It’s pride month and that means all manner of things for the LGBTQ+ – joy and wrath and fear and comfort and more. Its a month when we demand space be made for us, even and especially during these troubled times when fascism and hate seems to be on every screen and paper of news. It is also a month when I, a queer author, take a moment to appreciate authors who have carved a path that I now trod and are part of the reason I am able to write the stories that are in my heart.
Xan West
I began writing and self publishing in 2018 under a different pen name. Most of my work was straight contemporary smut but I was dabbling not only in fantasy but also in queer romance though it would be a few more years before I shared that with the world. The author I read and looked up to that gave me the encouragement to push further into queer writing was Corey Alexander aka Xan West. Their books Their Troublesome Crush and Nine of Swords, Reversed as well as their many short stories were eye-opening to me. They showed me what could be written and that people would actually read it, buy those books, and praise the writing of not only queer folks but fat and disabled folks with bodies like mine!
I had a few conversations with Corey through Twitter DMs back in those days. However, while I did write a praising review of Their Troublesome Crush, I never did get to tell them how much their work meant to me not only as a writer but as a person.
Corey died in 2020. The pandemic was raging in the US and I’d already lost family to Covid. My comfort during that time was books and chatting with fellow authors and readers on social media. So when I logged on to see the announcement that Corey had died from complications with diabetes, it broke my heart. I can only hope that Corey found comfort and that they knew how amazing they were and how much their work is still loved today. I wish I could have told them how much they meant to me – not only their work but also as a person being openly who they were. I am forever grateful.
You can read Corey’s obituary here.
Michelle Belanger
In high school I read The Psychic Vampire Codex by Michelle Belanger and quickly became enamoured with her work. I watched her in paranormal tv shows, read her books, and scavenged the early internet for her posts, articles, videos, and more.
She was the first person to introduce me to a lot of things from various magical paths to TTRPG (Vampire the Masquerade specifically), the existence of intersex people and that there are people who don’t fit into the binary of male and female.
To this day, I look up to Belanger a great deal and am inspired by her work not only in fiction but in all manner of creative and magical pursuits.
Two other magical queer authors who I look up to include Lee Harrington and Mortellus. Their non-fiction work as magical practitioners has done so much for me in my life but also their existence as queer people in the world has made me feel braver.
Alethea Faust
Author of the Sex Wizards series, Alethea Faust was the first person I’d ever seen combine sex magic, Dungeons and Dragons style magical systems, and queer characters in a high fantasy world. As someone who has dabbled in all of these things (writing and otherwise), I was immediately intrigued. Not only do I love their writing, I am inspired by Faust’s work as a writer and as a self published author. Whenever I doubt myself, I think about what Faust is doing and their success. They are one of those authors that, when they pop up in socials or I see their books, I go “I want to be like them.”
Alex Hanson
I first discovered the work of Alex Hanson when they were looking for ARC readers and promoting their book Beauty’s Beasts. The Beauty and the Beast trope has long been a favorite of mine and I’ve read many, MANY iterations of it over the years. When this book came across my feed, I was less surprised by the trope and why-choose version of it than I was intrigued by the genderfluid main character.
Up to this point, I’d finally stepped into my identity as a nonbinary person but was still struggling with how to write characters that were like me. I’d had one story rejected from an anthology with a note that a character with they/them pronouns was “too confusing” to read so I was feeling pretty dejected. Beauty’s Beasts proved to me not only that nonbinary and genderfluid characters could be well written (and not at all confusing) but were something that other people would be interested in reading.
I saw part of myself represented in this book and for that it will forever have a piece of my heart. I am so grateful to Mx. Alex for that.
Beau Van Dalen
The most recent author to be on this praise list, Beau is one of the most inspiring not only for the representation in their work but also all the work they put into social media as a queer author.
I first noticed Beau’s work when art for The Prince’s Dearest Guards came across my feed. Notes about a trans masc character that was not only not ultra masculine but soft, submissive, and filled with anxiety was right up my alley.
I’ve talked briefly with Beau about this sort of representation before. He’s received some backlash about it – folks with internalized misogyny and queer phobia who demand that masc characters all have certain ultra-masc, dominant, post-op characteristics and that anything less is fetishization or not “really trans.” This is something I worry about in my own writing and representation.
As someone who is short and round, I know I will never “pass” as anything but AFAB. As nonbinary, I often worry about being femme in a naturally female presenting body and that it makes me not enby enough. I know I don’t owe anyone androgyne but the pressure to “pass” and to be “queer enough” is everywhere.
Seeing a character that not only is soft and not the generally “acceptable” version of trans or masc has meant a lot to me. It’s proof that each of us represents our queerness differently and that is not only ok but beautiful and meaningful.
It has inspired me to keep writing characters that might not match certain tropes and characteristics. If Beau can handle backlash about it, so can I because there are readers out there that need characters like these. Readers like me.
Queer Horror Authors
Last but not least, a few non-fantasy folks.
Not all readers of Wandwed or my work as Dex Meade will know this but before I stepped into this pen name I was working mostly in the horror field of writing. Horror was a genre that I felt I could morph in like a good body horror scene. It was where I found a community of queer authors who fucked with gender in life and art. Authors in that field helped me to become more…well, me. Without judgement.
Hailey Piper was one of those authors. Her work, specifically The Worm and His Kings trilogy, was strangely uplifting despite its darkness. In it I felt a connection to outcasts, fans of eldritch horror, and “monsters” that were more complicated than concepts of good and evil.
Max Booth III is a fellow nonbinary weirdo who relates more to chipped black nail polish than any defined concepts of male and female. I look up to Max’s work – their stories have made me feel things I’d never felt before (most of which was unpleasant but inspiring), their work in the community as writer, publisher, podcaster, promoter, and event coordinator, has been commendable especially those days when the community feels like a cess pit of assholes.
Lor Gislason whose work in body horror, queer pining, and autistic representation has been necessary in a time when I was still sorting my own shit out. While morphing in my own coccoon, their work was something I found a strange comfort in.
As I carry on to years and Pride Months ahead, I am certain I will add to this list. That is beautiful. So many authors and so many stories out there to be read and enjoyed and inspired by. I am eternally grateful.
Happy Pride,
Dex
