Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Disease
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 6/4/1967
WEBSITE: http://www.hirschi.se/
CITY: Gothenburg
STATE:
COUNTRY: Sweden
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Not found in LOC
PERSONAL
Born June 4, 1967; married; husband’s name Alex; children: Sascha (son).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Author, writer, and training executive and LGBT rights activist based in Sweden. Co-founder and president of Yaree, an independent publisher and consultancy firm.
WRITINGS
Work represented in anthologies, including Boughs of Evergreen: A Holiday Anthology, To See about a Guy, and Never Too Late.
SIDELIGHTS
Hans M. Hirschi has written many novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction. He attributes his writing career to “an accident, fate if you will,” he told a Rainbow Gold Reviews online interviewer. “I had a job for a guy who was a complete nut case and I quit, three months before our son was scheduled to be born. Rather than trying to find a new gig, I decided to fulfill a life-long dream, to write ‘the novel.'” He soon completed Family Ties, then Jonathan’s Hope and The Opera House. He has continued writing while being a stay-at-home father and taking occasional consulting or corporate training assignments. In an interview with Andrew J. Peters for Peters’s eponymous blog, he elaborated: “Had we not been expecting Sascha, I probably wouldn’t have started writing again, but gone on to find a job instead. … Imagine how grateful I am to my little boy.” His writing process, he told Jerry Nunn at the Chicago Pride website, “is very fluid and extremely unconscious. I let my fingers do the typing and marvel at the words that come to life on the computer screen. Every now and then, I gasp at the unexpected plot turns, wondering how on earth I’m going to fix the problem I just created.”
Hirschi, who is gay, often writes about same-sex relationships, which has led some readers to mistakenly believe he is a romance writer. “There is this assumption that every gay book is ‘romance’ just because ninety-five percent of all books are romance,” he told the Rainbow Gold Reviews interviewer. “I never write romance, never set out to, never wanted to. I’m not a romance writer nor do I aspire to be.” Because of the increasing acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, “many of our western novels are therefore more positive in tone,” he noted. “Romance is part of our lives, but that doesn’t make them ‘romance novels’ no more than Romeo & Juliet is a romance novel.” Of his subject matter, he explained: “I am preoccupied with life, and as I grow older, the questions that I tackle with change, from parenting to second chances to life and death. Thing is, these have always been universal questions, asked by authors for eons, but never have these questions been tackled in an open and contemporary way for an LGBT audience, by one of our own.” To Nunn, he added that while he explores serious issues, “I don’t write to teach lessons. I often use stories to question beliefs. … What I hope my novels do is ask questions and present possible solutions.”
Disease
Hirschi deals with life-and-death issues in Disease, which tells the story of a journalist who develops early-onset Alzheimer’s. Protagonist Hunter MacIntyre receives the diagnosis in middle age; he is married to a teacher, Ethan, and they have a five-year-old daughter, Amy. The novel takes the form partly of Hunter’s diary, presented to the world by Ethan after Hunter’s death, and intermingles Ethan’s commentary. It details Hunter’s work life, including the homophobia he faced from his editor; his relationship with Ethan and Amy; society’s perception of their family; his memories of childhood; and his frustration as the disease progresses and strips away his mental capacity. The novel grew out of Hirschi’s own health scare. His mother had suffered from Alzheimer’s, and when he began to have periods of forgetfulness, he wondered if he was developing the disease. A checkup revealed that he was not, “but early-on, as I was having those thoughts, I had a dream: what if I’d come home one day with a dementia diagnosis? What then? That’s the start of the novel,” he told the Rainbow Gold Reviews contributor.
Hirschi’s “affecting tale” explores “themes of longing, helplessness, and enduring love,” reported a Kirkus Reviews critic, who called the novel “a moving, compassionate, and poignant tribute to the enduring bonds of family amid disease.” The critic added that Disease is “a must-read for anyone in the throes of an ordeal involving Alzheimer’s disease.”
Willem of the Tafel
Willem of the Tafel tells a different sort of of story but still deals with serous issues of life and love, in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic setting. After a war has wiped out most of Earth’s population, protagonist Willem and other survivors have made a home inside a mountain cave. At one point Willem is ejected by his fellow cave-dwellers, however, and forced to survive in the chaotic, uncivilized environment of the Earth’s surface. He comes to realize his capabilities, find love, and make a discovery that may restore the world to what he once knew.
Hirschi has created “a fully realised and believable world, strange and curious,” remarked G Scene online reviewer Eric Page. He chronicles “a journey of self-discovery but also a love story … with quirks and a reversal of our usual state of affairs around western ideas of race and gender,” Page continued, adding that Hirschi tells it all in “clear simple prose.” The novel, he concluded, has “all the elements of a classical protagonist’s journey wrapped around tender man on man love.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Hirschi, Hans M., Dads: A Gay Couple’s Surrogacy Journey in India (memoir), self-published, 2014.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2018, review of Disease.
ONLINE
Andrew J. Peters website, http://andrewjpeterswrites.com/(August 11, 2013), Andrew J. Peters, interview with Hans M. Hirschi.
Chicago Pride, http://chicago.gopride.com/ (December 12, 2014), Jerry Nunn, interview with Hans M Hirschi.
G Scene, https://www.gscene.com/ (June 23, 2015), Eric Page, review of Willem of the Tafel.
Hans M. Hirschi website, http://www.hirschi.se (July 11, 2018).
Rainbow Gold Reviews, https://rainbowgoldreviews.wordpress.com/ (October 26, 2017), interview with Hans M. Hirschi.
A few words from Hans M Hirschi
Welcome to my world! It is but a tiny sampling of who I am and my creative work. You have come to this site for two reasons: either because you googled my name or because you followed a link. Either way, welcome! Stay for a while, feel right at home, look around, buy a book or two.
