Theme Summary: Broken Song deals with trauma and the effects it has on people. How they cope or fail to cope, how they justify it, how they blame others or themselves, and how, through trust, support and gentleness with others and oneself, the path of healing can be walked one step at a time.

Content Notes will be available below.

Dear Reader,

This is perhaps one of the more difficult things I have written so far. Art is life, and life is art. Both are a process. A journey, not a destination. They mirror and reflect each other. Our experiences echo through the things we create, be they visual art, auditory or literary. Everyone’s journey is different. We can join each other in community on the path, but there are moments and reckonings that are just for us.

Writing this book has been a step on that journey for myself. Mostly, it has been a journey of growth in a professional sense, in the quality of writing elevating closer to my personal standards, and how I approach art. I would love to say that we live in a world where either does not directly influence my ability to survive, and that I was able to craft this in a whole year of loving dedication. And you might be reading this, wondering why I would put it into the first thing you get to see within these pages. Mostly, I think that in order to create more art out there, to encourage more expression and as such cultivate people’s ability to understand one another and the systems that govern our lives, the professions surrounding artistic pursuits need to be demystified.

At the time of writing, with the story done and finished, it has been four months since the creation of the first Trap Your Lovers document. Three of those were spent writing the book. The fourth… is a complicated personal matter. But it relates to the subject of this book.

That subject, the very theme that moves its characters, is forgiveness. Growth, yes. Queerness in all its beauty, too.

It is unapologetically queer. Gender is as diverse in its existence and expression as body types, eye colours, hair lengths and more. I would like to note at this point that there are characters using their pronouns in ways that may be unconventional to people who do not travel in queer circles. I wouldn’t call it confusing by any means, but conformity is an insidious poison. It may take a moment or two to fully expel it. We are taught from birth to listen to the world around us. A world that is actively hostile to people like myself and the people I love. A world that thrives on assigning moral goodness to the circumstances of our birth. To the colour of our skin, the form of our flesh, and how good we are at being beaten into the shape the machine needs to enrich the ones running it.

But we’re not metal pieces to be discarded. The iron in the blood we spill does not make us cogs to be used. And this is not a gentle book. It may convey a message of hope, but such messages are not needed in worlds without pain, and this pain is mine. It is a sliver of suffering in an endless sea of screams. It is an outcry for an ideal, community and goodness in the face of the inevitable. It is not a great work of art, but it is mine. There are many like it, many more eloquent, and many from people who have suffered more. Even in the realms of purely original fiction, there are works more imaginative, societies more alive, and skies more vibrant than this.

But this is mine. And I am grateful to still be here to share it.

This is a book about a society in a fantastical world. No conscious inspiration has been drawn from any one culture, though it is possible that some may have snuck in. I would love to pay homage to the different beautiful cultures of our world someday… but three months is not enough time for the amount of research I would require of myself. Regardless, a few names and influences from cultures and nationalities not my own have been placed here. Some were deliberate choices— first steps in adding yet more diversity into a genre that has predominantly been occupied by a white cishet demographic —and a few we leaned into after accidental discovery.

Ziira’s sword comes to mind.

I thought nobody made unreasonably cool weapons.

I was wrong.

In the society within these pages, physicality does not dictate your treatment. There is no system racism. The colour of your skin is not used as a cudgel against you. Disabilities are natural and accommodated for, and used as justifications for mistreatment, because the people in this world aren’t fucking monsters. I sincerely hope that the writing conveys that.

Queerness is normalized. Homophobia, transphobia and sexism, for the largest part, do not exist within this world, and certainly not in this specific book. Nakedness is not sexualised or fetishized, and consent valued and cherished.

This is a book about queerness and trauma, only one step removed from its source. It is a book about characters who have been hurt deeply and scarred for life, without and within, and the grief they feel at the things they’ve done to survive. This is a book about forgiving your friend for the harm they’ve caused. About forgiving yourself for having been hurt, for having to run, to flee, to heal. For still not being healed.

Eventually, this will be a story about how forgiveness is extended, not earned. And I want to make entirely clear that not all things can be forgiven, or should.

Forgiveness is not earned. But some people put all their effort behind being as undeserving as possible before demanding it.

There is pain in this book. There are complex and complicated relationships. Messy people trying their best and failing. There are tears. But there is hope. There are horses, there are dragons and night skies full of wonder.

And there is love, always.

I hope you enjoy it.

And if you’re hurting, I hope you forgive yourself for what you have to do to heal.

TO BE SUMMARISED SUCCINCTLY AND EXPANDED UPON CONCISELY WITHIN THE PAGES OF THE BOOK

Representation

Bisexual and pansexual MCs

Transgender MC

Lesbian supporting characters

Nonbinary supporting characters

Asexual supporting characters

Fat supporting character

Queerplatonic relationship

Mostly characters of colour (though not trying to be indicative of any one culture)

Mental Health issues (grief, anger, conflict, regret, trust issues)

PTSD

ADHD

Disability in the form of amputation, visual impairment (MC), TBI (MC) and visual hallucinations (MC)

Pluralism adjacent characters (mental connection of dragons)

Content Notes/Trigger warnings: 

References to: death by fire; romantic and sexual entanglements; mass death; refugee crisis;

Mentions of: fantasy violence and fantasy violence perpetrated by animals; fantasy warfare and politics; religiously motivated persecution; traumatic and disabling events; self-harm ideation; self destructive tendencies; cannibalism; blood and bloodletting; cosmetic scarring; amnesia; undeath, dismemberment of the undead, and slight eye gore;

On-page depictions of: robbery; fantasy violence; captivity; loss of home to disaster; death and death of loved ones; trauma; interrogation; complex and complicated relationships; childhood trauma; PTSD; blood; romance, flirting, and innuendo; kissing; sexual entanglements (non-graphic); teenage substance use; anger; unreality and loss of memory; captivity, abuse, and attempted human sacrifice; humans devoured by large animals;

Inspirations & Recommended Reading

GODKILLER: First Blood — By Connie Chang and Sea Thomas. An intimate, two-person drama about a heretic from a dirt-poor mining town as they raise hell and kill some gods. (Review Forthcoming)