And by ‘my’ I mean I’m appearing in it. My short story SPEAKING OF HAPPINESS is part of the WE CAME TO DANCE anthology from Amphibian Press, a benefit for the survivors of the Club Q shooting in Colorado. Click the highlighted title to reach the publisher’s site, or click the image below for a link to AMZ:
I’ve written quite a few shorts now, but this is the first time I wrote specifically to submit to an anthology. I’m honored to be included!
Three key things about SPEAKING OF HAPPINESS:
It’s specifically about found family and the places we find our people;
The main characters are Joshua Kelly, a legal assistant, and Asterio Flores, a private-school music teacher;
As with many Los Angelenos, these characters come from somewhere else. Joshua is from Georgia and Asterio is from Texas. Neither is white.
Intersectionality - meaning the place where different defining traits coincide - is important to a lot of my work. My characters are never just one thing. In this story, both are thirtyish and gay, but their ethnicity informs their experience.
SPEAKING OF HAPPINESS is a stand-alone short story (about 8000 words) set in 2019 and squarely located in my story universe. Asterio teaches at the private academy where my characters Kit and Valentine (BE MINE) and Taran (OUR REVELS NOW) work. He’s acquainted with Mateo and Sam (BEAT) and, by extension, with other people in the Shall We Dance / Underground Cabaret / Chrome communities. Joshua is just beginning to form his LA community. Someday I’d like to find out what they’re doing a few years down the line!
WE CAME TO DANCE is available for pre-order now. Let’s stand with the survivors.