Shawano writer Lee Pulaski offers up LGBTQ+ romance
Lit Wisconsin is a series of stories in which we highlight the work of Wisconsin writers or those with ties to the state.
Today Lit Wisconsin features Lee Pulaski of Shawano, a newspaper editor who has written more than 20 fiction books. His most recent novel is "Heartsong of the Lonesome Road," an LGBTQ+ romance.
About the author, Lee Pulaski
One reason Pulaski, 46, has been so prolific is that he's basically been writing all his life. "I loved writing short stories when I was in school," he said in an email interview. "And then I got into middle school and got exposed more to theater, which prompted me to write plays. This caught the attention of one of my teachers when I got to high school, and she agreed to produce one of those plays my junior year. (Wow, that was like 30 years ago!)"
He was about 29 years old when the desire to write books set in. "I asked myself then if I had the willpower to write a full novel. ... It takes a certain discipline to come up with a novel-length story."
The answer was yes. His first book, "The Colors of Love and Autumn," wound up being more than 90,000 words. It was a love story, mixed with suspense, Pulaski said. He put his main characters, Shilo and Jeffrey, into peril and fear, Pulaski said, because "infatuation only gets you so far."
Since then Pulaski hasn't slowed down.
"I continue to this day because I want to keep pushing the envelope in terms of challenging myself," he said. "I have a lot of ideas in my head for stories. Some are given life, but a lot of them are fleeting."
Most of Pulaski's books are LGBTQ+ romances
"When I wrote my first novel, I was single, so the stories started out as making my dreams come true. Now that I'm engaged to a man, the stories have become a beacon of hope for those who feel they might always be alone and never find their happily ever after," Pulaski said.
Pulaski grew up in Chino Valley, Arizona, a small town that offered little in the way of role models for someone growing up gay.
"What I did have," he said, "were a lot of voices saying that being gay was wrong, obscene and disgusting."
When he was in college he discovered books and movies that portrayed gay people, "but back then, they (the characters) were stereotypically flamboyant and/or dying from AIDS, so those stories didn't exactly ring true to me, either, but they did show there was room for stories where LGBT people could be at the table and fall in love without it ending badly."
He decided that he would write the kind of stories about gay people that he wanted to read.
"Then when I started publishing books, I was able to connect with other writers and saw that the tide was changing, and there were others who were creating fascinating stories with LGBT people who are in wide arrays of career fields," he said, "doing things that everybody else does, struggling with the same issues everyone else does and more."
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About the book, 'Heartsong of the Lonesome Road'
" 'Heartsong of the Lonesome Road' is about making dreams come true and rebuilding those dreams when life makes things difficult," Pulaski said.
The story begins as Ethan Wolff loses his Wisconsin state capitol reporting job and has to move to Arizona to start over at a small newspaper. As he goes through the upheaval, he meets Nashoba Peshlakai, a bar owner who dreams of becoming a songwriter. As they come together, they need to overcome significant obstacles in finding their way to love.
"Love is never an easy thing to obtain," Pulaski said, "and Ethan and Nashoba show that it's worth the struggle and difficulty."
Most of Pulaski's books are set in Wisconsin, but this is one of two set in Chino Valley. Still Pulaski gives a nod to the Badger state when another character, interested in opening a restaurant, quizzes Ethan about what makes a supper club special.
Pulaski likes to pull real-life nuggets into his stories, and "Heartsong" is no different.
"I had Ethan visit a Buddhist sanctuary east of the town limits that was actually built in 1996," Pulaski said. "There was a story in the local newspaper about how the school district is trying to keep teachers from seeking other jobs ... by building affordable housing next to one of the schools, and I included that."
Pulaski also blended pieces of Navajo language and lore into the narrative, including the fact that there isn't a direct Navaho word for "love."
"Adoration, admiration, affection, yes, but not for love, which made for an interesting and intimate conversation," he said.
As he neared the end of the writing process for "Heartsong," he read about how one of the schools there went into lockdown "because a javelina somehow got onto campus and was roaming loose," Pulaski said. "I knew I had to fit that in somehow."
How to buy 'Heartsong of the Lonesome Road'
The book is available through Amazon. A hardcover costs $22.95 and a paperback is $16.95. Kindle versions are free for Kindle Unlimited members. Readers can also buy the book at Pulaski's website: leepulaski.com.
Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Lee Pulaski of Shawano writes LGBTQ+ romances
