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Guest Post: Ellie Coverdale on Top Tips for Writing Better LGBT Characters

As a writer, it’s normal to want to share stories about the diverse and interesting world around you. That can be difficult if you have to write a character with a completely different background and life experience than you. The important thing is to stay away from writing a stereotype or a character that’s unbelievable. To help you, this article will share five helpful suggestions to create excellent and multi-layered LGBT characters.

1. Don’t be stereotypical

In today’s world, producers and audiences alike want to see diversity in books, movies, and TV shows. But creating a stereotypical LGBT character just to fit the demand isn’t good enough. Instead, create a multi-dimensional person with a storyline… and they happen to be gay as well.

According to a writer at Academized and State of Writing, Jamie Lyndham, “a good suggestion is when you’re creating a character, ask yourself if and why they need to be heterosexual or cisgender (identifying with their birth-assigned gender). Think about if you could enhance your story by changing their gender identity or sexuality.”

2. Find a different angle

It can be easy when you’re writing about LGBT characters to develop a dramatic story line like coming out or transitioning. While these issues are important and not to be dismissed lightly, there are a lot of LGBT people in life who are living fun and interesting lives that have nothing to do with their gender or sexuality. It doesn’t always have to be about that.

Think about creating stories for your LGBT characters that are positive, engaging, and not what your audience is expecting. Find a new angle for your story and make your story stand out from others.

3. Research your characters

If you’re not a member of the LGBT community but you want one of your storylines or characters to be specific to this community, you need to do your research. If your storyline concerns a time period before homosexuality was legalized, talk to someone who was around at that time.

This is the best way to make your story, language, and character’s experience ring true for your audience. If you have LGBT friends and colleagues, you might want to talk your ideas through with them to make sure your character is as authentic as any heterosexual character you write.

4. LGBT characters can be in all genres

LGBT people have been around since the beginning of humanity, so you don’t need to only include LGBT characters in modern stories. If you’re writing a period novel, why don’t you consider including an LGBT character, as there are so many great story lines about life before decriminalisation.

Some ideas from Sam Deele, a blogger at Paper Fellows and Australian Help, are for writers to “also write about children with gay parents, or a child that is learning about being transgender. LGBT stories don’t just start when the character become an adult at 18. You can also consider how including an LGBT character could have a positive impact on your audience.”

5. The term trans includes many people

If you’re writing about a trans character, you have to be aware that trans is an umbrella term for many different people, not only someone who was born male but identifies as female and vice versa. Trans actually includes many different people, including those who don’t identify as any given gender, or who are a mix of both, and anything in between.

Don’t fall into any stereotypes here, because writing about trans characters gives you so many new opportunities for different and engaging stories. Like in the first point, think about whether your character needs to be male or female and whether your story could benefit if the character didn’t identify as cisgender.

It’s never too late to ask for feedback, even if you’ve finished the LGBT character or storyline and you want to make sure it’s right. It’s immensely better to make corrections at this stage than to submit it and realize it’s not right afterwards. If you don’t know any LGBT people that can read it for you, look into online groups that promote diversity like Bang2writers who would be happy to help.

About the Author: Ellie Coverdale, a writer and blogger at Essay roo and UK Writings, loves sharing her writing tips and suggestions with her audience. She writes about many topics including education, life as a writer, and lifestyle tips. She also works as a teacher for Boom Essays in her free time.

If you’re an author or other fantasy and science fiction creative, and want to do a guest blog post, please check out the guest blog post guidelines. Or if you’re looking for community from other F&SF writers, sign up for the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers Critclub!

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This was a guest blog post.
Interested in blogging here?

Assembling an itinerary for a blog tour? Promoting a book, game, or other creative effort that’s related to fantasy, horror, or science fiction and want to write a guest post for me?

Alas, I cannot pay, but if that does not dissuade you, here’s the guidelines.

Guest posts are publicized on Twitter, several Facebook pages and groups, my newsletter, and in my weekly link round-ups; you are welcome to link to your site, social media, and other related material.

Send a 2-3 sentence description of the proposed piece along with relevant dates (if, for example, you want to time things with a book release) to cat AT kittywumpus.net. If it sounds good, I’ll let you know.

I prefer essays fall into one of the following areas but I’m open to interesting pitches:

  • Interesting and not much explored areas of writing
  • Writers or other individuals you have been inspired by
  • Your favorite kitchen and a recipe to cook in it
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  • Women, PoC, LGBT, or other wise disadvantaged creators in the history of gaming, ranging from very early times up to the present day.
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When submitting the approved piece, please paste the text of the piece into the email. Please include 1-3 images, including a headshot or other representation of you, that can be used with the piece and a 100-150 word bio that includes a pointer to your website and social media presences. (You’re welcome to include other related links.)

