For a long time, I believed that I was a bad writer, because mainstream sff said so.
I wrote/write about women, characters and basically, the lives of girls wanting to be something. I wrote about werewolves in my own country, because a UF set in Singapore, why not.
I WAS WRONG.
Maybe I came at the wrong time, was not noticed by the right kind of people. Maybe I was just gosh-darned aggressive, because nobody likes an aggressive POC with opinions. So, I ended up obscure and my stories sidelined.
Come 2016, screw mainstream SFF, because they will wow and whoa at the new shiny “approved” by gatekeepers – I will write my own. I do not need sycophants pandering to me. Sadly these sycophants are loud and their readership promotes their kind of author.
Oh wait, did I just use the word ‘sycophant’? You see, I am just gosh darn loud and strident. I am not your nice POC. Too many people policing how POC sff writers should behave and you know, we start to believe that kind of shit. Do not lump all POC sff writers into one lump. We are all different, have different levels of privilege and we live in different countries.
Like the rest of the world and humanity, some are nice, some aren’t. Don’t assume we are all nice and peachy. After all, this is the internet, this is social media, people have avatars and personas. I would rather meet you off line and have a meal.
So come 2016 – it’s my own path.
Note: Not all POC sff writers identify themselves as POC. I would rather see myself as a non-white writer.
A Wolf's Tale 
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