E.M. Hamill's Blog, page 10

Christian Baines: SINS OF THE SON is not your average vampire/shifter trope

Christian Baines' SINS OF THE SON is my favorite kind of pulp novel. Morally ambiguous supernatural beings, intrigue, clandestine organizations, and eldritch creepies? Sign me up! The novel starts off with a bang and doesn't let up until it's taken you on one hell of a ride.I give it a solid 4.5 stars. The book is actually part of the Arcadia Trust series. I hadn't read the first two (something I will have to change, as I really enjoyed this world). It reads just fine as a stand alone; there are enough explanations without being tedious, but my unfamiliarity with some of the terms took a little bit of adjustment.Case in point: Reyland, the main character, is a Blood Shade, and he is rather adamant that he is NOT a vampire despite the allergy to sunlight and appetite for hemoglobin. There is a really interesting mythos attached to the supernaturals in this book that makes it different from any other origin stories with which I'm familiar, and I like it. It's unique, and I have to say that about the whole book.Reyland's usual MO to find dinner and a little recreation is cruising Sydney's gay scene. A young man approaches him, and what starts as just another night for Rey ends in an attack on his life by this soldier of the Scimitar of Light, a hate-based religious warrior group. But there is something both painfully familiar and very wrong about his attacker, and Reyland calls in his friends at the Arcadia Trust to help him get to the bottom of it.A priest named Iain Greig insinuates himself into the care of the young soldier, and Reyland is powerfully drawn to him. As the mystery begins to unravel, the evil truth about the Scimitars and their zealous desire to destroy all supernatural beings comes to light—and they are willing to deal in forbidden magic to get what they want.Meanwhile, Reyland's irresistible attraction to Iain is getting in the way of business, but there's more to Iain than Rey can possibly imagine. The survival of the Arcadia Trust hangs on whether Reyland should trust this mysterious stranger.This book was a blast to read. The secondary characters are well-drawn (I loved Dorotha, Reyland's elderly downstairs tenant: "Oh, I'm sorry, Reyland, is this one of your 'special' parties?") The end of the book definitely hints at more to come with a bit of a cliffhanger, but it's wrapped up enough to be satisfying. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a change from your everyday vampire/shifter/witch kind of lore.

The Harrowing of Twilight - enter and be delightfully lost forever in J.M. Guillen's Irrational Worlds

I read The Herald of Autumn, the first book featuring Tommy Maple, a couple of years ago. When I heard there was going to be a second story, I lost my everloving flipping mind. J.M. Guillen is a madman who writes books in multiple genres, all of which tie back together battling the same eldritch forces across time and space. I've read several of the others, which are fantastic in their own right, especially Rationality Zero. But Tommy Maple's story holds a special place in my heart.You see, the first book has stuck with me all that time--the prose and the poetry and the storytelling was magical. It is fey and wild and absolutely stunning. It's a mixture of mythology a la Gaiman's American Gods, dark fairy tale and Lovecraftian horror that sinks its hooks in and keeps you reading. The second book, The Harrowing of Twilight, did not disappoint me. Tommy Maple wears the mantle of Autumn, and as such is bound by the will of the Autumn Queen. Tommy is a wild and free spirit, but when ancient codes and questions three threaten to bind him, he must face not only the fear of losing his freedom, but protect himself and the humans who still live under the Old Ways from creatures of dark magic bent on destroying everything. This is a continuation of the story told in Herald, so do yourself a favor and read the first book before the second. You will not regret it, I swear.

Todd Smith's Murder, Romance, and Two Shootings: KC Area Book Signings 11/30 and 12/2

