I have a writing blog called atypical romance. There is basically zero crossover between the audience for that blog and this anime blog, and for that reason I seldom talk about my fiction books here at Neo-Shonen Fujoshi.
I’d like to make an exception to that today. On October 4, I released To the Farthest Shore, the final book in The Queendoms Series, a series I’ve been writing since 2013. This seven-book novel series holds special meaning for me, for reasons that I’ll explain in a moment.
The Queendoms Series begins with Rebellion.
Four hundred years from now - it’s a woman’s world.
After nuclear fallout, environmental damage and World War III left the world’s population decimated... the area formerly known as Northern California became a safe zone for people from all the nations of the earth.
More women survived than men, and the new civilization structured itself into queendoms. The queendoms shun technology and restrict the activities of men. Violence is forbidden, and a simple agrarian way of life ensures humanity’s survival.
In the Queendom of Califia, brash and outspoken Anming Lee argues for men’s rights while the polite but equally stubborn Kellen Cassidy opposes him. Their mothers Chen and Kieren share the same views as their sons, and are at constant odds on the Ruling Council.
The council is being torn apart and the High Councilor decides there’s only one way to resolve the deadlock: to have Anming and Kellen be bonded in marriage!
Through the years as I’ve worked on my writing craft, I’ve made some discoveries about myself as a writer. One is that I don’t have it in me to write completely light-hearted stories. I can write humorous scenes, but eventually the story as a whole will turn serious.
So The Queendoms Series takes on a more serious tone starting with the second book, The Hunt, where Anming takes Kellen with him on the annual buffalo hunt. The hunt is where Anming feels the most alive, as he’s away from the female-dominated village with all its rules and in the company of men who think the same way he does. We see the worst of Anming in this book, as his character flaws are on full display: arrogance, roughness, insensitivity. Kellen bears the brunt of it, and the couple goes through an extremely traumatic experience towards the end of the book that threatens to end their relationship. This is eventually dealt with and resolved in The Califia Trilogy’s third book, Queen of Califia.
Second Bond is the fourth book. It’s the pivot book in the series, and the events that take place in it lead in to the final three books, Homestead, Sanctuary, and To the Farthest Shore, a.k.a. The Queendoms Trilogy.
I first envisioned Second Bond to be a sort of happily ever after wrap-up to the series, but in the midst of writing the first draft, I came to understand that I’d left out a whole side to the story that really needed to be explored. In the first novel trilogy, there was an uprising of certain men against the female-dominated queendoms civilization. The rebellion turns out to be something different than what it seemed on the surface. But I realized that the real threat to a matriarchal society would come from men using what they’ve always used to control women: violence.
With Second Bond, the final arc of the series begins. Califia, the Kashaya Sky, Madrona, and Rio face their greatest threat, as men’s rights extremists attack the four queendoms using various means.
Of necessity, some of the scenes in these books were hard for me to write and they’re also hard to read. But they were required for the story, and though a part of me didn’t want to go there, I knew I had to.
In sum, The Queendoms Series was a part of my life and my inner creative world for eight years. In that span of time I came to understand why the characters, setting, and premise attracted me so.
I grew up watching British historical dramas on Masterpiece Theater and reading Lord of the Rings. The rustic village settings and royal castles sparked my early writer’s imagination. But I was a Japanese-American girl growing up in urban California in the late 20th century, so it was hard to see myself as a character in those stories.
Still, those images stayed with me. Other interests entered my life, such as what is known today as m/m or mm romance (male-male romance). This niche didn’t even have a name when I first became enamored with it in my twenties. Today, gay romance is one of romance’s most popular sub-genres.
Likewise, the idea of multicultural romance stories – much less multicultural and gay – was unheard of thirty or even twenty years ago, really.
And so it’s not surprising that The Queendoms Series takes place in a post-apocalyptic Northern California with society re-establishing itself as royal matriarchies, and that the four main characters, as well as most of the supporting characters, are multicultural. The protagonist, Anming Lee, is half-white and half-Chinese; his bond mate Kellen Cassidy is white with a Scandinavian and Irish background; Tavon Alexander is black; and Ryn Chan, later known as Ryosuke of the Kashaya Sky, is Japanese.
Similarly, the Queendom of Califia is ruled by Queen Jacintha, who is black. She later marries Eduardo Avila who becomes Prince Eduardo. The ruling family of the Queendom of the Kashaya Sky is of Japanese origin, the House of Shiranui. The Queendom of Madrona throughout its history has been ruled by families of English, French and German origins. And finally, the Rio Queendom in the delta is presided over by a queen of Hispanic and nativelander origins (nativelander being my term in the series for the indigenous/original peoples of the land).
Why was this important to me? I grew up not seeing myself anywhere in any of the entertainment I consumed. The idea of “representation” as such didn’t exist at that time. I grew up feeling invisible in my own country.
Thus, my fantasy landscape – more properly, science fiction landscape, since it’s post-apocalyptic – is this post-racial Northern California where nobody cares about race anymore because they’ve all had to work together in order to survive. Where the Japanese-descended Queen Reika rules her queendom by the sea in the former town of Mendocino, and where the heroes and villains can be any race or gender.
The Queendoms Series is where a number of my interests cross paths: male-female relations, feminism, m/m romance… even California, the state of my birth where I have lived for nearly all my life. I love California, particularly the wine country, which is why I placed Califia in Sebastopol near Santa Rosa and Madrona just south of Napa. These are the landscapes that have always inspired me.
If you are intrigued enough to give The Queendoms Series a try, the first novel, Rebellion, is only 99 cents at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo Books.
And if you have friends that you think might enjoy the books, I’d also appreciate it if you could recommend the series to them. :-)
