WisCon, post the second...

I survived my first panel of the weekend - Parallel Universes: Lesbian Characters in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Since I was moderating, these are mostly notes from inside my head and may not have any relationship to what it was like for anyone else in the room. It was well-attended despite lively competition and proximity to the dinner hour. We covered some historical background of lesbian characters both in genre and in lesbian/feminist lit (precursor to lesfic), with references to early fan fic, Gearhart and Russ before plugging Melissa Scott, Nicola Griffith, Jewell Gomez, Laurie Marks and...S.M. Stirling. Stirling did a surprisingly good sword and sorcery series with Shirley Meier and Karen Wehrstein about a couple of swordswomen who are lovers and partners, and the extended bi, poly family that they build over the course of their adventures. I'm still recommending it years after the last time I read it. For new stuff, we talked a bit about Xena (cause you just have to), a bit on fan fic, references to Amazon culture, Kelley Eskridge, Laurie Marks and Malinda Lo, as well as anime and manga. I think what stood out for me is the lack of good sf/f with lesbian/queer female characters that isn't romance. Got nothing against romance but I'd rather it was a subplot than a primary. When JoSelle and I talked about the guidelines for Hellebore and Rue (the antho we're editing), we deliberately excluded romance and we're getting some fine stories that are squarely in sf/f and related. JoSelle is also doing a collection of lesbian steampunk, which I believe is also not romance-oriented.  Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades is also not particularly romance-heavy. Herein lies the conundrum: the books are selling. They're getting reviews. They're up for awards. We're not having a huge problem getting submissions for the various projects. So why is the vast majority of the current sf/f work out there with lesbian/queer femaie characters lesfic style romance? It's frustrating when you want the (good) representation but you also want world-building and plot and maybe the occasional explosion and/or magic sword/quest/whathaveyou. Here's hoping that we have a lot more current work to talk about next WisCon.