Creativity as an answer to violence: Todd Smith's Murder, Romance, and Two ShootingsTodd Smith will be in the Kansas City area for two book signings for "Murder, Romance and Two Shootings". The first is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30, at Henry's Coffee Shop, 11 E. 8th St., Lawrence, KS 66044. The signing is part of Final Friday’s in Lawrence.From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2, Todd will be at Prospero's Books at 1800 W. 39th St., Kansas City, MO, 64111.NOTE: This blog post was originally published on June 18, 2018. Today on the blog, I am joined by author Todd Smith. His novel Murder, Romance, and Two Shootings will be released June 18 by NineStar Press.Todd's book is a fictionalized memoir based upon his own experiences. He lost a close friend, whose violent death was the result of a still-unsolved gay bashing crime. He was a shooting victim twice--during a robbery in 1997, and just over ten years later during a mass shooting in Kirkwood, Missouri, where a disgruntled citizen opened fire on a city council meeting Todd was covering for a local paper. Six persons were killed. Todd was the only victim who survived. Thank you for stopping by the blog today, Todd.My questions are usually on the light side, but this is not a light subject. You were shot during a robbery in 1997, and then again during a mass shooting in 2008. Trauma leaves an indelible mark on the psyche. Was this book written as a cathartic method of dealing with the aftermath of these crimes?When I sat down to write the book, I wasn’t seeking a catharsis, but I do feel that overall it has been a cathartic experience. I’m not the same person after 1997 or especially 2008, both physically and mentally. It has changed the way I view the world. Before adopting our son, I worked for a few years at a non-profit, which helped impoverished fathers find employment and improve their relationships with their children. I was robbed by young men in the first shooting and in the second shooting the individual was dealing with financial problems. I felt the need to give back to society through being a force for change.You have a master’s degree in journalism. How did you draw on this while transferring your story from reality to a lightly fictionalized account, and was anything changed in the process from fact to fiction? I think that if I had written a true crime book then my journalism degree would have been helpful, but a news article and a book are two very different things. While I did quote people all the time as a journalist, that is not the same as writing dialogue. Also, my natural writing style was to report what was happening, I had to teach myself to be more descriptive and let the reader feel what the characters were experiencing.As far as changes from fact to fiction, I have changed names of the people in the book and modified details of them. I occasionally omitted people and events, but only when that omission had no impact on the substance of the story.Gun control is a hotly debated subject—especially in the Midwest, where we both live. The Pulse Nightclub shooting will be an unhealed, raw nerve in the LGBTQ community for some time to come, and it seems every week there is yet another gun-related incident. Having survived a mass shooting, and as a gay man who has lost a close friend to hate crime, do you find it difficult to speak up when the debate rises? Does your journalism background offer you an outlet where you feel comfortable broaching the subject? No, my experiences give me an authority and power when discussing gun control. I have spoken many times on these issues including for news outlets, gun control groups and in public debates. Unfortunately, my voice was often requested in response to another shooting. That being said, when a mass shooting does happen, which is quite regularly anymore, I am leery of following the news for a few days, it just brings me back to painful memories of seeing people die in front of me. Murder, Romance, and Two Shootings is not just a story about the trauma of these crimes, but a story about an enduring love. Please tell us about that. Surviving being shot puts a lot of things in perspective. It also tests relationships. When I had a moment alone in the hospital room with my boyfriend I knew that he would always be there for me, and that is just where I wanted him. I think I surprised him while standing there in my hospital gown I proposed. We were also fortunate that he is a college professor and could to arrange his schedule to help me through all the doctor visits. He was also there when I came out to my Southern Baptist parents, which is another powerful scene in the book. Although it will have to wait for a future book, we also knew that we always wanted to be dads. While that process may not have been life threatening, it continued to test our relationship but nothing can replace how it feels to see our son grow up.Do you plan on writing more books? Do you anticipate writing in any other genres?I definitely see myself writing more books. Besides my journey into fatherhood, I also see continuing the story of Jade Sinclair. Jade incidentally is the only name in the book that hasn’t been changed. Jade is the name that Kevin (not his real name) performs under. Jade continues to be among the most popular drag performers in Saint Louis, not to mention being a holder of numerous pageant titles.But I am also interested in developing a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy. So far I have a draft of the first book. It focuses on several gay characters, and at my son’s request, features dragons.Thank you so much for joining me on the blog. Where can readers interact with you on the Internet? My website is toddallensmith.com. There I also include links for gun violence prevention and where to go for links to where to buy my books. Also, you can contact me, find my author Facebook page, and Twitter page there.

The Guardian Angel Project - writers giving back to our own

Please help support Paul Berry in his fight against cancer. This benefit, made possible by the generous heart of Baz (SA) Collins, himself a cancer survivor, will raise funds to help Paul meet the costs of his cancer treatment.In return for donating to the fund, you will receive raffle chances to win fantastic books, gift vouchers for books from publishers, and a grand prize drawing for donations over $50.00 for a signed print from Paul Richmond Studio. Please make a meaningful donation on Black Friday amid all the sales hoopla to a cause that is near and dear to me. I am also a cancer survivor of thirteen years, and an oncology nurse. Please help make one person's cancer journey a little easier this weekend.

