duckprintspress

Happy We Need Diverse Books Day! We had a chat with our rec list contributors about which books we’ve read that helped us – books with diverse representation that helped us better understand ourselves in ways we wouldn’t have if these books didn’t exist, if they’d been banned, if they hadn’t found their ways into our hands. Note that we openly acknowledge that a few of these may be “problematic” or not current (whereas others are definitely very progressive!) – some of these are books we read a long time ago, and what we needed then wouldn’t be the same as what someone would need now, and that’s okay!

Which books with representation helped you and how?

Nina Waters: Two spring to mind for me. Both of these are books I read in the mid 1990s when I was a teenager in high school.

Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. I didn’t particularly enjoy where this series went after book 1, but the first book introduced me to the concept I now know as “the only solution to a love triangle is poly.” I’d never really encountered polyamory before I read this book? It was delightfully refreshing for teen!me that the solution to “will he pick a relationship with the woman or the man?” wasn’t “of course he’ll pick the woman, because no stories get to be queer in the mid 1990s,” but was in fact, “¿por qué no los dos?” It was just so wonderful. They got be poly. Poly exists. I learned so much.

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I had so much trouble finding books with Strong Female Characters who were actually, like, the kind of person I wanted to be. Paks meant so much to me. I started doing distance walking just to emulate her. I read this as a teenager; finding out in my 30s that a lot of people headcanon Paks as asexual was also like. Damn. Young!me knew, even when I didn’t know. I had no word for this beyond, “this is a character I really like and would like to emulate,” but the pieces were all there.

Linnea Peterson: May the Best Man Win by ZR Ellor was the first book I read with autism rep that reminded me of myself. It made me feel seen in a way no book ever had, in a way I didn’t know I could be seen.

Anonymous: Sure I’ll join the party (they say, about to introduce the most depressing take you’ve ever seen). Mine is Lord of the Rings because of Frodo’s PTSD. Back when I taught primary, (tw: suicide mention) I had one of my second graders try to kill himself in my classroom. I managed to stop him and held him for an hour waiting for help. I got major PTSD from that, and seeing Frodo succeed – I mean, he saved the world!!! – and still have to leave Middle Earth because the act of saving messed him up irrevocably, yeah. I relate.

JD Rivers: Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling – It wasn’t the first queer book I had read at point but it was the first fantasy book that included (pretty much on the sidelines) a queer relationship. It hit a nerve in me.

boneturtle: I don’t know how well it holds up but for me it would be Petey by Ben Mikaelson. It was an eye opening experience to see how society treats people who are disabled, and as a young kid who was often in situations outside my control and with no one to turn to, I found a lot to relate to with the main character. It has stuck with me over the decades because it was the first book where I felt a real sense of hope and the capacity to persevere even in a situation that couldn’t be “fixed” or willed away.

Tryan A Bex: I never identified with a character with my birth name, but the first time I read a book with a character with my chosen nonbinary name it was like “hey! It’s me!” (The book was Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender)

Also, when I was studying on white privilege, The Pretty One by Keah Brown helped me see what the intersection of ableism, racism, and misogyny can look like. It was eye opening and I believe helped me to become a better person in how I interact with other people. (It was also incredibly funny at times, highly recommend.)

Shadaras: Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven is focused on a character whose gender experiences I strongly related to, which is rare because there are so many variations of nonbinary. Akeha going “idk, I guess I’ll pick [gender] because my twin is picking [gender] and I want to pick a different one to differentiate myself?” as a young person and then growing up and going “okay but I don’t really identify with this gender” and learning about nonbinary identities and claiming one for themself was delightful.

Anonymous #2: They’re hardly high art, but as an ace kid in the ’80s – ’90s the character of Jughead in the Archie comic books was a revelation to me. It’s still hard to find ace rep even today, so that was the only time I’d ever seen a character be confronted by a romance plot and respond with “no thank you.” I’d had no idea that was an option.

Shannon: Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey was the first queer-normative book I read and the heroine is bi/pan and just. Never ashamed of that. Assertive about her desires in general. And that was a big deal for me in 2003. I was young and a Very Invested Ally and couldn’t really conceive of a world that was different for queer people.

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden came to me around the same time and it was obviously a more grounded book but like. The idea of there being more than one girl that liked girls. In the same place. That was a big deal for me.

Tell us about the books you read that helped you better understand yourself!

