Hello, and welcome

Hello, Darcy here!

I sat staring at the empty text box for quite a while before I typed that. Then I had to laugh because all I could think of was this scene from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The last time I had a blog was in my LiveJournal days. But, here I am, and I thought I should start by answering some questions about myself, and about my debut novel, After the Siren.

What stories do you like to write and read?

I’ve always loved stories that take me somewhere else. These days, I tend to read a lot of romance, science fiction and fantasy. It’s a bit of a running joke amongst my friends that it’s impossible to get me to read anything unless it’s queer.

I love reading and writing joyful queer stories. There are so many wonderful, moving, tragic queer stories by amazing authors, but sometimes I need to read and write about worlds that are a little bit brighter and a little bit more hopeful than this one. As a millennial, I feel like I’ve seen enough buried gays.

The authors I always reach for when I need to get lost for a while include Martha Wells (please don’t get me started on The Murderbot Diaries, we’ll be here forever), Foz Meadows, Freya Marske, KJ Charles, Ari Baran and Cat Sebastian. I also love Jane Austen (ask me why Persuasion is one of the most romantic books of all time, I dare you). I refused to read Middlemarch for many years, and then it accidentally became one of my favourite books.

At the moment I’m reading Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and Sam Elkin’s Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga. I just finished The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach (very good, very weird, very queer).

What is After the Siren about?

After The Siren is a romantic comedy about inconvenient attraction, second chances, the joys of Australian Rules Football, and falling for the last person you expect.

It’s also about having your assumptions challenged, working out how to tell your own story, queer friendship, the romantic perils of Mario Kart, and the inherent eroticism of t-shirts riding up.

If you don’t understand the title, don’t worry, I’m going to do a post about that!

Why an AFL novel?

I love a good (queer) sports romance, and I have watched and loved AFL since I was a kid (with a hiatus during my teen years when I decided I hated all sports). One of my clearest childhood memories is the 1997 Grand Final.

I was playing (women’s) amateur footy when I came out as queer, so footy has always a very queer space for me. That’s obviously very different to the experiences lots of men have with footy. I have a lot of thoughts about sports, masculinity, and queerness, and I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a queer man playing in the AFL.

I read a lot of ice hockey and baseball romance in 2022/2023, and kept thinking - this is great, but I need AFL romance. I didn’t actually mean to write a romantic comedy, but that’s what happened. Much to my own surprise.

What are you working on now?

The sequel to After the Siren (which if not about Jake and Theo, although they do appear). I’m also playing around with a science fantasy duology about what happens when the disgraced scion of a noble house is accidentally kidnapped/rescued by a charming and irascible smuggler.

What was your favourite thing about writing After the Siren?

Writing from Jake’s POV was such a good time for me. Jake is not like me at all. Writing from his perspective was a holiday from my own brain.

That’s enough from me for now! Welcome again, I hope you’ll stick around.

Darcy xx