Blog – May Peterson Books

8 03, 2022

Breaking the Trans Bubble (And How You Can Help Do It)

By May|2022-03-08T22:13:31+00:00March 8th, 2022|Narrative, Publishing, Representation|1 Comment

CW: discussions of homelessness, transmisogyny, anti-trans racism, transphobia, persecution of sex workers, suicide, violence, trauma

The past several months have forced me to rethink my life. A major curveball has been the introduction of a spicy new fact to that life—

I am a homeless trans woman.

This is That Thing I’ve spent most of my life afraid of becoming. There’s a link between the two sides of this thing, like between an anchor and the ankle it’s tied to. How’s that for an on-the-nose image? And it does feel—always has felt—like sinking. Don’t come out because you might be disowned. Don’t […]

23 11, 2021

Calling All Authors

By May|2024-07-18T22:07:53+00:00November 23rd, 2021|Editorial|Comments Off on Calling All Authors

Hey all! I’ve been off work for some time due to several upheavals in my life and being houseless for the past two months. It’s been a difficult time and I’m eager to get back to work, which will also help stabilize my situation.

I’ve focused on accessibility for authors with fewer means or less experience for some time, and it’s been a personally fulfilling way to engage with my business. I know I needed guidance and breaks when I was a newer author, and I want to help provide that for others.   As part of this goal, I’m making […]

14 05, 2021

The Labyrinth of Strings: Me, Twitter, and Moral Discharge

By May|2021-05-14T06:44:54+00:00May 14th, 2021|Uncategorized|Comments Off on The Labyrinth of Strings: Me, Twitter, and Moral Discharge

Content Warning: mention of rape, violence, and murder, transmisogynist slurs, descriptions of transmisogynistic sentiments

I’ve thought a lot about what to say in this post. It all sits like a weight in my belly, the sensations of my body shaping around it the way water is displaced by a stone. I need to get this stone out of me.

I feel vulnerable writing this, and I’m not sure I’ll say everything right. It’s hard not to be emotional as I look back over the past weeks, months, and years. Over my time on Twitter.

I hope you’ll bear with me […]

6 06, 2020

Update on Platform and Schedule, Summer 2020

By May|2021-11-23T22:28:50+00:00June 6th, 2020|Editorial, Publishing, Representation, Writing|Comments Off on Update on Platform and Schedule, Summer 2020

One of my goals is to provide a library of free content for writers, including tools I have found useful as an author, as an editor, and as a sensitivity and artistic ethics consultant. This will include resources for writers who are trying to learn to navigate the publishing industry and career life as an author, trying to manage difficulty with the writing process, and trying to improve their writing skills.

I want these resources to be something they can turn to before paying an editor. Marginalized authors in particular often have to count every penny when […]

6 01, 2020

The Judgmental Spectator Theory

By May|2020-01-06T14:07:23+00:00January 6th, 2020|Publishing, Representation|Comments Off on The Judgmental Spectator Theory

Content warning: non-graphic discussion of racism and transmisogyny

Romance Writers of America, or RWA, is a writer’s organization that throughout its existence has been a source of much good as well as much harm. It was the harm that primarily concerned Courtney Milan, a best-selling romance author and seasoned advocate of the needs of underserved populations, when she was a board member on RWA.

In December of 2019, RWA delivered a censure of Courtney Milan for the charge of injurious behavior to the cause of RWA during her pursuit of justice for people of color against racist norms and practices that […]

15 11, 2019

The Effeminacy Double Bind (Transfem Coding In Fiction)

By May|2019-11-15T06:22:18+00:00November 15th, 2019|Narrative, Representation|Comments Off on The Effeminacy Double Bind (Transfem Coding In Fiction)

Content warning for frank discussion of transmisogyny

Let’s talk about coding. Not every message is spelled out unambiguously. Fiction in particular tends to deeply integrate the implied, messages expressed behind the text. You may already be very familiar with a common form of this: queer coding.

