LGBTQ Writer (with Maura Lee Bee)

LGBTQ Writer interview with Maura Lee Bee
Why create stock characters when you can create this rich world in which your characters live and have it be as much like real world as possible?

As humans we are on a never ending quest to relate to each other.  It’s one of our best universal qualities.  Sympathy.  Empathy.  Walk a mile in their shoes.  We have words for all of it.  It is this unyielding empathy that makes literature, and the characters in the stories that we tell, so important.  When we relate to a character on the page, we may open up more to characters like that in our lives.  We may even open up more to parts of ourselves that we previously shied away from.  It is with this idea in mind that today’s guest, Maura Lee Bee, writes.  Her characters are often atypical, which is exactly why we should take the time to get to know them.

I didn’t necessarily have the tools to navigate that [at that age], but reading Patricia McCormick helped me become more empathetic of the situation, and helped me reach out to my friends and communicate in a more effective way.
I aim to write very slice of life fiction that, if someone is reading this that is going through something, it might help them overcome that situation or better understand it.

Interview Contents

3:00 - Writing and literature in Maura’s childhood.

7:00 - Writing to help people that are going through something.

12:00 - The writers and books that Maura liked as a child.

15:30 - Depth and meaning in literature.

22:00 - Appreciating poetry.

24:30 - Other people finding things in your stories.

28:30 - Being a multi-genre writer.

37:00 - Writing for the LGBTQ community.

40:00 - Inspiration vs. Connection.

45:00 - Peter and the Concrete Jungle.

50:00 - The internet’s influence.

55:00 - Employment in the LGBTQ community.

59:00 - The benefit for a mainstream community to read literature like this.

Links

Peter and the Concrete Jungle

Harpoon Review: http://www.harpoonreview.com/maura-lee-bee

Flux Weekly: https://fluxweekly.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/new-poems-by-maura-lee-bee/

HuffPost: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/to-rory-gilmore-and-back-again-how-gilmore-girls-helped_us_57a8b079e4b08f5371f1aac8

The Haven: https://medium.com/the-haven/dancing-is-not-a-crime-2860f3e3175d

GoMag: http://gomag.com/article/music-sexual-identity/

TEDx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8etnSTnX92g

THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF

Kevin Cole

Marcus Batson

Roxanna

Michelle & Jim Wortner

Janelle Swanson

Jimmy Seymour

SUPPORT EPISODES LIKE THIS BEING MADE

Blake Fletcher

Livin it up!