Guest Post for GLAZE- Top 10 Places for Kim Curran to write

Coursework. Revision. Musicals. That sums up what I have been doing to stop me blogging, which is something that will be rectified come the middle of June
. For now though, expect any posts that have been scheduled as part of a thing, but not much else. Apart from complaining on the internet. Sorry.

Anyway, we now have one of my favourite authors, Kim Curran, author of Shift, Control, Delete and GLAZE, talking about where she likes to write.

1) On the top deck of the 243 bus

This is the bus that I used to take from Waterloo to Shoreditch and back in my commute to and from work. It was on that bus that I had the idea for Shift and where I wrote most of it – scribbled in notebooks. I’ve written a fair bit about my bus writing. The combination of being stuck in a boring place with no internet connection, and weird people to avoid, allows me to lose myself in the writing. And there’s also something about the forward motion that gives me a sense of progress.

2) On the train

Since I’ve moved further out of London, it now takes me 40 min to get into Waterloo. Which is just the perfect amount of time to get some writing done. Like the bus, it’s really productive because I don’t have access to the internet. And thanks to my tiny MacBook air, I can type away on my lap – as long as I get a seat. And boy am I grumpy if I don’t.

3) In my office.

I am probably most productive when having a writing day at home. I get up and start writing straight away, without bothering with boring things like showering or getting dressed. Often, I’ll be so lost in the writing that I’ll start at 8am and next thing I look up and it’s 5pm. I have a great chair (courtesy of James Smythe who I bought it off) a terrible desk which I HAVE to change, and a black board, which I scribble motivating quotes on. Oh, and it’s a MESS!

4) In the Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall is my home away from home. I’m a member, which gives me access to an area on the 6th floor, which seems to be filled with writers and other creative types. I have a bunch of friends who also work out of there, so I get to have the company and the camaraderie I miss so much when spending days upon days on my own. The coffee is poor but the view is to die for!

5) In a hammock.

I finished Shift in a hammock in Mexico. And I worked on Delete in a hammock in Oman. Once I get my act together, I’ll put up a hammock in my garden and write from there. There’s something about the gentle back and forth motion that’s so soothing.


6) In Topolski

There’s a café near Waterloo that is a pop-up for the Royal Festival Hall. Not many people know about it yet, so it’s quieter, there are more power soc

kets, and it’s cool (the RFH becomes a sweat box in summer). The staff are super welcoming, the coffee is great, and as for the view, well, they project Polish films on the brick walls and the place is filled with the artwork of Toposki himself. So it’s equally as inspiring as looking over the Thames. I love it there, and it’s where I’m having my launch for Glaze.


7) In a park

Until last year, I lived in a flat with no garden but with a beautiful park nearby. And when the weather permitted, I used to go and sit under a tree and write while watching the joggers and squirrels scamper around. I found it more inductive to scribbling ideas rather than clocking up the word count.

8) In bed

Sometimes, if I’m up against a deadline, I don’t even bother getting out of bed before I pick up my laptop and start writing. The one time I attempted NaNoWriMo I did this. I woke up, started writing, and didn’t get up till I’d hit my daily target of 1667 words.

9) In a pub

I recently took part in a writing event called 1001 nights – where writers are invited to create a story that’s 1001 words long, using characters and suggestions from Twitter. It’s run by the super lovely Nicci Cloke and the two of us held up in a pub in Clapham, wine and burgers on hand, and I wrote like the wind. You can read about it here: http://thatnightwheretheydowriting.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/1001-curran-what-happened/

10) ANYWHERE

Basically, I can write anywhere I can sit down. With pen and notebook or on my laptop, it really doesn’t matter. Just so long as I can get the words out of my head. And a change of scene is crucial for me. Often if I’m struggling with a plot issue, moving to a different location


Great post from Kim. Also, great book from Kim. You can read my review of Glaze sometime this week. You can find Kim at her website at her twitter at facebook  and on youtube.
Glaze will be published on 15 May 2014. You can find it on goodreads here.

Guest Post-Tom Pollock on Cities

 Today, we have Tom Pollock talking about his inspiration for the London and the use of cities of The City's Son.

When you think about it, cities and language have a lot in common. They’re both vast, sprawling artefacts, put together over centuries by the conscious and unconscious collaboration and conflict of thousands of people. They’re both always evolving - carrying the markers of the culture that created them, its climate and its commerce, its aspirations and its fears. They are humanity’s most ancient technologies.

