Judging for Yourself

Both the Lammies and the RITAs have announced their finalist lists for the year. Now, before anything else, I want to make sure I begin with a simple declarative here: there are some really great things that are happening on both lists. And there's some buts. I don't know how coherent I'm going to be …

Historical Romance and Queerness as Up For Debate

I recently joined the RWA despite knowing full well it wouldn’t necessarily be a place I’d be welcome. I’m a queer writer of queer stories—including romance—and seeing some forward motion in the organization made me think perhaps it was time. Or at the very least, it was time enough to try and get involved, rather …

#PrideMonth — What’s the Opposite of Queer?

Pride Month is here, and in the last five days I've already seen more than a few references to who Pride is or isn't for. A few of those references I can agree with (say, for example, agreeing that Pride is not for empowered organizations who carry guns and wear uniforms). But then the other …

#PrideMonth — Queer YA

It's Pride Month, and a couple of conversations I had recently reminded me of something I don't think I say enough as a queer author: thank you to the authors who came before me. Like pretty much everything else in the queer community, the present is built on the work of the past, which often …

#PrideMonth — Closets

I saw a lovely post yesterday that reminded everyone celebrating Pride to remember that being out is not synonymous with pride nor queerness, and it reminded me of conversations I've had over the years about the whole notion of "coming out," and the how the single most misunderstood thing about "coming out" when I have …

Queer Doesn’t Mean Romance

Given recent discussions, I've reworked a blog post originally meant for a bit later this month and I'm posting it today. I've got a couple more on similar themes, but I don't want to lump them all in together. Today I'm talking kinda-sorta about romance, but specifically the relationship between romance and queerness and how …