ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hiya!

I’m C.M. Rodriguez, a queer speculative fiction author exploring survival, identity, and transformation through atmospheric, emotionally intimate stories. My work is shaped by lived experience as a queer, HIV-positive person who grew up without seeing myself in the stories around me.

I write toward tenderness and grit and build worlds where connection, resilience, and self-reinvention take center stage.

My fiction often blurs the line between body and myth, always searching for honesty, weight, and the possibility of becoming.

MY WORK

My work lives in the space where speculative fiction meets emotional truth. I write atmospheric, intimate queer narratives shaped by lived experience, cultural memory, and the resilience of community. I’m drawn to stories with texture: the emotional shadows we inherit, the tenderness that grows in harsh places, and the complicated ways survival and identity intersect.

My fiction often blurs the line between body and myth, exploring transformation, connection, and the deep, human need to rebuild ourselves in the aftermath of crisis.

My short fiction includes a futuristic micro-fiction retelling of Tristan and Isolde and a body-horror story about dysmorphia, desire, and the complicated relationship we have with our own skins. My longer fiction continues to explore these topics through a character-driven, emotionally charged narrative that is rooted in the ways crisis reshapes people and the connections they choose to keep.

MY JOURNEY

I didn’t "become a writer" so much as I grew into one. Stories were the first place I ever felt any kind of clarity. I was messy, curious, queer, and trying to make sense of the world and my place inside it. Yet I rarely saw myself reflected in the stories around me. Growing up, I learned to bend and reshape heterosexual narratives just to find a space where someone like me could exist.

As a queer, HIV positive man, my lived experience has shaped every part of my writing. I write through the questions I’ve carried, the fears I’ve survived, and the moments that reshaped me. Over time, the page became both mirror and refuge: a place to tell the truths I inherited, the ones I lived through, and the ones I’m still trying to imagine.

My work grows from those roots: identity, community, cultural and familial ancestry, crisis, resilience, chosen family, and love. I write stories built from tenderness and grit. I mold characters who rebuild themselves in the aftermath of damage.

I write stories that offer what I needed but couldn’t find when I was younger.

My journey as a writer is ongoing. It's a process of revision, rediscovery, and returning to the page with a little more courage each time.

No matter where my journey takes me I will always carry one thing:

Queer stories and characters belong on the shelves of every store and library.

WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT STORIES

Stories should

Tell the truth, even when they’re full of impossible things.
Hold emotional, cultural, and ancestral weight, yet still leave room for tenderness.
Illuminate something real about ourselves, our communities, our histories, and our futures.
Offer mirrors where people who rarely see themselves represented can finally find resonance.
Challenge us, comfort us, haunt us, and expand our empathy.
Create space for grief and hope, danger and resilience, vulnerability and transformation.
Remind us that connection is possible even in fractured worlds.

Above all, I believe stories should change us and make us feel less alone.

WHEN I'M NOT WRITING

I'm usually out exploring Chicago (especially its coffee shops) or diving into whatever new hobby has caught my attention.

I serve on the boards of two LGBTQIA+ nonprofits dedicated to creating spaces where people can show up as their full, authentic selves.

I’m also an actor at my local Renaissance faire, an unrepentant nerd, and a lover of comics, movies, audiobooks, D&D, and most tabletop RPGs.

I have a deep love for live theater and I go whenever I can. Art in motion has always inspired me, especially the way performance turns emotion into something communal.

At home, I’m surrounded by a dog, a cat, an amazing composer husband (check out his music here!), and our wonderful adult adopted son. I’m goofy, fiercely in love with music, and open about my journey with bipolar disorder, sharing what I’ve learned whenever I can.

I’m also polyamorous, demisexual, and part of the kink community (let’s call this the respectful PG-13 version) where I’ve found connection, joy, and a deeper understanding of myself.

Mostly, I’m someone who loves stories in every form: read, played, lived, and shared.

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