Today we’re joined by TC Doherty. TC is a wonderful fantasy author who has just released her first novel (The Ghost, part of the Celestials series) with a sequel on the way. TC loves the fantasy genre and her books are all LGBTQ+ friendly. Like many ace authors, TC wants to write the diverse narratives she wishes she had access to when she was younger. Her book sounds fascinating and definitely one worth checking out. It’s clear she’s a talented and dedicated author, as you’ll soon read. My thanks to her for taking the time to participate in this interview.
WORK
Please, tell us about
your art.
I write fantasy novels, both middle-grade and young adult.
My work is aggressively LGBT+ friendly. I’ve loved the fantasy genre my whole
life, so I really try to take advantage of it to write the sort of diverse
narratives I wish I had access to growing up.
What inspires you?
My roommates more than anything. I can’t tell you how many
stories have been written just because of jokes they make. Other media too, especially
fairy tales! Real life, and sometimes dreams.
What got you
interested in your field? Have you
always wanted to be an artist?
Jack London’s Call of
the Wild. No, really. The book had such an indescribably profound effect on
me. Upon finishing it, I knew that I wanted to be an author too. And I’ve been
writing ever since!
Of course, I loved reading from a very young age, so perhaps
it was inevitable.
Do you have any kind
of special or unique signature, symbol, or feature you include in your work
that you’d be willing to reveal?
Well, I’m passionate about fairy tales, mythology, and
legends. Many of my books have these types of story-telling elements and motifs
in them. Other than that, I really love gryphons and I think they’re criminally
under-used so I put them in as much of my work as I can get away with (so
really…almost all of it).
What advice would you
give young aspiring artists?
Forget about inspiration. If you want to be a hobbyist, then
it’s your buddy, but if you want to go farther than that, inspiration does more
harm than good. Learn how to work even when you don’t want to – later you won’t
be able to tell the difference between work you did when “inspired” and work
you did because it had to get done, and no one else will either.
There’s no such thing as a perfect first draft. Or a perfect
second draft. Don’t let fear of imperfection stop you from creating, or from
reworking as many times as you need to.
ASEXUALITY
Where on the spectrum
do you identify?
I refer to myself as a homoromantic asexual.
Have you encountered
any kind of ace prejudice or ignorance in your field? If so, how do you handle it?
In my field not really, but in real life certainly. I’m very
open about my orientation and so I run into a comparable amount of ignorance.
For people who are curious and want to learn, I’m happy to share and answer
questions. For those on the rude side, I ignore them. It’s not worth the fight
trying to convince someone who doesn’t want to see you as human.
What’s the most common
misconception about asexuality that you’ve encountered?
There are two I see with equal frequency. The first is that
asexual people are broken, the second is that we’ll change our minds when we
meet the right person. Both are harmful in different ways, but especially the
narrative of “brokenness”.
I didn’t learn about asexuality until I was already eighteen
or nineteen, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t know something was up. With no
positive examples in media, and no one even admitting it existed, I couldn’t
help but think of myself in terms of “what’s wrong with me”. That’s something I really want to change.
What advice would you
give to any asexual individuals out there who might be struggling with their
orientation?
There’s nothing wrong with you. Don’t let people pressure
you into doing things you don’t want to do. Surround yourself with people who
accept you for who you are. There’s no shame in taking time to figure yourself
out, or to find the perfect lifestyle for you. And you don’t have to be a
“gold-star” asexual to be welcome among us.
Finally, where can
people find out more about your work?
Favorite Color(s): ALL OF THEM ummmm I’m partial to really bright greens, and all the cool colors and (no, basically all of them, but I only wear cool colors so we’ll go with that)
Wake-Up Time: 6am on weekdays, 6:30am on weekends
Cats or Dogs: I’m a cat person but I’m also a dog trainer so? Cats are superior though
Coke or Pepsi: How about root beer instead, please, or tea, or literally anything else.
Text or Call: Texting but I’ll put up with phone calls if I really like you
Last Song Listened to: Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby is playing as I type
There’s more to the story obviously. When I was young I was super energetic and couldn’t sit still and didn’t really want to be inside when I could be basking up sun light. So how to write when I couldn’t sit down or keep pen to paper?
I paced. Excessively. We had a corner lot so I had a lot of sidewalk and every day in the afternoon and most days in the summer I would take to the sidewalk with a clipboard in one hand and a bouncy ball in the other and I would pace the sidewalk, bouncing my ball, telling my stories to myself and stopping when I needed to write things down.
That’s why, even to this day, I have a very emotional connection to my clipboards (I’ve been through a few since I kept dropping them on the sidewalk and breaking them but not as many as you would assume) and also I still have a tendency to pace and to make up stories while I’m in motion. I might do my writing sitting down now but I still do my planning when I’m moving!
Ok ok ok it’s story time because it’s been a while since I told you about young me.
We all know that I decided to be a writer at 8 because of reading Call of the Wild because I only talk about it like, once or twice a year or All The Goddamn Time.
What you don’t know is that, lighting bolt of career clarity aside, I was probably born to be a writer anyway.
In kindergarten and first grade I used to go to after school daycare just like a million other kids. And when not playing with my absolute bff Rachael I could be found doing pretty much one thing: story-telling.
See, I used to make up stories about this family of cats but of course I couldn’t really spell or write at the time so I used to dictate my stories to the third-graders and then very seriously illustrate them.
They were all in little “books” made by folding and stapling paper and I used to do this all the time.
Of course it did slow down a little when my reading got strong enough that I started losing myself in other books instead. Until, of course, I read a certain Jack London book.
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