Southern Swallow and His “Cut-Sleeve” Affair

I received an inquiry from a reader of The Academician about the use of the term "cut-sleeve affair" when referring to homosexuality during the Sung (Song) Dynasty (12th Century) China, the setting for the novel. Perhaps I should have added a footnote in the book. However, the work is a "novel," not a textbook. Although the term, and another one, "sharing a peach," are clear in their application, I owe the non-sinological world an explanation.

Homosexuality in China has been regarded variously during its long and eventful history. Unlike in the West, none of China’s traditional religions and philosophy regards homosexuality as a sin. However, in an agrarian Confucian society, there are certain obligations within relationships that homosexuality precludes — procreation being one. Homosexuality is not the only area that has been evaluated in light of fulfilling one’s obligations to produce children. Buddhism has been subject to a similar and, actually greater hostility, until it modulated into its particularly Chinese brand of the religion. During Ancient times (Warring States and Han), homosexuality wasn’t necessarily accepted, but it was broad based enough on the Imperial level that it was hard to ignore. The term "sharing a peach" came into vogue after a young man, Mi Tzi-xia, offered Duke Ling of the State of Wei a partially eaten, but juicy peach as an entrée to a same-sex relationship. More famous, and as such a more widely applied term, came with the young Emperor Ai, the last Western Han Emperor (9 CE), whose male concubine, Tung Xien, was prominent at court. As the Han Histories state it, Tung Xien fell asleep in Ai-tsung’s arms and, rather than disturb his sleep, the Emperor had his robe sleeves cut away in order to depart. This term for homosexual relationships — a "cut sleeve affair" entered into common parlance since.

During the Sung (Song) Dynasty, the period of The Academician, there was ambivalence about "cut-sleeve affairs." In the novel (as it would be in life), Li K’ai-men does his Confucian duty, marries and cohabitates with his wife and produces two sons, as it should be. His male lover, Fu Lin-t’o, finds himself in a strange limbo between Li’s love and his place in the Confucian order of things. He is not discriminated against and becomes part of the household, but still finds prejudices at every turn, even in the feng-shui notions of keeping heaven balanced. The Southern Swallow series is built around the long life of this cut-sleeve affair and its resilience against all odds. Homosexuality, as open and common, reached its zenith during the Ming Dynasty, when the court was as gay as King Frederick of Prussia’s. There was also a brand of same-sex marriage in Fu-ch’ien Province referred to as "Fu-ch’ien Marriages." With the Manchu conquest in 1640 under the Ch’ing (Qing) Dynasty, homosexuality was dealt a blow. Anything suggesting Ming hedony was suppressed by the more conservative conquerors. While the Ch’ing were importing Western cannon and clocks, they also were importing Jesuit views on homosexuality. In 1740, the K’ang-xi Emperor proscribed homosexuality and it was criminalized (not by death, but with strokes with the bamboo rod). There has been much debate as to whether the new laws were enforced. Still, homosexuality was criminalized in China until 1997 and in Hong Kong until the repatriation in 2000.

So from earliest times to the present, China has had a different view of homosexuality than the rest of the world. It was never a wholesale endorsement, but like many other social institutions, it was required to conform to strict societal relationships, which it did better than some other peculiar Chinese dishes like Buddhism (an Indian import). The euphemisms "a cut-sleeve affair" and "sharing a peach" were used in polite reference, not like Western euphemisms (light in the sneakers etc.). One of my aims, amongst others, in authoring The Academician was to develop a tung-xing-lien (companionable relationship – the Chinese word for homosexuality) during a more enlightened age. The novels span between 1124 – 1172 CE, a time when Western civilization was searching through the mud for its sandals and homosexuality was punishable by lighting the fires and burning the sinners.

Edward C. Patterson

More information on The Aacdemician http://www.amazon.com/dp/144149975X

Press Release on The Academician

After 30 Year in the Making, Patterson's The Academician is to be released on March 9th

The author of Jade Owl Legacy Series, Edward C. Patterson, is releasing the first book in the Southern Swallow Series - The Academician on March 9th, 2009. This novel of 12th Century China, the product of 30 years work. is a real eye-opener.

The Academician - Book I of Southern Swallow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 02, 2009 – The Academician is to be published by the author of The Jade Owl Series, Edward C. Patterson:

“A bigger fool the world has never known than I — a coarse fellow with no business to clutch a brush and scribble. I only know the scrawl, because my master took pleasure in teaching me between my chores. Not many men are so cursed . . .” Thus begins the tale of Li K’ai-men as told by his faithful, but mischievous servant, K’u Ko-ling — a tale of 12th Century China, where state service meant a life long journey across a landscape of turmoil and bliss. A tale of sacrifice, love, war and duty — a fragile balance between rituals and passions. An epic commitment between two men to define the indefinable in their own world and time. Here begins the legacy of the Jade Owl and its custodian as he holds true to his warrants.

The Academician is the first of four books in the Southern Swallow series, capturing the turbulence of the Sung Dynasty in transition. Spanning the silvery days under the Emperor Hui to the disasters that followed, The Academician is a slice of world events that should never have been forgotten. Still, there are things more important than invasions and empires. The world’s fate rests in the warrants of Li K’ai-men, this young scholar from Gui-lin, called master by his faithful servant, but known as Nan Ya to the world."

The Academician is a fictional account of a twelfth Century Chinese scholar-official, who readers of The Jade Owl Legacy first encounter in The Third Peregrination. Although this series serves as an historical adjunct to The Jade Owl, it has been in development longer than any work from the author's pen. The character of Li K’ai-men first came to light over three decades ago in Patterson's first China-themed work, Vagrant Hollow, a work which, unlike Li, will never come to light. Still, Mr. Patterson's great desire to novelize a seminal epoch in Chinese History, the founding of the Southern Sung Dynasty, sprang to life even earlier in his Masters’ thesis, "The Restoration of the Southern Sung Dynasty: The Reign of the Emperor Kao-tsung: 1127 – 1167." While entrenched in this period’s amazing details, Patterson visualized the tug and tussle of events that every Chinese school child knows, but few in the West can fathom.

From My Mind to Your Imagination: Bobby’s Trace and Mystery Writing

I must say, I have fun when I write a mystery, whether it’s a whodunit like Turning Idolater or a horror-ghost story like Bobby’s Trace. Authors have an obligation to their readers — to provide them with compelling material presented through well conceived, living characters who are wrapped in vivid and engaging language. However, when dealing out mystery, logic is a crucial element. Unlike a slice of life work, a mystery promises the reader surprises and clues, not that non-mysteries exclude surprise. However, logic can fly the coop in a mystery, leaving the reader scratching their heads wondering where the work fell off the cliff . . . or did they? I have more fun authoring mysteries because I get to meet logic’s challenge and stretch it to the fullest taffy pull. I succeed only when the reader trips over the ending, hits themselves in the head and wonders why they couldn’t unwrap the enigma. Hiding clues in the reader’s path and knowing that they won’t see them is highly rewarding to me — I’m that tricky.

In Bobby’s Trace, a passionate haunting that blends gay themes, religion, Gilbert & Sullivan and computer programming into an unlikely frolic through the ghost world, I attempt to delight the reader to the extreme. The action belays the clues, which are processed, but dismissed as common elements — much like sleight of hand employed in a magician’s act. This misdirection can be attributed to Bobby’s Trace’s origins. It began life as a one-act farce in three scenes. It had nothing ghostly about it except the tenuous hold of the protagonist’s dead lover. In fact, the play had the unlikely title An Outing in the Wilderness, the main action laid across the humorous conflict of the programmer and the priest (not unlike the Princess and the Pea). I found the premise, amusing as a play, not as humorous in prose. Enter (stage right) Bobby — first as a mild Blithe Spirit presence, and then as a fully developed ghost stuck between the worlds. Then as I developed Bobby’s character, the work changed. The pathos of poor Bobby and his magnetic eyes — the beauty of his youth and the tragedy of his early death was impetus to something far greater than the romp between programmer and priest. The illogic of a fantasy world — a spirit universe married by the very act of mourning — so powerful that both the mourned and the mournful could dwell in it to the point where it becomes unclear whether the living mourn the dead or the dead mourn life, emerged. Now this were a-boilin’, transforming a light gay coming-out comedy into a griping, terrifying ghost mystery complete with a signature gut-wrenching ending.