I’m an author. I write books. I write about things that are important to me: family, parenting, children, our environment, our world. Contemporary, fresh fiction with unconventional, hopeful or happy endings. It’s what I like to read myself. I write because I don’t have a choice. There are so many stories in my head, constantly forming, constantly trying to get out. Feel free to have a look on the other pages to learn more, listen to me narrate from those stories, and – if you like what you see or hear – you can follow the links to buy them on e.g. Amazon.
I’m an author. But I’m also a fifty-year-old father who clings to the illusion of still being twenty-seven (my pen age!), despite my body’s daily wake-up reminders to the contrary. I’m married to the most amazing man, Alex, and together we have a beautiful four-year-old son, Sascha. I consider myself a citizen of the world, having lived on two continents and traveled extensively (a hobby) through another three. I have friends all over the world. When I’m not writing, I like to do public speaking or training (where I have my professional background). Oh, right, I do have a Facebook profile, too. Say hi. If it is of interest to you, have a look at my LinkedIn profile or our company’s website.
Thanks for dropping in, enjoy your stay and welcome back!
Hans M Hirschi
PS: You’re more than welcome to contact me. I don’t bite and I try to be nice to people.
Hans M. Hirschi
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Hans Martin Hirschi
Hansfinal.jpg
Born June 4, 1967 (age 51)
Samedan, Switzerland
Nationality Swiss & Swedish
Alma mater University of Gothenburg
Occupation Author, writer, training executive
Spouse(s) Alex
Children 1
Website www.hirschi.se
Hans Martin Hirschi (born June 4, 1967) is an author, writer and training executive and LGBT rights activist based in Sweden.[1][2][3][4][5] He is also co-founder and president of Yaree, an independent publisher and consultancy firm.[6]
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Bibliography
5 References
6 External links
Early life and education
Hirschi was born and raised in Samedan, Switzerland.[1] He learned seven languages before graduating high school and five Scandinavian languages in college.[2] Hirschi studied literature at the University of Gothenburg.[7]
Career
Hirschi began writing Greek mythology as a teenager.[4] He wrote a book about e-learning pedagogy and another about his management philosophies during his corporate career.[4][7] After his son was born, Hirschi wrote fictional works.[8] He has self-published a poetry book and a short story.[7] He has also published four novels and an e-book documenting his experience with parenting in India.[7][9] Hirschi is a member of the Swedish Writers' Union and the Writers' Center in Sweden.[10] In 2015, Hirschi released his first science fiction novel, Willem of the Tafel.[11][12]
Personal life
Hirschi lives on an island off the coast of Sweden with his husband Alex and son Sascha.[1][3]
Bibliography
Momente (1991)
Platonmetoden - Internetpedagogik (2000/2002)
Common Sense - in Business & Life (2010)
Jonathan's Hope (2013)
Family Ties (2013)
The Opera House (2013)
Dads: A gay couple's surrogacy journey in India (2014)
Living the Rainbow: A gay family triptych (2014)
The Fallen Angels of Karnataka (2014)
A Christmas Tale (2014)
Willem of the Tafel (2015)
Ross Deere – Handy Man (2016)
Nightmare (2016)
Jonathan's Promise (2016)
Jonathan's Legacy (2016)
Common Sense - In Business & Life (2016 - 2nd Edition)
Last Winter's Snow (2017)
Disease (2017)
Clara (2017)
Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm (2018)
Quoted in Sidelights: “an accident, fate if you will,” . :I had a job for a guy who was a complete nut case and I quit, three months before our son was scheduled to be born. Rather than trying to find a new gig, I decided to fulfill a life-long dream, to write ‘the novel.'”
There is this assumption that every gay book is ‘romance’ just because ninety-five percent of all books are romance,” . “I never write romance, never set out to, never wanted to. I’m not a romance writer nor do I aspire to be.” “many of our western novels are therefore more positive in tone,” he noted. “Romance is part of our lives, but that doesn’t make them ‘romance novels’ no more than Romeo & Juliet is a romance novel.” “I am preoccupied with life, and as I grow older, the questions that I tackle with change, from parenting to second chances to life and death. Thing is, these have always been universal questions, asked by authors for eons, but never have these questions been tackled in an open and contemporary way for an LGBT audience, by one of our own.”i
“but early-on, as I was having those thoughts, I had a dream: what if I’d come home one day with a dementia diagnosis? What then? That’s the start of the novel,”
Hello everyone, please welcome HM, Hans Hirschi. Father, husband, advocate for all causes LBGTQIA, author extraordinaire of queer literature and all around nice guy.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here at RGR.
Nice guy? Why thank you. And thank you for having me! Always a pleasure to drop by RGR!
There’s a story behind why you wrote Disease. Czan you share that with us?
There is, yes, as always with my stories… I had my own worries about Alzheimer’s which began about eighteen months ago. I had begun to notice that I forgot things, and as I began to worry, I noticed more, and it was two particular events that really stuck with me. I won’t share those here, but they were serious enough that I began to really wonder if I, like my mother before me, suffered from Alzheimer’s. Luckily, turns out I’m as healthy as a horse, and my brain just functions differently, according to my neurologist. But early-on, as I was having those thoughts, I had a dream: what if I’d come home one day with a dementia diagnosis? What then? That’s the start of the novel.
Every book that I’ve read of yours breaks my heart in the very best ways. Do you set out to write stories that touch on such hard real life issues or does that just develop as the story progresses?
It’s never a plan, no. And I think Ross Deere shows that even I make exceptions… But yes, I am preoccupied with life, and as I grow older, the questions that I tackle with change, from parenting to second chances to life and death. Thing is, these have always been universal questions, asked by authors for eons, but never have these questions been tackled in an open and contemporary way for an LGBT audience, by one of our own. And it’s necessary, as the novel shows, because even something as universal as Alzheimer’s, affecting all humans alike, no matter what our skin color, our gender identity, faith or culture we identify with, the way we have to deal with it is different, because society treats us differently. I had a lot of re-writing to do, to take into account the fact that Hunter and Ethan weren’t allowed to get married, to just take one example.
