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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Tracy Rowan: “In a world where gays and lesbians are accepted members of society, are there other orientations/genders which are not? Can you imagine a world where gays and lesbians are as accepted as heterosexuals, but asexuals, transgender individuals, or others are considered abnormal by much of the population, gays and lesbians included? Why?” I like this topic – it gets to some of the differences in various parts of our community – someone who is transgender is not the same as someone who is gay is not the same as someone who is asexual. … Read more

Today’s topic comes form QSFer Angel Martinez: “The need for science in SF.” I know what she means. I see a lot of “sci fi”, especially in the cross-over romance category, that uses sci fi as purely a backdrop – throw the two protagonists on a space ship and you’ve got a sci fi story. In sci fi, the science should be more than just a back-drop – it’s almost another character. Sure, you can write a compelling romance that is set in a future world. But if that future world itself is not compelling and built on a solid … Read more

Today’s topic comes from QSFer John Allenson: “A suggestion for a discussion. What do people think of Alternate History? Anyone writing AH? What would be some good possibilities for Queer AH?” Ooh, I like this one. What if things had gone differently in the middle ages and we’d had an openly gay Pope who had steered the Church to be gay friendly? How would things have been different if the Nazis had singled out Christians, or whites, or straights instead of Jews and gays for the holocaust? What if drag queens hadn’t risen up at Stonewall? So many possibilities. So … Read more

Welcome to ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB disccussion page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/members/) for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post, so I can also share it over to our FB page (as opposed to this discussion group). –If you want, send me your book announcement info … Read more

So when you’re writing about the future, you simply try to work out what people in that future point will be taking for granted. In The Bone Clocks, there are two future sections. 2025 one is only about 11 years away–there’s just a few gizmos about the place and we’re basically there already. In the 2040s, however, more dramatic changes have taken place. There’s no more oil–or very little oil left. So you think about what people at that point will be taking for granted about travel, about the ability to hop on airplane and be hundreds of miles away … Read more

OK, so we’re in Hawaii for a week – our friends from Italy, another gay couple, are getting married today, so I’m in a very tropical frame of mind. So let’s talk about something fun – tropical shifters. Koalas, Kangaroos, Baboons, Panthers, Mongeese – what’s your favorite? And how would you write it?

As writers, we tend to think we have a fairly good grasp of the English language. I mean, it’s kind of a requirement, right? But every now and then, we run into something that makes us realize that our understanding of a certain word may be different from others’. I once had an argument with my boss, years and years ago, about the difference between “a couple” and “a few”, and which was less and which was more. I don’t remember which side of the argument I was on at the time, but it did become very vehement. Which means … Read more

When I was a child, my mom started me off on the Lord of the Rings… I think I was in the second grade at the time. I already knew I was something. I didn’t have a word for it – that would come much later – but I knew I was different. Tolkien’s world, though it was devoid of LGBT characters, gave me a place to escape to. Somewhere I could wander and explore and not deal with the real world for a little while. A few years later, I graduated to drawing my own maps of my own … Read more