Creating a satisfying mystery — one that delivers on its promise, is to enter a partnership with the reader — to help the reader search for the clues, and then, push them off in another direction. Agatha Christie loved to employ these red herrings in her books. The trick is to not let the fish smell too much like fish. Many readers of Bobby’s Trace have told me that they loved re-reading it just to find out where they went wrong — sort of sniffing for the fish in the corners. When I hear that, my day is always made, because it means that I have fulfilled my author’s motto — From my mind to your imagination . . .

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893960 (Paperback)http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00150Z5HC (Kindle)

Edward C. Patterson

The Advent of Simone DeFleurry

The Advent of Simone DeFleurry in The Jade Owl
by Edward C. Patterson

One might think that to pop in a compelling character like Simone DeFleurry — a drag queen, into a fantasy adventure like The Jade Owl is a simple matter of adding spice to a story. However, nothing could be further from the truth. If an author is to entice a reader with developing character arc, such "devices," rarely work except on reruns of Murder She Wrote. Simone, who has consistently been reckoned by my readers as their favorite character, is never too far away from that other persona — Simon Geldfarb. When I decided that a principle character would be a chanteuse of note, I sorted out my own experiences concerning drag queens. To the outer world, and even the inner, drag queens are men dressed as women, outrageously over the top and something of an entertainment perk, representing the Gay male community at Gay Pride Parades. Nothing could be further from the truth. That most cross dressers are heterosexual men who glam about in their wives bras and undies is a statistical fact (I allude to it in The Jade Owl). Simone DeFleurry is a charmer — a fashion plate and a walking encyclopedia on good taste and manners. He provides Nick Battle with love and companionship as part of the double-barreled mailbox label "Geldfarb-Battle." His view of problems are often so direct, the others miss the obvious until the poignant Miss DeFleurry points the way. Simone manages some glorious feats of bravery throughout the series with swagger and posh.

When I began writing The Jade Owl, my vision of drag queens was narrow — shallow. To pepper the story with one or two could have been misconstrued as pushing stereotypes, and that would never do. I therefore opted to sit down and get to know some drag queens. It’s odd that, having degrees in Sinology, I needed little additional research into Chinese culture. Being Gay, one would think that every gay man knows the inner soul of a drag queen. WRONG. Being honest — telling my interviewees that I wanted to capture the true essence of who they were, was a bold thing to ask. I was surprised to discovered a sub-culture beneath a sub-culture that was beautiful — rich and rare. Very human, and in Simone’s own words — "I am as much a man as you are, only packaged differently." The aspects of the people beneath the boas and high heels astounded me. After all, it was the drag queens that had the bravery to start the whole Stone Wall Revolution that began the modern Gay & Lesbian Activist Movement. There were no yelling and screaming Act Up bravos then; just a fiery brace of drag queens, who demanded their rights. Simone DeFleurry represents that brand of fire — the beautiful home hearth that lights the way to a natural and normalized way of life — one that gives Nick Battle the embodiment of a father/mother/wife. One that holds the candle high for Rowden Gray, so he might grow into his own acceptance of things different. In fact, for the reader — who should feel more uncomfortable when Simone dresses as Simon Geldfarb, complete with a yellow lemon tie than when he wears his favorite red polka-dot sun dress. The sadness of Simon as opposed to the lilt of Simone is crucial.

An essential requirement for me as the author of the Jade Owl Legacy Series was to make the reader forget that the story has a drag queen amongst its stars. By the third book, The Dragon’s Pool, Simone DeFleurry is a vessel that can hold even a greater responsibility — graduating to motherhood. However, since number three in the series will not hit the streets until May, I’ll say no more.

Edward C. Patterson

The Jade Owl Legacy SeriesThe Jade Owl http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440447977The Third Peregrination http://www.amazon.com/dp/1441456724and coming soon The Dragon’s Pool, The People’s Treasure and In the Shadow of Her Hem Also coming soon, an adjunct series Southern Swallow (In Three Parts)The Academician(mid-March), Swan Cloud, and The House of Green Waters

Professor Gray and His Garland

In The Jade Owl, Professor Rowden Gray refers to gathering the rosebuds as ye may, gathering them onto a garland — a garland which constitutes a complete strand of logical facts that can be analyzed and codified into a scholarly article for The Harvard Journal of Asian Studies. Funny thing that, because during the entire Jade Owl Legacy Series, the more rosebuds that the good Professor tacks onto the garland, the more the strand remains unresolved. In fact, after the journey that The Jade Owl’s first book reveals, Professor Gray knows as much about The Jade Owl as he did at the beginning of the tale. Of course, the wonderment of this little green devil is unraveled in the other books and also in the companion series, Southern Swallow (first book, The Academician coming in March). The logic behind its operation is not the kind that any scientist would readily understand. Rowden Gray being a scholar, even a Sinological one, he cannot perceive the truth of the matter until he, like the reader, suspends believe and basks in the full mystical legacy of Chinese spirituality, folk lore and that metaphysical property known as ch’i – a power that Lucas called the force, but the Chinese have for five millennium called spirit breath. Nonetheless, Professor Rowden Gray continues to weave this long rope of logic until it makes less sense at the end than at the beginning. His boon companion, Nick, however, views The Jade Owl and its purpose from a different perspective and is enlightened.

The garland of Rowden Gray is a notion that we all weave, like Wagner’s Norns, yielding precise measurements for life and time. However, this is a western notion. The Chinese have no such measurement. Time is illusive, and even death is a mere wall between two states. Therefore, the real challenge for Professor Gray as he leads the various followers, first in The Jade Owl and subsequently in The Third Peregrination, is to cut the stringency of the garland and let the rosebuds fly as they may. Not until he immerses himself in the randomness of it all does he come to understand the true nature of The Jade Owl and the triad that it forms with elemental nature and a curious set of earth events that other characters will study to the geologic and paleontologic depths, discovering the tick-tockings of this most curious bird.

As an aside, I chose the rosebud/gather ye reference as a homage to my own gene pool — how egoist is that? My grandmother was Hilda Herrick, a direct descendant of Robert Herrick, my ancestor who crafted that line as advice to virgins. Go figure.

The Jade Owl http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440447977
The Third Peregrination http://www.amazon.com/dp/1441456724

The Third Peregrination (The Jade Owl Book 2) Hits the treets

I am happy to announce the availability of the second book of The Jade Owl Legacy Series in both Paperback and Kindle edition:

The Third Peregrination by Edward C. Patterson

664 Pages

ISBN: 1441456724

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1441456724

Description:

"THE SECOND BOOK IN THE JADE OWL SERIES.
The world is on the brink, now that the relics flow together again. The new China Hands should have left the Jade Owl in the tomb, to fester silently for another age, but they didn't. Now there is a tapping in the basement and a flowering of new relics, all seeking to move Curator-General Rowden Gray and his crew into the field again to solve the mystery of The Seven Sisters. However, the world has changed since Rowden managed his first task. The new China Hands are sucked into the maelstrom of time, flowing together with the relics, now that the world is at the brink.

Rowden Gray and Nicholas Battle, joined by three new stalwarts in pursuit of the next level in the triad, find a fortress in a mystery deeper than the first warrant, something that compels them to return to China and unravel a more difficult truth - one that challenges them beyond time's membrane. This second book in the Jade Owl Legacy Series pushes the new China Hands to the world’s brink - now that the relics flow together again."

Come, continue reading the journey or dip into the first book: The Jade Owl

Rainbow Reviews said of The Jade Owl: "The Jade Owl is a nonstop, don't miss page turner and only the first in a quintology, The Jade Owl Legacy series. Readers, run, do not walk to your nearest book outlet and grab this intriguing gay mystery with its fully realized characters, gay and straight and bi, roller-coaster plotting, and paranormal fantasy elements. The Jade Owl is a true winner." - Frost's Fancy.

