Kickoff: Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection
I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fly
I know exactly what I want and who I want to be
I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine
I'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy
Oh! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no, oh!
Oh No!, MARINA
Schedule
Kick-off:March 1, 2024Midway Check In: March 15, 2024
Final Discussion: March 29, 2024 - 6PM PST 💜
You can RSVP for the Digital Hang here - This means you get an email with the link to join on the day of and gives me a good idea of how many folks to expect!
If you can’t make it to the digital hang, you can always use the comment section to leave your thoughts, reviews, and reflections at any time.
Ace of Genres
I found a lovely panel on Charis Circle Youtube where the editor of Being Ace, Madeline Dyer, is joined by several contributors to the anthology. They discuss so many aspects to the anthology as a whole as well as their individual stories— their inspirations, goals, and hopes for ace voices in publishing.
It becomes this thing that's like, ‘Why is that important to the story?’ and it's like well, because it's important to the character it's just who they are.
One of the things that drew me to this anthology, aside from the ace representation, was the fact that it spans over multiple genres. It’s something that the authors were also very excited about as writers of said stories, but also as readers in want of them.
As Rosiee Thorr, author of the story “Well Suited” says during this panel, “I think it's so cool to see asexual representation in so many different genres. I obviously write science fiction and fantasy and so I do see it in those spaces, but I do think we see a much more-- this is going to sound a little bit odd-- but there is a willingness to accept asexuality as a plot point in a contemporary story of, you know, coming out or something like that and in science fiction and fantasy, in my experience, it's often kind of sidelined. It becomes this thing that's like, ‘Why is that important to the story?’ and it's like well because it's important to the character it's just who they are. They want it to serve some sort of plot purpose or something and this anthology I think really gave many of us an opportunity to explore a genre or a type of Storytelling that we might not have otherwise pursued.”
So the idea is that any reader going into Being Ace will be able to find at least one story that is like their favorite genre.
I heard similar a similar excitement and sentiment from Dyer in this podcast interview with Sounds Fake But Okay.
MADELINE: Okay. Yes, so Being Ace is a collection of aspec stories by aspec for first, all of them are young adult stories and some of them deal more explicitly with various parts that come with sort of like being ace and the identity and others are just about characters who happen to be ace in sort of like fantastical worlds, solving mysteries, that kind of thing. So, we've got quite a variety and it is a multi-genre anthology so we've got sci-fi, we've got like medieval fantasy, there's contemporary, there's like a thriller as well, we've got quite a range so the idea is that any reader going into Being Ace will be able to find at least one story that is like their favorite genre.
SARAH: Yeah, there's like verse in there. There's all sorts of fun and funky stuff happening
During the podcast they also talked about something I’d been curious about: the subtitle. It is quite long and I wondered at the specificity of it.
MADELINE: …. It was really interesting because I think a lot more ace writers who identify as women or non-binary are out publicly as being ace than men so pretty much the majority of the submissions I got from the open call were from non-binary and women identifying writers. So I found that really interesting, just something active I had to be aware of when I was putting together Being Ace and the subtitle was decided by the editor of publishers so I didn't really get much say in that but they wanted that to reflect the breadth and variety of authors involved which I thought was really great.
It was also great to see that Cody Daigle-Orians, creator of Ace Dad Advice, wrote the introduction to the anthology.
There’s lot of really good stuff in these two links. Watch the panel (there is ASL interpreting as well as captions) or listen to the interview (or read the transcript). Or check out both like I did! I promise that it can only enhance your understanding of ace representation as well as get you so excited about starting Being Ace.
General
Are you planning on reading along this month?
What do you think of the cover, title, description?
Have you read or heard anything by the editor or these authors before?
What are you looking forward to the most from this collection?
How do you feel about ace representation in media (books, movies, shows, etc.) nowadays?
Seeing Ace
How familiar are you with the terms asexual and aromantic? Were there any other terms you were curious about or just discovered? (Mine was Aceflux)
Does anyone in your life identify as asexual, aromantic or both? Do you? (Only share if you’re comfortable or have permission!)
What genres are you most excited to see ace characters represented in? What other intersections are you
Anything else, let me know!
Don’t forget to like the post before you go ♥ I’d love to hear from you so share your thoughts in the comments, reply to this email or seek me out on social media.
Becoming a supporter on ko-fi gets you:
Behind The Scenes + Extra Posts
Bookmarks, Zines, & Sticker Drops
Book Recommendations
Guest Post & Artist Fund
My Undying Love & Gratitude
☕️
Hi! @cuir_bookseeker here! I love this selection as an asexual myself. The representation is scarce and hard to find, so I was so excited to see this come out. Especially since it focuses on a variety of identities, backgrounds and genres. I personally resonated with the title as Being Ace is not a choice, and is just a passive part of ourselves. Different for everyone but equally as valid too. Excited to read and hear others opinions!
I'm queer and disabled and non binary and also a writer of sci-fi and fantasy so it's super important to me to read writing by diverse ace folks since I have ACE characters. I'm not myself and I want to be sure I'm creating thoughtful intentional representaction that's integrated to the work and where readers can see themselves. I'm super excited about this because I'm trying to read all I can so I am aware of what Canon is and also because as a human it's important for my own understanding /exposure especially as an educator.
I love sci-fi and fantasy and they have general representation issues on many levels and especially disability and asexual folks in non monolithic ways. So it's lovely to see this pop up (w disability I often only check sporadically).
Will be back to answer other questions when I have more spoons (arthritis insisting I stop typing for the momemt)