So like my current novel-length story True As It Can Be, I want to share some thoughts about the story I submitted for the Fall 2021 Anthology:

-I had a wild idea of trying an unusual combination of story elements:

a. A western holiday story with a gay wedding 

b. A funerary rites exploration with commentary on little known details involved in Taoist funeral practices.

c. I also wanted to write a ghost story that starts off heavy with melancholy, but ends lighter with potential (maybe an actual novel if readers liked it).

d. I want to use concepts that I'd considered from years ago in one of my abandoned stories about modern technology and the creation of a digital vessel for a human soul. Black Mirror's Be Right Back inspired me, but I wanted to take it in a different direction.

-Joey Lam was inspired by a guy I knew and briefly dated, smart and work-driven like myself. He had an MIT background, but he was weirdly caught between traditional Chinese family and modern sensibilities along with technologies. Cool guy, but we're too similar to be more than friends.

-The Taoist funeral ceremony I depicted is based on the funeral of my maternal grandfather and grandmother. I've rarely read anyone describing how Funerary rites actually work in gay fiction stories, let alone Taoist variant. Christian funerals and Taoist funerals like the traditional Christian bonfire are almost parallel concepts. Not inverted, as some would claim pagan rituals must be devil worship or something, but they have different priorities. Christian ceremony emphasizes the element of grief and the memory of the deceased, while the Taoist are more pragmatic and prepares the deceased for the afterlife with clothes, money, cars, houses, and possessions, along with sending messages via fire (I guess underworld email).

-Additionally, unlike a Christian Wake continuing the funeral, the White feast is meant to be a launching point into life for the surviving relatives. It's a reminder of light (hence, why it's called a "white" feast) in the lives you are currently living. Again, I haven't read anyone depicting this in gay fiction, or the difference between spiritual and realist contrasts in these belief systems.

-As for the spirit summoning ritual, yes, supposedly it exists and I did depict parts of it, including the infamous chicken avatar. Those are the ingredients to summon your dead loved ones according to what I have read, but I would highly highly tell readers to take this with a gram of salt. According to Chinese Taoist stuff I read, you shouldn't do this after 7th day of a deceased loved one's passing or else you may get uninvited ghost friends like putting a message out on Craigslist for "Missed Connections". Also, it's not meant to last more than a few hours at night, if it works, because ghost cannot survive direct sunlight.

-The computer algorithm in the story is what I'd imagine a brain would be, being a blank slate and building upon its functions with the right program, i.e. a human soul/consciousness. Jake is not possessing a piece of electronics like a standard poltergeist, he's actually bonded his soul to the computer.

-The Chinese have one of the few belief systems, which holds an ancient marriage ceremony between humans and ghosts, it's been a common practice for nearly 3 thousand years. However, these rituals have been shunned in recent times as being superstitious or too disturbing as reasons by various groups from Evangelical Christians in Western cultural centers like Hong Kong and Macau to Communist purging in the mainland China. It's not necrophilia, the actual ritual actually doesn't require the deceased body if you follow the rites for those without a corpse. It's an interesting practice and a show of undying love between widows and their spouses, but its concept is dangerous to certain social views. (Typical for me, I found the one topic Conservative Christians and Communist party leaders agree on)

-As for "New Age" and more Open-minded Christians like Reverend Amanda Clarke, who is based off Unitarian priest. Some modern Christian leaders are far more interested in other cultures concepts and experiences, rather than drumming only the Strict Text of the Bible as the absolute truth. For one thing, Purgatory as I indicated is a concept that no one really highlights in Christianity with any details, but it's approximately slightly above what we knew of as Christian Hell. However, in Taoism, the entire concept is expanded into a spiritual society (Yes, Japanese tradition has the same if you have watched the anime or read the manga Bleach, you know what I mean). To her, Taoism is just adding details to a portion of the Bible that no one really explained in-depth, and also the pragmatism of Chinese ceremonies would make sense in such context, i.e. people need money, clothing, and shelter if the underworld is the same as the living world.

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I don't know if readers will respond to this story as well as so many have done with my longer novel, I'll probably hold off on writing a novel unless I see comparable interest.