Edward C. PattersonDancaster Creative

The Road Goes Forever On and On

When a sixteen year old goes off on his first road trip with another sixteen year old (even when chaperoned by the minister and his wife), there's bound to be new impetus, especially if the friend is cute. Into my quiet world of opera libretti and delivering perscriptions for the local pharmacy came this trip—to Atlanta, GA, with a wide looping return through Cincinnatti, OH. It was an adventure obstensibly to meet Martin Luther King at Ebenezzar Baptist Church, but there was scant religion about the trip — as far as us teens were concerned. There was a little tipple on the highway, a midnight hitchhike to a porn show. (Porn? Ha! Well, the porn of 1963 at least). It was also when I was first willing to face my own sexuality, but that's a different journal entry altogether.

It should come as no surprise that this trip broke the libretto pattern. No more unproduced operas. The world was a real place and it intruded. Suddenly, I wanted to document every inch of travel — every town, street, population stat and Civil War battlefield, of which I saw too many. The people I met, became characters — from my traveling companions to Reverand Abernathy (Reverand King, alas was in Los Angeles quelling riots). But when I touched pen to paper, I probably should have use Charmin. Nothing worked. Crisis. Disillusion. I couldn't capture it all, so I captured nothing. I needed those lunetic birds and their silly quartets. I became more a reader than a writer — Dickens with a capital D. Melville with a capital M for Moby. The dark writers, Hardy, Conrad and Dostoevsky. The father of the modern Novel, Jane Austen. And then the magical books — Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In fact, 1963 was the first of forty or more reads of The Lord of the Rings. I must say, I have never stopped reading it. The Road Goes Forever On.

Dickens, however lit my writing fire. He showed me how characters could pop up like asparagus and be recycled like mulch. His stories were compelling, towering over me like Marley's ghost. I jotted notes for a Dickensian style Road Trip Novel, something involving a trip to the Southern US and 'cross country (go figure), but set in 19th Century America. A competition, perhaps, but with an orphan — definitely an orphan (Please sir, I want some more). Soon there was a character, Denny Danville. (There was this cute guy in Home Room named Denny). Denny was the long lost son of some Rockefeller look-alike, but doesn't know it, needs cash to marry sweet Mary Wimper, daughter of a Hearstian newspaper mogul, so he joins the flocks of the challenged in a cross country bicycle race. He falls on hard times (and his ass). He meets a group of Twainian rogues, who force him to rob a bank. He races over the Rockies barefooted on a bike of dubious authenticity and, of course, wins the race, the hand of Ms. Wimper and, because an old Indian woman recognizes a silver broach that she gave a wealthy debutante she once nursed back to health, Denny Danville becomes Denny Bartholemew, son of banker Rance Bartholemew of the Brooklyn Bartholomews.
I drafted, outlined and even systematized Denny Danville for a good part of a year. It was a bumpy year for my old upright typewriter. The more I stretched the plot, the less the story held. I had a great opening, a sympethetic central scene and here and there an ending, but (no surprise) Denny Danville never materialized, except in bits and chapters and outlines. I even considered updating the tale to the 20th Century and give Denny some civil rights work. Unfortunately, I am a creature of the 19th Century and have never felt at home in the 20th. I'm doing better in the 21st, but my next turn of creativity brought me out of all centuries. Next up, I meet Voltaire and his incredibly optomistic creation, Candide. Still with me folks? I hope so.

Gentlemen of Japan

What does Rachely of Babylon, The Death of a Redstart and The Pirates of Galicia all have in common? Anybody . . . Anybody? Well, these are three of perhaps twenty-five unproduced Ed Patterson operas written between 1959 and 1961. They were unproduced because I never wrote the music, except in my head and when I sang them aloud in my bedroom. I even mentally composed Overtures, Ballets and here and there an Intermezzo. The sign of a crazy boy, eh? Well, I had a neighbor across the street who saw my vision and she tried to marry Rachely of Babylon to Brahms' Symphony No. 1.

I was a budding Opera queen. I was taken totally by the Opera The Mikado. It was the beginning of a full life devoted to the world of Gilbert & Sullivan, and beyond. Sullivan was the attraction, but soon W.S. Gilbert was my first mentor, leading me to a world of words that swarmed from the hive and over my mind and hands and typewriter.Rachely was a forceful drama about a fictional Queen of Babylon, who lost her throne and love (and her virginity) over a libretto that chortled in broken cuneiform and a ridiculous rewrite of history. I barely knew where Babylon was, except for the Hanging Gardens and all them fig trees. Still, there was a Chorus of Bablyonian courtiers that would have felt at home in my High School music class.

Better than drama was tragedy —The Death of a Redstart, which engaged a troop of birds, all types, but particularly a Redstart named Petitius (pronounced Pet-teet-tee-yus). Why a Redstart would have a Latin name is less curious than why a Redstart would be a tenor in an all bird Opera. Well, if it was good enough for Aristophanes, why not me? (BTW, I saw The Birds last year and it wasn't good enough for the old Greek). To this day, I can sing portions of the Love Duet: "Petitius, I lo-o-ove you." The tune has haunted me for my entire life. As for The Pirates of Galicia, which I thought was somewhere in Spain (probably landlocked; but if it was good enough for Shakespeare . . .), it reflected my exposure to The Pirates of Penzance. The rousing chorus "Men of the Sea, De-de-de-dee, De-de-de-dee!" was sure to bring the opening night audience to its feet (or the men in white coats to my seat). This array of libretti sailed from fingers and mind for three years, unabated. At first blush, you might be blushing, but even this excursion contributed to the creative forces that would shape my future writing. As bad as the poetry was, it was rhythmic enough to jolt me into the repetitive sonorities that naturally flow now from my pen. "I got rhythm! I got music!"

It was during this time that I developed this important facet. I also worshipped (and still do) at W. S. Gilbert's sarcastic throne. It will come as no surprise that even in my novel The Jade Owl, I have one character (a bureaucratic type) say: "Due economy must be observed," a direct quote from Pooh-bah in The Mikado. I also merit Gilbert with my interest in things Oriental. When I first came to study East Asian History and Culture, years later, I came through Japan instead of China, where I earned my meat and potatoes.

So Gilbert and Opera (I started attending The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music about this time with the aim - my parent's aim too - to become the next Jussi Bjoerling) gave my typewriter a new and inventive twist. I created worlds that didn't exist and became emotionally charged with characters that should have remained dead, both my own and others. Dickens crept into my reading. Shakespeare trickled. Disney tickled (Old Yeller). So, "if you want to know who we are, we are Gentlemen of Japan." The only regret I have is that I lost the folder with all my wonderful libretti in them. I would love to sing them again in the quiet hours between revising the mega-tomes I craft today.

Next up (If you'e up to it?) — Road Trip! Until then, I'm on a frozen pond whistling "Petitius I lo-o-ove you. Wu wu wu Wu wu wu wu-wu."

Edward C. Patterson

Falling Of a Cliff

So where did it all begin for me. I am a 62 year old author, with nine published works under my wing and nine in the pipeline. However, no one should think I woke up one morning and decided I was the world's next Dickens. (That happened years ago - just joking). It all started when I was twelve years old.

It began when my grandmother gave me an old upright typewriter for my birthday, many years ago . . . a half century at least . . . and thereby hangs my taleI had a typewriter, and I had fingers, so therefore I was a writer . . . a twelve year old writer. My imagination went wild, straight off a cliff in fact. I sat in front of the infamous white page and told my first story. It was a tale about a Boy Scout camping trip filled with campfires and ghost stories and a friend, who when scared from his tent during a prank, ran in the wrong direction — right off a cliff. Of course, he's stranded on a convenient ledge until my father was able to lower himself down to save him. Thrills. Chills.The major problem with this story, which I term my first novel, was it wasn't fiction. It actually happened. I didn't even bother to change the names of the characters. The only thing I continually changed was the title. Prank. and Campfire Dares. When I think back, it was dreadful. I even managed to use a curse word — not the fabled, hallowed F word, but the S word (and with boyish glee).

