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A boy who can see the world’s secrets and unravel spells with just a glance.

Braden’s witch eyes give him an enormous power. A mere look causes a kaleidoscopic explosion of emotions, memories, darkness, and magic. But this rare gift is also his biggest curse.

Compelled to learn about his shadowed past and the family he never knew, Braden is drawn to the city of Belle Dam, where he is soon caught between two feuding witch dynasties. Sworn rivals Catherine Lansing and Jason Thorpe will use anything—lies, manipulation, illusion, and even murder—to seize control of Braden’s powers. To stop an ancient evil from destroying the town, Braden must master his gift, even through the shocking discovery that Jason is his father. While his feelings for an enigmatic boy named Trey grow deeper, Braden realizes a terrible truth: Trey is Catherine Lansing’s son . . . and Braden may be destined to kill him.

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Ladies & gentlemen, it’s a wrap. The gauntlet has been thrown, the bar has been raised, the standard has been set. THIS is how it’s done! I haven’t been this excited about a novel featuring a gay protagonist since Perry Moore’s Hero.

Braden proves to be a strong protagonist. He’s a three-dimensional character. He makes mistakes, he’s fallible, he’s human and sympathetic. And even when he gets himself into trouble, this is still a character you can root for. While there’s angst aplenty, he has more than enough legtimiate reasons for said angst (which keeps him sympathetic) and Tracey does an excellent job not allowing said angst to pummel and warp Braden’s characterization and development. Tracey also avoids making him stilted and obnoxious like a lot of writers do with their characters.

Tracey’s description and prose is quite impressive. It didn’t overburden you with filler and purple prose. Between the descriptions and the first person narrative, you could easily place yourself in Belle Dam and easily visualize the town and its inhabitants. The mythos and the plot immediately sucked me in and I was dying to find out what happened next. Many of the characters have secrets and agendas, and you’re eagerly awaiting them to show their hands. And more than once I got impatient with intel the audience finds out early on and was wanting to scream, REVEAL ALREADY. The anticipation was killing me.

Forgive the vagueness of this review but I’m trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible.

And can I stress how much I love the book cover?

Braden’s orientation was also handled as-a-matter-of-factly, with nuance, with insight and respect. Witch Eyes could’ve easily have worked with Braden being a heterosexual and it was a relief to read a story that wasn’t a formulaic coming out tale or a tragic gay angst tale or Braden being the formulaic gay guy whose sole raison d’être revolves around his orientation.

What was also a relief was that the romance didn’t overwhelm the story like you see too often in countless YA, gay novels, and urban fantasy books. The romance was one (albeit important) part of the complex and interwoven plot. The romance was well-executed, as was the mystery, the action and the drama. But it was all well-balanced which made the story that much stronger and that much more enjoyable.

And speaking of romance and love interests, Trey’s a dick. Braden is too good for him and can do so much better. I’m down for Team Somebody Else. And that objective analysis has nothing to do with the fact that Trey reminds me of my ex. Nope, not at all.

[shakes head solemnly]

When it comes to storytelling, Tracey proves that he knows his craft and I found myself having to pace myself with the story because I didn’t want the book to end too soon. There isn’t much resolution at the end which I initially found distressing. But said distress was quickly relieved when I found out that Witch Eyes is the first of a series and the next book is scheduled to be released next year. Thank God. From what little I’ve researched, it appears that Witch Eyes only answered a few questions only to unlock more mysteries. Shorthand, to quote Jim Ross, business is about to pick up.

And if Tracey is this impressive in his debut novel, I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes next.

It saddens me that it took three years for me to find another enjoyable book that features a queer male protagonist. The last one I read was Hero. When you stop and think about the number of books that get churned out each year which feature cis straight white protagonists, it’s all the more infuriating.

But hopefully Witch Eyes is a sign of things changing. We still have a long ways to go obviously but maybe novels like this will lead to more.

Witch Eyes is available now.

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Dennis R. Upkins was born and raised in Nashville, TN. A voracious reader, a lifelong geek and a hopeless comic book addict, he knew at an early age that storytelling was his calling. His debut novel, Hollowstone, was released in June 2011 by Parker Publishing. More information on Upkins and his other projects can be found at http://dennisupkins.com/

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Jon is a gay writer with two novels in two different genres under his belt. The Obsidian Man, his latest, is a YA fantasy, while his earlier work, A Hundred Little Lies is a romance/western. Jon recently started a blog, and he’s also active on GoodReads, where his publisher is holding a giveaway for The Obsidian Man this month.

