W_L

Thanks Chris, it's my first experiment with several themes and the first time I wrote a non-binary character (not counting Chip, he's still finding himself/themself). I am glad you liked it

Thanks @Drew Payne The Mandela effect is fascinating, false memory and perceptions of reality could be reshaped to conform with a personal re-alignment. In order to make it work though in the real world without reality warping or time travel science fiction, those around you would have to buy into the fiction for their own personal reasons as I did in my story. This compounds an existing psychological break with reality, making the narrative as "real" as the "facts"; though, this "real" isn't true to the character's past.

My latest short story That's Where You'll Find Me plays with the concepts of identity, reality, and memory. As many readers know, I am a fan of science fiction and these themes were made famous by authors like Philip K. Dick among others. Yet, I wanted to bring my love of science fiction into contemporary gay fiction. For me, I wanted to create a short story based on the concept of framed false memory from the perspective of an LGBTQ victim, who was traumatized and brutalized into forgetting themselves. Life can get really hard for folks in our community, but some of the worst issues are faceareby those who don't conform to the binary gender identity. It's not difficult to imagine someone who goes through a psychological break and becomes a different person with memories re-oriented, so the new reality fits their new life. A famous psychological issue called the Mandela Effect harnessed this severe psychological break with reality to rewrite history to suit personal needs. The Mandela effect, in short, was a phenomenon encountered by people, who claimed they had heard, seen, or witnessed the death of Nelson Mandela in the 1980s, when in fact he would not die until 2013 after serving as President of South Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory#Mandela_Effect It's a fascinating concept about how cognitive reasoning and personal views shape "perceived reality" versus "factual reality". My protagonist in this short story is a conservative Christian college student, who has spent most of his life, as far as he knows, being a devout Christian who crusaded against everything from abortion to LGBT rights to promoting Conversion therapy. Yet, his entire reality and structure of truth are put to the test, when he hears a girl play and sing the famous song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which seemed familiar to him and incites a deep-seated need for protection from him. As the story progresses, I show readers why this need to protect exists and break the multiple layers of false memories that created his reality. In the end, I wanted my character to reclaim their identity and reality, despite the trauma of accepting what had happened or what they have done in their life afterward. Not everyone is a strong survivor after a trauma, many people will look within themselves and change themselves to be something else to adapt. This happens to a lesser degree when people enter new surroundings like college or workplaces, but in my story, the protagonist had to re-orient their entire life history to make sense of their life experience. There's also a culpability factor in my story, for this illusion to continue, the closest people around the protagonist like his parents and best friend must accept his new reality as well. They did it out of guilt and obligation, but it actually compounds psychological issues from the protagonist's sense of reality and his self-identity. Reality is a tricky concept, there's factual reality, implied reality, and self-actualized reality. Some sidenotes: 1. The title is based on a line from Somewhere Over the Rainbow, along with the last names of two main characters being based on the names of the actual writers. 2. The fictional fraternity my protagonist belonged to has a famous Christian Greek prefix, "Chi" and "Rho" Greek letters combined in Christian iconography represent the cross in early Christianity. I know not many readers will know this little textual detail, nor care, but I did it intentionally. Most people know I have a grasp of Christian history and languages.

Well I did it, Prompt 74 is now live: @AditusThanks again for inspiring me to create something different. I have not attempted to create or craft a story about a non-binary character before, but I hope this one will be acceptable. https://gayauthors.org/story/w_l/wls-prompts-short-stories/3

That’s Where You’ll Find Me By W.L My name is Martin Arlen, I’m a twenty-two-year-old college senior majoring in marketing and a fraternity brother of Tau Chi Rho, an elite Christian fraternity at our secular state university. I grew up with very loving and devout parents, who cherished me and provided for my education at home. I spent most of the time either studying or playing sports, where I met most of my friends, including my best friend Eddie Harburg. Even though I spend most of

