#queerauthor — Public Fediverse posts

Author Spotlight: Black Sapphic Vampire Romance author Liza Wemakor

Liza Wemakor (she/they) is a writer and a Ph.D. candidate in UC Riverside’s English Department. Her fiction has been published in Strange Horizons, Anathema Magazine, Baffling Magazine, and elsewhere. Her debut novella, Loving Safoa, was published by Neon Hemlock Press in February 2024.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: www.lizawemakor.com

Instagram: @lizawemakor
Bluesky: @lizawemakor.bsky.social

Book Link: Loving Safoa (Neon Hemlock)

Book Elevator Pitch for readers/book clubs

If you enjoy paranormal romance with literary stylings, you will enjoy Loving Safoa!

Your novella, Loving Safoa, is out now with Neon Hemlock. What were your main inspirations behind this sapphic vampire novella?

I wanted to write a vampire story that reflected underrepresented elements of my worldview. It seemed sensible to lean into Safoa’s experience of being an undocumented immigrant in the Western world across a long expanse of time, and to demonstrate how this extended period of uncertainty and precarity forces Safoa into survival mode. Meanwhile, she is also recovering from the trauma of being held captive by a sadistic colonizer for a number of years, as well as experiencing new kinds of freedom in New York, and eventually Maryland. 

Cynthia, on the other hand, feels orphaned — she is navigating adulthood without her mother or any other parent, yet becoming a maternal figure to her students. She also feels a level of insecurity about her connection to her motherland, as a Ghanaian-American woman, and faces this head-on in her relationship with Safoa, who she imagines as a pure embodiment of African identity. Safoa and Cynthia’s lives are quite complex, and together they tell a story of diasporic reunification. 

The novella features woven stories from different places and time periods, from 18th-19thC Ghana to a near-future Maryland. How did you decide what segments of these characters’ lives to include, and were there scenes and times that you played with but ultimately decided to cut?

I wanted to maintain a focus on Cynthia and Safoa’s romance, so I omitted some portions of their lives before they met; I may have explored more of those past moments in a longer project, like a novel, but a novella length felt right for this story. I wanted the passage of time to be a bit surreal, because it is surreal to have lives as long as Cynthia and Safoa’s. Time itself and the details of their lives are a blur.  

I was seriously toying with showing glimpses of Safoa’s life in London — her lovers, and her brief skirmishes with other European predators. I would’ve emphasized how she was simultaneously powerful and vulnerable to exploitative people, which motivated her departure to the U.S. after a few decades. I didn’t include these scenes because Cynthia may have been lost in the larger narrative — there wouldn’t have been as much of a balanced representation of their lives, and Safoa would have taken over the story. 

How does vampirism and the donor concept work in your novella, and is this based on any folklore? 

I was very inspired by Jewelle Gomez’s approach to vampire networks in The Gilda Stories — vampire communities that are explicitly political, and whose politics have been informed by their previous experiences of being hurt, exploited, and truly loved.

I was also inspired by Octavia Butler’s approaches to both community and feeding in Fledgling. Shori depends upon a host of human companions and vampires while navigating a white supremacist vampire hierarchy. Shori’s companions also gain a lot from her presence, in a symbiotic fashion.

Tamara Jerée wrote beautifully about these dynamics in her Strange Horizons essay, “How to Make a Family: Queer Blood Bonds in Black Feminist Vampire Novels“.

There was a hint of Ghanaian folklore in the novella, though I took creative liberties. Safoa and a character named Yaba occasionally refer to the first vampire they met as ‘ɔbonsam’ — or a demonic entity. In some Ghanaian folklore, there are vampiric, humanoid creatures called ɔbonsam or sasabonsam that have very long hair, like Safoa does at some point, and live / feed on people in the forest. I didn’t opt to include other details like sharp teeth and bat-like features in my depiction of vampires. Tongue feeding was more fun for a smutty sapphic story.

