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Worldbuilding Week Day Four: Sex, Marriage and Reproduction

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Worldbuilding Week

Welcome to the second annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. Today we’re talking about sex, marriage and reproduction, and Roger Lovelace will be our moderator. Here’s his take: When I volunteered to be a part of this world building exercise, I was a bit surprised to have Sex, Marriage, and Reproduction as my topic. I love world building. It’s one of the reasons I … Read more

For Readers: Sex in YA

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Love Hunks - 123rf

Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Denise Dechene: What are your thoughts about sex in YA books (dealing with teens 15 and older) should there be sex on page or do you think it should be fade to black? This is always a tricky one. Let’s approach this with our usual (trademarked) QSF calm and collective reasoning. :) 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 Readers: Who Decides It’s YA?

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Gay YA

Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: Who makes the decision whether a LGBT book or story is YA suitable or not? Is it the author or the publisher and do different publishers have different standards of what is suitable as far as depictions of sex in a LGBT YA rated story? It’s a good question. For instance, I’ve often heard that works with fade-to-black sex scenes… you know: “Christian took Skylar by the hand with a wicked grin. He pulled him down onto the bed as the door slowly closed behind them…” …are “suitable” for YA because there’s … Read more

For Readers: Sex in Genre Fiction

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Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T Cannon : The role of sex in genre fiction. I wasn’t introduced to sexy books in romance, but in decidedly non-romantic sci fi and contemporary fiction (hello Harold H. Robbins) where it was depicted as a description of power, personality, or outgrowth of culture, and and kind of treated like sport. Only later as my reading expanded did sex as a conduit for romance, or as an ignition for romance enter the picture. Was the “sporting sex” gratuitous, or did it serve to convey how the characters interacted with the world? Do … Read more

For Writers: Researching Sex

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sex research

How do you research sex? Specifically, if you are writing about sex between two men or two women and you’re straight, or you are writing about heterosexual sex and you’re LGBT, or hey, you’re a virgin and you have no experience with any of it? No judgment here, just curious how you go about getting the details right. Join the chat

For Readers: Strange Sex

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Sex in Queer Sci Fi land can get… interesting. From alien appendages (tentacles, anyone?) to magical potions, from shifter sex to elf kink, LGBTIQ speculative fiction writers have explored the gamut when it comes to sexuality. One of my favorites so far is in an upcoming book by Angel Martinez and Bellora Quin. I can’t say too much about it (hello, spoilers), so let’s just say it involves the construction of a special table to, um, facilitate things. What’s the strangest speculative fiction love scene or sex scene you’ve ever read? And did you like it? Writers: This is a … Read more

Discussion: Do We Need Relationships?

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Heather Rose Jones: Are relationships necessary? What does it mean for a character to be LGBTQI if the story doesn’t involve sex or romance? (Yes, this is meant to be deliberately provocative.) It’s a great question. This actually came up at Rainbow Con panel I was on discussing LGBTY sci fi. One of the audience members asked if it was really LGBT fiction of the character(s) didn’t have a relationship or ever get together. In other words, what then distinguished the character from a straight protagonist? It’s a valid question. My own answer is that … Read more

Discussion: I (Wanna Play With) Robot

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sex robots

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Chris Quinton in the form of a link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34118482 From the article: A campaign has been launched calling for a ban on the development of robots that can be used for sex. Such a use of the technology is unnecessary and undesirable, said campaign leader Dr Kathleen Richardson. Sex dolls already on the market are becoming more sophisticated and some are now hoping to build artificial intelligence into their products. Those working in the field say that there is a need for such robots. Just like when the internet was invented, we’re planning to use … Read more

WORLDBUILDING WEEK: Day Five – Sex, Marriage, Reproduction

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Worldbuilting Week

Welcome to the first annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. OK, so you’ve come up with your very own language for your new world. You’ve chosen the most awesome-ever aliens or magical creatures to populate it. You’ve set up a timeline for your history, and you’ve built the culture that they’ll live in. Today we’ll talk about the continuation of the species. Elizabeth Barrette … Read more

News: The Sexual Future is Here

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Lovely

These days, everything we own is becoming “smart” – from the smart watch, smart TV, and smart fridge, to the smart fitness tracker and smart glasses – so it should come as no surprise that now smart wearable technology is coming to sex toys too. Meet Lovely, a penis ring now on Indiegogo that does way more than just vibrate – its built-in sensors send data to an accompanying smartphone app in order to track your sexual performance, give you tips on what you could do better next time, and count how many calories you’ve burned. Made from medical-grade silicone, … Read more