FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T Cannon : Who are your favorite protagonists, both “serious” and “guilty pleasures?” Tell us your dirty/not-so-dirty secrets. Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Heather Rose Jones: When we write queer stories set in history, how do we deal with the historic reality of queer lives? Or, from another point of view, are queer historic novels held to a different standard of “historical accuracy” than straight ones with respect to the lives of their characters? Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Lex Chase: Again with pushing for diversity, what about writing characters with mental illness? Not as villains or unhinged perverts but as heroes? And not only heroes, but heroes compliant with treatment or making steps to seek treatment? Not using their illness to make them “interesting” or use an episode as a plot device. This is a legacy chat. Join the chat
FOR READERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer BA Brock: Sometimes it’s easier for me to read trans stories, when the worlds are fantasy. I’ve read several fantasy stories recently, where the characters have struck me as trans, but in the context of the book, there were no trans people. I love this ability of fantasy, to explore heavy current social issues, in a setting other than our reality. It allows me to let go of the minutia (did the author get it exactly right?), and at the same time still experience the pain and joy of my identity. I’d … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: Bisexual characters often get shafted in fiction – either they’re erased altogether, or they are promiscuous (because, of course, the only way to show that a character is bi is to have them sleep with both sexes). How can we write better bi characters? What do we get wrong, and what should we be getting right? This is a legacy chat. Join the chat
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon: How important is the name of the character to your initial reaction to a character. How much of your ability to move through the story is modified by a character who’s name made you initially cringe. Or maybe for a character whose named so symbolically that you expect that symbolism and it never shows? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! This is a legacy chat. Join the chat
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Tinnean: How important to the reader is a physical description of the characters, i.e. hair/eye color? How much detail do you want/need to visualize them and the story? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: I just noted a series in which the covers for the second and third books in the series both feature the main protaginists. They bear no resemblance to one another on the two books covers. In the second book the Earth Human character has tattoos, including facial ones, and red hair. The cover of the third one shows a no facial tattoos Blond. Should authors of a series try to have continuity of the cover characters too? In this case the only thing tying the covers together is the series … Read more