If cities are like languages, then urban fantasy cities are half-encrypted texts, promising revealed secrets with every corner turned.  The world of the The Skyscraper Throne  is one where decoding the street lamps reveals the glass skinned, tungsten-veined dancers who light them, and where when your train stops on the track for no apparent reason it’s because the Railwraith – the train’s mad spirit -- has slipped the chains of its engine and is stampeding around causing havoc. Epic fantasies, very often are stories of the distant and the renowned – an easy to underestimate underdog treks across a vast world for a showdown that will be immortalized in song. Urban fantasy is opposite of that. The soul of urban fantasy is the secret and the local. These are stories that know where you live.

Cities are crammed with invitations to make things up. They contain such a concentration of people that sooner or later the collisions between their lives will strike sparks that leads to stories. They’re so complex that no one person can fully understand even a tenth of the detail about how they work. In turn, they contain so many mundane mysteries that we can speculate to explain: where did that cul-de-sac originally lead to? What lives on top of those towers, out of sight, looking down on us? And how did Red Serpent Street get its name? Urban fantasy speaks to our inner conspiracy-nut.  The core of it is a simple, and very appealing idea:

It was all around you this whole time, and you had no idea. Look a little closer and you’ll see.

Let me slip from simile to metaphor. Cities are built languages. The older and thornier and messier and more complicated they are the more stories are inscribed in the curves and winds of their streets. And so we come at last to London.

London’s been a major port, immigration hub and capital for two thousand years. It was never built to a plan, no one architect ever forced it into the image of her mind. It’s a squabble, a fight a raucous, laughing conversation, a challenge, a prayer and a dirty joke, all in a tongue you walk and live in rather than speak.  It’s one of the greatest treasure houses of this kind of story you could ever imagine.

Sorry it took so long to bring this to you! The City's Son and its sequel The Glass Republic are both excellent urban fantasy books, made even better if you have an undying love for London. 

Find Tom at his website, twitter and  blog 

Lisa's Open Love Letter to Pantomime by Laura Lam

Today, yet another set of reasons why you should be reading Pantomime by Laura Lam, this time, put forwards by Lisa of Over the Effing Rainbow.

Bookworms! I discovered something bloody amazing recently.

If you've heard these, or similar words from a fellow book geek, then you probably know the wonderful sense of excitement they're feeling, that goes along with the exclamation. If not, then I hope you experience it for yourself, and soon, because I love that feeling as much as I love being able to say that about a book. I've been saying nothing else about this one, since I finished it. But let's backtrack a little bit...

When I heard that Nina was looking for contributions to Rainbow Reads, I got curious enough to put my hand up and volunteer a guest review. Then came the puzzle over what to actually pick up and read, because however curious I was about the LGBT subject matter that is the theme of this event, I am most assuredly a bit of a newbie when it comes to actually reading relevant fantasy books...

So, when I conferred with Nina and she suggested I read Pantomime, which I had at least heard of by then, I thought 'okay, why not?'

That 'okay, why not' quickly became 'dear deity, what took me so long?!'.

I bet you know that feeling too.

Now here is where I ought to note that there will be potential spoilers ahead, though I will try my best not to give too much of the plot itself away. You are warned!

Pantomime is the story of Micah Grey, whose real name is not Micah Grey – but this aspect of his issue with identity is just the tip of the iceberg. We meet Micah as he joins a travelling circus, and from the outset it's clear that Micah is on the run from something – or someone. The first half of the book leads us down the twisty path of discovery, from the prominent events that led to Micah's abandonment of home and family, into the disturbing truth of why he ran away.

Micah Grey was born Iphigenia Laurus, and Iphigenia's parents wish for nothing but to have a real daughter. They want this so badly that they will do just about anything to turn 'Micah' into the child that they want, instead of learning to accept the child that they have. It is when Iphigenia (who tries and generally fails to insist upon being called Gene) learns just how far they intend to go in this endeavour, that she sheds the identity they've spent her whole life forcing upon her and runs away from home.

However, while joining the circus offers Micah much more freedom in terms of lifestyle choice, there is still that secret, and thanks to Gene's parents Micah is, for much of the book, too afraid to confess it to anyone – even when romance comes calling. And the problems of home haven't been left entirely behind, either. Gene's parents have set investigators on her trail with the task of bringing their child home...

