Book Review: MY MOVIE by David Pratt

Reviewer: Alan Chin

Publisher: Chelsea Station Editions

Pages: 220

David Pratt—who won a Lambda Literary Award for his delightful novel, Bob The Book—has published this anthology of fourteen short stories. Many of these stories have appeared in periodicals and other anthologies over the years, and the lion’s share of these tales feature young gay men coming to terms with being queer, which makes My Movie a look back on our own past of learning to deal with love and lust and isolation.

As with most anthologies I’ve read, I connected with several of these stories and didn’t connect with others, but each story carries Pratt’s unique voice and is pushed over the top by his superb imagination. The reader never really knows what will happen next, nor how far to extremes the story will take them.

Some of my favorites in this collection are: “Calvin Gets Sucked In,” where the hero who loves porn gets swept into a porn flick, only to realize the fictitious life in the movies is not all it’s cracked up to be, or is it?; and “One Bedroom,” about a young man who’s first sexual experience is answering an ad that says “Use My Face For A Toilet”; and “Ulmus Americana,” the tale of a long-term relationship between two trees in a city park; and best of all “The Addict,” where a guy takes a beautiful man home for sex, but the trick is too strung out on drugs.  

The author writes about love between men, and the yearning, loss, and loneliness that brings. These are not happy stories, but the author does use his distinctive brand of humor in the telling. He writes with unyielding perception with a precise, controlled voice.

Pratt has an amazing attention for detail, which is always a blessing and sometimes a curse—blessing because it brings each story to vivid life, a curse because some stories occasionally drag the reader down, like wading through quicksand.

My Movie showcases the versatility of David Pratt, confirming that he is an important voice in LGBT literature. I can recommend My Movie to all readers.


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Alan Chin interviews historian/author Edward C. Patterson

I recently reviewed the latest book from Edward C. Patterson. I was so impressed with this story, Swan Cloud, that I asked Mr. Patterson for an interview. The following is what came from that exchange.


Q: When did you start writing and how many novels have you published?
I began writing at age 9 (1956) and haven’t stopped since, although it has been a journey distracted by diverse interests. I began writing after my grandmother gave me a typewriter (an old Underwood upright) and I scribbled my first novel, a camping saga, (more a short story than novel in length, but to a youngster, anything beyond an essay is epic). It was dribble, but in it was the born the most important gift of authoring — imagination. I currently have nineteen published works, fourteen of which are novels. I have twelve works in progress. My books come from my personal experience — Chinese cultural history, gay and lesbian community themes and military life.

Q: Was there someone in your family, a teacher, or perhaps a favorite book, that inspired you to begin writing?

My mother was an avid Pearl S. Buck fan and nudged my reading in that direction. It’s no accident that I managed to earn a Master’s degree and a doctoral tract in Chinese History (Sinology). However, fantasy was the spark. I read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in my first year in High School (1960) and reread the trilogy every year until 2004, when Stephen King’s Dark Tower series replaced that ritual.

Q: Who are the authors who most influence you today?

I was weaned on the great authors, learning my craft at Dickens’ knee. However, I’m an avid student of Melville, Hardy, Austen and King. Perhaps the most influential author is the playwright-librettist W. S. Gilbert. He showed me that, in addition to the sonority of language, I needed to engage readers with humor, because when a reader can laugh in midst of terror, they can survive to read another book.

Q: What’s the strangest source of inspiration you’ve found for a story?

I have reached out to many strange sources, but perhaps the most bizarre was the Brothers Grimm, snatching snippets from their fantasy world and mashing it up to my autobiographical Army experience in Germany during the Cold War. The result, The Road to Grafenwöhr, is a blend of waking dream and historic reality, which my readers have embraced favorably.

Q: You recently published the third book in your Southern Swallow Series. Can you tell us a bit about Swan Cloud, and the other Southern Swallow books? 

