K.E. Belledonne's Blog

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(Photo credit: Owestry Town Museum)

An amazing cache of WWII love letters has been found, between a soldier named Gilbert Bradley, and his sweetheart, Gordon Bowsher.

You can read about it at BBC & at NewNowNext

There are over 300 letters between the two. The person who happened upon the first few thought they were simply charming WWII letters from a GI stationed in England to his sweetheart back home, whom the soldier referred to simply as “G” — it wasn’t until he’d collected several of them that he realized that “G” was a man.

When I wrote the first draft of my story, Right Here Waiting, I’ll admit that I didn’t do much research into WWII LBGTQ history. I just was trying to write a simple love story for a friend, a gay man who’d always dreamt of having a Old Hollywood romance about people “like him”, he said. That’s what I set out to do – to write a happy ending about gay men.

I knew I wanted it to include letters, and as WWII is “in my wheelhouse” as they say, I knew that GI’s letters would be subject to strict military censors. Loving, romantic, explicit letters between Peter and Benjamin would surely have been noted, and terrible consequences would have likely come down. But letters from Peter to “B–” would fly under the radar, so to speak. And so, that’s how I wrote the story.

It wasn’t until after I’d worked the story into a novel, and began working with my publisher that news of the the beautiful “Letter To A GI” came my way. It gave me hope that perhaps I wasn’t too far off the mark. And then I found the seminal work “Coming Out Under Fire: The History Of Gay Men and Women in World War II”  by Alan Bérubé. As the book’s back cover blurb states:

“In Coming Out Under Fire, Allan Berube examines in depth and detail these social and political confrontation–not as a story of how the military victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relationship developed between gay citizens and their government, transforming them both.”

Though there were many many awful things that happened to many LGBTQ people in the military, there many LGBTQ people who had wonderful, life-changing experiences in the military; it’s pointed out in Coming Out that, for many gays, it was the first time they were co-mingling with so many different people from across the nation & thus their first time being around other gay people. 

As an aside, and in respectful response to several readers who reached out to let me know they were concerned about the “erasure” of some of the very real LGBTQ struggles in WWII, I would like to just make two points:

1) Right Here Waiting was always intended to be somewhat sappy, soft-focus, glossy Old Hollywood romance. It was never intended to be a realistic retelling of experience.

And, the most important point, 2) not all of gay history is hate-filled, recriminations, bashings and guilt.

There are many happy endings out there in gay history. There must be !There have been gay people since there have been people. Gay history stretches back to the dawn of history.  Alexander the Great loved Hephaestion;  Plato wrote of the the Sacred Band of Thebes, 150 pairs of men, each with their beloved “Or who would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger?” In Ancient Egypt, Khnum-hotep and Niankhkhum were two men,not buried with their wives and families, but together, in the same tomb with paintings embracing and holding hands, though some scholars argue that perhaps it just means that they were conjoined twins…

The list goes on, my friends.

As my friend, Laura Stone, writes in her blog

We in our modern way of thinking often fall victim to the idea that we’re more advanced than our predecessors, that only now are LGBTQ citizens being welcomed with open arms, that we modern folks are who are finally realizing how gender and sexuality don’t always line up in a rigid black and white definition, that all of this is new, particularly in post-19th century North America. That’s not accurate. (And anyone who thinks queer lives were never accepted until now never looked in a history book, quite frankly. We’re here, we’re queer, we’ve been here and queer for many a year, m’dear.)

Everyone should just go read that entire post, because it’s full of wonderful insights. She wrote it about her book, Bitter Springs, about two gay men in 19th century Texas – a most excellent read.

My point is this: I’m going to keep writing positive, affirming, happy, loving stories about my LBGTQ community, because we have happy endings, too. We, as my friend Lex did, dream of love stories we can recognize. Our struggles are real, and sometimes dire, but we, too, deserve to read warm-fuzzy, sappy, goofy, loving romances we can see ourselves in.

It is just a moment of happiness for me to read these beautiful letters, and to feel that I’ve perhaps captured some of the same emotions in my book.

