M.Hayward

      M. Hayward is an author of literary fiction for adults, with works including Hallucinations of Normalcy and her upcoming novel Left Blank for Your Message.     

[mhaywardwrites]

Writer’s Quandary

I just had an editorial assessment of my manuscript completed and I have a gay dilemma. By that, I do not mean I have a fun dilemma. Not a ‘do I really need to tuck my jumpers into my jeans just to prove I’m a bisaster’ dilemma. I have gay characters throwing rainbow confetti over my serious WWI psychological drama.

My book focuses on three brothers. I inadvertently made one of them gay. It was not intentional, he just came out that way like any other baby. A minor character also ended up being gay because I don’t like my boys being lonely.

I tried my darndest to reign in the romance for three main reasons:

Lack of historical information about LGBTQIA+ communities during WWI. I have a background in history. This is a work of fiction but oof my heart is covered in elbow patches and being inaccurate tears the seams apart.

WWI books and films often add romantic subplots (and it would be a subplot) to lighten the war front sections. I don’t want it to be a cliché.

For the sake of THE PLOT™, one of them has to die for the ending to make sense. I hate the “bury your gays” trope with passion, even though I also love angst.

My editor came back and apparently the tension is still there. She suggested I either remove the minor character completely or lean in and make them have a torrid love affair in the middle of the deadliest war in human history. I have to do a whole rewrite anyway, so the workload isn’t an issue.

The three issues above is the issue.

So, people of Tumblr. Please, for the love of all that is good and rainbow covered help me make this decision.

What should I do?

Pick the boys up, put them side by side and make them kiss

Keep the minor character gay but remove the romance

Keep the main character gay but remove the romance

Remove the whole plot, no gays will be buried here

Voting ended onApr 24, 2023

[byjove]

writing historical fiction will make you google things like “when we’re towels invented?” “how much did a towel cost in American in 1885?” “historical average number of towels owned per household”

[mysunfreckle]

Ms. Gibbons I want to talk

230 pages of witty caricatures and then this?? In throwaway lines??

[263adder]

Don't Lose Your Vote! UK Edition

A snap general election could be called any day. This will be the first general election that requires photo ID if you vote at the polls (postal votes 📫 are unaffected by the Election Act 2022).

If you don't have an approved form of identification (list here), you can apply for a FREE voter ID photo card. Find out more below or use these 5 minutes to register and get your ID sorted instead ❎ because, and this is important to know, the government really doesn't want young people to vote.

The Explanation

Rishi Sunak, UK Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, may call a snap election in 2023. (A snap election is a vote brought in earlier ⏱ than the one that’s scheduled 🕐) The UK’s next general election (for MPs and the PM) is meant to happen between December 2024 and January 2025.

A snap election happens in as little as 25 days 😨 between the announcement (aka the PM asking the House of Commons’ to approve the dissolution of Parliament) and the vote 🏃‍♀️

You must be registered to vote - currently over 8 million people are not. Unlike other a democratic countries, the UK doesn’t automatically register all eligible voters. You have to do this yourself. Here’s a quick reminder of how to register:

Over the past 15 years, it has gotten harder for British citizens to vote:

Families can no longer register to vote as a household 🏡 so young voters must register themselves (Cameron Govt)

Colleges and universities are barred from registering students 👨‍🎓 (Cameron Govt)

The Elections Act requires photo ID 🤳 for anyone voting in person (Johnson Govt)

Local elections (for city and town governments) in 2023 were the first votes that required VOTER ID. According to the Electoral Commission, over 14,000 people were turned away from the polls because they had not heard about the change.

The House of Lords tried to amend the Elections Act before it passed, to include more common types of ID, such as bank statements, bills, student ID, library cards and much more. This amendment was struck down in the House of Commons. A lot of the IDs included in the approved list are more likely to be owned by older voters than younger ones. For example, a 60+ Oyster Card is acceptable ID but an 18+ Oyster Card is not.

Here’s the important thing to know: voters who don’t have a driving licence or passport or other approved forms of ID, can apply for a free voter ID photo card. Watch the video below to find out how!

And finally, please, for the love of our democracy, vote.

"Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles." Abbie Hoffman

[grey-sorcery]

This is why it is so important to be critical and double check everything you generate using image generators and text-based AI.

[fanficmemes]

Love when writers do an insane amount of unnecessary research for their fics. I follow an author that did like 8 months of intense research into 14th century Scotland so they could write smut about it, and guess what. It was some fucking incredible porn AND I learned about old Scottish politics

[mhaywardwrites]

Writer’s Quandary

I just had an editorial assessment of my manuscript completed and I have a gay dilemma. By that, I do not mean I have a fun dilemma. Not a ‘do I really need to tuck my jumpers into my jeans just to prove I’m a bisaster’ dilemma. I have gay characters throwing rainbow confetti over my serious WWI psychological drama.

My book focuses on three brothers. I inadvertently made one of them gay. It was not intentional, he just came out that way like any other baby. A minor character also ended up being gay because I don’t like my boys being lonely.

I tried my darndest to reign in the romance for three main reasons:

Lack of historical information about LGBTQIA+ communities during WWI. I have a background in history. This is a work of fiction but oof my heart is covered in elbow patches and being inaccurate tears the seams apart.

WWI books and films often add romantic subplots (and it would be a subplot) to lighten the war front sections. I don’t want it to be a cliché.

For the sake of THE PLOT™, one of them has to die for the ending to make sense. I hate the “bury your gays” trope with passion, even though I also love angst.