The Southern Swallow Series was born thirty-seven years ago when I published my Master’s dissertation, The Restoration of the Southern Sung Dynasty – The Reign of the Emperor Kao-tsung – 1127-1163. The material fascinated me and I thought that it should be more accessible. Therefore, I developed the protagonist Li K’ai-men, a scholar-official as a vehicle to recount the period as historic fiction. The material has been through several iterations ending as a series of five plays under the title Nan Ya (Southern Swallow), which was narrated by Li K’ai-men’s devilish manservant, K’u Ko-ling. The final iteration (the published series — The Academician, The Nan Tu and Swan Cloud, with The House of Green Waters and Vagrants Hollow still to come) incorporated the background elements for my epic novels series The Jade Owl. With that mythical bird and the apocalyptic tie to the 21^st Century, I believe the relevance of 12^th Century China strikes a human chord with my readers.
Swan Cloud details a famous event in Chinese History, the trial and mysterious demise of General Yueh Fei (Yo Fei), an act which condemned an otherwise worthy regime to centuries of criticism. Yueh Fei has since become the Chinese God of War, so when you rub out a God, you’re bound to be proscribed. In Swan Cloud, I explore the world of Sung (Song) Dynasty politics, which had earmarks of modernity and continue to showcase some characters from the important Chinese novel, Outlaws of the Marsh lending insight to rural life apart from the court.

Q: You combine Chinese history, magic jade owls, and interesting characters in the Southern Swallow series. What was your inspiration for creating this expansive work?

The Jade Owl series (The Jade Owl, The Third Peregrination, The Dragon’s Pool, The People’s Treasure and In the Shadow of Her Hem) is an epic fantasy series combining Chinese historical and cultural elements with life in the modern Pacific Rim (China and San Francisco, to be specific, where most of the action is set). That the entire cast of The Southern Swallow Series shows up in these novels is more than cross-pollination. I’ve always felt that history transcends time and novels, as objects, are time portals. Life is one vast museum. I’m a fantasy author and, as such, create worlds, but worlds must resonate from characters and characters must come from a filtered source — that source would be my mind and my reader’s imagination. As for the size and scope of these ten novels, they grew as all things grow — one lie after another and a need to perpetuate the fiction for as far as credibility’s fabric will allow.

Q: You choose to self publish your books, and have even written a guide to self-publishing. Why do you feel that is better than working with a traditional publisher?

I have nothing against traditional publishing — in fact, the independent author assumes all elements of traditional publishing. The traditional houses gauge the market and profitability (some say, poorly). Self-publishers can do that also, but with the recent accessibility to publishing tools, both e-book and paper, and ready sources of distribution, an author can make a statement directly to their readers. It takes dedication to author, regardless how you get your work into the hands of readers. I came to self-publishing not out of desperation, but because it was an avenue beckoning me to circulate. I made my fifty-year time investment. It’s time for readers to make a their investment — time that is, and that’s all I can ask.

Q: So, if you don’t mind sharing, would you tell us about your latest work in progress?

My next book out is the last book of The Jade Owl series (Book V – In the Shadow of Her Hem), the exciting climax to the series. However, I have two works immediately in progress — first, a collection of poetry dedicated to the men and women who fought in the WWII, in the Pacific theater, entitled Pacific Crimson – Forget Me Not. I've written 110 full-length poems from the warrior’s perspective, in their voice and tied to specific places and dates during the Pacific War. The second is the first book in a new Sci-Fi fantasy series called Belmundus concerning a young Hollywood actor who is collected by a succubus and kidnapped to a dystopian world ruled by Magi, evil overlords. They rule an underclass whose culture I based on the history of my people, the Cherokee. I’ve been writing this one on and off for eight years. It’s time to unleash it on the world.

Q: If you could offer one tidbit of advice for new writers, what would it be?

