The Boy in the Band came about because I wanted to write something special for an LGBTQ+ anthology.
So the first person I thought of, immediately, was Richard Holmstrom.
Background
So at the time I wrote the story, I had no idea what had happened to Rich. As it turned out, a mutual friend did some sleuthing. And so, I learned the truth. It was what I had been afraid of; he was dead.
Rich was the first gay man who ever came out to me. And I consider that to be one hell of an honor.
The Plot for The Boy in the Band
So the story is more or less accurate. Hence it wrote itself. And I was merely there to take mental dictation. And the title, of course, comes from the film.
In 1981 or 1982, my friend Rich asked me to the movies. And I had a crush on him and thought – this is great! He chose the films: Cabaret and The Boys in the Band. So I had no idea what I was in for. My innocent nineteen or twenty year old soul thought we were going to see a pair of musicals.
I swear to God this is true.
Characters
The characters are the narrator, Rich, and Paul. He was Rich’s boyfriend at the time. But unfortunately, I have no idea if they stayed together. Since I do not know Paul’s last name, I can’t even look him up.
Memorable Quotes
I gamely watched with Richard. Maybe he meant for it to be artsy? I had no idea, but then the Cowboy character showed up – a male prostitute. And so Richard asked, “What do you think of him?”
I replied, “He reminds me a bit of Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“Which do you think is cuter?”
“Rocky.”
“So we will agree to disagree.”
And then I knew.
Rating
The story has a K rating.
Upshot for The Boy in the Band
So this one was highly emotional for me. And then when I learned, later, that I had been right, it all hit me rather hard. See, because of when we knew each other, it was the dawn of the age of AIDS. And I knew he was, let’s just say, a bit loose. Since no one really had any idea what was in store, and AIDS was a 100% painful death sentence at the time, being ‘loose’ was being foolish.
Yet it apparently did not kill him. At least, I can tell myself this. I think I’m right. I hope I’m right. But there is only so much the internet can tell me.
He did not even live long enough to see 9/11, President Obama, or even the Red Sox win the World Series (:)). So he is frozen in time, at age 39. And before I knew this much, he was frozen at age 21. Forever young.
The Boy in the Band — this one’s for you, Richard.
No one will know about your awesome writer website if you don’t start to pay attention to writer SEO.
And without all the connections on your website you could be making, guess what happens? You miss will out on sales. And you may also miss out on places where you can appear and promote your book. Or libraries where you can have your book.
Note: this is an overview and not the details of any form of SEO, even writer SEO. That would take up a few hundred blog posts at least.
Why Does Writer SEO Matter?
Have you ever wondered how and why the results you get in a search are in the order they’re in? Yes, some of this has to do with paid advertising. But budgets are not infinite. Or, at least, they aren’t for most of us.
But SEO is, in a way, a form of free advertising. Optimizing for search means your post gets placed further up on search results. And that’s good. But is it good enough?
So, while positive changes in position are nothing to sneeze at, they do not truly matter unless you’re on page 1 of results.
If that seems unfair, odd, and maybe even a reason why the human race is doomed, well, I’m with ya on that.
Yet our preferences do not matter.
Ads Are Outta Control!
But… there’s one problem with writer SEO or really any kind of SEO. We’re all gunning for page 1. And that means that the competition is fierce.
There’s you, me, and large corporations with insanely big budgets. There are people who’ve been doing SEO since before it had a name (or at least it feels that way). So, how do you compete?
I Got an Itch for a Niche
Exxon is enormous! Their annual ad budget may very well be more than everything I have ever made in my life. And probably ever will.
But they’re not competing in the writing space. Even if their CEO decided to write a book, they would not be my competition. And they might not even really be my competition if their CEO decides to try their hand at writing something in the exact same genre as me.
Is James Patterson my competition? Well, not exactly. Yes, we are both writers. But that’s where the comparison stops. Now, Patterson does write science fiction. But are we really in direct competition? For one thing, a lot of his sci fi stuff is aimed at teens. Mine … is not.
So, maybe I don’t have to worry about him, or at least not too much. Same with JK Rowling and Stephen King, particularly as they don’t really write in my genre.
I’ve Got a Niche to Scratch
Amazon is great about having separate categories which match a ton of niches. Consider horror. Even if vampires, werewolves, wendigos, mummies, and serial killers were all in the same novel or film, so what? They all still have their own sub-niches (if you will) within horror.
Science fiction has a number of well-known niches:
Space opera – this is like Star Trek. My novel The Enigman Cave fits this niche, as it’s also following people on a spaceship.
