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
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
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
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
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
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?
‘Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’ will include the long-running series’ first transgender character. The character – Ned Wynert – is a trans male and one of several supporting characters that act as quest givers for the game’s protagonists. Developers Ubisoft have also updated Assassin’s Creed’s opening statement for the first time since the first game’s release in 2007. See the Full Story at Pink News
In honor of Bisexual Awareness Week, we have a topic from QSFer Freddy MacKay: From a reader perspective, if an author’s character is bi, and actively dates both sexes during a series, but ends up with an opposite sex partner, how would that make you feel? Why? It’s an interesting question – whatever your orientation, there’s a natural desire to see things work out the way you hope they would in your own life. But we also open ourselves up to the experiences of others. As a gay man, I’ve been exposed to heterosexual romance my entire life – and … Read more
Genre: Lesbian Paranormal Mystery/Thriller Length: Novel MINNESOTAN POLICE officer, Erin Ericsson, travels to Canada to catch a criminal that fell through US cracks. Lily is a killer who is just getting started in her killing career—she’s only a teenager. Besides her trusty knife, the same one she stole from her dead mother who died of suspicious circumstances, Lily uses fire to wreck havoc, and instill terror in her victims. No one is safe. Not Erin or Erin’s loved ones. Not her own family. Not even her friends, including the girl she meets in school, and her family. She’s a … Read more
Welcome to the third monthly celebration of F/F fiction! F/F, by the way, stands for Female/Female (not Fan Fiction) pairings that may or may not be romantic. Today I’d like to kindly ask you to refrain from promoting your own books, friend’s books, publisher, or other services. The goal for today’s discussion is to establish a common ground for future F/F discussions and give new readers a place to start. What was the first F/F speculative fiction book you ever read? Or what was the most influential, and why? Please, as always, keep the discussion focused on F/F only. Also … Read more