HomoAmerican – The Secret Society was the winner for BEST COVER DESIGN in the non-fiction category of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Michael Dane.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
HomoAmerican – The Secret Society, Hardcover published September 2019 …eBook published in January of 2020
What’s the book’s first line?
“New York has a power and a pull that I feel from wherever I am.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
In this current climate of post-truth and subjective reality it is important that we recognize our past and the challenges that ignited the gay rights movement at a time when we were invisible. In HomoAmerican – The Secret Society I remember that time…not merely the story of a gay man growing up in America, but an unflinching, often disturbing and hilarious portrait of those turbulent and confusing times, told through the eyes of a firsthand witness.
For those of us who, despite the dangers, lived defiantly and openly through those dark times, we wandered along dangerous paths in search our own. We confronted the confines of society and pursued the promise and myths of sexual liberation at our own peril. As an openly gay man in Iran, as witness to the lavish extravagances and social horror of apartheid South Africa, arrested for murder in Paris and for prostitution in New York, reinvented and reborn in silence, I recount from my journals, my very personal journey to find that man that I would become, pieced together, bit-by-bit, out of shadows.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Perhaps it was a compulsion to preserve the legacy of a time that is being sanitized, mythologized or erased to conform to current tastes and palatable consumption. My destiny to be different was fated for me, before I was born, but the choices I make in dealing with it are mine alone. I had become invisible long before Europe and long before New York. Somewhere in my past I came to a crossroads, a path diverging from who I really am to whom I appear to be. It started before I was even aware and stretched out before me. I traveled both roads at the same time, at my own peril, as there was always some secret, some lie necessary to survive that kept my roads apart.
So, I developed a kind of armor. It’s a lot more fragile than anyone might imagine; just a set of simple beliefs, threads that hold my life together. They‘re the good parts of my past, they are my best intentions; a tenuous combination that make up my individuality. They’ve been fought for and tested and stripped away and may change every day, but they keep the ground from shaking under my feet and provide a narrow path from one day to the next. Then I came to New York City, still very much a child, where my paths slowly came together, where I found my Secret Society and lived openly in defiance of convention. This book is the truth of that journey.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The use of the first person singular, in telling my story. It is not a narration …I take the reader by the hand and together we encounter the first 33 years of my life just as I lived it, ignorant and vulnerable, strong and frightened. Through my varied travels and inner retrospections, I allow myself to be surprised and so the reader is as well.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
In HomoAmerican my Secret Society is inclusive all people who, for whatever reason are obliged to live in disguise. As a result of our conspicuous rebellion, that of simply being and not living in disguise, HomoAmerican presents another society — a Secret Society – of people who grew up and survived, despite a world where lies of omission shaped our destiny and kept us apart. HomoAmerican tells that very real story! I hope that all marginalized people–not only the LGBT community, but all those born without a reflection will find value and comfort in this honest account and perhaps feel less alone.
At the same time HomoAmerican takes the reader by the hand, on this liberating, joyful and often quite funny journey through the dark decade of the 1950’s, the exuberance of the 1960’s and the performing arts world of the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the many vibrant characters and vivid first-hand accounts, HomoAmerican captures the creativity, originality and artistic and political climate that shaped the dance, music and theatre worlds of that time. I am proud to say that my stories will live on, as part of The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library, which has included HomoAmerican The Secret Society in its research collection alongside the collected papers of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev and Alexandra Danilova.
Did you design the cover yourself?
Yes, the cover design is my own. I chose each and every element and spared no expense in creating a unique and beautiful work of art, but my choice was not without controversy, but as I continually said, you can judge my book by its cover, and I thank the IRDA for that recognition.
What, if any, elements of the book did you want to convey in the cover design?
Beyond the quality, the Black Iris Cloth covers, the die cast embossed letters in gold, the black and gold headbands, the heavy duty dustjacket also with each printed letter die cast and stamped in gold, the cover image is a perfect metaphor for my life lived on the edge.
Everything you need to know about my book is there, in that photograph, in metaphor. My story is an unvarnished, honest portrait of my life and so I’ve stripped myself naked. The tie caught in the wind, the mirrored glasses and the playful expression suggest a thrilling and unexpected journey and yet something concealed; while the strategically placed briefcase suggest secrets and adventure, things hidden …both sexual and unexpected!
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
That is a terrifying question to put to any author. Placing your life, literally, into someone else’s hands is a risky proposition. Nothing could ever be as good as the first-hand account in the book and yet a film would help to bring it to a wider audience. It’s a double-edged sword. With that being said, the chapters of the book are episodic in nature and would adapt very well to other media. In the span of my life and book, I was a classically trained ballet dancer, danced en travesti with the comedy troupe, Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, I was a singer, songwriter, recording artist, avant-garde theater performer and an actor. That’s quite a range to ask of any actor, so I think we’ll just have to go with Meryl Streep!
When did you first decide to become an author?
I have always been an author. I have always kept a journal from the time that I could string words together to form a sentence. Although this is my first book, I wrote music and lyrics of many songs for my album released by Aquarius Records of Paris and Belgium. I wrote two versions of an off-Broadway play and, of course, my journals, which I must have known subconsciously, would become this book at some point.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Yes, although this is my first book, I have written music and lyrics of many songs for my album recorded released by Aquarius Records in Paris and Belgium and I wrote two versions of an off-Broadway play.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I am retired now…but I was a professional ballet dancer, a recording artist, singer, and an actor and now I am devoted to the promotion of my book, with the fervor of an evangelical preacher spreading the good word.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When I was writing the book, I spent most every night working from about midnight until dawn. Eighteen years ago, I began the daunting task of dissecting thirty-three years of journals. I wrote and re-wrote my book four times. Each time I finished one version, I started again, at page one, broke it down completely, found the threads of plot, honed the story line, eliminated extraneous events and characters and perfected those stories into the book we have today. My husband would wake up each morning for work at 5AM and make sure that I went to bed.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
Simply put, having complete creative control over the content of my book. It is both the best part and hardest part of being an indie author.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yes. I would love the opportunity of a true collaboration. I would love for HomoAmerican reach the broadest possible audience as possible.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
My motivations are difficult to describe but I’ll try. It’s a compulsion to tell a story that has never been told exactly the way I am telling it, a brutally honest account of a time that was – a time that is slowly disappearing and being reinvented by popular culture.
I was also strongly motivated by one of the great lessons of HomoAmerican — that in ghettos and stereotypes there is an underlying thread of a war, not with society at large, but with ourselves … that the cost of acceptance is always denial. We have to be true to ourselves despite popular tastes and that is a lesson, once learned, is the real secret of success.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
- George Orwell – He opened my eyes to the realities and duplicities in life.
- William Makepeace Thackeray – His use of wit and characterization.
- Janis Ian – The poetry behind her music inspires me.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Only my own. We all have only one voice and I would never want to speak with the voice of another.