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OA: The Obsidian Man takes place in a world full of demons and magic rangers. Can you tell us a little bit about how magic works in that world, and how it influences your main character, Holt?

JW: I tried to limit myself to very “real world” magic–if you’ll pardon my great contradiction in terms. And by that I mean the magic utilized is extrapolated from abilities most people in our world would be able to recognize and name: telekinesis, telepathy, etc. I won’t argue whether or not these abilities actually exist in our world (I admit to being skeptical of most things mystical), but I wanted to ground the magic of Holt’s world in a “reality” that would be easily recognizable. Even the demons are hinted to have rather mundane origins–but their backstory is being saved in hopes of one day writing a sequel.

OA: Your other published novel, A Hundred Little Lies, is a gay cowboy romance–quite a different genre! What led you to YA fantasy?

JW: I’ve actually always liked fantasy. I was a huge Pern/Dragonrider fanboy as a youngster (which harkens back to my previous answer about how magic works in my novel–it was very inspired by McCaffrey’s Academe and Alchemy School of Thought–and specifically the “magic” of Pern and the Talents Universe). But to talk a little about A Hundred Little Lies: first I won’t ever agree that it’s about cowboys–mainly because the two primary characters would highly object to being called that as they are quite dismissive of cowboys! (The Tom Jude that lives in my head just emphasized that statement with a decisive nod.) Also, as many readers (and reviewers) have noted (and criticized), the romance, while a big part of the story, shares center stage with Jack’s struggles to hide his past and raise his daughter Abigail. Although, having said all that, if any of your readers happen to be looking for a “gay cowboy romance”–can I perhaps recommend A Hundred Little Lies? (BTW, if anyone happens to be interested in some great gay historical fiction, they should check out Cheyenne’s catalogue and also the Cheyenne Readers’ Yahoo Group.

OA: On the JMS website, The Obsidian Man gets a one flame heat rating, which they say means there will be adult themes and possible romantic relationships, but no sexual content. How does this book compare to A Hundred Little Lies in terms of romance and sex? Did the fact that it’s a YA story influence the way you wrote the romantic parts of it?

JW: The simple answer to the last question is no. The plot was the main factor in how I wrote the romantic parts–mainly because the action left no room for any romance (also, the two “lovers” never manage to share any screen time–which was, of course, frustrating for all of us). And most (but not all) of the story is seen through the eyes of a thirteen year old boy who has just suffered some devastating losses and spends much of his time torn between two adults who seem to hate one another. I think the most romantic bit is near the end when Keone shares with Holt a little of the story of how he met his lover Kawika. Now, in A Hundred Little Lies, the moment my protagonist, Jack Tulle, sees his old friend Tom Jude he really has a hard time keeping his hands off him, and…Well, let’s just say the set-up allows for more “romance”.

OA: One copy of The Obsidian Man is going to be given away on GoodReads at the end of this month. How can people enter, and what are the rules?

JW: I believe the only rule is that you need to register with GoodReads—which I recommend anyway because I love it there. Other than that, the address for the drawing is http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/10352-the-obsidian-man.

OA: What’s next for you? Will you writer more romance, more YA, or something completely different?

JW: A Cookbook. Or maybe a How Not to Cook Book–which at least I’m qualified to write. Actually, I am currently putting the final touches on a murder mystery. It has a working title, but hasn’t quite made it out into the world yet, so I haven’t any details to share. People can follow my progress on my fledgling blog (I promise to try harder to post there!).

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Thanks, Jon! Come back again on Friday this double Spotlight week, because the big Gaylaxicon Podcast episode is coming up then! In the meantime, check out The Obsidian Man.

On Monday, Jessica Verday posted about her withdrawal from a YA anthology. The reason? The editor felt that because Jessica’s story contained a gay romance, the publisher wouldn’t find it appropriate for the YA market. Jessica chose to withdraw rather than to change her (non-sexually-explicit) story. Choices like that can be extremely difficult and upsetting, even when you’re sure you’re making the right decision. I’m so glad Jessica did make that choice, and that she chose to share her experience with the rest of us. It’s important to talk about these things when they happen–sometimes extremely interesting things come to light. In this case, we learned that apparently the editor never actually asked the publisher, who, when they learned of the situation, said it would have been no problem.