1. Why do you love writing?

Adrian Harley: Ironically, it’s hard to put into words how much fun writing is. Inventing worlds, characters, and stories—even just coming up with a fun turn of phrase—has some of that same joy as playing make-believe on a playground as a kid. There’s something so free about it.

Rascal Hartley: It’s really hard to articulate. It’s the difference between telling someone “this is how this feels” and just plucking the emotion straight from my chest and dropping it directly into theirs. I’d explode if I ever stopped, I think. I love it because it keeps me from exploding.

Anonymous #1: I love writing because I love art. I love creation. I consider myself less a “writer” and more an “artist”, and sometimes my chosen medium is words. I love how playful you can get with language (e.g. Carroll, Joyce), how you can paint beautiful scenes without using any colors, and how all of that can translate differently depending on individual perception. As an artist who works in different mediums, I hold a lot of respect for writing and story-telling in all forms.

boneturtle: Writing is how I think, how my thoughts turn from vague impressions to concrete ideas. For me it’s not so much why I love writing, but what I would do if I couldn’t write. I depend on it for connection, both to others and to my own thoughts.

Lucy K.R.: Writing provides me with a place to gain clarity on the world I’m experiencing, and to share that clarity with others. No matter how silly or serious the subject matter, putting words to experiences gives you a power over those experiences.

Puck: It’s the form of expression that comes easiest to me. I love language, both from the perspective of a linguist and from the perspective of an artist—the melody of a well-constructed sentence as much as its power to shape reality.

Sage Mooreland: The connection created by putting words on a page is the food for my soul that I’ve craved since I was little. The moment I figured out I could connect to people, that I could say things for other people to think about with the wrappings of something beautiful, I was hooked. One of my favorite professors once said, “I like writing because, if you properly back up your point, nobody can tell you that you’re wrong.” While she was referring (mostly) to the sort of academic writing one does in college and professional writing beyond that, I find that it applies across into my creative writing. That sort of freedom is what I adore.

S. J. Ralston: Writing is how I talk about the things I don’t know how to talk about. When it’s too big, too painful, too strange, too personal to say it in so many words, it goes into the writing.

Dev: I love the satisfaction in finally capturing the scene in your head on the paper (or screen) in a way that feels the same as you’d imagined. That moment when it clicks is what I live for.

Anonymous #2: Because I can make the words dance in ways that feel natural to me in a way that music or visual arts never did. We are the storytelling animals. That’s what differentiates us from everything else that communicates. Taking part in that tradition helps me feel connected to people.

2. What’s your favorite aspect of writing and why?

jumblejen: Discovering what my unconscious has been chewing on for who-knows-how-long! I found after I started writing that certain themes would show up that were clearly mental health things my brain wanted to work on but wasn’t telling me about. 2nd favorite thing is finding out what’s going to happen next! I am a discovery writer, which means I don’t plan out my works (it can all get fixed in editing as needed). Love being genuinely surprised by the twists I don’t know about until they appear on the page.

Adrian Harley: My favorite bit is that moment when I suddenly figure out a really cool connection between two previously unrelated parts of a story or think of a new idea that immediately improves the whole story. Whether it’s solving a plot problem or forcing new, worse problems on my poor protagonists, it’s always so satisfying when things go “click.”

Rascal Hartley: My faaaavorite part is when I’m drafting and a character just reveals something I had no notions of or intentions to include. So I guess characterization. I love these little guys (gn).

Anonymous #1: I’m a world-builder-holic. You can always catch me spinning off these grand universes with broad mythical strokes and teeny tiny daily minutiae, every single aspect of that is beyond fun for me. Sometimes I spend so much time thinking about the world, I forget about silly little things like “plots” and “continuity” lol.

boneturtle: My favorite aspect of writing is similar to Rascal’s description of why they love writing. The ability to create an impression that gives people an emotional experience, rather than explaining it to them. You can connect with people on a visceral level, through words. It’s sort of unbelievable.

Lucy K.R.: The Flow State is always my favorite part, though it is hard to access. When a story really takes over, and my fingers know what they’re doing seemingly without input from me—the world spinning itself into existence out of threads of thought… I think that’s the closest I’ll come in this lifetime to experiencing magic.

