Neither Flesh Nor Fowl
A couple of days ago, 
mroctober made a post about the schism between readers (and writers) of speculative fiction and queer literature: It was made perfectly clear to me, yet again, that there is a vast schism between people who identify as spec fic fans/readers who enjoy a bit of queer content in their fiction and readers who identify as queer and occasionally read spec fic.
I don't think that the situation is as cut-and-dried as he presents it; there are books out there where queer people are out saving the galaxy. A Matter of Oaths comes immediately to mind. But he's right that they are few and far between.
Dammit, I want my queer heroines and heroes, who go out and slay the dragon and explore deep space and kill zombies. It shouldn't be a question of either/or.
But then I look at A Blade in the Dark. It has a bisexual, homoromantic protagonist, and the supporting characters include a transwoman, a male/male couple, and an asexual. Unfortunately, that much queerness would probably make it unsaleable to one of the Big Six. But because the story is about politics in a made-up kingdom, it wouldn't really fit in with a queer publisher, either.
This is part of -- a lot of -- why I'm planning to go indie. Because I don't fit in any of the categories, I need to make my own.
But dammit, I wish there was another option!
This entry was originally posted at http://kit-r-writing.dreamwidth.org/501436.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
mroctober made a post about the schism between readers (and writers) of speculative fiction and queer literature: It was made perfectly clear to me, yet again, that there is a vast schism between people who identify as spec fic fans/readers who enjoy a bit of queer content in their fiction and readers who identify as queer and occasionally read spec fic.
I don't think that the situation is as cut-and-dried as he presents it; there are books out there where queer people are out saving the galaxy. A Matter of Oaths comes immediately to mind. But he's right that they are few and far between.
Dammit, I want my queer heroines and heroes, who go out and slay the dragon and explore deep space and kill zombies. It shouldn't be a question of either/or.
But then I look at A Blade in the Dark. It has a bisexual, homoromantic protagonist, and the supporting characters include a transwoman, a male/male couple, and an asexual. Unfortunately, that much queerness would probably make it unsaleable to one of the Big Six. But because the story is about politics in a made-up kingdom, it wouldn't really fit in with a queer publisher, either.
This is part of -- a lot of -- why I'm planning to go indie. Because I don't fit in any of the categories, I need to make my own.
But dammit, I wish there was another option!
This entry was originally posted at http://kit-r-writing.dreamwidth.org/501436.html. Please comment there using OpenID.