Slender. Angry. (Part) Asian.
Yeah, that about sums me up.
Hi. I’m Xen. X. Cole. Whatever you want to call me; both are true, and both are lies. My pen names are multitudes, my nicknames legion. Tall, bi/queer, introverted author of a brown-ish persuasion made up of various flavors of Black, Asian, and Native American. I’m cuter than Hello Kitty, more bitter than the blackest coffee, and able to trip over cats in a single half-asleep lurch; I’m what happens when a Broody Antihero and a Manic Pixie Dream Boy fight to the death, and someone builds a person from the scraps left behind. Beardless, I look like the uke in every yaoi manga in existence; bearded or not, I sound like Barry White. About half my time is spent as a corporate writer, and the other half riding a train of WTFery that sometimes results in a finished book. Romance, erotica, sci-fi, horror, paranormal; LGBTQIA and cishet; diverse settings and diverse characters from a diverse author.
Sometimes I shout about things on the internet. Usually intersectional feminism and marginalized voices, and whomever’s punching down in those directions today. Sometimes human sociology, the psychology of sex and gender, and my own gender non-conforming arse (he/him, by the way). Sometimes I get really mad at Stephen Hawking and nerd out all over the place about hairy black holes, and believe it or not, that’s not a terrible pun or even worse innuendo.
That’s it. I’m a huge dork. My humor’s so dry it could empty oceans. I’m a native Southerner from the New Orleans area with zero Southern accent; I’m a mess of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual influences; I have two cats. I wake up at daft hours of the morning to go running. I crochet terrible, lumpy things that never really turn into anything. I’m older than you think I look. I’m much more shy than my fury makes me sound (signifying gods only know what, but probably nothing). Recently I decided, at 36, that I needed to restart my life and move cross-country, so I tossed 75% of my possessions in the trash and randomly trucked it to Seattle. I’m in love with books and music and technology, and they war with each other for dominance and sometimes come together in a beautiful confluence. Most of the physical books I own are strange, obscure, out of print, overseas imports, or any combination of the four. Most of the physical books I used to own were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and have been replaced with the infinite library on my Nook. My wallet has a dangerous attraction to anything with pages; it flirts and teases and gives its all, until there’s nothing left but emptiness and ruin.
There will always be things you don’t know, and I won’t tell.
But ask me late at night over live music in a seedy bar, and you might just get an honest answer.
Xen x Cole McCade (mostly Cole) around the giant tarry cesspool of the internet:
- Otome Games, Toxic Masculinity, and Non-Traditional Masculinity in M/M – Ever After Romance (January 2017)
- Interview on Writing by Comic Book Morality, Antiheroes & Culture – Just Love (January 2017)
- Surviving Suicide: The Mental Healthcare Gap for LGBTQIA+ POC – HuffPost Blog (September 2016)
- Sharing Favorite Reluctant Heroes / Heroines – USA Today HEA Blog (August 2016)
- We All Need Stories: Talking About the Intersectionality Gap in Diverse Fiction – Queer Romance Month (October 2015)
- On why The Lost is a story about anger as much as it’s about dark taboo erotica – USA Today HEA Blog (August 2015)
- How Anonymity Can Be Both Rewarding & Difficult – Night Owl Reviews (August 2015)
- Author Override: The Last Book that Kept Me Up All Night – Under the Covers Book Blog (August 2015)
- Interview + Guest Post: What Kind of Book Character Would I Be? – Joyfully Reviewed (August 2015)
- Top 5 Musical Guilty Pleasures (including 1D, oh god why did I admit that in public) – Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews (August 2015)
- My Top 5 All-Time Favorite Books – Fiction Vixen (August 2015)
- Mentioned in “The Je Ne Sais Quoi of Romance Novels Set in France” by Audra North – Heroes & Heartbreakers (March 2015)
- “You’ll Never Believe…” Talking about being a male phone sex operator and getting propositioned on Twitter. – Maryse’s Book Blog (January 2015)
- Blog Tour Interviews, A Second Chance at Paris – Kristi’s Book Cellar | Cruising Susan | Talking Books Blog | Pinky’s Favorite Reads | Obsessive Reading Disorder | Confessions of a YA & NA Book Addict | MRBoD (January & February 2015)
- Excerpt + article on being male and writing from the female POV. – USA Today HEA Blog (January 2015)
- They’re Really More Like Guidelines, Anyway (Or – Fuzzy Handcuffs, Chemistry, and How I Put a Date in the Hospital) – Wonkomance (February 2014)
LATEST NEWS
NEW CROW CITY COVERS The Crow City Series now has a new cover set – dark, sleek, and just in time for the latest book in the series. See the full series covers here. |
TWENTY NOTES TO THE ANXIOUS, MELANCHOLY WRITER |
AUTUMN (CROW CITY #2.75) The latest installment in the Crow City series is here – with series favorites Walford Gallifrey and Joseph Armitage returning in a poignant story of reconciliation and newfound love in the first contemporary M/M in the Crow City Series. |