Puck: I love that moment in a 2nd draft or edit where I suddenly realize “No, this is where the story is going” or “here is where to place the parallel that’s going to really hit“

Sage Mooreland: I’m a world builder to the core. Like. I could happily build worlds for friends’ stories or RPGs and be endlessly happy. Being able to create the world I want to live in (as an example), where I can ease bigotry and oppression to a level that’s…well, not the world we live in. I can give voices to people who don’t have them, and I can build them in the forms that can help people either see themselves or maybe understand better what it’s like to be that person. The satisfaction of creating that kind of world is my jam.

S. J. Ralston: Favorite aspect is finding the shape of the story. When you come up out of the fog and the wander and finally you can see the whole thing at once and it’s not just a bunch of words, it’s a single solid object with a weight to it.

Dev: I love the alpha and early beta stages because I have folks I work with frequently for that, and often as not these turn into semi-roleplay types of brainstorming sessions where we get very “yes and” about the plot and characters and just follow the thoughts where they lead.

Anonymous #2: My favourite part of writing is when my characters surprise me. Sometimes I’ll be midway through writing a scene and in the flow and write a bit I didn’t plan on, which will often end up being my favourite.

3. What advice would you give to someone who fell out of writing and wants to regain that feeling?

jumblejen: Most importantly, understand that while life is short, it’s also very long. It will come around again, you just have to be patient and gentle with yourself, and be sure you’re refilling your artistic “well.” Try to let go of the constraints and musts and have-tos around your writing. Pick something silly or absurd and just write a thing that doesn’t matter at all. I’ve found that can lead you back into that magical place where the words are flowing and your mind is so alive.

Rascal Hartley: Probably start small. Write little scenes you like. Don’t worry about context; it doesn’t matter. Just write only the bits and pieces you like, even if they’re just single sentences. And then you’ve written, and you’re at least one sentence closer than you were before, but most importantly: you had fun. That is, like, what it’s all about. Just have fun.

Anonymous #1: Okay so, first of all—this was me for the better part of a decade. I spent my entire youth, from before I could read into the early years of teenagedom writing. I spent hours on it, I wrote barely literate novels and works I’m sure I would still be proud of if I had them, and some time in high school I just lost my ability to word. It can be so, so difficult to start when you feel burnt out and the idea of writing is exhausting, or just following through with ideas you start and can’t seem to finish, and honestly, what got me back in was just… not caring? I had an epiphany, specifically writing a short joke fic, where I was spending all this time leading up to and explaining why the fic was happening, getting hung up on exposition (which is beautiful and I love writing btw), and it ended up dragging me to a point where I felt like I’d never finish (again). It sucks feeling like that, and I vented to a friend, and he said: just don’t fuss with it. Just write the joke. So… I did! I’ve always been a fan of a cold open, but sometimes I struggle to let myself write one. Drop your reader, your character, and yourself right where you want to be, and everything else will follow.

boneturtle: I’m in this place now. Although I am still producing words, it’s only when I have a contract and a deadline. I haven’t written any stories just for the joy of it in years. I have so many things I want to tell people, but I’m so worried about getting the words wrong. It’s paralyzing.

Lucy K.R.: Writing is a muscle, and like any muscle it can be overworked and strained. The ONLY cure for that strain is rest and stretching. That stretching can be focusing on reading for a while to remember why you wanted to write, engaging in small exercises to re-awaken your skills, or it can be stepping away from the written word all together and gaining a few new experiences about which to tell stories! However you approach it, consider it an injury—you have to let yourself heal, and come back to it slow in order to re-build your strength.

Puck: Do some really low-stakes writing. Visual artists practice by doodling, doing hand exercises like drawing circles, etc. So for writing, to get the muscles moving again, you can try writing to prompts, or do a short verbal sketch of a setting or a character. Try writing a vignette rather than something with a plot. Or, alternately, try plotting out a narrative without getting stuck on the prose.

Sage Mooreland: Let yourself cry and scream and be frustrated… but don’t blame yourself. I’m not saying don’t accept responsibility for whatever may actually be your actions that pulled you away from writing; that’s important to acknowledge and work on. What I’m saying is don’t carry the guilt or shame of falling away. You had reasons and that guilt is misplaced. Don’t bully yourself about it or into it, either. Be gentle. When I teach writing, I tell people to set up a note pad or digital document or something, set a timer, and write about literally anything. Even if the words are, “this sucks, this is hard, this sucks, this is hard,” or even just “fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck” over and over, you’re writing. When that timer is done, so are you. and you never have to look at it or touch it again. If you find that you wrote something you want to pursue, AWESOME! CHASE IT AND HAVE FUN WITH IT! But let yourself be bad. let yourself write and toss. Give yourself grace to be slow and struggle. The goal is to set yourself a routine of words. Not a habit. a routine.