My editor came back and apparently the tension is still there. She suggested I either remove the minor character completely or lean in and make them have a torrid love affair in the middle of the deadliest war in human history. I have to do a whole rewrite anyway, so the workload isn’t an issue.

The three issues above is the issue.

So, people of Tumblr. Please, for the love of all that is good and rainbow covered help me make this decision.

What should I do?

Pick the boys up, put them side by side and make them kiss

Keep the minor character gay but remove the romance

Keep the main character gay but remove the romance

Remove the whole plot, no gays will be buried here

Voting ended onApr 24, 2023

[mhaywardwrites]

Okay. I'm keeping it then! If anyone has any resources about early 20th century queer history, please send them my way. I'm grasping at straws, apart from reading Maurice (E.M. Forster).

For context, in case you're interested:

The book has three main characters who are brothers. Tom (24), Richard (20) and Harry Gray (19). Richard is my precious boi, Harry is my poor baby, and Tom's my gay. Tom has always been dissatisfied with the status quo, he's impatient and thinks life owes him an adventure. Which is what he hopes to get by enrolling in the army, but only a few months in he gets trench fever and is sent to a hospital in England while his brothers stay on the front lines. He's easily jealous, especially of Richard who usually does better at him in things. Their youngest brother looks up to Tom, but he has a closer relationship with Richard. Tom makes friends but they're not long term.

The minor character is John 'Jack' Bryant (23). He's another patient at the hospital, on the same ward being treated for trench fever. He’s in the next bed. From Canada, but lives in London which is why he's in the British Army. Says he moved to London for work, but in reality it's because he was caught in a homosexual relationship and his Dad sent him away - a combo of trying to keep him safe from the community and being ashamed of him.

Trench fever is a long illness, periods of intense fever and pain, respite, fever again. Could last months. It causes a lot of pain in the legs, so they're both bed ridden most of the time and can only talk to other people. Tom's mother Alice is able to visit and introduces the two - she started talking to John while Tom was delirious. Tom is annoyed by John at first; annoyed at everything really. He's bitter about being away from the front - where he should be getting glory, not his brothers - but they eventually strike up a friendship.

The main "moment" is when they're practicing walking and Tom basically gets carried away trying to prove he's well enough to leave, walks into John, they both slam into the floor and then it's like ooooh, you're cute. They get closer. John more clearly has feelings (since he knows he's gay), while a Tom just feels an attachment he can't put words to. He's eventually ready to be discharged and is sad. They both keep up a correspondence. When he gets news John's regiment is going to be posted to the same area he suddenly feels buoyed and tells Harry how much he likes John - still doesn't make the connection.

[263adder]

IMPORTANT PSA

Please share for UK residents!

The public alert will go off on Sunday 23rd April at 3PM (15:00) BST.

The decision to issue the alert was made against the advice of NGOs who warned this could put vulnerable people in danger. Please spread the message.

[tweetingukpolitics]

[schmergo]

Historical house tours are so confusing. They’ll be like, “When we head upstairs, pay special attention to the Blue Room, where Colonel Thomas J. Shmoshington carved a suggestive message on the bedpost.”

And you’ll walk into a room with bright blue walls and be like, “Oh, I guess this is the Blue Room?”

And they’ll be like, “NO! This is the Red Room! It’s called the Red Room because of the red velvet curtains and canopy bed!” Then they take you into a white room with yellow floral wallpaper trim and go, “THIS is the Blue Room!”

And when you humbly ask why it’s called the Blue Room, they’ll scoff at you like you were born yesterday (rather than in 1789) and be like, “It’s called the Blue Room because it USED TO BE blue! The entire mansion is painstakingly restored to its appearance in the year 1812, which happens to fall during the two-year span in in which Abigail Shmaddison redid the room in white and yellow in a flight of fancy. After spending some time away in a sanitarium, she regained her senses and changed it back to blue. An archaeologist found an original scrap of the yellow wallpaper beneath 13 layers of paint and we were able to match it perfectly with this pattern, which was of course developed by Q.B. Zippitydoo & Sons in London and available for purchase only in 1812. Any more questions?”

So you hold your tongue until you enter a big green room that is so incredibly green that it can’t possibly be anything but the Green Room. It has acid green walls. It has bright green curtains. It has forest green tablecloths. There are ivy motifs carved in the ceiling. Cautiously, you venture, “So this is the Green Room?”

And they say, “NO! This is the parlor!”

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Neil!

I know the answer to my question. It’s “No, not really. Yes, pretty much. Only if you’re very flexible.” But I want to ask anyway.

My sixth book (!!😱!!) is coming out in March and I’m scared as hell. Do you ever stop being scared as hell when a new book you’ve written is coming out?? Like, is this a forever thing?? Do I just Muppet flail like Kermit for a month every time I publish a new thing??

Thank you for being awesome and doing these asks, by the way. You’re very kind in a world that is often not.

I haven't yet stopped being scared when I send something I'm working on out to a handful of people to be read. Normally by the time the book comes out it's closer to stage fright than real terror though. I've already scared myself sending it to editors and friends. It's a forever thing, yes. And just as you think you're used to it something you've written that's published arrives and you want to show everybody and you realise you aren't used to it at all. And yes: flail away.

[tweetingukpolitics]

[o-writers-woes]

[263adder]

[mhaywardwrites]

[263adder]

A new discord server for history nerds - anytime, anywhere, anything.

Message for an invite link.

[mhaywardwrites]

Hallucinations of Normalcy by M. Hayward (2021)