Novae Caelum
I write sapphic, trans, and nonbinary romantic fantasy. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️👑
Queer joy is my vibe.
star/stars/starself or they/them/their pronouns
https://novaecaelum.com
- So as a trans ace person who writes about a trans ace (space) wizard, can I be JKR’s arch nemesis?
- My bi king x genderfluid princess fantasy romance The King’s Weaver went viral 4 times in a few weeks and sold out 5, I just rush ordered for more, I’m shuffling schedules to get the sequel out asap because I haven’t cover revealed and have orders THANK YOU YOU’RE MAKING THIS GENDERFLUID AUTHOR CRY
- I had another comment that if the patriarchy didn’t exist, we’d be a matriarchy and better for it. But that’s swapping one imperfect system for another. Any system that puts any gender above others and excludes those outside the binary is still only good for one group. It all must be dismantled.
- And by dismantled I mean, question everything. Why is our gendered and binary western society the way it is when humans and nature have never been binary? Why does that seem normal and natural to so many of us? What is actually going on in lived humanity, and going on in systems of oppression?
- I just passed 750,000 words written so far in The Stars and Green Magics series (halfway into Book 8). That’s 750,000 words of genderfluid kings ruling kingdoms and sapphic rival princesses and trans man space mages.✨I started serializing this in 2021 as I wrote it. Hi 2021 me, thank you. ❤️
- Today I: - Plotted out a bunch of Book 8 in my queer/enby/trans space fantasy series - Defeated foes in BG3 (after like 20 tries, god I was stuck) - Packed and shipped 10 book orders - Proofed and posted an early access ebook to Bookfunnel & Patreon - Watched 3 Andromeda episodes - Wrote this post
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- Oh thanks so much! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! 💖
- My 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ romantasy with a princess who disguises as a man to take down her unwanted betrothed (but the bi king falls for her as a man, and she has a genderfluid awakening) went viral this week on Tiktok, and I sold out of books twice and working on the third time. Trans books matter. 📚The King's Weaver
- Working on a new thing tonight, something I haven't really talked about before, a novella about trans angels fighting and loving and saving each other against a long cosmic war. Rereading my first draft right now and feeling this in my soul. (It'll be out when it's out, this one's therapy ❤️)
- This was a slow day 😅 I'm trying to get better about mixing more fun and relaxation into my super jammed schedule, though. It does help, a lot
- I'm not saying that I *accidentally* dropped the last few chapters of The Second Ruler: Part Two and it's now all bingeable on my patron place, all 600 digital super queer pages of it (but also, it is 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️✨)
- I'm seven chonky books deep in my queer space fantasy series and the fantasy is fantasying hard and the resonance is hitting and there is *nothing* like pulling together threads you've been weaving for years into this book's finale. Absolutely nothing. (I say this every book. It's true every time.)
- So I'm a nonbinary trans author thinking about how Booktok has created a culture around the Booktok girlies. And how I, as a trans person with no girly in me whatsoever, twinge and feel on the outside every time I hear that. (Buckle up, long 🧵)
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View full threadAnd if you haven't read any trans or nonbinary books this year, maybe pick up a few? Bump them to the top of your tbrs. Then blast them to the world to show that trans and nonbinary readers have a space in the book world, too.
- P.S. This isn't a post about policing language so much as--think about who the language talks to? There's a lot of good alternatives. Would trans men feel at home if you say it? Would nonbinary folx? All of that.
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- I think that might still be too gendered, alas (I always hear that as "women")
- The amount of times I get "ew" on my posts is...disheartening. The amount of times I get "omg how did I not know these books existed???" is wonderful--but also shows the issue.
- Entertainment is where society changes, we've seen this again and again and again. If we want to create a more inclusive world, we've gotta do it in the escapism spaces, too. We HAVE to.
- Many of us trans and nonbinary folx have grown up with little or no positive self-rep in what we read, we really don't buy the excuse that you can't enjoy it if you don't identity. We read and watch movies too.
- I think this is SO important so I'll say it again: feature queer and trans books ALONGSIDE cishet books. Because there's a divide right now where cishet readers often will think queer and trans is not for them, and then queer and trans Booktok gets relegated to the sidelines.
- And INDIE books too, because a lot of the most progressive and inclusive queer stories are happening in indie spaces, but queer book spaces are overwhelmingly trad.
- Have queer and trans authors do takeovers or bring them in for interviews. Reach out. Ask us for ARCs. Talk about nonbinary and trans books alongside cishet books. SQUEE about these books, too!
- And yet the readers are there. They are hungry, they will come in the deluge--but so many don't know that there's even a place for them in the reader community at all, they truly don't.
- Can we get more inclusive? Instead of saying "girlies," use something gender neutral like "readers" or "book friends." Make a point to feature and review books by queer and trans authors about queer and trans main characters.
