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Writers

Crazy Like A Fox

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Alan Turing

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Victoria Stagg Elliott: “I just watched the Imitation Game last night so my potential question is inspired by Alan Turing. Alan was a tortured genius. His craziness gave him the genius to crack the enigma code and end WWII, two years early. He probably saved millions of lives. But that craziness and societal homophobia also meant that he was dead by suicide at age 41. In what ways does our own craziness benefit our writing while perhaps being less than beneficial in our lives? How has societal oppression shaped our writing and how we express … Read more

Back Up or Lose It All

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Fletcher DeLancey: “How do you back up your writing? Have you ever had a catastrophic failure, and if so, how did you recover?” We did once. Mark and I run several online directories for the LGBT community, and back in the early days, we backed up to Zip Drives – do you remember those? They were like floppy discs, but fatter. They held HUGE amounts of data – like 500 MB or maybe a Gig! LOL… Well, at one point, Mark’s hard drive crashed. And for some reason, the back-up had failed on one of … Read more

Fan Fic Outings

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OK, I thought we’d have a little fun today. A lot of writers got their start doing fan fiction – taking beloved characters / universes and putting their own (often LGBT) spin on them. Think Kirk and Spock as a power Trek couple. So if you were going to write your own sci fi, paranormal, or LGBY fan fic, which characters would you out? Where would they fall on the LGBTQI… spectrum? And what stories would you tell?

When the Gay Guy is the Villain

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock: “Is there a place for gay antagonists in LGBT fiction?” It’s a simple question on the face of it – of course there should be. Gays (and I’m using the term generically here for LGBTQI), like straights, like lesbians, like transgender and bisexual and asexual and intersex folks, come in all shapes and sizes and types in the real world. There are white gays, black gays, asian gays, short gays, tall gays, happy gays, sad gays, good gays and evil gays. But to simply say “yes, of course” would be to ignore the … Read more

It’s Snowing in My Head

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Janet Gershen-Siegel: Because it is snowing and snowing here (Boston), how does the weather affect your writing? What happens when it essentially becomes a character? E. g. I am going to write some massive winter scenes because I have 6 foot piles of snow in my front yard. Hey, write what you know! It’s a good question – how does the weather ouside affect your writing? Are you more productive when it rains, or when it’s sunny outside? Has that snow drift just outside your window somehow found its way into your story?

How Do You Like Your Series?

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Shira Anthony: “More questions come up along the lines of series… For readers: Do you wait until the series is complete/published before starting? Do you care if it’s complete? Do you like spinoff series? If you’re reading a series romance, does it matter to you if the HEA comes at the end of a series? Do you need closure at the end of each book? What do you think about HFN?” I’ve always loved series – and historically you’ve always had to wait for a year or two or more for the next book to … Read more

The Best Writing Tools?

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Hey all, For all of our writers in the group, after you’ve been writing for awhile, you discover things that make your writing life easier. Maybe it’s a site that you use for researching real-world locations for your next novel. Maybe it’s a writing app that just helps the words flow a little better. Maybe it’s an app that helps you turn off the online distractions and just write for a bit. Or maybe it’s a piece of something in the real world – a chair, a sound machine, a pad and paper – that for you makes the writing … Read more

Is LGBT Fiction Inherently Different?

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Hey all, Bit of a philosophical question today. Most of the folks here read or write (or both) a lot of LGBT fiction – from MM romance to transgender urban fantasy. It got me thinking/ I know there are some obvious differences between these works and mainstream fiction – ie: the protagonists are LGBT. But does it go deeper than that? For instance – if we took a seminal work of mainstream fantasy, like The Wheel of Time – and changed all of Rand’s women to men, would it suddenly be a “gay fantasy” work? And if not, why not? … Read more

Is It a Series?

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Shira Anthony: “This general topic comes from my experiences writing both fantasy/sci fi series and single books, and really can apply to either genre. What are readers’ and authors’ perspectives about writing series vs. one-off stories. Do you like to invest in more than one book? What about writers?” It’s an interesting question. As a writer, I like the idea of extending my characters beyond the original premise, and in some cases (especially fantasy), of planning a multi-book arc. As a reader, I also like getting invested in series – the idea that I can … Read more

The Lowly Blurb

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Today’s question comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon: “What goes into a good blurb? Are there different types of blurbs? What kind should be used for promotion? What kind should be used for submissions?” I hate writing blurbs. I hate writing summaries. Blurbs and summaries are like the Muzak of the fiction world. They take a (hopefully) vibrant, living story and wring out every last bit of life and color from them to create a sad approximation of a plot. When I have to write a blurb or summary, I always end up feeling like my story is the saddest, … Read more