300 Books Enter, 1 Book Leaves... #SPFBO Promo!

Nectar and Ambrosia is still alive and kicking as of today! Read some of the 300 books fighting it out for the coveted Selfie Stick (including Nectar and Ambrosia) for just .99 from November 15-19! Click the picture to go to the page where you can find all these great fantasy books.

Amazing science fiction from J. Scott Coatsworth: "The Rising Tide"

I am a huge fan of J. Scott Coatsworth's Liminal Sky series. The first book, "The Stark Divide" (you can read my review here) absolutely knocked my sci fi socks off. I've been eagerly awaiting the next book and it's coming out today, October 30! I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of David Brin or The Expanse.Earth is dead.Five years later, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever, a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andy Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind.Control the AI, control the people.Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes—people of every race and identity, and some who aren’t even human—must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide.Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history.Series Blurb:Humankind is on its way to the stars, a journey that will change it forever. Each of the stories in Liminal Sky explores that future through the lens of a generation ship, where the line between science fiction and fantasy often blurs. At times both pessimistic and very hopeful, Liminal Sky thrusts you into a future few would ever have imagined.Excerpt :Cassie climbed the foothills at the edge of the Verge, carrying Eddy up toward the Anatov Mountains. The horse seemed to enjoy being out there in the wilds. As wild as they could be on a man-made world.Eddy stared up at the vast peaks that towered above them. Even after six years, Forever still had the capacity to surprise him. It was hard to accept that the world—built on such a grand scale—was the work of the hands of man. Or woman. The Anatov—Ana Anatov—who had gifted her name to these peaks.The foothills were sparsely planted, mostly a crabgrass variant that spread on its own, and occasional wildflowers—though to call anything on Forever “wild” was a stretch.There were only scattered trees up there. The glowing grass had been beaten down along the path of the marauders, creating a dark and ugly stain across the hills.It was hard for Eddy to imagine anyone doing something like this on Forever. He’d seen enough of the crimes of humanity when he’d fought in the wars that had consumed Earth in her last decade. But his world was supposed to be different.The world was like an island among the stars. Where was there to hide?He checked his loop for the time. It was close to nightfall. His circadian rhythms had adapted, aligning themselves with Forever’s days and nights, but he missed things like cold and hot. On Forever, it was always temperate, a side effect of the seed ship’s living architecture. It never snowed, and it was most certainly never hot.He climbed to the top of one of the rolling foothills and turned to look at the world behind him. From here, he could almost see the South Pole, the wall that marked the end of Forever. Around him, the walls of the world curled up to meet high above, their point of merger hidden by the sky glow.Micavery was too small to see at this distance.He’d come all this way on horseback, while traveling inside a ship floating in the void. It was surreal. He supposed future generations would come to see it as normal, everyday even—but he was still an Earth boy at heart.The grasses around him went dark, as did the glow that emanated from the middle of the sky. Nightfall swept toward Lake Jackson far below, passing the Verge, the ranches and farmlands, and the orchards where so much of the world’s food came from.At last, the shores of the lake winked out, and he could finally see Micavery Port, the lights of it, anyhow, as they shone in the newly come darkness.Above, the golden glow of the spindle had diminished to a silver gleam.He sighed. It was such a beautiful world, but it seemed it still harbored some of Old Earth’s evil. Wherever mankind went….Eddy dismounted, lit a lantern full of luthiel, and set about making camp.Buy Links:Publisher: https://www.dsppublications.com/books... 2: https://www.dsppublications.com/books... US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D8GFSJW/... & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-... https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-... https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/... Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/book/t... Goodhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... is giving away two prizes with this tour - a $25 Amazon gift card, and a signed copy of “The Stark Divide,” book one in the series (US winner only for the paperback). For a chance to win, enter via Rafflecopter:Author Bio:Scott lives between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were.He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction reflecitng their own reality.Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.comAuthor Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsw... Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsw... Twitter: https://twitter.com/jscoatsworthAuthor Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-bo... Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coats...

New Dalí is coming along, rewriting a short for a new anthology, and seven weeks off for me to run amuck!

