Thank you so much to Sarah for this piece on writing gender diverse characters (and for being so kind about my own work!)
I love adventure stories (especially adventure stories including ferocious tigers). I love creepy paranormal mysteries. I love romance (especially queer romance). And I love, big, sloppy, loyal dogs.
A.L. Lester’s THE FLOWERS OF TIME has each of these things,
which made me a Very Happy Reader. ™ But if you sat me down and said,
“Sarah, tell us your most favorite thing about this, the third book
in Lester’s LOST IN TIME series?” I would reply, without hesitation,
“Jones.”
Jones. The non-binary, dog loving, code-breaking, magic-wielding,
one-half of our romantic pair. (The other half being Edie, whom I adored as
well, especially for her* stubbornness and petticoats). But. JONES. Jones made
me laugh, and Jones made me cry. Because I am a non-binary person, and in
Jones’ fear that she might somehow be broken, in Jones’ sometimes unrecognition
of her face in a mirror, in Jones’ distress over her menstruation and lack of
‘male parts’—
Well. In Jones I saw myself. And for that I’m grateful.
Although publishing is finally beginning to catch up and
catch on, finding well-written stories with well-written gender diverse
characters can still be difficult. Many of my favorites I have discovered
through word of mouth, rather than Big 5 marketing. This may be because I am
super picky about how I connect with gender diverse characters, or it may be
because there is still a tendency to rely on tropes when writing about a
character whose gender identity lies outside the ‘cultural norm’.
I’m not saying that tropes can’t be fun. Nor am I implying
that I haven’t fallen into the trope trap myself. As a fantasy author, I’ve
written my share of non-binary faeries.
What I am saying is: let’s hold Jones up as an example and try
to do better.
“But Sarah,” you may argue, “writing gender
diversity can be hard, and frightening. Even as a gender diverse author.
Everyone has a different experience. What if I do it wrong?”
We all get it wrong occasionally (see non-binary faeries)
but if we’re too afraid to dip a toe then certainly we’ll never get it right.
So, here are three helpful tips to keep in mind going forward:
Your character’s gender diversity is 100 percent NOT their defining characteristic. Take Jones. She’s an extremely well-rounded and believable character with passions and fears that have absolutely nothing to do with being non-binary. Which is fantastic. Because so do I!
Gender identity, gender expression, sexuality and physical sex are different things. I didn’t write Jones, so I don’t know all her secrets, so here I’ll use an example from my latest book, EARNEST INK. Hemingway, my MC, is trans masc. He thinks of himself as male (gender identity) he prefers to present himself as male (gender expression) and he’s sexually attracted to any gender (pansexual). He hasn’t yet opted for gender confirming surgery, he is on T, and if you asked him about his physical sex he’d probably punch you in the face because: rude. As a writer, knowing a character’s gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, and physical sex helps to make for more believable, well-rounded character motivation.
Talk to gender diverse people. Educate yourself about experience. Lean on your gender diverse friends and your sensitivity readers. But do so politely. A good example: “Hey, Sarah, I’m writing a non-binary character, but as a gay cis male with zero non-binary experience, I have questions. You seem to be pretty open about discussing your gender. Would you mind weighing in?” Sure thing. Thanks for asking so nicely. Hit me up any time.
*In 1782 there were no they/them pronoun options, so I will
refer to Jones as she does herself.
Sarah Remy/Alex Hall is a nonbinary, animal-loving, proud gamer Geek. Their work can be found in a variety of cool places, including HarperVoyager, EDGE and NineStar Press.
Daniel is the author of Blood Drive, Lost Women of the Admiral Inn, and Kai the Swordsman: The Imprisoned King.
Systems. They’re everywhere. That’s a broad word for an even
broader spectrum. Everything is part of its own system and many others seen or
unseen. From microsystems to solar systems and beyond.
That opening sounded like something you’d here while waiting for a ride at Disney World to start, but not one of the good ones. I’m talking about one of the rides the parents insist on going because the line is short and it has air conditioning.
But I’m not here to bore you with science talk. I’m here to
enrich your mind with my knowledge or fantasy and sci-fi system building. This
isn’t “world building”, which is a term any speculative fiction writer should
know before they start. I’m not talking about creating my universe and
inhabiting it. I’m talking about the systems that go into that universe.
