As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Identities

The Most Important Lesbian Writer You Never Heard Of

by
Marijane Meaker

Marijane Meaker isn’t a household name, but she should be. A literary pioneer many times over, she wrote the 1952 novel Spring Fire, one of the first lesbian “pulps,” giving thousands of Americans their first glimpse of a sexually compatible same-sex couple, even if the rules of the genre required that the relationship end badly. Her books about lesbian life in New York City, which appeared between 1955 and 1972, were indispensable guides to a hidden world. And beginning in the 1970s, she was one of the first authors to write for young adults, often telling stories of underdogs and … Read more

For Readers: History of Modern Lesbian Romance

by
Lesbian Romance

Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Angel Martinez: A lot of queer fiction writers and readers think of lesbian romance as an “emerging” genre. But lesbian romance emerged as a genre in the early 20th century. What are some of the older FF titles you’ve read and most enjoyed? And how has the genre evolved over time? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat

For Writers: Writing Bi Characters

by
bisexual

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Amelia Bishop: I’d like to ask about bisexual romance. One issue is, when the characters are in a different gender pairing, the readership for m/m is not interested. I’ve written bisexual characters plenty of times, but I always skip the m/f scenes, and I tend to focus on the m/m. Part of that is just that I know my readers are primarily m/m readers. But obviously, the characters are still bisexual no matter what type of relationship they’re currently in. So I’d like to talk about exploring what makes something bisexual, in terms of … Read more

Announcement: The Dangerous Type, by Loren Rhoads

by
The Dangerous Type

QSFer Loren Rhoads has a new bi sci fi book out: Entombed for twenty years, Raena Zacari — one of the galaxy’s most dangerous assassins — has been freed. The first thing on her mind is revenge against Thallian, the insane war criminal who enslaved Raena, turned her into a killing machine, then left her for dead. When Thallian discovers she has escaped, he’s willing to risk everything — including his army of cloned sons — to bring her back under his control. Gavin Sloane saved Raena once, only to lose her to Thallian. Since then he’s been desperately searching … Read more

For Writers: Future of Intersex Rights

by
Intersex

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Matthew J. Metzger: What’s the future of intersex rights? Will discrimination fade away as the west progresses, and the view that there’s nothing to fix wins, or could technological and medical advances actually make social discrimination worse and fuel a “why didn’t you fix it?” view instead? Join the chat

For Writers: Alien Ace

by

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Matthew J. Metzger: For ace: is the tendency of asexual characters to be non-human actually damaging perceptions of asexuality rather than providing positive representation? That’s an interesting question. Yes, I know it may be a shock to some of you, but there are asexual people among us. Ace ranks way down the totem pole on LGBTIQA rights and awareness. I didn’t even know that I knew any ace folks until fairly recently. So my questions today: Why is there such a scarcity of ace characters in queer fiction? And why are so many aliens? … Read more

Announcement: The Mazarinette and the Musketeer, by Heather Rose Jones

by

QSFer Heather Rose Jones has a new free Historical Fantasy story out: In the turbulent France of 1678, Hortense Mancini, Duchesse Mazarine takes on the disguise of a King’s Musketeer to pursue her love affair with Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex. She crosses paths with a true Musketeer, and with Aphra Behn, English playwright and spy, both seeking to retrieve letters between the kings of France and England that could prove ruinous. Every disguise and plan is threatened by the arrival of a young woman who seeks to gain fame by besting a Musketeer in a duel—and now she has … Read more

For Writers: Tech and Trans

by
Trans Sci Fi

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette: How magic or technology can allow people to alter their bodies, and what that means for transfolk. This is a fascinating one, and a tricky one. I used magic to “transform” a trans character, and ran it by one of my trans friends. I was surprised by some of the minefields I was walking across without even knowing it. How would your trans character feel about having their physical gender changed to match their internal one? Are we being myopic thinking every trans person would want such a thing? What about gender non-conforming … Read more

Trans Representation in Speculative Fiction

by

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Freddy MacKay: It would be also great to have a discussion on trans* characters in the different genres. How they are handled. How the world/tech/magic/nature works for them or against them. SF could be interesting because technology could be developed enough you wouldn’t ever know the difference unless a trans* person wanted you to. What kind of society would that be? How would trans* people identify themselves and why? A parallel (though not the same) would be looking at the deaf community and how they feel about cochlear implants. Some are all for them, others … Read more

Asexuality in Speculative Fiction

by
Asexuality

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette: Asexuality in spec-fic. Asexuality doesn’t get talked about much – many folks have dismissed it, in fact, as it doesn’t seem to make sense to them. After all, the thinking goes, who wouldn’t want to have sex? On the other hand, the idea of homosexuality has long been discounted because straight people couldn’t envision it for themselves. So my questions today – how would you define asexuality? As a writer, have you included any asexual characters? As a reader, have any of the books you read included them?