Hi besties!!
Today I am so excited to welcome Rita, a queer self-published author!! In today’s post Rita talks about ‘Writing Queernormative Book Worlds’.
But, before I share with you what Rita has written for us today, I would like to highlight Rita’s wonderful work as a writer!! If you haven’t heard of her, or her books before today, then I am excited for you to get to know Rita!!
Rita’s Books and Twitter 💞
So Rita is the author of AMULET OF WISHES (Chronicles of the Guardians #1) and LADY NIGHT (Chronicles of the Guardians #2). You can learn more about both these books here!!
Also make sure to follow Rita on her twitter too!!
Buy Links
Rita Discusses ‘Writing Queernormative Book Worlds’
I was twenty-two when I came to terms with the fact that I was queer. But for as long as I can
remember, I’ve always felt attracted to women as well as men. I just didn’t quite realise it and when
I did start to realise it, I wished it would go away. I didn’t grow up in an aggressively homophobic
household, but I’ve never doubted my family’s thoughts of the LGBT+ community sway towards
“other” and “not natural”.
These views are part of the reason I’ve kept myself in the closet to my family and most of my friends.
But I’ve also kept my sexuality a secret because coming out is scary. Because I fear the uncertainty of
how the people in my life would react if I told them. If they would look at me differently. It’s not just
the fear of being shunned and hateful slurs being thrown in my face that scares me when I think
about coming out, but the thought of relationships changing even if just a little bit. I’m sure many
LGBT+ folk can relate to the struggles of coming out and I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing we could
live in a world where coming out wasn’t necessary. Where being queer wasn’t something we needed
to hide in the first place.
It’s why it was so important to me that, when writing my ongoing fantasy series, Chronicles of the
Guardians, I created a world that was just that. In Chronicles of the Guardians, there’s a range of
queer characters, such as an asexual elf mage and a gay prince. But not once do we ever have to see
these characters face hardships because of their sexuality. There’s never an instance where
someone so much as bats an eye at the mention of another character not being heterosexual.
Because this is a world that’s completely queernormative.
Of course I think it’s important to have all kinds of queer stories, but I think it’s especially important
to have stories where we can see characters being queer and happy and without fear of persecution.
As a reader, those are my favourite types of queer books to read and it makes me feel a special kind
of joy to be able to contribute my own books to this sect of queer stories.
If you enjoyed reading this post and wish to support the blog, please consider checking out my WISHLIST ! You’ll be helping me read and feature more books 🤍
Thank you so much Rita, for visiting Misty Realms and having this discussion with us!! We appreciate you so much 💗 HAPPY PRIDE 🏳️🌈
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