thelesbianlifestyle.com

“Sometimes my muse sings beautiful arias, but mostly she just belches the alphabet.”

I spend my days telling lies — useful lies, elaborate lies, even blatant lies. In other words, I write fiction. I don’t make much money doing it. And so far, Oprah hasn’t called to talk about my latest work on her show. So why would a questionably sane lesbian such as myself spend her days pounding her head against the keyboard trying to bodge together characters and conflicts? It is because there are stories that need to be told.

Let’s face it, when it comes to lesbian literature, most of it can be filtered into a few overdone categories:

• Coming out stories - When you’ve been out as long as I have, these hold little interest.
• Lesbian Romances - I’m a butch, so when it comes to cheesy romances…not so much.
• Erotica - A little bit goes a long way, if you know what I mean.
• Lesbian Serial Murder Mystery - An odd sub-genre which has seen better days. Where is Kate Calloway, anyway?

So when I decided to write the Great American Lesbian Novel last November (which was National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, for short), I wanted to tell a story that didn’t fit into those categories. After all, life as a lesbian is more than coming out, falling in love, having passionate sex in public places and finding dead bodies (thank Goddess).

In fact, much of the last 12 years for me has centered around staying sober and getting rid of my destructively insane beliefs and behaviors. Yeah, that’s me. I’m Dharma and I’m an alcoholic. Accordingly, most of my friends are also in recovery. Hardly surprising considering addiction is three times more common among us queers than among the general population.

So I decided to tell the largely untold stories of lesbians in recovery and all of the challenges that those of us who live outside the bars face. Trust me, in the recovering community there is plenty of drama. It’s not all morality tales and afterschool specials. It’s dysfunctional relationships, untimely deaths, DUIs, control issues — you know, the fun things in life.

I expect to wrap up my final draft of “A Sense of Community” fairly soon and will keep you updated on its progress.

Peace out, namaste and write on!
Dharma Kelleher
www.dharmashanti.com