Summer Bloomin'
Plants, readings, speculative fiction, and one very important birthday.
Happy June, when the sun is as warm as a baked potato.
I’m a summer-blooming plant, so spring usually means getting a bit low while everything but me flowers until the days get a little longer and I remember how the sun feels. But the world keeps turning while I’m busy being sad and my eyes unfurl to find that we’re halfway through June and a lot has happened, is happening!
This weekend I’m reading at the LitArtsRI Queer Writers Showcase, which is part of the Haus of Codec Pride Festival. If you’re in the Providence Area on 6/16 come say hi :) Later this month I’ll also be attending the Kettle Pond Writers Conference in New York, which is very fortunately timed for the break between summer classes.
I don’t have any new publications out (yet) but keep an eye on Messy Misfits Club and HNDL Magazine for some cool stuff coming soon. In the meantime, Pride is a great time to support some of these other great queer publications that have my weird gay poetry in them.
I’m looking forward to some relaxing writing-in-the-woods time after what has already been such a busy month. I worked a great Pride event for my library before a week of entertaining family in town, running around doing all the things one does when folks are visiting. I looked at some big houses and a cool library, made friends with trees, touched some fish, toured three parks, shopped at four summer markets, met my birthday twin (a pony named Dutch), and managed to not get kicked out of a museum because I like getting close to the art.
Now that I’ve crammed an entire summer’s worth of activities into one week I can…relax? I’ve been playing a lot of Book of Hours lately, a game of reading books and restoring an old haunted library. There’s a bit of a learning curve with the mechanics but after that it’s a fun, spooky game with lots of note taking.
Zine a Day 2024 continues even though I’m bad at updating the related social media. I’m also chipping away at the SFF Summer Reading Challenge by @Thedragonsden_ on Instagram and Storygraph.
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
The spookiest of the Singing Hills books imo, and therefore an instant favorite.
Haircut by Sara Goetter
A short comic about a damsel in distress, with a twist. Queer idiots in love and punching your crappy dad.
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Gatsby made gayer and more fantastical. Deals with the actual devil. Characters reimagined in a way that allows for the exploration of racial dynamics and passing in 1920s New York.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Epistolary queer romance. Star-crossed, time-traveling lovers. Poetic, stunning, a classic.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
Queer monster romance with a creature that is actually monstrous. Fat MC whose size is celebrated but not fetishized. Shitty family and weird monster babies.
How the Best Hunter in the Village Met Her Death by Molly Knox Ostertag
Another short comic with a good twist and great art.
Finna by Nino Cipri
Wormholes in Ikea. Corporate bullshit and anticapitalism. Queer breakups that explore the complexities of romantic/platonic relationships in a way that is surprisingly nuanced for such a short book.
Let me know what you’re reading/watching/making/etc. I’d love to see it!
For all my other summer-flowering plants: the days are long, the sun is warm, now’s our time to bloom.