I often think about that first work. Falling Downward. (How many ways can one do it?). Boy Scout Daze. (Gimme a break). It had some elements that I maintained for years . . . bad spelling, awful grammar and a penchant for contrivance. Still, a book about young men in the wild did strike a good first note. I've written reams about young men in various states of wild since. What lingered was the three staples binding the proscribed novel into something tangible; something wrought from nothing. That has always stayed with me. Afterall, isn't that the first lesson we learn when we create, that we create. Prior to the thought, there were no words, no tale, not even the typewriter, which my sainted grandmother saddled me with all those years ago, like a commission from one generation to another.

What was I to do? I did what any twelve year old nancy boy with a typewriter could do. I declared my novel a resounding success and aimed my typewriter at creating librettos for imaginary operas. I dug in and built a new Babylon, rewrote history in my mind and animated a kingdom of birds (that twittered duets and trios even). To hell with football! (with boyish glee).

Shall I tell you more? I think I will . . . next time.

Edward C. Patterson

The Third Peregrination is Coming

[The Jade Owl Legacy Series: Book 2]

The world is on the brink, now that the relics flow together again. The new China Hands should have left the Jade Owl in the tomb, to fester silently for another age, but they didn’t. Now there is a tapping in the basement and a flowering of new relics, all seeking to move Curator-General Rowden Gray and his crew into the field again to solve the mystery of The Seven Sisters. However, the world has changed since Rowden managed his first task. The new China Hands are sucked into the maelstrom of time, flowing together with the relics, now that the world is at the brink.

Rowden Gray and Nicholas Battle, joined by three new stalwarts in pursuit of the next level in the triad, find a fortress in a deeper mystery than the first warrant, something that compels them to return to China and unravel a more difficult truth — one that challenges them beyond time’s membrane. This second book in the Jade Owl Legacy Series pushes the new China Hands to the world’s brink — now that the relics flow together again.

Start your adventure with the Jade Owl at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440447977 (Paperback) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J54AWO (Kindle)
Edward C. Patterson

No Irish Need Apply to be The Book of the Month (June 2008)

Nice news coming for the Holiday Season.

My Novel - No Irish Need Apply - has been selected as The Book of the Month for June 2009 (Pride Month) for the Book Reading Club sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, McClean, Va. There will be over 100 readers, all having read the book and I have accepted an offer to speak, read and sign books via TeleConference in June. I am quite excited about this as it is a corollary to my former roll at Dun & Bradstreet where I was the President of GLISN (The Gay & lesbian Information Support Network) and toured the country speaking about GLBT issues in the workplace. I won the 2000 New Jersey Minority Achievement Award for my work in Corporate Diversity. Anyway, I am thrilled that their organization has selected No Irish Need Apply for such an honor, and that all attendees will have read the book before my speaking gig. I feel like a parent about to watch his child graduate. Well, that's my Holiday news.

Edward C. Patterson
No Irish Need Apply http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893952 (Paperback)http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012NOW44 (Kindle)http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/BookDetails.asp?BookID=83902 (Mobipocket)http://www.createspace.com/3339176 (Smashwords)

A Fish out of Water – No Pun Intended

I recently had an e-mail from a reader who asked where I get my inspiration for my stories, especially Turning Idolater, which seemed unique to her — genre defying and yet satisfying genre need. In Turning Idolater, I literally take the protagonist, a young internet stripper who is yearning for something indescribable, and beach him in a world that makes him squeamish. The sleaze of the porn world smashed into the preciousness of the literary world creates a tsunami for all the characters. That the two main characters are as noble as Ishmael and Queequeg, taken from Moby Dick, grounds Turning Idolater in a genreless world, despite the echoes of gay-themed and whodunit. Is it a murder mystery? Is it slice of life? Is it a gay romance? Is it a romance, period? Yes. Like tofu in a pot, this novel is meant to appeal to every imagination it infects. A fish out of water in every genre in which it swims.

However, this doesn’t answer the prime question. Where do I get my inspiration? Well, here’s a state secret. I imagine a story that interests me, perhaps topically; perhaps it’s the character development possibilities. I think on that story and its possibilities and then I lay it out in a plank — simple and direct; an anchor for my writing. It stays with me for a long time — years perhaps. THEN, and this is the Patterson family recipe, I add an element diametrically oppose to the simple line; a kettle of fish out of water. Thus, a study of gay activist meetings becomes a satirical comedy on human frailty (Cutting the Cheese). A love story teaming with deceit becomes a super-charged ghost story (Bobby’s Trace). A simple coming out tale becomes a contemporary poster for prejudice (No Irish Need Apply). A memoir of the gay experience in the military in 1967 becomes a marathon run by a fat man (Surviving an American Gulag). A simple porn boy meets snob man romance becomes a high-powered murder mystery (Turning Idolater). A quest story becomes a Dickensian epic (The Jade Owl). A sedate exposition of a Chinese official’s life in the twelfth century becomes an historic epic (The Academician and Swan Cloud – the two parts of Southern Swallow). What happens when you tell a prosaic military tale set in Germany during the 60’s and smash it up again the Brothers Grimm? You get The Road to Grafenwoehr. Mix time travel and alternative worlds with the history of the Cherokee nation and you get Belmundus. How about gay discrimination in the workplace mixed with a cocktail of the biblical triad — Jonathan, David and Saul. That would be Green Folly. And it goes on and on in my works.

Take a fish out of water and let it swim in snow and everyone will want to know whether the snow is cold enough to preserve the fish, or the fish large enough to swallow the snow. Nothing is ever too simple to be riveting or too complex to repel.

Happy reading, dear readers.

Edward C. Patterson

The Jade Owl Legacy Series "a True Winner"

On October 28th, the first book of The Jade Owl Legacy Series was published and has been received by readers intently. In fact, one review from Rainbow Reviews states:

"The Jade Owl is a nonstop, don't miss page turner and only the first in a quintology, The Jade Owl Legacy series. Readers, run, do not walk to your nearest book outlet and grab this intriguing gay mystery with its fully realized characters, gay and straight and bi, roller-coaster plotting, and paranormal fantasy elements. The Jade Owl is a true winner."

The series consists of five books, all about 600-700 pages in length, the second book (The Third Peregrination) due for release in mid-February 2009. The third book (The Dragon's Pool) will hit the boards in late Spring 2009. The last two works will be released in 2010-11 (The People's Treasure and In the Shadow of Her Hem). The sweep of the work embeds a modern adventure story in the mystical aspects of China's five major religions - Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Naturalism and Legalism. Step that up with a Tolkienesque fantasy tale and old Chinese legends, then add a dash of modern societal issues and a host of sizzling characters, and you get an eclectic ride down Mount T'ai.

As a Sinologist (a specialist in Chinese History and Culture), I have attempted to engrave China's deeper cultural trends with easy and enjoyable access for my readers. In addition to the five book series, another two book series will be released in 2009 — the fictionalized biography of a 12th Century scholar-official during a period of social and political upheaval. The series is called Southern Swallow. The first book, The Academician, will be available in late January 2009. The second book, Swan Cloud should be available mid-Summer 2009. This series parallels The Jade Owl legend, but from a purely Chinese point of view. In fact, I utilize many traditional Chinese novel techniques. Taken together, the two series covers a universe that should not disappoint.

I'll keep my readers updated on the progress of each book. I know of one "reader discussion forum" forming for The Jade Owl . There's a great deal to discuss in this series and it's my great joy to fire up my reader's imagination in a world that has been with me for over three decades.

Edward C. Patterson

Picking at an Old Chestnut – Moby Dick Lives

Ever since I picked up Herman Melville’s tale of the Whale, that great leviathan of beauty and destruction, I have been struck by the sheer poetry of Moby Dick. It teams with detail, buoyed up by a natural elegance that truly makes it a literary treasure. In my novel, Turning Idolater, the title of which comes from Melville’s work and intones the ability (or inability) to compromise, I blend unlikely elements using Melville’s basic theme that each life is a journey that needs to come to terms with earth’s organic unity. The sea is prominent in the work, but instead of Melvillian detail — nine hundred shades of white and every knot that can be tied for any reason, I developed the characters along a different course – a Dickens course. Smashing Dickensian characters into Melvillian amplitude gives the work a unique feel. Add to that the juxtaposition of romance and mystery, a good, old fashion whodunit (here a herring, there a herring – mostly red, but some a shade of pink), and the reader is provided with a memorable experience. The dichotomies are further maintained by placing the sleazy world of Internet porn beside the hoity-toity universe of literary circles.