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Cooking with Cat "“ Steamed Pork Buns are the Food of the Gods by Travis Heermann

Cooking with Cat:
Steamed Pork Buns are the Food of the Gods
by Travis Heermann

Back when I was living in Japan, about 2003-2006, one of the foods that I fell in love with was nikuman 肉まん, steamed pork buns. They could be found in any convenience store, and they made a great meal for someone who didn’t feel like cooking.

They come with various fillings: pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, veggie, even sweet custard. They are particularly comforting when the weather turns chilly and they’re all steamy and warm.

I was planning a vacation to Japan with the family in March 2020. We’d been planning it for years, and it would have been the first time I’d been back since returning to the States. I was excited to show my family, whom I didn’t have then, all the sights.

A secondary reason for going to Japan was professional, as I was in the midst of writing Tokyo Blood Magic, the first volume of my Shinjuku Shadows trilogy. I wanted to visit some important Tokyo locales, refresh my memory, gather some inspiration, but it was not to be.

As you might guess, COVID-19 derailed that, four days before wheels up for Tokyo. I was crushed, and nine months of isolation has not done much to help that state of mind.

Nevertheless, writing the book did assuage some of my disappointment, as I spent a lot of time in Google Street View, walking virtually around the streets of Tokyo. Writing the book was a fun way to reminisce, and also learn about places I didn’t get to visit while I was living there, such as Shizuoka, Ginza, and Roppongi.

There’s a scene in Tokyo Blood Magic where our hero, Django Wong, a ninja warlock, has his bacon saved from a very dangerous monster by a wisecracking alley cat, known only as Cat. Cat, however, is far from normal, and it’s not clear exactly what he is until Book 2, Tokyo Monster Mash.

Amid snarky repartee, Django and Cat venture into a convenience store for some post-fracas grub, where nikuman becomes a big part of their bonding. Cat becomes Django’s supernatural sidekick.

So in this Year of a Thousand Cuts, I wanted some comfort food for the Virtual Book Launch Party, which my wife and I put together over Zoom a couple of weeks after Tokyo Blood Magic was released. So I made some nikuman, and this video tells the tale so much better than text.

This recipe is adapted from Japanese measurements. Credit for the original goes to Namiko Chen.

Nikuman, Steamed Pork Buns

Video: Cooking With Cat – Nikuman

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

  • 2 1/3 cups all-purpose white flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 scant Tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc.)
  • 2/3 to 3/4 cup water

FILLING

  • 2 shiitake mushrooms (without the stems), finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 green onion/scallion, finely chopped
  • 4 leaves cabbage, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp kosher/sea salt
  • 3/4 lb. ground pork
  • About 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp sake
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp potato starch/cornstarch
  • freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. First, we make the dough. Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, yeast). Add oil and mix. Once the oil is thoroughly mixed in, slowly add the water while mixing. Mix until incorporated.
  2. Flour your hands and knead the dough into a ball. If the dough is too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water.
  3. Sprinkle a smooth surface with flour, move the dough onto the surface, and knead for 10-15 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle it with a little flour. After 10-15 minutes, dough should be smooth and silky.
  4. Form the dough into a ball. Grease the bottom of the bowl with neutral flavored oil and put the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise for about an hour, until the dough doubles in size.
  5. Meanwhile, it’s time to make the filling. Remove the thick stem parts of the cabbage leaves, then chop them finely. Sprinkle 1 tsp of salt onto the chopped cabbage. Massage the salt into the cabbage. This will begin to draw out cabbage’s moisture. After about ten minutes, squeeze the excess moisture out of the cabbage.
  6. Add pork, mushrooms, and scallions to another bowl.
  7. Squeeze the excess moisture from the chopped cabbage, then add it to the pork mixture.
  8. Add ginger, sugar, sake, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and starch. Sprinkle on some fresh black pepper to taste. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate until dough is ready.
  9. When dough has finished rising, divide the ball in half. Roll each half into a log shape, then cut each log into five pieces. Then cut each piece in half.

Note: If you like big buns, and you cannot lie, you can cut your dough into larger sizes and use more filling for each one.

  1. Lightly dust the balls with flour, cover them loosely with a damp cloth, and let them rest for ten minutes. (In the video, I missed this step!)
  2. Roll each ball into a flat circle about five inches in diameter.
  3. Cut twenty squares of parchment paper, about 3″ x 3″.
  4. Take a circle of dough and place 1 1/2 Tbsp of filling in the center.
  5. Fold the dough into a pouch around the filling. It works well to hold the pouch closed with thumb and forefinger while folding up the next bit of dough. First, it will resemble a taco, then a crab rangoon. As you fold in the corners of the “crab rangoon, ,” you’ll end up with a little pouch. Then pinch these corners together and give them a twist to seal the bun. Put each bun on a piece of parchment paper.
  6. Cover the finished buns with plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 minutes. (In the video, I missed this step, too.)
  7. Prepare a steamer with boiling water. Put buns in steamer, about 2″ apart. They will swell during steaming process. Steam for 10-15 minutes, (10 for small buns, 15 for large ones).
  8. Enjoy!

