#Non-Binary Authors

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate International Non-Binary People’s Day with Books by Non-Binary Authors!

Today, July 14th, is International Non-Binary People’s Day. Last year, we put together a post featuring our favorite books with non-binary characters. This year, we changed it up by highlighting books we loved written by out non-binary authors! We hope you’ll take a peek at the works we’ve listed here and other stories created by these awesome folks! The contributors to this list are: Shea Sullivan, Nina Waters, Sanne, May Barros, Shadaras, Tris Lawrence, Meera S. and two anonymous contributors.

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson

How to Love: A Guide to Feelings and Relationships for Everyone: A Graphic Novel by Alex Norris

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Chameleon Moon (Chameleon Moon series) by RoAnna Sylver

Gamechanger (The Bounceback series) by L.X. Beckett

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg

Foxhunt (Foxhunt series) by Rem Wigmore

An Accident of Stars (Manifold Worlds series) by Foz Meadows

A Taste of Gold and Iron (Mahisti Dynasty series) by Alexandra Rowland

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Melissa by Alex Gino

Once & Future (Once & Future series) by A.R. Capetta

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare by Yuhki Kamatani

Providence Girls by Morgan Dante

Soulstar (The Kingston Cycle series) by C.L. Polk

Who are YOUR favorite non-binary authors?

[livingfictionsystem]

[rs-hawk]

Fluff only for this one. Woman Reader (sex irrelevant)

Your Godly lover had given you immortality after They nearly lost you. They couldn’t bear the idea of losing you. You hated Them for it even all these centuries later. You had to watch your family grow old and die. Your younger siblings. Their children. Their children’s children. Eventually you couldn’t even be around their descendants. It was too hard. All you could do was set up a trust fund each time you found out another had been born. You still had to take care of them somehow. They were all that was left in this world of your family.

You were a whispered legend in the county you lived in. Some thought you were a Spirit of the Forest that was from the pre-Colonization of the area. Some said you were a monster, lurking and read to eat unsuspecting youth who wandered into your trees. Others said you were stolen by a man who killed you. Very few whispered the truth, because those who had eventually were forced away from the area to allow it to be settled.

It wasn’t until some of your youngest sister’s descendants moved back to the area that you allowed yourself to peek at them. You’d find excuses to go to town, to find them. Your sister had been gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful woman aside from your mother that you’d ever seen. She was tall, with eyes like clay, hair like midnight and skin so smooth you always wanted to be the one to paint it. Her descendant was none of those things aside from beautiful.

Her eyes shun like the midday sky, with hair that curled and twisted in ways you’d never imagined before the settlers came. Her face was round and childlike despite the life line that aged her face. Her skin burned easily in the sun that your sister loved, but there was ink on that skin. A permanent painting of a bird. You couldn’t help but smile. The more you saw her, the more you wanted to get to know her. You were attached. You did get to know her. You two chatted, and her voice sounding like a melody. You loved her. She was almost like her sister had come back to you.

Then she died.

You felt like your heart was torn out of your chest. You screamed, cried, begged your Godly former lover to let you die, but They didn’t. Then, a few days after, you stood at the edge of her funeral, watching her cold body be lowered into the ground. You saw her husband standing there with their child. A beautiful little girl who reminded you so much of her mother.

It wasn’t long until you saw that same beautiful little girl curled up in a ball in the middle of the woods, sobbing. Her father said he wanted to go camping, then left her. You couldn’t let the search party find her. They would give her back to that man who said she ran off, and she was too young to deny it.

As you sat with her head in your lap and she started to fall asleep, having washed the dirt out of her golden hair, your Godly former lover appeared before you.

“This will hurt. It always does.”

You look at Them, your lower lip trembling. “I know, but I had to save her. He would have just done something else if this didn’t work.”

They look down at the little girl, tilting Their head. “Her heart reminds me of hers. Pure. Soft. She will grow up to be kind, just like her.”