From Gilbert & Gordon’s letters:

February 12 1940, Park Grange

My own darling boy,

There is nothing more than I desire in life but to have you with me constantly…

Wednesday January 24th 1939

My darling,

… I lie awake all night waiting for the postman in the early morning, and then when he does not bring anything from you I just exist, a mass of nerves…

All my love forever,

G.

From Right Here Waiting’s Benjamin & Peter’s letters:

I’ll see you soon, my love. I cannot wait to hold you and kiss your face and hear you tell me everything you’ve been up to while I’ve been gone. I love you.

All my love, always.

P.

My darling P-,

I can’t think of anything else to write except how I miss you and think of you all the time and I’m really trying to not be miserable and yesterday I actually laughed for the first time since you’ve been gone.  I miss you and I love you.

All my love, darling, every last bit of it.

Me.

Right Here Waiting is available at Interlude Press, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com (as well as the international Amazon sites), Smashwords (ebook only) — or ask about it at your local library!

I, for one, have been thrown for a loop — actually, I take that back; that’s not enough. I feel like a great many of us have been thrown under a speeding train.

I am so tempted, so very very tempted, to stoop to the level of this election, of the people who have elected this candidate. I am so tempted to revel in being hateful, so tempted to be nasty and vile. It’s going to be an on-going battle with myself, I know. It would be so easy to stoop to their level, to get down in the gutter and fling hurt and hate around. It would be an quick fix. But the satisfaction of that would be fleeting, and leave me more ashamed.

Here’s what I’m going to do. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to get up, and I’m going to put on my most flamboyant clothes, and my most fabulous scarf — the ones that make (wretched) people uncomfortable and say things like “why can’t you just dress *normal*?” — and I’m going down to my favourite coffee shop, and I’m going to write.

I’m going to write love stories, about real people. Simple love stories, about LBGTQ people, about men loving men, and women loving women, and men loving men loving women and women loving women loving men and any other combination of love that I can possibly dream of….just as much love as I possibly can cram into a story. But in the stories I write, the story unfolds around the gay characters, not *because* the characters are gay. There will be no awful consequences, there will be no angst or crushing sadness. There will be wonderful adventures, and fantastic journeys, and love. Lots and lots of love.

I’m going to celebrate and lift up my Queer community. I’m going to write our love stories. I’m going to write our happy endings. I’m going to write these stories, for us, for the people out there who support us, and for the people out there who don’t know yet that they support us. I’m going to write these stories for the people who don’t yet know that they’re one of us.

This will be my first act of defiance. They want us to live in fear. They want us afraid. They want us cowed, they want us to be quiet. I’m terrified, but I’m not going to let them make me cower. I will live loudly. I will love defiantly.  I will bring positivity into the world. I will create and nurture love in all it’s forms.

Here’s what I’m asking of you: request LBGTQ-positive books from your library. Hell, I ain’t gonna lie, I would love it if you’d buy a copy of my books for yourself and 10 million copies for your closest friends. But that’s not the point here — let’s get these books into the hands of people, especially young people, who might desperately need it, especially now. Let’s get these books in bookstores. It doesn’t have to be my book, or any of my publisher’s books (though I do highly recommend them) — just go into your library and ask them to stock this kinds of books.

Do it as a quiet act of rebellion. Do it as a loud act of rebellion. Don’t let them win. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. Spread love. Be kind. Be fabulous. Help those who need help. Do what you can.

Here’s my promise to you: my books will always be Happily Ever After, Guaranteed.

Once upon a time, two men fell in love. They did hit some snags along the way —  but the important part is that they fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

My books are:

Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist, a modern day romantic comedy. Find it at Interlude Press, Amazon.com,Barnes and Noble.com, chapters.indigo.ca, or request it at your local bookstore or library!!

Right Here Waiting, a WWII romance. It is available at Interlude Press, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com (as well as the international Amazon sites), Smashwords (ebook only) — or ask about it at your local library!

Here’s a link to the Interlude Press webstore – buy from them, ask for them from your local bookstore or write down the titles and request them from the library!

