The Life of A Trans Sci-Fi Writer

While growing up, I was obsessed with the classic, golden era sci-fi writers - Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A Heinlein as well as a healthy dose of Douglas Adams. Later, when I started uni, I got into more fantasy stories by people such as David Eddings and Raymond E Feist. I loved all of these stories, and they played a huge part in helping me to form my identity, but what do these writers all have in common? That’s right, they’re all cis-het white men.  This post isn’t going to be a rant about cis-het white men, after all, some of my best friends are cis-het white men. But, without really knowing it, part of the reason I loved the works of these writers was that when I was a teenager, their books were full of people who I assumed were like me. I was trying convince myself that all the thoughts I was having about being a girl were nonsense because it was the 90’s; I didn’t know what being trans was, I didn’t know what support was available, and I didn’t know how I would b

I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write a novel, well, I have ever since I learned what a novel was. But now I’m 40 and have I managed to actually write said novel? Of course I haven’t!  I think it’s fear, mostly, that has stopped me. I mean, novels are pretty big, aren’t they? Have you ever seen Magician by Raymond E Feist? It’s pretty chonky! I’m not sure I could ever write anything that could sustain a single idea for that number of words. But this year, following the success of my short story collection, Talking to Lobsters , I’ve finally broken the barrier that’s been holding me back for all this time. I think it was writing the short stories that helped me to get past the fear. For a start, it gave me experience in planning stories out and developing characters and concepts, but it also inspired further ideas that I could explore in a larger work. As I wrote one short story, it gave me ideas for what I could do in a second story in the same world. This then gave me ideas for a third story in