Your stories are far away from the romantic tropes that many authors in this genre write. Is there something that compels you to write stories that while still queer and still romantic aren’t what is typically written?
Maybe because I don’t write in “this genre”? There is this assumption that every gay book is “romance” just because ninety-five percent of all books are romance. I never write romance, never set out to, never wanted to. I’m not a romance writer nor do I aspire to be. And when I began, I didn’t even know that “Harlequin” had taken over gay fiction. I’m a gay fiction author. However, because I have this behemoth next to me, people make this default assumption, and maybe my writing has turned darker to more clearly make the distinction? I often wonder about this. However, we also live in a time and era where the LGBT community for the first time ever in modern times (at least in some twenty countries) are allowed to celebrate our love and our relationships openly. We no longer “have to” be single, miserable, mentally unstable and die in every story that depicts us. Needless to say, many of our western novels are therefore more positive in tone. Romance is part of our lives, but that doesn’t make them “romance novels” no more than Romeo & Juliet is a romance novel. Like all things, co-existing with this behemoth called “romance” has its ups and downs. We get more readers, as some romance readers “accidentally” read our books and some like it, but we also have to answer questions about “why is there no HEA?”, or complaints about “lack of sex” etc. Sometimes I wish Shakespeare had been alive. I’m sure he would’ve had a witty sonett to settle this conundrum for all of us…
Do you have an author that inspired you?
I have many authors that inspire me. I majored in literature many eons ago… Kafka, Mann, Elliott, Isherwood, to just name a few. Some authors I despise others I love, some books I hated to much that I don’t want to even be near them, and certainly not emulate them. I find that my writing to this very day is inspired by what I read, contemporary authors, friends. Which is why I never ready while I write, afraid I might not only be inspired but maybe even copy by mistake.
What made you decide to take up writing full time?
Like so often in life, an accident, fate if you will. I had a job for a guy who was a complete nut case and I quit, three months before our son was scheduled to be born. Rather than trying to find a new gig, I decided to fulfill a life-long dream, to write “the novel”… I had previously written non-fiction only. After ten days, Family Ties was done, and after another two weeks, I had Jonathan’s Hope done. I even began work on The Opera House before it was time to pack our bags and fly to Bombay for our son’s birth. After that I was home for six months to look after Sascha (our son) and after that I’ve combined my writing with being a home maker and the occasional consulting or training gig.
I fall hard for your characters. Do you find yourself falling for them too?
Duh, yeah! 🙂 I have absolutely no choice. Some characters I get really close to, others are more aloof and don’t let me in, certainly not as closely. When Jonathan died, I cried more than I have ever cried for any other person in my life before (and after). It was just so hard. And I say this even though I knew it would happen, as I set out to write book two. The very reason I did that was to make sure it wouldn’t turn into one of those series I despise so much. Little did I know… Then there are characters like Willem, who I admire from afar, I almost adore him, he’s the human I wish I were, but I know I’ll never even get close. Some characters I still commune with, every now and then, they visit me in (day-)dreams, and just recently I thought a lot about Haakon, as the hurricanes Irma and Mary ravaged the Caribbean and the BVI where he owns his island refuge. I also thought about Hunter’s dad and his wife Catherine, and how their house in Marathon fared… I’m weird, right?
Any new projects on the horizon that you can share with us?
I’m just in release mode right now, so writing isn’t really on my mind, plus I have GRL which is always a ton of work. Having said that, I will be releasing a short story this fall, as part of an amazing anthology of broad LGBT stories about people fifty plus that my publisher Beaten Track is releasing. My contribution is a short story called “Clara” and is about an gender-fluid octogenarian. I love this little gem.
I’ve also begun work on a story tentatively dubbed “Martin”, about an old man living in a retirement home, but I have no idea where this is heading, and my brain is not responding to queries at this time. LOL
Quoted in Sidelights: “Had we not been expecting Sascha, I probably wouldn’t have started writing again, but gone on to find a job instead… Imagine how grateful I am to my little boy.”
Interview with Hans Hirschi, Author of Jonathan’s Hope
andrew August 11, 2013 No Comments on Interview with Hans Hirschi, Author of Jonathan’s Hope
This week I’m featuring an interview with Hans Hirschi, the author of Family Ties and Jonathan’s Hope.
Photo of Hans Hirschi from his website
Photo of Hans Hirschi from his website
The really great thing about social media is that every now and then you make a connection with someone you might never have met in your off-line social circles.
Hans and I are both gay authors who write about the gay world. I tend to tread in fantasy while Hans writes from a contemporary perspective. We’re close in age and maybe we would have met up through mutual friends or a writer’s group of some sort. But I live in New York City, and Hans lives in Sweden.
We struck up a friendly rapport on Twitter and Triberr. Since we both have recent releases, we decided to check out each other’s books and swap interviews on our blogs in the spirit of authors supporting each other.
At least that’s my side of the story. Hans says he thought my Twitter profile image – the cover art from Werecat – was a self-pic, which I guess explains all the flirty emoticons in his correspondence. I’m sorry to disappoint you Hans. 🙂
(Hans says: LOL, is that how you interpreted them? Good for you.)
WerecatTheRearingCover
My publisher’s rendition of Werecat’s Jacks Dowd.
DSC_1329
And here’s l’il ol’ me.
When I read the back cover blurb for Jonathan’s Hope, I was immediately intrigued. It’s the story of a gay teen who is abandoned in the woods, in the dead of winter, by his homophobic father.
While working as a social worker for gay teens, I met many young men with horrific stories of neglect and abuse. One sixteen-year-old I’ll call James came home from school one day to find that his parents had changed the locks on the door of their house. That was it. They were finished with him. He stayed with friends for a little while, and I helped him get into an emergency shelter where he could start working on living his life independently.
