Mid-June Round-Up

(Pictured: the ceiling under a moving walkway at the Atlanta airport. My ardor for bafflingly trippy airport installations is as deep as the Mariana Trench, and—I can’t stress this enough—100% sincere.)

I’m typing this on the final night of a long-awaited family trip to New Orleans. The food was incredible, the architecture was gorgeous, and the experience of staying with my parents in an adjoining house with my oldest cousin, her family, my brother, and his family has me convinced that humans were meant to live in multi-generational, multi-family communes. Everyone has retired to their separate quarters to pack and rest, and so I’m taking the opportunity to hammer out some quick updates.

Stars, Hide Your Fires

Less than a month until the debut of my queer young adult sci-fi mystery novel, Stars Hide Your Fires. (You can preorder here and get some neat perks!) To that end, I’ll be making public appearances in several places, including the internet.

July 11 at the Cuyahoga County Public Library North Royalton Branch in Cleveland, OH — This will be a talk/reading and if everyone lets me, I may play a song or two

July 12 at Prologue Books in Columbus, OH — We don’t have a link for this one yet but it should be around 7 pm. Also a talk/reading with a possible song component

July 13 at Mysterious Galaxy, virtual This will be a discussion in conversation with YA author Rosiee Thor. Anyone can attend but you do need to follow the instructions on the site to register.

July 27 at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, IL — A talk/reading where I might also play a few songs.

We’re also holding a song cover contest! You can listen to the original track and find out more here. (I wasn’t involved on the production side so I don’t mind saying: it is a banger.)

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

I’m currently writing and editing the third and final season of my award-winning sci-fi audio drama, The Strange Case of Starship Iris. The editing is taking longer than expected, but I’m finally in a place where I feel fairly confident it’s heading in the right direction, and we’re currently working on putting out the first mini episode this July. Thank you for your patience!

Also, we—along with our sibling show, Me and AU—were featured on a Buzzfeed listicle. This would probably feel a little more special to me if I hadn’t already received the dubious honor of one of my old tumblr posts being used as free content on a previous Buzzfeed listicle without permission, but hey, that’s life in the big city. On the bright side it is very funny that this has happened.

Keep It Steady

Production of my queer fake-dating high school rom-com audio drama Keep It Steady continues despite a vast array of production setbacks. I think we’re on target to publish a new episode before the end of Pride month, and it’ll be a really apropos one if we can pull that off.

Current

Book: Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

Song: “I Know the End” by Phoebe Bridgers

Game: MÖRK BORG

Cocktail: Minimalist Paloma (One shot of tequila, juice from half a lime, and maybe three ounces of cold Pamplemousse La Croix, stirred with ice)

Preoccupation: How many airports feature bafflingly trippy installations I’ve never even heard about? How can I learn about them? How, especially in this moment that may be the beginning of the end for Reddit, do I slip into the community of bafflingly trippy airport installation enthusiast?

Final Thought

All of the platforms we’ve been depending on for years are slowly disintegrating under the toxic weight of unfettered capitalism and unchecked egos, and they will give way under our feet like so much rotten wood if we let them. Uh hey, if you wanna stay informed with what’s going on with me, the only surefire way to do that is to smash that subscribe button!

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