A Real Good Life

Zine
Title:	A Real Good Life
Publisher:	The M Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Melody C.
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	May 2006
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Brokeback Mountain
Language:	English
External Links:	A Real Good Life (PDF)
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cover, showing comb binding

A Real Good Life is a digest-sized 118-page slash Brokeback Mountain novel by Melody C..

The zine was edited by Annie Booker.

Alternative Ending

It offers an alternative ending to the book and movie. From the author's preface:

This novel is based on my short fan story, "The Marrying Kind". It's an extrapolation beyond that narrative. Like most other people, I absolutely love this beautiful film and, being the eternal Candide, I refuse to believe that Jack is dead. I was rewriting the ending before the credits ever finished. Yes, in fact, I am incorrigible. Je dis toujours que tout est bien!

Summary

From a distributor, Agent With Style:

Ennis del Mar has learned his past wasn't anything he thought it was. When he tracks down the man he blames for Jack's death, he finds out that Jack is still alive. Jack had faked his death to leave a "life I couldn't stand no more" as well as shake Ennis up about how much they felt for each other. Conflicted by feelings of anger at Jack's deception, great joy at his being alive, and yet the same fears and doubts that have dogged his steps through every moment of their turbulent relationship, Ennis only knows that he'd "follow him to hell" rather than lose Jack again. It's only when he thinks he's about to lose Jack once more that Ennis finally makes a stand. It's at that point he begins to realize how much about himself ... and his past ... he really knows. A wonderful, feel-good 'fix-it' novella.

Disclaimer

From the zine:

This copyright not intended to infringe on the copyrights held by E. Annie Proulx, Scribner Publishing, Ang Lee, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Focus Fea- tures, Paramount Pictures, River Road Entertainment or any other Brokeback Mountain copyright holders. Please don’t sue us—this is just a fanzine written for fun and in honor of a great work of art. Please respect the non-profit spirit of fandom.

Please send all bitch fests, fan rants and threats of violence to melody [...].

ALL CHARACTERS REMOVE THEIR SHOES AND SOCKS PRIOR TO FUCKING. IT MAY NOT BE MENTIONED IN THE TEXT, BUT IT IS KNOWN BY THE AUTHOR TO HAVE HAPPENED. I DON’T MENTION WHEN CHARACTERS USE THE TOILET, BATHE, BRUSH OR FLOSS, EITHER, BUT OBVIOUSLY THEY MUST HAVE DONE SO SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE NARRATIVE. FURTHERMORE, ALL COCKS AND ANAL CREVICES ARE THOROUGHLY LUBED AND PREPARED PRIOR TO INSERTION. NO ONE HAS AIDS, SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR CONDOMS. THE AUTHOR IS AWARE THAT NOT ALL GAY MEN PARTICIPATE IN ORAL AND/OR ANAL SEX, HOWEVER THESE CHARACTERS DO. WE’RE NOT WRITING GAY PORN, WE’RE WRITING SLASH FICTION. GAY PORN READERS ARE, OF COURSE, WELCOME TO PARTAKE IF THEY LIKE SLASH, BUT THE STORY IS MEANT FOR THE SLASH AUDIENCE. YES, WE KNOW IT CAN TAKE A LONG TIME TO REACH ORGASM DURING ORAL SEX, HOWEVER WE’RE WRITING SEXUAL FANTASY, NOT SEXUAL REALITY. FICTION ISN’T ABOUT THE ORDINARY, IT’S ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY.

SO ORDERED BY THE AUTHOR, THIS 20TH DAY OF MAY, 2006

Zine Acknowledgements

With a special thanks to Annie Booker and Mysti Frank, as always, for putting up with my general level of creative insanity. Thank you to Robin Kickingbird for pulling the political polemic out of one of my favorite musicals and thereby letting me enjoy the music without the libretto. If only we could do that to life.

Author's Comments

List the five stories you have written that you LOVE the best. Not the best one or the most popular one but the ones that you personally love the best." -- A Real Good Life - Adult - Brokeback Mountain. Once again, I rework an ending to suit my own evil purposes (bwahahahaha) -- it was an easy, stress-free write since I'd had the plot implanted (Phil Dick-like) in total after watching the film.