“I miss her,” you whisper, voice cracking as you look down at the sleeping child.

Your Godly former lover lays Their hand on your shoulder, squeezing it softly. “I’m sorry for what I did to you. I love you.”

“I know. I wish you didn’t.”

“I know… me too.”

[thesophiewhit]

PHONING FAUST -- A Sapphic Novel of Demonic Contracts, Demisexuality, and Yearning by me! A cool queer author ~

Are you LGBT+ or BIPOC or just REALLY LOVE BOOKS? Interested in being an ARC reader and reading a book and helping a fellow queer indie author out? (Pretty please? -- ARC links all the way at the bottom of this post (beneath the rainbow banner) for those who like Sapphic demon x human angst books ~)

AND LOOK AT THE CHARACTER ART OF MEMPHIS (BADASS DEMON) AND DIAN (HUMAN) BY MY ARTIST FRIEND SNAX

https://linktr.ee/artsnaxk

ABOUT ME

Demisexual?? Queer? Nonbinary? All these were magical words to me until it hit...

Oh-- that's me.

It took me a while to come out as queer, longer to come out as nonbinary, and then some more time to reconcile all this with being a mixed Indonesian kid. A dash of mental health, a sprig of figuring out asexuality and neurodivergence. But atop all that? One thing has been constant.

I've always been a writer.

That's some live footage of me summoning some forces to reign my characters in from being feral.

WHY I WROTE PHONING FAUST

Well, well, well, after years of battling imposter's syndrome, I did it. I wrote another book! It's called PHONING FAUST and it's getting published with queer indie publishing company @ninestarpress-blog because they're all cool and LGBT+ and super talented!

Why did I write PHONING FAUST?

What is... a Faust?

A Faustian bargain is what's popularly known as the devil's bargain. A usually losing situation or a trick where the devil tricks someone out of their soul in exchange for ULTIMATE POWER!

I rewrote Faust to be Sapphic as can be. It stars a mixed Indonesian lesbian named Dian Faust who battles depression tooth and nail and ends up calling a mental health crisis hotline. Bc... she's lonely.

PAUSE-- and this is a horror comedy. Comedy. COMEDY-- you might say?

WHY? HOW? Sounds sad and depressing, right?

WHAT'S FAUST?

Well... in the original retelling version of Goethe's Faust (who retold it from folklore etc etc) the main character of Dr. Faustus accidentally summons the devil or something when he too is about to consider the meaning of life and it gets sad bc he doesn't see one so he makes the devil's bargain FOR ULTIMATE POWER. Or something.

But in my version-- it's based off my experiences as a queer person. Before I had community. Before I understood and accepted myself-- I had a rough time. For a whole bunch of factors outside of that-- I didn't feel like my life was in a good place. And even worse-- I felt isolated.

THE PLOT

I didn't want to bother my friends with my problems. So-- I'd call the Trevor Project or a crisis hotline just to have somebody to talk to. In the same way-- Dian Faust is struggling with depression in the story I write. So she calls a hotline like the Trevor Project just to not be alone.

And guess who she finds?

A super hot genderfluid devil called MEMPHIS, short for Mephistopheles. A pierced and tatted punk rocker who has an interest for telling tall tales and serving Dian Faust's every wish and command! (No, not like that!)

Because Dian Faust, like me, is a mixed Indonesian kid trying to figure out what it means to be queer AND demisexual (finding attraction only after really getting to emotionally connect with someone and feeling, as I explain in the book, a lack of that before then for anyone). And she's figuring plenty out--- including how to save her immortal soul and her feelings for a certain genderfluid demon but if you want to know more-- YOU CAN BUT YOU HAVE TO SCROLL TO THE END OF THIS POST TO FIND OUT !

I wrote this book PHONING FAUST (coming out in 2025 sometime with NineStar Press btw. I have these books CATCH LILI TOO and WAKE THE DEAD also starring Sapphic demiace MCs if it's helpful while you wait!

