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The Love Lives of Intergalactic Queers

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In the Doctor Who season premiere episode ‘Deep Breath’ nearly a million Australian ABC viewers via BBC simulcast, repeat evening viewing and iView, were treated to an intimate lesbian kiss between Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart), that created quite a stir based on its primetime “family viewing” time slot. Ok, they may have been “sharing oxygen” to avoid detection by cybernetic sword-wielding breath detectors, and one may have been a reptile and therefore not human, and despite being married they may live out their roles as master and servant to be seen as socially acceptable, but … Read more

Rewriting Our Own Fantastic Histories

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Fantasy novels, especially High Fantasy like Tad Williams “The Dragonbone Chair”, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Terry Brooks’ “Shanara” or Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” have a special place in my heart. Not so much “The Game of Thrones”. Not because it’s not well done. It is. It’s amazing, and well plotted. But damn, it’s so dark and violent. And shaded. I tend to be a bit of a round-robin reader, bouncing back and forth between science fiction and fantasy. I love science fiction for its speculation about what might be coming. But more and more, those … Read more

Homoerotic Covers from the Golden Age of Science Fiction

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Christopher Harrity at The Advocate shares some of them with us: When I was a kid, my stepfather amassed an amazing collection of science fiction magazines. He had so many that he had his room lined in bookcases to hold them all. The covers seemed to be sending me messages, hot gay messages. Most of these covers were in my stepfather’s collection. See all the Covers Here

Announcement: No Fae is An Island, by Angel Martinez

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Just got this notice from MLR Press. So exciting: Diego comes home to a world that refused to stand still in his absence—there’s a vampire on Tearmann Island’s security force, a curious selkie has followed him home, and so much to do to make the world a safer place for magic, but Diego’s no longer sure he has the right to interfere. Three years ago, Danu banished Diego for a time from the human world. Three years and three days doesn’t seem that long to be away from home but living among the wild /fae /can change a man and … Read more

Will Handwriting Be Written Off?

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When I was in elementary school, we learned both block writing and cursive. I hated cursive. Some people are able to write in cursive and create beautiful handwriting. Mine always looked scrunched up and messy. I have to say, I haven’t used cursive sense my high school days. Even when I write a letter, well, a birthday card, I use block letters. Nevertheless, I’ve been sad to see a number of articles saying schools are no longer teaching cursive. It has something to do with computers making hand-written communication obsolete, and the fact that people just don’t use it anymore, … Read more

New YA Sci Fi Novel Features Gay Character

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IN THE SEA of female-centric young adult novels filling bookstores around the world, Proxy definitely stands out. Written by American author Alex London, Proxy is a sci-fi novel featuring two lead male characters — and one of them happens to be gay. The book narrates the friendship that is formed between Knox, a “patron” who gets everything he wants and his “proxy,” Syd, who takes all the consequences and punishments of his actions. “I did not want to write a ‘gay’ book, or even a book about that relationship. It was just a fact of life. I wanted to write … Read more

The Amazing, Expanding, Oozing Plot Line

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As I mentioned last week, I’m embarking on a new project – a novella that I want to hit a certain length, and need to finish by a certain date. A date that’s coming up all too quickly. So for the first time in my little writer life, I’ve actually sat down and plotted out the whole thing, scenes and all. It’s a new experience for me, as I usually fly by the seat of my pants. I’m finding that I rather like having the structure. But two scenes in, I’ve already been surprised by several things that happened. They’ve … Read more

What’s Your Definition of Paranormal?

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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

Building a Magical (Gay) World

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QSF member Edmond Manning has graciously allowed us to cross-post this one, which originally appeared on RJ Scott’s blog: I have always loved fairy tales. I love stories sculpted out of ancient prophecy and malicious curses, magic healing tears and quests to recapture jewel-encrusted chalices. The problem is that I always wanted to believe in these stories but I had a hard time letting go of reality and explanations. What powers the spells? How does a 900 lb. unicorn fly through the sky on such delicate, prissy wings? How exactly do you make the jewel-encrusted chalice so that it doesn’t … Read more

It’s Time to Out Some Wizards

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Okay, so we all now know that Dumbledore, the head of Hogwarts school of magic in the Harry Potter series, was secretly gay. And we also noted Ian McKellen, who has played Gandalf in the Lord of the rings movies, is also gay, even if the character of Gandalf is not. And I always suspected that Frodo and Sam had little thing going on the side. It’s a proven fact that the more gay people you know, the more likely you are to support LGBT writes, so I think the time is come. My challenge to you today – name … Read more