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2008
August	Since the beginning of the year I have been going to a monthly writers' group that meets at my community library. The few regulars were long ago desensitized to the fact that I write what we usually call "adult gay fiction". I've read aloud parts of previous stories -- all of the Kinsey story -- to postive reactions. This month I was determined to write a story to share with the group. By the Monday of the meeting I had maybe the first 500 words of what would be a 3,000-word story. I finished the story ("The Last Night at Nan's Ham-N-Egger") at lunch, writing furiously, and got it typed up 45 minutes before the meeting. There are no bears in this story; it's more of a cross-over crime story. For some time I've done most of my fiction writing by hand; this was the first story I finished with the new, handmade (of beautiful woods) fountain pen Isaac gave me for Christmas.
May	Richard Labonté has just let me know that "Physical Therapy" was a favorite of this year's guest editor and will appear in Best Gay Erotica 2009. The guest editor is James Lear (more about Lear here and here).
March	Richard Labonté, on rather short notice, was putting together an anthology of bear stories to be published by Cleis later this year, so I sent him a couple of possibilities. He accepted "Waking Up Bear" for the Bears' anthology, and also asked to use "My Mountain Man" for a "Best Gay Romance" volume, also coming out this year. It's good that "Waking Up Bear" has finally found a home; getting that story into its current shape is a saga in itself.
2007
December	Ron and I have spent several hours discussing some changes to "Between Red Covers". A couple require a few hundred words of changes, some new material, some rewritten a bit, to bring out some of the narrative threads and the characterization better. The story is reaching final form, and is much improved by the changes.
November	As research, I took a week and read Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia : W.B. Saunders Company, 1948. Then, in the space of three days, I did the 7000-word draft of "Between Red Covers". Deadlines are amazing things!
March	What a slow year for writing this has been. For a submission I did put together a new version of "Waking Up Bear", but it still searches for a home.
2006
October	Best Gay Erotica 2007 appeared in my mailbox. I was delighted to discover that my contribution leads the copy on the back cover.
September	In my mail this month, my contributor's copies of Ron Suresha's fiction anthology, Bi Guys, published by Haworth Press, for which I wrote the story "Duck Tails and Fins two years ago. Earlier this year, Richard Labonté announced that he was branching out a bit and was going to put together an anthology called Country Boys (to be published early in 2007 by Cleis). I thought all summer about the story I had in mind for the volume, and spent the last couple of weeks in August writing pretty steadily, getting it done by the deadline. The result was a long story, whose current working title -- subject to change -- is "Best Friends". Happily, Richard accepted it for the Country Boys volume.
August	Travelrotica, edited by Brad Nichols, was published by Alyson; it has my story "Sun, Sand, & Max". Ron Suresha and I heard from Paul Willis that he's back to working on his anthology "Dangerous Liaisons" -- to be published by Haworth Press -- and he wants to reprint our joint story, "Taming Raul", in it.
April	"The Lighthouse Keep: A Gothic Tale", was selected for the anthology Best Gay Erotica 2007, stories selected by Timothy J. Lambert, series edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, expected October 2006, or so).
March	I sent the story "Waking Up Bear" to an editor for possible use in an anthology; he asked for some rewrites leading to a new ending. I obliged with about 2000 words, he obliged me with silence, alas. So, now I have the interesting situation of a story with two rather different endings, which seems to me an interesting example to show people who believe stories express an organic gestalt -- which they should appear to do, if they flow smoothly. What's odd in this case is that this story languished for nearly three years with only the first 1,000 words written because I didn't know how to continue it; now I know two ways!
February	"Sun, Sand, and Max" was accepted for Alyson's new anthology Travelrotica for Men, to be published in August, so I feel a bit like I'm back in the publishing saddle again.
January	Now all those stories from last month had to be typed, but that job got done since that I've been able to get upstairs finally; I graduated from walker to cane just days before the New Year. Now it's time to edit and get the stories away to new homes, and see whether I can keep some of the momentum I gained at the end of last year.
2005
December	Lying on my couch, still awake in the wee hourse, my muse returned to me. Since I couldn't make it upstairs to the computer, I decided I'd better be productive somehow and I got out my pen and lots of scratch paper and set to working on the stories that had been filling my head for the past many months. In a remarkably short space of time, typically writing between 1 and 3 am, I'd filled about 100 pages with my nearly unreadable handwriting, amounting to five new stories. I stopped feeling guilty. Maybe this happened because I got the staples out of my leg at the beginning of the month.
November	My trip to the hospital last year for the heart attack evidently did not provide enough material; on the fourth of this month I slipped and fell (on the tiled bathroom floor, no less) right on the spot sticking out from the hips that says "fall here to break leg". The break was not terrible -- a small fracture just at the top of my right femur -- but it required surgical intervention: I now have a metallic plate screwed into my leg with five very nasty looking screws (as seen by X-ray), and what appears to be a zipper on the outside of my thigh, an effect produced by the 19 staples in my leg. Four days after surgery I moved to a rehab facility; five days later I was sent home, where I took up residence on the couch on the first floor of our house.