If you don’t specify, your reader will mostly fall back on their baser instincts of what happens in a world. Gravity is something we take for granted. You may not know how it works, but you know if you throw a brick in the air you need to move before it comes down and bashes into your skull. You may not know how electricity works either, but you know if someone flips a switch the lights will go on.
Working in a system that doesn’t exist in the real world is something we, as writers, enjoy. I mean we really enjoy it. For your approval: I give you magic. Let’s say you have your world, and you want it to be a fantastical one full of unicorns and dragons and mystic hippies . Aside from that, you want to have a system of magical laws in places just beneath the surface. Your characters need to spin spells or use enchanted relics. Is it a free-for-all of magical nonsense, or is there a structure to which said spells and enchantments must adhere?
There’s a law. There always is. There are formulas to prove
why gravity pummeled your head with that brick. There are equations and laws
that can prove why the lightbulb above your toilet goes on when you reach over
and flip the switch. In your magical world, there should be laws that can be
proven why it’s there.
But here’s where things get tricky. Tell me why, and I’ll yawn. Give me a page or more of info-dumping, and I’ll start fiddling with my phone. I took all those classes about how electricity works, and it’s so boring it took two years before I could get a minor degree. I don’t want to be told about how your magic works. I want to be shown. Subtly.
The same goes for the sci-fi realm of this discussion. Time
Travel is a big one for me. I love it. I love everything about it. I love
wondering what would happen if I went back in time and undid my own birth. What
would happen if I gave Hitler a wedgie during an important speech? What subtle
change can I make in the past that would result in me having a billion dollars
today?
Time travel, like magic, needs rules and laws. There have
been countless books, TV shows, and movies dedicated to this. Everyone has its
own science and laws. I’ve explored this on a multitude of occasions, and I
have a short story planned to get into this again with a new sci-fi theory I’ve
concocted. There are a few of them, so hold on.
For starters, if time travel ever became a reality, we’d
know it. We’d know it because someone would have come back by now. With that
theory, time travel doesn’t nor will ever exist. The only exception would be if
the time travelers in question were sworn to secrecy like time ninjas. If you
changed the past, would your memories change when you got back to the future,
your present? Would you have to write down what you changed really fast before
the timestream caught up with you and erased the memories of the events you
changed?
Another theory I’ve worked with is that we can never know if
time travel ever happened. If it has, this timestream was the one that was changed,
and we’re living in the one and only affected reality. Same thing goes for the
time paradox that ends up in a lot of writing. If a paradox is ever created
that erases all of space and time, then I wouldn’t be able to type this. I
would have never existed. None of us would have! A paradox cannot happen,
making it a paradox within itself!
Wait a second… “A paradox within itself?”
Whatever. The point I’m trying to make is there are laws and
consequences you must map out before you dive into travelling through time.
Think about your favorite time travel movie or series. Whether it’s Back to
the Future, Quantum Leap, Time Cop, The Time Machine, Avengers: Endgame, Mr.
Peabody and Sherman, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, etcetera. The
common thread in all of those is that they have rules that govern what they can
or can’t do when travelling through time. When you create your own world around
time travel, make sure you have a set of rules and laws in mind. Even if you
don’t spell them out in an infodump (which I prefer you don’t), make sure your
characters adhere to them at all times.
Magic and time travel systems are similar, though completely
different. Some may even say science is just fancy magic. I wouldn’t say that,
but I know some characters who would. Then again, one could argue either
practice is just a manipulation of energies through separate means. We can even
time travel by magic if the magical system in your world allows it.
I’m a modest guy. I always tout myself as such to anyone
who’s willing to listen. I love writing, but I’m an engineer by training and
trade. If you can put yourself into that mindset, you can create systems that
can bring your world into a whole new life. I’m not saying you have to put
yourself through engineering training like I did, even though I didn’t do it
for the writing benefits. Just keep the basics in mind when you’re setting up
the systems in your world.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
What comes up must come down. Like
charges repel while opposite charges attract.
You can
make up your own for your world.
When
you open a portal through time it’ll stay open until the timestream rights
itself. Multiple dimensions do exist, but only one of you can exist in any
given dimension at a time. A paradox in time can be reversed with another
paradox of equal paradoxical magnitude.
