Halfway Goals, Pride Fair Roles, and More from June
The Cat & the Comma Issue #28
The heat of June has carried over to the swelter of July. This year, the phantom that is Rainbow Capitalism did not dare show its face. I am unsure if I am okay with this or not. On one hand, I loathed the shallow display of support, given how easy it was for companies to don a rainbow flag for up to 30 days before reverting right back. Some didn’t even wait the whole month.
But this year… this year, everything remained as it was before June arrived. No one even attempted to show support for us. And that… sucks. Even this shallow display is no longer present.
It feels like queer people are alone now more than ever.
Anyway. Let’s talk about June.
Misc. Professional Update
Another quiet month on the professional front. I attended a local pride event and sold out on all the books I brought with me, which is kind of surreal to say! Even more surreal, people remember me! They either bought books last year or at least had seen my face. Either way, I had a wonderful time.
As my little intro mentions, this June was… weird. There were a lot of reasons for this, which all lead back to our current administration and the steps that the US has taken backwards. It is hard to exist in the way that I exist when it feels like doors continue to slam in the faces of queer people. We have our groups online, but how long will that go on for?
I’m glad that I was able to attend a pride festival in person. I’m even happier I was able to share my queer books with others while I was there. I just… worry that it won’t be this way for much longer.
As for other professional updates… I don’t really have them. I’m currently on a waitlist for Just Another Bookish Ball next year in Pennsylvania. After the disaster that was the A Million Lives book fest, plus other bookish events from the last few years, however… time will tell if I actually invest in this event.
That said, I am attending the Arlington Street Fair this month with someone else from one of my writing groups! So that’s exciting. I’ll do my best to take pictures. It’s going to be my first multi-day event!
Writing Update
Things dwindled a bit on the writing front. I did officially surpass the word count the zero draft had, though! So that’s something. The Distance Between Stars and Salt is currently sitting at 43,893 words!
Here’s a snippet of where I’m at right now:
Her mother envelopes her in a smothering hug in an instant. Rubbing circles into Edera’s back, she says, “Do you remember when your ommsier passed?”
Guilt nibbles on her insides. It’s been a while since she’s thought of her other parent. They had passed when she was still young enough to not feel the impact of their loss in full. She misses them, of course, the way one misses a childhood blanket, and it’s a shame they were not able to see the woman she emerged as.
“Oh, I was in ruin,” her mother continues. “I slept for weeks. It was all your nanna could do to get me out of bed.” Hesitance flickers across her face for all of a second. Then, cupping Edera’s face, she says, “I was… not the mother I wanted to be for a long while after that. Saints know I tried.”
Edera doesn’t remember that part of it all—though, when she thinks on it, she supposes she did spend more time in her nanna’s company for a while, her mother falling to the wayside in response. Or was it the other way around?
“I loved your ommsier more than I have loved most people in this world, qalbi. And some days… some days, I would trade anything to spend another afternoon with them. Saints, I would give it all up in a heartbeat.”
Edera licks her drying lips. “But here you are.”
“But here I am, and here you are, too,” her mother said. “There are more stars in the sky than those who have fallen to earth. There are more grains of sand than you could ever hope to touch. Your ommsier… and Seren, too… they both were but a sliver of the world’s joy. And we held them. We did. But we should not close ourselves off from what the rest of world has to offer us.”
If you’re intrigued by this project and what comes out of it, you can currently read the whole zero draft—or up to chapter 10 of the first draft—if you become a member of my Patreon! I’ve also recently made a Carrd Page going over the basics of this project. Currently, I am sending this work to alpha readers as it is written, and anticipate opening for betas some time in August. Lastly, I am working on posting the first draft onto public writing websites such as Royal Road and AO3. More info on that as I have it.
Finally, let’s bring out the word tracker. I am quite pleased with myself and how much I wrote this month!
And now, stats:
For the month of June, I wrote a total of 18,195 words and an average of 1,112 words per session. And here’s an updated breakdown of what stage of writing I’ve spent what amount of words on, too:
Media Update
After many, many years, I have finally finished House MD. It is a show I was first exposed to in my early teens, and a show I took to with much excitement. It is, as the kids say, my problematic fave. And yet, despite watching it live on TV and all of the times I have watched and rewatched it since, I have never actually finished the show. I did get close, though! And finally, after all of this time, I have seen how this show ends.
