The Drag Queen of Elfland by Lawrence Schimel

[katekintailbc]

The Drag Queen of Elfland: Short Stories
by Lawrence Schimel
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/13069711/

I didn't speed through these short stories as I had hoped. I guess it's typical for short story collections to like some stories more than others, which was definitely my experience with this book. There were a few I very much enjoyed and some that I felt were just getting going when they ended abruptly. Not all the stories contained obvious LGBTQIA characters. And not all the stories were high fantasy. But there was a good mix of stories of all kinds--suspenseful, romantic, dramatic, tragic, sweet, even erotic.

I still have mixed feelings about the title story, "The Drag Queen of Elfland." I loved the idea of a drag queen ending up as an actual faerie queen, and I got a kick out of the fae world adapting to his style. But the quickness with which he came to terms with the loss of his lover and the world as he knew it left a bad taste in my mouth. I know it's a short story and couldn't linger on that longer, but it seemed too quick, especially when he just suddenly picked up a new lover. Huh.

I really enjoyed the story about the gay vampire with HIV because it's been done so many times and this was an interesting take on it. I liked "Fag Hag" as well, even though I saw one of the twists coming, because I still didn't see the final resolution. I liked "Take Back the Night" and "Burning Bridges" too. I seem to be drawn to most of the urban fantasy in this volume more than the high fantasy, though not in every case. I was definitely glad that there were stories in this anthology I enjoyed.

One thing I learned from the book was that there's another book now I think I need to track down: Switch Hitters: Lesbians Write Gay Male Erotica and Gay Men Write Lesbian Erotica.