Another young man was a seventeen-year-old I’ll call Pete. Pete dialed my agency’s hotline in the middle of the night, locked in his bedroom, because his mother had being chasing him around the house with a butcher knife.
At fourteen-years-old, a boy “Diego” came into the care of our center after his single mother decided to move out of the country without her kids, leaving “Diego” with a pair of teenaged siblings who beat him every day.
Sadly, I could go on for pages. I worked with young gay men and women for eighteen years, and these situations were not uncommon. You can see why I was drawn to reading Jonathan’s Hope. I was curious to see if the book dealt with a real-life story or illuminated the tragedy of gay teen abuse from a new and interesting angle.
I was not disappointed. And I was happily surprised that beyond the portrayal of abuse, Jonathan’s Hope tells a lovely, compelling romantic story.
Andrew Peters: One of the things I enjoyed about Jonathan’s Hope was its timeless, almost fairytale quality. Most of the story takes place in a wintry, woodsy setting, and it takes brief trips to an unnamed country town and a city. Did you have a location in mind when you were writing the story?
Hans Hirschi: No, not really. It all started out with a picture I had in my mind, Dan (no name at the time), sitting in front of his fire place, contemplating. I had just finished Family Ties and thought I’d reward my future readers with a short story on my blog. Twelve thousand words later, I ended up with someone knocking on the door, and I realized there was something more to this than just a short story. I had to find out who the visitor was, why he’d be knocking at Dan’s door.
As for the forest, I imagine something along the lines of Fangorn Forest (from LOTR) or the forest in Harry Potter, minus the ents and spiders, just a huge, old forest where one could easily get lost. Funny thing is that I found the forest hanging in a gallery, while we were in the editing process. I had to buy the painting, and it’s now hanging in our bedroom, a daily reminder of Jon’s ordeal.
AP: Essentially, it’s a love story about Dan and Jonathan. When they meet Jonathan is seventeen-years-old and Dan is thirty-one – a fact that Dan is acutely aware of, and worries about. He feels like he’s crossing a taboo boundary. I felt that a bit as a reader, questioning whether or not it was “right” for Dan to pursue a sexual relationship with Jonathan. Yet I understood Dan’s attraction to Jonathan as natural, and I thought that portrayal was honest and brave. Did you have any concerns about writing that aspect of the story?
HH: Yes, I struggled immensely with that, and for the longest time I was uncertain if Dan and Jon would make it. I had no idea what my brain was up to, and how the story would ultimately end.
There were parts in me that felt strongly for keeping them together, others that felt that I had to break them up. Thing is, this part is somewhat influenced by my own life. My husband is twelve years younger than I am, and the age difference is something we come back to every now and then. It’s no issue in our present lives, but it was a while ago, when I was ready to have children, and Alex wasn’t. And it might be again, when I’m retiring and Alex still has many years to go. This last part is also reflected in the Epilogue, which was very emotional to write.
I wasn’t really worried about the sexual part of their relationship, but given that the book will be read primarily in the United States, I made sure that Jon turns eighteen before anything happens. In Europe, the laws surrounding the age of consent vary, but are normally between 13 and 18 years, and cases like that of the two girls in Florida, where the parents of the younger one had the older incarcerated would be unthinkable in (western) Europe. It is an important issue, no doubt, and I don’t think there are any definitive answers to it. I’m just glad it worked out for Dan and Jon in the end.
AP: I wonder if any part of Jonathan’s Hope was inspired by events that you experienced or witnessed in your life?
HH: Yes, there are a couple. As I mentioned, the whole discussion of the age difference between Jon and Dan, as well as between Parker and Dennis, whom I added to serve as a role model for the former, is inspired by my own life. You have no idea how often I’m mistaken to be Alex’ father. He looks young for his age, and while I don’t look ‘ancient’, it’s still something people ask us.
Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas
The other “inspiration” comes from Oscar Wilde’s life. He and [his boyfriend] Bosie were attending a gang bang in London where one of the escorts died from having a bottle inserted into his rectum. I used that reference in the rape scene. It’s very sad and tragic that we have to read that Russian nazis are using the same tools to rape and humiliate young gay men in 2013. I had no idea that this scene would be so utterly contemporary.
AP: The scene you’re talking about, a flashback to Jonathan’s father and his friend being assaulted at a fraternity party, it certainly was difficult to read. I remember thinking: “How does a situation like that happen? What kind of young men are capable of that?!” I still have those questions after years of working with both survivors and perpetrators of violence.
At the same time, it occurred to me what an important moment that scene was in your story. Because I think that whether or not a young man has experienced such trauma, they are all affected by the possibility of such violence happening. Here in cosmopolitan New York City, there was a wave of over thirty physical assaults on gay men this past spring, including one murder. The presence of violence and hate speech really batters our sense of safety – all of us gay men, but especially the youngest of us. I wonder if you were conscious of that theme when writing the book?
HH: Not conscious in the political sense. But like so many others, I’ve suffered from gay bashing myself, and I’ve used some of the other experiences I’ve had to endure in my life in my other book. The real tragic part about all this is that you keep reading about it, time and time again, in any gay novel, the same issues over and over. And I keep asking myself, don’t we have anything else to talk about? Then you talk to straight friends who are completely oblivious to all this, who are very gay friendly, yet still ignorant to the plight of our existences, be it the hate-mongerers on the religious front, or politicians who try to use us as scapegoats etc. I try to use my blog for the more ‘obvious’ political statements. In the story, I was trying to explore what would’ve driven Jonathan’s father to become what he ultimately became.
AP: In your bio, you tell us that you live on an island off the coast of Sweden. That sounds rather idyllic to me. Could you tell me what it’s like? How did you end up there?
