Greetings and salutations,
I did not forget about the newsletter. We are going strong with two months in a row. In general housekeeping news, I've started moving my web novels over to Substack. The main reason is I'm tired of maintaining four different sites, one for each web novel. That means I probably won't be posting new chapters as I move those over, because it a slow process.
September is Bisexual awareness month. On the YouTube side, I have a few videos about bisexuals. The most popular is the story of Emile Griffith. A man I call the best professional boxer that most people haven't heard of. For the few that have heard of him, it is said that he killed a man named Benny Paret during a fight after he taunted Emile about being gay. In reality, with modern medical precautions Benny would not have been in that fight. Emile didn't use the word bisexual, but did wear matching tuxedos with his boyfriend, during the wedding to his wife.
Richard Pryor was once lambasted for an appearance at The Hollywood Bowl. During the show he described the relationship he had with another man. Unfortunately it was seen as homophobic because nobody believed him. Despite constantly discussing relationships with other men and trans individuals, in both his standup and autobiography, people simply did not believe him because he primarily dated women. I understand it, at this point I may need to drape myself in a bisexual flag. I was thanked for being an ally during Pride Month this year. That's a form of bisexual erasure, which makes a great segue.
Bi All Accounts is a collection of works by Bi+ individuals discussing bisexual erasure. There is both fiction and non fiction, some poetry as well as artwork. It doesn't officially release until Bisexual Awareness Day, September 23rd, but you can pre-order a digital or physical copy today. [you can also get it from Amazon if you want to be that person]
This collection is very near and dear to my heart; because I am also one of the contributors. Specifically, I contributed a piece called Mr. Irrelevant about how we as bisexuals have a tendency to erase ourselves. This goes doubly so for Black and Latino men. We aren't exactly the flag waving kind of people, but perhaps we should be. Richard Pryor was extremely open an nobody believed him because they thought he was joking. Kuwasi Balagoon was another Black man who was extremely open and a very proud bisexual. He was a member of the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Army. Despite his sexual orientation being a big part of his platform, many sources erase that. It's only when you read his own words, or interviews with his friends that you learn the fact.
I suppose, on some level, I'm doing the same thing. It wasn't until recently that I realized I've only written one bisexual lead character. However, Efrem from my Intercosmic web novel is my favorite, just barely edging out Maddox from Retrograde, who I toyed with making bisexual, and is also dating a bisexual woman. I am an author, and sometimes people do read my books. I know because I combined two newsletters when I joined Substack and probably 70% of you were from the one focused on books.
I haven't written enough newsletters to wrap this up cleanly, so take naps, drink water and go for a walk.