Finding the balance between many diverse elements is the shell surrounding this nut, but at its heart is Melville and the sea. Young Philip Flaxen’s voyage across an uncharted ocean in a vessel that leaks like the Dickens and flags in bad weather provides the reader with a hero’s journey. Philip is taxed by the many anomalies that he cannot digest, yet somehow he remains afloat. In hindsight, I have achieved what I wanted to achieve. Besides my usual attention to the reader’s needs, I sought in Turning Idolater to fire up old Melville, who is sometimes more admired than read — to reach down and scrape off the Pequod’s barnacles — bring it ashore for a modern day inspection. I am happiest when a reader tells me, as they have, "Now that I have read about Philip and Tdye and Sprakie and Old Charlotte, I think I’ll pick up Moby Dick again and give it another try." For every chapter in Melville that drones on about the nine hundred shade of the color white, there are others that sing:

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

It’s a fine clear day, mateys, and the dolphins are calling, the gulls leading the way. You only need to be Turning Idolater to see your way clear through this damp, drizzly November.

Edward C. Patterson
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440422109 (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FWZ92Q (Kindle)

The Jade Owl is Now Available at Amazon.com

The Jade Owl, the 1st Installment of The Jade Owl Legacy Series, is now available in paperback (on the Kindle also).

Description: "In China they whisper about the Jade Owl and its awful power. This ancient stone, commissioned by the Empress Wu and crafted by a mineral charmer, long haunted the folk of the Middle Kingdom until it vanished into an enigma of legend and lore. Now the Jade Owl is found. It wakes to steal the day from day. Its power to enchant and distort rises again. Its horror is revealed to a band of five, who must return it to the Valley of the Dead before the laws of ch’i are set aside in favor of destruction’s dance. Five China Hands, each drawn through time’s thin fabric by the bird, discover enchantment on the secret garland. Five China Hands, and one holds the key to the world’s fate. Five China Hands. Only one Jade Owl - but it’s awake and in China, they whisper again. Professor Rowden Gray has come to San Francisco following a new opportunity at the East Asian Arts and Culture Museum, only to find that the opportunity has evaporated. Desperate, he means to end his career in a muddle of pity and Scotch, but then things happen. He latches on to a fascinating young man who is pursuing a lost relic that Professor Gray has in fact been seeking. Be careful for what you seek - you may just find it. Thus begins a journey that takes the professor and his companions on a spirited adventure across three-thousand miles of Chinese culture and mystery - a quest to fulfill a warrant long set out to ignite the world in myth and legend. The Jade Owl is the beginning of a series - a legacy that fulfills a terrible truth; and in China, they whisper again."

An Early review: "Brilliantly written fantasy for people who don't read fantasy"5 stars Review By L. Cone "reconexegete" (Philadelphia, PA USA)

"Sinologist Rowden Gray, reeling from his failure to get a San Francisco museum post, falls in with a seemingly unlikely group of people bent upon achieving a strange coition of sorts of Chinese objets d'art. After taking up with one of the scions of his prolific (in more ways than one) intellectual mentor, John Battle, he joins a one-eyed Native American artist, a Chinese-American martial arts expert, and the scion's faithful drag-queen lover, as they embark on a wild chase to reach their objective. Much of the action takes place in a lovingly-described China. This is fantasy for people who don't read fantasy, adventure for those who avoid adventure books. The little bits of surrealism are a seasoning for the great writing, rather than a substitute for it, as is often the case in so many works of this type. A very enjoyable book."

Enjoy this one, my dear readers.Edward C. Patterson

Three Links that Could Change Your Writing Life

Simply put, the world of Publishing is radically changing (has changed). Publishers cannot provide the services to authors that they once could. After 7 published books on Amazon.com in under a year and almost $1,200.00 in physical sales e-Book and Paperback and at $0 cost, I offer my fellow bloggers -

THREE LINKS THAT COULD CHANGE YOUR WRITING LIFE

Digitalpublications (Amazon.com)
http://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin

CreateSpace (an Amazon company)
http://www.createspace.com/

Amazon Forum:Have You Published a Book on the Kindle - Tell Us About It - Amazon Forum (some 6,000 posts from nearly 200 participants)
http://www.amazon.com/Have-you-published-book-Kindle/forum/FxBVKST06PWP9B/Tx3IZAKD22TKOQ0/1/ref=cm_cd_dp_tft_tp?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B000FI73MA&store=fiona-hardware

If the first 2 links mystify, go to the third and wallow in the world of the Indie-Author and . . . find some courage and get some readers - real readers.

Edward C. Patterson
Paperback
Turning Idolater http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440422109Bobby's Trace http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893960Cutting the Cheese http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893847No Irish Need Apply http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893952The Closet Clandestine http://www.amazon.com/dp/1438220502Come,Wewoka http://www.amazon.com/dp/1438227639/Surviving an American Gulag http://www.amazon.com/dp/1438247230
Kindle
Turning Idolater http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Idolater/dp/B001FWZ92Q/Cutting the Cheese http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010K2ER6Bobby's Trace http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00150Z5HCNo Irish Need Apply http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012NOW44The Closet Clandestine http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018V3WBOCome, Wewoka http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001A7HMT4Surviving an American Gulag http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BOST1G

Distributive Characterization – Luke Oliver Manifested

There are many ways to develop a character, the most accepted, through the heroic arc, where the protagonist journeys and experiences events, people and obstacles. Thus, the protagonist grows. Another way is through stunted fermentation, where the character has grown and is at a frustrating impasse that is never overcome. Finally, there is distributive characterization, a method I use in my ribald comic novel Cutting the Cheese.

In Cutting the Cheese, the protagonist is a newly emerging gay man, Luke Oliver, still clinging to his ideals and somewhat fearful of every step he takes. He is thrust (self-thrusted) into a frolicsome gay envionment where various stages of his possible future development are portrayed by other characters. There is the over-the-top hustler, the pedantic, ambitious playwright, the snobby child psychologist, the nosey busy body, the wealthy sugar daddy, the jousting couple, the nubile gym bunny and the old, jaded queen. Call it the seven ages of gay men, if you will, but the hierarchy of possibility that stretches before Luke Oliver’s feet are like the doors of Bluebeard’s Castle. Luke is alive to them all. That he flees the scene (and not in terror) and survives by dint of his ideals (and the gym bunny), never precludes that he still might become a cloying playwright or steel tushied old art dealer. The only character that he could never become is the bulldog lesbian that drapes herself in cellophane and storms down the spiral staircase. (See previous post : The Case of Bambi Stern).

Distributive characterization does deprive some characters of their anticipated arc, but since they are possibilities and not final realities, it’s an acceptable literary gamble. It also serves comedy better than high drama, because comedy is as ethereal as life, while drama pounds the square pegs into round holes and disregards the sawdust. In fact, Cutting the Cheese, the dicing of sharp-cheddar into distributive pieces is just the thing for tickling the funny bone. It’s not until the cheese platter is dumped into the trashcan that the air clears for serious probing.

Cutting the Cheese http://www.amazon.com/gp/1434893847

Edward C. Patterson

http://www.dancaster.com/

Halloween Read - "M. Night Shyamalen Beware"

Here's a Hallowen read for you
Bobby's Trace
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434893960 (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00150Z5HC(Kindle)

"Do ghosts mourn the living? Perry Chaplin is in mourning for his life partner, Bobby - a time of stress, notwithstanding. The more he drifts, the more he becomes unhinged until he's one room short of a rubber one. "Get a grip, Perry." So he takes his chances on a blind date, which further plunges him along the nightmare highway. He gets an unsought lesson in life-after-death that turns his bereavement into a horrific adventure. Come peek through Perry Chaplin's mysterious window. See what there is to see. Enter Our Lady of Perpetual Grace, where the holy water boils and the confessionals whisper. What lurks in the rectory's attic? What lies beneath the surface of life and death? What comes in Bobby's - in Bobby's trace? Do ghosts mourn the living? Perry Chaplin knows. Will you? "



Do the Dead Mourn the Living? The Case of Bobby's Trace
================================================
Haunting, my novel, Bobby’s Trace, is a most unusual ghost story. Readers have contacted me with questions concerning the title spook, because they have never encountered anything like him before. Traditionally, literary ghosts are either vengeful, ethereal, wise, or desperately trapped. Bobby may have all these attributes, but his most pronounced characteristic is that he is in mourning — mourning for his lover and for his life. While he is the antagonist to Perry Chaplin’s stressed-out protagonist, Bobby is also a protagonist, trying to figure out the new world that has engulfed him.