HH: I grew up in the Swiss Alps, near St. Moritz. Yet for some reason, I’ve always felt this attraction to the sea and water. When I moved to Sweden, I ended up buying a house on one of the islands off the coast. We had previously been looking for something on the mainland, when our little gem appeared for sale.Swedish flag
It is very peaceful, with almost no cars on the island. We have to take a boat to get home and walk from the jetty to our house. Winters are calm and serene, summers are bustling with life and tourists, as the archipelago is the #1 tourist destination of Gothenburg according to Trip Advisor. I can’t imagine ever again not living in a place where I can’t see the ocean.
AP: Jonathan’s Hope is dedicated to your son. Do you plan to share the story with him? You also say that your son rekindled your passion for writing. Can you tell me more about that?
HH: Sascha is only four months old. I’ve read to him from the book as a way to get him to sleep, but it will be years before he’s able to understand this kind of story. Thing was that I quit a job in December, and since we were expecting Sascha to be born in March I figured I’d never find another gig before that, so I volunteered to be the “stay at home dad”, while Alex would work.
I decided to use those weeks between New Year and Sascha’s birth to see if I could still write fiction, which I had done a lot as a child and youth. To my surprise, I ended up writing two novels in that time frame. Had we not been expecting Sascha, I probably wouldn’t have started writing again, but gone on to find a job instead… Imagine how grateful I am to my little boy.
AP: I also see from your bio that you have spent a lot of time in the United States as well as Europe. Many of us American gays tend to view Europe as a place that’s more progressive socially and more tolerant of gays. Do you find that to be true?
HH: It certainly looks that way when I go through my Facebook feed. I think the biggest mistake people tend to make is to bundle Europe into one mass. You guys don’t do that with regards to your own country. You see California as distinctly different from say Texas or North Dakota. The same is obviously true for Europe. The Scandinavian countries are generally more tolerant, yet Finland doesn’t have marriage equality yet and struggles with the issue. The sexually liberal French almost choked on the same, while Catholic Spain (under a social democratic government) was the world’s first country to introduce true marriage equality. In Poland or other Eastern and Southern European countries you’ll find the same arguments you’d hear from the American Family Association or Evangelical circles, although they’re Catholic or Orthodox.
So no, I think if you look at the entire continent, it’s pretty much the same.
Anti-gay marriage protesters in France
Anti-gay marriage protesters in France
AP: As I mentioned above, I’ve known of situations similar to Jonathan’s. Your story made me wonder if that kind of family abuse happens to gay teens in places like Sweden and Switzerland.
HH: I have been asking myself that same question for some time, as there are no statistics on this. We have a much smaller homeless problem in the countries you mention (and Western Europe in general), due to a bigger “state”, who will look after people before they become homeless. I’m not trying to disregard the issues we still have, but I think that volunteer organizations and the communities would immediately take kids off the street and help them, much more than what is true in the U.S. However, we find that honor killings are becoming a real issue with certain immigrant groups, affecting mostly girls hanging out with boys, but it’s not unthinkable that LGBT kids might face the same fate. And if society doesn’t know those kids were LGBT, we might not even know why they died.
I have spoken to several youths who said their parents would kill them if they came out. Whether that would truly happen or if that is just the fear we all felt beforehand, I can’t say. But luckily we don’t have thousands and thousands of LGBT youths being homeless.
AP: How has being a father impacted your writing?
HH: It plays a certain part in Family Ties where the gay couple have twins from a surrogate mother. But since I wrote both books before Sascha was born, I can’t say it did. However, in my third book, that I’m trying to write in between diaper changes and feedings (which isn’t going nearly as well as I had hoped), I am exploring fatherhood to it’s extreme, as my protagonist suffers the ultimate loss, something I think all parents worry about at some point.
Hans' first novel Family Ties
Hans’ first novel Family Ties
AP: Jonathan’s Hope reminded me stylistically of the British author Neil Bartlett (Ready to Catch Him if He Should Fall). I’m curious if you’ve read any of his work and what you thought about it. If not, are there authors that have influenced your writing?
HH: I’m relieved to say that I haven’t (but I definitively will!), that way no one will be able to accuse me of plagiarism. LOL
There have been authors I love more than others, from Thomas Mann to Christopher Isherwood, who dealt with LGBT questions decades before it was politically okay. Btw, both Death in Venice and A Single Man touch upon the age difference, although from a different vintage point. But I also love straight authors such as Franz Kafka or J.D. Salinger as well individual works by others. I majored in literature, so I’ve read literally hundreds and hundreds of books through the years.
AP: While the story deals with heartbreak and human cruelty, it felt to me that everyone was redeemed in the end, even Jonathan’s abusive father. Did you worry that some readers might not feel so charitable toward the father? What made you feel like he deserved forgiveness and redemption?
HH: Jon’s father had to work hard to ‘earn’ his name… I’m not sure he’s fully redeemed, because I don’t think there is redemption for what he did. But I’ll grant you that I come from a philosophical tradition that puts ‘nurture’ above ‘nature’ and I needed to find out what drove Jonathan Sr. to become the monster he is in the book. Trust me, I don’t feel very charitable toward the man myself, but it is a well-known phenomenon that the most homophobic people often times struggle with their own homosexuality, trying to deflect attention to themselves by pointing fingers at others. In Jon’s dad, the circumstances surrounding his life were particularly tragic, and the real villains in the book, the family priest and Jon’s grandmother leave the book as vicious as they entered it.
AP: How did you and your husband Alex meet?
HH: Online, twelve years ago. Classic, right? It’s a long story.
Just some gay love courtesy of Matt Groening
Just some gay love courtesy of Matt Groening
AP: My husband and I met at a bar, so we may have one-upped you guys in terms of gay clichés. Are you working on another story? Can you tell me about that?
HH: Yeah, I’m working on a third novel about an architect who loses everything (literally) The book is about his journey to redemption and possibly second chances at life, love. Given that I don’t find the time to write much right now, I have a pretty good idea how the story will end, but the details won’t come to me until I sit down and finish. The style of the book is very different from the previous ones, and I’m exploring the issue of homelessness (for kids and adults) further. I’ve tried to set myself a goal to get it done so that we can publish it by Christmas.
