THESE THREE STORIES were written by Jewel Diamond, Juliana Harvard’s alter ego, for a creative writing class at the local community college in 1998. It was in that class that she learned her famous disclaimer crafted by Stephen Minot, author of the textbook, Three Genres: “These are works of fiction. Any similarities to persons and places are frequent, intentional, and occasionally brazen, but generally fragmentary, inconsistent, and disguised with fanciful invention.” The Diamond Trilogy perfectly illustrates this principle!

The Diamond
by Robin Lind
as told to Jewel Diamond

One day, in a rare moment of idle time, I found a lesbian bulletin board on America Online. A woman who posted as Jewel Stone caught my attention. We began e-mailing. She was so much like me—a musician, computer user, and now ex-wife and single mom who also had recently come out. She lived several states away and was dating a local schoolteacher named Janelle. It intrigued me.

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Anniversary

Manager Tod Booth steps into the center of the room, his voice booming. “On behalf of the Castro Theatre and the entire community, I’d like to propose a toast.” He holds his glass high. “Happy twentieth anniversary to Michael Diamond, organist extraordinairé!” Again applause breaks out, filling the mezzanine with deafening adulation. Fans rush to gather around Michael, demanding more autographs and promises of more organ concerts.

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Kites

From the very first day they had spent together, just after Jewel and her husband had separated, she and Janelle had felt a mutual blending of their souls, an unexplained feeling that they had been best friends since childhood. They never intended to fall in love….

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DEDICATION
To Robin Lind, Michael Diamond, and Janelle Roark, without whom these stories could not have been written.

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