Roger, Thom, and Alanna in the Original SotL

Tim: Eve, in the original version, Roger was bi, and Thom was gay – and they were lovers. Roger tried to seduce Alanna thinking she was “Alan” – but that didn’t work out so good for him…. <g>

Tammy: Okay, just to set the record straight:

Tim had most of it right about the original (which even he never read!): Thom was gay, Roger bi (he slept with Delia–still did, as far as I know–and made a pass at “Alan,” who beat feet), and their relation####p actually began when Thom first came to court. Honestly, do you think knowing his twin disliked Roger would stop Thom? He always did love to swim against the current, and whoever he was bedding wouldn’t influence his feelings for Alanna in the least. And Roger thought he was using Thom. In the revisions, of course, he *did* use Thom, and if they weren’t sleeping together in LIONESS RAMPANT, I think they might have gone that way if Roger hadn’t been nuts at that point.

You can thank my high school/1979 boyfriend for the idea that Alanna kills Roger once and then he cracks up in the tomb and comes back, by the way.

As for Lalasa and Tiane (gay), Rosethorn (bi), and Lark (gay), I don’t make a big deal of it because I’m not writing about being gay; I’m writing about people whose friends live their own sexual lives. What I want is for the characters’ sex lives to be their own business, not the issue around which my characters’ lives revolve. I’m also sticking fairly close to the main characters’ stories, which doesn’t leave me a lot of time/room to go into the private lives of those around them.

If I make a point of who is gay, then suddenly that’s all anyone will talk about: the gay characters. If I were writing about what it means to be gay, that would be fine, but I’m writing about the empowerment of the underdog, particularly female underdogs. Sexuality is one of those things where, once you lay it on the table, it’s all people will see.

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