S. J. Ralston: Make garbage and delight in making garbage. Give zero shits whether it’s good or not. Be self-indulgent, be ham-fisted, be nonsensical, be purple, be dumb. Treat writing the way you’d treat a walk in the park; it’s not about whether you’re good at it, it’s about whether you’re enjoying it!

Dev: For me, it helps to start small. A drabble, or a challenge that gives directions so that the onus isn’t entirely on me.

Anonymous #2: Read/watch/think about something that irritates you and then write how it should have gone if it was actually satisfying. Get really self indulgent. If you’re writing to please yourself you’ll never run out of steam and you might find that you’re telling a story that’s a lot more unique than if you’re writing people pleasers.

We got a blog post request from one of our backers on Patreon, to discuss classic Hollywood movies and related queerness – so here we are with a Duck Prints Press roundtable focused on our favorite classic Hollywood films, why we like the genre, and some classics that serve queer vibes. The contributors to this round table are: boneturtle, Nina Waters, Mikki Madison, E. C., YF Ollwell, Zel Howland, Linnea Peterson, Shannon, S. J. Ralston, Dei Walker, Meera S., Shadaras, Shea Sullivan and an anonymous contributor. Spellings and punctuation are [sic] throughout this post.

As an opener…

boneturtle: what is the definition of a classic hollywood movie? is it a particular time period?

Nina Waters: according to Wiki, “Style of filmmaking characteristic of American cinema between 1910s and the 1960s.”

1. What was your first introduction to classic Hollywood movies?

Nina Waters: My mother looooooved classic Hollywood movies, so I can’t remember any specific starting point. I think the first I really loved was The Wizard of Oz, though. Or maybe Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (so problematic, but the dancing still makes me so happy).

Mikki Madison: Oh no. I wrote a movie review blog in college and you have tapped into something primal in the back of my head with this. My dad was a HUGE fan of old Hollywood musicals so I grew up watching classic Hollywood movies. The most formative for me was probably The Sound of Music (although Nina. I am with you on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; I loved that one). But seriously – the music, the slow burn romance, the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one, the way Maria burrows her way into their lives and completely upends them, the adventure escape from the Nazis at the end…okay actually I’m realizing that was a lot more formative than I thought at the time, holy monkeys, how many of my favorite tropes can be traced to this.

E. C.: Do classic Disney movies count?  If not, probably The Wizard of Oz. And some of the classic musicals and Hitchcock movies with my mom.  (my brother was obsessed with The Sound of Music for a while, but that was 1965 so I don’t think that counts for this discussion)

YF Ollwell: (rubs my hands together evilly in doing PhD applications with a studio era project). My first introduction to classic Hollywood films was through my grandparents, but I came to LOVE them only recently vis-a-vis a professor and mentor in my Master’s program. he taught a studio system class that completely rewired my brain and showed me just how beautiful and rich this period of film was in a way i’d never considered. Also, without doxxing myself, my university hosts the paper archive of one of the major studios, so getting the opportunity to look at those documents only made me fall in love more.

Anonymous: Some Like It Hot, I believe. Technically, I watched Psycho earlier, but I was not paying attention. For some reason, the acting infuriated me and I couldn’t stand listening to anyone except Norman Bates.

Zel Howland: Probably Wizard of Oz! Not only did I grow up near where it was filmed, I was also in a stage production of it when I was a teen (playing Uncle Henry/the Emerald City Guard). It’s definitely not one of my favorite classics, but I do have a special place in my heart for it.

Linnea Peterson: My introduction to classic Hollywood movies was either The Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz. Both of those were frequent re-watches in my early childhood (like ages 3-6).

Shannon: I know I saw a bit of classic hollywood as a kid (these were later, but we had Charade and a few other Cary Grant movies around along with My Fair Lady) but I didn’t think about classic hollywood on its own until college when a professor said I seemed down and assigned me a Charlie Chaplin marathon for homework. This was for a Shakespeare class so we eventually found a way to tie it back to the coursework

S. J. Ralston: I also grew up in a house where we watched a lot of older movies, but it was probably something Buster Keaton did, or Casablanca.