This is the Mucha window in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle — a huge cathedral right in the middle of this amazing & stunning castle in Prague. I had the very good fortune to visit it while I was writing Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Checklist, and this particular window is the sole reason I wrote Daniel as a stained glass artist.

I’ve visited a lot of cathedrals and churches in my day, and I’ve looked at a lot of stained glass, but St Vitus is by far the most beautiful stained glass I’ve ever seen. (Sainte-Chapelle in Paris is gorgeous, no doubt. But it’s also really small, comparatively. And it really only looks it’s best when the sun hits it just right — otherwise, it’s a bit dark and bland. And Notre Dame is legendary, but it’s really very dark inside, and the sun only hits some of the windows some of the time.)

St Vitus has no other buildings to block the sunlight streaming through the windows. It’s an enormous cathedral, and it’s situated on it’s site such that no matter what time of day, there’s sunlight coming through many of the windows. (Stained glass, man, is glorious. But only if you have a light source. If not — ehhhh, not quite so cool.)

And this window here was the inspiration for the window that Daniel makes at Saint Cecilia’s. I’d never seen such a riot of so many rich and deep colors. A side note: I’m officially color-blind. I *can* see color, I just don’t see it very well — unless it is saturated and vibrant color. This window took my breath away. I honestly began to cry while looking at it. It is just so very very beautiful. I felt like, somehow, everything was going to be okay — which is what brought about the window that Daniel made.

Just to give you a little scale — St Vitus is a *really* big cathedral.

So, there’s a little writerly insight into why and how Daniel became a stained glass artist!

Once upon a time, two men fell in love. They did hit some snags along the way —  but the important part is that they fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

My book is called Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist. It, and it’s happy ending, was released on June 23rd. Find it at Interlude Press, Amazon.com,Barnes and Noble.com, chapters.indigo.ca, or request it at your local bookstore or library!!

I’ve gone dark around here, which I had hoped would be an infrequent occurrence, but summer around here is always filled with crazy things to do, things that pop up and things that keep jumping to the head of my to-do list.

My mantra lately has been “If they can accomplish it, so can I.”

The craziest thing I’ve done lately is learn how to swim. I signed myself up for private swimming lessons at the public pool in the tiny town next to where I live. My teacher is named Harriet, 17 years old, blond hair, blue eyes, bright and encouraging smile. She looks like a china doll — an accomplished swimmer china doll. My first lesson, I didn’t have the confidence that she could hold me up in the water, as I am less svelte than I would ideally like to be, and I’m taller by at least 3 inches.

Now, I never learned how to swim. I know, it’s so odd, but I just didn’t. Apparently, there’s some sort of ancient parental drama involved behind the fact that neither I, nor any of my siblings, learned how to swim as children, but it’s too much to hash out now. I don’t need to spare any more of my emotional landscape to things so long past. It didn’t happen when I was a kid, so I’m learning now.

I’ve gone from absolute, sheer and utter panic dunking my head under the water at my first lesson to a less-than-graceful but effective crawl. As my friend points out, I am 100% Not Drowning, and that’s really the whole point of the whole thing. I can be in the water and not sabotage my own efforts to float and travel from point to point. My last swim, I even managed a rather nice backstroke. I’m in the pool 5 days a week, for 45 minutes each session. I swim drills, I am building up my endurance bit by bit and slowly but surely, I’ve figured out how to do a fairly tidy back stroke, and I’ve got the basic idea of the breaststroke done — it’s still not very pretty yet, but I am 100% not drowning. I spend a fair amount of time watching the other swimmers, trying to figure out how they’re doing it, trying to count out their stroke rhythms and breaths.

There’s absolutely no reason why I *can’t* swim. All these other people can swim — I must be able to, as well. I just haven’t quite figured it all out yet. If they can do it, so can I.

I decided to apply this to my books, as well. I’ve been doing a lot of “pounding the pavement”, going to independent bookstores around my state, shaking hands, giving elevator pitches to the buyers, handing out my business cards and hoping they’ll stock my books in their shops. There are plenty of ‘indie authors’ in bookstores these days — and if they can accomplish that, then so can I.

