Writers on Writing – Page 4

The Hero’s Journey in Trans YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 2nd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices, Writers on Writing|Tags: narrative, Representation, Trans|

by Vee S. Introduction Last year I wrote a post about the “Acceptance” Narrative in Trans YA. That post detailed my thoughts on three problematic books that feature cis characters lamenting how hard it is to know someone who is trans. Today, I want to talk about another issue of representation in trans YA, and a narrative that is even more common. This post is kind of a second blush look at representation in trans YA. The “acceptance” narrative covered the really problematic representation, and this post tackles the next, more nuanced stage. Today I’d like to talk [...]

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How the Fox Became

By Daisy|2020-03-28T13:40:19-05:00November 18th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: nonbinary, Trans|

Trans Awareness Week: Day #4 Previous Posts: Interview: Alex Gino, The Room Where it Happens by Parrish Turner, Trans Stories Are Human Stories by April Daniels, Center Trans Voices: Introduction to Trans Awareness Week Series by Vee S.) by Fox Benwell I talk a lot, both as a transmasculine guy and as a writer, about the importance of words. The weight of them; how we should use them consciously, with care. How the words we choose have histories and connotations that they carry with them regardless of your intentions in the moment that you use them. I’ve talked about the intersections of [...]

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Interview: Anna-Marie McLemore, author of When The Moon Was Ours

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:30-05:00October 3rd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Book Club, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: Latinx, Magical Realism, PoC, Speculative, Trans|

When I (Vee) was at BEA this Summer, I had the marvelous opportunity to meet and interview Anna-Marie McLemore. We had been chatting about trans & queer YA for a few months on Twitter, so it was LOVELY to be able to meet her in person. Her book When the Moon Was Ours (which is releasing tomorrow!!), is SO amazing ya'll. AND it's our #GayYABookClub read this month, so I have the perfect excuse to make you all read it immediately. :D When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and [...]

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Interview: C.B. Lee & Rachel Davidson Leigh

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00September 23rd, 2016|Categories: Author Interview, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: Asian, Bisexual, Intersectionality, labels, PoC, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Representation|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series Day #3 – Previous Posts: Introduction -- Duality, YA, and Crumpled Stickers -- Let's Push For More Nuanced Bi+ Representation Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee & Hold by Rachel Davidson Leigh are both ALL THE WAY UP on our TBRs! Today, we're so excited to have BOTH of these authors on GayYA! Add Not Your Sidekick & Hold to your TBR Buy Not Your Sidekick & Pre-Order Hold CB: Hello! Thank you so much for having me on your blog, I'm very excited to be here. I'm C.B. and from [...]

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Let’s Push For More Nuanced Bi+ Representation

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00September 22nd, 2016|Categories: Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Writers on Writing|Tags: Bisexual, Black, Intersectionality, Religion|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series Day #2 – Previous Posts: Introduction -- Duality, YA, and Crumpled Stickers by Angélique Gravely I didn't start actively reading LGBTQ+ YA until I was almost a college graduate. By that time, I had more or less accepted my bisexual attractions and my desire to be a YA writer so I dove into LGBTQ+ YA in search of inspiration for the queer stories I now felt drawn to write and, in all honesty, in search of reflections of parts of myself and my story I hadn't been able to acknowledge as a teen. While [...]

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Interview: Liz Kessler, author of Read Me Like a Book

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00August 25th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, New Releases, Writers on Writing|

I got the chance to interview Liz Kessler, author of the YA novel Read Me Like A Book, and the two middle-grade series Emily Windsnap and, Phillipa's Fairy Godsister. Read Me Like A Book is, in Liz's words, about "a girl going from her last boyfriend to her first girlfriend via a major crush on her English teacher." We're so excited this book is being published in the US! Thank you so much to Holly for transcribing this video! Check out Holly's fantastic blog here, and follow her on Twitter @CatchTheseWords. Vee: What was the original impetus for [...]

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On the Queer Trans Experience: Because Sometimes Just One Letter Ain’t Enough

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:35-05:00June 30th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016, Writers on Writing|Tags: Queer Girls, Realistic, Trans|

by Meredith Russo One of the things most often praised about my book If I Was Your Girl isn’t the book itself, but the author’s note at the end (or the beginning, depending on if you’re reading the ARC or the final print) where I lay out my hope that cis people won’t take Amanda’s rather normative story as a set of rules trans people must follow and, more importantly for this post, where I admit that I had to make some concessions so the story would be more palatable for them. Let’s talk about those concessions, because [...]

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Interview: Eleanor Herman, author of the Blood of Gods and Royals series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:35-05:00June 28th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Blogathon 2016, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: asexual, Fantasy, Historical, New Releases, Queer Guys, Speculative|

Empire of Dust by Eleanor Herman In Macedon, war rises like smoke, forbidden romance blooms and ancient magic tempered with rage threatens to turn an empire to dust After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands—but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat. Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt. The warrior, Jacob, determined to forget his [...]

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What My Queer YA Means To Me

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 23rd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016, Writers on Writing|Tags: Bisexual, Speculative|

by Erin Bow I will be honest. I didn’t set out to write a book in which girls kiss each other. As a novelist, I’m not much of a planner. Even the few things I do have planned don’t always work out, and that was certainly the case with my 2015 book, The Scorpion Rules. I came to it with some original equipment, some seeds from the writing gods: the character of my narrator, Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, came to me with her smarts and braids and stoicism fully [...]

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Bury Your Cliches

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 21st, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016, Writers on Writing|Tags: lesbian, Queer Girls, Representation, Speculative, tropes|

by Kiersten White Although as the And I Darken trilogy progresses the stakes get higher (that’s a little Vlad the Impaler humor for you), here are two things I can promise you: 1. There will be no vampires. 2. No lesbians will die. Now, maybe that sucks out some of the tension (not literally, because again, no vampires). I don’t care. My lesbians are 100% guaranteed to make it out alive. The dead lesbian trope is one I’m fully committed to avoiding forever. But that’s an obvious(ly terrible) way that LGBTQIA+ characters are constantly done a disservice in [...]

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