Chuck Tingle is a pseudonymous author, primarily of niche gay erotica. He self-publishes his works through Amazon : primarily as ebooks , but also as paperbacks and audiobooks.
In , his short story Space Raptor Butt Invasion was a finalist for the Hugo Awards as the result of a coordinated campaign which he disavowed. In the following year's awards, he was a finalist for the Best Fan Writer award. Little has been confirmed about Tingle's identity, beyond the fact that "Chuck Tingle" is a pseudonym. Tingle presents himself as a bisexual [ 10 ] [ 11 ] taekwondo grandmaster who was born in Home of Truth, Utah a ghost town established in as a religious commune and abandoned in [ 8 ] , acquired a PhD in holistic massage at DeVry University which does not offer such a degree , [ 12 ] and now lives in Billings, Montana.
His Facebook account and website state that he is autistic [ 13 ] [ 14 ] and has a son named Jon. In , a person identifying himself as Jon stated in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session that he edits his father's work for publication and cares for him.
Tingle displays distinct verbal tics , such as consistently referring to Jon as "son name of Jon" and calling his fans "buckaroos" or "ladybucks".
Tingle refers to his stories as "Tinglers". Although they typically feature apparently cisgender male couples, stories also feature bisexual, lesbian, and trans characters. He stresses the consensuality of the encounters, and the stories end happily with "an optimistic, philosophical moral about love and togetherness". Tingle says he uses Photoshop software to create his own book covers, [ 3 ] which usually feature a photo of a muscular, bare-chested man juxtaposed with an image of the entity whose sexual escapades are featured in the story.
