B. A. Baker Portfolio

Thank you for visiting the B. A. Baker portfolio page.

I’m a published author writing about technology, LGBTQ+ issues, fandom, cultural exchange, and cyclical storytelling, and having a lot of fun doing it.

Originally from the Chattanooga, Tennesee, area, I graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2017 with a B.A. in Writing & Linguistics and have since relocated to Japan, where I have worked as an assistant language teacher since 2018. International cultural exchange is great!

My writing focuses primarily on speculative fiction, including science fiction and fantasy, along with nonfiction media criticism and opinion. I love studying story structure and designing unique stories that stray far from the expected. I am also very interested in multimedia storytelling, especially the combination of prose, comics, games, and animation. Work that uses multiple mediums at once will always get my attention.

I edited humor-focused literary magazine Moonglasses Magazine from 2015-2017, and I am a co-founder and project editor for the fiction collective Quinlan Circle since 2018.

My fiction work has been self-published on story websites such as Royal Road and Tapas, and has been mentioned in publications including the New York Times and The Guardian. My nonfiction work has been featured on this very website’s blog page, as well as on sites like ScreenGeek.net.

Please take a look around my site and let me know what you think!

Contact me at morganharding@vivaldi.net, or on Twitter if you happen to be around those parts.

Major Projects

The Gay Gatsby

Release: January 1st, 2021
Genres: LGBTQ+, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Nick Carraway meets a mysterious man named Gaylord Gatsby and his whole life changes. Look out at the rainbow light and get the hell ready for the new remixed, metafictional version of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Cover by Joi Massat.
A full novel published as a response to The Great Gatsby entering the public domain in 2021. Mentioned in the New York Times, The Guardian, and WIRED as part of the trend of Gatsby retellings and the state of copyright in storytelling.
Audiobook published in 2022, narrated by Keith Yeager.
Read a sample here.

Hands Held in the Snow

Release: 2019-2020
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, LGBTQ+
A moving LGBT+ fantasy coming-of-age story about two young women from very different backgrounds discovering each other and themselves in the midst of great turmoil in their city.
70 chapters, 110,000 words. Featured on Tapas on multiple occasions.
In-story illustrations by Mikayla Buan.
Read a sample here.

Reborn on a Systemless Earth… With a System

Release: 2020-Present (ongoing)
Genres: Fantasy, Isekai, Contemporary, Comedy, LitRPG
You know the setup. A young man on Earth hit by a speeding truck who ends up in a generic fantasy world. But what about this: A young man in a generic fantasy world hit by a speeding truck who ends up in modern-day San Francisco, and yet still wants to be a hero anyway? That’s how this one starts, and it just keeps on going.
A three-book web serial with currently over 200 chapters and over 1,200,000 views on Royal Road.
Cover by Mikayla Buan.
Read a sample here.
Read another sample here.

Web Fiction Directory

A regularly maintained list of active websites for web fiction, webcomics, and interactive game experiences. The list has helped thousands of readers and writers discover new platforms, and is frequently recommended on social media platforms.

2010s Retrospectives Series

An ongoing series of blogs published on my own website that examine different parts of the entire decade of the 2010s. Some articles are autobiographical reflections, some are deep-dives into media topics, and some are simple vignettes about forgotten moments that help paint the picture as a whole.
My goal with the blog series is to provide a valuable, inevitably biased cultural artifact for historians studying the 2010s many decades in the future. Over 100 articles posted so far.

And, for a further list:

Fiction – Prose

Her Golemancer Girlfriend	Web serial	Fantasy, Action	2021-present	A queer-positive action story with over 100,000 views on Royal Road. Featured on the front page of Tapas. In-story art by Mikayla Buan.
ATL: Stories from the Retrofuture	Web serial	Sci-fi, Comedy	2018-2021	Long-running web serial with multimedia experiments, including artwork, comics, and games. Art by various contributors.
Gretel & The Really Hot Witch (feat. Hansel)	Short story	Comedy	2021	Collected in the “Sappho’s Spinning Wheel” WLW romance anthology.
Just Love Me	Short story	Magical realism, Romance	2020	A dramatic romantic story that uses magical realism to explore a literally fading queer relationship.

Comics

Hands Held in the Snow: Date Night	Comic strip	Comedy, Romance	2021	Comic script and sketches. Art by Ryuichirou.
The Convenience Store on the Edge of Reality	Comic strip	Comedy	2020	Crossover comic script for Pride 2020 celebrations. Art by Ryuichirou.
Sandswept: The Squiddle Session	Multimedia comic series	Fantasy, Sci-fi, Comedy, Horror	2012-2017	Project manager, story supervision, scripts, storyboards. Art and story work by various contributors.

Games & Animation

ATL: The New Knights – Chapter 3	Text Adventure	Game design, writing	2019	An experimental chapter of this web serial that uses the text adventure format to let readers nonlinearly explore a futuristic convention center. Branching paths, but no divergent storylines.
Sandswept – [S] Act 2	Game – Walkaround	Map layout design, script, game design	2014	Interactive narrative minigame, part of the Sandswept multimedia project. If the original file cannot be played, please try this linear playthrough version.
Sandswept – [S] Rode: Enter	Animation	Storyboards	2014	A short narrative animation, part of the Sandswept multimedia comic series.
[S] Rex Duodecim Angelus	Animation	Storyboards	2011-2014	Contributed storyboards for sequences throughout the animation, most prominently in the sequence from 4:00 to 4:22.
Sandswept – [S] Rode: Get Mail	Game – Walkaround	Map layout design, script, game design	2013	Interactive narrative minigame, part of the Sandswept multimedia project. If the original file cannot be played, please try this linear playthrough version.

Media Articles

8 New Oscar Categories We Need	2023	A passionate plea for more representation at the Academy Awards, and my ideas for how to help make that happen.
The Great Desensitization	2023	Reflections on the way extremely serious news topics slowly fade into the background. Why it’s necessary, and why it’s a problem all the same.
Close Talker by nelward – Review	2022	Reviewing a single song that helped me reflect on pop culture changes and amateur art.
The Curtains Were Blue For a Reason	2021	An article that tears apart an internet meme that transformed slowly into a dismissal of all literary criticism.
Obama x Romney Fan Fiction: The Nostalgic World	2021	Fandom, ironic humor, and politics swirling together in a way that could only have ever happened in the early 2010s.
Why Can’t I Marry Petra?! (and, Queer Romance in Video Games)	2020	An article about how LGBTQ+ representation in video games skyrocketed over the course of the 2010s.
Super Mario Dance Bros., Irony, and My First Semester of College	2020	Memories of the bizarre depths of Youtube.
Big Dumbass Movies	2020	A celebration of the biggest, dumbest blockbusters of 2018.
The Star Wars EU’s Old White Guy Jedi Problem	2019	An article about accidental shared universe bloat hurting storytelling opportunities.

Editing

It’s Always Friday	Novella	Editor	2022	Edited this sci-fi novella published on the author’s website.
Uh, Reincarnation Goddess? You Forgot to Give Me the System	Novel	Proofreader	2021	Web serial published over the course of 2021.
A Broken Clock	Short Story	Editor	2021	Edited this sci-fi short story published on the author’s website.
Invisible Werewolf Dracula meets Vampire Mummy Frankenstein	Novel	Editor, Proofreader	2020	Web serial published as an e-book and audiobook.
Moonglasses Magazine	Literary Magazine	Co-Founder, Editor	2015-2017	Humor-focused literary magazine. Read and edited fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art submissions.