Seraph Abell
Aroace representation, fanfic with original work, and new releases!
Hello again folks!
As promised, there’s a whole new interview incoming for you today. Seraph Abell is an author of original written work, fanfiction, and art. Released today is their new novel Inarora’s Excursion, which I’ll include links for (as ever) below. As a neurodivergent and queer author, Seraph is also a student of several languages and has a degree in Asian Studies.
Without further ado, I want to lead you all to read on for the interview.
Chaos Gays: So, I’ve learnt to always start with this... I introduce you a little, but can you introduce yourself? What do you create? Who are you as a creator? How do you want to be known?
SA: I’m Seraph Abell (they/she/zhe pronouns) I’m a queer and neurodivergent author and artist. I write original novels and Naruto fanfiction. As a creator, I typically focus on those aspects of myself a lot because a lot of what I experienced, I never saw in media growing up. I want to be known as an author who is as inclusive as possible, because I know what it’s like growing without representation in media, and I want to include as many types of people as I can.
Chaos Gays: I love that so much. It sounds like representation is important to you, can you talk a little more about why you represented the identities you did and what was important to you in crafting those characters? What are you finding that's missing in media that you're trying to provide?
SA: I think the biggest one is asexual/aromantic (henceforth aroace) representation. I’m aroace, and I never knew about it until I was 17 when my dad said he heard of the term ‘asexual’ and thought it described me. Later on I figured I was aromantic as well. What little of aroaces we see in media in general is basically pathologized, like in an episode of House where Dr. House found himself trying to “cure” this guy of being asexual.
Aside from that, most of my characters are queer in some fashion, such as the Gay Grandpas, Lysander and Seri. Lysander is asexual and biromantic, and is polyamorous as well. Seri is specifically demisexual/aromantic but homosexual. Kaedan is demisexual. Inarora is non-binary. Ezekiel is intersex. There’s a lot of queer identities!
My main family, the Beserveras, are all autistic/ADHD (henceforth auDHD), as finding decent auDHD representation was not easy to find. You had the genius trope (Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds, Dr. Maura Isles in Rizzoli & Isles) or the infantilized adults in different formats. I also feature wheelchair users—Kaedan, Inarora’s father—with chronic back pain from an injury he sustained in war, and another with Fibromyalgia—Inarora’s great-grandpa Seri, who also uses a cane sometimes. Though that’s only his present self, his past self didn’t have it quite yet. Lysander had a hip injury and he walked with a cane as well. Byron has Lupus, which actually I didn’t know about until a few months ago. Thanks, Byron, haha.
I think the biggest thing for me crafting these babies was trying to see some of my friends and family represented too, and making them smile when they see themselves represented. In media, disability is seen as such a taboo subject that it’s rarely talked about. People want us to hide, but we’re tired of hiding. We want to be seen loud and proud!
Chaos Gays: So, I always love hearing ace rep is present, aroace even better! The first interview ever done here was with an ace author! I think this makes a lot of sense and I'm curious to read. Like a lot of people who are interviewed here, you have work out there that we can go look at! Want to tell us about it?
SA: So the first bit of stuff I have that can be read aside from Inarora’s Excursion, is my Naruto fanfiction on AO3. I’m a debut author so this is actually my first original piece in the world. But my Naruto fanfic, which I’ve called Tsukiya’s Story (月夜の物語), which revolves around my Naruto OC, Hatake Tsukiya who is Kakashi’s child. Their mom is not in the picture because she is “dead” (allegedly), and their grandfather is also somehow alive. And Tsukiya is also aroace and non-binary, and they are also neurodivergent. I headcanon most shinobi are ND in some way but it’s so normalized in their world that it doesn’t matter as much as it does in our world. Though Tsukiya is still disabled by their neurodivergence. They kick ass, but sometimes they need a minute or two from sensory overload LOL. But also I’d like to point out that I’ve had friends who weren’t into Naruto in general who did enjoy my fanfiction, so that is neat.
If that isn’t your cup of tea, Inarora’s Excursion is coming out today, and that’s about a young cat person (henceforth “eathyn/eathys”) who is sent into the past where she meets her great grandfathers, and they have to figure out how to get her back home before the timeline is forever changed.
Chaos Gays: Interesting! So for both of these, one of the reasons I created this space is because while some people just read 'queer' and will read it, or see a queer creator and want to know what they're doing (no shame, I'm one), the queer creative community is large enough that we can all start looking for the things WE want. So... is there anyone specific your work might appeal to? Anyone you wrote for, or aimed at?
SA: I think specifically my stuff is all aimed at aroaces in general, as a lot of my characters and canon characters I adore, I headcanon as ace, aro, or both. A lot of media specifically has a lot of romance/sexual stuff but, I ain’t into that. So I don’t write much romance/sexual content in general, and I feel like it would be nice for aces and aros to have a break from it. Granted, there are aces and aros who love that stuff! Which, valid! But for me, I’d like something different. While I have romantic and/or sexual relationships in my stories, it’s definitely not a big focus. In fact, I like to focus on queerplatonic relationships instead! Because platonic relationships are ignored and even demeaned sometimes, as if friends/tight friendships aren’t as important.
Chaos Gays: It's definitely really important to have a whole range of media out there. So, with your new release, what would you hope to happen with it? Where would you want it to be seen/shelved, etc? Wildest dreams?
SA: Wildest dreams, I’d like my book to be in every bookstore. Shelved with amazing authors like Astrid Knight, Xiran Jay Zhao, and Hafsah Faizal.
I’d love for it to get popular at least but I know that’s a pipe dream lol. I would also love to see it translated across countries but again, I know that’s unlikely. Talked about in queer reading circles? Oh yeah that’d be amazing.
Chaos Gays: Love that! So, to that end... Is there anything you really love and/or are proud of with the way you wrote this book?
SA: I’m just overall proud of how it came out, and how it started out as a whole mess when I started in 2015. I changed so much from the original story it’s not even funny. I had it sitting around for about 5-6 years before I picked it back up again in 2021 and realized I could make it amazing. And it was transformed so beautifully and it makes me so happy to see it go out into the world now.
Chaos Gays: I love that. Then I think my next question has to be: Is there anything you really want to write and put out there in the future? Whether you have solid plans to do so or not?
SA: Well for sure, I really want to get the sequels written. Maybe a book about Lysander and Seri when they were in their youth. And I have a work in progress I have dubbed “DisasterWIP” that I hope I can eventually get to at some point LOL.
Chaos Gays: Do you have any more specific plans for future publications for us to look out for? Or things that you want to start up as a creator?
SA: Just Inarora 2, where they get to learn that blood family isn’t always everything. WIP title is still being debated internally, but Inarora 2 is definitely coming within the next year or two!
Chaos Gays: Last question is always a fun question, so fun question time: How would your characters react if they read how you presented them/the things they went through in your book?
SA: Oh that is a fun question. Well, I think Inarora would probably be happy at how I presented them but definitely would be mad about all the crap they went through that they couldn’t even focus on lol. Kaedan would be upset because I hurt his baby. Byron would also be a bit cross. Lysander would be a bit mad but also happy because he got to meet his great-grandchild and got to make her a quilt. So, a bag of mixed reactions to be honest!
Chaos Gays: Haha 'mad at all the crap' seems like a common reaction. I think mine would be the same. Thank you so much for talking to me, and we'll include your links below!
For anyone that reads these interviews regularly, you know that one of the purposes of Chaos Gays is to help queer creators and consumers find their people. As such, if anyone finds an interview here interesting, I include links to the authors' work! Don’t be afraid to support if this catches your eye.
Links
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/seraphrdm
