Author Rick R. Reed posted an interview with me today, short and sweet, just like I like ‘em. http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/2009/08/bryl-r-tyne-almost-too-silly-for-words.html Take a moment to check out my answers to Rick’s ten silly questions.

Have you ever reached the point where you faced the mirror and pondered, “Maybe I’m destined to be alone?”

Summary:

Ethan has, and yet, he finds no solace in accepting that as his fate. Lifestyle choices only exacerbate his loneliness. For even though he’s pushing middle age, he’s far from having a face only a mother would love. Ethan could frequent the bars or clubs and, from the variety, pick up a nice-looking man to unwind his loneliness. Maybe for the night, a few days, a week, or maybe a few months, enjoy the company and waning affections of a stranger, all the while, hoping this one may turn into something more, but that’s not what Ethan wants. No, he longs for substance, compatibility, a special someone, who’s in it for the long haul. A man, Ethan can feel comfortable around, a man with similar tastes, likes, dislikes, a man, whom perhaps someday, Ethan can fall in love.

After overhearing a coworker rambling on about an Internet hook-up site, Ethan begins to wonder if maybe his conventional methods of finding love are outdated, maybe evolved. With trepidation, he recreates his personal best for the site and places himself on display in the virtual meat-market. Maybe he’ll find a man, unable to find what he seeks using conventional means, on the verge of declaring celibacy, taking a chance with this modern marketplace, in hopes of finding a man like Ethan.

When his honest portrayal fails to draw interest, his self-esteem in the balance, Ethan reasons, a touch of dishonesty might be okay. Thinking many of these virtual studs must be doing just that, besides, he’d never have to meet face to face. His fanciful decision pays off. One look at Ethan’s improved (fake) user pic, and he’s bombarded with propositions. Among those, Brian, a man with substance, a man possessing uncanny compatibility with Ethan, the man of Ethan’s dreams, resides. Mutual feelings abound, Brian making his intentions clear. Problem, one of those intentions involves meeting Ethan in person.

Review:

We see a different side of Rick Reed, the horror writer, in VGL Male Seeks Same. In this contemporary romance, Reed proves his skill mapping emotion and inner workings of a lonely person in search of love, true love. While portraying loneliness often calls for angst, Reed artfully paints Ethan as realistic a person as any one of us.

Ethan, a man, who knows himself and what he wants, a personable man, who seeks same. Most can relate to this, as I did. With each new feeling, emotion, and reaction revealed, I found myself recalling when I had been there and done or felt, exactly as Ethan. Fully entwined with Ethan’s life, when Brian enters the scene, I found myself, once again, reliving my past – errs and poor judgment calls, along with the consequences.

Brian appears almost too good to be true at first, and he is, in his own way. Here again, Reed’s arsenal of skills shines, as Ethan and Brian embark on the rollercoaster ride of a budding relationship. Using realism and lighthearted humor, Reed illustrates his intended message – Know thyself, believe in who you are, remain determined in your dreams, and never give up hope – somehow, from somewhere, your prince will come bearing a love incomparable.

VGL Male Seeks Same is a realistic, yet lighthearted romance you will close with a knowing smile.

5 out of 5 stars

Nothing is more touching than real stories from real people. People, like myself and I’m sure,
many of you, who have “been there, done that, and sadly, got the t-shirt” whether we wanted
it or not.

Horror writer Rick R. Reed said it best in his Myspace blog today. With his permission, I am reposting his enlightening piece. From his heart to yours…

Parallels: Coming Out and the Fight for Marriage Equality

The other day, I posted a YouTube video of commentator Keith Olbermann’s wise, common
sense, and compassionate words on marriage equality. His was one of the best arguments I’ve
ever heard in a loud and often insane discourse on the topic.

But one part of his talk really shook me up and I haven’t been able to get it out of my
head, because it really hit home for me personally. It might have gone by too quickly for
you to ponder, so this is what he said:

“And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society
into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just
marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame
and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless
other lives, of spouses and children, all because we said a man couldn’t marry another man,
or a woman couldn’t marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage.”

I am one of those people he’s referring to. I can be counted. For seven years, from age 23
to age 30, I was a married man…in the kind of marriage that’s legal in all fifty states. We had
a son during that time. And we worked hard and created a life that was pretty much the
American dream: the two car garage with attached house, the kid in kindergarten, the cute
puppy, and the circle of straight friends who were pretty much like ourselves.

But what those straight friends, the child, nor the puppy knew, I was living a life “in shame
and unhappiness.” Make no mistake: I dearly loved my wife (and still do); my son was my world
(and still is); those friends meant a lot to me (and some were even surprisingly supportive when
this perfect-looking little world began to crumble). But I was living a lie. All of my friends were
straight; my coworkers at my job were straight; my family of origin loved the son who was now
a husband and father. And all the while, I was wrestling with these desires I naively assumed
would go away when I married. I believed the Christian right’s assertion that being gay was a choice…and that was the most damning belief of all. That belief messed up not only my life
but the lives of people whom I dearly loved.

It took me a long time to accept myself for who I really was, to be brave enough to show
the world my true face and say love it or leave it. And it took years to understand how I could
have known something so fundamental to my very being and to not accept it.

I titled this blog with the word “parallels” and I think there is a parallel with my struggle to
accept myself as a gay man and the broader fight the LGBT community are fighting as a whole.
See, the more I pushed myself down, the more I beat back the urges I couldn’t deny, the more
I tried to be someone I simply was not, the stronger, it seemed, that person beneath the mask became. That person behind the mask, with all the pain he was suffering as he was scuttled
into the shadows of the closet, grew angrier and angrier and more despondent at being told:
“No. You cannot be. You are sick and diseased and not worthy of the love you are
now getting.”

I think, in the end, a lot of that beating down (mostly by myself) only made the gay man
behind the mask stronger, so that when he did finally come out of the closet, he was finally
ready to accept himself and his new life, with all its own problems, pitfalls…and yes, joys. But
it was his life…and not a life he thought society thought he should have.

I think the parallel to me personally and the larger fight going on now is that these setbacks,
these right wingers beating us down and saying: “No. You cannot have what we have, even if
we lose absolutely nothing by giving it to you” is making the whole community at large stronger,
more mobilized, and more determined. With each beating down, we rise up stronger and more determined, just like my own gay self did, back when I hid from who I was. What these right
wing haters do not realize is that their efforts are harming us only superficially: they are making
us more willing to stand up and fight for what is right and what is ours. That little core, both
inside a closeted person living a lie, and an oppressed community, can go only two ways: the
first is to give up to despair and the second is to finally stand up and say: “There’s nothing
wrong with me. I am as deserving of love and acceptance as anyone else.”

Author Rick R. Reed: Web site or Myspace