Season 8 is… certainly something. There are many discussions for where the show went wrong, but season 8 at the very least isn’t that great. I think there’s salvagable parts to it, but at least one season less might have helped. I keep thinking over ways I would have tweaked the storyline, had I the power.
In other news, I started playing Tears of the Kingdom again! In retrospect, there’s a lot of improvements that it makes to Breath of the Wild… but also a lot of things that aren’t as good. Either way, both games are good to just… turn on and get lost in for a while. Even if it takes me a hundred years to get to the end.
In terms of books, I finished The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling and I LOVED it. If I stop to think about it and its particulars, I know there’s some things I wish could have been expanded or focused on… but as a gorey, feverish whole? Excellent. Incredibly delightful.
…But I’m still in the mood for lesbians and knights, so I picked up Name Her Holy by Aubrey Ennis. So far, I’m in love with it. Thicker than I expected it to be, but that’s honestly a good thing.
Blog and Video Update
I didn’t stream in June. Frankly, it was too hot and I was too tired or burnt out for a lot of it. That said, I DID spend money on a mic… hoping it’s at least a little better than the mic installed on my laptop. I don’t know when I’m streaming next, but hopefully soon!
Still no blog updates yet, but I’m now focusing my blogging attention on an older thinkpiece about being a transgender author with a mostly cisgender audience. Additionally, I am writing one about sexual assault and manipulation in bookish spaces. Both are exhausting pieces to write—for different reasons. No ETA as to when either will be available. And, in the background, I’m also working on a piece about AI “writing” and just how I feel about it (hint: my thoughts on GenAI are very, very negative.)
The Cat Recommends
I like to use this space to shout out other indie writers, cause I think we could all use a boost from time to time. This time, I’m using the space to shout out Dawn Chen, author of The Witch Who Chases the Sun! The biggest reason I wanted to highlight Dawn is because of the work they’ve done lately calling out the discrimination queer authors in China are currently being faced with. While she isn’t the first person to call out what is going on with danmei authors and Haitan Literature City, she is the first person I saw talking about it and how the matter was raised to my awareness. No one deserves to be imprisoned for what they write, and they especially do not deserve state-sanctioned violence against them for it. And, from Dawn’s posts, it sounds they’re afraid they will be another author who disappears because of what they write.
You can find resources about Haitan Literature City, what’s going on with danmei authors, and more here, here, and here.
As for Dawn’s books, The Witch Who Chases the Sun! Witch comes out September 30th through Contrarian Press, and A Vampire in Beijing in 2026! Please keep an eye on their books and keep her in your thoughts. Here’s the summary for Witch.
Sometimes, true love is not the answer.
A decade after the Second War, Aixauhan Alchemist Ying Cai-Li seeks to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, the Inabrian Oracle Anne Barberry.
However, the war changed them both. Estranged by their losses, Cai-Li has gained a notorious reputation as the dark magic-wielding Blood Hawk and Anne barricades herself in a castle on a hill where her family’s dark secrets lie. Rumors in the village say Anne is a monster, responsible for the disappearance of innocent visitors.
But when the two witches reunite and begin unraveling the mysteries of the village, it becomes clear that scars left by the war do not easily fade. Things are not as they seem. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. Past truths are revealed. Can the witches be each other’s salvations or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?
Fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will fall in love with Dawn Chen’s sapphic high fantasy epic about anti-colonialism, grief, generational trauma, and the cycles of war.
You can read more about The Witch Who Chases the Sun and pre-order it here!
The Cat Thanks
One of the perks for higher-tier patrons is shout-outs at the end of newsletters. Special thanks to Ceph and Larkspur. If you want to have your name here with theirs, subscribe to my Patreon!
And that’s a wrap. I wish you well on all of your endeavors and hope you stay safe. Reach out to friends you haven’t heard from in a while.
Kindest regards,
Alex