At some point in my life I encountered myths related to the obayifo (another West African vampire) as well, and I took liberties with the factoid that they are phosphorescent, i.e. when Cynthia noticed a blue aura around Safoa’s body.

Can you tell us more about Cynthia – where did she come from, and what made you set her as a schoolteacher in the early 1990s at the start of this novella? How did you develop her character, her voice, and her desires (e.g. to be an “everlasting elder”)?

I am one of those people who insists on a vaguely-defined, somewhat secretive spirituality that undergirds my writing practices. In the spring of 2021, Cynthia and Safoa appeared to me almost effortlessly, and I was compelled to write about them. Not long before that, I’d gotten into the Ph.D. program I am at the end of now, and I started writing feverishly before my time and energy became more limited. Cynthia and Safoa were fascinating to me, and their chemistry was palpable; at times I blushed when writing and editing their sex scenes, because it felt like an intrusion upon their privacy. 

Cynthia’s life resembles my life in some ways, but not all. I haven’t lost my mother, and she (Cynthia) has spent more of her life in New York City and Maryland than I have, but her anxieties about her authenticity as a Ghanaian diasporan and her interest in teaching certainly resonate with me. I am sure that some of my own subjectivity informed how I wrote Cynthia, though a lot of it was subconscious. 

I had a moodboard for both Cynthia and Safoa, and Cynthia’s moodboard included images of the actresses Nicole Beharie and Moses Ingram, and the model Dede Mansro. I was interested in channeling not only the softness of their appearances, but the moodiness and subdued seductiveness they are able to convey. 

Regarding the choice to begin in the 1990s: it was a perfect fit both aesthetically and politically. The 90s was a period of intense political maturation for educators, artists, and the general public. There was, especially for queer black people, queer people of color, a mingling of death and renewal — an increasing awareness of identity (and its constructedness) mingling with the optimism of entering a new millenium. The perfect setting for politically conscious vampires to come into themselves.

Can you tell us more about Safoa, the vampire, her Ghanaian roots, her relationship with tattoos and her place in her communities across time as a body artist, and how she came to be shaped on the page? What was the character development process like for her, and was there research involved to craft her journey from 1799 onwards – if so, what research did you do?

A pattern that is emerging in my answers to these questions is that I placed Cynthia and Safoa in historical moments that were hotbeds for social resistance. I wanted Safoa to live through multiple eras of Black and African resistance, and I wanted readers to see her putting in the work to pursue what she saw as her purpose in life, which was being a body artist from the beginning, and then evolved, through meeting Cynthia, to include more social pursuits. 

In writing Safoa, I revisited a few books from a class I took in college about pre-colonial African history, and I read a few books and articles about West African empires and West African mythology. I also made an effort to research some of the geography (landscapes and flora) of West Africa, and brushed up my knowledge of some Twi terms and phrases, which I grew up hearing from my maternal family. Ultimately, only some of these details made it onto the page, because making the world feel lived in required me to look at these landscapes through Safoa’s eyes.

What research did you do for the different settings in the novella, and what sociopolitical/ideological projections were you going with for the development of your near-future Maryland setting to avoid it being a utopia/dystopia?

I wanted each of the major settings of the novella, 19th century West Africa, 1990s New York City, and 1990s / 21st century Maryland, to reflect major political movements of their time. Safoa’s time in the part of West Africa we now know as Ghana was inflected with rising anticolonial sentiments. New York City is and was sensational for the community organizing within its boroughs, though it was not without the risk of violence (see: the 2003 murder of Sakia Gunn in the nearby Newark, New Jersey). Like New York City, the DMV is and was a major locus of queer arts organizing (especially literary arts) and queer political organizing, which I aimed to reflect in Cynthia and Safoa’s commune involvements. 

