The Invisible Orientation will soon be available in a French translation.
French title: Asexualité – Comprendre l’orientation invisible.
Publisher: Alliance Magique, Améthyste Éditions, Pluriel·les (a new LGBTQIA+-focused imprint).
Publishing Date: Summer 2021.
After Dinner Conversation has discussed my short story “Everyone’s Gay in Space” on their podcast. They have promoted the story on Twitter and on their podcast page.
You can listen through one of the links on their post. It’s carried on these podcast providers. I personally like Stitcher.
To quote from their site:
STORY SUMMARY: Douglas Junior and his wife both have a rare, recessive, genetic disease. They donate their blood to a lab to help them find a cure. Through a medical mix-up, Douglas Junior’s DNA is used to create his clone. 20 years later he finds out about his clone and reaches out to meet him. Things don’t go exactly as planned as Douglas Junior is a blue-collar working man, while his clone is a top-of-the-class gay student who plans to join the space program.
DISCUSSION: Interesting story that mirror some of the research done with sexual orientation differences between identical twins, as well as nature vs. nurture. Creates a springboard for good discussions about what information we would want to know about our clone. For example, are there unexplored genetic aptitudes I missed out on? Douglas seems to be very picky about which science he believes in, and which he doesn’t believe in, as so much of it is tied up how he self identifies. His clone is rightly frustrated by all the questions and says what may often be on the mind of others gay individuals, “it’s not my job to teach everyone in the world ‘Gay 101’”.
After a very long hiatus from taking publishing seriously, I got the bug and decided to jump back into this party. I have multiple finished manuscripts and my fiction agent (who last talked to me in 2017) vanished into the ether without wrapping up her affairs. (I understand she was ill, but didn’t disclose to me specifically.) And my nonfiction agent for my published asexuality book does not want to rep the fiction. So what am I waiting for?
Let’s face it: nothing I write is particularly “easy” when it comes to genre. It’s always got something weird going on and it’s pretty much guaranteed to have a word count problem (though I’ve also undergone some pretty epic word diets and succeeded). But my novel Stupid Questions seems like the most likely possibility for publication right now (well, in my opinion), and even though I wrote it quite some time ago I still love the story. The familiar desire to have my work out there to be read and loved has returned.
So I bit the bullet and started querying agents again today. It feels great to be back to this and I really HONESTLY TRULY enjoy the process, even if rejection is the most likely scenario. I’ve been offered representation TWICE and have assisted HUNDREDS of authors with their queries in Pitch Wars–I am absolutely not bothered by the idea of rejection and not intimidated by the process. I’m super looking forward to meeting whoever might become my agent. I love publishing. Even the ugly and difficult parts.
Details on who I’m querying or what the outcomes are will, as always, not be shared here, but I hope to share good news sometime in the near future.
My short story “Everyone’s Gay in Space” sold to After Dinner Conversation. It’s in the November 2020 issue.
Reading this one isn’t free on the Internet but as of today it can be accessed through a monthly subscription or by purchasing the story individually.
Here’s my post about when I wrote the story if you want more info.
I’m doing a live YouTube event today to celebrate Asexual Awareness Week. I’ll be kicking it off with some thoughts I have on asexuality-related nonfiction.
Subscribers and interested parties can chime in live in the attached chat, and if appropriate, I will address whatever they’d like to talk about. The video will be available to rewatch if you miss the event.
You can tune in on my YouTube Channel: An Ace Evening with Swankivy 2020!
I was invited to read ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex early and provide a blurb. Please check this book out if you are interested in adding an important new title to your ace and aro library.
Book info:
Title: ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
Author: Angela Chen
ISBN:978-0807013793
Publisher: Beacon Press
Release Date: September 15, 2020
My blurb:
Accessible and eloquently written, Ace sensitively and accurately spotlights an interconnected series of outsider experiences. Few asexual-spectrum narratives so authentically and diversely capture the truths, the quirks, the tragedies, and the triumphs of our lives without alienating non-ace readers or appealing only to one subset of the ace population. Ace creates an inclusive tapestry of validating and eye-opening narratives that will give some readers an experience they may have never had before: seeing our “anomalous” perspectives and emotions given the sensitive examination and validation we’ve always been denied.
I finished NaNoWriMo 2019 with 50,768 words this month (and making the book In Bloom about 101,600 words total). I don’t plan to finish this book within NaNoWriMo–I’ll have to complete it and edit it through other means. 🙂
I thought I’d show off my space lesbians from In Bloom. 🙂
One day, though probably not super soon, I will wrap up Kamber and Joanne’s story.
Guess what? I’m doing NaNoWriMo again.
Yeah, the writing program I once used to talk about never doing, but consented to try in 2018, and now am doing again in 2019.
I decided to continue 2018’s book! Because of course I’m a blathery weirdo and I’m sure I can get another 50,000 words out of this thing.
Wish me luck with another installment of working on In Bloom!
I’m doing a live YouTube event (my first time!) to celebrate Asexual Awareness Week. I’ll just be sitting down to an evening with my webcam and I’ll start by sharing some discussions of how media handles asexuality, good or bad.
Subscribers and interested parties can chime in live in the attached chat, and if appropriate, I will address whatever they’d like to talk about. It’s a chance to talk to a pretty seasoned ace activist about subjects that might not be covered all that commonly, but it’s also fine if the talks devolve a little into other things. I’ll try to keep it mostly on topic but there’s no telling what will happen.
You can sign up for a reminder and tune in 8 PM Eastern on Friday, October 25. The finished video will appear here when the event is over.