As a fantasy writer, I realize that our task is to create parallel worlds, but with Bobby’s Trace, it is the trace that concerns us — the wake he creates as he tries to pass into the next world. We see this world only through Perry’s presence. He channel’s it, a doorway that opens only through him. Perry has wandered into a crack between life and death and is as confused as Bobby.

However, while Perry is trying desperately to get on with his life, nothing can nudge Bobby onward to his death — well, not nothing, but no spoilers here. Writing about death and mourning is a writer’s preoccupation. Most writers do it. Even J. K. Rowling’s landmark heptology, Harry Potter, has death as its principle theme. Mourning is something I know about, but I wondered whether the dead mourn the living. Is there a reciprocation between the worlds — a Taoist balance, a feng-shui between life and death. To this I added the notion that a ghost’s mourning is fed by the level of a beloved’s mourning — a lover’s desperate holdfast. Denial on its pinnacle. Of course, to turn this clinical discussion into a novel that touches the heart is another task altogether. Balancing pace in this short work depends on mutual themes — deception, renewal and sleight of hand. Still, I am pleased that so many readers have seen fit to express themselves to me by mail and in reviews that Bobby’s eyes still haunt them beyond the last page."

What Readers say about Bobby's Trace
===============================


"A subtle and wry humor never detracts from the intensity of the characterizations, which rather unfold like the peeling of an onion to reveal unnexpected layers and depths."


"I highly recommend Bobby's Trace and look forward to reading Mr. Patterson's other material."


"Bobby's Trace is a hauntingly beautiful exposition of one man's failing sanity in the face of prolonged grief. Touching and terribly heart wrenching. M. Night Shyamalan Beware."


"WOW ! Well, I'm glad I stumbled across this little treasure!"


"Impressive. Mr. Patterson has mastered the challenge of bringing his characters to life. I had no difficulty visualizing the characters and events, which allows the reader to forget they are reading a book."

"When I finished the book, I was tempted to re-read it just to experience it all over again. This was a great book, a joy to read, and one I'll want to visit again."

"Bobby's Trace is a combination of ghost-story, love-story and mystery novel, held together with the author's trademark black humour. At times bizarre and terrifying yet also beautifully uplifting, Edward C Patterson has crafted a literary jewel."

" . . . fast paced and I couldn't stop reading. Great twist at the end. I never suspected a thing!!"

Amazon Rating: 4 and 1/2 stars (9 reviews - full reviews on site or at http://www.dancaster.com/)

Come read Bobby's Trace
==================


Grab some popcorn, turn on your itty-bitty reading lamps and spook-up your Halloween reading.

Edward C. Patterson, "M. Night Shyamalan Beware."

The Jade Owl is Coming in November and In China, They Whisper Again

After eight years in the making, the first book of The Jade Owl Legacy Series, simply The Jade Owl, will be released for publication on or about the first week in November. Early readers have received this work with enthusiasm, so I look forward to see this fantasy/adventure in full flight. Here's the descriptive blurb:

"In China they whisper about the Jade Owl and its awful power. This ancient stone, commissioned by the Empress Wu and crafted by a mineral charmer, long haunted the folk of the Middle Kingdom until it vanished into an enigma of legend and lore. Now the Jade Owl is found. It wakes to steal the day from day. Its power to enchant and distort rises again. Its horror is revealed to a band of five, who must return it to the Valley of the Dead before the laws of ch’i are set aside in favor of destruction’s dance. Five China Hands, each drawn through time’s thin fabric by the bird, discover enchantment on the secret garland. Five China Hands, and one holds the key to the world’s fate. Five China Hands. Only one Jade Owl — but it’s awake and in China they whisper again.

Professor Rowden Gray has come to San Francisco following a new opportunity at the East Asian Arts and Culture Museum, only to find that the opportunity has evaporated. Desperate, he means to end his career in a muddle of pity and Scotch, but then things happen. He latches on to a fascinating young man who is pursuing a lost relic that Professor Gray has in fact been seeking. Be careful for what you seek — you may just find it. Thus begins a journey that takes the professor and his companions on a spirited adventure across three-thousand miles Chinese culture and mystery — a quest to fulfill a warrant long set out to ignite the world in myth and legend. The Jade Owl is the beginning of a series — a legacy that fulfills a terrible truth; and in China they whisper again."


So mark your calendars, and get set to join the Professor and his eclectic team of adventurers in their quest to solve the enigma of The Jade Owl.


Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative

The Mystery of Mystery Writing - Whodunit and Turning Idolater

Since my novel Turning Idolater showed up on Amazon.com, I have had readers ask me whether it is more difficult to write a whodunit mystery or a run of the mill novel. My answer to that is easy. If the novel is run of the mill, it’s a cinch to write. I don’t believe I can write such novels. A mystery like Turning Idolater or the forthcoming The Jade Owl (which fits better into the fantasy genre) requires forethought that is more logical. I like to engage the reader by putting clues right under their noses, and then write around them so they miss them completely. (The clues, not their noses). This misdirection is fun for a writer and comes easily to me, but I must admit, to make it all work — to make it so that the reader is completely taken off guard, both mentally and emotionally at the end, takes sleight of hand. I love it when a reader tells me they re-read Bobby’s Trace to track the clues they missed on the first read.

Turning Idolater is an unusual mystery. The underlying glue is that nineteenth century classic, Moby Dick. The sea gushes through the work. The problem with Melville, however, is that his work is ponderous, while his themes transcend the page with simple truths. Therefore, I attempted (and hopefully succeeded) in extracting the themes, overlaying them with a Dickensian story set in modern times — a May-December gay romance between an inspired writer and a precocious Internet stripper. I have looked deep into my own experiences as a gay man and placed emphasis on the ripening relationship between these two men and the perils that befall them, much like the crew of the Pequod captained by an obsessive old thumper determined to destroy the swimming eye of God. Now, that would be a tall tale to write, except it is a murder mystery. The difficulty in any work is not its genre, but the development of the characters. In Turning Idolater’s case, we have four contrapuntal forces — a symphony of souls and, like any opus in sonata allegro form, these elements struggle to resolve on an engaging canvas — in this case, New York City and Provincetown on Cape Cod. The mystery of Turning Idolater is that it is a mystery at all. My characters stood by my hand as I sailed this vessel over rough seas — through shoal water and down sewers. While the characters try to resolve their issues, I am resolving the dichotomy of Melville and Dickens, of Pip and Ishmael, of Whales and sea gulls. Yet at the heart of it, lies not a tricky, surprising whodunit (that’s engaging), but the sweet story of a young man at sea with himself and his hopes. The resolution of his inner turmoil is inherent. He must strike the compromise, or in Melville’s words, turn idolater to find his way back to shore. Whodunit? I did. Guilty as charged.

Edward C. Patterson
Turning Idolater
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440422109 (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FWZ92Q (Kindle)

The Boy in the Mirror - Kevin Borden in No Irish Need Apply

I have been overwhelmed by the reception of No Irish Need Apply. I guess coming-of-age is something we all do. I dedicated the work to PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays) because it deals with coming-to-terms as well. However, feedback from readers say "it is those boys - those two seventeen year old scamps," that have stolen their hearts. So I offer you a sample of Kevin Borden as he does something that author's are warned against - seeing themselves in the mirror. In this case, who can guess what is reflected?

from No Irish Need Apply

"Kevin shut the taps, and then grabbed a towel, giving his hair a lazy dry. He cracked the bathroom door. “Loud and clear,” he shouted. “I hear you loud and clear.” The rush of cool air from the bedroom gave him a chill. His teeth chattered. He continued drying as he emerged into the bedroom like Apollo on the chase. He spied his rental tux spread out on the bed like a warrior’s battle array. It wasn’t the one Sarah wanted — a deep cherry velvet affair, but a plain black contrivance. Kevin had promised Louis to keep it simple; and simple it was. What wasn’t simple was the next thing he spied as he finished drying off. He saw the boy in the full length mirror — a boy grown to manhood, fashioned like a cross channel swimmer, smooth as leotard and as attractive as . . . well, as Apollo on the chase — only his Daphne would be a similar sight with similar appendages.

