Freedom Friday!
LGBTQ Fiction Digest
At the LGBTQ Fiction Project, we’re wrapping up our Freedom! theme with two inspiring short stories. One is contemplative and moving. The other exciting and edgily comic.
Plus, Valentine Wiggin and David Wade Chambers are back with chapters of their long-form fiction.
After this week’s summaries, I’ve included an update about BFoundAPen, a regular contributor whose health has taken a serious turn for the worse.
Let’s get started —
Esther Spurrill-Jones stretches her poetic talents into short fiction this week as she imagines a struggle to escape bondage that corrupts and destroys from the inside. This short read offers much to ponder, and as usual for Esther, much to savor.
They bound his wings and broke his heart. At the last he complied, picked up chains and shackled others.
His steps were slow and heavy, but not steady, for his wings would not be still. Struggling against the chains, they would not let him be.
Finally, he took a blade and tried to cut them off.
https://crossingenres.com/rainbow-wings-5af025bcc5ac
neil chapman hits the Freedom theme with the Part 1 of a dystopian sci-fi thriller. Err, did I say thriller? Perhaps comedic and sexy would better hit the mark. Whichever description works best, Robin Hood is back, and he’s not messing around! (Except when he is.)
“Forgive me,” smiled the stranger from under a fur-lined hood. Will made out a shock of bright blond hair. High cheekbones and a strong jaw framed a non-approved beard. Odd! His eyes glowed purple in rainy neon as muscular arms glistened. Will’s mind flashed to an image of his naked torso. His VirtueSignaller chimed and dropped another point.
https://crossingenres.com/the-further-adventures-of-robin-hood-4b64cae3e62a
Valentine Wiggin’s serialized mystery/horror tale of a transgender teen attending religious school takes a worrying turn this week. Emma runs away in the middle of the night, hopping a bus to nowhere. When they meet Lana at the Three Palms Motel, anything might happen!
A wave of fear washed over me. “But what about my parents?”
“I’m your parents now. Both of them. Come on, take a shower and go to bed. We’ll need to lay low for a while, but tomorrow we’ll talk legal stuff. I have a plan.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
https://crossingenres.com/in-gods-image-part-10-e91cb79f4330
David Wade Chambers and Court Atchinson offer us a peek into the beauty of early summer in Oklahoma while they pull back and open up their story a little wider. Ancient tales of lost Aztec gold intersect with contemporary family feuds in this latest chapter of Prairie Death Tales. As for the mysterious and captivating Zaanzibar Murphy, is his windmill and water turbine combo just a metaphor, or are the authors building toward tragedy?
That autumn, a young Ortega cousin and his “transsexual” girlfriend had been forced off the road, the car riddled with hunting rifle rounds. Tire tracks, the only evidence, proved useless. Not long after, Old man Flowers was ambushed while he locked up the Highway Holiness Church late one Wednesday night. Slugs shattered his right arm and nicked his liver, but he survived.
https://crossingenres.com/quivira-lost-city-of-gold-21d6faa61864
That’s it for this week! New challenge coming out on Sunday. Not sure what it is yet, but we’ll arrange it to fit part 2 of Neil’s Robin Hood romp. Hope you enjoy your weekend and find time to read for pleasure.
On a personal note, I’d like to let people know that Brian (BFoundAPen), one of our talented young writers, is gravely ill and hospitalized, struggling with a genetic order he’s written about on Medium several times. He could use your thoughts and prayers today as he prepares for surgery.
Here’s a link to some of his amazing work.
https://medium.com/brian-the-man-behind-the-pen/anomaly-chapters-a33974b8f03a
If anyone would like to leave comments and well wishes under this week’s Digest, I’ll make sure Brian gets them.
See you all next Friday,
— Jim
Gwen Saoirse, Esther Spurrill-Jones, BFoundAPen, Zayn Singh, Gloria Bates, Kathy Lee Tolleth, Brian Pelletier, Fred Shirley, Alex David Bevan, Ikedi Oghenetega, neil chapman, David Wade Chambers, Artemis Shishir, Sean Stephane Martin, Gabriela Penelope Carolus, Lois Shearing, Valentine Wiggin
