Saturday, April 20, 2013

Part, Three.


As a landscape designer and the owner of the company, I keep busy enough in the winter. But if the weather wasn’t so uncertain, we’d already be going nuts with the work, so I’m kind of in a race against time to finish the third novella in the series involving Chad and Andre.
After that, I really don’t know when I’ll be able to get back into the writing. My job requires focus, as it is creative in itself. Getting out into the field and tucking into an interlocking stone terrace or planting some interesting new trees is welcome relief after the challenges of organizing even a good crew like we have here.
Writing takes focus, and sometimes that is hard to achieve.
In this story (tentatively titled, ‘Part Three’) we reach some resolution, with perhaps Andre achieving some maturity, some mastery over his inner self, and with Chad exploring just exactly what it is that he wants and expects in a mate, a soul partner or a spouse, however we choose to view the relationship.
It’s a good question isn’t it? In the hetero world, some men look for a wallflower, and some men don’t. But in the modern marriage, it’s a kind of partnership, rather than the man taking the woman into his household like a daughter, concubine or domestic slave.
The Andre character is successful in life in a limited way. He’s always had a job, he makes the car payments and insurance. And the rent is always paid at the end of the month. His secrecy, his fear of what other people think limits him in so many ways, and he has been desperately lonely—hence desperately unhappy.
Real life is no fantasy. There will be challenges, pitfalls, and sometimes what the neighbours think matters, as they can be our best friends, or our worst enemies.
As always, there is some autobiographical content in the story. 
It really only parallels my own life experiences.
It is fiction, pure and simple, but if it is to stand the test of time, it must be about real things, real people, and real situations. A real conflict, and one anybody can understand. Not just gays and bisexuals.
Men like Andre are common enough.
How many go through life, like him before he broke loose, and live in a state of denial, or merely one of confusion? Or self-loathing? How many men self-destruct when they could not find the courage.
Plenty of ‘happily married men’ are gay. What drives them to live a lie? Is the pressure of society enough, or are they mostly worried about what their mom and dad, their brothers and sisters, their friends and co-workers think of them?
Jsut what exactly is their own opinion of themselves?
Did they buy into the labels?
Most of us already know the answer to that question. It’s not so hard to guess, is it?
The world will change. Sometimes it changes faster than we are comfortable with.
 We might be asked to give up some long cherished notions.

END

Photos: Morguefile, although they are representative of the sort of work that I do.

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