I’m hoping to diversify, test out my wings and see what else I can accomplish it. If other can do it, so can I.

Now, I’ve got several things to talk about the most exciting of which is:

MY BOOK WILL BE RELEASED INTO THE WILD TOMORROW!!!

I will be on this-here virtual book tours, (see above image) and stopping at these-here very fine blogs and I’m really excited to be able to chat with people about my book. Comment to be entered to win my book, with a grand prize of a digital copy of my book PLUS a $25 gift card to Interlude Press’s store (to celebrate Pride month, there’s free US shipping!)

It’s a full-on romantic comedy. I hope you laugh, I hope there’s little to no crying and I hope you like it better than Cats!

(– the Broadway musical Cats, I mean. Obviously not actual cats, because I know a great number of people who are very in to cats, and I don’t think this book can hope to compete with that affection.)

I am on the verge of becoming a cat person, because I adopted a rescue puppy over the weekend, and while he and my other dog will drink out of the same water bowl at the same time without a problem, he and she have an on-going WWE-style grudge match going on any other time, obviously wishing they had oppposable thumbs so they could thwang folding chairs at each others’ heads. Despite that lack, Older Pup has a very effective Pile Driver move that would make The Rock proud.

Seriously. I’m a dog person through and through, and I know this is all about establishing their pack dominance and I know I just need to let them sort it out between themselves or it will just keep happening. I’m just…wow. It’s a lot of growling and barking and humping. If anyone has any suggestions on how to cope with this, I’m all ears…

So. I’m tired due to puppy shenanigans, but also falling hard for this little pup who needs me and still in love with my older pup who’s my girl through and through. Also in love with my Partner-In-Crime, and my family, and the world. Thank you for reading, dear readers and I wish you days full of love.

Once upon a time, two men fell in love. They did hit some snags along the way —  but the important part is that they fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

My book is called Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist. It, and it’s happy ending, will be released on June 23rd. Find it at Interlude Press, Amazon.com,Barnes and Noble.com, chapters.indigo.ca, or request it at your local bookstore or library!!

BOOK TOUR!!! I’m going on a virtual book tour! HUZZAH

Check out these lovely, wonderful and exciting blogs and see what I’ve got up my sleeve! You’ll learn some surprising things, some silly things, and some things I never thought I’d ever tell anyone!

Comment on the posts, and you’ll be entered to win one of five copies of my book, with a chance for the grand prize – a ebook copy of my book, plus a $25 gift card to Interlude Press’s bookstore!!!

Come visit! Say hi! Read my book!! Happy Ending, guaranteed.

Once upon a time, two men fell in love. They did hit some snags along the way —  but the important part is that they fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

My book is called Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist. It, and it’s happy ending, will be released on June 23rd. Find it at Interlude Press, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, chapters.indigo.ca, or request it at your local bookstore or library!!

I’ve been following the news, hanging on every word, every story about the Orlando massacre. I’ve felt helpless, I’ve felt terrified, I’ve felt angry. But I’ve felt such love, as well, such solidarity with other LBGTQ communities around the world, and that gives me such hope.

I’ve written to my State Representatives and Congresspeople, telling them what I think about gun control, and hate crimes, and homophobia.  I’m from a small enough state that I can trust that someone in their office, if not they, themselves, will read it. I signed up to volunteer for my local Pride parade. And, up until just a few minutes ago, I was worried because I thought that was about all I had to offer my community in such times of horror and trial and stress.

And then it hit me, and I’m chagrined to realize I hadn’t thought of it before: Guess what? I write LBGTQ positive books. I’ve got a book coming out in a couple of days, and it’s a light-hearted, loving, romantic comedy about two men in love, planning their wedding.

There’s no punchline. There’s no trick. There’s not even much angst. There’s no hidden consequence to the fact that they’re gay. There’s no horrific incident, or accident, or sickness; there’s nothing ill that befalls them.

Here’s what else I have to offer my community: A happy ending.