Dei Walker: I know I watched Wizard of Oz as a young’un, my grandmother having been a Kansas farm girl, but the strongest memory I have is middle school, when a couple of the teachers ran a classic movie club. The first one I remember watching was Singin’ In The Rain.  ((you are now required to go watch the Tom Holland Umbrella lip sync video. It’s okay, I’ll wait.)) We also watched My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Meera S.: old hollywood movie: Wizard of Oz (1939)

2. What’s something that you love about classic movies that you feel is missing from modern movies?

Nina Waters: I think the writing on most classic movies was stronger, and the effects more interesting. Because they couldn’t just rely on computers, CGI, and advanced post-production to fix things, and also because being black and white or basic technicolor meant they couldn’t cover crap with lots of flashy bright colors, making something really good was a lot harder. As a result, a lot of old movies were crap, but there’s also a ton that shine so brilliantly without any of the modern distracting pizzazz.

boneturtle: okay, so i’ve watched two classic movies that i can remember: 12 Angry Men and The Yearling. I wouldn’t recommend either based purely on vibes, they’re depressing as hell, but I completely agree with Nina that the writing and artistry are just on another level and shine through more in these movies compared to modern films that can sometimes lean too heavily on special effects and high production quality rather than solid fundamentals. my favorite era in movies, though, is the 1980s. i am a huge fan of the 1980s coming-of-age movies, and part of that is because of their similar focus on the acting and the writing and simply telling a good story that sticks with you, rather than on creating exciting special effects or overselling the premise.

Nina Waters: oh 12 Angry Men is sooooo good. I’ve never seen the Yearling but I still remembering sobbing over the book so nopenopenope

boneturtle: yeah the movie was brutal

Nina Waters: 12 Angry Men I’ve done both (read and seen) and it’s depressing how completely 100% accurate it still is. The same can be said for a lot of classic movies that are about societal problems. Like, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington should be required watching imo. oh and All Quiet on the Western Front completely rewired my brain when I saw it. I still haven’t recovered. I can’t even bring myself to read it.

Mikki Madison: I agree with Nina – I think a lot of classic Hollywood movies still had deep roots in theater in terms of the writing and the acting and the practical effects, and that comes across in many of them to this day. Like, that’s one of the reasons I love 12 Angry Men – it’s based on a play and it’s set almost entirely in one room, and the drama of the story comes entirely from the interactions of these 12 strangers as they decide whether another human being deserves to die. It’s so tight. Also many of the actors didn’t just act; they sang, danced, played instruments, etc. I’ve watched White Christmas every year for like. 10 years, and I’m still so impressed with Vera-Ellen‘s dancing through the whole thing. and regarding practical effects and sets, I think even the old epics feel more epic precisely because to have a crowd of thousands, they had to literally have a crowd of thousands there to film

E. C.: LONG CUTS.  It’s especially noticeable in musicals, but even in regular movies, the footage used from one camera might last 10, 20, 30 seconds before it cuts to another angle.  It changes the entire feeling of the scene, to have all the action be by the actors/effects instead of generated by editing.

Meera S.: … what is missing: honestly save for a handful of exceptions the time and effort I think…

YF Ollwell: I think the actual LOOK of the films was so much richer than in films today, thanks to better lighting, costumes, and set design. I also prefer the studio style of acting, and there’s also so much more chemistry and eroticism between characters, paradoxically to (or, honestly, probably because of), all the restrictions on content. The average mid-century Hitchcock is SIGNIFICANTLY steamier than any so-called ‘erotic thriller’ today lol

Anonymous: Not gonna lie, I actually have a low tolerance for most of the acting styles found in this time period, particularly how gravely most of the leading men sound all the time. It’s like listening to a constant noir detective monologue and I hate it. That said, I do appreciate how much wonder Hollywood classics can carry with them. You can tell people were having fun making most of these films and exploring what the art form could do.