AP: How do you get your books out to readers? What made you decide to self-publish?
HH: I was toying with the idea of finding a publisher, but there are no Swedish publishing companies that work with English fiction, certainly none who get any traction. As a foreigner, to find a good publisher in the U.S. seemed doomed (tax issues and what not, it’s complicated enough for our own company), so we decided to use our own consulting company, which also has a publishing arm for it. I might be wrong here, but at least we had the opportunity to get the book out relatively quickly.
It also has the added bonus of not having to arm wrestle with any editors over changes to the script, to add sex (to please the many m/m readers) or action or whatever. I’ve done that in the past with my nonfiction books and it wasn’t always a pleasant experience.
We are using the three big dragons, Amazon, Apple & Nook to get the books out. Initially, we’re going exclusively with Amazon to get double royalties, which works perfectly, as we still need to iron out the royalty payments for the other two, as we need a U.S. bank account, which is still not resolved. But apart from that, it’s a lot of work, doing interviews with people such as yourself, trying to get professional reviews, get into newspapers, magazines etc. I also try to spam my poor followers on Twitter and Facebook. Trust me, the marketing side of being an author is tenfold the amount of work of writing, and in the end, it’s all down to luck, say a book critic from the New York Times picking it up and liking it, or not.
AP: Well I wish you the best of luck with your books. Jonathan’s Hope certainly made me a fan, and I’m sure it will garner many others. Thanks so much for stopping by Hans!
Here’s the back cover blurb from Jonathan’s Hope, which is available in paperback and e-book from Amazon.
Abandoned to freeze to death in a winter forest by his father because of his homosexuality, Jonathan desperately struggles to survive, until he accidentally stumbles upon Dan, who owns a cabin in the woods. Dan has been fighting his own demons since the death of his lover Sean. Having retreated from big city life, he is content to live in solitude, but he never counted on meeting Jonathan. Given the dire circumstances, Dan must set his own needs aside to help Jonathan reclaim his life, but he soon finds that the ghosts of both their pasts won’t die so easily.
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andrew
About andrew
Andrew J. Peters writes fantasy for readers of all ages. His titles include the Werecat series, a finalist in The Romance Reviews' Readers' Choice Awards, Poseidon and Cleito, The City of Seven Gods, and two books for young adults: The Seventh Pleiade and Banished Sons of Poseidon. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, studied psychology at Cornell University, and spent most of his career as a social worker and an advocate for LGBT youth. He lives in New York City with his husband Genaro and their cat Chloë.
Quoted in Sidelights: “is very fluid and extremely unconscious. I let my fingers do the typing and marvel at the words that come to life on the computer screen. Every now and then, I gasp at the unexpected plot turns, wondering how on earth I’m going to fix the problem I just created.”
“I don’t write to teach lessons. I often use stories to question beliefs. … What I hope my novels do is ask questions and present possible solutions.”
Hans M. Hirschi
Interview with Hans M Hirschi, author of The Fallen Angels of Karnataka
Fri. December 12, 2014 12:00 AM by Jerry Nunn
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INTERVIEWS & VOICES CELEBRITY WRITER
Hans M. Hirschi
// credit: John O'Leary John O'Leary
Interview with Hans M Hirschi, author of The Fallen Angels of Karnataka
Author Hans M. Hirschi has just released a new novel centering on a gay man's travel to India, which in the process exposes the plight of children in modern slavery. The Fallen Angels of Karnataka was originally meant to be a travel novel set in the late '80s AIDS outbreak, but then something unexpected happened and Hirschi shifted the focus of the story.
Hirschi has written several books including Living the Rainbow and A Christmas Tale. Jerry Nunn sat down at a coffee shop to discuss this latest work.
JN: (Jerry Nunn) Did you always want to be a writer even when you were very little?
HH: (Hans M. Hirschi) You could say that and I was writing for the longest time, keeping diaries, and writing little stories. I still have some of those.
JN: Where did you grow up?
HH: In Switzerland. I did find some of my writings when I was younger. In my teens was writing Greek mythology. I remember writing a love story about a centaur. I was always writing novels and something would get in the way. I had a beautiful typewriter that was electronic but nothing ever came from it. After high school I went into a banking career. Boom you are working and there is no time to write.
I did self publish a little as a Christmas gift for my friends and family. It is a little short story that will be published for real after 20 years, in English. I am very excited about that. That story is getting a second chance.
I wrote two non fictional books as part of my day job career. In 2012 I had gotten a dream job of mine but it hit after two days on the job that the owner of the company was a psychopath. So I quit. That opened up the opportunity where I can write a story for a few months.
JN: This story came out of that?
HH: This is actually my fourth one. The first one was done in two weeks, the second one was done before I flew to India. I wrote the third one last summer and this one I wrote this year. This one took two and a half months to write. It took a long time in part because of the research. My writing style is extremely fluid. I sit down and I let my fingers do the typing.
I have had some weird experiences. In my second novel my brain kills the main character halfway through the book. I stopped writing for the day and the next day I saved him since he only had hyperthermia.
JN: Talk about this current novel.
HH: I was inspired to write a travel book about a beautiful Norwegian guy graduating high school. All he ever wants to do is travel. He empties his savings account and travels to Oslo. A bunch of things happen that keep him from traveling but finally goes to London. The story takes off from there.
I wanted to follow his growth through travel but it would have been a boring story. My husband came home one day and mentioned a friend of our had been applying for a job at his company. Turns out he was under investigation for having Skype calls with kids and hundreds of photos on his computer. We were both completely shocked because he was a gay guy, married, seemingly in a happy relationship then hit with something like this.
