3/30/2009

3/27/2009

Daddy Loves You

Note 2 Self:

Dear Randy,

You're a man now. A man with a son. Bout 'time you fully realized it. Yep. Boomer Dino Boyd is your son. He'll be eleven in April.

Your job: keep you alive and keep him alive, as long as you both shall live, as happily and healthy as you both can be. Period.

That's the game. Can you do it?

LOL.

You know you can. You already have. You've kept yourself and your dog alive since 1998, when you first laid eyes on one another.

A day at the shelter. Again. One more “one more try.” Maybe I'll finally find the One.

And you did. We did. We done did it. We've both stayed alive. Boomer stay alive until one frigid morning when a shelter volunteer found him in the parking lot of the drug store adjacent to the Indiana Humane Society in Indianapolis. Yep, the same place that gave you Clancy, your only childhood dog, your only dog before Boomer.

You yourself, young black man, survived years, decades, of being alone, living alone, loving alone, dreaming alone--while living with AIDS.

You and Boomer ... staying alive, staying alive, staying alive ... until you could find one another in 1998. You couldn't let him go. You had to follow through. Who is this guy? Is he spoken for yet?

In Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams had to go see about a girl and never looked back. In Good Dog Hunting, you took one look at Boomer and you were like, “hold on little guy, I gotta go see a staff member about a dog.”

You claimed him then and there. A few days later, you named after the mascot of the Indiana Pacers, your all-time favorite sports team that was in their Reggie Miller Golden Years at the time. Now it's 2009. You claim each other, and that's the way life is.

I got your back. You're my boy. My beautiful eleven-year-old baby boy. You're mine. I'm yours.

Daddy loves you.

3/26/2009

Somebody to Love (Me)

When's the last time you heard anyone say, "I just need to find the right black gay man living with AIDS to settle down with?"

And could you send 'em my way? Or ask them to read Update from the Unlovable Nigger Faggot and Could You Fall in Love With This Face?, now and forever at Randy Boyd's Blocks (.com).

3/20/2009

A Magical Love Story

Richard Labonte has been reading, editing, selling, and writing about queer literature since the mid-’70s. Here now: his review of Walt Loves the Bearcat, originally published in the San Francisco Bay Times (Jan. 2006).

In one universe, black college cheerleader Marcus grows up to be a writer longing for his true love--and is gay; golden-haired college quarterback Walt’s promising football career is cut short by a painful injury--and he’s a twice-divorced straight man. They don’t meet for 21 years.

In another universe, black college cheerleader Bearcat and golden-haired college and NFL quarterback Walter meet as young men and fall in love for life--a madcap whirl, too good to be true but blessedly real.

These parallel stories, told with infectiously and ferociously inventive prose, eventually overlap, intertwine, and finally fuse together quite fantastically in Boyd’s majestically imaginative epic.

The novel embraces serious topics: interracial queer relationships, homophobia in the professional sports world, gay bar culture and one-night-stand stereotyping, black life on the down low, and living with AIDS. But Walt Loves the Bearcat is first and forever a love story, one written with a roller-coaster brio and a magical intensity that demand--and deserve--the reader’s perseverance.

More about Walt Loves the Bearcat
Get Walt Loves the Bearcat at Amazon

3/10/2009

Gory Days

Who can forget the collective horror movies in our minds from the 1980s, you know, after the world found out about AIDS, and everyone was, like, "oh, shit ... is that dreaded AIDS monster out to get ... me?"

Relieve those gory days gone by, if you dare, in the AIDS Monster Movie Marathon, a blog story told backwards in a car driving forward, featuring the exclusive Interview with the AIDS Monster!

3/03/2009

Light of My Life

He's the light of my life. He's also taught me a very handy trick: When In Doubt, Pet the Dog, a column or blog feature or periodic memoir thingy, now and forever at Randy Boyd's Blocks.

3/02/2009

Life After Bridge Across the Ocean

Two months after testing positive for HIV/AIDS in 1988, I took off for the warm, sandy beaches of Cancun, Mexico, for some much needed R&R. While there, I met two straight white teenage brothers who were on vacation with their single mom.

What happened in Cancun changed all our lives forever and served as the inspiration for my second novel, Bridge Across the Ocean, a Lambda Literary Finalist.

Bridge Across the Ocean is the best selling Randy Boyd novel to date and has generated the most fan mail. Many men have written to me, telling me how much they bonded with the characters while enjoying their youthful
adventures. Many have shared their own stories of adolescent longing and friendships with "boys you can never hold onto."

As an author, knowing my novel has touched so
many hearts is one of life's biggest rewards. Equally satisfying is the fact that I've crossed enough bridges in my own life, from childhood to manhood, to better reflect on that uniquely special summer two decades ago.

Take the journey with me in a four-part retrospective about the once in a lifetime experience that became a novel that became a Lambda Literary Finalist.
Bridge Across the Ocean @ 20, now and forever at Randy Boyd's Blocks.

Part 1
Bridge Across the Ocean @ 20

Part 2

Bridge to Somewhere: Where the Boys Are Today

Part 3

What Is a Lesbian? 1988-2008

Part 4

Young Jock Offers Oral Sex for Magazine Subscription


PLUS: Get Bridge Across the Ocean now at Amazon.com