Before I start this month’s little installment of “The Writing Life According to M. Christian” I need to toot my own horn a tad. Rest assured, however, that this has something to do with the subject of this column.
Now then (ahem). As you all are probably aware, I’m a writer. I write all kinds of stuff: non-fiction (like this column for the wonderful folks at ERA), reviews, short stories, even a poem or two. I write science fiction, horror, comedy, movie criticism, and a lot of smut. I write smut because I like to write and I’m very lucky that people seem to like the smut I write. My stuff has been all over the place, including Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best American Erotica, Best Transsexual Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, and a lot of other places.
Okay, that’s the set-up, and here’s the pitch: I’m a straight guy.
Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before: how can I write gay smut when I’m straight. Well, I got news for you: I’m a writer. It’s my job to tell stories - the fact they happen to be about gay men and women (as well as straight men and women) is inconsequential. I consider it a tremendous compliment that I’m the first guy to make it into Best Lesbian Erotica - and that Alyson is putting together a collection of my girl smut. But there’s something that’s also very important about these weird credits of mine - namely, how I got them: I never lied about who I am.
Okay, there have been some fun miscommunications over the years - like when a publisher asked a friend we had in common: “What kind of men does Chris like?” and the friend had to break it to him: “Women.” Or wen I called to see if a bookstore was willing to have a reading from my new book - and then were shocked when “M. Christian” was a tall thin guy, with a beard, and not the lesbian they were expecting.
Fiction writing is just that: ‘fiction’ - not truth. I’ve called writing ‘creative lying’ and I mean it, it’s the act of telling a tall tale - to convince the reader than you are something you might not be in real life. There’s a long tradition of cross-sexuality writing: women writing gay smut, straight guys writing lesbian erotica, and so forth. As far as I know, no one’s really been given a hard time about it - though I’ve heard some small grumbles periodically. Most publishers and editors are pretty understanding, that when a project is ‘fictional’ then just about anyone can write for it - unless, of course, they have a restriction (for instance, that all the authors be women, or men, etc.). I know that when I’ve edited books I’ve never really inquired about the sexuality or gender of the author, because it’s never really mattered to the project I’m working on.
But there’s a big difference between writing a fictional story and trying to sell it with a lie. For example, if a project say that it is open only to women, that does not mean you can, or should, pretend to be a woman just to be considered for the publication. As with lots of editorial situations: when in doubt, ask. “Dear Editor, I am interested in writing for your book. Would you mind receiving a submission for a - ?” - insert your real gender here. There, is that hard? Most publishers - like Alyson books, for instance - rarely mind receiving a submission from someone not the gender/orientation of the project, if the project is ‘fictional’. I would never submit something to, say, “True Coming Out Stories” or similar - unless, of course, the publisher/editor asked me or I had some other form of acceptability for the project.
A word about pseudonyms. Some people like to separate their various writing identities through several different pen names. God knows I’m not one to criticize (my own glass house has “M. Christian” on the mailbox) but I would be careful about tailoring names to fit markets. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it - especially if you’re up front with your real identity - but editors have been known to be uncomfortable with accepting stories that have been signed with a name designed just to fit that market. Besides, why give one of your lesser-known names a good credit when you can add it to your main resume? I think it’s kind of cool that my own name appears in both smut and non-smut books: I’m proud of what I do: erotic or non, gay or straight, etc.
I’ve heard of some people who have been accepted for some project or other then to be kicked out because their ‘true’ selves came to light. I can’t say I’m that sympathetic - mainly because the few times I have heard of this happening the writer has definitely played a bit loose with their ‘writer persona’ and pitched themselves as something they weren’t (in one case, as 20-something lesbian when they were actually a 50-something straight guy). You don’t have to say that you’re a guy when you’re submitting to a lesbian fiction anthology - but your bio should definitely use the word ‘he’ - but you should never say that you live with your domestic partner, Alice, and have two cats (unless you really do, of course).
The bottom line is that fiction is just that: something made up, not related to the real world - or not related all that much, at any rate. But anything beyond the story itself, truth - honest to god truth - should rule. There’s a time for stories and a time for being who, and what, you really are: the thing to remember is where one starts and where one ends.
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