I belong to the professional organisation the Romantic Novelists' Association, which I joined over thirty years ago when I still thought I could write romance. Despite finding out that I couldn't, and it was much harder than I thought, I've stayed a member, mainly because I made so many friends in the beginning, and I've kept them. I received an awful lot of encouragement all that time ago, and although I didn't become a published novelist through their admirable New Writers Scheme, I support it and recommend it and the Association to all aspiring writers.
At their conference this year it was decided to form a separate LGBTQIA Chapter for those who either identify as LGBTQIA or write books about LGBTQIA characters. While I applaud the RNA for this initiative, I'm sad that we need it. I've had two male gay main characters in my series from the start, and they even got married - well civilled - in 2006. A couple of years later I introduced two female gay characters, one of them a vicar, who also became regulars. The series is 19 books long, plus a novella, three shorts and two magazine shorts, and in all that time, I've only had one complaint - a handwritten letter from a lovely lady in a nursing home in Scotland, which I've kept.
This is faintly surprising, as I write what is called in America "cosy" crime, which, over there, certainly has a fairly conservative readership. I doubt very much if I have many readers in the so-called Bible-Belt.
This particular community (and I suggest, if you don't recognise the acronym, you look it up on Google, Ecosia or your other favourite search engine) is one I have been familiar with all my life. And yes, I do mean "ALL my life". I, of course, am incredibly old and incredibly straight, but I grew up with a gay honorary brother who was part of my life until we unnaccountably lost touch in the 1980s. He was an usher at my wedding, among the other five almost aggresively straight friends of the groom. I worked in an environment notable for its, shall we say, inclusivity. Several, actually. It has never, ever occurred to me to think of, or treat the community any differently from anyone else, in the same way that because I grew up in the south London community of black people they, to me were just people. My parents were obviously extremely forward thinking, because they kept all the bitterness, prejudice and hatred from my small ears, and loved my honorary brother as much as I did.
In fact, I'm slightly annoyed with myself that I felt it necessary to write this post. I don't want ANYONE singled out, female, male, LGBTQIA, black, white, sky-blue-pink - what's the difference for heaven's sake? Years ago, when she was a young teenager, my younger daughter suggested that a good theme tune for Children in Need on the BBC would be the Blue Mink song "A Great Big Melting Pot". I think it would be a great theme song for all of us.
http://www.lesleycookman.co.uk/
