Books ARE Political - Reading, Writing, and Randomness for November 2024

I delayed writing most of this month’s newsletter as I didn’t know what mood I’d be in when it was time to send. I didn’t want to send it before the election and jinx anything (HA!). I didn’t want to craft beautiful words that would be moot and make me even sadder (smart choice, me). But in the aftermath of the majority of active voters in this country voting to have another four years of Donald Trump as President… it was hard to find the words.

I’ve been leaning on the words of others. Words of sadness. Words of encouragement. Words of rage. Here are some of my words:

Reading is political.

Writing is political.

Books. Are. Political.

If you think they’re not, it’s because you have the privilege of being someone who doesn’t have some aspect of their existence politicized by default. You are not trans or queer. You are not a woman. You are not in a socio-economic status where you are watching every dollar that leaves your bank account. To people who are marginalized in any way, reading books with people who look or live like them is not a given. Access to books is not a given. Literacy is not a given. The mere act of attaining a book, whether it be THE CAT IN THE HAT or Shakespeare; a John Grisham novel or THE HANDMAID’S TALE; the blandest, vanilla, cis hetero romance or the latest from Katee Robert — being able to make that choice, select that book, read that book IS. POLITICAL.

The primary modern tactic of authoritarian governments is manipulation of information and censorship is a key aspect of this strategy. We see this in the book challenges that libraries and school boards face across the country. We see this in the Project 2025 plans to class all LGBTQ content as “pornography” and to consider content that doesn’t match the “history” of our country that they want to propagate as “extremist” content. In those plans to potentially criminally prosecute authors of those materials. The only thing we can hope is that the administration is ineffectual.

I’m going to keep writing romance. I’m going to keep writing love. I’m going to keep writing queer love. And I’m going to keep reading it. And keep reading BIPOC love. Keep reading neurodivergent love. Keep reading all the beautiful kinds of love that exist on this earth (and outside it, shout out alien romances). And you should, too.

Reading

Star rating on a scale of 0 - 5. Titles in BOLD link to full review in a new page. ✨ indicates a 5 star read. Note: I didn’t get around to rating a lot of the books from this month and I got around to reviewing none. I enjoyed them ALL, nonetheless.

• Nightwing: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition, Book 3

• Nightwing Vol 7: The Bleeding Edge

• Nightwing Vol 8: Knight Terrors

• Nightwing Vol 9: Burnback

• Nightwing Vol 10: The Gray Son Legacy

• Nightwing Vol 11: The Joker War

• Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

• The Serial Killer’s Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard

• Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

• ✨ Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• ✨ Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Writing

Updates only this month.

Progress on The Racing Line: end of October word count is ~16K. I’ve started sharing chapters with my critique group and they’re responding really well to the overall story that’s shaping up and the character dynamics.

Querying for Horribly in Love: I’ve currently got 4 queries still out with agents. I got two rejections in October, including from one of my top agents, but I’m still out with some other great choices.

… and Randomness

• 57% of people in Florida voted to remove the six-week ban on abortion. In any other state, any other context, this would be a rousing victory. They needed 60%. But if Florida, of all states (my home state, a state I love despite everything), can get 57% of people voting for women’s bodily autonomy… there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

• I’m a big SNL fan. I had no idea how they were going to handle the post-election cold open. The Kate as Hilary “Hallelujah” performance 8 years ago was incredibly beautiful and cathartic. But we needed something different in this moment. Their choice was perfect. I especially loved the very obvious eyeroll from James Austin Johnson when he exited as if to say “Yep, I can’t believe I have to do this for another four years either.”

• Colorado had its first snow of the season and it was a, like, three day doozy. But also, staying in, watching snow fall, and making stew was kind of what I needed on Wednesday. I adapted this Barefoot Contessa recipe and it was delicious.

• I went to Alexandria, VA, and New York City in October. Trips were great. I have a lot to say about them. Eventually. Three quick recs: Old Town Books in Alexandria (who were great enough to let us take author headshots in their store), Cabaret on Broadway, and Sunset Blvd on Broadway (but only go on Mandy Gonzalez’s alternate nights, IYKYK).

In somewhat brighter news, WICKED finally comes out in theatres this month. I already have tickets to see it twice. I need this to get me through the rest of the year.