I wouldn’t say I was consciously avoiding the story being classified as a utopia or dystopia, and this defiance of categories came about because I had naturalistic inclinations in the writing of this novella. I wanted my writing to reflect how deeply traumatic and how stunningly gorgeous people can be. For the Maryland commune in particular, I wanted to hint at the fact that there were conflicts commune members had already worked through before Cynthia and Safoa arrived, and working through these conflicts laid the groundwork for Cynthia and Safoa to soar, as cooperative leaders in their new community.

Would you ever consider expanding upon the story of Cynthia and Safoa, perhaps in a connected story, and/or are you moving on to other projects (if so, what’s next?!)

I would love to write a short story or novelette focused on Safoa’s time in London / Europe, when the time seems right to do so. I’ve written several short stories that I’m proud of since Loving Safoa came out in 2024, and it’s just been a matter of finding the right magazine at the right time for the stories that haven’t been published yet. I also have a few short stories that are in partial states, that I am slowly finishing as my dissertation takes priority. 

I also have a novel project that is half-drafted! The novel project follows a polarizing, and potentially revolutionary, celebrity musician. 

Beyond my own fiction, I am a nonfiction editor and finance manager for Anathema Magazine, a venue dedicated to speculation fiction by and for queer people of color that is relaunching after a 3-year hiatus — yay!  

Like This? Try These:

Author Spotlight: Vampire Fiction Author Lucius Valiant

Meet Lucius Valiant, a Danish-British author, and learn more about his series, The Thornhill Vampire Chronicles.

Author Spotlight: Vampire Fiction Author Talia Wall

Meet Talia Wall and her dystopian vampire series, ‘Until Equinox’ trilogy! Books 1&2 are out now, and Book 3 is coming soon.

Author Spotlight: Vampire Fiction Author Eule Grey

Meet Eule Grey (she/they), a Sculpture artist, disability activist, and disabled author of queer, sparkly books. We talk about disability and sapphic elements in their work.

Author Spotlight: Horror & Vampire Fiction Author C. Lenz

C. Lenz is a Canadian author and scientist who lives with her wife Zoey in Hamilton, Ontario. In this spotlight interview, she discusses her monster-vampire slasher, Thyrst Festival.

Author Spotlight: Vampire Fiction Author Frankie Sutton

Frankie Sutton writes paranormal and urban fantasy, and talks to us about her novel, Vampiric Crush.

Author Spotlight: Queer SFF and Vampire Fiction Author H.S. Kallinger

Meet one of the authors from the Authors for Palestine event, H.S. Kallinger (he/they). Kallinger discusses his work, vampires, and what’s next for their queer Sci-Fi series.

Author Spotlight: Gothic Weird Fiction author Nikoline Kaiser

Nikoline Kaiser (she/her) resides in Denmark, and writes short stories, novels and poetry. She has published several pieces in both English and Danish, and been longlisted for the Lee Smith Novel Prize. She writes about grief, love, horror, sexuality and one time about a woman turning into a tree.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: nikolinekaiser.dk
Social Media: @nikolinekaiser on Instagram, bluesky and reddit

Read a free sample:
The Dreaming of Man (Amazon Look Inside feature)

Book Club/Reader pitch for The Dreaming of Man:

A queer spin on Lovecraft meets Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a historical crime-turned-horror novella.

Your novella, The Dreaming of Man, was released in 2025. What was the writing journey like from first idea to query-ready?

I wrote the novella all the way back in 2019, and I actually wrote the first draft – which hasn’t changed a whole lot, aside from being cleaned up – all in one afternoon. I don’t think I took any breaks. It was one of those stories that had to come out all at once, or I feared I wouldn’t finish it.

It received a lot of rejections over the next couple of years, until it landed with dave at Neon Hemlock Press.

It sounds tacky, but I truly believe it found it’s right home with Neon, and the experience I had with the press has been wonderful. I had huge input in the final version, including getting to pick the artist to make the cover — J.J. Epping, a dear friend and someone I knew could nail the creepy feeling I wanted the cover to convey.

What are the pros and cons of being a Danish author writing in English, and what advice would you give others writing for an Anglophonic market?