The general plot (and plot-related events) in this book are largely straightforward fare. The plot twists, once reached, were less of a surprise to me than I had hoped after devouring the story until that point. Where it excels, instead, is in the drawing of Micah as a main character. There is some delightful worldbuilding and a few neat little teasers for the story's continuation in the second book (due out in January, I believe) planted along the way, as well as laid out in the book's final scenes, but despite my admitted love of such worldbuilding details I found myself ranking them second to the star player, here. Micah's story is such a unique one to me, and so smartly written by the author, that it kept me glued to the page from start to finish.

I had my reservations at first, I will confess. The last thing I wanted to find when I read this was the issue of Micah's gender identity being treated as a token plot point, or 'character quirk' – something that was tacked on for the sake of tacking it on and getting attention, yet failing to make the most of it. Thankfully, Laura Lam does the smart thing – not to mention the brave thing, as this is the first such book I've read and enjoyed so thoroughly where this has been the case – and makes this not a story about adventure with some 'scandalous' romance thrown in, but a story about her lead character's personal journey, their self-discovery and the places that their personal development might take them. It's a smart move that I long to see more of, and thankfully for the (admittedly few) forays I've begun making into YA fantasy fiction, this is much more the norm, or at least becoming it, than it was when I was reading fantasy fifteen years ago.

It's a big, wide, diverse and often scary world we live in, and teenagers have more invested in dealing with it than I think grown adults do. This is going to be their world soon enough, after all, and the times when we buttoned up these issues and kept them out of sight is (or should be) very, very over. That is why I want to see more books like this one, and it's why I'll be in the line to buy the follow-up. This is just plain excellent work, and beautifully written to boot.

Pantomime can be found on : Amazon and Goodreads. 
Lisa can be found at her blog, Over the Effing Rainbow, on twitter, tumblr and goodreads.

Leo's Open Love letter to Pantomime by Laura Lam

Hi! Today we have Leo, talking about Laura Lam's Pantomime.

Pantomime, by Laura Lam, is quite possibly one of the most important YA books written in the last ten years. Not only does it openly address issues that have either been ignored or forgotten, such as homosexuality or bisexuality, but it is written and executed in such a way that the book, through its characters, becomes a very introspective experience.


Essentially a story about the journey of an intersex character, Pantomime follows the lives of Gene and Micah. Gene is who Micah begins the story as; who Micah is presenting himself as and how he has chosen to live. This is why, for the purposes of this, I'll be referring to Micah as "Micah", and as a "he" instead of a gender neutral pronoun.


Micah begins the story hiding who he is, and there's a lot to say about this. The fact that Lam chose to set the book in a society very interested in propriety is an excellent way of conveying the underlying tones of non-acceptance that fuel the need for YA books that deal with such issues with both sensitivity and sensibility.


I'm not especially knowledgeable in regards to LGBT themed YA books, mainly because I read exclusively fantasy, and the choice of LGBT themed SFF books is fairly limited. But that's where Pantomime is starting to straddle the lines between regular YA novels and those that cater more to SFF interests: Pantomime, with its subtle semi-Victorian Ellada and plethora of myths lurking just beneath the surface, is a book that doesn't boast the kind of fantasy themes that could overshadow the overall subtlety of just what Lam is trying to do.


In fact, my not having read too widely in the genre (should it even be called that?) of LGBT fiction gives me a completely fresh and new perspective. And that perspective is what tells me that Pantomime is an ideal sort of book: not only because it handles the themes so well, but that it presents so many relevant issues and themes that are entangled within the issue of being different and allowing yourself to discover that.


Ultimately Lam wrote a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance; I'm not sure there's anything more important than discovering who you are and accepting yourself.


Micah runs away from home to escape what is essentially surgery that will make him completely female, just as his parents want. Micah doesn't feel female, doesn't especially want to be female - so he runs away. This sort of idea doesn't apply just to someone who, like Micah, is intersex. Parents sometimes refuse to accept a gay or trans teenager, and the reaction presented would still be the same: to run. If we're talking about real life, teens don't always actually run. But you don't have to physically up and out to really be running. There are a thousand ways of running away from what hurts us. When you don't feel accepted for what and who you are, if the reaction isn't to try and bend towards what is expected, you run, close off, put up walls and defend yourself.


