I just finished Book #1 of my series called Music of Us. In the front of the book, I include a page called Why I’m Writing This Series. Here’s what it says – with a few more comments added:
The first reason I write anything is because I like the subject and want to write about it or I have some personal understanding of the subject matter that I think would be fun to include in a book. But this series goes deeper for me.
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For as long as I can remember, I have been haunted by the realization that anyone that identifies as a gender other than heterosexual spends much of their young years, and often far beyond, tortured by society, friends, and family. The Music Of Us series is my feeble attempt to support those individuals who deserve to be treated like everyone else, and to love and marry anyone of their choosing.
I do not classify this series or any of the books I write, as “gay romance” unless required by some publisher or bookseller. I don’t like that term. Love and romance are exclusive of gender. Any reference in my stories that include the word gay or other similar words are used because that is how it’s placed upon an individual in the story.
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I don’t like labels and although I have always been a straight female, I don’t like the labels that have been placed on me over the years and those pale in comparison to the labels placed on differently gendered people.
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After I wrote that, a few people asked me some questions. Like what labels? What kind of labels could someone possibly place on me that would be detrimental to me? One big one comes to mind. Introvert. Although people don’t use that term because they don’t even know what it means, instead they have called me (or you) rude, anti-social, independent (which in the case of women tends to be another bad word), stuck up (the old high school classic), arrogant, or god forbid, a bitch. Although, I suppose I can be any of those things given the right motivation, I am actually none of those things. Neither am I shy, but I admit I stake claim to that word because it just makes explaining myself easier. Not shy. Not antisocial. Not a bitch. Just an introvert.