I have a book coming out!

I can stop being coy about my secret publishing news now. It’s been officially announced that in Fall 2026, my debut novel will come out with Scholastic!!!

I’m still in a bit of shock that this is happening. I actually got the offer of publication from my editor in May 2024. I won’t reveal all of the tedious inside baseball of publishing, but obviously, it can be extremely slow.

Publishing with Scholastic is a huge dream come true. And to write queer fiction for young people, especially during these times, is a privilege that I take very seriously. I plan to use this opportunity to advocate against book bans and censorship in children’s fiction. Queer fiction for young people is so, so important, and I wish that kind of representation had existed when I was growing up. 

This was a really, really long road. And I am grateful to be here at all. So much about publishing is about being persistent, constantly honing your craft, and getting the right manuscript to the right person at the right time. Even then, success is not guaranteed. I have barely coherent thoughts about finally having a book deal. There have been moments in the last few years where I wasn’t sure if it would happen.

I’m still in the process of writing the final draft of the manuscript at the moment. With well over a year before publication, there are a lot of steps that need to happen before I’m holding my own book in my hands. But I’ll share all the milestones as things progress! 

FATAL INSTINCT OPENING NIGHT!

The show I’ve co-directed with Tess Hermes at The Hideout Theatre opened last Saturday. It’s fully improvised 90s erotic thrillers, and our opening night came together even better than I had imagined. There ended up being showgirls, rich old ladies, extra-marital affairs, theft, an extremely sexy stage kiss, a ton of twists & a great fight scene. We have four more shows, and I would love to see friends come out to this! Everyone on the cast and crew has worked so so hard. TICKETS HERE! Saturdays at 7:30pm.

FILM FESTIVAL WOES

I don’t want this to be the kind of newsletter where I only share the highlights. Anyone who does any kind of creative work knows that the majority of the process involves rejection, waiting, shelving projects, and pivoting.

We’ve submitted EASY DIGGING to a lot of film festivals, and we’ve gotten the first round of answers — all of which were rejections! Feature film slots tend to be more competitive, and that’s on top of film festivals being extremely competitive in general. We still have a lot of hope that we’ll get to show the film at some festivals, and regardless, we’ll make it available to stream next year.

I’ve got pretty thick skin at this point thanks to publishing and past films I’ve submitted, but it still stings a little bit. I love this film so much, and I truly want to share it with more audiences! I don’t hear back from any other fests until May, but cross your fingers for us!

A RECOMMENDATION

I’ve been reading a lot of graphic novels these days. Mostly because I’m working on a graphic novel project with an illustrator (which has been maybe the most fun process ever?), but I just finished one that really stuck out — Stone Fruit by Lee Lai.

It follows the story of a queer couple who are the fun aunties to a 6-year-old girl, as well as the sibling relationship between the child’s mother and the aunt. What particularly stuck out to me was the way it portrays the immersive power of a child’s imaginative world. As a nanny of a seven year old girl who literally only wants to play pretend, I related so much to that aspect of this book. I descend into pretend play on the daily, even when there are difficult, very adult problems happening outside of work. It’s challenging sometimes to get to her level in those moments, but if I commit to her reality, really pretend to be a robot, a doctor, a princess, a long-lost sister, a fairy, a mean businessman, a dog, then a portal can open. It can be healing. And exhausting. I once spent an entire two hour layover pretending to have sand powers with her. It’s like running an imagination marathon. 

Anyway, that graphic novel is great!

Thanks for reading my newsletter, y’all!