Don’t steal those. Make your own and have fun with it. I’ll leave you with a quote from Ray Samson from an upcoming book I’m final-drafting called I’m in Sci-Fi Hell: “Anyone with a third-grade education knows that science and magic don’t mix.”
Thank you for your time.
Biography
Daniel Aegan lives in New Haven, CT with his family. He
started writing at a young age and gave it up, only to start again fifteen
years later. Comedy, horror, and dark fantasy are just some of his preferred
genres, and he’s not opposed to mixing or mashing them. Other than writing,
Daniel enjoys reading tarot for himself or his friends. He’s a supporter of the
indie writing community of which he’s a part as well as all LGBT+ people and
authors.
Daniel’s published works include Blood Drive, Lost Women of the Admiral Inn, and Kai the Swordsman: The Imprisoned King. There are more books on their way as the pile of drafts gets sorted and whittled. While not writing or drafting, you can often find Daniel Aegan embarrassing himself in public.
It’s a fairy tale etched in blood; a pitch-black fantasy.
The secrets of one man’s past reverberate in the present, and those secrets
have the power to topple a complacent empire.
The village of Umi no Mura knows nothing but peace. They’re
far from the capitol of the empire, far from crime and poverty. They fend for
themselves, fishing and farming for what they need. They have only one
protector: an exiled swordsman named Kai.
The swordsman has a past he cannot escape. His dreams are
haunted by blood and demons, and his waking world is haunted by the sins he
committed in the name of his Emperor. Umi no Mura has its secrets, and Kai
can’t help but feel they’re somehow tied to his checkered past.
Deep in the heart of the empire sits Emperor Aki-Jin, who is
more obsesses with immortality than he is with his people. He was once a friend
of Kai in his childhood, but that friendship led them down a path that ended in
blood and wrath. He kept his old friend alive, making his sword grow rusty as
the protector of a village that needs no protecting.
The atrocities of Emperor Aki-Jin reflect in the waves of
the ocean. The swordsman Kai who would die to protect has an impossible choice
ahead of him as Umi no Mura faces the harshest of days. Does Kai turn to the
Aki-Jin and doom them to another threat, or does he rescue them and make them
enemies of their own emperor? What clues in Kai’s past can help him in his
present dilemma? What chaos will be inflicted if past and present enemies
collide with a lone swordsman in the middle of it all?
Kai the Swordsman: The Imprisoned King is Daniel Aegan’s
third book and his first foray into creating a world of dark fantasy. Follow
him into the Empire of Hojite, a land ruled by magic and dark forces; a place
where swordsman and shinobi fight in the forest; a realm where one man’s
sacrifice and toil can save the lives of all.
It’s a pleasure to welcome Mindi today to chat about her Fae Shifter world and how the magic all fits together.
Hello! My name is M.D. Stewart, and I’m from a small town in a rural county of southern West Virginia. I’m going to talk about the characters and magic used in my Fae Shifters series.
There are five different species inhabiting my alternative Earth:
In my Fae
Shifter world, witches are born male and female, but usually, women carry the
“burden” of magic. In some rare instances, men can connect to feminine energy
of Gaia, and they are indeed powerful. If a male is born or married to a Witch,
they are responsible for policing the Coven and usually act as policemen and
firefighters (because they’re hot, right?).
Humans,
who are ignorant of other types
of humanoids. They don’t do magic, shift into other creatures, or require blood
unless they are injured. Originally humans were put on Earth by the goddess to
act as a balance to the magical community. Eventually, we lost all knowledge of
Others so we live in blissful ignorance.
Witches are natural-born beings that tap
into the endless Earth goddess (Gaia) energy to do spell work. They can receive
visions and manipulate Earth’s energy to create magic. Anything to do with the
Earth, grounding, growing plants, healing, witches gain access to that power. It’s rare, but since the Earth has gravity, some witches can
defy that law and levitate or make someone so heavy they can’t move.
Vampires
can’t do magic, but they do
require blood, sex, and moon energy to live. They cannot absorb direct UV rays.
But the moon simply reflects the sun, so it’s not a direct dose. They do have
more strength than humans, especially after ingesting blood energy. Unlike
myths, they are living creatures with souls who can see their reflection and
can have children but can’t shift into other creatures.