Dystopian – this is like Ready Player One. My novels Mettle and Untrustworthy both fit this niche, even though they’re set in different places.
Science fiction noir – this is like Blade Runner or I, Robot, where cops and science fiction mix. My Obolonk and Time Addicts trilogies both fit. This is not a large genre and Amazon does not have it as a filter. But the good news is that there might not be a lot of competition…
Time travel – this is like the old TV show, The Time Tunnel. Time Addicts fits this niche.
Historical science fiction – now, this one’s tricky.
Issues with Historical Science Fiction
Science fiction isn’t normally set too far in the past. Even Stranger Things just goes back to the 1980s.
Without getting into Steampunk, one of the only examples I can think of are the films Time After Time (where HG Wells himself has to chase Jack the Ripper in the modern era) and Somewhere in Time (1970s playwright Richard Collier goes to the turn of the 20th century via hypnosis and falls in love with actress Elise McKenna).
In both stories, someone in the present is writing about the past. It makes sense that it would be a vehicle for a time travel story.
My Real Hub of the Universe trilogy fits this niche of a niche, which is so small that Amazon doesn’t list it as a genre (although at least GoodReads does!). And looking it up often means you find science fiction books written earlier in history, such as The Island of Dr. Moreau.
As a result, when you put that kind of work onto Amazon or the like, your tags and keywords had better be pitch-perfect and utterly on point.
Your Writer Website and Your Niche(s)
I’m not the only author who writes in more than one niche. In fact, many authors who do so will use a pen name or even several pen names.
So, for someone like me, writer SEO means looking at competition in all of these niches. And it means looking at the keywords which the more successful posts (the ones at the top of search, which don’t necessarily belong to bestselling authors) are using.
Keyword Research for Writer SEO
People who do SEO for a living are researching keywords pretty much all the time. It’s a fancy way of trying to determine what people are looking for. If you can give it to them, then you want them to be able to find you. The closer what’s on your website matches their search, the higher up (usually) your content will be in search engine results.
Google’s mission is to match seeker and website owner as closely as possible. Because if a person has a good experience with Google, they’re more likely to use Google than, say, Bing. As a result, Google can charge more for its advertising (and yes, unfortunately, paid ads are dominating the first page of search results. So page 2 can get some love after all—but never settle for anything lower).
Synonyms and Intent
To use an example a different form of art, consider film. Or cinema. AKA movies. Or pictures. AKA Hollywood or Bollywood or the Oscars or BAFTA awards, etc.
What is the difference in intent between these two searches:
movie for kids not Disney
classic cinema for children
Now, they both pull up lists of movies for the younger set. But the first is more likely to pull up articles about The Land Before Time, whereas the latter might pull up blog posts about The Red Balloon. Between the two searches, the first is more likely to pull up animation, too.
Now consider your books. I’ll use the Time Addicts trilogy as an example.
time travel with robots
science fiction noir in the far future
Both searches would fit this trilogy. The first gets a lot more hits. But the latter pulls up much more closely-related stuff. And if I change the first one to time travel with aliens (which would also fit Time Addicts), it gets me TV programs about ancient aliens.
What’s a better set of keyword phrases (kwps) to target? Probably some mix of these:
science fiction noir
sci fi noir
science fiction set in the far future
time travel noir (although currently there are two kinds of returns on this search which are coming up a lot)
Writer SEO, Searches, and Your Buyer Persona
Who’s your ideal reader? Your ideal customer? You have got to market directly to them. And you will need to write your blog and pages, etc. with that person in mind. If your ideal reader didn’t finish high school, then a term like movies is more likely to work than cinema. And if your ideal reader is female, you may want to toss in terms like feminism or strong female character.
If your ideal reader is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, then you will need to use terms which will apply—but I would caution you to be careful here. Terms evolve quickly. What was acceptable in 1999 is not necessarily going to fly in 2023. And for God’s sake, don’t try to reclaim a slur unless you would be a subject of said slur.
Writer SEO: Takeaways
Like I said above, this barely scratches the surface. Try tools like Keywordtool.io, answerthepublic.com, and MarketMuse (or Surfer SEO, Ubersuggest, or AhRefs) for more advanced ways to better target your ideal reader.
Want More of Writer Website Development?
If my post on website speed resonates with you, then be sure to check out my other articles about how to create a writer website.
