Sometimes sexuality doesn't have to matter, it just has to exist.

I chase lizards...well, I chase lizards in a uniquely singleminded and slightly disturbing fashion, but as I'm not a lizardsexual, it has nothing to do with who I do or do not choose to form romantic relationships with.

It could influence who wants or does not want to form romantic relationships with you, though. Or maybe that's just me. I can get really into my lizard hunting. ;)

I think the reason Dr. Kellis being gay jumps out so much is that we're so used to characters being hetero and cis. Characters who don't fit the usual mold may snag our attention and distract us enough to pull us out of the story. *shrugs* Just my theory/two cents. It stuck out to me that it was Dr. Kellis' husband who stopped by the lab the first time I read it because I'm used to, and expect, the hetero and cis thing, but beyond that, whatever. Unlike many other writers, QUILTBAG characters are par for the course in your novels. Anyone who can't understand why you have QUILTBAG characters and finds them disturbing...well, there are plenty of other writers they can read.

I can understand why you'd find that distressing. A good way to deal with that would be to cuddle the Yetis and/or go herping. Go herping with the Yetis. I'm sure they'd enjoy it. ;)

I have nothing intelligent to add, only that I love this for existing.

But what about dragons?

I love dragons! ... from a distance, I don't want any moving down the block, thank you.

But has anyone complained that Dragon Maidens, AKA Beautiful Blondes, are now unavailable for het guys? Because they're into lizards! Icky! Unfair! Distracting!

I thought it was the funniest part of the book. Are they going to show up again?

Thank you so much for this. I loved reading the Newsflesh series, and the fact that Dr. Kellis was gay, and Maggie and Buffy were involved, and OMG QUEER PEOPLE. I LOATHE the idea that there has to be a "reason" for characters to be queer -- like you said, we don't have to have a reason for them to be straight, so WTF. Something that I have begun to do with my own writing, since reading many essays about characters defaulting to straight white male, is to stop and ask myself "what if" the character was gay, or bisexual, or asexual, or trans, or POC, or disabled... etc (I don't mention "woman" because I actually default to women characters; I have worried that people will be put off by my having a women majority character base but, hey, it will even out some of the male dominated fiction).

Sometimes the characters say "nope, this is who I am", but other times, it really sets off the muse on the character ideas! Like, I have a novel that is in perpetual revisions -_- but when I went back to rewrite it, I asked myself how the story would change if the other main character / love interest was a woman, since I had originally written it as an urban fantasy with romantic elements. And, wow, it just totally clicked, and now I have a lesbian POC character who is all sorts of awesome. And there's no "reason" except that it fit. Some people would probably say that I'm just trying to fill a quota, but that is frankly, bullshit. The character and the story works so much better with her being a woman.

So, I take exception to the idea that there needs to be a "reason." We shouldn't have to have a reason to have minorities in fiction. The fact that we are real people and want to see ourselves in stories the same way that straight white men do... should damn well be enough.

LOVE your blog -- the way your characters "introduce" themselves to you sounds exactly like my experience. One minute, I don't even realize a character is about to Become Someone in My Story, the next they are developing a personality, capability, passions, heck, even sexuality if it's relevant. This also reminds me of the point in my life where I realized how often my wildlife-loving family, upon observing a racoon, or a rabbit, or a fox, or some other species that is not sexually dimorphic, would automatically say, "Oh, we saw a fox. He was lying right next to the woods." He? WTF? So I started intentionally varying the gender words I used when talking about animals of indeterminate gender. Yeah, I guess it WAS a bit distracting, reminding myself and others so casually that not everything on the planet is male. But, that's just the price you have to pay ... lol Now, of course, I automatically think "she" sometimes, realizing, on a level beyond language, that probably a good percentage of the critters I see are female. Now my daughter informs me that it turns out that not only homosexuality, but also bisexuality and even asexuality (an estimated one percent of the human population), also seems to be a normal, natural part of the sexual continuum among other mammals. Glad to keep broadening my knowledge of reality, no matter how distracting ...

HUG!!!! Well said.

I am one more person for whom it's a feature, not a bug, that you write these characters the way you do. Thank you!

В принципе, тот кто писал необычно написал!