The Independent Gay Writer©
all about books & writing
Published Irregularly
(about twice a month)
 at the whim of the Editor
 Volume One, # 2,
March 12, 2003

This is an independently published newsletter, edited by Ronald L. Donaghe. The views expressed herein are solely those of the writer of each review, article, or column. Writers' work is accepted solely at the discretion of the editor. All material is copyrighted by the submitting writer or Ronald L. Donaghe and cannot be reprinted without the express permission of The Independent Gay Writer© or the submitting writer. To submit material contact ron@rldbooks.com.
Interviews |  Book Reviews | Book News | Web sites | Publishers

DifSin A Different Sin
by Rochelle H. Schwab
Los Hombres Press, 1993

Review by Elizabeth Conley


In what is surely one of the more unique spins on a story of love between two men, Rochelle H. Schwab's A Different Sin brings us a story of romance, love, and perseverance set in the most unexpected of places—pre-Civil War America. The story begins in 1854, with David Carter struggling to express his artistic talents to the displeasure of his physician father who educated him as a lawyer. While attending the trial of an escaped slave, David meets Zach Walker, a New York journalist. Zach encourages David to use his artistic skills and manages to find David employment as an illustrator in New York. At a time when love between two men is all but unheard of, David and Zach take their friendship a step further.

By the time the war is fully underway, David is offered the opportunity to illustrate scenes on the front. He leaves Zach and the city behind and rushes to the Union's front-line, hoping to break himself of his attraction to Zach. Feint-of-heart, David is ill-equipped to handle the hardships of war and laments himself a coward. There, on the field of battle, David takes comfort in the arms of another journalist, and is forced to accept his true nature. As the shells fire around him, David understands Zach's prophetic words, "I daresay there are worse sins than loving, David."

Rife with plot twists and surprises, A Different Sin is rich with descriptions of wartime events, often jarring the reader from a place of comfort to the battlefield as David transforms from a weak and unsure person into the courageous and confident man we know in the end. Schwab writes with conviction, staying true to the vernacular of the day and the prejudicial language of the period. It is clear she did a great deal of homework in preparing the narrative, making A Different Sin that much more enjoyable and enlightening to read. In addition to presenting a good tale, the story offers insight into one of the most turbulent and formative periods in our nation's history. For someone looking for a good historical drama, A Different Sin is a must-read.

Elements of Style
Paperback: 105 pages
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 4th edition (January 15, 2000)
ISBN: 020530902X

A masterpiece in the art of clear and concise writing, and an exemplar of the principles it explains.

"Buy it, study it, enjoy it. It's as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility."
—The New York Times

SonsLikeMe Sons Like Me
by Damon Murphy
Paperback $16.95
Pages: 314
ISBN: 0-595-21840-7

An exciting tale on the lives of black gay men told in four thought provoking short stories. You must check it out!

Check out the Sons Like Me website

Pastoral Featured Title
Pastoral
by Lorena Manuel
ISBN 0-595-09289-6
Format: Paperback
Our Price: $18.95

Set in a fictitious city near the San Francisco Bay Area, Pastoral is the story of Alex Chasen, who tackles the world armed with nothing more than a glaring absence of a normal childhood, a dwindling savings account, and wide-eyed optimism. His is a story celebrating romance, diversity, friendship, and, yes, family— while satirizing heterosexism, hypocrisy, and just plain nastiness.

The author has pledged to donate a dollar for every book sold to the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of anti-gay hate crime victims.
Bad writing is forgivable.
Sloppy writing is not.
—by Ronald L. Donaghe

No matter how easy it is to publish one's own book these days through the miracle of print-on-demand (POD), self-published writers have an obligation to do it well. What consumer wants to pay sixteen bucks for a crummy book when the same money will buy a good book? Back when it cost $10,000  to get published by a vanity press, the world was spared many bad books; now that $200  will slap a cover around any "manuscript,"  it's even more important that self-published writers take pride in their work.

I'm not talking about the literary merit of a book. Whether something is "good" or "bad" in a literary sense is as subjective as what makes "good" or "bad" art. I'm talking about grammar and punctuation—the mechanics and skill that should be evident in any book on the market, whether it is a POD or traditionally published book. Just the other day one of my best readers related the story of a book she had bought, in which she found several typos in the first 14 pages. By any standard, that's unacceptable.