Queer coding is when a character isn’t explicitly queer, but seems queer, with characteristics that suggest it through cultural association. A typical form of queer coding is for a character to have no sexual or romantic relationships on screen but to be gender non-conforming. Queer identity is largely predicated on variation from sexual and gender […]

1 11, 2019

Ghosts and Vampires and Shifters, Oh My! (What Defines Genre?)

By May|2019-11-05T18:22:45+00:00November 1st, 2019|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Ghosts and Vampires and Shifters, Oh My! (What Defines Genre?)

Not long ago on social media a reader asked whether Lord of the Last Heartbeat could be considered paranormal romance.

It’s categorized as high fantasy romance (and sometimes dark fantasy, aka fantasy with aspects of horror), but for a reader to think of it as paranormal romance makes sense to me. Moon-souls overlap with shifters and vampires, familiar beings in paranormal romance. Ghosts aren’t a far way off, either.

It’s also set in a secondary world (meaning a setting that isn’t our own familiar world, or a variant of it, but a different fictional world altogether), and has magic, witches, […]

7 10, 2019

The Over-manipulation Problem

By May|2019-10-17T18:56:06+00:00October 7th, 2019|Editorial, Writing|Comments Off on The Over-manipulation Problem

I’d like to talk about a problem that has plagued me for years, without me knowing what to call it or how to talk about it. It’s a problem I call over-manipulation.

Most writers seem to run into it at one point or another, and surprisingly little advice is available to help deal with it.

Over-manipulation is not something that only has to do with writing, but any self-improvement, including exercise, nutrition, psychological work, and spirituality. This post is focused on writers, but some of the observations I make here may be helpful in other ways.

To talk about over-manipulation we have […]

6 06, 2019

Call for New Projects 2019-2020, Marginalized and Emerging Authors

By May|2019-06-06T04:52:04+00:00June 6th, 2019|Editorial|Comments Off on Call for New Projects 2019-2020, Marginalized and Emerging Authors

I’m thrilled to be opening my availability for new clients (and new manuscripts from existing clients) throughout 2019 and 2020, with slots available in each month.

One of my professional goals is to help marginalized authors get through the barriers they might be running up against in the publishing industry, and give a boost to newer authors starting their careers. It can be hard to take those first steps and learn the ropes, and I can help with that.

I’m a multiply marginalized and emerging author myself, and an editor of four+ years of experience working with other marginalized authors in […]

2 12, 2018

Meet Each Demon As You Go (Inspiration in Despair)

By May|2018-12-02T19:32:06+00:00December 2nd, 2018|Narrative, Writing|Comments Off on Meet Each Demon As You Go (Inspiration in Despair)

Art is hard.

At least, it’s quite an undertaking. It’s generally harder to create something than to destroy something, and that art is a particular labor of creation: creation from the disorganized substances of the artist’s life, hopes, memories, beliefs. Numerous little deities of sorrow, passion, and fury people the halls of our imaginations, and they lay hands onto whatever we create, to be marked by them for good or ill.

But art seems to be especially hard right now. Nearly every artist I know is presently staring down horrors that shadow the horizon enough to freeze every delicate, artistic inner […]

2 10, 2018

Art Has an Effect (Make Sure It’s the Effect You Want)

By May|2019-10-23T13:28:14+00:00October 2nd, 2018|Editorial, Representation, Writing|1 Comment

If I had to name the part of my role as an editor I find the most daunting, I’d probably say sensitivity editing. But I’d also name that among the most important.

For those not familiar with the term, sensitivity editing is editorial focused on making sure a work is written with care toward its audience. Particularly, making sure the work is sensitive about the dynamics of race, sex, class, and disability that might impact that audience.

Some may wonder how this could be as important as I’m saying it is—and it’s true, some authors struggle with receiving sensitivity edits. This […]

The Sacred Dark Trilogy

Romantic Fantasy with ghosts, gays, and grandeur.