This year’s Left Coast Crime was my first as an official Them Fatale. I’m still totally comfortable on the she/they side of the gender continuum and wouldn’t mind if you wanted to refer to me as “he” either. I’m fine with an occasional gay-inflected “gurl” and I will fight anyone who claims “bitch” can’t be gender neutral. I like to joke that my pronouns are Daddy/Mistress. But the truth is that no matter what you call me, I’m still the same indefinable gender-bending rebel I’ve always been. Minus the cleavage, anyway.

That being said, I do feel a need to shout out my friends who made a point of using they to refer to me at LCC. (You know who you are!) I would have been fine without it but it did feel kinda warm and fuzzy. Also validating, like having somebody hype your book.

Weirdly, the only gender-related word that is really getting on my nerves these days is “Ma’am.” I’d be more comfortable being called “Sir.” Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an agreed upon gender neutral honorific in modern usage and that needs to change, pronto. Help me out here, fellow wordsmiths!

Personally, I’d like to be referred to as “My Liege.” Also acceptable, “Excellency,” “Your Honor” or “Boss.” Because all this (gestures dramatically at self) is way more than can be contained by Ma’am.

Pronoun trouble notwithstanding, I had a blast at LCC.

Nothing refills my empty cup like getting to spend face-to-face time in the real world with my fellow Queer Crime Writers. I loved meeting cool new people and celebrating our shared wins and hearing all about what everybody was reading and writing.

Another highlight of the weekend was getting to interview Guest of Honor Gary Phillips. Which was actually pretty easy and mostly involved getting out of the way and just letting him talk. Because the man knows some things. And honestly, who doesn’t love listening to Gary’s voice?

I also talked about funnybooks (again!) with Gary and Dale Berry. I will never not feel like a rookie next to those two fucking encyclopedias of comic lore. Amazingly enough, our panel was at a reasonable time this year instead of first thing Sunday morning, so bonus!

We missed the hell out of Jordan and Shawn at Fancy Lads dinner, but Rob, Cyn and I had an unforgettable experience at Birdsong.

I rode in a robot car for the first time and managed not to die of a heart attack (barely.) I bought gay pulp at Fabulosa Books. I told Katherine Glover I wanted to wear her like Leatherface and she didn’t call the police for some reason.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do Bouchercon this year and it breaks my heart not to see so many of the friends who couldn’t make LCC, especially my beloved Canadian siblings AJ Devlin and Beau Johnson.

But if you’re registered, I hope you’ll consider nominating Crime Ink: Iconic and my story “Hollywood Prometheus” (or really any one of the other excellent stories in this anthology) for an Anthony Award!

Anyway, I’m back up here in my Pacific Northwest eagle’s nest, rolling up my sleeves and buckling back down to work. But before I go, I do have one more event coming up.

South Sound Writers of Crime and Dark Fiction

Saturday, March 7th

4pm @ Tacoma Library (Olympic Room)

A discussion about the publishing industry and the craft of writing with: Alex Kenna, Alie Dumas-Heide, Alex Rasmussen, and Victor Rodriguez.

Tacoma Library: 1102 Tacoma Ave Tacoma, WA

Hope to see you there!