Once upon a time, two men fell in love. They did hit some snags along the way —  but the important part is that they fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

My book is called Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist. It, and it’s happy ending, will be released on June 23rd.  You can request it at your local bookstore. I’d be absolutely honored if you’d request it from your local library — getting LBGTQ stories with happy endings in front of people who might want to read them, but not have any other access or exposure to them is a very powerful thing, indeed.

I’ll be posting again soon, with book tours stops and info, and buy links and all sorts of good stuff. But for right now, I’ll leave you with this, my friends:

graphic credit to designer extraordinaire, all-around awesome person, and fellow author: Carrie Pack – carriepack.com, @carriepack 

Did I mention I’ve got a book coming out in June? June 23rd, to be exact. As in, *this* June 23rd.

That means I’m a busy little bee behind the scenes here — interviews to respond to, blog tour posts to write. I spent some time yesterday playing on Tumblr, or rather, having my characters play on tumblr – creating a conversation between several characters as they interact in the book. As there’s no interconnected family of apps out there like the one in my book, I have to make do with what we’ve got now.

Let’s meet Daniel’s audacious and cheeky wedding planning app, Aurora.

Aurora is a pervasive, octopus-like app, which can suck in data from any number of sources, and stores it for you — PDF files of contracts, contact information from your phone, photos, songs. Aurora provides checklists and to-do lists, in an seemingly unending supply. (Daniel laments that the checklists remaining to finish never goes down. They’re constantly stuck at a certain number.) Aurora can draft a spreadsheet for your guests food allergies, RSVP status, what they ordered for dinner, and seating arrangements.

Multiple times a day, Aurora sends out overly bubbly reminder emails of what has been checked off the list, and includes a clickbait link to an article on their website — the more clicks the article gets, the “hotter” it is!

And, just like Daniel, I have to remind myself, Aurora is not a “she”. She is not a sentient being bent on death by perky cheerfulness. Aurora is an app.

Aurora also compiles messages and responses from a website called “BeStabulous” — a site similar to Pinterest, but for those of us who might be a trifle less than demure in our opinions. Daniel “stabs” photos he likes and his invited list of “Stabbers” can add their opinions and/or votes. (This often goes awry, as Daniel’s mother is full of non-sequiturs, random information,  and writes as if she’s still in 1952.)

Aurora is part of a family of planning apps: Eos helps with family planning, Arinna with financial planning. (Sadly, those two get just a mere mention in this book. And, I’m almost certain, in any sequel, Daniel and Erik would run screaming for hills rather than use one of these apps.)

And yes. It has been suggested to me by several people that I should write an app just like Aurora. Also, that I should host a site like BeStabulous. But, I’m a writer. I’ve got enough on plate at the moment *grin*. Moreover, I’m a writer who would really rather be writing on a typewriter, or by hand — all this new-fangled technology often gets the better of a Luddite like me!

I did have fun plotting Aurora’s perky machinations, and absolutely cracked myself up writing the click-bait article titles (my husband helped come up with most of them, and can attest to the wheezing laughter behind my laptop screen.)

I hope you’ll have as much fun reading about Daniel, Erik, and that dastardly sweet Aurora app, as I did writing about them. It’s a light, fun, breezy and quirky little book, perfect for a beach-read, or sitting on your lawn-chair sipping some tea in the shade, or wherever life finds you on June 23rd!

Daniel & Erik’s Super Fab Ultimate Wedding Checklist will be released June 23rd and is now available for pre-order!  Also on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and through your local independent bookstore!

Have not yet made the exercise plunge, which I really need to do. But I keep having other things jump ahead of it in my to-do list.

Miraculously, I’ve been able to handle all the ball-juggling & balancing acts necessary this week, with nary a freak-out or crying jag. I’m giving myself a B+ in adulting this week – things *could* have gone more smoothly.

Exercise: C

Eating: A- I’ve been eating home-cooked meals all week & successfully resisting the temptation for quick-and-awful foods.

Self-care: A. I feel better when I’m not wearing schlub clothes. I put together ensembles (jewelry included) and felt like a million bucks. I need to do this more often.

I’m scribbling away at what will become Book 3. Working title: Tap-Dancing Murder Giraffes. No, you won’t guess the plot from that