B.C. Palmer's Blog
December 21, 2019
What makes a queer cover?
Recently a reader made the observation that the cover of Saint of Dead Gods: A Saint-Moreno Supernatural Thriller looks particularly 'hetero'. I'm not calling anyone out, everyone is entitled to their opinion and in many ways, this reader isn't wrong.
However, at the possible risk of upsetting some folks, I feel I need to say something in response, as a gay author. The direction that Saint-Moreno has taken is one focused on the platonic relationship between the two main characters, Adam and Vanessa. If I were going to write a story about my own life, I would certainly include my husband, Scott—but the character who has most influenced me, changed me, helped me grow, and been with me more than half my life now is my best friend, Allison. No story about my 'adventures', such as they have been, would be complete without her there with me. Part of the challenge in determining the cast of any story is figuring out who the most important players are, and what the most important relationship in the story is. In Saint-Moreno, the relationship between Adam and Vanessa is the most important one to the story. Without that relationship, the world is doomed! That is why they are on the cover together.
The other aspect of this whole thing is that I am a sex-positive writer. It's true, there probably won't be much heterosexual sex in my books! I'm a queer writer, I definitely have a mission statement that is about presenting queer protagonists, but when it comes to body image I'm not about shaming women for having a bust. And, I took this very issue to twitter some time ago, specifically asking for feedback from some of my favorite feminist follows. It was a mixed response. But I'm not going to stand for keeping a woman off a book cover because she has realistic, natural breasts.
Vanessa on the cover is depicted by a wonderful young woman, Becca Lynn, who was overjoyed at the chance to do this project depicting a strong African American female character critical to the story. The images are photoshopped, but they're from a custom shoot. She has not been altered in any way, that is what she looks like in real life. I hand-picked both models myself based on both what I imagine the characters to look like in my own head as well as based on practical concerns like availability and rates. But when I saw Becca, and her shoots were focused largely on athletics, and she had natural hair instead of straightened, I knew that she was perfect for Vanessa Moreno. And she was! She did a fantastic job, had a blast, and her partner Matthew Billman (Adam on the cover) had a ton of fun with her. There are photos of them goofing off that aren't useful for a book cover but really show that they were enjoying the process and trying to get into these characters and for that I love them both.
Some women have bigger breasts, some have smaller breasts. I don't judge women on this basis, I didn't select Becca on this basis, Harbinger did not push her on this basis, and a man and a woman on a cover does not make a cover 'hetero' in any way. Gay men are still gay men when standing next to a woman. My mission as a writer is to create fantasy featuring primarily queer characters, but that doesn't mean that my mission is to only depict queer characters or that every queer character in my books is part of a romance. Yes, there are great reasons to include romance in any story, it makes for an excellent b-story arc sometimes, and nothing tames a wild heart like love--sometimes.
Understand me—there are very few gay fantasy authors in the world. Very, very few. The SFF genre is still heavily biased against gay writers, even as we see a growing prevalence of female writers writing LGBTQ+ characters. And that's wonderful! But the ideas that gay characters must be presented a certain way, that gay authors should be writing about "the gay experience", that they belong in romance books, etc., are ideas that have been very damaging to our ability to bring our own voices to genres we love. There are limits placed on who we can be in fiction, and I'm attempting to challenge those limits. Saint-Moreno is not a romance series, and as you go into that series it's really best if you acknowledge that at the start or you're going to be severely disappointed!
I want to be very clear about my stance on sex and body positivity. In the years to come, you're going to see people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and configurations on my book covers. The depiction of Lucalia Ke'Veron on the cover of Magic's Heart: A Novel of Rismere shows a woman with practical armor and no big bust. Future Saint-Moreno books are going to continue to see Adam and Vanessa front and center because they're the main characters. The story is about them, and while Cole will be there with them he isn't a main character in these books. Not really. He's a supporting character, because this series is not about being gay. It's a series about trying, and sometimes failing, to be heroic, to do the right thing. The fact that Adam is gay and Vanessa is bisexual are just facets of their characters that, I promise, will complicate their lives and adventures because of their humanness, not because of their sexuality.