When readers point out  typos they have found in my work,  I'm red-faced with chagrin and giddy with relief that within a 200-page book, they've only pointed out a couple of  mistakes. Even a couple of errors is difficult to justify, so before uploading that final draft to my publisher, I try to get at least six people to read the manuscript and  to catch as many errors as possible.

Some writers think  it's the story that matters and not a few dozen little typos. It is true that many readers gloss over typos without a flicker of recognition, but many readers don't. And those who don't will be less likely to purchase another POD book—or at least from that writer. This is where that "obligation" comes in. On a purely self-interest level, it should be obvious that sales will suffer if too many people become distracted with typos. It will ruin the reading experience, get in the way of a good story, and will certainly gain the careless writer a very different reputation than he or she hoped.

Find any typos or grammatical errors in this article? Then point them out. No prizes will be given, but I'll send you a virtual hug.

Gay and Lesbian Mysteries
Go Here for the List
An Incomplete, Ever-expanding, Totally Subjective Listing by Lori L. Lake
Listed by author name, (sleuth series/name), BOOK TITLE(s)
Please Note: If you find other titles that are so excellent you know I should read them,
please drop me a line at Lori@LoriLLake.com.
Introducing the lighter side of writing by a new writer who is still in the throws of euphoria with the publication of his first book. You will recall Andrew Barriger from the last newsletter and his book Finding Faith
The Fairy Factoid©
by Andrew Barriger

Welcome to the Fairy Factoid.  Each week (or so), in conjunction with Ron Donaghe’s Independent Gay Writer, the Fairy Factoid will provide a parallel, sometimes related, often fictional piece of entertaining information loosely related to the topic at hand, explaining the gay origins of something otherwise commonplace in our everyday lives.

That first paragraph will be determined to represent “how to say nothing and use a lot of words.”  Anyway, that’s our mission here at the Fairy Factoid and we’re bettin’ we’ll stick to it for at least a week.

This week, we have sent our team of crack reporters into the field on a singular quest: determine the history of the apostrophe!  Why the apostrophe, dear reader?  It’s simple – as everyone knows, the apostrophe is gay.  How do we know the apostrophe is gay?

Look at the evidence:
  1. It floats there, above the rest of the letters.
  2. It spells its name with a funky “-phe” suffix.
  3. Uh…’cuz we said so.
Anyway, off go the reporters into the field to see what they can find out.  Immediately, they submitted their first expense report and it included…a trip to Europe.  At first, we figured “that’s what we get for hiring gay reporters to track down gay punctuation,” but then someone pointed out, “hey, the English language was started in France!”  Someone then referred to that person as a “stupid head” and a fracas of fisticuffs ensued.  When it was all said and done, we were able to agree English must have started in England – good thing, too, since the reporters were already there.

So there, in England, our man on the street, Colin, started asking around.  Who had first used the apostrophe?  What was its story?  A natural starting point was the reconstructed Globe Theatre, on the banks of the Thames.  There, Shakespeare and his company of players had performed positively oodles of plays, all of which were laden with apostrophes in perfectly normal words, like “over,” which became “o’er.”  Also, all the players were men.  Clearly, a correlation had been uncovered.
Fellow writers, you can also contribute to this newsletter. Anything to do with independently published books or about writing.


The Globe Folks had a few ideas, but no one was definitive on the topic.  So, Colin did as Colin does and headed off to a local public house, famed for having been somewhere Shakespeare himself frequented.  Colin thought he might be getting sold up the river, but he was ever adventurous where liquor and an expense account combined.  There, at the Anchor, with his fearless research assistant, Daniel, mere blocks from the Globe, Colin made the startling discovery – that gayest of gay punctuation, shamelessly contracting perfectly good words like the liposuction of the literary world, was Greek!

And, in the end, who was more gay than the ancient Greeks?

The Fairy Factoid © is extensively researched and painstakingly presented by Andrew Barriger, author of Finding Faith and other stuff.  Neither the author nor the editor are responsible for any factual errors that may be contained herein, especially as related to facts.
The "Fairy Factoid" will continue. Brought to you by Andy and his team of astute reporters...
Home • Newsletter Archives List