that time I came out to a nun
okay, technically I didn’t come out to a nun. the nun read The Keeper of Lonely Spirits and noticed my she/they pronouns and the word “queer” in my bio.
which is entirely the point, of course. I’m not closeted, but I viscerally hate coming out, hence me sticking my pronouns and the word “queer” in all my social media and book bios. if you don’t know I’m queer by now, that’s on you.
so technically I didn’t come out to a nun. the nun read my book, enjoyed it, and asked me about my pronouns—specifically, what “they” meant to me, which I admit I had to consider for a minute—and about the word “queer,” since she’s older and in her day it was decidedly a slur.
(not that it’s not sometimes a slur now, but half the words in the community are reclaimed slurs. who else grew up in the era of GAY!! being the popular insult online?)
the nun wanted to understand. not to convince me not to be the way I am. not even because it matters to her exactly what I am. but for the sake of broadening her own perspectives and understanding more people.
I think I played it pretty cool, but internally I was all kinds of emotional. there are important things I didn’t know about myself until adulthood, and sometimes it makes me sad thinking I never got to share those things with my maternal grandparents. sometimes I wonder what they would’ve thought.
but this month, I got to share one of them with an older Catholic nun, and she was good with it. she accepted it. I’m still the same person to her. and she’s been recommending my queer cozy fantasy in which two old men yearn for each other to other (presumably old, Catholic) people.
so while I’m sure I’ll get sad and wonder again in the future, for now it feels like I’m able to put something to rest for myself.
upcoming book events
October 4 & 5, throughout the day
Rainbow Space Magic, a free, virtual convention for queer speculative fiction
my panel: When Queerness Is Not a Plot Point, 12:00-12:50p.m. EST on Saturday, October 4
check out the full schedule and author lineup, and don’t forget to register: link to RSM’s website
October 11, 10a.m. to 4p.m. EST
Ban This Book Fest, a paid, in-person festival highlighting books by marginalized authors, which are currently under attack. the event is across several locations on Nine Mile Road in Ferndale, Michigan.
payment tiers include General Admission ($5), Admission + Swag Bag ($20), and VIP ($50). if you’d like to attend but are facing financial hardship, email founder Jess at hello@sprinklesstudios.com
I’ll have teasers for The Lord of the Wood available for free at this event! I’ll be tabled at Booth 27 with author Sonia Hartl, at 215 West Nine Mile Road.
my panel: Reading and Writing Subversively, 2:30-3:15p.m. EST at Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E Nine Mile Road.
click here for tickets: link to BTBF tickets
for more information about the event, click here: link to BTBF’s website
book links for The Lord of the Wood
my upcoming queer cozy horror, The Lord of the Wood, is still populating at retailers, but you can now preorder or add it to a TBR!
add it on Goodreads: link
add it on TheStoryGraph: link
preorder from Gathering Volumes for a signed copy: link
preorder from Bookshop: link
preorder from Barnes & Noble: link
the official book description isn’t available yet, oh hey, yes it is! the tl;dr version I keep using is, it’s about an autistic man in his forties who has a gay/lowkey monsterfucker awakening after getting lost in an enchanted forest that keeps vanishing people.
but if you’d like a more detailed description, check it out:
The cozy fantasy of TJ Klune meets the creeping horror of T. Kingfisher in this magical novel about a man who enters a deadly enchanted forest expecting it to endanger his life, but not his heart...
Clockmaker Arthur Throckmorton lives a quiet life with his sister and her children, only dreaming of adventure. So when a wealthy client offers him a job that involves traversing Shiftleaf—an enchanted forest that claimed his father decades ago—he reluctantly accepts. The forest is treacherous, but the money will change his family’s lives.
The journey quickly turns perilous. Fleeing monstrous birds, Arthur stumbles upon a hidden vale where he meets the Lord of the Wood—a figure from his father’s many stories. Instead of the fairy prince Arthur always imagined, Ira is a morose man, slowly transforming into a beast, his power over a dying forest waning.
Arthur enjoys the safety of the vale, and Ira’s company. But he yearns for his family. To safely return home and rescue Ira from a cursed and lonely existence, Arthur and Ira must reach the heart of the wood to heal the forest. Except the farther they venture from the vale, the more beastly Ira becomes. If they can’t complete their mission before he turns completely, Arthur could lose the man he’s falling for—and never see his family again.
odds & ends
recent reads
sadly on hold as I revise this novel, but I did start Hester Steel’s The Faceless Thing We Adore (cosmic horror) right before going back on deadline, and I’m loving it so far
recent watches
rewatching Supernatural (okay, rewatching the monster-of-the-week episodes and skipping most of the plot-heavy episodes because I don’t enjoy them as much) as I work on edits
recent listens
the CD player in my car ate my dad’s old Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band CD so currently I am angsting about not having my music in the car :,)
okay sure fine I do actually own an MP3 player now, for the first time in my life because I’m behind the times as ever, but since my music files are a lawless wasteland, I’m trying to tag them all with title and artist before adding them to the MP3 player
recent birds
the red-breasted nuthatches are back for fall migration!
I’m also working on a new birding presentation for spring, which will focus on birds of Northwest Ohio rather than being a general how-to for beginning birders
until next time!
