It’s Banned Books Week! 🚫📚

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First, a poll question for you. I’m really interested in your answer! And if just one line of a poll won’t do, hit reply to this email and tell me your thoughts long-form!

It’s Banned Books Week and I’ve been thinking about how my books haven’t been banned anywhere—yet…

We all know it’s going to happen eventually. My books have:

• 💥sex scenes that focus on female pleasure and women being just as enthusiastic participants as the men (or, even more terrifying: same-sex partners of either gender!)

• 💥Polyamory as the main relationship model

• 💥All the inclusion of skin shades, body shapes, genders and pronouns

• 💥All the Colonizing European Baddies in Book II, rather unsubtly designated as such

• 💥The am’r having gotten rid of sexism and racism (and Nthanda openly talking about enjoying dispatching any racists who make it into the am’r underworld)

• 💥And I’m sure there will be more complaints about my “wokeness” that I haven’t even thought of, yet…

I wrote these books to be enjoyable for many types of readers: those who love vampire fiction, those who love action-adventure novels, those who love history and playing around with it, those who just want a fast-paced beach read, those who want to deep-dive and search out the nerdy easter eggs, or anyone who just wants some new flavors for their brains. But I made a choice as I was writing the first book: I am never going to diminish how the story wants me to tell it to make it more palatable for some people.

I’m pretty sure that once the angry and fearful sort of people who find banning books to be satisfying will categorize my work as “this is the future those woke snowflake liberals want” (it’s certainly the fictional sandbox this liberal loves playing in). So I am now counting my book being banned as both a compliment and a measure of success. The minute that Florida or wherever puts this series on their banned books list, I will be celebrating! (I mean, just think of all the amazing authors I will be keeping company with!)

So, this week, while I encourage you to buy Blood Triad if you haven’t already I also suggest you glance over the Banned Books List and pick up a copy of something for yourself or for a friend. Or, as I have done, grab this awesome t-shirt! 

I was away this weekend at an SCA event. The events at this particular location are my favorite ones of the SCA calendar: great people, amazing fighting, on the most gorgeous location. Unlike Pennsic, this is an event where you can really sit down and talk with friends (not just hug them in passing as you rush off to your various activities) and so I got some wonderful “away from my computer” time, enjoying the most wonderful company and food, and nerding out about history as easily as breathing in that fresh autumnal air.

I gave copies of the books to friends who’d had helped with the historical aspects, sold a couple copies, and got some amazing images/video I will posting to social media over the coming days. But I forgot to get any selfies of my hand-made garb, or even just take pictures of Archie (who was enjoying the first camping of his life!) Today I found that a photographer had snagged this shot of me talking about the books with a friend, and I am so happy to have that moment captured 📸

If you haven’t started watching Kaos over on Netflix, do yourself a favor and dive in. The acting is a delight, the casting is even more of a delight, and the costumes/sets/FX are all supportive of ongoing delight. I’ve been re-listening to Stephen Fry’s Mythos series as well, to refresh my memories of the myths they are playing with, and it’s a perfect combination 💞

As I mentioned last newsletter, the following ad is a brand I am proud to support. And if you click on their link below, even if you do nothing else, I get paid for it! So if you could just take a second of your time, that helps me make the time I put into getting you these chatty newsletters more profitable, and I really appreciate it! Until two weeks from now, my friends, be good or be good at it! 😘

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