Zel Howland: MUSICALS. Movie musicals now try so hard to be ironic or self aware, they use autotune and modern singing style (let alone actors who are big names rather than big singing or dancing talent), and my biggest gripe is that nobody knows how to film dance anymore. I think a lot of cinematographers and directors and editors these days think dance is boring, so they do all these cuts and focus on individuals in big dance numbers and zoom in on faces. Whereas old Hollywood movie musicals would have long cuts of dance numbers that let the dance do the talking, in scenes where the dance was the point! (can you tell that I used to be a dancer? I have a lot of thoughts about this)

Shadaras: Practical effects my beloved <3 Seriously, the care and artistry that goes into practical effects, costuming, set design, etc is so incredible! And, as folk have been saying, having something actually there makes it a lot easier for actors to interact with and react to what’s going on instead of needing to imagine the digital effects which will be created in post. (I don’t know if it’s a direct response to the prompt so much as a grouch about modern movies, but: I wish that writers were more involved with production. I wish that actors were trusted with the full context of their scripts. I wish that people weren’t so freaked out about the idea of spoilers. If a story is good and the movie is well-produced, people will want to watch it even if they know every single beat! If you think your movie only works because of a surprise twist, that’s bad, actually!)

Linnea Peterson: Movie musicals that are just allowed to be musicals. I’m interested to see the Wicked movie that just came out, but I feel like on the whole there are fewer true movie musicals by percentage of movies made these days.

Shannon: I agree with what folks have said about the theatricality you get in older films. We get so many takes now and while it gives actors room to play and try things without worrying about how expensive literal film is, you also get close ups where they’re acting across from a stand in or with nobody there at all, and I think it loses a lot of the chemistry or dynamism of a back and forth uncut scene. Modern actors train to work without it, but audiences get so drawn in when that back and forth is onscreen, I think we miss it even if the performers can work without it

S. J. Ralston: I miss the lower fidelity visuals from old movies. I really don’t need to see every pore and hair lovingly rendered; it makes modern hi-fi movies look sticky and wet to me.

Dei Walker: Trusting the audience. Classic movies had you, and they knew they’d get the buy-in, and today it seems like there needs to be Explanations ™ and/or so much self-awareness. Just trust me to get what you’re putting down, okay? If you’re okay with going outside Hollywood, then I absolutely suggest Bollywood for more musicals.

3. What classic Hollywood movies give you the biggest “queer vibes”?

Nina Waters: Absolutely hands down my favorite for queer vibes is The Thin Man. I adore this movie, and when I was an adult I realized it’s because Nick and Nora have the epitome of bi4bi disaster bi energy. They’re fantastic.

Meera S.: There’s some speculation that irl Marylin Monroe was a lesbian (based on her diaries)  who only slept with men to get ahead and I’d fully believe that if it were any of my business but I don’t speculate on the dead other than to than say, “Alexander Hamilton would be a bi drama king today… if he had the words.” that’s fine saying absolutes about especially any historical figure is bad historian-ing. Cause speaking in absolutes when you don’t  know for certain is misinformation and misinformation is bad even if it serves your purposes. But if someone or a character says they are x thing I take them at their word. Like Cynthia Erivo talked about being bisexual in 2022 no one outed her. Like Lestat and Elphaba say they’re bi and their respective authors agreed in text and meta so.. bisexuality be upon you.

E. C.: The Philadelphia Story (and High Society), and all of the cross-dressing/drag comedies: Some Like It Hot, Victor and Victoria, etc. I’m sure I’m forgetting something obvious.

YF Ollwell: How about some classic Hollywood films that are queer, and (in my opinion) should be considered such even if they were hampered by censorship? Hitchcock made three that are stunning: Rebecca (1940), Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951). Queen Christina (1933) is also VERY queer. (i bring up hitchcock so much because he’s the subject of my capstone and i’ve been swimming in his documents and filmography for three months lol)

Mikki Madison: Hitchcock is classic for a reason. I remember the first time I watched Rear Window; I thought it was so slow to start, but I didn’t realize how gradually the tension had been increasing until I was absolutely on the edge of my seat and couldn’t look away

Nina Waters: I’ve never seen Hitchcock and I really need to fix that

E. C.: YES you do.  Rear Window and Rebecca are better places to start (imo) than, say, The Birds or Psycho (but I would love to hear YF Ollwell’s take)

YF Ollwell: if i had to pick the best starting point it’d be his run of three in the mid to late 50s (rear window, vertigo, and north by northwest), then psycho which is contextualized by those three, then uhh strangers on a train because i love it and its really good

S. J. Ralston: Strangers on a Train is also my favorite and it doesn’t get nearly enough love!

YF Ollwell: i am the world’s number 1 Rope defender and its easily the gayest of the three i mentioned (as in i have seen the production code memos that say ‘you need to make this film less gay’) but will also admit its not for everyone lol. psycho is still absolutely worth a watch from a purely formal and performance standpoint imo. it looks CRAZY. and there’s a scene between anthony perkins and martin balsam that my mentor finds an excuse to show in every class for good reason LOL

Mikki Madison: Rear Window and North by Northwest are my favorites, I think

Anonymous: Again, I am going to say Some Like It Hot, which is pretty textually queer! If that doesn’t count, then I’ll say The Wizard of Oz. Its camp vibes are unmatched.