That's all I have to say on that.
Cheers
B.C. Palmer
However, at the possible risk of upsetting some folks, I feel I need to say something in response, as a gay author. The direction that Saint-Moreno has taken is one focused on the platonic relationship between the two main characters, Adam and Vanessa. If I were going to write a story about my own life, I would certainly include my husband, Scott—but the character who has most influenced me, changed me, helped me grow, and been with me more than half my life now is my best friend, Allison. No story about my 'adventures', such as they have been, would be complete without her there with me. Part of the challenge in determining the cast of any story is figuring out who the most important players are, and what the most important relationship in the story is. In Saint-Moreno, the relationship between Adam and Vanessa is the most important one to the story. Without that relationship, the world is doomed! That is why they are on the cover together.
The other aspect of this whole thing is that I am a sex-positive writer. It's true, there probably won't be much heterosexual sex in my books! I'm a queer writer, I definitely have a mission statement that is about presenting queer protagonists, but when it comes to body image I'm not about shaming women for having a bust. And, I took this very issue to twitter some time ago, specifically asking for feedback from some of my favorite feminist follows. It was a mixed response. But I'm not going to stand for keeping a woman off a book cover because she has realistic, natural breasts.
Vanessa on the cover is depicted by a wonderful young woman, Becca Lynn, who was overjoyed at the chance to do this project depicting a strong African American female character critical to the story. The images are photoshopped, but they're from a custom shoot. She has not been altered in any way, that is what she looks like in real life. I hand-picked both models myself based on both what I imagine the characters to look like in my own head as well as based on practical concerns like availability and rates. But when I saw Becca, and her shoots were focused largely on athletics, and she had natural hair instead of straightened, I knew that she was perfect for Vanessa Moreno. And she was! She did a fantastic job, had a blast, and her partner Matthew Billman (Adam on the cover) had a ton of fun with her. There are photos of them goofing off that aren't useful for a book cover but really show that they were enjoying the process and trying to get into these characters and for that I love them both.
Some women have bigger breasts, some have smaller breasts. I don't judge women on this basis, I didn't select Becca on this basis, Harbinger did not push her on this basis, and a man and a woman on a cover does not make a cover 'hetero' in any way. Gay men are still gay men when standing next to a woman. My mission as a writer is to create fantasy featuring primarily queer characters, but that doesn't mean that my mission is to only depict queer characters or that every queer character in my books is part of a romance. Yes, there are great reasons to include romance in any story, it makes for an excellent b-story arc sometimes, and nothing tames a wild heart like love--sometimes.
Understand me—there are very few gay fantasy authors in the world. Very, very few. The SFF genre is still heavily biased against gay writers, even as we see a growing prevalence of female writers writing LGBTQ+ characters. And that's wonderful! But the ideas that gay characters must be presented a certain way, that gay authors should be writing about "the gay experience", that they belong in romance books, etc., are ideas that have been very damaging to our ability to bring our own voices to genres we love. There are limits placed on who we can be in fiction, and I'm attempting to challenge those limits. Saint-Moreno is not a romance series, and as you go into that series it's really best if you acknowledge that at the start or you're going to be severely disappointed!
I want to be very clear about my stance on sex and body positivity. In the years to come, you're going to see people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and configurations on my book covers. The depiction of Lucalia Ke'Veron on the cover of Magic's Heart: A Novel of Rismere shows a woman with practical armor and no big bust. Future Saint-Moreno books are going to continue to see Adam and Vanessa front and center because they're the main characters. The story is about them, and while Cole will be there with them he isn't a main character in these books. Not really. He's a supporting character, because this series is not about being gay. It's a series about trying, and sometimes failing, to be heroic, to do the right thing. The fact that Adam is gay and Vanessa is bisexual are just facets of their characters that, I promise, will complicate their lives and adventures because of their humanness, not because of their sexuality.
That's all I have to say on that.
Cheers
B.C. Palmer
