Larry Benjamin. Wordsmith. Writer. Author.

It’s Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! Now, I know Thanksgiving can be difficult for a lot of people especially if you’re LGBT. If Great Aunt Gertie doesn’t want to hear about your “lifestyle,” fuck her. After all, you -didn’t want to hear about her bunion surgery or her 1947 hysterectomy that caused her to lose all her hair, but you listen with your rictus smile and glazed over yes nodding politely. Mon doesn’t want your boyfriend at her Thanksgiving table well stay home. Make your own turkey for you and him—it’s not that hard. And while you’re at it why not invite the intern from work who can’t afford to go home for Thanksgiving. And the older divorced woman down the hall who is so pleasant. Thanksgiving is about family but it doesn’t have to be the family you were born into or which you married into. Family is composed of the people it is not painful to be around. Family is made up of the people who support you. Who love you enough to let you be you .   I’m off to brin...

Years ago, we moved to the ‘transitional” neighborhood of Germantown (in Philadelphia), then said to be on the verge of a comeback. There was much talk about The Germantown Renaissance which was talked about breathlessly and in the tone of reverence usually reserved for people who “know” computers and pop stars who appear in bikinis two weeks after giving birth. Sixteen years later there is still talk of The Germantown Renaissance . This reminds me of all the news that short stories were poised for a comeback, its return to popularity fueled, in part, by shrinking attention spans and the proliferation of electronic devices.   I am as dubious about the Short Story Renaissance as I am about The Germantown Renaissance. Short stories seem to be the stepchild of literature.   Publishers don’t seem to want to publish them. When I started shopping around my first collection of short stories, I was told that no one would publish a collection of short stories, unless I’d first writ...

Fellow writer Andrew Q. Gordon and I had a video chat the other day, as part of Prism Book Alliance’s “Outside the Margins” series. We talk about everything from writing to marriage to diversity in LGBT fiction to his thoughts on my writing a sequel to What Binds Us , to my next release.  So if you'd like to see us “unplugged,” pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee and watch. Feel free to leave a comment on Prism’s page. One random commenter will win a $25 gift certificate. A Chat with Larry Benjamin ~ Andrew Q Gordon: Outside the Margins   Follow me on Twitter and Facebook .

Today, I’m over at Rainbow Gold Reviews talking about the state of LGBT fiction, why I write what I do, whether or not my fictional characters are based on real people, and what’s next. Check it out here .  Then check out Marc’s response to my thoughts on m/m romance vs. gay fiction here . Then join the conversation and tell us what you think.

I loved this post so much, I asked Ken if I could share it. Kenneth Larsen writes...: Scenes in the making : Weddings are wonderful events, but much like the arrival of a new baby, nobody wants to hear about it every day. I like to think I’ve done a...

Probably not many people know this but short stories were my first love. I cut my teeth, so to speak, on short stories. My second book, Damaged Angels , a collection of short stories, was actually the first book I wrote. But I was told more than once that I needed to publish a novel before I could publish short stories. At any rate, this year I’m returning to short stories—at least for a while. Writing novels is great because you have a longer time frame— What Binds Us spans a decade and Unbroken unfolds over 40 years—so you have time to develop your characters, to let readers watch them change and grow.   But I wanted to go back to short form fiction which has a much smaller time period.    My newest story is the holiday themed, “The Christmas Present,” which is one of 24 stories from the Beaten Track Publishing’s holiday anthology, Boughs of Evergreen . The story spans about two weeks in the life of a gay teenage who is neglected, marginalized, without hope u...

  This week, I'm very excited to turn my blog over to my friend and fellow writer, Andrew Q. Gordon, whose book, Purpose , I absolutely loved. I can't wait to read the new one.  Andrew's new book, A Closed Door , is set to release today (October 8) by Wayward Publishing. Blurb Outted at thirteen, Orin Merritt left home after high school hoping to escape the hell his life had become. Ten years later when a tornado destroys his childhood home and kills his parents, Orin finds himself in an entirely new nightmare. One he can't run away from. Blaming himself for failing the two people who always loved and supported him, he returns home and confronts his past in the person of his one-time best friend, Thomas Kennett.  Thomas not only rejected him when Orin came out, he led the group that tormented Orin into leaving.   As he struggles to deal with his grief, Orin also labors to fulfill the pledge he made to his parents befor...