Today, Jessica posted an update on the situation, in which she explained that even though the publisher asked her to reconsider her withdrawal, she declined. The good news here is that we’re able to talk about this publicly, and more and more people are coming out with supportive comments. Jessica is not being heaped with abuse from every direction, which gives me hope. There is strength in visibility, and the more people feel safe supporting decisions like Jessica’s, the better. We’ve been seeing more YA with queer content in the past several years, and I think things like this, painful as they are in the moment, are blazing trails for yet more acceptance. The bottom line to me, and to Jessica, and to a lot of other people out there, is that falling in love with a member of the same sex is not a shameful thing. It’s not unnatural. It should not be taboo in our society, and I think the best way to break down taboos is to expose them, examine them, and speak up for what’s right.

The editor says that she made an assumption in error, and that the content would have been okay with her personally. As Jessica’s entries (and the comments that follow them) point out, this kind of outlook is very disappointing. But because I know too well how easy it is to make mistakes, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It is my sincere hope that in the future she will consider LGBTQI content non-controversial, and be more receptive to including it if she continues editing anthologies. I don’t want vengeance. I want a better future. I want to live in a society where people don’t make these assumptions to begin with.

And as for Jessica’s story, I’m looking forward to reading it when it does become available.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. And special thanks to Corinne Duyvis, who initially brought this matter to the attention of the Outer Alliance Google group.

Barton is bisexual and has been writing queer speculative fiction for 24 years. His latest novel, I Will is due out very soon from Virtual Tales. Two earlier novels, Ella the Vampire and Parole are available through Lyrical Press. Two more novels, Max and Me, and Year of the Human are slated for release later this year through Lyrical Press and Hearts on Fire Books.

As a physicist, Barton writes atmosphere models when he isn’t writing fiction, and spends a lot of time trying to raise awareness about global warming. He is a born-again Christian, a liberal Democrat, and a lover of science. He hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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OA:  You’ve written female/female, male/male and male/female relationships in your currently available works. What appealed to you about each of those? Do you anticipate writing more of any one type in the future?

BPL: I’m currently working on a novel which I think will involve two teen girls falling in love with each other.  But generally I don’t target the sexual relationships involved from the beginning; they just flow out of the characterization.

What is attractive about each?  Hard to say.  I think the hetero thing feels good because you’re exploring a cuddly, warm body different from your own and designed by evolution to mate with–also because men and women in most societies have slightly different subcultures and ways of looking at things, so it’s a chance to get close to someone with a (somewhat) different psychology.  The homo thing feels good, I think, because it’s reassuring to be with a body like your own, one you know, and it’s easier to know in advance what your partner will and won’t like.  And if you’re raised in a heterosupremacist culture, it can be awfully liberating to throw away the demanded gender roles and just do what feels good to you, and the hell with what society thinks.  That experience will fade with time as GLBT lifestyles become more accepted, God willing.

OA:  I Will was released a few days ago. If you could really visit the space adventure universe in the book, would you want to go? Why, or why not?

BPL: Heck, yeah!  It’s filled with all the cool SF stuff I craved as a kid–aliens, interstellar travel, strange planets, and a very comfortable, high-tech environment.  Plus Earth in this universe (it shows up in the sequel) has incorporated a lot of the policy changes I recommend.  When you’re creating the world, you can make it do anything you want!

OA:  Your bio on the Lyrical Press site describes you as a born-again Christian and a liberal Democrat, and says that this combination confuses people. Do you think this confusion is unwarranted, or are there times when you find your spirituality and your political beliefs in conflict?

BPL: It hasn’t been a problem so far, aside from occasional frustration with fellow Christians who embrace politics I don’t, and fellow left-liberals who reject my religion or all religions.  I can get along with anybody, but I have had a few occasions when I was told I couldn’t be a “real” Christian if I supported [pick an issue--free choice, gay rights, evolution...].  Also that I couldn’t “really” understand or believe science if I believed in God, and that as a Christian I undoubtedly embraced misogyny, homophobia, racism, creationism, and despoiling the environment.  Sometimes it was honest ignorance; sometimes it was just prejudice.

OA:  You have two more books coming out in the next year: Max and Me, and Year of the Human. Can you tell us anything about them? When can we expect to see them?

BPL: Max and Me is an SF action-adventure novel with a little speculative philosophy thrown in.  The protagonist is Gunnar “Gunner” Dahlquist, a bisexual veteran of Beast War III who now pilots a freelance spaceship out of 1 Ceres.  He lives with the bioengineered talking cat Max, who is even more cynical and foul-mouthed than he is.  Things get strange when, twelve years after Beast War III ended, people suddenly begin pursuing Max, one faction wanting to kidnap him, another to kill him.

