Welcome back to Love Bytes! This is a weird post because, as I sit down to pen it, I’m not sure where it’s headed. The above-captioned title tells you what’s on my mind. It’s supposed to be a blog tour post for Thárros which, by the way, hit #1 on Amazon’s Top 100 list of LGBT young adult fiction yesterday while I was at Romantic Times Teen Day. Woot! I really do have the best readers in the world!

Romantic Times is a huge book convention. HEY-UGE! I’m proud to say that I had the pleasure of attending Romantic Times Teen Day on behalf of Harmony Ink Press and am humbled that Elizabeth North invited me to participate. Thank you, Elizabeth! People from every walk of life attend, and it goes without saying that the convention is femalecentric.

Wait, wait, wait. Let me back up.

I had dinner with Elizabeth on Thursday evening and one of the things we discussed was “library management.” Every literary work we create becomes part of an overall library of works, and will eventually belong to our heirs. I know, I know, you’re thinking so what?!? Here’s the so what: it is an asset that can be marketed for income now and later. Not joshin’.

Within these libraries, or bodies of works, the most valuable assets are those works that would be considered evergreen. What makes an evergreen literary work? The primary element is that it is timeless. The message it delivers is relevant to much of humanity regardless of the setting (trope, era, locale, etc.). Notwithstanding the foregoing, a secondary element is that it is malleable and can be adapted to the changing world around us for future exhibition in various types of media whether or not now known (legal language). The third element is that the work is considered a “classic.” (Judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.) It goes without saying that the majority of what we write is not masterpieces. That isn’t to sleight what we write, because we write good, often excellent, books. But do we write evergreen works? Rarely. In my experience, a good rule of thumb is that approximately 2% of what we create has the potential to become evergreen.

As such, when I sit down to write, I consider far more than the word slinging I’m about to do. I consider whether the story will contribute to the body of work I am creating, what it will contribute, and whether it has the potential to become evergreen. What does this have to do with Romantic Times Teen Day, you ask?

While distributing a free Harmony Ink anthology and cards to obtain free books on-line to teens, I ran into members of Clean Reads. “Clean reads”* are those books without foul language, excessive violence, and have all sex off page. (*At the time of this posting, Clean Reads did not accept LGBTQ+ literature. They have since amended their submission requirements to omit any reference to LGBTQ+ literature submissions.) The books also must be of an “appropriate” genre; and, lo and behold, that does not include LGBTQ+ content. I know who Clean Reads is and respect the intent and concerns, but I was nearly gutted yesterday. Not because they were rude as I distributed “inappropriate” literature, and not because I was asked to leave a particular room—oh, and, by the way, you brought your teens to Sin City for this event! I think my Kermit shirt and baseball cap were the things that saved me from certain demise… because… Kermit is appropriate, right? Or, maybe it was because I’m kid-sized, look funny, wore purple glitter socks, and people took pity on me. Who knows?—but because of the extraordinary sadness and disappointment I saw on the faces of teens whose parents put out a hand as if to shield them from me with a stern “No, we don’t read those sorts of books.”

The youth were crushed. The looks on their faces were heartrending when denied access to LGBTQ+ lit and it was a stark reminder of the lack of acceptance we often face. It is estimated that nearly 60% of the teens in our society today identify as “gender non-conforming.” These teens, our youth, the adults of tomorrow don’t live in a vacuum. They live in the same world we do and we are surrounded by sexual inference, violence, profanity—and marriage equality, which I hate to tack on here because the former three items have a mostly negative connotation. Youth can read and think for themselves and disallowing them to do so speaks to a lack of confidence in them. You can read more about this and considering banned books in my article series: Writing Sex and Violence in Young Adult Works.

Back to library management. Having experienced this yesterday, I heartily considered my body of literary work. I write all sorts of works in many venues, but I considered my Harmony Ink books specifically. We live in a time of profound change, one of behavior and the law, and the literary works we put to pen represent a critical portion of this crucial time in our history. I write about tough subject matter, my books include sex, violence, and profanity, and “not clean” LGBTQ+ content—thank you, Rick Reed, for this tweet yesterday. I want youth to learn from my books. I want them to walk away with knowledge, hope, and feeling championed. As such, I consider what these works contribute to my library now, and what they may mean to the library years from now. Will they be evergreen? No. Am I disappointed? No. Will writing these works negatively impact other areas in my literary profession? It already has. Yet, we write damn good and important books, and being the demure sort that I am, I’m going to keep writing them.

And now, I bring you my current “not clean read”…. Thárros, Book 2 in the Elpída Series, is a continuation of Christy and Michael’s story. It picks up where Ómorphi left off. The boys work to heal after Christy’s abduction and Michael’s daring rescue of him, and this story centers on what Christy endures to prosecute his abuser and kidnapper, Yosef Sanna. It is only by the grace of eternal love that Christy and Michael have endured, and continue to endure. Go buy it and read it!

See you back here next month on Tuesday, May 17th! Thank you for reading my books!

About Cody Kennedy (aka Aisling Mancy)

Cody is an author who lives, most of the time, on the West Coast of the United States. Cody, writes adult fantasy, science fiction, adult romance, and fiction for gay young adults as C. Kennedy.

Raised on the mean streets and back lots of Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, Cody doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as If time and space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much-maligned dandelion, unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.

Cody’s Facebook, Twitter @CodyKAuthor, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, Ello, Goodreads,

Medium, Booklikes, and read my free serial story, Fairy

Find Ash on blog, Twitter @AislingMancy, Facebook, Goodreads, Booklikes, Amazon
and Ash does respond to emails because, after all, it is all about you, the reader.

Pssst. Click on the captioned title of each book to read the first chapter!