Update

By popular demand, meaning Th. has requested it, here is an update on "Out":

As far as I know, no one else at the library has read my essays. Which is, to be honest, frustrating. Because it means one of two things:
1. People are reading the essays but they feel too awkward or even (Heaven forbid) nonplussed to say anything to me.
2. No one has read the essays. Meaning that, even though everyone says they think it's cool that I've published something, they don't care enough to actually read it.

I'd really like someone to say something. Even if it's "Master Fob, I think you're a weirdo and a perv." At least that would mean they care. Sigh.

Actually, there are two people at the library who I suspect have read my essays. They are regular Dialogue readers and are good friends with the editor. He (the editor) commented to me several weeks ago that he was talking with them about the upcoming issue and my name came up. I'm not sure exactly what he told them about my essays, but I would hope their curiousity would be piqued enough to at least take a look. The thing is, neither of them is the type to be all that affected by something like this. Their reaction would probably be something like, "Oh, he's gay. Well, so are three dozen other friends of mine." But then, they haven't said anything so I don't know.

On a brighter note, I got an email this morning from Ty Mansfield, the author of In Quiet Desperation, which is a book that came out last year telling the story of his struggle with same-gender attraction (which is the Mormon/conservative Christian terminology for homosexuality). After reading his book last December, I emailed him to tell him I respected him for writing the book and using his real name, and I mentioned that I had an essay that would be coming out in Dialogue. We corresponded back and forth a few times, and I decided he was a top-rate fellow. Anyway, he emailed me this morning to tell me he read my essays and he likes them. I am flattered.