The biggest con is definitely my own insecurities about playing with the language; I feel I can’t get away with as much, because publishers and readers might perceive it as a mistake instead of a deliberate bending of the language rules.

And then there’s the time differences for events, and not being as physically close to the market, particularly for events.

For anyone else in the same position, I would recommend familiarizing yourself as much as possible with both the Anglophonic and your local publishing world. Some works might fit better in one cultural context than the other.

What are your main Weird Fiction and Gothic Horror influences, and what are your favourite themes and elements from these genres? Which can readers expect to find in your novella (if you can let us know in a non-spoilery way)?

I am actually fairly new to these genres; I used to avoid horror at all costs, until I fell over some video essays on how much queer exploration there often is in horror. And then we started reading gothic fiction at university, and I fell in love with the genre.

Ann Radcliffe’s works – especially “The Italian” – are amazing and show so much of what still works in horror today. And for anyone writing in these genres, I recommend reading “The Castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole, the first every Gothic horror. It reads as fairly silly now, but it is basically one long checklist of what to include in a classic Gothic story.

“The Dreaming of Man” contains a bit of body horror, which has always fascinated me. People’s relationship with their bodies, the things we think of as “horror” about bodies across history and cultures, can vary so much.

And then I’m just a big fan of the eerie, which is something Radcliffe nails, and which always unsettles me more than some big, scary monster. Not that a big, scary monster isn’t fun, too. I’m a big Godzilla fan.

How did the title come to be, and were there any alternatives you considered?

The title was inspired by a passage in Macbeth, which is also included as a prelude to the beginning of my book. The last part reads: “… Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtained sleep.”

There’s a lot of layers to this quote, starting from the top: nature is dead, and sleep often seems like death to the casual observer. And then of course we dream in our sleep, and that’s both an obscuring and a revelation of the real world. And then “curtained sleep” which can be taken quite literally as a bed curtained off, creating another barrier against the real world, even on top of the barrier of sleep.

Basically, the characters have done everything they can to cut themselves off from the horribleness of the real world, but it still comes back to haunt them in their dreams.

I think that’s ultimately what horror is: not just “what if your nightmares were real?” but also “and what if you couldn’t shield yourself from them?” Not physically or mentally. And then there’s also a double-layered meaning in the title, but I’ll let the text reveal that on its own.

The working title was “Lovecraft goes Queer, Shakespeare goes Queerer”. I’m not sure that would have gone down for publishing.

The town of Osmund has been compared with Innsmouth (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft) and Dunsinane (Macbeth, Shakespeare) – were these conscious influences, and were there any others that inspired the setting?

Definitely very deliberate influences, especially Innsmouth. The style and feel of the town is one that permeates modern Weird Fiction and Gothic Horror, so even without reading Lovecraft, I think it can latch onto you. But there were a lot of inspirations from real life as well.

I’ve always lived in port cities, and I grew up sailing with my family, so sometimes you would arrive at some really small places, with old boats and older buildings. Thankfully never as scary as those places in fiction, but then again, we mostly went there during the summer. Things look very different in the dark, or during Fall and Winter when everything’s gray and only a few plants are still blooming.

What queer representation can readers expect in this novella, and also in your other available work?

There will almost always be at least one stray lesbian somewhere — though not always! And I try to be broad in my understanding and love for the whole queer community. I figure out myself a lot through the stories I write, even when the characters and settings have very little to do with my personal life. Fiction is both exploration and understanding, and like a dream, I think it can reflect both the reality we live in and the reality we hope to see one day. So, the answer is: mostly lesbians! Or bi women! I love women of all kinds, so I’m biased. There’s technically no lesbians confirmed in “The Dreaming of Man”, but just because I didn’t write it in the text doesn’t mean the women aren’t kissing behind-the-scenes!

Do you have anything else to plug here that is currently out or coming soon? What should readers look out for?