I WROTE MORE QUEER BOOKS (if interested)! (ARC SIGN UP LINK IS STILL BELOW THIS ONE THO! > FOLLOW THE RAINBOW !!)

MY OTHER QUEER BOOKS: https://sophiawhittemore.com/books/ ) <3 <3 <3

I wrote PHONING FAUST (train of thought, sorry, that's the neurodivergence) because I wanted people to feel less alone.

I was, like Dian Faust and like a lot of people, a queer person who felt like I was on an island unto myself. I didn't know who to turn to-- so I turned to no one. By reaching out to hotlines (no hot devils unfortunately), I managed to get the help I needed to avoid making rash decisions-- to get the help I needed to get better. To take that first step.

PHONING FAUST is a novel that raises the importance of mental health and finding community, and most importantly, not giving up. As Dian Faust says in my upcoming book...

There are stars out there-- I had only to see it.

***

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

🌈🌈🌈🌈ARC LINK SIGN UPS HERE 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

ARC LINK SIGN UPS IN LINKTREE <3

Want to be an ARC reader for this queer book starring a demisexual Sapphic couple and BIPOC cast?

Sign up here! : https://tr.ee/mWPM8I9Zev

***

Hmmm, demon contracts...now where might young 2010 emo me have heard that before... ? ?

[selkie-tea-tin]

‘Danmei is mlm fantasy written by and for straight women’ is a lie. It’s written for transmascs and lesbians obviously.

[intothedysphoria]

When they were in drag, Billy went by Holly.

Apparently it was a reference according to Eddie Munson. A queer icon from the 80s. Steve looked Holly Johnson up one night and admitted he could see why Billy would be drawn to him.

They didn’t really care about gender. Most times Steve saw Billy, they were blending masculine and feminine clothing together seamlessly, not caring about the abuse people hurled at them on the street.

Steve wished he cared that little about how he was perceived.

It might have been two solid years of watching Kalvin Garrah before realising how disgusting those ideas were but Steve still paused at even wearing the colour pink, worried it would somehow negate his transness. All ideas of Steve’s masculinity dependent on a fucking colour.

The very definition of toxic masculinity.

Billy could probably see how insecure Steve was in his identity and that was the reason they never even glanced his way. They spent most of their time at death metal concerts or drag shows, talking to interesting people.

Steve was probably the least interesting man alive.

And of course he was hopelessly in love with Billy.

Well, maybe infatuated was a better term for it but the general gist was there.

So he hung around places that were noisy and crowded and everything Steve hated just to get a look at them. They were absolutely spectacular every time. It almost made all the stress worth it.

Robin asked him why he didn’t just talk to them. Steve responded that he’d talk to Billy when she talked to Heather.

Both of them took a moment to think about how disasterously single they were that night.

Eddie’s birthday took them to a punk bar. Steve wasn’t quite sure how he’d been invited but apparently him and Eddie actually were friends. It was nice, actually being someone’s friend, not just being in a clique.

What Eddie hadn’t mentioned was how loud it would be.

Steve made it through about three songs before he broke. It was clearly a very friendly environment but he just couldn’t cope. Instead he sat on the sidewalk outside, hands shaking slightly as he tried to calm his breathing.

The sensory overload bordering on panic attack was interrupted by the most beautiful voice Steve had ever heard.

“Hey man, you ok?”

Standing above him was Billy Hargrove, dressed in denim head to toe, small bits of glitter adorning their moustache.

Steve could feel his brain leaking out of his ears as he nodded, not sure what to say.

Most people would have walked off after that.

Billy stayed with him the entire night.

They talked to him about their cat, their baby sister, their annoying boss. Steve returned some nervous responses until he gained more confidence and found that talking to Billy was shockingly easy.

It was kind of a bummer when Steve realised he’d have to make his way back to Robin to give her a ride home but she was already arm in arm with Heather, flashing him a thumbs up and waving wildly.