Shifters are magical beings that don’t
require blood but can drink it, especially during sex. They see and manipulate
surrounding energies from the plants, animals or other creatures to create
magic. Because of this, they are the most magical beings on the Earth plane.
Natural Shifters live in groups or tribes, are Native Americans and shift into
one animal; Bears, Wolves, or Lions (as in mountain lions or bobcats here in
the states).
The Fae live on Earth but in a
different dimension that is accessed through portals scattered all over the
Earth. Only members of the magical community can enter the Fae realm (or
Faedom). The Faedom is inherently magical, there is no barrier to access magic
there, whereas the Earth Plane is a natural magical dampener for the Fae. The
Fae are at the top of the magical pyramid, so to speak. Issues between the
groups in the magical community are brought before the King of the Fae to
judge. Fae can shift into any large land mammal, dog, horse, bear, wolf, but
cannot shift into birds (non-mammal) or rabbits (too small). Physics still
apply. Human-sized creatures can only shrink so much so no mice shifting!
All magical
creatures live longer than humans. Witches can live two times the length of a
normal human life span of 70 – 80 years. They have direct access to the Earth
and can pull on her energy to heal some wounds and live longer. A mortal wound
like a gunshot or stabbing will kill them. They aren’t as fragile as humans but
they are the closest to us when it comes to mortality.
Vampires
live for centuries but can die by several means. Sun exposure, beheading, blood
loss, or the older generation who are tired of living choose to not take in
blood or sex energy. If a Vampire stays
out of the moon for long periods, they can be weakened and be killed like any
human.
Shifters
live very long lives as well. In my books, the Fae King Bran and the Chief of
the Bear tribe Black Hawk/Michael met and fell in love in the 1400s. And Black
Hawk’s father who turned over the tribe to his son now lives in Florida! Bran
and Michael are six hundred years old but look about mid-thirties. Shifters, if
injured, can heal most wounds by shifting into their animal form.
Fae, on the
other hand, can live for as long as they choose to, even millennia. In Faedom,
magic is readily available, and that magic sustains their life force. On the
Earth Plane, they are more susceptible to injury and death, but shifting into
an animal form heals them enough to make it back home. Blood can speed their healing
rate. If they are low on blood, the sun can damage them, but it usually isn’t
fatal. What Fae and Shifters can do to
help when someone is gravely hurt is to perform a Vibrational Healing. Healing
is at the crux of the stories in my Fae Shifter books!
What is
Vibrational Healing? All things, even
plants, have energy fields, but in humans, we refer to them as Chakras or Chi.
During a Healing, two alpha males stimulate these centers by creating sexual
energy. During sex, when both men reach climax at the same time, it creates
Harmony, a high rate of energy that can be directed to an injured person. Alpha
males have more aggressive energy (that’s what makes them an alpha). Sex
between a man and woman can also create energy, but it’s more “life-creating”
energy, which is sustaining not healing.
In the first
book, Devitt, he and his best friend are forced to participate in a Vibrational
Healing to save Dev’s true mate from evil magic that is killing her. During the
Healing, they all form a tight bond, but Rhys isn’t part of their mate set. The
rogue Fae family who placed the curse on Sienna are actively trying to overthrow
Devitt’s family, the ruling Royal St. Clair line.
In the
second book, we meet the King of the Fae, Bran St. Clair. In Dev’s book, we learn
he and the Chief of the Bear Clan have a history, but it’s only known they
participated in a Vibrational Healing over five centuries earlier. They meet
again when Bran finds his true mate on the Earth plane, and her life is
threatened by the family who wants to destroy the St. Clairs.
I am over at MD’s blog today talking about the Lost in Time universe and you can read about my own Lost in Time magic system over at Stories that Make you Smile today as part of The Flowers of Time blogtour.
Elizabeth Noble is here today to talk about the magic of her urban fantasy world and her upcoming release, Scintilla!
Thank you so much, Ally for including me. (You are most welcome! – Ally)
The world is full of magic.
Sometimes for me that magic is nothing more than having a pre-programmed coffee maker at work.