I have two short stories coming out, one called “Puppet Show” with Estrella Publishing, in their publication “Celestial Glossary”. It’s an introspective piece about re-defining yourself after an accident and following your stranger impulses despite what the world around you is telling you to do. It’s out January 30th.

And then later this year – date still unconfirmed – I am part of a sci-fi anthology, with a short story about people living in huge, moving, mechanical animals after the end of the world. I try to post more on my socials as we get closer to publication, so keep an eye out.

Like This? Try These:

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

Meet S.M. Mack (she/her), author of DEATH VALLEY BLOOMS. Find out more about this queer ecohorror novella and how it came about!

Author Spotlight: British Gothic Horror author Laura Clarke Walker

Discover a new seaside town of Gothic secrets – COLDHARBOUR, by Laura Clarke Walker (she/they). Meet this British author and find out more about her work.

Author Spotlight: Queer Cyberpunk author A.E. Bross

Meet A.E. Bross (they/them or xe/xem), a nonbinary author of queer cyberpunk Snow White retelling, CyberSnow. Find out more about their latest novella!

Author Spotlight: Queer Cyberpunk Author Stefanie Carter (AKA Wayward Sparx/Fox N. Locke)

Meet author Stefanie Carter (they/them) who writes as Fox N. Locke and Wayward Sparx. They are a UK-based English Sci-Fi author, working on a nonfiction book about cyberpunk, and here to talk about their Trans+ collection of stories, TRANS_LUCENT.

Author Spotlight: Gothic SFF Author Morgan Dante

Meet Morgan Dante (they/them) and their body of work – Gothic, queer, and deliciously unsettling.

Author Spotlight: Queer Dark Fantasy Author Ezra Arndt

Meet Ezra Arndt and their novel Awakened Darkness. We chat about queerness, monstrosity, and dark fantasy.

Author Spotlight: Gothic Weird Fiction author Nikoline Kaiser

Nikoline Kaiser (she/her) resides in Denmark, and writes short stories, novels and poetry. She has published several pieces in both English and Danish, and been longlisted for the Lee Smith Novel Prize. She writes about grief, love, horror, sexuality and one time about a woman turning into a tree.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: nikolinekaiser.dk
Social Media: @nikolinekaiser on Instagram, bluesky and reddit

Read a free sample:
The Dreaming of Man (Amazon Look Inside feature)

Book Club/Reader pitch for The Dreaming of Man:

A queer spin on Lovecraft meets Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a historical crime-turned-horror novella.

Your novella, The Dreaming of Man, was released in 2025. What was the writing journey like from first idea to query-ready?

I wrote the novella all the way back in 2019, and I actually wrote the first draft – which hasn’t changed a whole lot, aside from being cleaned up – all in one afternoon. I don’t think I took any breaks. It was one of those stories that had to come out all at once, or I feared I wouldn’t finish it.

It received a lot of rejections over the next couple of years, until it landed with dave at Neon Hemlock Press.

It sounds tacky, but I truly believe it found it’s right home with Neon, and the experience I had with the press has been wonderful. I had huge input in the final version, including getting to pick the artist to make the cover — J.J. Epping, a dear friend and someone I knew could nail the creepy feeling I wanted the cover to convey.

What are the pros and cons of being a Danish author writing in English, and what advice would you give others writing for an Anglophonic market?

The biggest con is definitely my own insecurities about playing with the language; I feel I can’t get away with as much, because publishers and readers might perceive it as a mistake instead of a deliberate bending of the language rules.

And then there’s the time differences for events, and not being as physically close to the market, particularly for events.

For anyone else in the same position, I would recommend familiarizing yourself as much as possible with both the Anglophonic and your local publishing world. Some works might fit better in one cultural context than the other.

What are your main Weird Fiction and Gothic Horror influences, and what are your favourite themes and elements from these genres? Which can readers expect to find in your novella (if you can let us know in a non-spoilery way)?

