Many of you know that diversity in fiction is a cause I'm really passionate about, so I make a conscious effort to introduce diversity into my own books. I have no doubt that I screw things up at times because I'm a straight, white woman who doesn't know what it's like to be an LGBTQIA+ person, or a person of color. I do know what it's like to be a woman, so while I'm comfortable with addressing sexism and misogyny, I am conscious of how I could come off as way off base or spectacularly insensitive when it comes to the issues LGBTQIA+ people or people of color face. I want to learn and understand, so I try to read, watch, and listen to as much as I can get my hands on, but if at any time any of my readers would like to point something out to me, I am very receptive to that. I want to do better, I really do.

I'm addressing this because the Wasteland trilogy features my first gay main character. This isn't the first time I've written about lesbian, bi, or gay characters. There are secondary LGBTQIA+ characters in Committed, Court of Illusion (the third Astoran Asunder book), and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sensibility. You can tell these books are a bit dated because in both Committed and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sensibility, characters comment about being unable to marry because they're lesbian or gay, something I'm very glad has changed in the intervening years.

I've heard people talk about books that depict LGBTQIA+ characters as having an "agenda". Do my books have an agenda? Well, yeah. My agenda is to write about characters who hopefully come across as human beings, to do my best to depict their struggles in a vivid way, and to put forth my best effort to create a story that draws readers in and leaves them wanting more. The Wasteland trilogy books are no exception. Alessandro is gay. It's an aspect of his character. It's not his defining aspect, but it is who he is, and I'm writing about that in the most honest way I know how. He will have a romance in books two and three, and though the romances in these books are not explicit, they do exist as part of the characters' subplots.

(Not to toot my own horn here, but if I do say so myself, Alessandro's romance is shaping up to be one of the sweetest romances I've written. Editing those passages is giving me some serious feels.)

I will be both frank and blunt here. If some readers are uncomfortable with the idea of reading about a romance between two teen boys, well, they're welcome to read other books. I'm not going to change mine. LGBTQIA+ people and people of color exist, and they deserve to have their stories told. (Preferably by own voice authors--authors who are people of color and/or LGBTQIA+, but I also firmly believe white, straight authors ought to make more of an effort to diversify their books.)

Look, as a woman who majored in French and minored in English, I spent a LOT of time reading books by dead white men. Sometimes I got other, more diverse viewpoints as part of my education, but mostly I was supposed to read, understand, and be able to sympathize with a WHOLE lot of dead white guys. Why is it that I, as a woman, or readers of color, or LGBTQIA+ readers, or neurodiverse readers, or disabled readers, are supposed to be able to see from the point of view of able-bodied, straight, white men, but the reverse isn't true? I don't buy it. There's academic evidence that reading can make us more empathetic, and the best way I can imagine to achieve that is by having people read about characters who aren't like them, as well as characters who are.

Which is why I'm going to do my best to be part of the change I want to continue to see in the world of publishing. I think publishing as a whole is taking steps toward progress, but I also think we've still got a long road ahead of us. Diverse fiction isn't a "trend", and it shouldn't be seen as one. If authors, readers, and publishers care about continuing to advance literature as an art form, we should get behind diverse fiction, because a vast, rich wealth of stories is the only way to elevate our art form.

I've said this before, but it's something some people may still not know about me: I used to write fanfic, and I also had an extremely satisfying run of writing Harry Potter filks (song parodies in which you take a popular tune and rewrite the lyrics to reflect whatever subject you're covering) for the group Harry Potter for Grownups. On the fanfic side, I dabbled in Tolkien, writing lots of wish-fulfillment fics about elves (yes, I admit it, I had a mad crush on Orlando Bloom as Legolas), and I've also written a few short Mass Effect fanfics (starring my femShep, natch), but my longest fanfic by far was a Knights of the Old Republic fic detailing the exploits of my light-side female Jedi, Brinna Warrim.

Now, I obviously didn't create Harry Potter or Mass Effect or KOTOR (*sigh* If only I had...), but, boy, how I love those worlds. I've been writing for as long as I can remember, and I've never had a problem creating my own stories, but playing around with characters I loved in other people's worlds was such a pleasure for me. It got my creative juices going in a whole different way from creating my own worlds and characters, and it was excellent writing practice during times when I went through long stretches of not writing original material.

I'm not ashamed of having written fanfic, nor am I ashamed of having once been an enthusiastic member of the fanfic community, not only writing my own but also reading and commenting on others' work. It was a great community full of supportive people who genuinely enjoyed reading one another's work and sharing a dialog about it. Think about it. For someone like me, who aspired to be a writer but wasn't yet in a place where I felt ready to share my own creations, it was invaluable. I was WAAAAAY too shy and insecure to let people read my original stuff, but I was fine with sharing fanfic. That willingness helped me receive and process critiques, which in turn helped me improve my writing skills, a process that continues to this day.

Given this, I cheered my way through The Bodies of the Girls Who Made Me: Fanfic and the Modern World on the Tor blog. I was already familiar with Seanan McGuire because I fanatically love her Wayward Children series, and knowing her writing origins are much like mine is pretty awesome. Her critique of how fanfic writers are treated is spot-on, and she has some very important stuff to say about how female writers are treated versus how male writers are treated.

It's a great article and I highly recommend it because the continuing conversation about the lack of diversity in publishing is necessary and good for the industry as a whole--as is the discussion of the lack of diversity in movies, TV, video games, etc. Loving stories as much as I do, I am so eager for the inclusion of more diverse voices because I'm excited about how they'll enrich the literary/film/television/video game worlds.

As a lifelong geek/nerd, I have a healthy appreciation for pop culture that not only embraces but celebrates the nerdy/geeky things I love: literature, video games, superhero movies, science fiction, etc. I also absolutely love romantic comedies and cannot get enough of the good ones. One of the reasons I started writing rom-coms and romances is because there was a dearth of the kind of romances I enjoy reading about, so imagine how utterly, over-the-moon thrilled I was to stumble on Susannah Nix's romantic comedy series, Chemistry Lessons.

I picked the first one up on a whim and before I'd even finished it, I hurried to purchase books two and three. These books hit *all* my buttons. The heroines are smart, career-focused women with a healthy appreciation for various types of pop culture. They're not perfect, and the prickly Esther in particular, the main character in Intermediate Thermodynamics, is downright exasperating at times. But these characters feel so real, and they are the kind of nuanced, smart female characters I long for every time I pick up a book, turn on the TV, go to the movies, or fire up a video game.

As someone who's struggled with weight and body image issues, I can't even begin to express how much I appreciate Penny, the main character in Advanced Physical Chemistry. I wanted to cry when I read Nix's description of how Penny eats well and exercises, and is naturally a size 16. I could write an entire essay about how much I relate to that.

Not only are these ladies marvelous, their male love interests are *exactly* the kinds of male characters calibrated to make me swoon. Jeremy, the love interest in Remedial Rocket Science, has some alpha male characteristics--at least at first glance. But then he grows and develops throughout the book. Every male love interest in these books not only lusts after the female main characters, they admire and are fascinated by them, and they are *kind*. One of the things that really turns me off about so many romances and rom-coms is when the female characters are saddled with either jerky manboys who need their women to make them grow up or when the alpha male needs to assert his dominance over his woman, treating her in downright abusive ways as their "love" story develops. Those tropes are blissfully 100% absent from these books. And, trust me, these very nice, sweet, and caring men are SUPER sexy.

I do wish the books were available wide for my non-Kindle readers, but the upside is that they're free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Please, please read them so you can come back here and gush with me about how fantastic they are.