Queer Shorts contributor Ethereal is featured in this month’s edition of AboveGroundTesting Magazine. Click here to read about her poetry, her songwriting, her first album, and her upcoming music.

Ethereal on her piece in Queer Shorts, “Room for Rent”:

Now you’re a published author. Tell me about your story, the compilation it is appearing in and how was it to write?

I’m so happy you mentioned that. **smiles** I’m very proud of my new accomplishment as a writer. The story is called, “Room for Rent” and it is published in the new GLBT anthology, Queer Shorts released in September of 2006 by Merge Press. The story revolves around a young woman who moves into an apartment with whom she believes to be a gay male and becomes very attracted to him, only to find out there is much more to her roommate than she would have imagined. It’s a poignant love story dealing with the transgender and butch/femme community and how the characters further each other’s growth through mutual acceptance. The butch/femme and transgender community is still on the “outskirts” of the Gay and Lesbian community and I am honored to be able to put a spotlight on such a relationship through my writing and help spread awareness of this type of diversity. Writing “Room for Rent” was a lot of fun actually. When I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, usually it’s my characters that tell me what’s going on and there are just some funny scenes that just sort of popped out that had me laughing out loud and moments that had me tearing up. It was a very emotional experience, as though I were not creating these characters, but merely telling their story and experiencing it with them.

You can find Maria on MySpace here. Pick up Queer Shorts, her new anthology, at MergePress.com.