I'm so glad fall is here! My favorite time of year. The sunlight gains a beautiful yellow slant in the evenings, and the air is crisp (though rainy in eastern Kansas today). Autumn speaks to my soul in the turning of the leaves and the thinning of the veil. I'm certain I've whined enough that everyone knows my radio silence is largely due to the fact I'm back in college and studying until my brain explodes. But, I'm taking a short break this fall to study for a professional certification, to write, and do some traveling without having to worry about getting a wi fi signal.Atlanta, I'm invading you! I'm going to be at CONjuration November 16, 17, and 18 and I can't wait! My best friend River Frizzle, the magical librarian, invited me to come this year. It's gonna be AWESOME. I will have copies of all my books available, but especially the Songmaker Series and Nectar and Ambrosia.I'm up to 25000 words on the new Dalí story - if you were following the #LGBTWIP thread last month on Twitter, I dropped some hints and some tidbits about what might be happening in the next book with our favorite third-gender ambassador/spy and their team of intergalactic operatives.A flash story originally published last year in Empyreome Magazine is being expanded for inclusion in a new anthology of short stories about bargains with supernatural creatures. It will be out next spring--I'm very excited about it and I can't wait to tell you more when it's time. I'll try not to be away from the blog so long next time. Nursing theory well and truly cooked my goose in the last eight weeks, but I'm hoping the next class will leave me some room to read for pleasure and write with more abandon (fingers crossed).

Pre Order BENEATH THE LAYERS

My short story "All That Entails" is an historical, romantic fiction in which a gender-fluid nobleman with a penchant for gowns meets his unlikely match in an arranged marriage with a transgendered man. The heat level in this story is sweet. The rest looks to range from sweet to burning hot...
The short came about as the result of a challenge to enter a very specific call for submissions by Ninestar Press, set by my critique partner James Stryker. Challenges often take me out of my comfort zone and make me think about writing in a new way-- if you don't have a CP who challenges you this way, get one! Good things happen. At the very least, you grow as a writer.

I wanted to meet the criteria in a way that was unexpected and started to wonder how a transgendered man in the 1700s, trapped in the body of a female without any way to achieve transition, would have coped. Women had very little say in who they married and may not even have met their prospective husbands until shortly before the ceremony. 
Darian and Henry's story was born.    Pre order here: from Ninestar Press, coming April 17, 2017.

Lots of exciting news!

Although I'm still trying to get my writing-feet back under me after starting a new job in November, I've had some really wonderful news in the last couple of weeks!

A piece of my contemporary fantasy short fiction, "Burnout", will be one of Empyreome Magazine's weekly flash offerings on March 31. This is a story about an immortal hospice nurse (not autobiographical, I swear) trying to reclaim his mortality from Thanatos, the god of death.

In the spring, my historical LGBT romantic short fiction, "All That Entails", will be included in the 'Beneath the Layers' anthology from Ninestar Press. This story came about from a challenge to enter the call for submission from my critique partner, James Stryker, whom you met here last month. His push to get me to write something that met their very specific constraints for the anthology's subject matter yielded something that surprised even me. It's a sweet romantic fiction set in an imaginary Georgian-era country, where a nobleman meets his unexpected match in an arranged marriage with a transgendered man. Darian and Henry's story rose from a thread of thought about how transgendered men faced real likelihood of being married off to someone they'd barely met, since women had no say in the matter more often than not.

And...I signed a publishing contract for my space opera/espionage novel, DALÍ, also with Ninestar Press. It will be published in late summer. I'm beyond excited about this! 2017 is going to be epic.

Gender Diversity in Writing: A Q&A with James Stryker and Release Day for BOY: A Journey

James Stryker's new book, BOY: A Journey debuts Monday! 

I devoured the ARC for BOY in a couple of hours on a frigid, snowy afternoon, and it is brilliant. It follows the story of Luke, a young man with a chip on his shoulder, who learns after his father's death that Jay, his father, was a transgendered man. Luke's personal evolution from self-centered boy to a caring man is a story that is fraught with emotion, told through the different points of view of three men who loved Jay for different, often complicated reasons. Luke's initial feelings of betrayal grow into an intense curiosity and need to know why Jay hid the truth from him, and he seeks out Tom, his father's oldest, most trusted friend. Meanwhile, Luke's brother in law, nicknamed 'Ginger', deals with the fallout at home after the loss of his father figure and professional mentor.


