Well, this is late. I usually aim to get these letters out at the first of the month, but October has been kind of a drag mentally. I imagine I’m not alone in that feeling.

Keeping LGBTQ+ stories alive

As you know (Bob), my writing focuses on stories centering LGBTQ+ characters. (Write what you know, they say, and while I believe that advice is a bunch of hooey, like a lot of other writing advice, it’s where I choose to focus.) Lately, stories like that are getting harder to put out in the world. Banned Books Week was earlier this month, and the news is not good. Not surprisingly, when books are challenged, the titles targeted are frequently by LGBTQ+ authors—people like me, in other words—and/or writers of color.

I’ve also read other articles highlighting another aspect of this that doesn’t get covered as much, one that’s harder to document and verify (which is perhaps why it doesn’t get as much coverage). It’s getting harder to sell queer stories. Agents may look at a manuscript and think twice because they know how hard it will be to sell it to an editor at a publishing house. Editors look at manuscripts that they would love to accept, but maybe the main character’s queer or trans, and they know it will be a hard sell before it even gets to market. So they pass.

The same thing is happening in film and TV, where queer characters are vanishing at warp speed.

This is all completely intentional. Stories show possibilities, and stories are beacons. At their best, they attract people who look at the world around them and don’t see themselves represented very often, if at all, and help them realize that they are not alone. Stories give hope.

And there are people who want not only to take that away, but make it so that queer people never have it in the first place. You know the feeling of wanting something you can’t have? And, if you do get it, by some miracle, you know that ever-present fear that it will all be taken away from you because of who you are? Welcome to my constant low-level anxiety. (OK, maybe it’s mid-level now.)

What can you do? Call your reps. (Authors Against Book Bans has a lot of resources.) Support your local library. And support marginalized authors by buying their books.

Me? I’m not giving up, because I have the stubbornness of a Taurus (thanks, Nana), the persistence of a Marine (thanks, Dad), and am fueled by spite (thanks, Mom). And coffee. Lots of coffee. (Thanks, Captain Janeway.)

Movie News

“OK, Debbie Downer, enough,” I hear you say. On to some good news, then: the film adaptation of my story “At the End of the Leash”! In addition to Noah Ricketts as Brian, Claybourne Elder joined the cast as Carl, and—pinch me now—Jesse James Keitel, who guest-starred in season one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (she played the badass pirate Captain Angel). The details got written up in BroadwayWorld online. (Even mentioned me in the first paragraph, even!) And here’s a picture of Jesse James Keitel on the set along with a very fluffy poodle.

My birthday’s next week (or this week, depending on when I finally get this thing out the door), which I guess counts as good news inasmuch as it means, hey, I’m still alive!

See you next month!