These are interesting prompts, I might have something for you @Aditus, I don't know if it will be interesting to readers, but it will be an intriguing experimental story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_no_Kusabi I wondered and searched in the abyss of what is considered gay erotica before the BL genre became popular in Japan, Were there any good stories, manga, or anime with gay characters? I got my answer in Ai no Kusabi, which I have to say was a surprising find and genuinely provocative. The original light novel was published between 1986 and 1987, around the time of my birth, so this story predates many modern readers and viewers. Like a lot of classi

https://yaoi.fandom.com/wiki/Wei,_Kanjian_Erduo_La! Does gay anime have to always be from Japanese manga in origin? For some folks, who are only familiar with popular Japanese Gay Yaoi or lesbian Bara manga genres, there are actually other mediums that have become anime series based on alternate art-based stories. The manhua is a Chinese equivalent to the Japanese manga with distinctive two-dimensional drawings similar to American comic strips, rather than the texture-based compositions tha

You mean Priya, the icy lesbian with a heart of gold. She's a hoot despite the few scenes she was in. I just wish I knew how Bridget kept her literary job, after all those insane and crazy things that happened to her, it's like a story within a story the way she described it to the gang of friends. Some parts of Boyfriend material were a bit dry, it took Luc and Oliver quite a while to get into the friends with benefits stage of gay romance, but it's an interesting story once you arrive as it felt deserved. I agree with you about Luc's mother and his asshole of a father, who was a complete narcissist even when he thought he was dying (after the way he gaslighted Luc for his career later, I wouldn't mind seeing him get a dose of his own medicine in book 2)

Good choice, I'm going to read it later after my current story is done

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50225678-boyfriend-material Have you ever read a modern British gay romance novel? They’re usually not Jane Austen in terms of depth or social critique, but sometimes you do find interesting nuggets within the ether about contemporary society or have insights about human psychology. I might not be British in terms of nationality or culture, but it’s interesting to learn different viewpoints from non-American authors. Alexis Hall’s novel Boyfriend Material

True, those guys can get hot really quick, especially Akihiko. Some of it is explainable due to socialization issues from childhood, both Akihiko and Nowaki had hard childhoods and are the semes of their respective couples. Yoh and Shinobu are tame by comparison; though Shinobu does get impatient. The anime does have a lot of funny moments, especially seasons 1 and 2 with their end credit scenes. Suzuki-chan, Akihiko's giant teddy bear, is featured in a few of them. All I can say about those is that there's no better excuse for snuggling

Book reviews are fun for amateurs like me, too. Not every book I read is award-winning or deals with interesting topics, but I enjoy books and stories that explore the human condition. Emotional character development is key to my interest in a story, if you as a reader invest time in a story, you want to be able to know that your time is being used on a story that offers progression with its characters. Technical third-person narratives and "cold" 1st person narratives are best used for certain genres: Mystery being the one most often pointed. Another would be True Crime genre, Truman Capote's detached style from his famed novel, In Cold Blood, is a great example of where the cold objective narrator can work within prose to tell a story. However, I do agree with you; I can only read such stories occasionally if the inclination for mystery comes, but otherwise, the narrative structure is too objective for my tastes, lacking humanity. It's a personal preference, I am not against the use of the cold narrative style, it's just the plot and story need to fit the style. For instance, you can't usually write romance in such a manner without losing the essence of the genre, but you can write science fiction in this manner if you are objectifying human interactions from a non-human perspective, i.e. AI or alien species. Another aspect I learned, if you enjoy reading and reviewing books, beta reading for other writers may come second nature. I've done a fair bit of beta reading over the last year, bringing a library's worth of insight from various genres and writers. I am not a technical editor with grammar or sentence construction, but I can offer things about genres and story arcs through my exposure to help enhance stories or offer insights into plot formation. That's the second job of a reviewer, especially at the pre-publication stage whether amateur or professional, to offer insights into what the story says and its characters develop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junjo_Romantica:_Pure_Romance This series is perhaps one of the biggest and most well-known amongst its peer in the Boys’ Love genre. It has its fans and detractors due to its length and longevity, which I would consider to be similar to the Simpsons due to its nearly 20 years-spanning legacy with various storylines. The first volume of the manga began in 2003 and the latest volume is scheduled to be published on September 1st, 2022 with official English transl

Thanks @Valkyrie, you inspired me twice with your prompts. It's nice to get back on the wagon.