Out of the many things Billy was, they were also incredibly forthright.

Because they just looked Steve dead in the eyes and asked to kiss him. Steve said yes and despite the having to jump wildly because he was so much shorter, it was incredible.

The next morning Steve found himself sitting on the floor of Billy’s apartment while they did his makeup and it was the most at peace he’d felt in a long time.

[goodluckclove]

I love how Edgar looks at Scott and is like man he's so pretty. He's so pretty and nice and cool and I love him so much. He's got such a nice face and I like his freckles and wowie what a great guy.

Meanwhile this is Scott:

buddy

buddy you're being weird

i mean i've been there but trust me when you say shit like this people think you're weird

[cataclysmicevie]

Checked an AO3 review notification and I beg your fucking pardon lol?

[munsons-mutiny]

I’ve had this headcanon forever and it’s just never come up anywhere, so I figured it’s time to write about it.

Caleb’s spell that he makes for Veth, Widogast’s Transmorigification, has major implications for Exandria’s trans population! This could be the magical equivalent of top or bottom surgery only it’s down to a biological level! I’m sure they’ve had their own procedures, but a body that you can personally design does seem like an upgrade from whatever technology/magic they have available!

I like to believe that Caleb doesn’t think about the spell in that context at first, why would he? It was designed for someone with a different type of body dysphoria, and he doesn’t interact with too many trans people (at least that he knows, I have no clue if he knows about Yussa, and they haven’t seen Bryce in ages).

But once he starts teaching, and establishes himself as a safe space for queer kids (you can’t tell me the empire is super open minded, especially their most prestigious traditional institution) the application becomes obvious. The first time his favorite student, a small purple tiefling named Aza who reminds him so much of Molly it hurts, comes to him mid-breakdown because of how bad the dysphoria is the solution just immediately pops into his head. He could fix this for her, give her the body she should’ve been born in.

He comforts her the best he can and then calls a meeting of the lgbt club he has set up (it’s run under the radar to make it safe even for students who aren’t out to their peers yet). Where he gives a presentation on the spell, and it’s capabilities, even has Veth come in to show the results and have her talk about her experience and if there had been any side effects.

A couple students in the room cry at the possibility, some remain uninterested, but many are enraptured with the idea.

In what seems like the blink of an eye Caleb has suddenly become an underground queer hero, he starts performing the spell free of cost to anyone who wants it and is above the legal age (you just have to help dig up the clay if you can). Ends up having a whole medical procedure to the spell, where he takes them to the blooming grove (which I imagine has plenty of clays heheh) where it’s peaceful and they can talk everything over with caduceus before and after. Who can guide them through their feelings much better than Caleb though he always tries his best. He always offer the option to go back as well (though they have to wait a year, which is of course stated beforehand) if it isn’t the solution they were hoping for.

(Totally off track but I fully believe Caduceus ends up super involved in Caleb’s queer club, there’s so little aro ace rep and seeing someone whose so confident in it would be so helpful for them, and I think it would be so comforting for Caddy to see others like him and to know he’s not alone in that)

They keep the whole operation quiet, but it spreads silently throughout the queer community, Astrid even stepping in a time or two to keep it off the Assembly’s radar (She may be straight, but she’s poly with a bi partner, and I believe she’ll use her powers for causes she believes in for better or worse. Thankfully this is one of them).

There’s still discrimination against the queer community, but this quiet movement starts to spread to the point that almost every member of the nein is involved. Beau uses her connections at the Soul to get new documentation for people with proper names and pronouns. Yasha starts running Rexxentrum’s first self-sustainable lgbt safehouse for kids with nowhere to go (the garden is incredible). Jester and Fjord turn Fjord’s old orphanage into a second lgbt safehouse after he gets it shut down. Veth adds lgbt education to her camps curriculum, and is an advocate for same sex healthcare in the Nicodranas school system. She has a tunic that says proud mother of a bisexual wizard that she wears a little too often much to Caleb’s chagrin. Even Kingsley (illegal pirate king that he may be, my beloved) ends up becoming as involved as possible in Caleb’s group. Loves learning more about gender identity, and becomes the first Plank King to be openly gender fluid (probably who knows, I don’t know much about Darktows history but I def didn’t get super queer vibes). Makes sure Dark-Tow is accepting of all who turn to piracy, and imposes harsh laws against discrimination.