Year of the Human is a young-adult SF novel.  Alien teen girl Throsu ka-Hohsh is a would-be astronaut and a nationalist; her planet fought a brief, inconclusive war with Earth years earlier.  She is thrown for a loop when her parents inform her they will host a human scientist and her daughter for a year–the daughter to live in Throsu’s room!  And soon that’s the least of her worries.

OA:  As a concerned physicist, what (if anything) do you think the global community can do to successfully end global warming? If it doesn’t work, what do you think the consequences will look like?

BPL: If we make a massive switch away from fossil fuels to solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydro in the next five to ten years, and stop cutting down forests, we may just make it.  Frankly, I don’t think we will.  The human pattern is never to prevent a crisis; it’s to wait until the crisis happens and then react.  This time that pattern is going to kill us.  Global warming causes more droughts in continental interiors and more violent weather along coastlines.  12% of the Earth’s land surface was “severely dry” by the Palmer Drought Severity Index in 1970; by 2002 that figure was 30% and still climbing (Dai et al. 2004).  I expect human agriculture to collapse completely some time in the next forty years, and when that goes our civilization will go with it.

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Thanks, Barton! Join us again on Friday for another Spotlight, and in the meantime, check out I Will at Virtual Tales, or other books by Barton Paul Levenson at Lyrical Press.

[1] (Back to post): My apologies for the tardiness of this week’s Spotlight. A series of international travel (mis)adventures left me without internet access on Friday and Saturday.

Lauren is a feminist, and strongly pro-choice. She supports equality for women and LGBTQI people, and is especially interested in promoting the acceptance of gender queer teens. As a straight ally, Lauren is personally committed to making the world safe and lovely for people of all orientations, and her work reflects this. Her first novel, Cycler, is about a girl who turns into a boy for four days each month. Lauren uses this premise to explore what gender means, raising at least as many questions as she answers.

Lauren started out in the film industry, working her way up from production assistant to line producer and screenwriter, and eventually to helping Mike Paseornek open a New York production and development office for Cinepix Films (which later became Lions Gate Entertainment). She began writing prose full time in 2000. Cycler came out in 2008, followed by a sequel, (Re)Cycler in August of 2009. A third (unrelated) novel is on the horizon, but doesn’t have a formal release date yet. Though Lauren is not working full time in the film industry anymore, she has written a screenplay for Cycler, which will be produced by Don Murphy.

Cycler has a facebook page, and a YouTube trailer. (Re)Cycler has been nominated as a Rainbow Book for 2009 through the Rainbow Project. Lauren blogs on her personal site, and posts to Twitter under the name LaurenMcWoof.

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Cycler and (Re)Cycler explore gender identity and sexuality in a lot of different (and often surprising) ways. Did you know where the story would lead from the start, or did you manage to surprise even yourself?

I actually knew what the ending of Cycler would be in terms of the prom. I saw it very clearly as soon as I outlined the story. But there were tons of surprises along the way. I personally have a very open and flexible view of gender and I’ve never found stereotypically gendered people all that interesting. But to deal with the subject of gender as a social phenomenon, I had to have characters who embodied and endorsed gender stereotypes. Even though those ideas chafe against my own, I did what all writers do: I fell in love with the characters anyway. So, for example, even though Jack and Jill’s mother, Helen, espouses the anti-feminist gender stereotypical man-hater philosophy I oppose, I found myself sympathizing with her. Bad guys are much more interesting if they have a defensible point of view. And, in the case of Helen, she’s the only member of that family responsible enough to help Jill.

For (Re)Cycler, the whole thing surprised me from start to finish because I started writing it without knowing for sure where it would end. It was a very different writing process, much more painful, but, in the end, more interesting too.

One of the characters in Cycler is a bisexual boy (which is awesome in my book). What drew you to write a bisexual character?

It was a combination of factors, actually. One thing I feel that I have to do as a writer is figure out what’s the most challenging and morally compromising thing that could happen to my protagonist. Then, whatever it is, I have to inflict that on him or her. In Jill’s case, she’s struggling, against impossible odds, to be a “normal” heterosexual teenage girl. So of course I had to make her love interest bi. That forces her to confront all sorts of messy feelings and it lent a moral dimension to the story, because her emotional reaction to the news ultimately violates her own moral sense. But the bisexual character was not merely a plot device. He actually arose from a personal experience I once had, where a boy I had been dating for a long time sprung his bisexuality on me one day. I went through a lot of the same feelings Jill went through only to discover that, in the end, it made no difference to me. I think a lot of our so-called “feelings” on the subject of homosexuality and bisexuality are not actual feelings at all, but rather culturally constructed rules and rituals that enforce a heteronormative and patriarchal worldview.