It was not until Star Trek Discovery that I actually saw anyone from the Indian subcontinent anywhere in the franchise. And that is just ridiculous! I mean, India is the second-most populous country in the world. And it has been for years. There are a good four times as many people there as there are in the United States.
So, why weren’t any of them seeing the stars?
Therefore, I took the old idea to heart. If you don’t see someone in fictional media, then write them yourself.
Of course, this is not my personal experience. But I still wanted this character to get on screen.
The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Jazminder Parikh
Jazzie is from a wealthy family in Hyderabad. But she attended school in Leeds, England. Hence, her accent is a lot more posh British with a mix of Indian.
Also, she does not join the crew of the Valentina Tereshkova until later. At the time of The Enigman Cave, she’s already been ensconced for years. But she doesn’t come out of the same school as Marnie and Trixie.
As for family, the only person she ever mentions is her father. This leads to the conclusion that her mother is likely to be dead.
Description
A bit short, and with very long, dark, straight brown hair, Jaz is younger than Trixie and Marnie. Since Marnie is 53 when the book starts, Jazzie is what, … forty? Maybe. I confess I never gave her an actual birth year. Oops.
She is also a bit of an alcoholic. While she, Marnie, and Trixie get drunk in the first chapter, that’s not the only time for Jazzie. In fact, she even drinks to the point of passing out. As a doctor, of course she should know better.
But it’s also the future, so she has plenty of ways to cure a hangover.
Purpose/Theme/Motivation
Much like for the rest of the Val‘s crew, Jazzie’s main motivation is to explore space and find multicellular life. And, at the same time, assure that everyone stays healthy. Once the crew discover the Enigmans, her purpose shifts, as does everyone else’s. Now, her motivation is to protect the Enigmans at all costs.
Jazzie even goes so far as to perform an emergency c-section and even an autopsy. She ends up invested in their fate.
Quotes
Jaz drained the dregs in the bottle. “Superb. Can I tell you something? I would tell Ginny but she’s not here. Pity, that.” She was starting to slur.
“Just how much wine have you had, Jaz?”
“There may have been an earlier bottle. But I am not going to tell you that.”
Marnie had to smile at that. “Your statement, Doctor?”
“My, oh my but we are formal! As I was saying, you are the best damned boss I have ever had.”
“I am?”
“Absolutely. The other captains? They are all a bunch of sticks-in-the-mud, so far as I am concerned. And they may very well be playing along with that awful Carter. But you! Look at you! You’re strong and capable and I won’t say anything about your dodgy knee, and your preference for much younger veterinarians and your poor dye job.”
Marnie held a lock of her hair for a second. “Gwen did this, not me. How much of that other bottle did you have?”
“Oh hush, you.”
“C’mon, Jaz, you shouldn’t be drinking this much.”
“I am off shift, and am perfectly capable, young lady. Now, as I was saying,” Jaz slurred more, “You are an incomparable supervisor.” She clumsily hugged Marnie and patted her hair a few times.
“Jazzie, are you hitting on me?”
“No, you stupid cow!”
“What?” Marnie started laughing. “If you call me any more nasty names, I’ll stop believing you think I’m the greatest boss of all time.”
“No, no, you are the best damned boss I ever had. Now pay attention!” Jaz swayed and dropped to the floor.
Relationships
The only romantic relationship I have for her is with Ginny Carey. But when the book starts, she reveals they have broken up.
With over a thousand people on the Val, Jaz could conceivably find someone else if she wanted to. But I don’t have her do that. By the end of the book, Marnie is trying to get the two women to reconcile.
I like to think that they do.
Conflict and Turning Point
Much like with just about everyone else on the Val, her turning point comes when Carter emerges as a serious threat. This directly affects Jaz, as she loses contact with her father and fears the worst.
Continuity/Easter Eggs
There really are no continuities or Easter eggs with her. What you see, is what you get. She isn’t intended to be related to another Indian character of mine, Akanksha Kondapalli, from the first Obolonk trilogy.
Future Plans
She will not be a part of the planned prequel until it is pretty close to its end. Otherwise, I do not have plans for her.
Jazminder Parikh: Takeaways
There may have been some missed opportunities with this character. And I may end up rectifying them in editing and rewrites. She’s smart and capable, a lot more than a stethoscope, a bottle, or a failed relationship.
Jazminder Parikh — this posh doctor brooks no nonsense.
Want More of Jazminder Parikh and the Rest of The Enigman Cave?
If The Enigman Cave resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how our society handles first contact with a species that may be as primitive as Australopithecus.
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