I said it was going to happen.I found a (sort of) reasonably priced copy of SENATOR SWISH and used my tablet to read each tawdry, trashy page!
“You know what I’m like in bed, for God’s sake. How can I be queer?” - Van Clayton
Van Clayton is an attorney who is throwing his hat in a race to be Senator and hoping to marry Jennifer Parker, the love of his life. However, Jennifer isn’t ready to give up her career as a fashion editor at a top magazine. It’s 1968, so perhaps Jennifer has yet to hear how women can marry AND have a career. Anyhoo, Jennifer’s jet-setting career in the fashion world is taking her away for an extended period, leaving Van alone. Not for long though!
During Jennifer’s absence, her brother Jeff arrives in town. He has secretly quit college and taken a job as an instructor at a tennis school. Jeff resembles Jennifer quite a bit, which intrigues Van. Soon enough the tennis instructor is instructing the potential Senator in the art of man-on-man action! Is Van simply transferring his passion for Jennifer to her brother or does he swish both ways?
Oh, but wait…there’s more!
Things are going well between the two men until Van takes a trip to Washington D.C. to secure his bid to run for Senator. There he meets Alex Marshall, “a professional party-crasher and a good-for-nothing polo player.” Well, Alex wants to play more than polo with Van. Even though a certain part of Van wants to play, he refuses Alex’s advances. Then the refusal turns violent when Alex reveals he knows of Van’s tryst with Jeff. Van punches Alex, who hits his head on the way down.
Did Van kill Alex and what does Jeff know about this other man? What will happen when Jennifer returns and why does Jeff have a tie clip with the initials “W.R.” on it? I suppose since this book is out-of-print, I should just tell you the convoluted ending…
SPOILER ALERT
Jeff is really a man named Wayne Richards, who is Alex Marshall’s “roommate”. Together, Alex and Wayne devised this elaborate set-up to blackmail Van and because they both desired his manly physique or whatever. Jennifer ultimately saves Van’s “manhood” by returning and convincing Van to call their bluff. The blackmailers (Alex is alive) have trapped themselves because they could get arrested for engaging in homosexual activity, so they give up.
In the very end, Van meets the real Jeff and has to passionately kiss Jennifer in front of her brother. Is he trying to prove something to himself or is the author simply making it very clear that Van is a “real man” again? I suspect the latter, but I imagine Van will eventually have the real Jeff on the side because the possible future Senator straight-up enjoyed gay sex!
“Everyone has a little bit of that sort of thing in them. Some never let it come out. Some do. When it happens, it happens. That doesn’t mean it turns you into some kind of freak.” - Jennifer Parker
In conclusion… Unlike DESIRE IN THE SHADOWS, I didn’t feel a connection to SENATOR SWISH. Oh, I enjoyed the convoluted plot. I even laughably rolled my eyes at the old “effeminate homosexual villain” trope. However, my disconnect may stem from broadly drawn characters and an extremely hetero-centric slant to the story. On more than one occasion, instead of calling the character “Jeff” or “the young man”, the author simply referred to him as “the f—“. I know it was 1968, but it was a bit jarring and makes me wonder where the author fell on the sexuality spectrum. Anyhoo, despite its problematic overtones, SENATOR SWISH was an oversexed (straight & gay), trashy page-turner that I’m glad I experienced, though the alliterative title and the amusing tagline are probably the best parts of the book.
Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words.
Freak Out, JLH
P.S. Click the pic ⤵️ to learn about the book which started me down this rabbit hole of Vintage Gay Pulp Fiction…
I had to say goodbye to Mr. B, the sweetest, roughest ol' tomcat I've ever known. He had been abandoned by his mother many years ago, and he adopted me & my sis. It's a quieter home without him. Then I was confronted by the failure of VISION BENT in finding library readers, which said a lot about how my small Nebraska town views this half-blind freakboy. As insignificant. As a failure. As shit. Yeah, I'm probably projecting my own insecurities onto the population of my town, but small American towns aren't all Andy Griffith and apple pie, if you know what I mean. Oh, and there was also an abundance of Spring snow to bury any good mood threatening to bloom.
Yet, despite the negative vortex, I can honestly say not all of April was shit.
I spent the first Saturday of the month with my Dark Excursions muse and her sister. On the second Saturday, a cousin and I took a much needed road trip. A good deal of fun was had on both Saturdays.
At Penny's Diner in North Platte, NE.
Then, as the month drew to a close, a bit of inspiration blew in my general direction. I jokingly mentioned that my next book would be a coffee table book of orange underwear pics. The idea amused me so much that i snapped a photo of my orange underwear on the kitchen table. Suddenly, a title popped into my head and I set about designing a cover for this ridiculous book.
Once finished, I half-looked upon my visual creation and realized this was potentially more than a fake cover to a cheeky peek into my orange obsession. This was a real cover to a book i had not yet written. The gears in my head began to creak to life, blowing the dust and cobwebs out of my mindscape.
Dropping, um...2020? Maybe?
Hopefully sooner.
I studied the orange and brown cover of A STUDY IN ORANGE, zooming in and out while adjusting my Mad Scientist Glasses. My initial impression was that I captured a 1950's dime store paperback vibe. Then the sharp edges slicing through the cover, fracturing the image, made me think of a crime drama or mystery in a film noir vein. Last but certainly not least, the orange underwear added a lurid romance angle to the mix.
So, writing a lurid mystery-romance is what I've been doing lately and it feels good. The process is reminding me of writing Dark Excursions. As the words spring from my fingertips, I want to get to know these characters better, learn what aspects to their personalities they are hiding from me. I want to inhabit their tantalizing world and explore what's around each corner.
I may have a basic idea of the plot, but my fictional writing process is like a flexible sponge, soaking up and incorporating random elements into the story. I know how the book begins and I have a general idea of the ending, but there's a lot of uncharted territory in between. I enjoy allowing the characters a certain amount of freedom to reveal themselves and potentially alter the plot.
LITTLE KNOWN FACT
I originally didn't intend for Crop to be romantically inclined to Dinkel in Dark Excursions. It wasn't until I wrote Chapter 6 that I realized Crop had feelings beyond friendship for the one-armed gardener. I can't even imagine how different DE would be without that romance at its core.
I hope the cover for A STUDY IN ORANGE, which I think is my best fiction book cover to date, will keep me inspired and motivated. I have a bad habit of losing interest in a project, but I hate the idea of letting the cover go to waste. We shall half-see what happens, and I'll occasionally update you on my progress.
In conclusion, April may have generally been a shit month, but perhaps amazing things can grow from excrement. 💩
Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words.
