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ANNOUNCEMENT: Golden, by R.L. Mosswood

Golden

QSFer R.L. Mosswood has a new MM Fantasy book out: Harem boy might not be the most appropriate role for someone who’s never really seen the appeal of sex, but Elin’s status as dahabi: golden in a land of tan and brown, has marked him for The Dragon’s service since birth. He’s content enough with his life of uncomplicated, if restrictive, luxury, until an unremarkable chore becomes a case of love at first sight. Mysterious newcomer Hathar, a roguish “merchant adventurer” from far-off lands, ignites an exploration of Elin’s first taste of physical desire, as well as a desire to … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GUEST POST: Trans Liberty Riot Brigade, by L.M. Pierce

Trans Liberty Riot Brigade

L.M. Pierce has a new genderqueer ace/aro sci fi book out: Andi knows being born an intersex “Transgressor” and then choosing to stay that way can have lethal consequences. After all, surgical assignment is mandated by law. But she ain’t going to spend her life hiding from the Society, hooked on Flow, and wanking tourists just to make a few bucks. She’s a member of the Trans Liberty Riot Brigade, an underground faction of Transgressors resisting the government’s war on their illegal genitalia. But it’s not enough to tag their messages on shithouse walls and sniff down the next high. … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Blood Borne, by Archer Kay Leah

Blood Borne

QSFer Archer Kay Leah has a new queer (ace, genderqueer, panromantic, trans) fantasy tale out: For Ress, survival is a complicated nightmare. Caught between two masters on different sides of the law, his life is falling apart one bad decision at a time. All he wants is to be is a good person, a loyal family man, and a successful metalsmith—a dream he can never obtain while he works for the Shar-denn, the violent gang that plagues the republic of Kattal. To make matters worse, he works as an informant for the High Council. He scrapes through both jobs waiting … Read more

Review: “The Beast Without” by Christian Baines

Title: The Beast Without Series: Arcadia Trust #1 Author: Christian Baines Genre: Gay Paranormal Publisher: Glass House Books Pages: 234 Blurb Reylan is everything a Sydney vampire aspires to be: wealthy, handsome and independent, carefully feeding off companions plucked from the gay bars of Oxford Street. When one of those companions is killed by Jorgas, a hot-headed young werewolf prowling his streets, Reylan reluctantly puts his cherished lifestyle of blood and boys on hold to help a mysterious alliance of supernatural beings track down the beast. It can’t be that hard… not when Jorgas keeps coming after him. But there’s … Read more

Jughead is No Longer Ace in TV Version of Riverdale

Cole_Sprouse_as_Jughead_in_Riverdale

Jughead, best friend of the title character in Archie Comics, officially came out as asexual in “Jughead No. 4” last year, but in the CW reboot “Riverdale” his sexuality will be straight. Cole Sprouse, 24, portrays Jughead in the upcoming series and told Hollywood Life his character is no longer asexual. “Jughead will have romances with women … and burgers, but at the end of the day, I still had to do my job,” Sprouse says. However, the actor says he will be “fighting for this pretty heavily.” “Asexuality is not one of those things in my research that is … Read more

Announcement: Interface, by Lucy Mihajlich

Interface

QSFer Lucy Mihajlich has a new YA Ace book out: The future always seemed bright, but it turns out that was just global warming. Meals don’t come in pills, shoes don’t lace themselves, and there are flying cars, but the gas mileage sucks. There is one difference. People have always searched the internet for answers. Now they actually worship it. Pen Nowen’s father was the founder of Interface, a computer company so big and powerful that people began praying to it. Especially when his death almost tanked the economy. Seven years later, Pen’s just finished her junior year of high … Read more

FOR READERS: Aces High

Asexual Ace Flag

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer K.S. Madden: After reading a lot of the recent responses, I’d love to see you do a question post sometime about the surge in interest in seeing more asexual characters. I was at Readercon in Boston a few months ago and there was a panel there as well stating the need for more asexual protagonists in mainstream scifi/fantasy. I’m curious what people want to see. Asexual characters in romantic relationships? Or asexual characters just having adventures and being free of relationships? Or is this partly a desire to see more friendship fic, … Read more

Categorizing Our Books

Book categories

Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer ‘Nathan Smith: How do we walk the fine line between categorizing books as readers (or writers) in order to challenge the industry to be more representative? A novel with gay characters is often listed as gay (or, m/m) primarily, and discussed that way, even if it’s a science fiction or fantasy or romance or mystery. In SF we have a bit more leeway and I feel like we’ve made a bit more progress than other genres, but even then: if the book involves LGBTQ characters, it’ll be very much treated as a queer book–which … Read more

For Writers: Alien Ace

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

Archie Comics: Jughead Is Asexual

Jughead

The Archie comics reboot has to be one of the biggest surprises in the comics industry of the last few years. Ever since the publisher dropped the comics code authority and began diversifying its approach to Archie and his friends, Archie has become one of the best comics around—and now it’s going a step further by revealing Jughead’s asexuality. The revelation won’t play a major part in this week’s Jughead #4, but just come up in a matter-of-fact conversation between Jughead and a fellow student, as revealed by Comic Book Resources. Full story at IO9