I am actually fairly new to these genres; I used to avoid horror at all costs, until I fell over some video essays on how much queer exploration there often is in horror. And then we started reading gothic fiction at university, and I fell in love with the genre.

Ann Radcliffe’s works – especially “The Italian” – are amazing and show so much of what still works in horror today. And for anyone writing in these genres, I recommend reading “The Castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole, the first every Gothic horror. It reads as fairly silly now, but it is basically one long checklist of what to include in a classic Gothic story.

“The Dreaming of Man” contains a bit of body horror, which has always fascinated me. People’s relationship with their bodies, the things we think of as “horror” about bodies across history and cultures, can vary so much.

And then I’m just a big fan of the eerie, which is something Radcliffe nails, and which always unsettles me more than some big, scary monster. Not that a big, scary monster isn’t fun, too. I’m a big Godzilla fan.

How did the title come to be, and were there any alternatives you considered?

The title was inspired by a passage in Macbeth, which is also included as a prelude to the beginning of my book. The last part reads: “… Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtained sleep.”

There’s a lot of layers to this quote, starting from the top: nature is dead, and sleep often seems like death to the casual observer. And then of course we dream in our sleep, and that’s both an obscuring and a revelation of the real world. And then “curtained sleep” which can be taken quite literally as a bed curtained off, creating another barrier against the real world, even on top of the barrier of sleep.

Basically, the characters have done everything they can to cut themselves off from the horribleness of the real world, but it still comes back to haunt them in their dreams.

I think that’s ultimately what horror is: not just “what if your nightmares were real?” but also “and what if you couldn’t shield yourself from them?” Not physically or mentally. And then there’s also a double-layered meaning in the title, but I’ll let the text reveal that on its own.

The working title was “Lovecraft goes Queer, Shakespeare goes Queerer”. I’m not sure that would have gone down for publishing.

The town of Osmund has been compared with Innsmouth (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft) and Dunsinane (Macbeth, Shakespeare) – were these conscious influences, and were there any others that inspired the setting?

Definitely very deliberate influences, especially Innsmouth. The style and feel of the town is one that permeates modern Weird Fiction and Gothic Horror, so even without reading Lovecraft, I think it can latch onto you. But there were a lot of inspirations from real life as well.

I’ve always lived in port cities, and I grew up sailing with my family, so sometimes you would arrive at some really small places, with old boats and older buildings. Thankfully never as scary as those places in fiction, but then again, we mostly went there during the summer. Things look very different in the dark, or during Fall and Winter when everything’s gray and only a few plants are still blooming.

What queer representation can readers expect in this novella, and also in your other available work?

There will almost always be at least one stray lesbian somewhere — though not always! And I try to be broad in my understanding and love for the whole queer community. I figure out myself a lot through the stories I write, even when the characters and settings have very little to do with my personal life. Fiction is both exploration and understanding, and like a dream, I think it can reflect both the reality we live in and the reality we hope to see one day. So, the answer is: mostly lesbians! Or bi women! I love women of all kinds, so I’m biased. There’s technically no lesbians confirmed in “The Dreaming of Man”, but just because I didn’t write it in the text doesn’t mean the women aren’t kissing behind-the-scenes!

Do you have anything else to plug here that is currently out or coming soon? What should readers look out for?

I have two short stories coming out, one called “Puppet Show” with Estrella Publishing, in their publication “Celestial Glossary”. It’s an introspective piece about re-defining yourself after an accident and following your stranger impulses despite what the world around you is telling you to do. It’s out January 30th.

And then later this year – date still unconfirmed – I am part of a sci-fi anthology, with a short story about people living in huge, moving, mechanical animals after the end of the world. I try to post more on my socials as we get closer to publication, so keep an eye out.

Like This? Try These:

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

Meet S.M. Mack (she/her), author of DEATH VALLEY BLOOMS. Find out more about this queer ecohorror novella and how it came about!