Imagine a world where some people were born with magical abilities. A world where magical humans come in four types, scintillas, aether, prisms and acoustics capable of manipulating elements such as electricity, air, sound and light.
There might be a cop who can alter the way light bends for a few seconds or minutes making it easier to catch a criminal in the act. Or, if that criminal had the same ability, they could slip past surveillance cameras. A man with the power to control electricity might use his gift to deep dive into the digital world or short out an alarm.
There are no potions or spells, but there is plenty of magic in my urban fantasy/paranormal romance series, El Corazon.
When I was planning the first book, Scintilla, I wanted to use magic, but I didn’t want a lot of complicated rules or spells. Their society has rules governing what is considered ethical or illegal of course, but the basic magic is simple. My goal was to make the magic a natural, organic thing that was as part of an individual as their height or eye color. Yes, being magical is special, but no more so than being a talented musician or athlete.
Magical people sometimes need specialized medical equipment. Other magicals, as they’re referred to collectively, are discriminated against because there are others who fear what they can do. And, of course, there is always some person or organization that wants to exploit those with magical ability.
What I tried very hard to do, was imagine what obstacles a magical person might encounter or what special needs might be required in unusual circumstances. For instance, the young man, Brandon, in Scintilla who manipulates and has power over electricity is Tasered. Not a good idea to do when someone has the power to push that energy back to you. Since this is a romance, there is sex and I was able to explore how an electrified body might react differently. Would it hinder improve his or his partner’s experience? Being a scintilla is a natural part of Brandon, but how much of that part of him can he, or does he share?
Humans aren’t the only beings that can wield magic in this world, however.
There are the djinn.
Mythology gives us different types of jinni and so far, I’ve included two. One can cause havoc in computers and another sort likes to meddle in the affairs of people. Like anyone else, there are those that are honorable and good, and some that use their powers for crime.
Wait, there’s more!
My world has the magic of shifters. Technically, shifters aren’t magical in the same way as others, but the ability to look human and turn into something else is some serious magic in my opinion. Brandon’s love interest, Raul, is a werewolf, a Dom and a bounty hunter. That right there is darn magical! Werewolves are tough beasts and Raul can take more of what Brandon can dole out than a human could. That gives them plenty to explore, when they’re not fighting crime that is.
There are instances where one’s magic can be used against them. Without revealing spoilers, suffice to say, Brandon gets a harsh lesson in reality. His ability can’t always protect him and there’s always someone else who knows more about what he can do than is healthy for him.
Scintilla
How far is too far to go to save someone you love?
Brandon Lynch is magical. He’s a scintilla who can manipulate electricity. Leaving his structured, unexciting life and job at his father’s billion-dollar business in Boston and heads south for a vacation adventure in Rio Rico, Arizona. He’s living out a fantasy by traveling to the El Corazon adult entertainment club and has booked one glorious session with a werewolf Dom, complete with knotting.
Part-time Dom for his family business, the El Corazon, and full-time bounty hunter, Raul Fierro uses what nature gave him as a werewolf to bring pleasure to some, and justice to others. He hasn’t been in a real relationship for longer than he wants to think about and his gruff and growly exterior keeps any unwanted interactions at bay. He’s not against a partner, but he’s willing to wait for the person who sees the real Raul—and his wolf—who lurks beneath the surface.
A seemingly chance meeting with Brandon the day after their scheduled session leads to a week-long affair. Raul accepts it for what it is, a vacation fling for Brandon even though Brandon is someone Raul could easily fall in love with. When Brandon returns to Boston and Raul resumes his normal routine, they keep in touch until the time Brandon’s father arrives in Rio Rico, announces his son is missing, and he intends to hire Raul to find him. Raul wastes no time picking up Brandon’s trail. Rescuing Brandon from human traffickers is only the beginning and more adventure than either man wanted. Their hunt brings them together in an unexpected way. Can they bring down a powerful, international ring of traffickers all while protecting each other and their new-found love?
Excerpt
“We can run current through those barrels, magnetize them and create a barrier. All we have to find is enough copper.”
Raul nodded. “I like it. I’ll get the rods, see if you can find some copper piping, but stay in this area. If we have to go into the rest of the building, we should go together.”
