Dani has asked me to contribute a monthly column here on Love Bytes. I’m honored – she has built a real community here, and I have a hell of a lot of respect for that.

Four years ago, I was just another failed writer. I’d taken a stab at it a few times, and every time had ended either in rejection or in the exhaustion of my own writing aspirations.

Encouraged by my husband and my mother, I decided to make one more go of it. I got onto my Facebook account, and found a few communities for writers like me – queer folks who loved sci fi. But nothing was quite right, so I decided to build my own.

Now, four years later, I run the Queer Sci Fi group, along with Angel and Ben. I have learned a few things, and have been humbled by the community that I’m now a part of.

First, in the middle of these trying times, there are still people of good will and love, people who would give the shirts off their backs for someone else in need. I’ve seen it time and time again from our members-people who offer their aid to others for free, who step up when someone else falls. Who offer simple kindness when the unthinkable befalls one of our own.

Second, how important it is to embrace and live diversity in our community. To open the door for everyone to participate. Our queer romance world I more than just mm fiction, or men and women. That means more than just hanging the “diversity” shingle on our doorstop. It means including the entire queer spectrum in our site imagery, in our discussion topics, in the very fiber and DNA of our community. And it means standing up for anyone in our community who feels picked upon or neglected. A safe space is essential for building a thriving queer community.

And third, there are still so may stories to tell. We are a bright and thriving community, and we have such energy and creativity. We thrive together, we feed off of one another, and we encourage each other to reach new heights. Being part of a community means you get out more than you put in. There’s a word I’ve loved since I first discovered it – synergy. It means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And what it means is this – somehow, when we all work together, magic happens.

That’s what a community really is, whether it’s on a blog like this or a group like QSF on Facebook. Good will, diversity, and energy.

I know I can’t change the world by myself – not in any meaningful, global way. But I have to hope that communities like Love Bytes and QSF change it slowly, incrementally, but ultimately powerfully.

And in the end, that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.

Scott was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.

He decided that if there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality.

Find Scott here: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com