2002-present and still going, Junjo series inspired a lot of BL with its 20-year run. I think of these stories as being sort of like the Simpsons within the BL world, it tried a little of everything before its inspiration began work. I also read Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi from the same author and her very provocative, though short lived series, Hybrid Child. For YK, I am more familiar with the fantasy side of her work, No Sleep Tonight or Konya mo Nemurenai, there's something interesting about gay demons that come in to save the day, and let's be honest, it's adorable to be courted. I have a soft spot for Isekai manga and anime, having a strong interest in series like Kyo Kara Maoh!, which has some light shonen-ai elements.

Thanks guys, I wanted to stretch myself and try something different with @Valkyrie prompt. I wanted to see if I could get emotions across with a few words and a descriptions, depicting desperation and tragedy that many people are suffering under currently. I didn't mention countries or names of towns/cities directly (though I use the slang and words unique to the protagonist, so it's a giveaway as to what conflict I am referring to with a google search). Minimalism is one of the hardest things to master, while not giving up the humanity.

I didn’t choose this life, utterly alone in a world filled with violence and death, but I have no choices anymore for myself. I hide my nature from everyone around me and hide it from myself at times. If anyone knew my secret, I would either be ostracized by the few alive or be turned over to one of the Vatnik, followers of the new regime. These Vatnik believe men like me are an affront to their God, who promised them hegemony and empire if we were removed from this world. The tragic ones, who m

Thanks for reading the review and like I said, I know it's a culture thing that might not be my cup of tea, but I can respect people who enjoy aspects of it. Just took a look, my manga scan site has a collection of Yamamoto Kotetsuko manga, including Bokura no negai series that I believe you are referring to. The premise sounds interesting, though I read somewhere that it's incomplete and the writer abandoned the project back in 2016. I'll probably do a review of Junjo Romantica next, you probably have your opinions on some of the couples, my favorite is the Egoist couple (I can so see them being a real-life couple), the Terrorist couple has a slightly less cringe-age gap, the Mistake couple felt like the old servant/master relationship trope, and the main Romantica couple is very Soap Opera BL. Overall, it was a good series with some questionable beginnings, but I did feel like the characters had development and moved to improve each other, unlike Super Lovers.

Very true, being one of the early BL Anime's and one of the trailblazers in the genre, it's over the top, but very memorable.

Great to open up a new manga and anime to you

Here you are @JohnnyC https://www.funimation.com/shows/the-stranger-by-the-shore/ If you don't have a funimation subscription, there are a few sites that carry this anime movie. You can search for it via google for the english dub via it's other name: Umibe no Étranger.

Thanks for reading, I am glad you enjoyed Mark's perspective on the story and the stream of consciousness narrative that flowed through.

If Sasaki and Miyano were a heterosexual couple, then yeah, it's a dime a dozen, but this kind of storytelling is rare for gay couples in anime or manga. Their relationship was far more natural story flow-wise than forcing your partner onto the floor, a closet, or a car, then having your way with them and starting a relationship from there (unless Stockholm Syndrome is somehow correlative to sexual orientation, where's the gay handbook 😛 ...). The animation was really good in Sasaki and Miyano, I think you will actually like Stranger by the Shore even more if you enjoy the animation style and rich color palates. Some of the scenes reminded me of Miyazaki's style, there's an artistic element to how the animator presented the Okinawa coastal town and the elements of nature relating to human emotions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%A9tranger_series If you enjoy Sasaki and Miyano, this manga series and anime movie may pique your interest as it did mine. I am happy that simple gay romance stories are now becoming easier to find in this medium of manga and anime. The five volumes of the manga story were published between 2013-2014 and the anime film was produced in 2020. The manga was ranked #5 overall in the genre in 2014, so it was very popular with the female and gay readership of