The piece is called “He Learned How” and you can read it online here. In the story, A.J. is sixteen and gay [...]]]> As of December 2008 I’m officially a published author. I have one (1) short story out there in the world. I guess it’s a very small thing, but it feels pretty good.

The piece is called “He Learned How” and you can read it online here. In the story, A.J. is sixteen and gay in a nameless small town somewhere in the U.S.A. It could be 1956, or maybe it’s 1982, or maybe even 2009. A.J. doesn’t care what year it is, really. He cares deeply about the person he loves, who has died — but he also cares very much about how other people perceive him, and how he perceives himself. With most of the power in his world being held by others — parents, teachers, church leaders, and his peers — A.J.’s only power is to be in command of himself. In the end he makes the only choice he believes is available to him, so that he can continue to survive in this conservative small town where everyone knows everything about everybody.

This story is actually the backstory of one of the main characters in The Outerlands, my first novel. The Outerlands takes place in the future, in a dystopian upper Midwest which has forgotten it was ever part of the U.S.A.. Here, new societies have arisen, stratified along religious, racial and cultural lines. In order to keep “He Learned How” in the neighborhood of 3000 words, I removed the speculative elements and changed some of the details. But A.J.’s story really takes place in the year 2121, and the setting is not really a sleepy small town, but a small, militaristic country whose inhabitants espouse white supremacy and are locked in perpetual conflict with the equally militaristic, non-white country next door. By the time of The Outerlands, A.J. is thirty-five, a repressed control freak stuck in an unhappy marriage. He’s very good at putting up and shutting up, and he might be the last person who would consider rocking the boat and challenging the repugnant values that his home country is built upon — let alone the lies his personal life is built upon.

Meanwhile, in a nearby third country run as a religious dictatorship, sixteen year old Mercy has fallen in love with a female classmate. Facing an arranged marriage and an assigned job, she at first believes her only option is to put up and shut up. But then, encouraged by a nonconformist older brother, she decides to run away. Eventually, she meets A.J., and not under friendly circumstances. It’s a mental kick in the butt for A.J. He will end up rocking the boat, and so will Mercy. Hell, the boat just might tip over.

And that’s what my book is about. Right now, I’m in the process of revising it — and it needs a lot of work. But I do feel encouraged, because with the publication of my first short story, it feels as if a very small piece of The Outerlands is already out there. The lunar calendar says this is the year 4707, not 2009. Whatever the number, I can’t help feeling that the coming year will be an auspicious one.