Micah does this by creating for himself a new life. Again, this reaction is mimicked by people who don't run. It's not difficult to, when pressured and you feel alone, to try on a new persona, one that feels more real and more like you. Whether it's coming out online where you can be openly gay, or playing a female character in a role play because you're discovering you're transgender, or even assuming a completely genderless existence where nobody pins a label onto you and your own physical or mental gender can be precisely what you do or do not want it to be - doesn't this sound like Micah leaving home and slipping into the persona he wants to wear?


I'm deliberately stretching a metaphor here, but imagine that the circus - its lifestyle, its dynamic - is the Internet. Micah encounters trouble because of his past and the threat of discovery. Micah meets other people who have secrets too. He finds himself discovering even more about himself sexually and mentally, then he would have done otherwise.


The circus is a freeing place for Micah, just like the Internet is a freeing place for people who need to get away from whatever lack of acceptance and understanding plagues their offline lives.


But it's not just this that makes Pantomime so special, there's more to it that's subtle and simply slipped so casually between the pages. Micah is forced by circumstance to explore the concept of bisexuality, something important to Micah, who had never considered that finding a male attractive whilst presenting himself as a male would be a gay romance, at the same time as accepting that dating a female as he is does not constitute a lesbian relationship.


Bisexuality is something so often overlooked in favour of homosexuality, and this is problematic. Someone of a binary gender can be attracted to both men and women. And this makes them bisexual. In the same way, someone who is intersex is precisely the same if they are attracted to men and women. Further, a transgender of transsexual person can still be bisexual. What is great with Lam's exploration of all this isn't just how Micah reacts, but how those around him interact with him and react to the romantic situations.


For the most part, Micah's former life as Gene is kept a secret, but when a male character does find out, the romantic advances (whether acted upon or simply implied by the non-POV character) must be considered male-to-male, since Micah has the choice to exact himself as male. That the character one knew Gene is irrelevant, because now he knows Micah.


One of the most well-handled issues that Lam managed to weave neatly into everything else, is uncertainty. Sometimes we're taught completely rigidly and in black and white. Micah, sometimes, is unsure. When he plays the part of a girl in a play - and enjoys it - he is unsure. When he handles feelings for the people around him, male and female, he is unsure. I'm hoping these themes of uncertainty continue into Shadowplay: they're too important to Micah's development to allow to fizzle out. But Lam will stay true to the issues she has introduced: she's got this.


Ultimately, when people talk about Pantomime, it's all about Micah and an intersex character. But it's really so much more than that, and that's why I get cross when I don't see Pamtomime on the shelves of my local bookshop, or being discussed by online forums, or by the world at large.


This is such an important story and Strange Chemistry landed themselves a stunner of a novel. Everyone should read and talk about this book - and definitely never shut up.


Pantomime can be found on : Amazon and Goodreads. 
Leo can be found at his blog, Jet Black Ink, as a regular writer for Fantasy Faction, and on twitter. 

Guest Book Review-Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett-reviewed by The Book Addicted Girl

Hi guys! Today, we have the totally awesome Megan, aka The Book Addicted Girl, with a review. Definitely check out her Month of Guests-it's really good! 

MonstrousRegiment by Terry Pratchett

Series: Discworld, Book Thirty-One

Publisher: Corgi

Format: Paperback

Published: 1^st October 2004

Number of Pages: 496

Book: Bought

Genre: Fantasy, Humour, Science-Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Action-Adventure, YA, YA-Child Crossover

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Swearing, Violence, Alcohol References

No Drug References

It began as a sudden strange fancy…

Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry.  Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers was easy.  Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time…

And now she’s enlisted in the army, and is searching for her lost brother.

But there’s a war on.  There’s always a war on.  And Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them.

All they have ontheir side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee.  Well… they have the Secret.  And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of… the Monstrous Regiment.

Review:

I study A2 sociology.  I know what it means when they use the phrase "gender norms".  Basically it's the general belief of what it is to be a boy and what it is to be a girl.  For example, girls get pink clothes (indeed, one of the references in the book is of the girls having "pink blankets") and are expected to be quiet and well behaved whereas boys wear blue and are expected to be loud and active.  Often books conform to this, although now we've generally moved on.  But none the less, we tend to stick to girls being girls and boys being boys.  Yet I get the appeal.  Way back when, girls were meant to sew, be quiet and do round-the-house jobs.  That would drive me freakin' crazy.  I can't shut up.   I hate being domestic.  I can barely make toast.  And the whole idea of being able to help people more... well, let's face it: you'd have waaay more freedom as a guy than as a girl.  For example, Polly needed to find her brother, and there was no way she could do that when she was trapped at home - and trapped in a dress.  