Zel Howland: Some Like It Hot has already been mentioned, but it ought to be mentioned a million more times. Queerest film I’ve ever seen, I have no idea how that got past the censors. I’m also going to give an honorable mention to Singin’ In The Rain, which is less textually queer but has thee polycule of all time.

Shadaras: and +1 to Singin’ in the Rain as a queer movie/production

Shea Sullivan: Auntie Mame was a big one for me. Definitely had queer vibes. And Victor Victoria was amazing.

Shadaras: Victor Victoria! <3 Absolutely a movie with hella queer vibes

Linnea Peterson: I don’t have good answers to 3 and 4 because my peak movie-watching period has zero overlap with the part of my life where I’ve known I’m queer (movies are just not the kind of sensory and mental stimulus my autistic brain craves). I do have a friend who’s obsessed with the implied polycule in Singing in the Rain, though.

S. J. Ralston: “The Court Jester“! Not only does it have catchy musical numbers, a cast full of powerhouses (Danny Kaye! Angela Lansbury!), and some of the most elaborately comedic fight scenes ever put to film, the two protagonists are both So Very Gender and it’s a delight to watch.

Dei Walker: I honestly don’t know because I don’t watch a lot of movies at all, classic or not. One of my role models/coworkers growing up loved Audrey Hepburn, so Breakfast at Tiffany’s has queer vibes by adjacency but I wouldn’t say it in and of itself has a queer feel to me.

Meera S.: queer vibes: the wizard of Oz, and yeah it is cause the wicked years are bisexual and Ozma in the Oz books is basically trans by 1900s standards.

In conclusion, our list of queer-vibes classics for your enjoyment:

• Auntie Mame
• The Court Jester
• High Society
• The Philadelphia Story
• Queen Christina
• Rebecca
• Rope
• Singin’ in the Rain
• Some Like it Hot
• Strangers on a Train
• The Thin Man
• Victor/Victoria
• The Wizard of Oz

4. Do you know any queer fanworks inspired by classic Hollywood movies? What are they?

Nina Waters: S. J. Ralston’s contribution to Aether Beyond  the Binary  has some classic hollywood vibes/inspiration, even though it’s sci-fi with robots. (the robots are of classic Hollywood stars!)

Anonymous: Yes, plenty, most of which are based on The Wizard of Oz.

Shadaras: yeah, I was similarly going to say that I’d need to think about fanworks, but the Oz books are pretty queer on their own! there was recently a Classic Film Fanfic Exchange (ao3 | dw) which was an exchange for fanworks about movies released before 1/1/1980, which is a slightly broader period of time than we’re talking about! but it’s fun seeing what people requested and created, and that there was enough enthusiasm around the idea to have a whole exchange about it! (in other exchanges, Yuletide would inevitably have some fun fanworks for classic movies as well, but none come immediately to mind.)

Dei Walker: I do not, but this is making me want to see about writing some!

Talk classic Hollywood flicks to us! Which give you queer vibes? What classic-inspired modern queer works are you familiar with?

September is “Be Kind to Editors and Writers” Month. Earlier this month, we celebrated with a roundtable discussion with our editors, and now we’re back to share a roundtable chat we had with our authors!

The participants in this conversation are Sebastian Marie, Robin S. Blackwood, jumblejen, Max Jason Peterson, Lucy K.R., polls, boneturtle, Shannon, and Nina Waters.

1. What is your favorite self-care as a writer?

Sebastian Marie: My favorite self-care is going back and either a) reading through comments on something I really liked writing or b) rereading something I really liked writing.

