Wilde Oats is on the Monday Morning Excerpt Blog!

For this week’s excerpt, Eric Spector posted the opening chapter of Anel Viz’s story from our current issue, “An Island Interlude”.  He also provides some basic information on our zine, and Anel tells why he submits a story to us every issue. The reasons he gives are very flattering.

Eric’s blog has a lot of loyal followers and gets lots  of hits. Great publicity for the zine you love to love!

http://glfictionexcerpts.blogspot.com/?zx=b5f2e46cae374634

The Frenchman

A dark but finely written story from a frequent contributor to Wilde Oats, Anel Viz, set in 1830s frontier America.

Fur Trapper's Log Cabin, Canada.  From Corbis Images

I asked Corniaud about the name he’d given the Frenchman. He said it meant hairy body, a good description, I thought, not that I ever saw more of him than his head: the shaggy, dark shoulder-length mane, bushy eyebrows and thick beard. His hairy hands, too. Only Corniaud knew what he looked like under his buckskins. They were lovers, after all. He didn’t keep Corniaud with him just to talk. If other people suspected, they kept it to themselves, as did I, who knew it for a fact. It neither embarrassed nor disgusted me that they slept together. Who’s to say I wouldn’t have done the same if I were in his place? Even a loner like the Frenchman can’t live without sex.

I don’t think it was by choice he lived with a boy instead of a woman. The Frenchman was not the kind of person who actively seeks companionship. No white woman would have had him even if he lived in town, and I couldn’t imagine he’d have thought it worth the trouble to haggle for a squaw. Corniaud fell into his lap by chance, and the arrangement suited him.

You can read more here.

Anel Viz's Kaleidoscope

Anel Viz, a frequent contributor to Wilde Oats,  has just had another book published.  This time it's a collection of short stories called Kaleidoscope.  I haven't read it myself, but here's the publisher's blurb:

In these seven stories, the author explores people’s shifting views of each other, of the images they project, and of themselves.  Individuals fragment, the pieces fall into ever-changing patterns like bright confetti in the base of a kaleidoscope, and our ideas about sexuality color what we see.

Proteus - Dr. Krone puzzles over the real persona of a student whose dress, body language and opinions change from one class to the next.

Roomies - Each of three men who share a condo plays to a different gay stereotype, masking the individual personalities that lie beneath the façade.

Photographic Memories - A witness at a trial for a gay killing harbors some doubts that the accused is the man he saw leave with the victim.

Facing the Music - Two lovers are forced by their church to enter a reconditioning program to cure their homosexuality.

Kevvy - A popular high school student befriends a gay classmate.

Polygon - A man’s fantasies about watching his wife have sex with a woman lead to suspicions about her sexual orientation and that of his best friend.

Since the Reunion - “Spouses and significant others welcome.” How many will attend? How have they changed over the past 25 years?

Anel Viz's Wilde Oats home page can be accessed here, and we also have reviews of his novels too:

The House in Birdgate Alley
City of Lovely Brothers
P'tit Cadeau
The Memoirs of Colonel Gérard Vreilhac

You can read Anel's blog here.

 

Moonrise Over The Nile

It looks as if we might get the novella Moonrise Over The Nile by Anel Viz for Wilde Oats. It'll be published in several sections over a few issues because of its length, but the first episode will be in the next issue.

Here's a snippet:

Silently, so as not to disturb the sleeping Pharaoh, Apara rose from the couch and snuffed out the single oil lamp that flickered on the low table strewn with the remains of their supper. Darkness flooded the room. Moving cautiously lest he tread on one of the salukis that lay curled up on the floor, he went out onto the balcony to watch the moon rise over the Nile.

The chill night air caressed his naked body as gently as Pharaoh’s lips. Beyond the landing at the foot of the palace, the river stretched left and right like a motionless ribbon of empty space. The night was so dark, Apara could barely distinguish the outlines of the sacred city of Gebtu, one-half mile distant on the east bank.

He waited, gazing back at the cat-eyes of the goddess Bast that glinted unblinking in the inky depths of the heavens. They began to fade as falcon-headed Khonsu climbed from behind the dunes on the further shore, the pale disk of the moon cradled in his crescent headpiece. The sands lightened from dark ochre to glowing cream, the date palms cast faint shadows, the river came alive with the white ripples of lapping waves, and the massive columns of the balcony shimmered with reflected light.

Directly above him, undimmed by Khonsu’s rising, shone three stars in a straight line. Pharaoh had traced them in night sky after their first lovemaking and told him they were the khenen of Min, the god of rain, procreation and the harvest, and guardian of the moon. Then, kissing him, he’d said, “Yours is no less splendid.”

The Memoirs of Colonel Gérard Vreilhac

Anel Viz has been a frequent contributor to Wilde Oats and its predecessor Forbidden Fruit. Recently his first published novel The Memoirs of Colonel Gérard Vreilhac has been published by DreamSpinner Press, as an e-book and paperback.

You can read a review of Mr Viz' novel here.

Here is a quote from the review:

"There are four main romantic interests in Gérard’s life and each is drawn in loving detail. There is Julien, the charming and endangered aristocrat, who appears and disappears more than once in the course of the novel. There is Laurent, the Parisian, effeminate in his dealings with Gérard but adventurous and bloodthirsty when it comes to soldiering. There is Akmoud, the exotic Egyptian servant, who makes Gérard’s time in Egypt pleasurable and memorable. There is Anatole, the French prostitute who leaves the streets for Gérard and eventually follows him into the countryside. There are others, but these four are at the heart of the book and we care deeply for the fate of each one. Nothing runs smoothly for anyone, and there is sometimes almost unbearable tension, which can be followed by tears of pity or a sigh of heartfelt relief. Whilst Gérard never denies his attraction to other men, he admits to loving these four and it is one of the strengths of the novel that the reader is brought to love them too."

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Wilde Oats is how tyro writers in our pages go on to fame and fortune. Anel Viz is just one of them. We provide a place for quality gay-shaded fiction, a place where gay/bi fiction can be published and read, whether you're an unknown or the doyen of gay publishing.

Keep reading our zine -- one day you'll be able to say.... I knew him (or her) when....