Now, a girl making herself a boy to join the army to defend/protect/save their family has been done before.  Generally, though, they don't tackle the, um, grosser side of becoming a boy.  For example, the "ape-like" walk, the belching and farting and whatnot.  Monstrous Regiment deals with all of those.  And then more.

But moving onto a question:

 What exactly does it mean to be a boy?  What makes boys boys - and what does a girl have to do to pass off as a boy?  This is what Monstrous Regiment tackled - gender norms, stereotypes and expectations.  It also tackles this: when you are raised as a girl and don men's clothes, even when you’ve planned obsessively and practiced, can you ever truly pass yourself off as a boy?  For Polly and the others this was a lifestyle choice, not really who they were.  They were girls in men's clothing, being soldiers and trying to fool everyone around them.  Sometimes they were successful.  Other times... not so much.  But the difficulties they faced when passing themselves off as men was a real eye-opener.  Polly planned everything out and yet was still called out. There was always something that, to the right observer, labelled her a woman.  And yet, ironically, Polly and the others couldn't hide their newfound 'man' behaviour when they were once more disguised as women....

But saying this, if you asked me, Polly's personality fit more with the Borogravian and 'traditional' views of a boy, rather than those of a woman.  She was strong, stubborn, brave and tough, an excellent fighter and marvellously witty.  She could easily hold her own with men.  And the way she didn't feel guilty about her hair, the way she did feel guilty about being caught in a dress (a real 'wait a minute' moment), how she said they could "disguise" themselves as women... all these little things almost made it seem like she was born for this – for being a soldier, for fighting for what's right, for not being restricted by all of Nuggan's stupid Women Can't rules.  Polly was her own person and her own person was probably an Abomination to Nuggan but who cares!

All the other characters were brilliant - they all had their own individual reasons for being there, and each had their own personality.  One of my favourites had to be Maladict - he was just so brilliant!  And I really liked how he, when a wee bit on the edge, just mimicked Polly's orders (she always thought of them first; he protested... and then agreed; hilarious!).  Sergeant Jackrum was brilliant too, and was a good guy, really.   I liked how he never treated Polly and the others differently even though they were women.  Hell, he seemed to like them more because of it!

But one thing I think Pratchett captured brilliantly was the strength of women.  This was a world where women weren't even allowed to write, let alone go into a war.  Hell, to wear a man's clothes was a blasphemous Abomination!  But these women, they were braver than some of the men.  They didn't need to be there: there was no reason for them to put their lives at risk.  And yet they did.  Maybe I'm biased.  I'm a feminist.  I want equality in all areas.  But I liked the way Pratchett captured all the different personalities on both gender sides: No one was alike and everyone was represented (there were lesbians – the most amazing couple, btw – and even a theatrical, cross-dressing man – albeit only for theatre).   I also liked how the characters themselves acknowledged the strength of women: Jackrum compared women to lionesses; Blouse listed a number of fierce women throughout history; Vimes... well, I think he was just intrigued; the soldiers were afraid of them.  Girl power...?!

Another thing Monstrous Regiment perfectly captured was the crazy effect religion has on gender norms and expectations.  Maybe I'm thinking with my sociology brain, but when you compare the very oppressed women in Borogravia to, for example, Sergeant Angua in Ankh-Morpork, you can see the huge difference the religion has.  Girls in Borogravia could read, but not write: that was an Abomination to Nuggan, the ridiculous and tetchy god.  Also an Abomination: a woman wearing men's clothing.  The other races and their gender expectations were similar: Igorinas weren't allowed to perform the Great Work, troll women weren't allowed to carry clubs or wear lichen...  I liked something that Polly said: "I suppose men are the same the world over."   This says it all: no matter what or who or where you are, discrimination and suppression seems to be the same.  

But the sad part about Nuggan and all his rules is that in some cultures there are rules like this, when women are restricted by the most insane beliefs and rules.  If you ask me, a religion-free world would eradicate most inequalities (gender, sexual, everything), most wars and conflicts.  Back to the point: Pratchett takes a lot of things from the real world – which is what makes his books so ingenious and oddly hard-hitting.

