Author's Note From Sideshow

 

The new Nick Forte novel, Sideshow, may be the most personally important book I’ve ever written. Enough so that I decided to include an author’s note, something I’ve never done before.

 

 Here it is:

 

No straight, cisgender person can fully understand what it’s like to be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community; the best we can do is empathize and treat them with the same respect and courtesy as we do everyone else.

The years have brought me closer to this too-often marginalized community. Among the handful of best friends I’ve ever had is a gay man. My only child’s godmother is a lesbian. I have a transgender step-daughter; my brother has a transgender sister-in-law. I once dated an intersex woman. If I can safely say one thing that encompasses them, it is that they all want the same things everyone else wants: to be left alone to lead the happiest lives they can find for themselves.

I’ve rewritten this author’s note several times, trying to describe exactly how I feel. I finally found a couple of quotes from people far more qualified to express them.

The actress Jodie Foster said: “Being gay is like being left-handed—some people are, most people aren’t, and nobody really knows exactly why. It’s not right or wrong; it’s just one of the many natural ways to be. The world works best when everyone gets to live as they truly are. So if you ever feel out of place, remember: you're not broken, you're just beautifully different—and that’s something the world needs."

That’s how I see it. I am six feet, one inch tall and a little overweight. My hair is gray and my eyes are brown. Jodie’s quote applies to me as well: It’s not right or wrong; it’s just one of the many natural ways to be.

Transgender care therapist Dr. Collette Lord is credited with the phrase, “The existence of intersex people is proof that nature doesn’t see gender as a binary.” As Hamlet said, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Indigenous Americans have long understood gender is not binary. The idea has arisen from Christianity’s efforts to make the world a neater, safer, and more understandable place than it has ever been, or can me.

This book is as important to me as anything I’ve ever written, and it vexes me to know I didn’t get it as right as I wanted. I hope I got it as close as a straight cisgender man can and that readers will understand anything I got wrong was not done out of malice.

I’ll close with a quote often incorrectly attributed to Morgan Freeman: “I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an asshole.”

If you take issue with anything in this book, please feel free to contact me through my web site, danakingauthor.com. I learned a lot writing this book. Most of what I learned is how much I still don’t know.

My eternal thanks to Christa Faust for pointing out a flaw in how I approached gay characters, John Copenhaver for encouraging me to take this step forward, and especially to Robyn Gigl for taking the time to read critical sections and provide invaluable feedback even though she knew me for all of five minutes before agreeing. To all of you, I did the best I could. I hope it was close to enough.

 

Sideshow is available through Amazon in both print ($9.99) and e-book ($2.99) versions.