Orlando Morningstar is a character who I've been going over in my mind for a long time. She sort of evolved out of an alter-ego for me in the 1960's story (she was a guy named Roland then). After that it sort of went, what if I was a girl? So that lead me to create Orlando Morningstar, a lesbian with Aspergers Syndrome in 1960's America. For some reason I decided she'd be an albino, because albinism is kind of cool and science fiction writer.
I've only just realized how much I've put poor Orlando up for. If you haven't gotten that I'll enunciate. She's a LESBIAN with ASPERGER'S SYNDROME in THE SIXTIES. Lesbianism isn't yet as socially acceptable as it is today, and Asperger's Syndrome hasn't even been identified yet. I've already decided she's spent time in an insane asylum, because it would impossible for her to not have. Eventually she will get out and write various cult science fiction novels that will be adopted by the hippies and gay liberation and feminism. Besides that she also has a secret life involving conspiracy theories, sorcerers and all kinds of other weird stuff, because she lives in my fictional world where this sort of thing is normal. Her father is more or less a rouge angel, her lover his a voodoo priestess and her friends are druids, beatnik prophets and circus freaks.
The other thing about Orlando is that I want to give her some credibility as a lesbian. I think I can do this, but I don't know what people will think of a straight male writing about a gay female, even if this character is more or less a female version of me. I suppose I really shouldn't care what people think, but I want to give her at least some credibility as a lesbian in her time and space, even if she lives in a world of magic and conspiracy theories and ancient wars.
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