I thought about my own son being around him and I started sobbing like a baby on the tram. I put it in my book with Haakon meeting an Irish dandy named Charles. Haakon is hired as an assistant for his travels. While traveling Charles has sex with someone who is very young and they keep getting younger in the story.
I questioned on my blog if I really wanted to do this story. People know what it is like to be gay and to be accused of being a pedophile. Did I really need to go down this road? In the end I didn't have a choice and needed to get it out of my system.
JN: Sounds like a tough choice.
HH: It was the same thing with my previous novel. My son was born and my biggest fear was seeing him dead in the crib. He slept very quiet at times. As a parent that is your biggest fear. I had to get that out of my system too.
JN: You seem to find inspiration in unusual places.
HH: I find inspiration around me so it seems. It is usually family inspired. I lost my mom when I was very young. A week before this was published my husband lost his dad so we only have to grandparents left for our son. By the time he is a teen he will have most likely loss all of his grandparents. We have to carry on the legacy and tell him where he comes from.
The second book was a love story. It is about a man that sits in his cabin and takes his dog out for a walk around a frozen lake. He is all alone when someone knocks at the door. Obviously you want to find who that person is so I had another novel. I just go with it.
JN: Who would you cast in a movie version of the book?
HH: I am not going to answer that for the simple reason is that I love books. Take the Life of Pi as an example. Being in Pondicherry that French inspired city I could see all of that. I had my images of what that looked like.
It is a beautiful film, don't get me wrong but it is Ang Lee's vision of Pondicherry and the ship. It is not mine. That is the most important difference between books and a movie.
If I gave you answer like I want Brad Pitt in the role of Haakon, which I would not, but if you put that in your article then people will see Brad and not their version of Haakon. I want readers to experience the characters how they want to see them.
JN: What do you want readers to get out of the book?
HH: A good time. I want to entertain people but I want them to think about these issues. I want to be a role model. I want to tell modern inspiring tales on what it means to be gay today. It is not angst and coming out or homophobia. Sure that is part of life and in my books too. I think the gay community has a responsibility to deal with these sorts of things such as trafficking and child pornography. Just because we are gay does not mean people can't abuse their kids. We have been trying to separate ourselves from being pedophiles for such a long time but it happens. I was abused as a child by a woman who was married to a man so she was straight. Most pedophiles go for androgynous and don't care which sex they are but some do choose. It is very complicated.
JN: You have traveled a lot so you were able to put that in the book as well.
HH: The only place in the book where I have not traveled to is the capital of Karnataka Bangalore. I have a friend that helped me place things in the right neighborhoods and some language.
I wanted to take Haakon to the Grand Canyon but he was stopped from traveling to the US because he is HIV positive. The ban was lifted after the book ends in 2009.
I am going to parts of the world on December 30 where the story plays out in Tortola so I am excited like a kid. I get goose bumps and it makes you believe in fate.
JN: You will be blogging about this I bet.
HH: Oh yeah! I get to do an author reading on the ship on this trip.
JN: Are you working on another book?
HH: Not until after the holidays but I want to have another out by next fall.
Visit blog.hirschi.se for information on his holiday contribution to Boughs of Evergreen with proceeds going to the Trevor Project.
Living the Rainbow by Hans M. Hirschi
5/22/2014 0 Comments
Picture
Living the Rainbow
By Hans M. Hirschi
Review by Skip Sheffield
In his gripping triptych, Hans M. Hirschi presents three very different and deeply moving portraits of gay family life. While each is a complete story in its own right, all three share common themes, exploring the devastating impact of death, the deep wounds left by abuse, the damage wreaked by homophobia, and, ultimately, the power of love to overcome and heal.
Living The Rainbow: A Gay Family Tryptych is comprised of Hans M. Hirschi's bestselling novels "Family Ties", "Jonathan's Hope" and "The Opera House".
What can readers learn from the adventures in your stories?
I don’t write to teach lessons. I often use stories to question beliefs. In the “The Opera House”, I explore how death can test faith. “Jonathan’s Hope” examines trust issues and “Family Ties” tackles monogamy. What I hope my novels do is ask questions and present possible solutions.
Are the stories autobiographical?
They are, somewhat. They deal with issues that are constantly on my mind as a gay father. I wrote “Family Ties” while my husband and I were pregnant. The prospect of fatherhood was constantly on my mind. Would I be a good father? What would people say seeing two dads with a child? “Jonathan’s Hope” probes, among other things, the age difference between the two main characters. I am twelve years older than my husband.
Is that a problem?
Not now but when I retire at 70, my husband will only be 58. When he’s 70, I’ll be 82. I’m sure we’ll work things out, but it scares me that I may not be there for him at some point. Or that he may have to care for me. The ending of “Jonathan’s Hope” is a glimpse at how that might look like, and it is bittersweet.
What binds all three stories together?
Love, hope and a message that gay families are just like any other family.
Do shows like Modern Family accurately reflect today’s gay families?
While they have done wonders for people’s conceptions of LGBT families, they tend to portray us as camp, butch or neurotic. They rely on stereotypes for laughs.
What is the biggest difference between nuclear and LGBT families?
LGBT parents tend to be a bit older and wiser. We plan long and hard for our children.
What unique challenges do LGBT parents face?
Homophobia is always showing its ugly face when you least expect it. It started for us right from the beginning. Homophobia from social services kept us from fostering and adopting. We ended up building our family through surrogacy and that has led to other forms of homophobia. More than once, we’ve been accused of buying our child.
What does the world need to know about modern LGBT families?
We’re as exciting and dull as the rest of them. My son’s diapers smell as badly as any other baby’s. We worry the same and we’re as willing to sacrifice ourselves for our kids as any other parent.
Your worry is reflected in the last novel in the trilogy, “The Opera House”.
The story explores the loss of a child, something I believe most parents contemplate in one way or another. I wrote it after my son’s birth. The fear of losing him was really difficult at times. Those first months, I’d listen to every breath he’d take. Any silence would alarm me. I was so afraid of SIDS.
