Ampersand Gazette #50
Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on some of the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …
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What’s missing from this picture?
A school district in the conservative town of Sherman, Texas, made national headlines last week when it put a stop to a high school production of the musical “Oklahoma!” after a transgender student was cast in a lead role.
The district’s administrators decided, and communicated to parents, that the school would cast only students “born as females in female roles and students born as males in male roles.” Not only did several transgender and nonbinary students lose their parts, but so, too, did cisgender girls cast in male roles. Publicly, the district said the problem was the profane and sexual content of the 1943 musical. …
After the vote, the school board announced a special meeting for Friday to open an investigation and to consider taking action against the district superintendent, Tyson Bennett, who oversaw the district’s handling of “Oklahoma!,” including “possible administrative leave.” …
Before the school board vote Monday night, high schoolers and their parents had gathered at the district’s offices along with theater actors and transgender students from nearby Austin College. Local residents came to talk about decades of past productions at Sherman High School of “Oklahoma!,” which tells the story of an Oklahoma Territory farm girl and her courtship by two rival suitors. Many scoffed at the district’s objections to the musical, which school officials complained included “mature adult themes.” …
“‘Oklahoma!’ is generally regarded as one of the safest shows you could possibly pick to perform,” said Kirk Everist, a theater professor at Austin College who was among those who came to speak. “It’s almost a stereotype at this point.”
Every seat in the room was filled, almost entirely with supporters of the production. Some lined the walls while others who were turned away waited outside. Of the 65 people who signed up to speak, only a handful voiced support for the district’s restrictions.
The outpouring came as a shock, even to longtime Sherman residents. … The school board sat mostly stone-faced as dozens of people testified in support of the theater students, sharing personal histories. …
After nearly three hours, the board went behind closed doors. The crowds left. Few expected a significant decision was imminent.
Then, after 10 p.m., the board took their seats again and introduced a motion for a vote: Since there was no official policy on gender for casting, the original version of the musical should be reinstated. All seven board members voted in favor, including one who had, months before, protested against a gay pride event.
“We want to apologize to our students, parents, our community regarding the circumstances that they’ve had to go through,” the board president, Brad Morgan, said afterward.
From an article in The New York Times
“In Texas, a Fight Over Gender and School Theater Takes an Unexpected Turn”
November 14, 2023
So, what is missing from the picture?
Any real musical fan could tell you … an exclamation point. The proper title of the musical Oklahoma! has an exclamation point at the end. That piece of punctuation changed my life. For real. More on that in a bit.
I chose this story for The Gazette because of all the awful stories that have been featured lately about trans persons. Here was one, for the week after Thanksgiving—I’m interested here in the principle of gratitude, not in the holiday itself—that made me cheer. For a lot of reasons, the least of which is its focus on trans kids.
Doing theatre, or really any activity wherein one has a responsibility for one’s own part in a greater whole, is of value to humans of all ages. I don’t care if it’s a Dumbo puzzle in a pre-school class or an opera at the Met. Group participation teaches lessons that no other thing does.
Responsibility, being part of a clan, cooperation, communication, timeliness, time management, commitment, dedication, care—I could go on and on.
And FWIW, ordinarily, one’s gender doesn’t weigh in on whether one is pulling one’s weight in a group activity. I don’t care that you’re … whatever. I care that you know your cue and that you speak the line so I can get to my next one. If you don’t, I can’t.
Once upon a long, long time ago, I worked for the Rogers & Hammerstein Estates in their fancy office on Madison Avenue. As part of that gig, I was the editor for the second edition of Oscar Hammerstein’s classic, Lyrics. It contains what I consider to be the best essay on musical theatre lyrics to this day.
Then, another long, long time ago, I’d just sent a manuscript off to my editor from a post office in the White Mountains of Arizona when it began to snow. I went home, sat back down at my computer, and a voice in my head asked, “So, you gonna write my story now?”
“Why not?” I answered, totally flip. Ten days later, there was a three-hundred-and-fifty page manuscript on my coffee table, and it had snowed so much that my car had disappeared. I had to have it dug out.
I’d also met Mexicali Rose Stone, the high femme, intuitive investigator protagonist of The Mex Mysteries. If someone had told me beforehand that … I’d write a mystery novel, I’d write fiction, I’d write a wild plot, I’d write like a fiend, or that I’d ever write a book that included Oklahoma!, I’d have laughed in their face.
