I’m a new author to the male/male romance genre, but I was a
reader before I started writing it. I was hooked after my first male/male book
and spent hours seeking out recommendations, devouring the highest rated books
within a couple of weeks. I distinctly remember the first time I wrote a review
that said “This is not just gay fiction, this is good fiction.” And I also
remember how awkward and unfair that sentence felt at the time, but I wasn’t
quite sure why.
Labels and I have never gotten along. I tend to rail against
taking on any kind of label, just on principle. But when you’re in a business
that relies on categorizations and tags and genres? Defying labels leads to
readers being unable to find that blissful intersection of desire and
greatness.
After going through the tagging exercise of publishing a
book, I now know why that sentence bothered me so much. By writing that
sentence in my review, I was implying “gay fiction” is not legitimate fiction –
that as a subset of fiction it is less, somehow inferior. That’s how
hierarchies work, right? There is literary fiction (Ann Patchett being one of
my favorites), and then mainstream fiction (Stephen King anyone?), and then
mass market fiction (I still can’t get into James Patterson, sorry), and then,
at the perceived bottom of the fiction pile, the genre fiction: romance,
sci-fi, fantasy, horror.
But the reality is infinitely more interesting.
Gay fiction is unique because while technically its own
genre, it also crosses all genres: At Swim Two Boys by Jamie
O’Neill, the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, Woke
Up in a Strange Place by Eric Arvin. Gay fiction is just as varied as
straight fiction is. (Shocking, right?) That reality supports the use of an
identifier, so those of us who want to read about gay characters and themes can
find the books that tell those stories.
Where I’ve landed on this argument? Gay fiction is a
categorization to take pride in, but to never stop challenging. Tags and
categories are living, breathing entities on the internet - ones that we as
readers and authors have the power to mold, change, trend, and delete.
My first published short story is set to release July 28th
from SilverPublishing. It’s a gay contemporary romance called The Maker
Jock. Next up is my first published novel, the story of a gay man who
is the victim of a violent hate crime. That one I’m having a little more
trouble finding the right category for, but I’m still proud to list it as gay
fiction. After those? I have a gore-iffic
horror book I’m working on, as well as the story of a Filipino transgender -
both of which will feature main and side characters from the GLBTQQIA spectrum.
I’m definitely a genre hopper. But what my stories will always come down to is
our shared humanity – the places where our lives intersect. The moments that
stretch the limits of categorization because they are unexpected and new. I
can’t wait to share more of them with you.
About S.A. McAuley
Sam sleeps little, reads a lot. Happiest in a foreign
country. Twitchy when not mentally in motion. Send her a picture and a song and
she’s bound to write a story about it. And yes, that’s an invitation.
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