Hey there! It’s Holfelder, one of the two nerds in a trench coat that runs this website and writes queer adventure fiction. Feel free to explore the site- there’s lots of info about our WIPs (including mood boards) and some biographical information about both nerds. I’m going to take some time to chat about queering love, but you can always explore first and come back here later.

I run our Bluesky account and often answer Lore Out Loud, a prompt game hosted by Daryl Marez. February’s prompts consisted of a lot of “love”questions (as one would guess). At the same time, I’m preparing Life, Love, & the Monongahela Murders for RevPit and eventual submissions. The combination got me thinking about how love shows up in our writing, and particularly in LL&MM. 

Watson & I are both married and both queer. We both found people that we want to spend the rest of our lives and adventures with. And I daresay, we both have our own perspectives on what it means to find your “happily ever after” “forever love”. I write this post from my view point as an aromantic, asexual individual. While Watson and I have discussed this issue, I don’t pretend to speak for her or her relationships with friends, family, & spouse. Please remember that.

At its core, LL&MM is a love story. It’s about two characters finding each other in the chaos of their lives and deciding that maybe, just maybe, the other is worth the potential pain should it not work out. I call the story a “queer atypical romance”, though, because the love interest is aro/ace and struggles with a perpetual fear of being misread and accused of “leading someone on” – something they were accused of in a previous relationship. The main character doesn’t believe that he is worth loving at all. The two of them have to navigate misunderstandings and learn how to communicate their own vulnerabilities in order to come together. 

In LL&MM, Queer love shows up as two people learning what it means to love for them. They’re working on discovering what a relationship looks like that’s right for them. It might not involve the things that our amatonormative world has told us romantic relationships “should” look like. It might not even be a “romantic” relationship, though it is a committed one. 

That’s an important part of how we both view love & relationships in our writing, and it’s part of queering the love stories that we are crafting. Relationships are important, regardless of whether or not they are “romantic.” LL&MM has Liam and Rajan’s mentorship/friendship, Cursed has Tiné and Monica’s queer platonic partnership, and Wardens of the Veil has close found family relationships that come first for the characters. Each story may feature a main “pairing” (eventually), but that pairing doesn’t have to be romantic or sexual to be important to the characters involved or the story overall. 

It’s important to both of us that we showcase relationships that challenge the idea that romantic relationships are more valuable or “legit” than platonic relationships. Love is a word that means so much, and we want to reach out to those readers who want to see themselves and their relationships reflected in reading. If you have any thoughts on this topic, feel free to comment (keep it kind, constructive, and curious) or hop over to Bluesky and find me.

Keep on loving your folks, and we’ll see you on the next page!

-ALC Holfeder