- Yes, there are more trans and nonbinary books these days, but even on Booktok and Bookstagram, these books tend to be buried under the popular books--which, with very few exceptions, all feature cishet pairings.
- I've been heavily on Booktok and Bookstagram for over two years with hundreds (thousands?) of hours spent across several accounts and I haven't seen more than a handful of popular trans or nonbinary booktokers who aren't also authors. (And still very few authors, too.)
- I'm not gonna caveat this with things about spaces for women (that's all valid, it is), but I want to look at: while the US is bent on excluding trans and nonbinary folx, how can we get more gender inclusive in our escapism spaces? That's what we all need right now.
- I write sapphic and trans and nonbinary books and one of the things I've heard consistently over the last year from so many readers is that they haven't read in years--or at all--because they didn't see books with their own rep in them. And maybe felt books weren't for them.
- Got my shipment of The King's Weaver, bi king x genderfluid princess fantasy romance (he falls for her while she's disguised as a man to get out of marrying him; she falls for him and has a genderfluid awakening 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️) Upside down because not yet signed. Patron copies out soon, pres shortly after! <3
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- Oh yay!! Thank you! I so hope you enjoy! <3 <3
- Casually going viral on TT right now with my queer, trans, and nonbinary books because people in fact REALLY want a world without the patriarchy. (Thank you! ❤️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️)
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- The Truthspoken Heir is the first one, and it's one big story from there! <3
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- Oh thank you!! <3 <3 I'm so glad they helped!
- In my books I have: F/F enemy princesses Ace enby/trans man enemies Genderfluid king - who's aro and friends with benefits with his/her ace guard Gncf royal/transfem demigirl Enby space lieutenant/disaster bi roomate - and everyone in the space navy uses their pronouns (🧵But wait, there's more!)
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- Oh thank you so much! 💖 I’m so glad you’re enjoying them!
- Poly rep, group marriages, and polycules they/them, fae/faer, e/eir Easy/accessible trans care No fear of queerness at all. NO FEAR OF QUEERNESS AT ALL. And that's just one series. (The Stars and Green Magics)
- I've sold over twenty thousand copies of these books this last year. I'm an indie author, and this is my ENTIRE income. Yes, I am making an actual living off of trans, queer, and nonbinary romantic scifi, and fantasy romance. We're out here doing it. We're gonna stay out here doing it. <3
- So they want us to be scared, but we'll push through. They want us to make ourselves small but we overshadow them and they know it. They want us to hide, to disappear, but we are every rainbow color and they can't hide from that. We are mirrors. We are blazing. 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
- These are my warm fuzzies for the season ✨This very queer fantasy romance between a princess disguised as a man and the bi king who falls for her as a man has so much queer acceptance in a genderfluid awakening. Oh, my heart 💖 The King's Weaver is out in KU!
- So I've spent this week in just intense emotional decision making because of the Meta censorship of my queer author business. AND I've ended up making these choices, which I think will be, in the end, very good for me and my reader community. 1) I'm going to put queer references back UP on my site
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- Thanks for asking! It's legit, unfortunately--I verified the Facebook email, my account has a flag on it, and they have help articles for the same issue. (I wish it had been a scam, alas.)
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- I won't say butt in chair write, because it's not true for my ADHD butt, ha. But, I binge write? I don't push it unless I have a deadline. Aaaand last minute is a powerful motivator. :D
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- Thaaaat is always the trick! :D
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- Yes, absolutely! I think we need these books and rep and visibility now more than ever. <3
- I'm going to keep my store--but it will only have print and audio. But! That's okay! I sell 60% print anyway. Why: 1) I can't in my soul take my queer ref off my site indefinitely. It causes me harm. It causes my community harm 2) KU is lucrative, and I have a long series, and I know marketing
- 3) I want more legs to stand on 4) Fuck Meta We have to stick together. We have to support each other. These next 4 years will prob be crazy. And every way we can make it, we should. If this helps anyone else in a similar situation, I'm so glad! I hate this is a thing, but well get through! 🫂
- 2) I'm going to put my ebooks in KU 3) I'm going to launch a Kickstarter early next year for special editions (I already have some, want to do more!) 4) I'm going to figure out Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, and Amazon ads 5) I'm going to double down on organic posting everywhere I can post
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- I've had this same thought! But haven't been able to articulate it. I like not getting angry.
- Yesterday I pulled overt references of queerness off my site, my very successful store that sells my books that have queer main characters. Because a few days ago, Meta emailed saying my advertising on their platform will be restricted - my site was categorized as "sexuality and gender identity."
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- I asked my ads manager and they said that running without pixel data wouldn't be cost-effective, unfortunately.
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- Thanks so much, Lisa! <3 <3
