MUSIC FROM
ANOTHER WORLD
By Robin
Talley
On
Sale: Mar 31, 2020
Inkyard Press
Teen &
Young Adult 20th Century United States Historical Fiction
Teen &
Young Adult Fiction about Emotions & Feelings
Teen &
Young Adult Gay & Lesbian Fiction
9781335146779; 1335146776
$18.99 USD
384
pages
About the book
It’s summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy
Larson can’t be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not
at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her
ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy’s
only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist
Harvey Milk…until she’s matched with a real-life pen pal who changes
everything.
Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others—like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom—and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they’ll stand for…and who they’ll rise against.
A master of award-winning queer historical fiction, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley once again brings to life with heart and vivid detail an emotionally captivating story about the lives of two teen girls living in an age when just being yourself was an incredible act of bravery.
Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others—like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom—and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they’ll stand for…and who they’ll rise against.
A master of award-winning queer historical fiction, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley once again brings to life with heart and vivid detail an emotionally captivating story about the lives of two teen girls living in an age when just being yourself was an incredible act of bravery.
Buy Links:
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https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Robin_Talley_Music_from_Another_World?id=yEy7DwAAQBAJ
Excerpted from Music from Another World by Robin Talley. © 2020 by Robin Talley,
used with permission by Inkyard Press.
Tuesday, June 7, 1977
Dear Harvey,
I hope it’s okay for me to call you Harvey.
In school, when they taught us to write letters, they said adults should always
be addressed as “Mr.” or “Mrs.,” but from what I’ve read in the newspaper, you
don’t seem much like the adults I know. I’d feel wrong calling you “Mr. Milk.”
Besides, it’s not as if I’m ever going to
send you this letter. I’ve never kept a diary before, but things have been
getting harder lately, and tonight might be the hardest night of all. I need
someone I can talk to. Even if you can’t answer back.
Plus, I told Aunt Mandy I couldn’t join the
prayer circle because I had too much homework. Tomorrow’s the last day of
school, so I don’t have any homework, but she doesn’t know that. If I keep
writing in this notebook, maybe she’ll think homework is really what I’m doing.
I guess I could write to my new “pen
pal” instead. That might count as homework. It would be closer than writing a
fake letter to a famous San Francisco homosexual, anyway, but I can’t handle
the thought of writing to some stranger right now.
Technically you’re a stranger, too,
Harvey, but you don’t feel like one. That’s why I wanted to write to you,
instead of “Dear Diary” or something.
It’s ironic, though, that my pen pal lives
in San Francisco, too. I wonder if she’s ever met you. How big is the
city, anyway? I read a magazine article that said gay people could hold hands
walking down the street there, and no one minds. Is that true?
Ugh. The prayer circle’s starting over.
Brett and Carolyn are leading the Lord’s Prayer again. It’s probably the
only prayer they know.
We’ve been cooped up in the church basement
for five hours now—my whole family, plus the youth group, plus a bunch of the
other Protect Our Children volunteers. Along with Aunt Mandy and Uncle Russell,
of course. The results from Miami should come in any minute.
You probably already know this—wait, who am
I kidding? Of course you know, Harvey—but there was a vote today in
Florida. They were voting on homosexuality, so our church, New Way Baptist, was
heavily involved, even though we’re on the opposite side of the country.
Everyone in our youth group was required to volunteer. I worked in the office
Aunt Mandy and Uncle Russell set up in their den, answering phones and putting
together mailings and counting donations to the New Way Protect Our Children
Fund. We had bake sales and car washes to raise money to send to Anita Bryant,
too.
You know all about Anita Bryant, obviously.
You’re probably just as scared of her as I am. Although, come to think of it,
whenever I see you in the newspaper, you look the opposite of afraid. In
pictures, you’re always smiling.
Don’t you get anxious, having everyone
know? I’m terrified all the time, and no one even knows about me yet. I
hope they never find out.
Maybe I should pray for that. Ha.
Okay, the Lord’s Prayer is over and now
Uncle Russell’s making everyone silently call on God to save the good Christians
of Florida from sin. I hope I can keep writing without getting in trouble.
Ugh, look at
them all, showing off how devout they are. The only two people in this room who
aren’t clasping their hands in front of them and moving their lips dramatically
are me and Aunt Mandy, but that’s because I’m a grievous sinner—obviously—and
Aunt Mandy keeps peeking out from her shut eyes at the phone next to her.
I’m not sure how much you can concentrate
on God when you’re solely focused on being ready to snatch up the receiver the
second it starts to shake. Maybe she’ll grab it so hard, it’ll crush to a pulp
in her fist like one of Anita Bryant’s fucking Florida oranges.
I wonder what you’re doing tonight,
Harvey. Probably waiting by your phone, too. Only you’re in San Francisco, and
if you’re praying, you’re praying for the opposite of what Aunt Mandy and
everyone else in our church basement is praying for.
It seems pointless to pray now, though. The
votes have already been cast, so we’re just waiting to hear the results.
There’s a reporter from my aunt and uncle’s favorite radio station in L.A.
sitting at the back of the room, ready to interview Uncle Russell once we know
what happened. Even though we basically already do.
My mom showed up at church tonight with a
box of balloons from the supermarket, but Aunt Mandy wouldn’t let anyone touch
them until the announcement, so at the moment the box is sitting in the closet
under a stack of old communion trays. The second that phone starts to ring,
though,
I just bet Aunt Mandy’s going to haul out
that box and make us all start blowing up those crappy balloons.
I wonder if you’ve heard of my aunt. She
wants you to. She knows exactly who you are, of course—you’re her enemy.
Which makes me your enemy, too, I guess.
I’m not eighteen, and it’s not as if I could’ve voted in an election in Miami
even if I were, but I’ve still spent the past two months folding up comic
books about the destruction of Sodom to mail out to churches in Florida.
I’m a soldier for Christ. That’s what Aunt
Mandy calls me, anyway. And since I do everything she says, she must be right.
Writing to you instead of praying with the
others is the closest I’ve ever come to rebelling. That’s how much of a coward
I am, Harvey.
I wish I had the nerve to tell my aunt to
go shove it. That’s what I’d really pray for—the nerve, I mean. If I
thought prayer ever helped anything.
Shit, the phone’s ringing. More later.
Tammy
About
the author
Robin Talley studied literature and
communications at American University. She lives in Washington, DC, with her
wife, but visits both Boston and New York regularly despite her moral
opposition to Massachusetts winters and Times Square. Her first book was
2014's Lies We Tell
Ourselves. Visit her online at robintalley.com or on Twitter at
@robin_talley.
Social
Links:
Author website: https://robintalley.com/
Facebook: @robintalleywrites
Twitter: @robin_talley.
Instagram: @robin_talley.
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