The Life of A Trans Sci-Fi Writer

As you might have guessed from the fact that I write a blog about writing, I really love writing! But you know what I don’t love? PROOFREADING AND EDITING! When I’m writing, it’s like my brain is on fire; the story is pouring out of me and I’m struggling to get it on the page as fast as I can  imagine it. But then you finish writing, and you have to go through your hastily scribbled mess and fix it up; make sure it’s logically consistent, that the prose flows nicely, and that there are no typos. The whole time I’m doing this, my brain is aching to just get on and write the next story, or to go and see what cake I have in the house; anything but actually concentrate on the thing I’m supposed to be doing. But proof reading and editing are important, right? Well, yes, I admit that they are important. As I said earlier, my first draft is usually a bit of a mess, and without any proofreading, I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting other people see my work. But I do think that the importanc...

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 wou...

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 stor...

When I came out, I went from every sci-fi/fantasy book I read containing a whole bunch of versions of the person I thought I was/was trying to be, to not seeing myself anywhere, whether that was in books, films, or on TV.  There are beginning to be some great examples of trans/non-binary representation out there in the world of speculative fiction, including the Once & Future series by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy, and Nicole Maines’ stint on Super Girl as Dreamer, but the trans/enby community is so diverse that we’ve got a long way to go, before we can all see ourselves reflected in the stories we love.  As a lesbian trans woman who is early in her transition and hasn’t had voice training, I certainly haven’t ever seen someone like me in a sci-fi or fantasy story, but perhaps more importantly, there is a real dearth of trans masc peeps, trans BIPOC peeps, disabled trans peeps, neurodivergent trans peeps, and all non-binary peeps out there (not an exhaustive list) at...

Like for a lot of new indie authors, the most difficult part of the self-publishing experience has been promoting my book (It's called Talking to Lobsters and you can get it here!  https://tinyurl.com/talkingtolobsterscollection ). Hence, therefore, and in accordance with the prophecy, you're now reading my shiny new blog, which is a cynical attempt to "build a profile" (gagging sound) and then hopefully sell some books. Except really, I've loved writing this blog so far, and I think I'll keep doing it even if no one reads it, because it's really cathartic for getting stuff off my chest!  So, anyway, book promotion... Like a lot of new indie authors, I started by offering my ebook for free for the duration that Amazon allows. That, combined with the constant spamming of all my friends and family on Facebook, got me a good few downloads in the first couple of weeks. This led to a much smaller number of sales of the paperback version from close family who wa...

Hi Readers! So, I’ve got a confession to make; for a sci-fi nerd, time travel stories really irritate me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love watching Back to The Future as much as the next person, and The Voyage Home (the one with the whales) and First Contact (the one with the Borg) are my favourite Star Trek films, i.e. THE TIME TRAVEL ONES! But my problem is that whenever you start to analyse ANY time travel story, it starts to unravel. I mean, if Marty had failed to get his parents together, then he would have never been born, which means he never would have gone back in time to ruin his parents’ relationship in the first place, which means he would have been born and then gone back in time to ruin his parents’ relationship… It makes my head hurt... Which is why, when I started writing sci-fi stories, I vowed to never write a time travel story. So, of course, my book contains two time travel stories. ( Talking to Lobsters, available at Amazon here) So, if time travel stories offend me ...

Hi readers! Thanks for taking a look at my first blog post! ‘So,’ I hear you cry, ‘how did you write your first book, Talking to Lobsters?’  (Buy it on Amazon here!)    That’s a great question, thanks for asking it! Well, like a lot of new writers, it was the middle of the pandemic, early 2021, and I was pretty stressed. In addition to Corona, I’d only been out as trans for about a year, and I was in the final year of a languages degree with the Open University.  I’ve always written songs to escape this kind stress. The songs I used to write generally had a sort of weird sci-fi vibe about them, and my favourite part of the song writing process had always been writing the lyrics, so, I thought I’d try my hand at short stories.  I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands due to the other stuff going on in my life, so I utilised the bit of free time that everyone has in abundance... time on the loo!  Yeah, this might be too much information, but for months, I too...