So, I’m a day late on this, but in honor of Trans Day of Visibility here’s a shout out to the characters from my upcoming third novel, Quick-Fire. The third book of Psions of SPIRE is going to feature Finn and their love interest, Oliver.
This book is my effort to make trans characters more visible, because good representation in media matters.
You might remember Finn as the pyrokinetic teen from Bright Spark. Oliver will be introduced in Keen Sense as one of Oscar’s patients. At the time of his introduction though, he isn’t out.
So you will learn his deadname and see him as his assigned gender at birth in Keen Sense. I hesitated to do that, because I want to respect Oliver. But in the end, I chose to be authentic to his story and that meant he was not in a position to be out and proud during the events of Keen Sense.
Oliver kept his identity quiet to protect himself until he was in a position to come out in a more supportive environment. And when he wasn’t in the midst of dealing with life-threatening medical concerns related to psionic emergence.
Both of these characters are trans. Their experiences of being trans differ from each other, and I hope sharing their different perspectives will help emphasize the fact there is no one monolithic trans experience.
Finn is agender and uses they/them pronouns, they’ve found acceptance in the psion community, and at SPIRE in particular. While not all non-binary people identify under the trans umbrella, Finn does.
Oliver is a trans man and started his transition as an older teen. Oliver’s parents are divorced and during Quick-Fire he lives with his father, who is Oliver’s number one supporter. His mother has a harder time accepting her son for both his gender and his psionic status.
For both Oliver and Finn, their transness doesn’t define them, but it does influence their lives and their experiences of the world. The problems they face in life have more to do with their psionic status and being young adults just starting out in life than their gender identity. But gender does play a role in their story too and I am so looking forward to sharing that story with you, my readers.
This story is important to me because I wish there had been more stories about people like me when I was growing up. It took me a long time to realize there were words for my experiences relating to gender and not seeing myself in the media I consumed was a part of that delay.
Quick-Fire is me doing my small part to integrate some trans identities into the type of fiction I enjoy consuming. So that maybe other people can see themselves in these characters. And so that my cis readers can maybe gain some insights into trans people in their lives.
Alex Silver Writes 