To Raul’s utter surprise, Brandon didn’t argue but simply nodded. “I’ll start over there. Looks like some sort of utility junction.” He motioned to a floor-to-ceiling metal locker that extended out about four feet from the wall and was at least another four feet wide.
Raul retrieved a half dozen of his iron rods from the van. They were three feet long and a quarter inch in diameter. He’d had them specially made and if needed he was strong enough to bend them. Holding them in one hand, Raul used his free hand to grab one of the metal barrels and carried everything to the ruined door. The rods were deposited on top of the barrel before he carried two more over and set them in a row by the first barrel. He turned to see what Brandon was doing.
“Should you be doing that?” Raul asked as he closed the distance between he and Brandon.
Brandon was poking at what looked like a circuit board, then he grabbed a hold of a bundle of wires and gave them a shake. “Eh, you probably shouldn’t, I won’t get more than a bee sting.” He shrugged. “As far as I can tell there’s no power.”
Raul stepped to the side and flicked a switch up and down, looking up at the ceiling lights. Nothing happened. “You appear to be correct. Bee stings hurt,” he grumbled. The interior of the junction was a mess of dials and wires, levers and smaller switches. There were two tanks in the center. Raul followed the copper tubing from the tanks until they disappeared into the ceiling. “Do you see a ladder or anything I can stand on?”
“Why don’t I stand on you?”
Raul glanced back at Brandon. “Can you yank these things free?”
Brandon rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. “I’m human but we don’t have spaghetti muscles.”
“My apologies.” Raul nodded and laced his fingers together, offering Brandon a step up.
In one smooth movement Brandon was standing on Raul’s shoulders. Raul held his calves to brace him and watched as Brandon tugged on the closest copper pipe. It took them a half an hour of steady effort to pull piping loose, move to another section and repeat their task. In the end they a half dozen six to seven-foot lengths of copper tubing.
Brandon jumped to the ground still holding the last section of copper. “This should be plenty.”
Raul looked pointedly at the dark lamps. “No power, remember? Unless you’re suggesting we bang on them until they magnetize.”
Brandon heaved a sigh and cocked his head. “Seriously?” He held out his free hand and a narrow blue wave arched to the copper pipe. “Yet, you call me Sparky.”
“Can you actually generate enough power, long enough to accomplish what we need? That’s higher voltage.”
Brandon nodded. “I think so, yes. It’s not something I can maintain forever, but I think I can generate enough for a long enough time for our purpose.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Well, copper and iron and steel can be magnetized when electrified.” Brandon pointed to the door. “That door is metal. If we put one barrel on each side of the door and charge them it would be damn hard for anyone to get through,” Brandon said.
“A big version of those little electro-magnets kids make in science class,” Raul added. “And easy enough to find plans for if we need to.”
“Yep. It’ll take me a few minutes.” Brandon sprinted back to the van while Raul pulled the barrels to the door then retrieved the copper and iron.
They worked steadily setting up their barrier. Once it was ready and in place Brandon put both hands on the barrel sitting inside the building. He glanced back at Raul.
“Ready.” Raul backed up a few feet and watched while Brandon took a few deep breaths, closed his eyes and leaned into the barrel.
Buy Links:
Scintilla releases on March 10. It’ll have wide distribution for a week before going into Kindle Unlimited.
Mystery, action, chills, and thrills spiced with romance and desire. ELIZABETH NOBLE lives by the adage “I can’t not write.” She doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t make up stories and eventually she learned how to put words on a page. Those words turned into books and fan fiction that turned into a genuine love of M/M fiction. A part of every day is spent living in worlds she created that are filled with intrigue and espionage. She has a real love for a good mystery complete with murder and twisty plots as well as all things sci-fi, futuristic, and supernatural.
When she’s not chronicling the adventures of her many characters, Elizabeth is a veterinary nurse living in her native Cleveland, Ohio. She has three grown children and now happily shares her little, brick house with an adorable mixed breed canine princess, a spunky Cardigan Welsh Corgi and their sidekick, tabby cat. Elizabeth is a fan of baseball, basketball (go Cavs and Indians) and gardening. She can often be found working in her ‘outside office’ listening to classic rock and plotter her next novel waiting for it to be dark enough to gaze at the stars.