James took time to sit down with me in my cyber-library where we talked about writing gender-diverse characters, who are at the core of his last novel, ASSIMILATION, his new novel, BOY, and two of my own recent works. 

James: So, what has always impressed me about your writing is how you continuously push boundaries even within the LGBTQ spectrum. 
Elisabeth: That’s what writing is all about, isn’t it? Pushing boundaries of imagination and maybe making people think about things in a different light. Fiction can help broaden how someone sees the world, and that’s especially important for gender diversity. We’re constantly bombarded by societal messages and expectations of what gender is, based solely on our anatomy. It happens all our lives, from the day we’re born. Society says that there is a hard psychological disconnect between male and female, and we can’t be both. It’s demanded we conform to a male or female role. I believe people are starting to reject that conformity and recognize that all human beings are capable of both roles—there is no disconnect.
James: But the concept of being outside the binary can be difficult to comprehend. Why do you think that is, and how would you explain gender fluidity? 
Elisabeth: Being outside the binary is something I believe is far more common than people realize. Being male or female is important for means of reproduction, but it has little to do with who we feel we are on the inside, how we express who we are, or whom we find sexually attractive. To me, it is the ability to recognize and express the part of the “self” that doesn’t match outward gender. Because society has drilled it into our heads that you can’t possibly be both, it can even cause body dysphoria.
James: That makes sense, and it sounds like there are many similarities to being transgendered. 
Elisabeth: Definitely. But someone struggling to understand might be confused to learn that it’s actually very different from being transgendered, which is the central theme of your new book, BOY: A Journey. How would you explain the important differences between the two?
James: There are many interpretations, but for me the key difference is the word “fluidity.” Being transgendered isn’t something that is in a state of flux. In BOY when it’s revealed to the main character, Luke, that his father was a transgender man, his mother offers a simple explanation to his question of “what that means,” if I can quote it here.
Elisabeth: Of course!
James: Thanks – 
“It means his gender identity didn’t match his body. His brain was that of a regular man, but his body didn’t develop correctly. He was born with the physical characteristics of the opposite sex, and that’s how he grew up,” she said. “When he was legally able to, he changed his name, he began hormone therapy, he moved away, and he started a normal life.”
Elisabeth: I love the way she says ‘he started a normal life’.  It kind of confirms that everything that went before wasn’t his normal life. 
James: Exactly – once he transitioned he achieved his definition of normality without any variance. So at its base, what Luke’s mother describes is what transgendered means to me – a definite, consistent sense of a gender identity that is, devastatingly, incongruent with one’s physical characteristics. The typical reaction to being transgendered is taking action to bring the body more in line with one’s identity, while for someone who is gender fluid, permanent body modifications usually wouldn’t be high on the list. In my experience, a gender fluid individual is comfortable “flowing” while a transgender person would wish to be recognized within the binary. 
Elisabeth: Gender fluidity seems to be an individual thing in regard to comfort level. Some of the people I interviewed in my pre-writing research found it liberating, while others found it more confusing and dysphoric. But I think you’re correct when you say a transgendered person wants their gender identity recognized, not their anatomy.
James: I’ve had the pleasure of reading one of your novels, but your latest story, “All That Entails” made the cut into NineStar Press’s “Beneath the Layers” anthology. Congrats! 
Elisabeth: Thank you! I’m very excited to be included.
James: Can you give your audience a sneak peek of what they can look forward to? 
Elisabeth: I wrote Darian and Henry’s story after wondering how a transgendered individual in the 1700s could have coped with being forced to be female, having virtually no rights of their own, and being married off to a husband they’d never met. 
James: Fascinating. It really was well-done and I don’t think I’ve read anything like it. 
Elisabeth: I don’t know if this story’s been told before: a gender fluid, bisexual nobleman meets his unexpected match in an arranged marriage with a transgendered man.
To your knowledge, has there ever been a book like Boy before? 
James: Actually, after finishing Boy, I had one of those goosebump moments – I was wandering through the library and randomly picked Jackie Kay’s Trumpet from a shelf. Trumpet was inspired by the life of Billy Tipton, an American jazz musician who lived his adult life as a man, and it follows a son who discovers his father was born biologically female.
Elisabeth: So, your main character learns his father was raised as a female? How did you approach that?
