#Awethors Takeover - DM Cain
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Why I Hate The Term "Gay Fiction"
by DM Cain
This summer I will be re-releasing a newly edited version of my young adult fantasy novel. ‘A Chronicle of Chaos’ features epic battles between angels and demons, warriors with incredible powers, and a war that has raged for centuries. It also has a love story between two people of vastly different backgrounds who aren’t sure whether to love or kill each other... and they’re both men.
So this will be classified as ‘gay fiction’, right? Wrong. This book is definitely not ‘gay fiction’ because I don’t believe the genre exists. There are romance novels where the main characters are men. Is this gay fiction? No, it’s romance. Is Doctor Who a gay drama because Madame Vastra and Jenny are married? No, it’s science fiction.
My book is a dark, epic fantasy in the same way that Lord of the Rings is. At the centre of the plot is a love story between two dislikeable characters – the fact they’re both the same gender should be absolutely irrelevant. It wasn’t written for shock value. I never intended to break any boundaries – because there shouldn’t be any boundaries there to break.
George R.R. Martin is paving the way for homosexuality to be accepted in the fantasy genre, and there are more books with homosexual characters beginning to appear (e.g. Lynn Flewelling, Jacqueline Carey). It’s normal in their world, and it should be normal in ours, but the sad truth is that same-sex relationships are vastly under-represented in fantasy.
The concern for some readers is that if a book is labelled as merely ‘fantasy’, it may offend those who did not expect to read about homosexuality within the pages, so they should be ‘warned’ beforehand.
How ludicrous. A Chronicle of Chaos book is fantasy through and through and if you buy it you’ll get everything you get from any other fantasy book – powerful magic, epic battles, long journeys and apocalyptic showdowns. You’ll also get a powerful heart-wrenching story of love and hate, passion and prejudice. If the fact it’s two men bothers you, you’re more than welcome to put it down. But in an ideal world, people will start it as a fantasy book and finish it as a fantasy book.
So, this summer I will be releasing my epic fantasy novel. I am certainly not releasing a work of ‘gay fiction.’
D.M. Cain
D.M. Cain has been writing since the age of thirteen, but her first full length novel was self-published in May 2014. ‘The Phoenix Project’ is a psychological thriller set in a dystopian future.
Her second book, released in October 2014, was 'A Chronicle of Chaos' – the first in a dark fantasy series. In February 2015, she began to work with U.S. publisher Booktrope.
She is currently working on the next novel in the series – 'The Shield of Soren' and a short story to accompany it.
Cain lives in Leicestershire, UK with her husband and young son, and spends her time reading, writing and reviewing books, playing RPGs and listening to symphonic metal.
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DMCainauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DMCain84
Mailing List: http://eepurl.com/XevZH
Website: www.dmcain84.com
The Phoenix Project: http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Project-D-M-Cain-ebook/dp/B00K974TOM/
A Chronicle of Chaos: http://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Chaos-Light-Shadow-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00NJ89B8M/
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