But what I loved most about Monstrous Regiment was that it has so many levels.  It tackles religion, society, war, being different and a whole variety of gender issues.  The fact that a girl, who is just as capable as any boy thank you very much, has to wear a man's clothes to save her own brother.  The fact that she needs to hide what she is to do what she has to do.  How very different boys and girls are…  

But now I make it sound like gender was the biggest thing in this book - like it was the focus.  It wasn't.  It was wonderfully subtle - a theme but not the overbearing, in-your-face kind of a theme.  It tackled many other issues too - bravery, patriotism, uniqueness, religion, reasons for dressing up as a boy and joining the army...  And more than this, it was just an amazing read.  Fun, fast paced, full of laughs and just such an easy and enjoyable read.  You could, like me, obsess over everything - every little detail.  Or you could just enjoy the ride.  Either way, it's recommended by me!

But here’s a warning from a feminist: Girls can do everything boys can do, so don’t ever patronise us.  Just ask that poor guy what Polly did to him when he patronised her… 

Ouch.

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

 Once again, thank you very much, Megan!   You can find her at The Book Addicted Girl blog, goodreads, twitter, tumblr, and facebook. She also has a new blog with Emma called The Girls of YA. You should definitely go visit.

Guest Post-Trans* Narratives in Fiction by Riley from Reading Books in Bed

Today, we have Riley from Reading Books in Bed talking about trans* narratives in fiction. I’m not an expert on this area, so I’m really glad we have someone who’s better qualified to talk about this, and what we have is an eye-opening and personal, post.

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The phrase people are most likely to use to describe a trans* person, especially a transgender character, is "born in the wrong body."  I can guarantee you that if you go to the Goodreads page of any book centered on a trans* person, the blurb, a large amount of the reviews, or both will use some form of this phrase.  I guess it's a simple way of describing things; it's not difficult for people to understand the idea that the body you were born in doesn't match up with what's in your head.  The wrong body, though?  Like some sort of trans-Freaky Friday?  The fact is, there are trans* people who just don't feel that they were born in the wrong body - a body that isn't their ideal, maybe, or one they feel comfortable with, but not wrong.  Honestly, to me, that sounds scary - it sounds like the plot of a paranormal novel.  That's not how I want to think about my body, as much discomfort as I often feel in it, and that's not how I want others to think about it.  Obviously, from trans* person to trans* person, this varies.  There's a wide spectrum of ideas about bodies in the trans* community, because, you know, people are individuals.

Also, while most trans* invididuals experience dysphoria - the conflict between a person's biological sex and their gender identity - it isn't a prerequisite for trans-ness.  No, really, I can't speak for all trans* people but many of us don't spend twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week hating our bodies!  Which is why it's so upsetting to me that readers of YA may come away from certain books on the subject thinking that all trans* people utterly despise their bodies - especially the ones who are struggling with gender identity issues themselves.  "Well," they might say - I know I did - "I don't feel this much hatred towards what I'm like physically - I guess I'm not transgender, after all."

For a personal example: the first trans* book I can remember reading, before I'd even started to question my identity, was Luna by Julie Ann Peters.  The narrator recalls a memory of her sister, a I never felt an urge to do anything like that.  It's not like I ever tried to cut my boobs off or anything when they first showed up.  If this is what transgender people feel, I guess I can't be one.  Or even recently, only months ago, I was sitting on a Greyhound bus with a copy of Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirsten Cronn-Mills (a book I otherwise really relate to) and again, in flashback, the protagonist Gabe gets his first period and is absolutely devastated, to the point of nearly committing suicide.  I put the book aside for a moment, trying to think back to my own experience.  Absolute terror that I was dying before I realized, oh, that's why I'm in so much pain - yes.  Suicidal urges - no.  Is this something every trans man felt but me? I wondered.  I didn't even know trans* people were a thing, really, at that time, let alone that I could be one, and the past few years of relatives covertly handing me books on puberty had prepared me for the whole thing.  Even now, more secure in my own identity, the few stories of people like me being told not matching up to my own (or the ones shared with me by trans* friends) makes me question myself.

trans woman, as a young "boy," attempting to cut her penis off so she could look like the other girls.  I remembered that book one night when I was browsing through LGBT forums, hoping to find the one definite sign that would tell me: am I really a boy or not?  And I remembered that scene, because who wouldn't?  It's heartbreaking.  And I thought to myself:

Now, I know there will probably never be books to match up with every trans* experience.  There are a lot of trans* people in the world, after all; that would be one hell of a lot of books.  But can't we at least do better and step outside the box that says trans* individuals must hate their bodies, that their bodies are fundamentally wrong?  Can't we portray more than just that one experience?  If a wider variety of ideas about how trans* people relate to their bodies is going to make one less confused kid out there tell themselves that their feelings are invalid, then to me, it's all worth it.

