Romance? Didn’t you notice all of the demons?

I’ve been writing forever. Badly, at first, but I had a magical eh, I’m a teenager shield around me that protected me from thinking I sucked.

When I was sixteen, I went through a period where I tried to mimic other writer’s styles (my Clive Barker Books of Blood piece was actually pretty good). After a half dozen novella-sized stories, I decided to be different and write about a gay couple.

A gay couple fighting demons!

Oh, it was great. One guy was child of a demon and had been taught their magic/evil ways. The other was an occult scholar. When they met, they didn’t trust one another, but they had to work together to escape the bad guys. The romance was built up to and they even . . . kissed (I was sixteen. For me, it was quite daring).

I finished the story faster than I had any of the others. After a quick spell check, I let Jen (the pre-roommate, then best friend) read it.

Jen got through it quickly. There was no smirking (as my previous novella had caused), so I was certain the story was brilliant.

When she was finished, Jen said, “It’s cute. I really liked your romance.”

“Cute?” I was certain I’d misheard her. “Romance?” I was also certain she’d forgotten my Clive Barker phase. “Didn’t you notice all of the demons?”

“Well, yeah, but love saves the day.”

I made notes to add more demons and violence to the story, and then read a few horror novels to get back into the zone.

Secretly, I also picked up a few romances, but this being the eighties they were bodice rippers (when I wrote my next novella, someone’s shirt was torn). I’d really enjoyed the other story, though, and missed it. After trying my hand at a musical, I returned to the couple.

Over the next few years, I would return to writing about gay men. There was something about those characters that drew me. They were very different than me, but in their differences we were similar. Very few people understood us. Very few people seemed to care. No one seemed to take what–or who–we loved seriously, but that didn’t stop us. We would keep trying, keep loving and writing. If we keep trying, I think love will save the day.

In my stories, it’s just a very bad day ;)

Written by Luisa Prieto

Dark fantasy writer by day, dark fantasy writer by night. I'm charmingly dull that way ;)
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