January -- October	My muse continued throughout this time to be AWOL, and I wrote no fiction whatsoever, although I felt guilty about my lack of productivity. I was, however, busy with other writing projects (non-fiction) and realized my goal of increasing my daily writing to about 1000 words each day. Ta da!
2004
November	Wrote The Pansy Forest Legend to promote our on-line store of hand-made stuff (The Pansy Forest, selling rosaries, soap, crocheted doilies, doggie treats...).
October	Bear Lust (edited by Ron Suresha) appeared in my mailbox with my story "Cub Makes Headline!", so we know it's been published. "Morning Breaks" published on Drew Gummerson's 50-Word Erotica page. "Covert Cruising" published in American Bear, issue #63, October - November 2004.
August	"Hurricane" published in American Bear, issue #62, August - September 2004.
July	Recovery from January's cardiac events and getting somewhat back on course has taken some months, but I've been feeling much more myself for awhile now (even better, I'd say), and finally, finally finished my first story of the year ("Duck Tails and Fins").
May	"Old Haunts" selected for the anthology Best Gay Erotica 2005, stories selected by William J. Mann, series edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, expected December 2004).
February	"Artful Fur", reprinted in Friction 7, Jesse Grant, editor (Alyson Books, February 2004).
January	"Confessions of a Failed Pervert", published in Kink: Tales of the Sexual Adventurer, Paul J. Willis and Ron Jackson, editors (STARbooks Press, January 2004). My writing schedule is blown severely off course by an unexpected heart attack on 28 January, in observance of which I get to spend a week in the hospital, four days in intensive care, have two rounds of angioplasty performed, and become the proud owner of 5 implanted stents.
2003
December	"Old Haunts" published in American Bear, issue #58, December 2003 - January 2004.
November	"Time Out" reprinted in Best Gay Erotica 2004, stories selected by Kirk Read, edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, November 2003).
October	"A Letter to Santa" published in Just the Sex, Jesse Grant, ed. (Alyson Publications, November 2003).
September	"Taming Raul", written with Ron Jackson, published in 100% BEEF, issue #9. "Cub Makes Headlines!" selected for the anthology Bearotica 2, Ron Suresha, editor (Alyson Publications, expected spring 2004). For 5 days we lost power at home because of Hurricane Isabelle; I exploited the occasion by writing the story "Hurricane" entirely long hand and by candlelight.
July	"Taming Raul", written with Ron Jackson, contracted for 100% BEEF, issue #9. "Artful Fur" selected for the anthology Friction: Best Gay Erotic Fiction, Volume 7, Jesse Grant, editor (Alyson Publications, expected fall 2003).
June	"Artful Fur" published in American Bear, issue #55, June - July 2003. "Confessions of a Failed Pervert" accepted for the anthology Kink: True Tales from the Sexual Adventurer, Paul J. Willis and Ron Jackson, editors (STARbooks Press, expected fall 2003). "Time Out" selected for the anthology Best Gay Erotica 2004, stories selected by Kirk Read, edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, expected December 2003).
February	"Sapphire", a short play, premier staged reading given by long-time partners Terry Colbert & Jim Mason (photo at right), at "Paws for Words", International Bear Rendezvous, San Francisco, February 2003; thanks to Ron Suresha. "A Letter to Santa" accepted for the anthology Just the Sex, Jesse Grant. ed. (Alyson Publications, expected November 2003).
2002
December	"Blade" reprinted in Best Gay Erotica 2003, stories selected by Michael Rowe, edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, December 2002). "All Wet" published in American Bear, issue #52, December 2002 - January 2003.
August	"Undercover Bears" published in the "Special 50th Issue" of American Bear, issue #50, August - September 2002.
July	"Time Out" published (in altered form) in American Grizzly, issue #19, July - September 2002.
April	"Strip Search" published in American Grizzly, issue #18, April - June 2002.
March	"Blade" published in Bearotica, Ron Suresha, ed. (Alyson Publications, March 2002).
2001
December	"A Bedtime Story" anthologized in Best Gay Erotica 2002, stories selected by Neal Drinnan, edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, December 2001).
July	"Stuffed in the Locker Room" published in American Grizzly, issue #15, July - September 2001.
March	"A Returning Appetite" anthologized (in radically altered and unauthorized form) in Tales from the Bear Cult, Mark Hemry, ed. (Palm Drive Publications, March 2001).
2000
December	"A Bedtime Story" published in American Bear, issue #40, December 2000 - January 2001;
July	"Mike's Mission" published in American Grizzly, issue #11, July - September 2000.
February	"A Returning Appetite" published in American Bear, issue #35, February - March 2000;
1999
August	"A Passing Storm" published in American Bear, issue #32, August - September 1999.
1998
December	I manage to complete my first story ("A Passing Storm") which, as it turns out, was not the first story I planned to write, but it was the first one that asserted itself and got finished.
Text & Images Copyright © 2001-2008 by Jay Neal.