You wrote screenplays before you turned to fiction, and now you’ve adapted Cycler for the big screen. How much of the story changed in the process? Did you tone down the queerness and genderbending at all? Any idea when the Cycler movie will come out?

The first thing you have to do when adapting a novel into a screenplay is figure out what to cut. Not just scenes and characters, but ideas as well. In one version, I did actually cut out the bisexuality of one of the characters because it was an extra idea that I didn’t have time to flesh out in one-hundred minutes. But I think I’ve figured out a way to include it now, so hopefully it will be back in. There is absolutely no soft pedaling in the screen adaptation on the gender-bendy-ness of it at all, however, because that’s the essence of the story. And, thankfully, my producer, Don Murphy, really likes it as is. I do think it would be possible to take the basic idea of Cycler and turn it into a mindless romp about how funny it is that boys and girls are completely different. But, as long as I’m writing the screenplay, that will never happen. I don’t yet know when the movie will come out because it’s not in production yet. It’s in development and that can take a long time. The fact that we already have a screenplay, however, gets us one step closer.

Your next novel is about teens and surveillance. Can you tell us anything more about it? When will that be available?

My next novel, Steal the Future, is is about what happens when ubiquitous surveillance is linked up to a powerful software program that analyzes human behavior. By crunching data from surveillance cameras, Web usage, cell phone conversations, etc., this software program, called Athena, comes up with a monthly score indicating a kid’s overall social fitness. That score has proved to be so good at predicting academic performance and future earnings that it has become a kind of universal SAT. As a result, kids’ whole lives are focused on the score  and in school they arrange themselves in score gangs so as to avoid contamination from lower scorers (or “lowbies”). The novel centers on a high school senior whose score of 62 puts her 8 point below the college line. She could probably get over that line if only she abandoned her best friend,  a 22.

Finally, we love recommendations here, especially if they subvert gender stereotypes. Have you got any good ones for us?

I love books that subvert gender stereotypes too. Unfortunately, too often books that purport to do just this end up boring me by adhering to another gender stereotype–the plucky teen girl who can do anything boys can do. I sort of feel like we should be beyond that by now. I don’t think we should waste time “proving” girls can do anything boys can do. It’s been proven. I say we declare victory and move on. The best book I’ve read in a while that plays interestingly with gender is Justine Larbalestier’s Liar. Meg Rosoff’s What I Was is also fantastic.

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Thanks, Lauren! Join us next week for another Spotlight, and in the meantime, why not check out Cycler?

A recent conference in New Zealand brought together leaders and youth from sexual minority communities across the Pacific; the article touches on Fa’afafine in Samoa and New Zealand.

On gay literature
Michael Stevens writes about the change in how important gay literature has been to him: “Now there are hundreds of books, by many different authors available. And yet I feel little compunction to follow the latest trends in gay fiction or poetry. It just doesn’t seem to matter to me any longer. Yet once it was central to me discovering who I was and how to negotiate the world.” and “By reading I learnt what it was to be a gay man.”

On LiveJournal community 50books_poc are three recent reviews of LGBT-focused writing:

• M+O4EVR by Tonya Cherie Hegamin, along with a general introduction about LGBT fiction, YA lit, race, and the few other books about African-American queer girls;
• Southland by Nina Revoyr
• “Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘War on Terror’” by Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem

And GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources “provides an opportunity for readers to express their thoughts regarding fantasy and sci-fi with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered protagonists through book reviews, essays, and reading lists in a non-commercial environment”.

Gay characters on TV
In the Bay Area Reporter, “Going, going, gone!: the case of the missing LGBT characters” looks at the dearth of gay characters on US television. [Though personally I'm disappointed that they describe Thirteen on House as "previously queer" and "now heterosexual" when the show itself has made it clear that she is and always has been bisexual and just happens to be dating a guy at present. The show does plenty else wrong, but - at least as far as I've seen - it doesn't deny her bisexuality.] An interview with writer/director Alan Ball discusses directions for gay characters (both existing ones and new ones) in season 3 of True Blood.

If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.