The result: they were delicious.

The texture of the bun was a little bit off, maybe because I missed a couple of steps with letting the dough rest. Another reason might be because I live in the Denver area, and altitude can certainly affect cooking and baking in unexpected ways, which I didn’t account for in my procedure.

Cooking is much like magic and writing. A little here, a little there, bits and pieces of accumulated experience and creative wisdom.

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try for yourself. If you do, let me know how it goes. Going into the Winter of COVID, maybe we’ll all need a little more comfort food.


Author Photo of Travis Heermann.Bio: Freelance writer, novelist, editor, and screenwriter, Travis Heermann is the author of nine novels, including Tokyo Blood Magic, The Hammer Falls, The Ronin Trilogy, and others, plus short fiction in Apex Magazine, Cemetery Dance, and many more. His freelance work includes contributions to the Firefly Roleplaying Game, Battletech, Legend of Five Rings, and EVE Online.

Find out more at travisheermann.com or follow him on Twitter @TravisHeermann.


If you’re an author or other fantasy and science fiction creative, and want to do a guest blog post, please check out the guest blog post guidelines. Or if you’re looking for community from other F&SF writers, sign up for the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers Critclub!

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Guest Post: Mike Baron on Horror Comics

Cover of Nexus Origin.Literature is the best medium for horror, and comics are the worst. Literature succeeds because of the power of words to suggest, to take you ninety percent there, and leave that final ten percent up to you. The horror we imagine in the darkness of our minds far exceeds anything that can be set down on paper in words or pictures. We love horror because it allows us to exorcise our fears in a safe and fun manner. It usually delivers a moral epiphany, as Mary Shelley intended.

There’s also existential horror with no good guys or bad guys, like The Devil’s Rejects. Without a moral epiphany no film can hope to reach a wider audience. Exorcist is not only the scariest movie ever made, it’s one of the most moral.

But enough about that. We’re talking scares. Movies do horror well as they control not only pacing, but every aspect of the experience. They can manipulate what you see — or what you think you see –on the screen. They can scare the bejesus out of you with sudden motion, unexpected thrusts from unexpected places. These tropes prove irresistible to hack filmmakers who fill their film with ominous musical crescendos and fake scares. Which brings us to pacing. You want to catch your audience off-balance; that’s why you throw in the fake scare followed a split-second later with the real scare.

Comics can’t do that. They must rely on the storytelling alone for inevitably, when the big scene comes — the full-page panel of the werewolf or the witch or the monster — it’s just a drawing on paper. Sure, there have been some horrible drawings in comics –pictures of torture or mutilation — but is this really horror? Or is it just Grand Guignol? You set the comic down and it goes away.

Horror is an intimate, terrifying sensation. It’s far more than disgust, and you all know what I’m talking about. You can count on the fingers of one hand those movies that touch on real supernatural evil. They’re the ones you remember.

Why are horror comics so popular?

People love the genre and the whiff of cheese issuing from the sideshow exhibit. The great EC tales in Shock Suspenstories, Tales from the Crypt and their ilk create horror by leaving the protagonist in a horrible situation. Buried alive. Chained to a corpse in a desert. As children, we can all relate because we can all imagine ourselves in that situation. The best comic book horror succeeds through powerful storytelling and great characterization. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing or even Al Capp’s Li’l Abner, like the time Abner was trapped in the mushroom cave with no hope of rescue. We experience a visceral horror through the protagonist because we care about him, her, or it. It’s not the same jolt as in the George C. Scott movie The Changeling when that ball comes bounding down the stairs.

In Nexus, Steve Rude and I are always trying to put our finger on the pulse of evil. But true horror depends on the unknowable — and we don’t know the unknowable. So how can we show it? The best we can do is dance around the edges and try to capture aspects of evil that ring true.

In comics, as in life, the true horror lurks just beyond our senses.


Photo of Mike Baron making a claw with his hand.BIO:Mike Baron broke into comics in 1981 with Nexus, his groundbreaking science fiction title co-created with illustrator Steve Rude; the series garnered numerous honors, including Eisners for both creators. A prolific creator, Mike is responsible for The Badger,Ginger Fox, Spyke, Feud, and many other comic book titles. Baron has also written numerous mainstream characters, most notably DC’s The Flash, Marvel’s The Punisher, and several Star Wars adaptations for Dark Horse. He lives in Colorado with his wife, dog, cat, and wildebeest.

Find out more at Mike’s website www.bloodyredbaron.com or on Twitter @BloodyRedBaron.


If you’re an author or other fantasy and science fiction creative, and want to do a guest blog post, please check out the guest blog post guidelines. Or if you’re looking for community from other F&SF writers, sign up for the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers Critclub!

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