To quote Howard Ashman, “don’t it go to show you never know?”
I did all those things. I also found the solve to my plot in the lyrics of Oklahoma! Lyrics which I knew, from editing OH2’s book, by heart. The corn really is as high as a elephant’s eye. I’ve seen the original.
So now, here I am, ten books into the series. The first one ended up being called Oklahoma! Hex. Each of the following books include a musical, a crime, some sort of love interest, and a social issue. I have a blast writing them.
When I figured out that I couldn’t use the lyrics from the show without permission, I called my friends at R & H and got a licensing agreement for the ebook. It was pretty exciting. A novel. Wow. A fluke, I thought.
But then, I kept writing them. Brigadoon Moon, Butterfly Fan—this one’s based on the opera, Chicago Valentine, Mattress Police, Gypsy Chicks, Something Wicked, Legally Bond, Rent Rx, and Christmas Presence. Of course, I had to license the lyrics for all of them.
When I called for the Brigadoon license, the agent peppered me with questions about my deal for Oklahoma! I answered them all, then there was a moment of silence between us, and then he shot one more over the bow:
“Yeah, but did they include the exclamation point?”
“Of course,” I said, “it’s part of the title.” I got the Brigadoon license.
Then, as I did the negotiating for each and every other lyric usage, every single representative, agent, or music publishing executive asked me if I got the exclamation point. Each time, that was the deciding factor in my favor. Huh, it took, maybe, five books before I began to lead with the exclamation point in my negotiating strategies.
Now let’s go back to Sherman, Texas, shall we? That town, those kids, the local college—they all deserve their own exclamation points. Against all odds, they did it, and their production is back on for after the holidays—with the trans kid in one of the leads, and the cis girls playing boys parts. (You try and find good voices in middle school!)
It is said that there is never a moment in time in which Oklahoma! isn’t playing somewhere in the world. It’s been so since it was first performed in 1943. That punctuation belongs on that show, especially in Sherman, Texas—the arch-conservative town that, miracle of miracle, wonder of wonders, did the right thing!
Beloved, they won’t be the only ones …
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I had to accept that I didn’t get to skip the learning curve.
from a Modern Love column by Annie Dwyer in The New York Times
“When a Breakup Is An Act of Love”
October 27, 2023
Oh, isn’t that just superlatively human? I just wanted to skip the learning curve. Really? How’d that work out for you?
I think that’s part of what’s going on in our political world. People are so overcome with information and fractured attention that they just want to skip the learning curve—about everything. Like, say, oh, Israel, or Hamas, or trans people, how to grow pumpkins, or make the overdone pumpkin spice latte. It matters not what.
But … there’s a reason for a learning curve, Beloved, and a good one. A really good one.
And that is, that this world is multi-faceted and complicated. To attempt to skip the learning curve is to lose the full value of the learning.
I’ve been doing some deep thinking about pilgrimage lately for my new series The Phoenix Initiation. Pilgrimages are often those journeys undertaken on a specific path for a spiritual purpose. Each pilgrim—perfect for Thanksgiving, no?—says the same basic thing: it was the getting, not the there, that made the difference. The getting, the travel, the process, the path, not the arrival, the homecoming, the welcome, the photographs. It’s facing the self in the knowledge of our own ignorance or inability or indigestion.
Like the school board above, and its original knee-jerk reaction to a handful of parents’ objections. Great! Shut it down! Uh, no, not so fast. Stop. Slow it down. Ask for input. Listen to what everyone wants, not just the few. Consider those needs, and dig deep into your hearts, school board. Then make a choice.
That’s what the learning curve is for … except that in our world these days, particularly in the West, we want everything done, and settled, and set. Simple. Finished. Over. But that’s not how life works, and we all know it, despite our dogged devotion to zeroes and ones.
There’s a really, really good reason not to skip the learning curve, Beloved. It’s where the goodies are. The realizations. The new acceptances. The bigger worlds. The joys. The frowns. The ups. The downs. The actual experiences of life.
Skip it at your own decidedly costly loss.
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And in publishing news …
Oklahoma! Hex, the first of The Mex Mysteries, is scheduled for a F*R*E*E promotion on Thursday, November 30th with Freebooksy. Subscribe to their newsletter here.
