Hello all,

I wanted to discuss writing genderfluid characters as a genderfluid author and what #ownvoices means to me, because the concept of #ownvoices has been around for a while now.

Recently, a young actor (Kit Connor; played Nick Nelson in Heartstoppers) was forced to come out as bisexual because people (I hesitate to call them fans!) were accusing him of queerbaiting! Now, I am happily out and proud as genderfluid and have been since I was 19, but not everyone is ready to come out, and some people may never feel safe enough to come out. Not to mention, it is impossible for a real life person to queerbait based on their own identity. The story itself was a gay love story, it doesn’t get more queer than that, and the author of the graphic novels herself said that the characters were all played by queer actors. It wasn’t enough for some people, and I feel that the people who harassed this actor felt entitled towards his identity.

This is, of course, the downfall of #ownvoices as a way to group authors. There are many reasons why someone might not want to out themselves, but more than that, no one owes anyone an explanation for their identity. Gatekeepers at Pride? You can get lost. It felt unreal reading the headline on Twitter that Kit Connor was forced to out himself in order to appease the masses. I cannot stress this enough: you are not entitled to anyone’s queer identity. I am furious about this issue, as you may be able to tell.

I honestly am not sure that #ownvoices is a necessary taxonomical grouping. Maybe some authors feel like this type of label helps with marketing, and all the power to them. But to readers out there, I must say, no one owes you an #ownvoices text or owes you the truth about their identity. You are doing harm by demanding this of people, and I must again say this – you are mostly harming closeted queer people or queer people who are still figuring out their identity.

So what if a straight person writes a queer book? It’s not worth the possible harm you may cause to possibly expose a non-queer writer writing queer novels.

Anyway, I write some characters after my own experiences which are technically #ownvoices in some ways (Me and my character from Weekend Girl are both genderfluid) but not in other ways (my character Ignius in Far Patrol is a dragon. I am obviously not a dragon). I just am tired of people gatekeeping the queer community and am so so angry that a young queer man felt no other recourse than to out himself.

Do better.

(To those of you who are on the same wavelength as me, I am not directing my rage at you)

Hello all

I hope you’re all well – I have Covid, and it’s very unpleasant. 0/10 would not recommend. Because I have a lot of time on my hands due to quarantine, I decided to write a blog post.

My topic today is scheduling time to write. I am the type of person who is not only very disorganized but has very little free time. Because I’m fairly scatter-brained naturally, I have to organize myself really strictly. Thus comes into play my three (3!!!) different calendars to keep me organized. I have a week/day calendar to schedule daily tasks, a planner for deadlines and important dates, and a smartphone calendar to beep at me and remind me about appointments. Believe it or not, I STILL miss appointments sometimes.

Why do I bring this up? Because without a strict schedule, I would never have time to write. I would always put writing on the back burner and say that I don’t have time. I schedule myself time to write so that I don’t have that excuse. It doesn’t always work, just as a warning for people who have similar issues with disorganization. But it does help! I have done more writing since I started scheduling it than before I did that.

Right now, I don’t write everyday. I have myself scheduled in for twice a week right now for a total of maybe three hours a week. But it’s something! I’m working on it. Trying to schedule creative writing around academic writing is hard. One of these days I will write a post about the differences between academic and creative writing, since I do both.

Yes, I know. Scheduling is boring. But if you’re having trouble “finding time” to write, then sometimes you literally have to schedule it into your calendar. I hope this helps some people with their writing habits!

Best wishes to you all!

Alex

Hello all

I’m here to introduce you to my new project! I have started writing again, this time on a new work that I’ve tentatively titled “Surfacing.” What is this new project about?

It’s a post-dystopian novella about a society far in Earth’s future. The world has already gone through the apocalyptic end-of-days and a new society has formed in the safety of the underground tunnels underneath the surface of the Earth. No one has gone to the surface of Earth in a thousand years.

But it’s time – or, at least, that’s what Tyne Airington has to say on the matter. He wants to explore the surface and take the rest of humanity upwards and onwards into the future. Who knows what amazing discoveries await them?

But there are those who oppose the ideas of the Surfacers. The Anti-Surfacing Society (yes, we know its acronym spells ASS) led by Tircel Dunworthy wants to halt progress to the surface and to stay safe underground. Tircel insists that he doesn’t want to harm anybody, even if it means his motion to remain underground is defeated, but what about the splinter group of the Anti-Surfacers that is hell-bent on stopping Tyne and his party no matter what? Does Tircel know anything? Who is trying to sabotage their plans for resurfacing? And what does the Earth have to say on the matter?

That’s the premise of my latest work, and I hope you’ll follow along and see where it goes.

See you next time!

Alex

Hello everyone

It’s been a while. And I mean… a while. I haven’t posted or written anything since I published Weekend Girl and Far Patrol in 2021. Part of that reason was severe burnout, and part of that was the lackluster response to both of my recent publications. I must say that even though I didn’t expect too much from either of these publications, how badly they tanked was really demoralizing. I suppose part of that is my fault for not promoting them more, but like I said: burnout.

On the other hand, I’m doing great work at finishing my PhD. I just passed my candidacy exams and am starting work on my dissertation. I also have a possible three (!!!) academic publications coming this year. You’re asking why I was burned out, it’s likely because PhD work is hard.

However, I gotta be honest. Finding the willpower to write more after the bad reception to two of my books was pretty much impossible, especially when compared to my academic successes. These two books meant a lot to me for different reasons, and while I sort of understand how niche they are, I also feel like it wasn’t worth it to put so much work into them to have them undersell so badly. And I guess I expected that I would have actually improved in my creative writing and gotten better at marketing. However, my very very first novella (which was kind of awful btw) definitely did better in the market than Weekend Girl or Far Patrol.

Anyway, away from the negative and on to the positive. I want to try and get back to writing because I miss it, even though I still feel mistrustful of the market. I really love creative writing, and one day maybe I will be able to make a proper career of it. So I am getting back in the game and writing once more, although it might be a while before you see the results.

I’ve decided not to work on either the sequel to Far Patrol or the sequel to Weekend Girl until further notice, and I may not work on them for a long time. Still dusting off my bruises here, and would like to recover further from the situation before I start writing on them again. But I am writing on something again and will be trying to find a good home for my next works.

More news on that next time!

Best,

Alex

It’s here, folks! I have the cover for my upcoming novel Weekend Girl, being released with Ninestar Press on June 21, 2021.

I’ve been waiting to release the cover, and I’m so excited to start telling you about the novel itself. It’s on the Coming Soon page at Ninestar Press, so it’s official now!

Soon, I hope to introduce you all the characters, setting, and what it’s like for a SFF writer to write contemporary romance!

Here’s the official blurb:

Ashley Kingston is a genderfluid university student with a major crush on attractive and charming Nolan. He seems just too perfect to be true. What happens when Ash meets Nolan while dressed as both a man, and a woman? And even more confusing, what happens when Nolan seems enamoured of both versions of Ash? A twisty-turny romance filled with fun and shenanigans.

It’s my first novel with a genderfluid MC, so it’s extra exciting for me!

Tune in for more later!

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