What’s next for you?
I’ve just started a new novel. It is going to be about a man’s journey and travels. I have no idea where it’s going to take me; what the man is going to experience or what trials and tribulations may be ahead. My writing is very fluid and extremely unconscious. I let my fingers do the typing and marvel at the words that come to life on the computer screen. Every now and then, I gasp at the unexpected plot turns, wondering how on earth I’m going to fix the problem I just created.
“Living The Rainbow: A Gay Family Triptych” is available now, digitally and as a softcover boxed set, on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (Nook), and at selected local bookstores.
Quoted in Sidelights: “themes of longing, helplessness,
and enduring love,” “a moving, compassionate, and poignant tribute to the enduring bonds of family amid disease.” “a must-read for anyone in the throes of an ordeal involving Alzheimer’s disease.”
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Print Marked Items
Hirschi, Hans M.: DISEASE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Hirschi, Hans M. DISEASE Beaten Track Publishing (Indie Fiction) $12.49 10, 26 ISBN: 978-1-78645-
161-3
A devastating medical diagnosis redirects the future of a loving gay family.
When journalist Hunter MacIntyre is officially diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, the news is
crippling not only for him, but also for his husband, Ethan, a high school teacher, and their 5-year-old
daughter, Amy. Prolific Swedish author Hirschi's (Jonathan Trilogy, 2016, etc.) emotional tale opens with
Ethan's presenting MacIntyre's life through the journalist's notes. Ethan--now a widower with a teenage
daughter--continues to mourn the loss yet offers MacIntyre's diary in hopes that it will illuminate the
heartbreak of the disease that robbed him of his livelihood, his perception of the world around him, and
ultimately his home life. MacIntyre's history plays out within a narrative that is told through epistolary
chapters weaving in his personal chronicle of gay fatherhood, objections to his family unit being considered
"different" by his magazine editor, his married life with Ethan, and cherished and bittersweet childhood
memories. He also writes from the internal vantage point of a frustrated man struggling with an increasingly
faulty memory, the internalized terror of paranoia, the allure of suicide, and the solemn acceptance of living
"with a death sentence." As his family genetics predestined MacIntyre to acquire the debilitating disease, he
writes of his mother's plight with dementia-induced paranoia. Hirschi expands the focus and perspective of
his character's ordeal with the inclusion of Ethan's own first-person narrative recounted both as MacIntyre's
health declined and in contemporary hindsight as a widower, years after his husband's shocking death.
Through his words, readers become acquainted with Ethan as a doting husband, the evolution of their
relationship from first impressions to a cozy wedding ceremony in Italy, Amy's birth, and MacIntyre's
crushing diagnosis and mental decline. An immensely thoughtful writer, Hirschi also allows his characters
to ruminate over situations they have little control over, such as MacIntyre's father's remarriage and
concerns over what kind of father Ethan's new partner would be to Amy. Themes of longing, helplessness,
and enduring love further inform this affecting tale, whose multiple narratives coalesce beautifully as they
chronologically and touchingly document the incremental decline of a loving father and how a family must
carry on despite its anguish.
A moving, compassionate, and poignant tribute to the enduring bonds of family amid disease, this account
should be a must-read for anyone in the throes of an ordeal involving Alzheimer's disease.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hirschi, Hans M.: DISEASE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
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Accessed 23 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527247932
Quoted in Sidelights: “a fully realised and believable world, strange and curious,” “a journey of self-discovery but also a love story … with quirks and a reversal of our usual state of affairs around western ideas of race and gender,” “clear simple prose.” “all the elements of a classical protagonist’s journey wrapped around tender man on man love.”
BOOK REVIEW: Willem of the Tafel
Posted On 23 Jun 2015By : Eric PageTag: book review, eric pagei, Hans M Hirschi, Willem of the Tafel
HansHirschi_WillemoftheTafel
Willem of the Tafel
by Hans M Hirschi
The world we know is gone, destroyed by greed and ignorance. On a post-apocalyptic Earth, few have survived the Great War. Some have taken refuge deep inside a mountain. One of them, Willem, is exiled to the surface…
Alone and struggling to survive, Willem embarks on an epic journey, making a discovery that could once again alter the future of humanity.
Willem of the Tafel is a tale of survival, second chances, hope and undying love.
This is an intriguing book, a post-apocalyptic tale of troglodyte folk who appear to be the only survivors of nuclear Armageddon. The book is set hundreds of year into the future when race, countries and sexuality definitions have faded out and been replaced by urgent, desperate need for survival which takes all precedence.
To see more of Hans M Hirschi’s work, click here:
It’s a fully realised and believable world, strange and curious and we follow the protagonist on his journey out of threat, fear and confinement into his apparent punishment which reveals itself as new opportunity and potential that he is both unaware of and unprepared to deal with. As the story progresses he grows, changes and eventually works his way back to his original world finding his own true love on the way. Like all good love stories between strong men this one has its trouble & sacrifice but they are unusual as they are to do with honour, responsibility and doing the right thing, rather than of self-indulgence and infantile self-satisfaction, and all the more fun because of that.
This is a journey of self-discovery but also a love story, one without judgement or intolerance, but still with quirks and a reversal of our usual state of affairs around western ideas of race and gender. It’s refreshing also to read some dystopian story which is rooted in hope, love and positive change rather than murderous robots, murderous children pitted against each other or zombies eating your mom (yawn, yawn & tripple yawn). I put William of Tefel down with a smile, and enjoyed the clear simple prose the author used to bring this fully realised work to life. His careful ideas of place, time and the geographical accuracy of the places weave a firm bases for the emotional twists and turns to take place against and I felt emotionally connected to the characters.
Hirschi has created an interesting love story more like ancient myth than modern gay love story but with all the elements of a classical protagonist’s journey wrapped around tender man on man love.