Alleys and Doorways

Alleys and Doorways
Meredith Schwartz
Torquere Press
ISBN: 1-934166-53-7
Fiction, Erotic
Reviewed by Jean Roberta

The theme of this anthology is unusual and engaging: each of the thirteen stories is about something magical that happens in a city to a gay male or lesbian character who is often the storyteller. As the editor explains in her foreword:
“In modern fantasy, the city often takes the place of the green wood: it is where the discontented begin the quest for adventure or fortune or love; where the old rules—often the constricting conformity of the suburbs, or family expectations--are loosed. In the magical city, transformation is not just possible, but glimpsed around every street corner.
“Gay people, in particular, have often gravitated to the city to come out, become someone new, and find each other. Not all urban fantasy is queer, of course, but fairies have more in common with the gay and lesbian experience than just an epithet to be reclaimed. . . the magic in urban fantasy is likely to pool in the corners man made and then forgot: the little spaces on the edges of things, unlikely and rough-edged and disregarded—the alleys, doorways and docks; deserted parks and poor, artsy neighborhoods. These are exactly the same spaces that urban gay people have often claimed as their own.”
While most of these stories deal with gay men, both the stories and the characters vary widely. The first tale, “Everlasting” by Rose Fox, is a grim variation on the gay-male tradition of cruising for tricks in city parks; in this case, the 200-year-old central character is doomed to repeat the process forever – unless or until he can find the miraculous antidote to the curse.

In the same tradition of be-careful-what-you-wish-for and let-the-buyer-beware is ”Path of Corruption” by Steve Berman, in which a fairly typical nerdy university student follows an attractive man in pre-Katrina New Orleans. The reader is led to expect an erotic experience which will enable the student to gain some life experience before returning to his studies, but what happens is much more sinister. The student discovers a world that resembles that of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, dominated by the ancient tentacled god Cthulhu.
In the powerful “Steel Anniversary” by Valerie Z. Lewis, two lesbians are celebrating their eleventh anniversary together (the “steel anniversary”) while looking forward to the baby that one of them is expecting. Beneath their deceptively calm, domestic life together are horrifying shared memories from their teens. Needing to deal with “baggage” which is both emotional and physical, they find an inventive way to bury it.

The rest of the stories range in tone from poignant and erotic (“The Truth of Skin and Ink” by B.A. Tortuga, which explores the bond between a tattoo artist and a client who brings in an enigmatic design for his first tattoo) to whimsical.

In “Side Effects” by M. Decker, a young man in his first “summoning” job accidentally produces a dragon out of thin air, forcing his lover to help him prevent the beast from burning down their apartment. The souvenir that the dragon leaves behind suggests a sequel.
In another dragon story, “Underneath” by A.J. Grant, John must co-operate with his ex to deal with a dragon that lives under Grand Central Station – and decide whether the beast is doing more harm than good.
In “Were” by JoSelle Vanderhooft, Alex is a lonely geek approaching age 60 who believes that he is doomed to remain single for the rest of his life because of his embarrassing secret: he occasionally changes into an animal. When his friends set him up with another geek, he learns that there really is a partner for everyone.

“Lost” by Wendy Barnum has a similarly happy ending after her lonely central character travels the New York subway at night, aimlessly trying to lose his memories of past boyfriends and the bad luck that always seems to plague him on his birthday. After playing Scrabble with a mysterious old man in an almost-deserted train, Lawrence finds himself in exactly the right place.
“The Token” by Elspeth Potter and “Cedar” by Ann Stocce are also about the magic of place. In both of these stories, the central characters visit the men and the environments that appeal to them.
“The Reflection of Love” by Julia Talbot deals with forms of extrasensory perception: scrying (the ability to see visions in reflecting surfaces) and empathy. Can two men who are both wanted and feared for their special powers ever find peace? Read this suspenseful story to find out.
In “Picture Perfect” by Sean Michael, the magical ability to produce pictures of things which are not physically present is in a second-hand camera, not the photographer who uses it. He learns that the camera captures desire, and he is amazed to discover that he and a certain hunky model have more in common than he thought.
In “The Love Potion” by Abbie Strehlow, a young man who tries to perform a spell to find out the identity of his true love comes to realize that he would rather solve that mystery on his own, in the natural course of developing a relationship with an attractive man.
These stories are quirky, entertaining, and (in some cases) strangely believable. They are gay urban legends with a whiff of sulphur and a sprinkle of fairy-dust on them. Reading them is likely to give you a sense that you’ve heard them before – once upon a time.