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Thank you very much for writing this! Riley would also like to share this, a short document from the American Psychiatric Association  bringing to your attention that gender dysphoria is NOT a disorder.  

You can find Riley on Goodreads and on his blog Reading Books in Bed. 

Guest Post: Once Upon a Time by Chelsea Pitcher

Today, we have Chelsea  Pitcher, author of The S-Word, with the most personal post so far about her own experience, finding representation in literature, and how this has affected how she writes.

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Once upon a time, I fell in love with a girl.

Yeah. That happened.

I was sixteen years old and, to be honest, it took me completely by surprise. I’d only ever had crushes on boys before. But this—this was not a crush. This was full blown, head over heels, earth shattering first love. And it changed everything.

It was also incredibly difficult.

Not only did I have to navigate the often-rocky terrain of a first time teenage relationship, I had to do it with someone who couldn’t tell her family about us, for fear of being disowned. I had to figure out how to tell my friends and family what was happening in my life (and in my heart) when I couldn’t even name it. Was I gay now? Had I always been gay? Was I bi? Was I something else entirely?

WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN?

As I often did in times of emotional difficulty, I started searching for forms of media that represented people like me. I fell in love with But I’m a Cheerleader, related a little too much to Heavenly Creatures (um…the non-murdery parts, anyway) and put up with the cheesiness of Lost and Delirious because the message spoke to me. I rooted for Katchoo in Strangers in Paradise and snatched up the issue of Girlfriends magazine with Willow and Tara on the cover. I gobbled up everything I could find that made me feel like I wasn’t a total weirdo-freak, and in a lot of ways, I was successful.

Except with books.

Now, I want to preface this by saying that fiction with queer characters did exist. It wasn’t a mythical unicorn that people whispered about but never saw. Still, finding it was difficult, and trust me, I tried. For years, my girlfriend and I went down to Powell’s and scoured the shelves, looking for stories that featured people like us. We found uh… let’s say “instructional” books in the Sex and Sexuality section. Several more on sexual theory in non-fiction. But in terms of queer teen novels, we just didn’t have much luck, and it’s too bad, because we could’ve used them.

They would’ve helped us through some really difficult times.

Made us feel like we weren’t alone.

Maybe, they could’ve saved people’s lives.

That’s the thing about fiction: even when the rest of the world refuses to acknowledge your worth, or even your existence, books are there to make you feel loved. Books are there to make you feel understood, valuable, real. Books are there to tell you: you exist.

I think that’s why I’m so insistent on putting queer characters into my stories now. Besides the obvious life experience that allows me to write certain tales with authenticity, I just can’t imagine handing one of my books to a queer teen and saying, “Sorry, you’re not represented here.” I can’t imagine creating a world where queer characters don’t exist, because that wouldn’t be representative of reality. Even when writing fantasy (which, yes, I dabble in), I wouldn’t want to create a world without queer characters because that world would be drab and colorless without them. It would be like painting a picture using only shades of blue, pretending reds and greens and purples don’t exist. It would be a form of dishonesty.

And art, if nothing else, is about telling the truth. That’s why characters like Jesse will always exist in my stories—characters whose gender and sexuality can’t be labeled so easily. Jesse refuses to conform to traditional gender stereotypes, sometimes dressing in women’s clothing, and sometimes men’s. In terms of his sexuality, he’s still figuring things out. Maybe he’ll be figuring them out his whole life.

And as for me, well, I’m done trying to figure things out. I spent far too many years wondering WHO AM I? What is my label? What is my official sexuality? And anytime I thought I’d figured it out, something happened to surprise me. Something, or someone.

Life’s funny like that.

In the end, I decided those labels were more important to other people in my life than they were to me. Other people wanted to define me, but love can’t be defined. Love can’t be contained, stuck into a box, labeled and put on a shelf for easy referencing. I love who I love. So should you.