K L has been playing around with a fantasy world in her head ever since she was a child. As an adult, this has manifested itself in her Heart quartet, which features gay teens in an adventurous high fantasy setting. Heart Sense, Heart Song, and Heart’s Price are available now through Prizm Books, and she’s currently working on the fourth novel in the series, Heart’s Peace.

As a straight ally, K L makes a point of advocating for LGBTQI acceptance both in speculative fiction, and in real life. In addition to novel writing, K L is in the process of earning a PhD in Medieval Studies. She has a passion for hats, and all things Arthurian.

What drew you to write queer YA stories?

I’ve always wanted to write YA novels, because those are mostly the stories that I read. Queer or straight, my head has always been populated by a plethora of teenagers of all shapes and sizes. Katjin and Mikael’s story is part of a larger world I’d been building in my head since I was a kid, and when Torquere Press announced that they were introducing a new line of Young Adult-focused novels and asked if I was interested in writing for it, I thought this would be a great avenue to introduce Kat and Mik to the world. They had started out as a comic script that never went anywhere, but this seemed like a better home.

Why queer YA novels in particular? Because, while there were (at the time) several genre books and ‘coming out’ stories, there didn’t seem to be a lot of spec fic stories with queer teen characters. I tried not to write Kat and Mik as advocates for GLBT issues and rights, but just as kids who were caught up in a political battle bigger than they were, who just happened to ‘like-like’ each other. Well, and I complicated it with the whole blood bond thing, but that’s another story. Spec fic itself has always been a lot more lenient and accepting toward GLBT characters in books that I wanted to extend that a little bit into the YA fic realm. It may sound sappy, but I just wanted my characters to have a story worthy of them, and a home at a press that would treat them right.

The clans in the Heart books use songs to communicate. How did you come up with this idea, and do you imagine the songs sound like any music you’ve heard in this world?

I was actually inspired by the Hoist the Colors song from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. The song in the film was the supernatural call for the Pirate Brethren, and I thought that was a great idea. The Clans, in my mind, had always been a culture of oral tradition — there is no written Clan language — so the idea of this aiding song really appealed to me. One by one, the other songs, including a song of the dead for Heart’s Price, came into existence. I like the idea of this song passed on from generation to generation, carrying with it the weight of tradition and of obligation. It also gave me a nice way to bring Katjin and Mikael together.

As for what it sounds like, for some reason “Thunder Down, Lowland Towns,” a song that occurs in both the Clan lands and the Lowlands, can be sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”. The other songs, though, don’t have a tune, per se. Clan culture is based off of a lot of Mongolian/nomadic culture, so I’d imagine some of the kind of tonal, complex vocal music that’s native to Mongolia, accompanied by fiddle and flute.

Katjin and Mikael have a blood bond that forces them to stay very close. How much does that bond influence their attraction to each other?

This is one of those places where I might’ve written myself into a corner. I’ve actually had the book criticized for the fact that it seems like the bond forces Mikael’s attraction to Katjin. I didn’t want it to seem that way, which is why Kat and Mik are so antagonistic to each other at first. They have to eventually come to agreement and admit to mutual admiration and friendship, which eventually deepens into something stronger. Kat likes Mikael from the first — at least, in the physical sense. Mikael sees Katjin as an odd sort of savior, and eventually falls for Katjin’s big heart and odd charm. It’s hard to portray that, though, since the first book is entirely Katjin’s POV, and we don’t see Mikael’s side til the second. The bond doesn’t force their choice of sex, or even their initial attraction. It just…complicates the matter, because I thought it would be fun to complicate their lives with this very physical bond/pain if they happened to separate. And to see what two people would do if they were tied that closely, mutual attraction or not.

What has the road to publication been like for you? Is there anything you’d do differently if you had to start over from scratch?

I’ve been writing and submitting stories since I was a teenager, but to little success. I took a long break from publication attempts for a while, and didn’t really get back into it until I thought about submitting Heart Sense. I take rejection hard, so those first few (many) rejections in my teens/early twenties hit me in a painful way, and I was scared to send things out. So I just wrote and wrote and rewrote until I found a market. I’m considering getting an agent, and I know I should branch out, but with school, my life is a little complicated right now, so I’m pretty happy with one project at a time, one small press at a time. The large publishing houses aren’t taking too many chances on new writers right now, so I’m content with where I’m at.

If I could start over from scratch, I might submit to more markets, maybe short stories to build a portfolio. I’d probably also do more concrete world-building/plotting out before I started writing, since I seem to discover new aspects of Clan culture with each book. Sometimes it’s nice to work out the bugs beforehand.