Here’s the quickie blurb: The Mex Mysteries are romantic mysteries with a supernatural twist. Think Outlander’s Claire Fraser meets Mary Russell Holmes and Mrs. Emily Pollifax. Now add a spiritual basis and a musical theatre setting. And just to start, the latest revival of Oklahoma! is in a “turrible” fix when “pore” Jud is dead onstage in the middle of the first act.
Here’s a little secret about that book: When I first drafted it, I put the “pore Jud” duet in the second act by mistake! Hilarious. Talk about a scramble to fix it, and make sure it was fixed in every instance.
When I ran a similar promotion for the first in series of my Boots & Boas Romances, more than five hundred people downloaded the book, and it took the title, Attending Physician, to #9 in Amazon’s Gay Romance category. The top ten! Pretty exciting, if you ask me.
P.S. I happen to know several people who plan to gift loved ones with a new ereader for the holidays. They’ve already told me that the plan is to order all The Mex Mysteries as their first book gifts … just in case you need any bright ideas for your gift list.
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I finished Gemma Eclipsing on Friday, the 13th of October. I’m still hauling myself through The Evil Word Lazy Verbs List, and looking forward to re-reading the whole MS once it’s done.
I’ll also be re-reading Jezebel Rising and Jasmine Increscent in preparation for two-volume paperbacks of those in the New Year.
So while I’m taking my time with the lazy verbs, I’m up to my eyeballs in debutante books for Jacqueline Retrograde, which is already nagging at me. These subversives are determined to have their stories told, and soonish! Plus, I’m missing writing.
I love nothing better than to turn over a clean MS to Tony Amato, my editor (and if you need a good one, find him here), and full disclosure, my much beloved husband, bless the man, will then clean up whatever messes are left. He calls himself a BookHusband, and it’s the best description I’ve heard of his remarkable gift. He’s edited all my books, and I couldn’t have done them without him.
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I’m a Founding Member of a website called Shepherd.com, which I’ve written about herein in earlier issues. Ben Fox, the originator, came up with a new idea for authors on the site. He’s asked us to list our three favorite reads of the year.
Here is my list:
I got in touch with R. A. Steffan to let her know I’d chosen her whole series: Circle of Blood. She was totally pleased to hear from me—told me I’d made her day—and said she’d share it with her lists. It’s a series of four.
Misogyny is one of the best books I’ve ever read, bar none. By the late Jack Holland, it tells the history of what he calls “the world’s oldest prejudice.” Brilliant. Anyone who is a woman or knows one ought to read it.
Madame Restell was a book I thought I was reading for Subversive Lovelies background but it turned up in the foreground instead.
Go have a look at these. It’s a great website as well, especially if you’re tired of slogging through the mess that is GoodReads these days.
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One last thing before I sign off … although it’s not technically publishing news. I’ve been doing some work lately for real estate agents that I’m really enjoying, so I thought I’d tell you a little about it, and see if you know anyone who might benefit.
I got a call from a realtor I’d worked with before. She had two properties on the market for more than 120 days which hadn’t sold. She wanted me to clear the energy in the homes, and sent me the listings.
Clearing can be done from off-site, quite the boon, so I flew around, talked to her for an hour, and knew what needed to happen. I gave her some simple feng shui suggestions, but more, I worked for three days, clearing the two properties energetically.
One was caught up in some legal and moral tangles in an estate. The other was caught in some deep family grief. We’ll see what happens, and the signs are good. The first property is the focus of a new buyer coming into town just to see it, and the second is having a second showing Sunday after touring it on an open house.
The last time I helped her, happily, she sold the house in two days.
So, if you have a property that’s playing stagnant, or you know a realtor who might benefit from such a clearing service, please get in touch with me here, or have your realtor do the same.
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As we enter the holiday season, I am aware, as are we all, of the grief that many of us hold in our hearts at this time of year. You are not alone in that, Beloved, and know, too, that grief will have its season. The name on this tombstone is Emelyn Story—remember that it is our stories that so often keep us where in are, instead of in growth patterns. Please note the image: this particular grief comes with wings to lift you out of it when you’re ready. I am, of course, more convinced than ever that And is the solution to everything, and so, Be Ampersand, Beloved, until next time.