Guest Post - Kerry Freeman - Explaining Slash to the Unintiated

Explaining Slash to the Uninitiated - by Kerry Freeman

Yesterday I was at the local salon indulging in my one truly girly activity: getting a manicure. (I’m pretty sure people see me in my goofy t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers and wonder why in the world I have such awesome nails. I don’t know why. I just like it, okay?)

As I was paying my bill, some of the stylists and I were talking about my upcoming trip to Albuquerque for GayRomLit. One lady looked at me and asked, “How did you end up writing gay romance anyway?”

Ah, such a long story...

And I basically blamed it on slash. Of course, most people don’t know what the hell I’m talking about when I say that (but I know y’all do). So I explained it this way:

“Fan fiction is taking the characters from someone else’s book or movie or TV show and writing your own story about them.”

She nodded. She understood that.

“And slash is taking two (usually heterosexual) characters and writing stories about them as a gay couple.”

She tilted her head and squinted at me. I’d lost her.

“For example, people write stories about Kirk and Spock in Star Trek. I happen to like stories about Edward and Jacob in Twilight and Harry and Draco in Harry Potter.”

Still squinting, she asked if I ever wrote anything else.

It’s hard to explain about the voices in your head without sounding like a nutjob, but I did it anyway. “I used to, but most of the voices in my head are men. I write men better than women.”

Yep, there it was: the “oh God, I’m talking to a psycho” look. This is usually the point in the conversation when people say, “Oh, how nice,” and begin to back away from me slowly.

My husband says that maybe I should not be so forthcoming with people I barely know. He hates to imagine that anyone would think his blushing bride is not all there mentally.

Awww. Isn’t that sweet? He doesn’t realize that everyone probably thinks that already ;)

Still, while some people are put off by the entire concept of slash, many more are intrigued to discover that someone somewhere also thinks that Iron Man and Captain America have more than a bromance going. Me, I’m all about Captain Jack Harkness and the Tenth Doctor.

Who are your favorite slash pairings?

----

Thank you N.R. for having me on your blog! And everyone, please visit the tour kickoff post (http://kerryfreeman.com/2012/10/pine-tar-sweet-tea-virtual-tour-kickoff/) to enter the super-duper tour giveaway.