I’m guessing you’re a Star Wars fan since your website claims that you are sailing the writing seas with your lightsaber. Have you ever thought about writing a space opera of your own?

I am a huge Star Wars fan, and I actually do have a space opera idea in the works. There’s also that Arthurian idea playing around in my head, and a play on the old summer camp stories. Once the Heart quartet is exorcised from my brain, I’ll probably tackle one of these projects.

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Thanks, K L! Join us next Friday for another Spotlight. In the meantime, check out Heart’s Price.

Hayden Thorne is a straight ally, who looks at writing as a form of activism, and features queer teens coming of age in contemporary and historical fantasy stories. Her Masks series follows the journey of a gay teen in a city full of superheroes, while her historical novels, The Twilight Gods, Banshee, and Icarus in Flight, deal with darker and more realistic themes.

When she is not writing, Hayden divides her time between working in the fine art industry, and cycling. In addition to advocating for LGBTQI rights, she supports the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States.

All of Hayden’s books to date, including her latest novel, The Twilight Gods, are available now from the LGBTQ YA imprint, Prizm Books.

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The Twilight Gods is based on a Native American folktale, but set in Victorian England. How did you get the idea to retell it that way?

Firstly, I’ve always been enamored of folklore, and while I grew up reading Western European folktales, it wasn’t till I was in college (better late than never) when I discovered folklore from all over the world. What fascinated me the most was that there are a number of variations for certain themes, as classified by Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Folktales from all over the world can be categorized according to their system, so that a simple tale like “Cinderella,” for instance, will find a number of similar stories from other countries.

I also happen to be a shameless Anglophile, having discovered Victorian fiction in high school. I *love* the social commentary and, at least in the case of satirists like Thackeray, the biting wit. I actually didn’t think much about retelling a Native American folktale and using Victorian London for its new setting. It just seemed to fall into place for me. It’s really nothing more than two passions melding, so that folktale motifs are juxtaposed with more practical day-to-day concerns of a struggling family. The result is a gothic, dream-like treatment of a boy’s journey of self-discovery.

Your historical fantasies seem to take a more serious tone than your contemporary superhero fantasy series. Why is that? Do you think you’ll write more lighter and comedic books in the future?

The one thing I try to do with historical fiction is to keep everything as real as possible, which means a pretty somber treatment of homosexuals and how they cope with living in a society where they’re outlaws. On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of uber-angst, so I try to work in a little edge of hope for the characters. If they don’t get their happily-ever-after, they at least mature enough to understand their place and make decisions from there as to where they want to take things. Will they pursue their dream of finding other gay men who are willing to risk everything and be with them? Or will they decide to stay in the closet and follow the paths that have been set out for them by society? Either way, they’re still empowered with enough knowledge and maybe some experience to make their choice.

I’m definitely moving in the direction of more comedic historical fiction. I have a couple planned out, in fact – one a satire about artists and one a historical fantasy involving a family of “special” agents working for Queen Victoria.

The Masks series follows the adventures of a goth teen in a city full of superheroes and supervillains. What drew you to write about these types of people? Are you a superhero comics fan? Were you a goth in high school?

*laughs* Eric Plath is actually not goth though other characters in the books mistake him for one. He’s “being sixteen,” as he argues in the first book. He colors his hair blue and tried once to wear eyeliner to school till he was made to take it off, but he’s really just a normal kid who experiments with whatever happens to catch his fancy. No, I was never a goth in high school, but some of my friends were. Growing up in the early to mid-80s, I kind of fell in with the “mod” crowd, or those kids who dug alternative music.

My initial plan for the Masks series was to create a mini-world of superheroes and supervillains where being a “freak” becomes par for the course in the eyes of a snarky teenager. Being a superhero is usually the Mark of Cain, so to speak, and it’s pretty common for superheroes to be ostracized or welcomed but still treated as outsiders of some kind. I want to write about superheroes who, while doing all kinds of amazing things, still behave like regular teenagers either in costume or out. Using Eric as the odd man out gives me that platform.

All of your protagonists so far have been male. Have you ever considered writing a book with a female, trans, or intersex main character?