Kevin dried his legs slowly, and then worked the terrycloth down to the wisp of hazel hair that graced his groin. Thad’s was golden, he thought. The chill warmed his under parts. He knew that if Louis was here right now, the Prom would have been ditched in favor of the sheets.
Apollo smiled as he thought of his Daphne. He thought he heard the distant hastening of his mother’s voice, but she could cool her jets now. He let the towel drop and messaged his chest and stroked his belly.

“My, my Miss Scarlet,” he drawled in a whisper, “your Rhett Butler’s ready for you tonight. Not bad. Except for this little mishap on the knee, quite perfect I would say. In fact, you’re a hunk, Kevin Borden — quite the macho, macho man. A girl in man’s clothing.”

He sighed, his eyes scanning his full form while reaching for his jockeys. “Shame to cover it up,” he said as he stepped in and pulled the elastic band slowly up his legs and thighs and, after an impish squeeze, tucked his assets into the cup. “I’ll unwrap these later. I’m quite excited by the prospects.” Stag, he thought. How I’d like to march in with Louis on my arm. He’d die. I’d die, but it might be worth it. “To see their faces, their hateful sneers,” he sighed. Stag. He proceeded to the tux shirt with its brace of studs. His fingers worked their magic, the holes plugged with faux diamond caps. He inspected the work. It was impressive, this costume in progress. It was a dry run for the wedding — or the funeral. Now for the pants. They were odd things. They looked like pants — a little wider than his jeans, but they defied staying up, until he discovered the side clamps and the suspenders. These were a chore, but when complete, he looked quite the nineteenth century rascal, he did. He slopped his hands into his pockets and flared.

“Look at the boy,” he said, the smile looking back at him through the glass. “Boy, he’s cookin’ tonight. Why that Alison will be drooling when she sees me. And she’d be jealous of Louis, if she knew.” Stag, he thought. Care. “They’d all be madder than hell.” And if they found out — “They’d better leave us alone.” And if they didn’t? “If they hurt him, I’d kill them. I’d rip their fucking throats out.” He snarled and then went for the socks and shoes.

The socks defined the word hose. They kissed his damp feet with silken elegance. It was a new sensation, like a first peck on the lips, but the shoes — those patent leather clamps, felt like electric prods — exciting and ready to go. “Dancing shoes,” he sang. “We’re gonna strut tonight.” He swayed before the mirror. “Dancing shoes.” He imagined he saw Louis beside him. He closed his eyes and saw a room full of men — men on a dark dance floor, the starlight ball casting a galaxy around sweaty chests and scant bottoms. All that hip-hop — all those bodies, undulating gay love. And there was Louis waving in the sparkling beads. Kevin knew where his dancing shoes were taking him. He knew for sure. He knew it was right. He wanted to live on that dance floor forever. I want to dance there for the rest of my life with Louis.

He danced in front of the mirror to imaginary hip-hop, but he heard the beat and the rhythm. How imaginary could it be? He pressed his body to the mirror as if he danced with another boy. “Feet of flames,” he said, sex dripping from his lips. “Fire. On fire. These dancing shoes’ll take me to my man. Steam. Look at the man in the mirror, boy — ready for his love.” He kissed his image."

Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative

Turning Idolater - A Novel of the Internet Age

I am happy to announce the availability of my new novel, Turning Idolater, a work inspired by the spark of change that we all have within us. Sometimes a mite can move us on a course beyond our control, even through passion and sadness and trevail. For my faithful readers (bless you all) and those who would like to dip their toes in my waters, I have provided the Amazon.com link to both the Paperback and the Kindle editions. This one is one from the heart. Let me embrace you with it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440422109 Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FWZ92Q/ Kindle

Description:

From the author of Surviving an American Gulag comes Turning Idolater.

"Philip Flaxen, who strips past his jockstrap on the Internet for manluv.com, acquires a rare gift — a book that transforms his life. With it, he sparks with a famous author, whittles away at a new craft, swims with an odd circle of new acquaintances and is swept up in mayhem. Philip leaves the world of The Porn Nazi and enters the realm of crisp possibilities - great expectations and dark secrets that unravel over deep waters. Follow this whodunit as Philip Flaxen turns idolater and never looks back — a tale of Internet strippers, backstreet murders, Provincetown glitz, New York City nightlife and a love story for the ages. If you liked No Irish Need Apply and loved Bobby's Trace, you will adore Turning Idolater. Life is filled with serendipity, pleasurable and bracing, but on the fringes and in the heart, life can be a very bloody business. "


Edward C. Patterson
http://www.dancaster.com/

Coming on September 16th - Turning Idolater

I'm proud to announce the upcoming release of my new novel Turning Idolater, a story of intrigue and redemption in the dark recesses of society. Release is scheduled for on or about September 16th in both Kindle and Paperback. Here's the description:

From the author of Surviving an American Gulag comes Turning Idolater.

Philip Flaxen, who strips past his jockstrap on the Internet for manluv.com, acquires a rare gift — a book that transforms his life. With it, he sparks with a famous author, whittles away at a new craft, swims with an odd circle of new acquaintances and is swept up in mayhem. Philip leaves the world of The Porn Nazi and enters the realm of crisp possibilities — great expectations and dark secrets that unravel over deep waters. Follow this whodunit as Philip Flaxen “turns idolater” and never looks back — a tale of Internet strippers, backstreet murders, Provincetown glitz, New York City nightlife and a love story for the ages. If you liked No Irish Need Apply and loved Bobby’s Trace, you will absolutely adore Turning Idolater. Life is filled with serendipity, pleasurable and bracing, but on the fringes and in the heart, Life can be a very bloody business.

Edward C. Patterson
http://www.dancaster.com/

Do the Dead Mourn the Living? The Case of Bobby's Trace

Haunting, my novel, Bobby’s Trace, is a most unusual ghost story. Readers have contacted me with questions concerning the title spook, because they have never encountered anything like him before. Traditionally, literary ghosts are either vengeful, ethereal, wise, or desperately trapped. Bobby may have all these attributes, but his most pronounced characteristic is that he is in mourning — mourning for his lover and for his life. While he is the antagonist to Perry Chaplin’s stressed-out protagonist, Bobby is also a protagonist, trying to figure out the new world that has engulfed him.

As a fantasy writer, I realize that our task is to create parallel worlds, but with Bobby’s Trace, it is the trace that concerns us — the wake he creates as he tries to pass into the next world. We see this world only through Perry’s presence. He channel’s it, a doorway that opens only through him. Perry has wandered into a crack between life and death and is as confused as Bobby. However, while Perry is trying desperately to get on with his life, nothing can nudge Bobby onward to his death — well, not nothing, but no spoilers here.

Writing about death and mourning is a writer’s preoccupation. Most writers do it. Even J. K. Rowling’s landmark heptology, Harry Potter, has death as its principle theme. Mourning is something I know about, but I wondered whether the dead mourn the living. Is there a reciprocation between the worlds — a Taoist balance, a feng-shui between life and death. To this I added the notion that a ghost’s mourning is fed by the level of a beloved’s mourning — a lover’s desperate holdfast. Denial on its pinnacle. Of course, to turn this clinical discussion into a novel that touches the heart is another task altogether. Balancing pace in this short work depends on mutual themes — deception, renewal and sleight of hand. Still, I am pleased that so many readers have seen fit to express themselves to me by mail and in reviews that Bobby’s eyes still haunt them beyond the last page.