Essek looks on all of this with pride, so proud of Caleb and even the small role that he got to play in the spells creation. It’s the first time he gets to see something he helped with create good in the world. With Caleb’s permission he ends up sneaking back into the dynasty and leaving a copy of the finished spell on the Bright Queens desk, with a big created by Caleb Widogast across it (with whatever the wizard equivalent of copyright is). In a culture that centers around rebirth in different bodies, the idea that you could choose to have your original body back is a big deal. Dysphoria after consecuted individuals get their magic back is a huge problem within the dynasty, and it does Essek a lot of good to know that he’s done something actually helpful for his country.

Basically this got super long winded and out of hand, and I know Matt has largely cut homophobia, transphobia, and non-fantasy racism from Exandria but this idea would just not leave me alone!! And either way the spells implications for a gender affirming procedure are still super relevant.

[a-gay-bloodmage]

Short Breeches

(Blackwall x Mallory Trevelyan, Sera & Mallory Trevelyan)

Sera figures that at least half of the Inquisition has a crush on the Inquisitor, Mallie. As a gift to the people, Sera devises an ingenious prank—seal Mallie's wardrobe and leave her with nothing but a tank top and a pair of homemade shorts. The Inquisitor, Mallory Trevelyan, does not exactly appreciate trying to keep up a fake female identity when nearly everything is on display in front of the Inquisition and the Warden Blackwall.

[mxnillinlore]

"How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers" is ALREADY at 500 copies sold and that's just in pre-orders of the physical copy alone! If you haven't done so yet, be sure to secure yours for when it releases next Friday, August 23rd, 2024, by ordering now on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Indigo, or by supporting your locally owned queer bookstore!

Be sure to also check out some of my upcoming discussion events with bookstores across North America!

August 27th - Saskatoon, SK, Canada; In-Person w/ Turning the Tide Bookstore @ 7:00 PM CST

August 28th - Calgary, AB, Canada; Instagram Live w/ Shelf Like Books @ 2:00 PM MDT

Sept 4th - Vancouver, BC, Canada; Zoom Discussion w/ Cross & Crows Books @ 7:30 PM CST

September 6th - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Zoom Discussion w/ Under the Rainbow Bookstore @ 6:00 PM CST

[slaughter-books]

Day 18: JOMPBPC: Lgbtqia+ Character

Ben De Backer 💛🤍💜🖤

[natureless-creatures]

Sapphic novel enjoyers!!

My friend is writing a queer sapphic fantasy romance written in the mysterious world of Wistervander, with witches and detectives (and detective witches!) with a hefty side of pining and slow burn.

She's been working very hard on this over the last few months and I have been beta reading for her, so please show her some love because she deserves recognition, and it's hard to get that as a new writer <33 (She's also drawn all the art for it! I personally adore the chapter paragraph icons) You can find her work here: https://tapas.io/series/Creatures-of-Wistervander/info

[just-a-little-unionoid]

eh you know what, fuck it, I doodled my version of sinner!Adam and they made me happy so here you go

the hands and arms are shit just don't... don't pay too much attention

in this AU Adam woke up in Hell in a female body and ended up just... rocking with it

I guess he decided to commit to the rock star persona, I fully believe Adam would fucking love Hell if only he got off of his high horse, and with Lilith out of the picture the "singer empowering the people of Hell" role is free soooo... you know 🤷

lyrics from Stick It To The Man

[alexyquest]

okay i did that YA book trend. how’d I do?

buy it here!