Advice? I’m full of that, but I would suggest that new writers decide whether they are going to write or to author. Writing is just one tool in an author’s arsenal. Ask yourself whether you have an affinity to language’s inner sonority, and whether you have the fortitude to destroy most of what you author. Only the best for your readers, and in that, only what serves a relentlessly engaging story. This is the first test for a new writer. Then, and only then, will you be able to walk into that ZONE where your imagination hatches the creatures we see in the throws of the first draft. If you are writing for fame and fortune — try becoming the Iron Chef. Fame and fortune are fine, but finding the positive aspects of a well-formed sentence is a surer goal. Fate dictates the rest.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Reading. I’m also an Opera Queen, both on DVD and live. I sing. I love to travel, but haven’t taken many trips in the last few years. However, I have fond memories of Europe, China and most of the US (hundreds of business trips). I have a voice as a veteran and a gay activist.

Q: Do you enjoy writing, I mean, do you find it fun?

Nothing gives me more joy than authoring. The only part of the process that’s an effort is chasing editing issues. My editor is great at catching most everything, but like most authors, I worry over every damn comma. Other than that, authoring runs in my veins, and when it doesn’t, I’ll evaporate. Poof.

Q: Can you tell us something about the place you call home?

Home is a hard place to describe. I was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived most of my mature years (30 onward) in New Jersey, but now I live the happy life as a gay bachelor in the wilds of Allentown, PA. I moved here following my high-powered marketing job, which disappeared. Now, I work at the same place, but enjoy it at a reduced wage, which lowered my blood pressure and allowed me the time to publish. My home, of course, is with my parents, who recently passed away, so home is in my heart where they’ve taken up permanent residence.

Thank you, Edward Patterson. I enjoyed our exchange as well as your book.

You can find out more about Mr. Patterson and his books at http://www.dancaster.com/

Writing Tip #9: The Three Act Structure

Last week I wrote about Plotting. Plotting and structure go hand in hand. You generally determine both once you define your theme, what the story is “about.” Whatever your theme is, the hero needs to deal with it at the end. His character growth is tied into that theme. It’s the foundation of the story.

Here’s a great description of story, from Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith:
“A sympathetic lead character finds himself in trouble of some kind and makes active efforts to get himself out of it. Each effort, however, merely gets him deeper into his trouble, and each new obstacle in his path is larger than the last. Finally, when things look blackest and it seems certain the lead character is finished, he manages to get out of his trouble through his own efforts, intelligence, or ingenuity.” [or in some cases, like Romeo and Juliet, he dies trying.]

It sounds too simple, and yet nearly all the movies and novels produced today follow this story line. Makes no difference if your talking about vampires or space aliens or Shakespeare. In fact, looking at this year’s Oscar nominations, both Hurt Locker and Avatar both apply this perfectly.

But what of this thing called a three act structure? You simple lay the above story line over a framework that has three basic parts – setup, body, resolution. Lets dissect this further. The following is a set of turning points within a three act structure:

Act I
Opening Scene: The opening scene usually has two functions: to introduce the protagonist and hook the reader. It often introduces other characters, and perhaps even hints at the theme.
Inciting Incident: This is the place where you introduce the problem that the protagonist will be dealing with. It sets up a situation where the protag is faced with a choice whether to deal with the problem or walk away.
Hammer: This is the compelling incident that makes the protag decide to solve the problem. From here on out, s/he’s caught up until the problem is solved.
Armature into act II: Once the protag decides to act, s/he sets a series of events in play – events that will blossom in Act 2.

Act II
Act II begins: Where as Act I sets up the conflict, Act II lets the conflict play its course, growing larger and more sharp. This is where the protag struggles to solve the problem, yet each effort creates a larger problem.
Midpoint: Stories, as well as characters, have an arc. The midpoint is when the story changes polarity. Many stories, from the protags point of view, move from positive to tragic. For example: Romeo goes to a party, see the girl of his dreams, woos her, and finally marries her. All positive. But at Midpoint, he fights and kills Tibalt. It’s all down hill from there. Now the lovers are parted, Romeo is banished, Juliet is promised to another, and in the end they both die. So it was positive unit midpoint, then all negative.
Other stories start off with the protag in serious trouble and it gets much worse for them until the midpoint, then things begin to get better, and finally end with the hero prevailing. Again, the midpoint is where the polarity changes. And at least for most screenplays, it actually happens pretty close to halfway through the story.
Armature into act III: The conflict between the protag and the antag continues to grow. This is the point just before the darkest moments. If the hero wins in the end, this is a place where s/he has a false victory. That is, they think they’re home free (but in Act 3 they have the rug pulled out from under them.) It is the lead into the final crisis.