James: Original drafts had Luke focused on the concept of Jay being transgender and difficulty accepting his father’s LGBT identity. After several, several attempts, I realized that the conflict didn’t align with Luke’s character or what I wanted for the book. Changing the struggle to Luke’s overall relationship with Jay and feelings of inadequacy and insecurity made the story flow smoothly. And I really didn’t want to write another “challenged to accept” book – it felt verging on LGBTQ stereotypes. Do you ever come across that in your own writing? How do you avoid common pitfalls when developing plots or creating characters? 
Elisabeth: I think the most important thing to remember is that the characters are, first and foremost, human beings, with flaws and attributes just like any other human being. Once I figure out who they are, I work on what’s in their heads, and do some research if there’s any question on how they might react. For my sci-fi novel Dalí, I interviewed several persons who identify as gender fluid. The character is physically neutral and identifies as neither male nor female, but is capable of assuming a masculine or feminine identity in different situations. I also researched the Hijra community, because there is a large intersex population in the future I imagined, fighting to be recognized as a third gender for the human race.
James: Dalí is ground-breaking in so many ways, I really applaud you for the amount of work you put into it. In addition to the meticulous world building, I loved your characters. Dalí has a “larger than life” quality, yet maintains relatability. 
Elisabeth: That’s something that really struck me also: the humanity of your characters: the ability to relate to them, and understand what they are going through. How did you prepare to write them? 
James: I try to search for parallels between my characters’ experiences/emotions, and my own. “How did you feel when” and “how would you feel if” are common questions I repeatedly ask myself. 
If I could rewind to a question you asked a bit ago – my “approach” to writing a character who learns his father was raised as a female. I was struggling to write Luke as being intolerant and unwilling to accept Jay because I can’t relate to those sentiments. To finish the book I needed to change his character to allow me to draw from feelings I’m familiar with – insecurity and inadequacy. For even my “worst” characters, I need to identify with the core emotion and let it “mutate” to extreme. 
Elisabeth: And I can think of some pretty intense characters in your books! It can be a little scary as a writer to recognize the darkness in ourselves and transmute it into a character.
James: You’ve got that right! The best example I can think of is Robert from Assimilation. His actions make my stomach roll, but he’s driven by a passionate desire to have his family reunited, which I understand. I can still write him with empathy even while his motivation compels him to do terrible things. I was actually a little nervous to put Assimilation out there because of how dark it becomes – representing the LGBTQ community is something I take very seriously, and a negative reaction to the book weighed heavily on my decision to publish. Is that something you’ve worried about, or what feedback have you received from the LGBTQ community on your writing? 
Elisabeth: So far, it’s been positive. I want to continue to be sure I have input from several different viewpoints in terms of sensitivity when I write LGBTQ characters. 
James: Gaining viewpoints is great advice for anyone wanting to include gender diversity in their writing. But what do you feel is the most difficult aspect of representing the gender diverse community?
Elisabeth: I want to make certain my characters live and breathe, and that they connect with people on an emotional level—that they’re recognizable and others might see themselves reflected by them in some way. 
There’s a huge push for diversity in books, and also a push for “own voices” –what would you say to an aspiring writer, who might be non-binary but uncertain whether they should share their writing, about the importance of representation in literature?  
James: I feel that a beautiful quote by Senator Robert F Kennedy from his South Africa address speaks volumes to what I’d advise:  
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
I can understand how representing gender diversity can be intimidating for anyone, whether non-binary or not, and there are disagreements even within the LGBTQ communities themselves about ideal representation etc. 
Elisabeth: I agree, even in the community, it seems there are varying opinions.
James: Definitely, and I think the scarcity of characters outside the non-binary scope contributes to a feeling of isolation for many LGBTQ readers. Traditionally, things that are “odd, unnatural, and not okay” are shuffled into a dark corner and not talked about. Each piece of gender diverse writing “stands up” for a marginalized group, supporting that gender outside the non-binary is nothing to be ashamed of. To a writer considering sharing their story, I’d say that every ripple is needed to form the current, and we need you!
We need books like Dalí and stories such as “All That Entails” to celebrate the presence of gender diversity. I appreciate all the work you’ve continued to do, Elisabeth, and can’t wait to see what you come up with next!  



Elisabeth: Likewise, James, and congratulations on the release of BOY: A Journey!