WRITERS' CALL

Excellent writing should reflect Irish male-male sexual experience throughout Ireland and the world (Africa to America). Tell an erotic story (subliminal eros to overt sex) that reveals male Irish soul/culture/sexuality/issues/problems/troubles/triumphs in any time from myth to cyber, any place from coffin ship to Aer Lingus, and any societal setting of local color from tribal clan to soccer scrum to pub to cowboy out in the American West. Create specific characters in a specific place at a specific time.

Soft core to hard core; innocent, romantic, or s&m, fetish. Pull no punches. Deliver the goods. No stories of minors or animals. Remember that whatever seems shocking and forbidden at any moment in history usually seems tame in twenty years. Art pushes society.

Think IRA as much as Danny Boy; Neil Jordan as much as Lady Gregory; Oscar Wilde as much as Frank McCourt; Paddy Doyle as much as Thomas Cahill (How the Irish Saved Civilization). Then forget them. Write in your own true voice.

Erotic stories of character or plot can turn on, say, moral, political, theological points without the points intruding on the entertainment. (Leave all messages/agenda on the editing room floor.) Dialect: okay. No "begorrah." In short, be a storyteller. Turn cliches inside out. Create new archetypes. Mindfuck your readers; make them shoot physically and intellectually.

Authors/Storytellers themselves can be any gender, nationality, race, or age; point of view must focus on the Irish male-male experience of Eros. The masculine-identified Irish homosexual is ideally the man needing erotic investigation; but that is not to rule out sissies, queens, or drag. Perhaps one, in fact, surely needs to know how the Irish saved civilization!

Writing style: a necessity. Great dialog: a plus. First-person narrator, or third-person omni scient: you choose. In our judgment, erotica should appeal to the intellect and the emotions as much as to the naked id. This is, at heart, the hidden literature of Irish culture.

Send TYPED or PRINTED HARDCOPY &, if possible, DISC, IBM COMPATIBLE (No Mac). SASE: ms./disc return. Response: 4-6 weeks. $100 for publication rights specified in publishing agreement on acceptance. Author retains copyright. Submit/queries: Mark Hemry.

Recommended reading: Rainbow County and Other Stories (1997), by Jack Fritscher, $14.95, 214 pages; LT Publications, PO Box 302, Beverly Hills CA 90213; or A Different Light/Lambda; or www.Amazon.com, and www.PalmDrivePublishing.com

Best Gay Erotica 1998, Richard LaBonte/Christopher Bram, editors, $14.95, 154 pages, Cleis Press, PO Box 14684, San Francisco CA 94114, or A Different Light/Lambda