Robin S. Blackwood: For me it’s revisiting inspirations. The books, films, music, that made me want to write, in the genres I write in…my inspirations vary from story to story but there’s some pretty strong ones present in all of them as I like to think I write out of love for the genre. And I do find I need “input” of stories or even music to “output” creative things of my own.

jumblejen: When things aren’t going well, I remind myself that while life is short, it’s also long. The inspiration will come ’round again. The words will flow. The story will go on. Recognizing that fallow periods are just as important as the productive ones has lowered my anxiety when I have a hard time writing. Especially in times of great stress and challenges, remembering this helps keep me from panicking.

Lucy K.R.: This is such a good reminder! I think often about how we as humans USED to be more in tune with the seasonality of production, as we were beholden to harvest times and seasonal ingredients, and I wonder if sometimes losing track of that has made it hard for us to recognize when our own internal soil needs to rest through a winter.

2. What kindnesses have others done for you to support your writing that you’ve appreciated?

polls: When I’m close to the deadline, I sit in front of the page for hours with little time for breaks, so something I appreciate a lot is when someone brings me snacks and coffee, or even breakfast after a long night of writing.

Nina Waters: Just…letting me write. Leaving me alone to do what I need to do. Also, comments are always extremely appreciated.

3. What’s an advice you’d like to give to people who want to support their writer friends?

polls: Volunteer as their rubber ducky! In programming, the concept of rubber duck debugging refers to talking out one’s problem to a rubber duck. For a writer, the best rubber ducky is a friend who will listen to them rant about their story. You don’t need to do much, in many cases the writer will clamber out of the plot hole by themself, although a strategically placed (yet honest) “yeah it makes sense!” can’t hurt

Nina Waters: This might be strange, but like, my advice is don’t offer to read their stuff unless you’re actually interested. I’ve had so many people go “oh, that sounds so cool! Where can I check it out?” and the like, and it’s hard not to notice when they then just…don’t check it out. I’d honestly far prefer that people just be honest. We writers know that not every story is for every reader, so support your writer friends with your honesty.

4. What’s a common misconception about being a writer that you’d like to correct?

boneturtle: One misconception about being a writer I’d like to correct is the idea that you have to be inherently talented to be a writer. This is just not true. People come to it with different backgrounds and skill levels, but ultimately writing is a craft that you can learn and improve with practice, not an inborn talent. What separates writers from non-writers is that writers write. That’s it. If you have a story you want to tell, and you’re willing to see it through from start to finish, then you’re a writer, too.

Shannon: I’m sure there’s someone out there who still thinks that writers are rich. The folks on the bestseller list are generally not bringing in millions unless they’re the very rare exceptions

Robin S. Blackwood: I think the biggest misconception is the idea that suffering is a key aspect of being a writer/will make you a better writer. From outside the community this idea can be very blatant, that you can only be a good writer if you’re miserable (especially if you write about bad things happening, some think you need to have lived through it), but from inside the community it, in my experience, tends to be take a different form – that you shouldn’t expect to ever have fun writing, if you have fun writing you’re not taking it seriously enough, if you like your own work you’re probably just not good enough to spot the flaws – the idea that if someone wrote a thing and thinks it’s good it’s probably awful and they’re childish and silly, because a real writer would hate every word of their own writing and be miserable about it all. Like, obviously writing isn’t easy and can be slow and difficult, and obviously editing your work and improving your work does involve noticing things that need improvement, you probably won’t develop as a writer if you think all your first drafts are flawless masterpieces, but at the end of the day….if you’re miserable throughout the process and hate the result maybe you should take a break or something, because it’s not meant to be like that?

boneturtle: I do want to say that on the flip side the writer you describe is still out there, because that’s me. I don’t think I’m more or less real because I hate everything I write, I just think of it as a handicap I have to work around to produce my work. Whether it’s meant to be that way or not isn’t really something for me to dwell on because that’s just how it is.

Robin S. Blackwood: That’s fair and I’m sorry you have that difficulty – as you say though it’s a thing some people struggle with, but it’s not like…something people should try and make themselves feel to be a real writer – I hope I didn’t come across as saying that writers who don’t like their work are bad writers, I know some great writers who don’t have a lot of confidence in their work and had no intention of saying any individual’s feelings about their work are wrong, it’s more when it becomes a widespread expectation in a community that this is the only right attitude to have I’ve found it can cause some issues

boneturtle: Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. Thinking that you’re more valid because you suffer is a pernicious stereotype in art. I just wanted to make sure that the perspective from the other side was also noted; there’s no shame in feeling that way. It’s just a thing that happens, unrelated to your merit.