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Announcement: Appearances, by TM Smith

Appearances

QSFer TM Smith has a new sci fi book out: Appearances can be deceiving. Raven and Tanis are trying very hard to merge their vastly different lifestyles, but Tanis issues with his own past could prove to be more than their fragile relationship can handle. Is their love for each other strong enough to weather the oncoming storm? Aiya and Sawyer have fought hard to be together in a world where Opposite relationships are generally forbidden. Yet, they are still forced to keep their relationship a secret while they are outside the walls of House Gaeland. Everyone assumes that the … Read more

Star Wars to Get LGBTIQ Characters

JJ Abrahms

The director behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens has told The Daily Beast that there will indeed be openly gay characters zapping through the galaxy far, far away — in relatively near franchise installments. Making the rounds at a pre-Oscars event at his Bad Robot HB in LA, J.J. Abrams said it’s time that the Star Wars universe becomes more inclusive, referencing the LGBTQ community, and thankfully making no mention of Jar-Jar Binks: “To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility,” he said. “So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say there wouldn’t be a … Read more

Kris Jacen from MLR Press Joins Us For an Interview

Kris Jacen

We are excited to have the executive editor for MLR Press, Kris Jacen, with us for an interview about the new collection Storming Love: Meteor Strike, a five book series by five different authors, including some QSF folks. Kris will also answer our questions about what MLR is looking for in submissions, and what they might be planning in the near future. Join us on the QSF FB discussion group. Angel and I will moderate the interview, and will open it for questions near the end. https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/

The Milky Way’s Photo Close-Up

Milky Way

If you’re wondering what sort of psychedelic visuals we’re looking at here, it is the Milky Way in amazing detail. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) made these pictures public announcing the completion of its huge galaxy survey, with the help of a really strong telescope in Chile. “The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves — and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys,” the ESO’s release says. “The pioneering 12-meter APEX telescope allows astronomers … Read more

Announcement: Angel & Griff, by Ethan Stone

Angel & Griff

QSFer Ethan Stone has a new sci fi book out: A meteor strike is about to change Angel Mocavo’s life forever. Angel is lost and has been since the death of his husband, Dante. A camping trip is supposed to clear his mind but instead he’s thrust into a battle between forces he never knew existed. Griff, a man unlike any Angel has met, makes him see and feel things he thought he never would again. When Griff’s life is in jeopardy Angel will have to decide if he’s going to risk his own safety or remain in the life … Read more

For Readers: Your First Time

Dancers of Arun

There’s so much LGBTIQ fiction in the world now, but I remember a time when such books, especially in speculative fiction, were few and far between. One of my first such reads was The Dancers of Arun, by Elizabeth K. Lynn. At 15 or 16, it contained a sex scene that made me cream my pants. It was amazing to see a gay character portrayed in a fantasy novel at the time. So my questions today: How did you first find LGBTIQ speculative fiction? And what was the first book you read in one of those genres? Writers: This is … Read more

For Writers: Writing Bi Characters

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

Review: Untouchable, by LV Lloyd

Untouchable, by LV Lloyd

I just finished a book I’d been planning to read for a long time – LV Lloyd’s “Untouchable”. It’s a space opera, and the fifth book in Lloyd’s Aurigan series. It’s also the first full-length book I have read by Lloyd. I really enjoyed the book. In a nutshell, it’s about several “oms” (Aurigan parlance for homosexual) on the patrol ship Qatar. The story opens with a bang – with one of them on trial for raping a minor, the son of his best friend. Then it spins back to the situation that resulted in the trial, and off we … Read more

Is This The End for Bananas?

I love stories like this – what happens if bananas go extinct? Plot bunnies released into the world… In the mid 1900s, the most popular banana in the world—a sweet, creamy variety called Gros Michel grown in Latin America—all but disappeared from the planet. At the time, it was the only banana in the world that could be exported. But a fungus, known as Panama Disease, which first appeared in Australia in the late 1800s, changed that after jumping continents.The disease debilitated the plants that bore the fruit. The damage was so great and swift that in a matter of … Read more

Announcement: Wolf, Becoming by Rory NiCoileain

Wolf, Becoming

QSFer Rory NiCoileain has a new paranormal book out: Volyk learns very young that he has to hide what he is—oboroten’, shape-shifter—after his father is killed and skinned by a hunter, and the pack that takes in his pregnant mother is hostile to his kind. When Volyk is ordered to fight the pack’s beta to prove his fitness, but instead obeys his hormones and tries to mount him, he’s declared an abomination and forced to flee. Ilya, too, hides a secret. Being young and gay in modern Russia is dangerous, and he knows it. But the truth eventually gets out, … Read more