"Ze let hirself rise, barely buoyant, into the tapering tip. A little broken, blue light flickered down to meet hir. Ze reached for it, watching it play over hir skin. It tickled. Lyuko giggled, tugging away reflexively – and the light came too. Ze could see the coral’s new growth clearly, now softly gleaming. Intrigued, Lyuko pulled again, and blue light blossomed within the bulb. Ze rolled it, spun it, and webbed the walls in soft blue lace. It was more pliant and responsive to hir touch than water alone had ever been.

Kouso was surprised, but overjoyed: hir child, a sculptor not of currents, but of light. The colony had never seen the like."

- from "Moments of Light" by Toby MacNutt, published in Capricious Issue 2

Gender diverse pronouns - like the "ze" and "hir" used above, or singular they, or any of a number of possibilities - are an increasing part of many people's vocabulary. They can be used to describe people for whom "he" or "she" are not a good fit, or to refer to a person, real or hypothetical, of unknown gender.

But - with some notable exceptions - they’re under-utilised in science fiction and fantasy - despite the fact that they’re necessary just to depict our world accurately, let alone the myriad worlds of the imagination. While some editors are welcoming, others are dismissive, meaning authors are taking a risk in writing these stories, and readers don’t see enough of them.

As the editor of Capricious magazine (and a non-binary person myself) I want to create a special issue of speculative stories which not only use gender diverse pronouns, but embrace them. Stories with gender diverse characters, in worlds where gender is conceptualised in many different ways - or not at all.

We’ve published two such stories: “The Need for Overwhelming Sensation” by Bogi Takács and “Moments of Light” by Toby MacNutt, both of which use multiple sets of gender diverse pronouns - and such pronoun usage is very welcome in every issue of Capricious. Now we want to specifically celebrate it and showcase the possibilities it allows.

Our main photo depicts a Capricious fuzzhog engaging in research into historical uses of singular they in literature. Want your own? Check out the rewards. Fuzziness garanteed, research capabilities may vary.

Gender Diverse Pronouns

A pronoun - or, more specifically in this case, a personal pronoun, is a word you can use in place of someone’s name. Rather than saying “Ryan picked up the book but Ryan decided it wasn’t the sort of thing Ryan enjoyed reading” you would more typically say “Ryan picked up the book but she decided it wasn’t the sort of thing she enjoyed reading”. She is the personal pronoun.

In English, the personal pronouns we’re most used to are he and she. Not only do these require the speaker to know the gender of the person they’re talking about, but they only really cover two genders. Humans don’t always fit in these boxes.

Fortunately, there are a range of gender neutral pronouns  - and they’re not all modern inventions. They are used mainly to either refer to an individual for whom “he” or “she” isn’t appropriate (that individual might identify as non-binary or genderqueer) or for a hypothetical person whose gender is not established (“when you find out who the person in charge is, tell them I need to talk to them”).

What's the difference between gender neutral and gender diverse pronouns? There’s significant overlap between the two, but I chose the "gender diverse" terminology for this project because we also welcome stories in which pronouns do signify specific a gender, but in different ways to he and she.

So we’re looking for stories that use singular they, or xe, or e, or per or any one of many possibilities - including those of the authors' invention. We’re looking for stories that use culturally specific pronouns, or pronouns created by the author for a fictional world. We'd love to see stories that also address other ways in which languages are gendered, and stories with multiply-marginalised characters. And of course, we want stories that delight and amaze us, are beautifully written, and explore different worlds and new futures.

About the Special Issue

The special issue will be a double-length issue of Capricious (approx 8 stories, plus author interviews). It will be available in both print and ebook (pdf, ebook, and mobi formats), with publication scheduled for late 2017.

We are aiming to pay authors professional rates of US6c/word, and our goal has been set with that in mind. Should we reach at least the halfway point, but fail to meet our goal, we will go ahead but only be able to offer a lower rate, paying authors a minimum of US3c/word. More happily, should we exceed our goal, additional funds will allow us to lengthen the issue, and to fund Capricious on an ongoing basis, which will always be welcoming to stories like these.

About Capricious

Capricious is a magazine of speculative fiction, which has published work by AJ Fitzwater, Bogi Takács, Mari Ness, RJ Edwards, Rebecca Campbell, Octavia Cade, Anya Ow… and more. We recently celebrated our first birthday with the release of the food-and-drink themed Issue 4. Capricious is edited by A.C. Buchanan, whose editing has won two Sir Julius Vogel awards.

About the Perks

A few notes about the perks we're offering:

• All ebooks will be in .pdf, .mobi, and .epub format.
• The Fuzzhogs are handknitted, so allow for some minor variation. These are not toys and not suitable for young children. They are based on a pattern by Bee Weir.
• Subscriptions begin with the first issue of 2017 (unless you have an existing subscription, in which case we will set it to begin when your existing subscription expires). All subscribers, current and new, who back this campaign will have their subscription lengthened by an issue to account for the purchase of the special issue.
• Critiques are for one short story up to 7500 words. To avoid conflicts of interest, critiqued stories will not be considered for this issue, or for future issues of Capricious.
• The books included in the "C is for Capricious", "Paperback Plus Poems", "Hedgehog Plus Bird", and "Robot Hedgehogs" perks have been very kindly donated by Rose Lemberg, A. Merc Rustad, and Bogi Takács. Thank you!

Milestone Perks

If we get to $2000, every backer who has contributed $10 or more will receive an ebook of Invisible City, a novelette by Capricious editor A.C. Buchanan.

If we get to $2500, every backer who has contributed $10 or more will receive an ebook of Accessing the Future, a disability-themed anthology of speculative fiction, kindly donated by Djibril al-Ayad at FutureFire.net (thank you Djibril!)

And if we reach our goal of $3000, every backer who has contributed $10 or more will receive an ebook of Regeneration, an anthology of New Zealand Speculative Fiction.

That's potentially 3 bonus ebooks with every perk over $10 - but we need to hit those goals first!

How to Submit

We are open for submissions until 28 February 2017. Please see the full submission guidelines on the Capricious website.

Risks and Challenges

The most obvious risk is failing to meet funding. As mentioned above, if we reach at least the halfway point (US$1500), we are confident the issue can proceed. If we don’t, we’re still going to do all we can to make it happen, but it may be delayed while additional funding is sought.

The other main risk is that we will receive insufficient stories to fill the issue, however given the large number of submissions Capricious receives, and that we have strong networks with authors who write - or want to write - just what we’re looking for, this seems minimal.

Then there are technical or bureaucratic risks - printing issues and such like. While these can never be eliminated, all I can say is that we’ve done plenty of research and have experience, so we’re confident we can work around them.

Lastly, I have a good supply of bottled water, chocolate, and canned chickpeas under the bed so am confident of being able to hide in my bedroom with a laptop and edit through the zombie apocalypse.

Other Ways You Can Help

We understand that not everyone who supports us can do so financially. We’d love it if you can spread the word about this campaign; social media sharing buttons are above. If you’re a writer you can also support us by considering submitting to the issue. Three months after publication, a selection of stories from this special issue will be posted free online - please have a read, and perhaps review them or recommend those you enjoy.