Edward C. Patterson

First On-line Book Signing a Success

I want to thank my readers and all those who came to the first-ever On-line Book Signing and Reading of my novel Surviving an American Gulag on August 24th and the encore on August 26th. A complete review of the event can be read at the following link - http://bddesignonline.com/Press/wordpress/

Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative

Edward C. Patterson To Hold First Ever Digital Book Signing Event This Weekend

Edward C. Patterson To Hold First Ever Digital Book Signing Event This Weekend

Author Edward C. Patterson will hold what is believed to be the first ever digital book signing event this Sunday at GotoMeeting.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 21, 2008 – “Surviving an American Gulag” by Edward C. Patterson will hold the first ever On-line Book Reading and Signing on Sunday August 24, 2008 from 2:00pm – 2:30pm EST. Mr. Patterson is believed to be the first Author to hold an on-line book signing. After a live introduction and short interview, Mr. Patterson will read an excerpt from his seventh novel, “Surviving an American Gulag.” It is a story the military would prefer to remain lost.
complete Press Release

Invitation to On-line Book Signing and Reading

Invitation to all for an On-line Book Signing and Reading

Next Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008 from 2:00pm - 2:30pm EST

Surviving an American Gulag by Edward C. Patterson will be spotlighted in a new Webinar e-book reading and signing.

Go to the following link to reserve your space at the webinar meeting:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/517031490

Please come and join us for an interview and reading from this author. Questions and answers will be available through live chat or VOIP or telephone connections.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Self-based Protagonists - Truth vs. Dare

In a recent BLOG, a question was raised concerning writing novels based on an author’s direct experience. The crux of the matter was whether an author could remain objective while presenting situations that they had personally lived through. Would an author gloss over darker detailed to obscure their own warts, dimming the truth by shining it up? On that BLOG, I gave a cursory answer that needs elaboration in light of my own direct-experience novel — Surviving an American Gulag.

Early drafts of Gulag were written in the first person, and although I assumed the name of Winslow Gibbs, I set out to express my thoughts directly to the reader through terse narrative — a narrative that I must admit was biased with a gay agenda. This is a case where the author has an axe to grind and does it at the expense of the reader’s enjoyment (it is a novel after all) and an overlay of themes that dull the senses to any compromise or rebuttal. I was marching through Georgia like Sherman, burning the world with my own opinions. I thought I was being objective. I presented myself as a fat slug, who went through an Army hell to survive, but in the end, I lost objectivity — that objectivity being the truth of novel authoring, which is to bend the truth for the sake of characterization and the reader’s pleasure.

In the case of Surviving an American Gulag, I decided to recast the work in the 3rd person and draw the self-based protagonist — Winslow Gibbs, as any character that emerges from my pen. As a result, Winslow observes and experiences far more than I ever did, and without all the gay preaching. "It is what it is." The work is about surviving, not victimization. It presents basic hurdles that all young American men need to face — questions of sexuality, patriotism, loyalty, companionship, and peer pressure. In the 3rd person, I found warts I never knew I had until now — forty years after the fact.

Ultimately, an author needs to distance themselves from personal experience to engage the reader. In my opinion, the creative process is hampered when the author develops a character from the inside out. I must enjoy my characters and the situations that beset them. If I can’t enjoy the landscape, how can I expect my reader to sign on for a really good read? As Private Avila says: "There are white lies, black lies and pink lies." Well, there’s a fourth lie — a highly crafted, premeditated one. It’s called — a novel. Happy reading.
Edward C. Patterson

visit me at Dancaster Creative

The Case of Bambi Stern - Real vs. Stereotype

Lately, there has been some discussion on the character of Bambi Stern in my novel Cutting the Cheese. Bambi is a hefty Lesbian, who smokes cigars, wears a man's suit and fedora, and is motivated by cocktail weenies. She is also the president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists of New Birch and Sipsboro. The character has caused some anxiety (not to say, resentment) in some quarters of the Gay Community. Of course, the novel is my "bad boy" work, which goes out of its way to highlight many of the more outrageous foibles found in the Gay Social order. Without doubt, the various characters are based on people I met when I first emerged from the closet. The community, being mapless otherwise, has created its own clue set for any newbie on the scene, who would need a pink compass for navigation otherwise. So, while some characters like Kelly Rodriguez, the snippy hustler or the even cringing Paddy can be received with wicked laughter, when some confront Bambi Stern, the portrayal cuts just too close to the bone. Harumph. Stereotypes. Truth be told, of all the characters in Cutting the Cheese, Bambi Stern is closest to the real life Lesbian she is based upon.

When I first came out of the closet and took up the mantle of Gay Activism, I was set to my first important task - cutting blocks of cheese into small cubes to be served at an executive board meeting. It was an important task, because it tapped into the heart of gossip and provided my first glimpse into the nelly, campy world. It scared the bejeebers out of me. Then I was comfronted by the president of the group, who roared with her bull-moose voice, slapped all the fairy backs and was famous for having made an entrance at a fabled party by strutting down a staircase wrapped in naught but cellophane. If I left Bambi Stern out of Cutting the Cheese, I might as well scrapped the book. Of course, while most readers find outrageous humor by looking in the mirror, some do not, and had even suggested I withdraw the work from review. One reviewer stated (code) "there were issues with this story that took away from my complete enjoyment." Such reaction only encourages me to step up to the plate and dish out some more. Thin skins beware.

The question here is "what is a stereotype?" I often wonder about this. Is a stereotype a cruel set of crude and rude attributes grafted on scapegoats to make them bigger targets, or are they a collection of traits that communities adopt for identity? It's a fine line, but having caroused at Gay Activist meetings and at the general mayhem of a Gay Pride celebration, my observations record that members of the gay community tend to slip into camp whenever they feel the need. It's the yellow brick road to our own private OZ. Therefore, Bambi Stern and her Edward G. Robinson cigar manner is a living, breathing reminder to my gay friends (and enemies) that we haven't cornered the market on self-righteousness. We need to be proud of identities no matter how much cellophane we wear. 'Nuff said? Not nearly.

Edward C. Patterson

In the Works - Turning Idolater (a Snippet)

For my readers (and, of course, potential readers), I am hard at work on my next offering - Turning Idolater, a mystery novel inspired by Melville's Moby Dick about Gay Internet Twink Strippers and . . . well, there hangs a tale. However, let me share a pargraph from the opening of Chapter Four, where I describe (or rather intone) Greenwich Village at night so you may get the flavor of this stew.

"The early spring chill clung to the evening soul of the East Village, much like a cold harbor waiting for its crew to ring the night bell and slurry out to sea. Never slumbering, the crisscrossed lanes and by-ways sang the song of the alive and the free; of the adrift and the wandering. These were the carols awake and acceptable, no map needed to understand the tidal pull; no liturgy wanted to keep us holy and safe from shoals. Here unfurled art and tangents, fostering fireworks and introspection in the same flare - a place in the sun at midnight, where no clock holds our course to the hour, the month or the year. Only the barkeeps and drag queens parry regulation, keeping such lore under lock and key - hymnals emblematic to sailors holding hands in their hammocks strung by night, never slumbering to the buzz-saw snoring liturgy held fast within the barkeep's ring."

- Turning Idolater

Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative

Surviving an American Gulag - Deep, Dark Secrets

Just why I want to promote or even sell a book that holds some of my deepest, darkest secrets - things that I thought would be interred with my bones, is beyond my understanding. Still, the army experience of a gay man in 1967 is too important to shut away and be lost. Surviving an American Gulag was originally penned as a play in 2000 - a rather curious drama with moving sets and a limited cast. When I approached the material as a novel, I immediately found that I wasn't telling my own story, but fostering a point of view. The first draft was in the 1st person and began with a harangue against the military and five yards of gays in the military history. After several false starts at revision, I decided to get out of the way of my own story, cut the preachy crap and just delve into the deepest pit of recollection. I remembered many more souls - lost ones, and many other incidents. The result was satisfactory to me. So much so, I should have burned it as a catalystic excercise - the kind you expunge to lose weight or to stop bed-wetting. Then I thought about the lack of work revealing just how the military handled its "gay problem," before they opted for that lame don't ask, don't tell business. The publication matter was settled. No matter how poorly you judge me as a person after reading Surviving an American Gulag, the record will stand and no one can ever sweep it under the rug or back to the grave where I had intended it.

Edward C. Patterson