Elizabeth has received a number of amateur writing awards. Since being published, several of her novels have received Honorable Mentions in the Rainbow Awards. Jewel Cave was a runner-up in the Gay Mystery/Thriller category in the 2015 Rainbow Awards. Ringed Love was a winner in the Gay Fantasy Romance category of the 2016 Rainbow Awards.
Jeannelle is here today to talk about Eleanor, her fictional disaster-lesbian from her book The Covert Captain, Dr James Barry, and the women who fought in the American Civil War. And also to be wonderfully effusive about The Flowers of Time, which I am blushing about, but still not editing out.
Hello! Let’s get ready to ramble. By which I mean I have been most kindly invited to guest blog by A. L. Lester, author of the new speculative romance, The Flowers of Time, third (more or less) in their Lost in Time series but a treat on its own, featuring the many charms of Furthest Himalaya, including Mysterious Tigers, Mysterious Plants, Mysterious Codes, and a faithful Tibetan Mastiff. (I love the cover but it would only have benefited from Argo, I’m just saying.) And a pragmatic and tender romance between two people who ought to have been constrained by their circumstances, but it never feels that way while they’re getting together. (I’m trying to be very unspoilery here. You should read it. Also, it is cheap. Speaking of pragmatic people.)
Jones, whom you will meet when you read The Flowers of Time, is a person who is awkward stuffed into a dress, but comfortably competent — and perceived as competent by those in charge, which in Jones’ time and place means those socialized as male from birth — when sensibly dressed in man’s array. Jones’ clothes become part of Jones’ character, yes, but they also dress as they do because it is incredibly damp, hazy, hot, cold, rocky, muddy, and yak-adjacent on this adventure, and folks in breeches are just going to have an easier time.
The same could be said, except the yak part, about the Peninsular War. It is nearly the two-year bookiversary ofThe Covert Captain, my own book about a female-bodied person in breeches, and I’ve had time while writing the sequel to deepen my understanding of the ways clothes on a body can entwine with the wearer’s identity. Just to get things out of the way, Eleanor Fleming/Captain Nathaniel Fleming is a woman who only ever thinks of herself as a woman, and she enjoys the romantic company of other people who think of themselves as women — by modern standards, she’s a lesbian. I decided to try to make this clear-cut as I was writing because I am writing in the Internet Age, even though labeling the people of the past is tricky.
Eleanor dresses as a man of her time — more specifically, she dresses in an army officer’s uniform — because she needs the socioeconomic security and the protective coloration that passing as male can give her. She may be risking her life far away from her home in England, but she’s part of a socially accepted profession, she’s in control of her fate, and she’s drawing pay. She needs the pay packet to eat. In her case, the decision to wear men’s clothing is not complex. (And the ladies love a uniform. What can she say?)
Eleanor, my fictional disaster lesbian, came into being from two facts: the life of Dr. James Barry, who through his career and achievements proved a female-bodied person could attain officer’s rank in the British Army and more than make his name in the Peninsular Campaign; and the statistic that at least four women fought at the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. Surely there must have been that many female-bodied folks in the cavalry or the infantry at Waterloo.
By conservative estimate, 750 women enlisted in the American Civil War — dressed as men/dressed as themselves, just-for-now disguised as men, fighting and dying as men. (And some women traded corsets for trousers to follow their husbands, and would go home and put on hoops again and have heteronormative marriages and children; and some people had been wearing traditionally male attire for years before the war and would do so long after the fighting was over.) Without their personal testimony, we can’t say whether they enlisted from patriotism, out of boredom, for money, or for adventure. What we do know is that relatively speaking, it happened all the time. Recruitment officers, regimental doctors, and a person’s peers among a company of soldiers proved surprisingly adept at seeing what they wanted to see. Perception became acceptance. (A very timely Guardian article is here).
Eleanor’s decision to wear men’s clothing is “not very identity-freighted,” to quote my long-suffering first reader. Her Hussars’ uniform ties her firmly into her life as an officer and a member of a regiment, but her uniform is not her inner life. There is, however, a person close to Eleanor for whom every inch of tailoring, from cravat on down, is part of a careful mix of choice and necessity, freedom and concealment; they appear briefly in The Covert Captain — everyone has that one ex — but learning to write them properly has been a wild adventure, and I can’t wait for you to meet them in the sequel.