Your heart knows the way.

I want to end by mentioning some wonderful GLBTQ novels that have come out in the past few years. There are so many more than there used to be, and here are some of my favorites:

THE BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE by Maureen Johnson

This is the book I wish I’d had when I was sixteen. I related to each of the main characters so well. One of them has always known she’s gay, one of them isn’t sure, and the other is struggling with a long-distance romance (something I also dealt with in my first relationship!) I laughed, I cried—I wanted to reread it the minute I was finished.

BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray

Maybe you’re like me, and “gay” and “straight” don’t really define you. Well never fear, my darling dear, this book is for you! Libba Bray, the illustrious genius that she is, has included gay, bi and trans characters in this hilarious story about friendship, survival and identity. One of my all time favorites!

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Get ready to cry (or maybe that’s just me—I am a sap), because this story will tug on your heartstrings. This stunning, laugh-out-loud coming of age story features two Latino boys learning about life, friendship, family and love.

THE MODERN FAERIE TALES by Holly Black

My absolute favorite urban fantasy series, featuring multiple queer characters, including faeries! You really can’t go wrong with that.

GIRL GODDESS NUMBER NINE and THE ROSE AND THE BEAST by Francesca Lia Block

Two short story collections from the goddess of magical realism, featuring gay and trans characters. Block’s lyrical writing has kept me coming back for over a decade. A treat for the heart and senses! 

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 Chelsea can be found at her Website, on   Facebook, on Twitter, at her blog and on Goodreads,

You can buy The S-Word on Amazon, and you can read my review of The S-Word here.

Blog tour post and GIVEAWAY ENDS SOON- Brian Rowe

Today, we have Brian Rowe talking about ho

w important it is to have LGBTQ characters in books where the focus is not sexuality.

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As a reader of many gay young adult novels, both good and bad, I've made the distinct effort over the last year and a half to write YA novels with gay main characters that don't necessarily revolve around the characters' sexuality. Since March 2012 I have written three YA books with gay characters at the center (one is Over the
Rainbow, the other two are forthcoming), but none of the three books is what anyone would call an "issues" book, or a book that's specifically about how the character is dealing with his or her sexuality. Zippy's homosexuality plays a big role in Over the Rainbow, but from the get-go Zippy is comfortable with who she is, and doesn't set out on a journey to find herself, but to find the person she loves.

I want to write young adult novels where the main character just happens to be gay, not young adult novels that's all just about how the main character is gay. Why not allow the main character of a major fantasy franchise be gay? Andrew Garfield got a lot of heat when he suggested, "Why not have Spider-Man be gay, or at least be exploring his sexuality?" Why is it so automatic that the hero of a book that may be more geared toward teenage boys than, say, adults, have to be heterosexual? With each passing year, we as a nation are becoming more and more accepting of the LGBT community, and I love the idea of major books and films using gay characters not just as stock, as a friend or in the background, but as the core central character.

Over the Rainbow is at the heart a romance between two girls who never know if they will ever meet each other, but it's also a rip-roaring action adventure, the kind geared for boys, that just so happens to have a lesbian protagonist at the forefront. Should this element make the action scenes any less enjoyable for male teenage readers? There are car chases, sprints through the forest, a duel to the death with a velociraptor on the top of a moving vehicle. I want readers to see Zippy as a bad-ass, not as a gay bad-ass. And I especially want young lesbian readers to find a character on the page that they can truly call their own.

My next two books, still in the works, both tell of a gay male protagonists who are trying to make something of their lives, but neither one is simply about dealing with teenage life as a homosexual. I've always been gay, ever since I can remember, and I've never let it be the one thing that defines me. And I want the same to be true of my LGBT characters. The more gay YA novels written, the better, but the more that are written that aren't just about simply being gay, we're going to really start making progress.

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Brian wrote Happy Birthday to Me, the Grisly High Trilogy and some other stuff.
His latest release is Over The Rainbow, a redo of The Wizard of Oz. You can find it on Amazon and Goodreads.
You can find Brian at his website and on twitter.

Also, giveaway! This is part of Brian’s tour, so there’s some epic prizes: a $25 Amazon gift card, 3x signed copies of Over The Rainbow (Guessing this is US only), and 10 e-copies of Over the Rainbow.
This ends in... 18 hours? Sorry about that. Get in there quick!


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