears, calling himself Tomte, a Swedish word Ryan remembers hearing from his grandmother in his childhood.

It means “Christmas elf.”

With the help of his older brother and his nine-year-old niece, Ryan begins a journey to discover what happened fifteen years ago, when he disappeared during a winter storm and didn’t reappear until spring. Not only has he forgotten those months, he’s forgotten the faithful dog who failed to come back with him.

As memories surface and impossible things happen all around him, Ryan senses Tomte, that beautiful man he’s inexplicably drawn to, is the key to everything—his past, his future, and his happiness.

(The Purple Fantastic Steam Meter gives this a 2… it gets a teensy bit sexy at times, but more romantic than not)

More about The Purple Fantastic Steam Meter on the About page.

book-author

Jamie Fessenden

Categories: , , , ,

Description

RYAN ANDERSON has known something was wrong since he was a teenager. He’s been tormented by a sense of emptiness and loss—but what did he lose? He has no idea. Then a mysterious man appears, calling himself Tomte, a Swedish word Ryan remembers hearing from his grandmother in his childhood.

It means “Christmas elf.”

With the help of his older brother and his nine-year-old niece, Ryan begins a journey to discover what happened fifteen years ago, when he disappeared during a winter storm and didn’t reappear until spring. Not only has he forgotten those months, he’s forgotten the faithful dog who failed to come back with him.

As memories surface and impossible things happen all around him, Ryan senses Tomte, that beautiful man he’s inexplicably drawn to, is the key to everything—his past, his future, and his happiness.

Additional information

book-author

Jamie Fessenden

Format

Kindle Books

Language

English

Pages

180

Publisher

Kindle, self

Year Published

2018

landscape3

“We read books to find out who we are.

What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel…
is an essential guide to our understanding
of what we ourselves are and may become.”

 

Ursula K. LeGuin

portrait4

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.
If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world,
I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”

 

Maya Angelou

landscape5

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.

The man who never reads lives only one.

 

George R. R. Martin