Queer is both a adjective and a verb. One can be a queer person, and one can queer shit up. To queer is hard to define — as hard to define as ‘kink’ and ‘love’ — but inherent in any working definition of ‘to queer’ must be ‘to fuck with the status quo.’

If you aren’t shaking shit up, you aren’t queering it. If you aren’t fucking with people’s expectations and overturning world views, you aren’t queering.

There is lots of lgbt+ fiction. There is far less queer fiction. To be queer fiction, it is not enough to have queer characters. To be queer fiction, the story must also queer. A story may queer expectations of romance and relationships, or ideas about society, or genre tropes. It may challenge the current societal status quo or propose an entirely new worldview. Perhaps all of these at the same time.

I write queer fiction. Mostly spec fic — fantasy and sci-fi. Mostly found family. Often kinky. But to the extent I can manage, always queer. What I love most is queering ideas about love and family but sometimes I’ll get a kick out of queering tropes, or ideas about how society can work, or even classical literature.

It isn’t always comfortable to read (or write). But it is always mine.

Queerly yours,
Jess

Note: I know some people view ‘queer’ as a slur and don’t want it to be used. If you do not like my positive use of ‘queer,’ then you dislike my fucking with the status quo of how you understand the word ‘queer.’

If that’s a problem for you, maybe think about why.