Act III
Crisis: This is the place where the Hero is turned on his/her head. It looked like s/he was going to win, then they the rug was pulled out from them and it now looks like they are done for.
Climax: At this point in the story, when things look darkest for the hero, s/he uses his/her own efforts, intelligence, compassion or ingenuity to solve the problem and overcome the antagonist.
Resolution: The protag solves the problem and this is where s/he sees the fruits of that solution.

Of course, there are different variations on this particular structure. But you’d be surprised how many stories follow it to a T. Hopefully, I’ve explained it well enough for you to understand each turning point. It’s an interesting exercise to watch a moving, stopping it to consider how closely if falls into this structure.

Victor Banis Reviews Simple Treasures by Alan Chin

Reviewer: Victor Banis
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 136


Only the mediocre artist is always at his best – this is why we rightly judge an artist on the body of his work rather than on a single sample – we may just have gotten the wrong sample, that particular book when the writer’s aim surpassed his reach. It happens, but only to the true artist.

I’m happy to say that this time the goal was not beyond the artist’s reach. Simple Treasures couldn’t be a more fitting title for this offering from one of the best writers in the arena today, Alan Chin – because this is indeed a treasure, though writing this good is never really as simple as it looks. Here, as in his best work (but no, of course, not every time) the author goes beyond the confines of writing and enters the realm of art, and his genre is made the richer for it. As both a writer and a reader, I came away from this tale feeling that my experience—of life, of literature - had been greatly enhanced.

The title character, Simple, is a Shoshone. He has just been released from a mental hospital, where he has been abused essentially for the crime of being different. He is offered a job by Lance Bishop in the town of Saint George, Utah. Bishop’s father, Emmett, is an irascible drunk who has driven away every other caregiver – but in fact, Lance wants his father kept drunk. He plans to have his father committed and take control of the ranch, which he means to sell to developers. At first, Emmett rejects Simple’s overtures as well, but he soon recognizes a kindred spirit. There is a romance, too, between Simple and Emmett’s gothic-gay grandson, Jude.

Emmett is dying of cancer, and the ever present vultures roosting atop the barn provide a Greek-chorus reminder of imminent death. It was his wife’s death that sent Emmett into this long, downward spiral of grief and self-pity. Simple’s memory is dead, too—or as he himself explains it, his memory gets flushed clean each night. And Lance is dead to the pleasures of life or the soul. Even Jude is infected, convinced that for him there is no Life for him here, in this town--that Life exists elsewhere, in San Francisco to which he plans to escape.

But that is only the story as told by the words. The real story is written between the lines, and it is about nothing less than the encroachment of death, and the reaffirming of life, through love, through dignity, and the oneness of all existence. A man becomes a memory, a falcon becomes a man, and love bridges the illusory abyss that separates us one from the other. And how magically the author weaves his story, painting indelible pictures from nothing more, it seems, than mere wisps of smoke.

Deep in the human body—yours, mine, everybody’s—there is just one soul that we all share, as if we’re just tiny pieces of the same puzzle…That’s why we’re here in the first place, to make our sliver of the soul shine like the sun.

Chin doesn’t write erotica, but it would be a colder heart than mine that wouldn’t melt sharing Jude and Simple’s “first date” – fishing in Bitter Creek.

