Where Darkness Could Loom

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”
― Mark Twain

What if the trans community had finally snapped?

For Pride, I made the conscious decision to write two sets of stories. One set of lights and one set of the dark. I wanted to have the light stories to be inspirational and hopeful towards the future of the LGBTQ+ community. On the flip side, I wanted the dark stories to serve as cautionary tales for people in – and out – of the LGBQT+ community. It’s A Damn Shame, Really falls under the latter category and for really good reasons.

Now, just to be clear, I wrote this story way before the bill was passed regarding federal trans rights which my friends and I leaped for joy about. A major step forward for everybody – both in and out of the trans community. But remember that the fight isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

I based this story on a conversation I had with a friend of mine who did security with me in The Gayborhood (Philadelphia’s gay village). We were talking about how wonderful his then-boyfriend was and how much humility he had. This led me to shift the conversation in a darker direction by saying a few simple words: I wonder what would happen if he went dark? He didn’t take offense to it. In fact, he was just as intrigued as I was and we spent another hour or so talking about it.

We spoke about it at great length and I took mental notes of it all and I already had a story building from it. Since his then-boyfriend was a transgender man, we started with, at the time, the lack of trans right in our country and what would happen if a transgender man has enough of all the abuse. It was a common question with a predictable outcome but the magnitude was something you couldn’t predict – only speculate. However, speculating is one of my fortes as a science fiction writer.

Anyway, I told everything we talk about and got it down on paper while I was on the train ride home. And, while I was at it, I began to form a character that would be an outsider looking in and regretting what he found. I wanted the crime to so repulsive that he began to question everybody around him. The outline took me about three outlines. It was the quickest I’ve ever written an outline; usually, it takes me a full day – if I’m lucky.

Well, I told my friend about the story I was writing and he was in a little shock and awe about it all. He didn’t expect that dark of the story from me and I enlighten him that I’m always inspired by Rob Sterling’s Twilight Zone and it all made sense to him. I even gave him the heads-up about the twist ending I was planning for the story. He opted not to read the full story until I released it. I hope he likes it. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.