Worst of all was the expectation that I was supposed to accept that as "just the way it is."
Isn't speculative fiction supposed to be about imagining worlds and people radically different from our own? How far can we really get if we must constantly adhere to a gender binary system? I felt locked into a male-female dichotomy that I don't happen to think represents contemporary humans very accurately, let alone the people of Harken's Landing. I'm not real big on being told I can't do something, especially when the evidence summoned to support the sanction is subjective. Reasons given were that it's distracting to the reader and that gender-neutral pronouns "just sound silly." But before I'd even finished writing the book, I had people telling me I couldn't do that. I realized I had an opportunity here to play with gender neutral pronouns.
When it came to the vasai, who are intersex, I had some decisions to make regarding pronouns. The society is strictly segregated by caste, and each caste has its own distinctive physical characteristics. As these things sometimes go, no sooner had they landed than they began oppressing one another. Harken's Landing, the setting of the story, is a city founded by colonists from earth who came to their new world to escape oppression back home. I created a society, a religion, an economy, and a geography, and I had a blast doing it. In my other life I'm a science fiction and fantasy author and with Amaranth & Ash I decided to create a full-blown world with all the bells and whistles. Their unlawful passion ignites a rebellion and transforms their world. Ash is a chel, a member of the underclass. Amaranth is a vasai, born with both male and female characteristics and forbidden from sexual relations with any but the ruling class. Amaranth & Ash is an erotic male/transmale fantasy romance set on a highly stratified colonized world. It's called Amaranth & Grail and it's available exclusively to newsletter members, so if you'd like to join, here's the link. That's easy, isn't it? Secondly, a free short story featuring some of the major characters from Amaranth & Ash is up in the files section of my newsletter group. Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Amaranth & Ash. We're running a contest today, right here on Victoria's blog. Before I do, I want to make a couple of announcements. In a second I'm going to tell you a bit about my new release, Amaranth & Ash, and one particular challenge I faced in writing it. I had a great time last time I was a guest here and I'm sure today will be just as much fun. Hi everybody and good morning! First of all, I want to thank Victoria for generously opening her blog to me - again.
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