Sappho Sings

This is a place for me to share my feelings toward the writing/publishing process in general. I call the place "Sappho Sings" because I feel her presence in my life as The Poetess just as some feel Homer as The Poet. Though she and I are separated by centuries, I hear her voice in the Timeless Universe. She is my idol, my muse, my soul mate. It is my privilege to honor her in my work.
Author's home page: http://peggyullmanbell.com

Saturday, May 07, 2011

A blog post worth reading…

Gay People in Historical Novels

With a widely accepted estimate that ten percent of men and women prefer their own sex for love and lovemaking and most likely always have, it can be difficult to find gay and lesbian characters in historical novels. This issue is important to me as the author of Beloved Pilgrim whose protagonist is a lesbian. Besides caring that a group of people who have almost no written history should at least be represented in historical fiction, I also worried whether there would be some barrier to my own novel’s acceptance by readers. I wondered about the instances of other gay characters and did some canvassing to find them in well-known novels.