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"Hello Buoys!"  [message #73572] Fri, 27 October 2017 21:05 Go to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



As a shameless piece of self promotion, I have started to write a series of vignettes where things other than just the love between the boys are more important. "Hello Buoys!" is the result.

In many ways it is experimental, an attempt to see if I can convey the excitement of a sport that is probably outside the experience of many readers while keeping it in a gay teenage romance niche. Time will tell whether I am anywhere near succeeding with that endeavour. I have an outline plan for a series of four vignettes, though I reserve the right to create more or fewer!

I wonder if you've noticed that I provide background notes to the stories I've written over the years. "Hello Buoys has a small segment devoted to it.

I'm not releasing it as a contiguous serial. It's a series, and does not require 100% continuity.

[Updated on: Mon, 30 October 2017 08:09]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73576 is a reply to message #73572] Sun, 29 October 2017 22:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
NW is currently offline  NW

On fire!
Location: Worcester, England
Registered: January 2005
Messages: 1558



I enjoyed that - thanks, Tim.

It matters not a jot that I know nothing about sailing (apart from one weekend off the coast of Connemara when I was 12): your enthusiasm for it shines through, and that makes it a great read. People who are enthusiastic about their hobbies and interests are always engaging, whatever the interest is.



"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73583 is a reply to message #73576] Wed, 01 November 2017 21:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I have a further three vignettes up my sleeve being polished right now, bringing the total to four, and am thinking about a further one. The theme has limitations, though. As with any hobby they can develop in it maybe even earn a living from it. But all that does is creates a saga where their career as professional sailors could be interchangeable with one as stock brokers or janitors.

Time will tell.

As long term readers of mine will know much of my theme selection is experimental. You'll probaby notice I've moved away from impossibly beautiful nubile lads. Tom carries a bit of puppy fat. Jerry is rather more wiry than is considered to be conventionally sexy. My heroes are becoming ordinary.

[Updated on: Fri, 03 November 2017 13:38]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73587 is a reply to message #73572] Fri, 03 November 2017 17:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Rick is currently offline  Rick

Getting started
Location: Essex
Registered: October 2016
Messages: 7



A great addition to the story Tim.  looking forward to how Jerry and Tom's relationship builds.  Thanks for sharing this with us.



Rick
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73588 is a reply to message #73587] Fri, 03 November 2017 18:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
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Messages: 13739



Thanks Rick. I can see to the end of tale number four. After that it's a challenge to keep it fresh. If I can keep it both fresh and realistic then it will carry on. I think part of the trick to writing a tale with more than a single episode is knowing when the tale finishes and the cast is released into their putative real lives to tie up their own loose ends



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73634 is a reply to message #73588] Wed, 15 November 2017 17:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I have made up my mind. There are six vignettes in this, though there is a possibility for some others if I get over-enthusiastic. The six I have in my mind have crsytalised and are being refined. I have discovered that character development can be hampered by too much activity. The boys do develop though. I rather like them Smile

[Updated on: Wed, 15 November 2017 17:24]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Tom and Jerry have sailed their course  [message #73756 is a reply to message #73572] Fri, 15 December 2017 16:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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Location: UK, in Devon
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Messages: 13739



I have a couple more vignettes I hope to write one day, but right now they absolutely refuse to be written. Far better, then, to stop while I am happy with the end product.

I hope you have learned a bit more about their world, a world which is really my world.

[Updated on: Fri, 15 December 2017 16:33]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73758 is a reply to message #73572] Fri, 15 December 2017 23:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jesse D is currently offline  Jesse D

Getting started
Location: Quebec, Canada
Registered: December 2017
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Tom and Jerry are living together next to the water, doing work they enjoy, with people who accept and respect them. What more could anyone want from life, really? A nice, uplifting ending to the tale - thanks for sharing this.  
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73760 is a reply to message #73758] Sat, 16 December 2017 09:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



"Jesse D wrote on Fri, 15 December 2017 23:20"
Tom and Jerry are living together next to the water, doing work they enjoy, with people who accept and respect them. What more could anyone want from life, really? A nice, uplifting ending to the tale - thanks for sharing this.  

--
Thank you. As I wrote this it became increasingly important that their loving each other, their being gay if you will, was almost irrelevant to the plot. I wanted a love story where both heroes happened to be boys. Inspect the tale closely, and with a few minor adjustments one or both could be girls.

What I hoped to achieve was a tale of love surrounding a physical pursuit that was king in the tale. Real life is like that whatever the sex of those who fall in love, who make a relationship long or short. I think it's up to fiction to lead the way.

When I was a kid we sniggered about Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, who lived a full relationship together in Aldeburgh, in Suffolk. They were not role models for the gay teens of the day.

Our mothers laughed belly laughs at Julian And Sandy without having a clue that these were a pair of, in the parlance of the day, fairies, poofs. They were not role models for the gay teens of the day.

