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Can you believe it’s already November?! It’s that time of year where life and responsibility seriously cut into my writing time. It’s annoying, but it is what it is. So for this months post I thought I’d go back a few years and share a blog post I wrote about my not so well known SyFy/Dystopian series, Opposites. It’s a struggle for me to garner sales for this series the majority of the time, but I can’t just let it go. It’s my baby, my first book, and my hope is that one day the right person will read it and share it and the books will be as popular as I want them to be.

Coming up with the concept of a world where gay/lesbian is the norm.

I wish I could claim something spectacular like a waking dream or a vision. But in all honesty, seeing how one of my best friends who is gay was treated sometimes in public, DOMA, and the absolutely appalling treatment that the LGBT community as a whole received several years ago was a key factor. I will admit that we have come a long way in accepting that people are people and that love is love, but until all the violence ends, there is room for improvement.

My friend Lucien is a 6’3 blonde haired, blue eyed, loud, proud gay man. He loves fashion and pushing boundaries. So there has been a time or two that he has turned a few heads when we have gone out. What I couldn’t stomach were people that glared, pointed, laughed, growled or disrespected him. Why? Because he’s a little flamboyant? Fuck you! I would stare right back at them, and lord god almighty help the person that EVER has the balls to look me in the eye while you are being a jackass, I will mop the floor with you! Lu didn’t give a shit. He wasn’t oblivious mind you, he just didn’t care. I, however, did. I had to learn how not to care, or at least act like I didn’t.

We had a particularly fun outing one weekend where we went to see a movie and to eat at our favorite Italian place. While walking from point A to point B, there was this kid, seriously not a day over 20 if that, and he just kept staring. I was so done, I went off on this poor guy and in the end, he was only wanting to compliment Lu on his coat and boots, ask where he got them. I was just so used to people being rude or obnoxious instead of nice or complimentary that I acted without thinking.

It was a few days later when Lu was retelling the story of our movie date that I suddenly had the thought, wouldn’t it be nice if the tables could be turned. What if we lived in a world where we, as straight people, were the oddity? What if to be gay/lesbian were the norm of society? We may or may not have been watching a Walgreen’s the town of Perfect commercial at the time, I’ll never tell. But the seed was planted and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It was the execution I was worried about. How do I write this? How do I tell this story in a way that won’t alienate people? Unless they are those rude, homophobic, judgemental people. Then they can go piss up a rope.

At the same time I stumbled across this video titled “Husband Missing” about a bi-national couple that were legally married in New York, but because one of the men was not a United States citizen, and they were a same sex couple, their union was not recognized by the Federal Government. I can’t tell you how hard I cried watching this video. I called Lu on the phone balling like a baby I was just heartbroken. It only fueled my fire to write this story. My way of shouting to the rooftops to all the straight hetero’s out there like Britany Spears getting married

and divorced in less than 24 hours, just because she can, and yet these two men that obviously love each other are forced to be apart because of some goddamn stupid ass law???? Your rights and your freedoms as a straight “normal” couple do not trump the rights of David and Jason just because they both have a dick, sorry, it shouldn’t work that way. You notice I didn’t write doesn’t work that way, because sadly it does.

The more I delved into the LGBT world, the more aware I became. I was never a prude or phobic person, but I wasn’t a fully aware person until I started researching and writing Opposites.

*Link to watch the video, Husband Missing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyk4Qo2vCpA)

*And thank god above, in the spring of 2014 Jason was granted residency (http://instagram.com/p/kQKzEGLp8o/)

After the initial idea was set, it just took planning and elaborating on that idea. I knew straight away it was going to be more of an epic saga than a basic story. My love for Sci-Fi and Dystopian fueled the world and the society that the book is based in, set a few hundred years in the future. It’s all seriously now just like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, making sure they fit, and I’m conveying what I’m seeing in my mind in a way that readers are seeing it with me.

I hope you will all grab a copy of Appearances and keep traveling with these people as they journey through life, jumping through hoops to be together, and enjoy them all as much as I enjoy writing them! Thank you so, so much Paul for hosting me today. You have a special place in my heart for all that you do for me and all my imaginary friends!

Hugs!!

Tams

A military brat born and raised at Ft. Benning Georgia; TM Smith is an avid reader, reviewer and writer. A Texas transplant, she now calls DFW her home. Most days she can be found curled up with a good book, or ticking away on her next novel.

Smith is a single mom of three disturbingly outspoken and decidedly different kids, one of which is Autistic. Besides her writing, she is passionate about Autism advocacy and LGBT rights. Because, seriously people, Love is Love!

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