I’d *love* to be able to write trans characters, and I hope someday to do it. I’ll need to spend more time learning about them before I feel confident enough to write them in a story. I also would like to write female characters, and I hope to do something like a subversive Austen type of deal. Historical fiction, that is, tends to draw all kinds of romantic ideas from me, and I figure that the Regency and all its associations with Austen’s satires and romantic adventures make for prime material involving teenage girls who don’t fit the mold and subvert social convention. They could be magicians. Or adventurers in an alternate universe. Or I could just write a contemporary fantasy, with girls for the leads. The same can be said about transgender teens. The possibilities are endless.

Have you ever gotten reader feedback that made your day? What’s the best thing a reader could possibly tell you?

As I tend to get extremely rare reviews at sites like Amazon, I have a feeling that I tend to attract quiet types (hey, I’m pretty withdrawn in person, too). I’ve received a couple of very nice messages about my books, and simply hearing from readers is really good enough for me. I don’t expect high praise all the time. If they want to discuss things with me, I’m more than happy to do so. If they see anything they find objectionable, I’d like to know. So far, though, I’ve been told that these readers really enjoyed my books, with one saying that she wished she had books like these when she was younger. They were all very sweet, and I really appreciate their taking the time to write me.

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Thanks, Hayden! Join us again next Friday for another Spotlight. In the meantime, why not check out The Twilight Gods?

The American Library Association (ALA) celebrated Banned Books Week from 26 September – 3 October this year. Their 2009 list of challenged/banned books (PDF, 8.4MB) includes “And Tango Makes Three”, “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding”, “King & King”, “Girl, Interrupted”, “The Joy of Gay Sex” and “The Lesbian Kama Sutra”, among others. (Speculative fiction books included “The Golden Compass” “The Great Tree of Avalon”, “Brave New World”, and more.) For the curious, past lists of challenged/banned books are also available.

If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks”.

Malinda is a Chinese American lesbian, who is active in LGBTQI and POC (People of Color) awareness efforts. She was managing editor of the lesbian entertainment news site, AfterEllen.com until September of 2008, when she began writing fiction full time.

In addition to keeping a personal journal, Malinda is a member of the 2009 Debutantes LiveJournal community for new YA authors, and a maintainer for The Enchanted Inkpot YA and Middle Grade fantasy community. She lives in Northern California with her partner.

You realized that Ash was a gay character only after you’d written a first draft with her falling for the male prince. Will you actively try to include more queer content in future stories since it’s worked out so well for this one?

Yes. And actually, the first draft of any novel is so different from the final version. I don’t want it to sound like Ash was accidentally queer — I put a lot of thought into the queerness of the retelling. Also, much of Ash was already queer; I just didn’t realize it at first.

Ash’s evolution from straight to gay sort of echoed your own coming out process. Are there other ways in which Ash is like you? Or ways in which she is very different?

I actually don’t think that my coming-out process was like Ash’s at all. Ash did not evolve from straight to gay; she simply fell in love with a woman. I wish my coming-out process had been like that! Mine was much, much more convoluted and involved a lot of therapy and dealing with homophobia. Ash’s experience is truly a fantasy — I hope that more people can simply fall in love with someone, and the gender doesn’t matter at all.

In terms of other similarities or differences … obviously I identify with Ash as a character, but I also identify with her stepmother, and Kaisa, and Sidhean, and her stepsisters. I haven’t lost my parents as Ash did, but I have experienced depression. I’m not trying to marry off a daughter, but I understand the stepmother’s reasons for doing so. So I’m both similar to and different from all the characters in the book.

How long have you known your Lo-Down vlog partner, Sarah Pecora, and how did you meet?

I’ve known Sarah since 2002, I think. We met through mutual friends.

During you career as an entertainment journalist, you’ve met a lot of famous people. Have you ever had a very fannish moment around any of them, or have you always managed to keep your cool?

My most fannish moment occurred when I met Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I had no idea I would become such a speechless idiot around him! He is totally charismatic and has that “I’m super cool” vibe that turned me into a total fangirl.

You make no secret of your love for Robin McKinley‘s fairy tale retellings. Can you recommend any other YA authors?

Sure! Kristin Cashore has written two novels that are fantastic: Graceling, about a girl who is gifted with the ability to kill, and Fire (out in October), about an incredibly beautiful woman known as a monster. Cindy Pon has written a really intriguing Asian fantasy called Silver Phoenix, which is full of adventure and based in Chinese myths and legends. Diana Peterfreund’s Rampant, which just came out, is about killer unicorns (seriously awesome) and the virgin hunters who are tasked with killing them.

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Thanks, Malinda! Look for another Outer Alliance Spotlight post next Friday, and in the meantime, check out Ash: