A warm welcome to author Francis Gideon stopping by Love Bytes to talk about Sext Based Adventures , part of the Geek Out anthology

Don’t forget to check out the giveaway on the bottom to have a change to win a copy!

Welcome Francis!

 

 

Writing Trans Romance–and Trans Sex

Hi Love Bytes! Thank you for hosting my guest post.

I’m Francis Gideon, author of the story Sext Based Adventures, which is part of the Less Than Three Press collection entitled Geek Out!: A Collection of Trans and GenderqueerRomance.

 

Today I want to talk about my story, but also about transgender romance as a genre itself.

Transgender stories are very, very important to me on two levels. First, I’m an academic who has been studying transgender narratives for the past four years now. I’ve written countless articles on trans issues, given a few conference talks, and done a few in-class sessions explaining the importance of pronouns.

But what I really like doing is telling stories about transgender people, because I am one, and I think that stories are our best tool to help understand. When we can imagine something on a smaller level—like inside the pages of a novel—then we can take that imaginative capacity and use it to shape our interactions with people.

On that note, transgender romance as a genre is my absolute favourite. Why? Because the transgender protagonist is guaranteed a happy ending!

Beyond that, if you’re reading the type of romance novel that has a love scene, then the interactions between the transgender characters can become even more fascinating and engaging.

We all like to think that a love scene is about more than just the genitals. It’s about the feelings, the relationship, what the sex means overall in the story, etc.

But even when we like to read sex scenes for more than just the genitals involved, there is still the language of sex that we take for granted. We assume that we can describe cocks, clits, and whatever else, and that people know what we’re talking about when we do.

With transgender sex, the words used can become a little trickier. So can the meanings behind these words. If you’re dealing with a transgender protagonist who hasn’t had any kind of surgery, then pronouns matter a lot during these scenes.

You’ll see sentences like ‘his vagina’ or ‘her penis.’ Sometimes, trans people will come up with new names entirely for their anatomy, referring to a “click” instead of a clit or a dick. These sentences may seem odd at first—and for some readers, this new language can take them out of the scene entirely. But I think this is an important exercise of the imagination.

We need to normalize these words and change their meaning, in order to write better trans sex and have better sex overall. We need to imagine new potential in the physical body, in order to appreciate another layer of identity and different circumstances for individuals.

 

Quite frankly, I love writing sex scenes. But transgender sex scenes, even if the language remains relatively neutral and similar to any other cisgender scene I’ve written, still allows me an interesting challenge in perception and storytelling.

For Sext Based Adventures, there is sex both on the screen in chat windows between avatar bodies, and then later on, between physical bodies. The main protagonist Chris must negotiate his body, his identity, and then his interaction with others in both the online and the ‘real’ world in order to render himself as clearly as possible.

This is a challenge for everyone—not just trans people—because so much of our lives now is being shifted to the online realm. There is no such thing as ‘the real world’ anymore, because these online spaces are becoming more common and imperative for survival.

In these new kinds of spaces, language becomes the important issue to focus on. So when our understanding of who we are and how we interact changes, I think it’s good to embrace the change, especially when it can yield a new type of pleasure, too!

Sext-based Adventure

Chris thought he was done with his gaming days. He’d deleted his account, gone back to his day job, and put his fantasy world days behind him… but couldn’t resist the urge to return. This time, however, he decided to play as a woman—a persona he maintains even when he makes friends with Jessica. When Jessica offers online sex, Chris still cannot bring himself to confess his secret. As their relationship turns serious, still he cannot admit to the ruse. Then Jessica proposes they meet offline, and Chris is finally forced to confront the questions and choices he’s been avoiding…

Buy link:

Less than three press

Amazon

 

 

Find more by Francis, including other books, here: https://francisgideon.wordpress.com/

 

To win a copy of Sext Based Adventures, please leave a comment and your email address.