A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Titty Boom

Update: If you tried to download the book and it didn't work, the issue has been corrected and you should try again. Happy reading!

Leonce Gaiter is a writer whose work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Salon. He is offering his novel A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Titty Boom online for free.

In case you haven't heard, publishing is a mess. Profits are shrinking, sales plummeting, bookstores closing, layoffs rising. The time is not ripe for young (they are mostly young), straight (they are mostly straight) white (they are mostly white) publishing executives to take a chance on a book with a black, gay central character—particularly one whose thoughts and actions are not circumscribed by being either black or gay. You know what I mean: It's not about slavery or an "up from the ghetto" /"I was a poor black child" story. It's not about the Jim Crow south. Nor is it a coming out tale, a tragic tale of the tragically misunderstood, or the story of a young man's erotic obsession with his coach/teacher/passing stranger, etc. In short, it doesn't traffic in the topics that straight white publishing execs have deemed "safe" for black or gay men to discuss. Frankly, I'm tired of black and gay writers castrating our lives and experiences—our very selves—in order to satisfy some post-graduate students' ignorance of who we are as well as their desire to see that we remain, at least in print, just a little bit less than they. This book is about living a whole life—about how brutal and pretty and senselessly funny it can be.

A published novelist, I've decided to offer this piece, called A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Titty Boom online—no charge. I won't bore you with the no-win situation for authors in the current publishing environment. Let's just say that the odds are overwhelming that I have nothing to lose by doing this. Plus, I've been told the book is pretty damned entertaining. Look at it this way: it might be something that, in different circumstances, reviewers would insist you pay the ridiculous price of 24.95 to buy—and you get it for free!

Take a look at the description. If it sounds good to you, give it a shot. If you do, I sincerely hope you enjoy.