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It’s Pride and I’m Furious

(Warning: There may be more swearing than usual in this month’s letter.)

Welcome to June! We’re almost halfway through the year, and this month we celebrate the summer solstice, and it’s also LGBTQ+ Pride month, which—

Well.

The world is a different place than it was a year ago, isn’t it? Whatever veil of civility kept people from showing their asses has pretty much been shredded. Granted, those people were never on our side in the first place, they just didn’t want to be called out for their hateful beliefs.

It’s infuriating, and it’s exhausting. And it’s exhausting being infuriated. And I don’t really like me when I get that way. While I wish it was as easy as deciding not to be, that’s really not how it works.

But, I can try. And considering the myriad ways that bigots are trying to silence queer people—from book bans to censorship to outright erasure from history—I’ll start by being loud.

(Yes, I know I’m not actually a loud person. The number of times my students have said, “Can you repeat that?” I mean, lord, if I had a nickel….)

Anyway! Lifting up other people’s voices is a great way to raise the volume. Some folks I follow on Bluesky have put together a lovely list of indie queer authors they’re shouting out all month long. I’m on the list, as is my friend and editor Jerry Wheeler, along with a bunch of other cool folks. Check them out and consider supporting some writers and stories that don’t often reach the mainstream. It can mean a big difference. Take it from one who knows.

What I’m Reading

I’ve been bouncing between books lately, but recently I discovered that I’d downloaded a novel by V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic, and had no recollection of doing so. I became a fan of hers when I read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (thanks for the recommendation, Cindy!), and later one of my advanced fiction students wanted to read The Fragile Threads of Power, the first book in a trilogy that’s a sequel to the trilogy that starts with A Darker Shade of Magic. In other words, I’m reading things out of order, which is weird and some people absolutely hate doing that, but I’m all right with it so far. And it’s a good book. A story about forbidden magic, parallel worlds, and the people who travel between them. Highly recommended!

And that’s it for now, I think. (Wow, I thought I’d swear a lot more in this letter than I actually ended up doing. Well, shit.) See you next month!