As I grew older we enjoyed the glorious camp comedy of John Inman in Are You Being Served (you will have to search for this for yourself). Mr Humphries was not a role model for the gay teens of the day.

And yet all of these people brought the day closer when we might be recognised as being one of the many facets of normality. All of these, from the rela life of Britten through the camp outrageous comedies, brought us to the day when real  leaders could tell us they are gay without harming their place in the world.

It's time we took a pace forwards from that, and moved past tolerance and acceptance into just being us.

Tom and Jerry have. Or they have now, in Wales. Somewhere in Middle England they were almost there, right at the start. Best friends really should be able to kiss.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73763 is a reply to message #73760] Sun, 17 December 2017 08:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
William King is currently offline  William King

Toe is in the water

Registered: October 2016
Messages: 98



"As I grew older we enjoyed the glorious camp comedy of John Inman in Are You Being Served (you will have to search for this for yourself). Mr Humphries was not a role model for the gay teens of the day.

And yet all of these people brought the day closer when we might be recognised as being one of the many facets of normality. "

Excuse me for going off  topic, but whilst I have enjoyed immensely your short stories, I don't agree that the likes of John Inman and his camp comedy did anything to further gay liberation. For me it was the British film industry that challenged pre-conceptions with such films as Sebastian and Nighthawks in the 70's, followed by My Beautiful Laundrette in the 80's. It was Derek Harman not John Humphreys who challenged established mores, this is summed up here  http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-b ritish-gay-films in an article by the BFI. There were other more arthouse experimental films which I saw at the National Fiim Theatre and at other tiny independent screenings in London. There was the artwork of Oliver Frey, producing stunning erotic gay comics which you had to usually buy through the post because they never made it to the top shelf of the local newsagent, along with the heterosexual pornography. To a lesser extent there was the sexual ambiguity of the music scene with the likes of David Bowie et al, but they never really came out. That was more whisps of smoke like the rumoured lyrics of Angie sung in his inimitable fashion by Mick Jagger, was it Angie or was it Andy -

Angie (Andy), I still love you
Remember all those nights we cried
All the dreams were held so close
Seemed to all go up in smoke

You'll have to listen and make your own mind up. But vague hints of bisexuality only nibbled at the edges, not until Tom Robinson sang Glad To Be Gay in 1978  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robinson_Band  was there any Out gay stance from the music scene. I was there when he started out at a tiny venue in Highgate, North London, the atmosphere was explosive as the packed audience sang out the chorus - Sing if you're glad to be gay, sing if you're happy that way.
Re: "Hello Buoys!"  [message #73764 is a reply to message #73763] Sun, 17 December 2017 09:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



They are not mutually exclusive, William. My point is that normality is started by many and various things. My mother laughed at Julian and Sandy. She turned My Beautiful Launderette off.

Challening preconceptions is excellent. So is using laughter to normalise it. It's very hard to be frightened of something you are laughing about. Though why gay men or gay sex is frightening I have no idea.

A male/male kiss on screen is challenging. One in a soap opera, I forget which one, while gentle, was extremely challenging for the taloid press.

As a teenager at the time homosexuality was legalised in the UK I was very afraid of the screming press. I was unafraid of Julian and Sandy, though faintly bemused by their antics. I prefer unafraid and bemused.

What I attemted to achieve with the tale, though, is to represent post homophobia Britain in a reasnably realistic way. This is the Britain after your movies and my comedic episodes. There's still a bigot in the tale, but he's deprecated by all.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Final polish  [message #73765 is a reply to message #73572] Sun, 17 December 2017 14:28 Go to previous message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I've just been through the tale and given it a final polish, removed still more typos. Why did no-one tell me about 'Jeerry'?

I've added a couple of videos in the footnotes of the Awful Result vignette to show more about the boats of the RNLI. If youre a seafarer you'll understand the conditions these guys, and now Tom, Jerry, Iolo and Hazel go out in. If you're not then watch them anyway, and marvel that these are all ordinary folk who volunteer to go out in all weathers and do this.

Jerry is quite modest about the role. You won't find a single Lifeboat Crew who is anything other than humble.

They do it for fun.

I've tried to cover a lot of ground, water, in this tale, all about things I'm passionate about. Those things range from sailing, teaching, canals, love, romance, equality for LGBT folk, to volunteering to help others at personal risk and for no fiscal reward. It paints the world I inhabit coupled with the world I wish for.

I'm trying and failing to write an additional vignette which incorporates sailing for people with disabilities. Maybe after Christmas, when my brain has settled down I'll succeed. I have it started, I just can't make it work yet. I'm passionate about that, too. I'm a volunteer Powerboat and Keelboat instructor for my local RYA Sailability centre.

[Updated on: Sun, 17 December 2017 14:32]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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