Simple’s pole jerked toward the water. “Jesus, I’ve got one.” He hauled the pole back to set the hook.
“Give him line,” Jude said. “Play him.”
Simple leaned out over the water, retrieving line.
With a wicked giggle, Jude shoved Simple, who tumbled into the water and was swept downstream, still holding the rod high over the water. Laughing, Jude ripped off his hat and boots and flung himself into the water. He was swept along, fighting his way toward Simple.
They met in the swirling water and pumped their legs until they stood in the shallows. They shared a sensual hug and kiss. When they broke apart, Simple held up a trout…

Simple sets out to help Emmett transcend his looming death by restoring his dignity and by transferring his spirit into the body of a falcon, and the story climaxes in a stunning ceremony in which man and falcon battle for supremacy while Simple dances and chants himself into an exhausted stupor.

Simple began to dance again. His feet stomped the ground with the same rhythm that Emmett had pounded out with his cane. He chanted and his voice grew in volume…the wind died. Everything went silent—even the crickets hushed—as if the universe were holding its breath. A minute later, the bird shrieked. In the distance, the sound of the wind drifting through the trees grew into a steady pulse, like the slow beating of a heart.

This is a stunningly beautiful literary effort. In the end, I cannot tell you if the story is a good or a bad one – those are intellectual considerations, but this is not a story told from or to the intellect, it is told from the heart. As Simple tells the old man, Some things can’t be talked about. Words only confuse it.

Is National Geographic Batty, or is it just me?

Last night, I watched a nature series on the National Geographic channel, which is strange because I seldom watch any commercial television. The program focused on deserts of the American South West, and since that is where I live, I thought it would be interesting to see what happens outside my back door.

Like all nature programs, they showed a plethora of magnificent landscapes and fascinating creatures that crawl, slither, run and fly over this planet we call home. And like all nature programs that I have enjoyed, I was awed by the splendor of this rich environment.  No surprise there.

But one fact they mentioned stuck in my head, and I haven’t been able to shake it. They stated that nightly, twenty million bats fly out of caves in the South West, and fly up to two hundred miles scarfing up a hundred tons of insects.

For me, those numbers are mind-boggling. I was first struck by the claim that a bat can fly hundreds of miles in a single night, I mean, it takes me three hours to drive that on a highway doing 70, so these bats must be doing twenty-five miles per hour. Gives new meaning to the term: bat out of hell.

Then I began to consider that stat of them consuming a hundred tons of insects per night. Do insects truly breed so rapidly that they can replenish what amounts to a hundred tons per day without being wiped out? That’s over thirty-six thousand tons a year—seventy-five million pounds—and that’s only in the deserts. How can that be?

Then I began to imagine what the world would be like if bats were wiped out, like so many other species. There would be so many insects flying about that it would look like those old movies about locust storms gobbling up crops and anything green. Who knew bats were critical to our comfort and survival?

These numbers keep drifting through my mind, to the point where I think I should stop watching nature programs. This old world is simply to much to comprehend, but how thrilling to live in such a place.

Book Review: Deconstructing Tyrone by Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore

Reviewer: Alan Chin

Publisher: Cleis Press

Pages: 246

In Deconstructing Tyrone, two black journalists examine black masculinity in the hip-hop generation from a variety of perspectives. With chapters on black men in politics (Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick), on the relationship between the misogynist hip-hop culture and women, on how gay men fit into the black masculinity picture, on babydaddies, on gay black men on the “down low,” and black men in the office, at school, and in jail, this book presents a multifaceted picture of American black men today.

I confess I know little about the black experience today, and I found this book to be both illuminating and inspiring. These two writers examine a complex subject with empathy, wit, and acute intelligence.  They attempt to break down the myths presented in the media surrounding black masculinity, with a focus on how it effects black males, hip-hop culture, and the relationships between black men and women. I was particularly interested in how gay black men fit into this culture, and I found that fascinating, yet that is only a small part of an intricate puzzle.

This book goes beyond scrutinizing a snapshot of today’s black culture. It makes an honest attempt to understand where black masculinity as it relates to black women will evolve to in the near future.

Thoughtful and absorbing, I can highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a greater understanding of American black culture, and what directions that culture is moving.