Welcome to you all! I usually I get right into things but I wanted to start with a shout-out to everyone who subscribed to my newsletter—which I finally started promoting—and is now getting this update directly to their email. As I mentioned across socials, things are in flux and this feels like the easiest thing to keep going no matter what to keep in touch and updated. I really appreciate you being here.

I’m not going to lie, it’s a really scary time right now, and it’s hard sometimes to find the point in doing these updates and putting myself out there. Last time I did an update, the Prime Minister of Canada was announcing his resignation as I typed, and this time, we’re a day away from the start of a trade war with the USA. I feel deflated and scared, and it’s hard to find that spark I was talking about previously, and the energy to create art when in these moments, everything feels so bleak.

But I don’t want to be a downer, even though I am struggling right now. I have a lot to be thankful for, including another book being released! Racc Pack: Prince and the Pawper came out last week and the reception to it was amazing—thank you to everyone who picked up a copy, shared a photo, or posted a nice review up somewhere. Every little bit helps, and in an especially trying time like right now, it really helps make us feel like our book isn’t just disappearing into the ether.

Creating can be so solitary and you spend so much time just waiting for things to happen, and then when it finally gets released into the world, unless you have a lot of marketing behind you (and so few of us do), it doesn’t always feel like it’s truly out there. Going to see it in stores is always surreal though, and I will never not get a jolt of happiness when I see one of my books on a shelf beside all sorts of other incredible titles.

Last week was also OLA, which is the Ontario Librarian’s Association Conference. It’s a very big deal in Canada and for librarians—kind of the Canadian equivalent to ALA (the American Librarian’s Association Conference). Because Prince and the Pawper was out last week too, I did a signing at the Simon & Schuster Canada booth, with the amazing team there. Thank you to Siobhan and Miranda for including me, and thank you to Noah, Lorraine, Cayley, Mackenzie, and everyone else for their support over the course of the show.

And then I also did a signing with HarperCollins Canada at their booth to celebrate Pillow Talk, which is a Forest of Reading nominated title in the White Pine category. It also was championed by the OLA YA committee and given a Best Bets award at the show, which is such a huge honour! Thank you to Alice, Rosalyn, and Marisol for your support in setting that up.

And thank you to all the librarians, students, and other library-adjacent folks who were at OLA—you were truly stars and I loved meeting everyone who came up to chat, especially at the Forest of Reading breakfast. I so rarely get to feel like anything but a little writing goblin (entirely my own doing since I hardly ever go out these days…) and I felt so special and the kind words everyone said about Pillow Talk truly warmed my heart—I made sure to pass along the lovely feedback to Mel Valentine Vargas as well.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

This newsletter got so long, so quickly! But before I dive into some recs, I just want to say that as frightened as I am (and I’m sure many of you are), I believe in our power to make positive change in the world. I know that us artists will continue to do what we love, even if the world shifts around us. We will keep reading, watching, playing, and consuming art—and now more than ever, it is vitally important to support creators directly. We need to stick together and advocate for each other, and make sure we uplift rather than tear down.

I am scared, but I am hopeful at the same time. Right now my hope feels small, especially compared to my fear, but it’s a spark and that’s all it takes to grow into a fire—burning hot and unyielding. Our hope is that spark, and the injustice being done is the fuel to our fire. Let us burn down what they are trying to build, and rise up from the ashes, stronger than before.

I will continue to consume as much art as I can, and will share the things that are bringing me joy. So on that note, let’s dive into some things that I checked out recently:

BOOKS OF NOTE

These are some books and graphic novels that I read, and are in chronological order that they were read.

And then I read a few things that I want to give a short honourable mention to: Grand Slam Romance: Major League Hotties by Ollie Hick and Emma Oosterhous (such a fun series for adults) and The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos by Tate Brombal and Isaac Goodheart. Both Tate and Isaac are so enormously talented, and this series blends whimsy with delightful storytelling.

TV

It’s TV time! Rather than do a list, I’ll summarize some things quickly and then write a little more on a few of the standouts. Once again, I watched a lot of reality TV in the last little bit, including RuPaul’s Drag Race S16, Paris & Nicole: The Encore (delightful), The Ultimatum S3 (a mess), The Challenge S40 (perfection), and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City S5 (good lord).

I went through a few of my shows that had been on my backlist too, and enjoyed Not Dead Yet S2 (fun), Echo (powerful), Death and Other Details (good for what it was), and A Man on the Inside S1 (sweet, endearing, funny).

The standouts for me were Evil S3-4, which is wrapped up now, but definitely worth checking out. Like Fringe, I don’t know if I felt like my questions were ultimately answered and that the storylines were fully resolved, but I know they did the best they could with a lot of uncertainty and I had a great time watching it—I especially enjoyed the monster-of-the-week vibe to the show, and think that it shone the brightest while leaning into that, which was most of the time.

The first two seasons of The Diplomat were fantastic, and I flew through it so quickly with its fast pace and cliffhanger episode endings. I don’t know if I actually feel like it reminded me of The Americans or if that was just because Keri Russell was also in it, but I loved the sort of subtle spy show vibes it was giving me, and I am looking forward to the third season.

And I finally got around to watching the first season of Silo. I had held off after hearing some mixed reviews about the second season, but was recently convinced to overlook those critiques and dive in. I just finished it before writing this, and had a great time. I will stan Rebecca Ferguson forever, and it makes me mad all over again about Mission: Impossible’s grave crimes against her (IYKYK…)—I am absolutely going to be starting the second season ASAP.

I don’t normally include video games in this round up but I have been playing Wylde Flowers on the Switch and I am addicted. It’s clearly inspired and takes a lot from Stardew Valley, but it expands upon that enough to very much be its own special thing, and does that very well. If you’re in need of a new cozy and witchy (very queer-friendly) game, this is definitely going to be for you. I especially love that it kind of limits some of the farming components and makes it easy to run things by limiting the scope—you’ll know what I mean if you’ve played, but I appreciate that there’s limited space to farm and garden, and so you need to plan things out a little better, and not spend as much time solely focused on that aspect. And there’s a lot more ways to automate things around the game as you progress. HIGHLY recommend.

Okay, I think that’s it for me! This was a long one, so if you made it all the way here, thank you for reading and for being a part of this newsletter.

SOCIALS:

I’ve been a little less active on socials lately, but if you want to follow me online, you can find me:

Stay tuned for some exciting updates, coming very soon.

Until next time…