Author Spotlight: British Gothic Horror author Laura Clarke Walker

Discover a new seaside town of Gothic secrets – COLDHARBOUR, by Laura Clarke Walker (she/they). Meet this British author and find out more about her work.

Author Spotlight: Queer Cyberpunk author A.E. Bross

Meet A.E. Bross (they/them or xe/xem), a nonbinary author of queer cyberpunk Snow White retelling, CyberSnow. Find out more about their latest novella!

Author Spotlight: Queer Cyberpunk Author Stefanie Carter (AKA Wayward Sparx/Fox N. Locke)

Meet author Stefanie Carter (they/them) who writes as Fox N. Locke and Wayward Sparx. They are a UK-based English Sci-Fi author, working on a nonfiction book about cyberpunk, and here to talk about their Trans+ collection of stories, TRANS_LUCENT.

Author Spotlight: Gothic SFF Author Morgan Dante

Meet Morgan Dante (they/them) and their body of work – Gothic, queer, and deliciously unsettling.

Author Spotlight: Queer Dark Fantasy Author Ezra Arndt

Meet Ezra Arndt and their novel Awakened Darkness. We chat about queerness, monstrosity, and dark fantasy.

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

S.M. Mack (she/her) is a 2019 MFA recipient in popular fiction from USM Stonecoast, the 2017 first place winner of the Katherine Patterson Prize for Young Adult Writing, and a Clarion 2012 grad. Her short fiction has been published in Fireside Fiction, Vine Leaves Literary Journal’s “Best of 2015” anthology, and the Clarion class of 2012’s seven Rainbow Anthologies, among others. Her novella Death Valley Blooms is part of Neon Hemlock’s 2025 Novella Series.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: whatsmacksaid.com

Bluesky: @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social
Instagram: @what_smacksaid

Death Valley Blooms Links

Neon Hemlock Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

READ A SAMPLE: Amazon Look Inside Feature

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar’s mother was called a decade ago, pulled underground to be used like a battery, and she herself has begun to feel Death Valley’s presence. Mar has an ace up her sleeve, though: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family?

What was the seed for your novella, Death Valley Blooms, and how did this sprout into the novella published by Neon Hemlock?

My Clarion class put out seven charity anthologies to help raise money for attendee scholarships.

Clarion lasts for six weeks from June to August, so we challenged ourselves to write a story from scratch each year, focusing on a different color of the rainbow.

My Yellow Volume story started at the (erroneous) assumption that all dirt in the southern Californian deserts is yellow, or at least yellow-ish.

From there, I did some daydreaming about how the ground might interact with people; I went from “skinning your hands and knees when you fall down” to “what if the blood spilled from a minor injury isn’t enough? What if blood isn’t enough? What if the ground eats you whole? Why would it do that?”

By the end of the first draft I knew I had something special, but I also knew I’d never be able to tease out the subtleties hiding in there under our short timeline. So I set it aside for a few years, and picked it back up during grad school.

Within the novella are themes of consent and autonomy, but also the futility of people’s actions against a landscape that will outlast them. Where did these themes come from, and why explore them here?

One of my childhood refrains was “I can do it myself!” even when that was not objectively true. It insists on boundary-setting for both consent and autonomy—anyone who overrides one will inevitably override the other.

Death Valley Blooms’ main character, Mar, is very much a product of that mentality. She is determined to break her family’s curse, even though generations of women have succumbed to Death Valley’s call. She fights for her autonomy and nurtures a lifelong grudge against the curse for stealing her ability to consent. Because, of course, that’s what curses do: render those trapped under its power unable to protect their emotional, mental, and physical selves.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about climate change versus an individual’s effect on their environment. The physical world does not care how frightened or overwhelmed you and I are by wildfires, flash floods, or water scarcity. But if one small part of the world—Death Valley, in this case—reached out and demanded payment or help from an individual, how could we possibly say no? Even culpability and guilt aside, how could a single family of individuals possibly resist nature’s force? They can’t.

What to you was psychologically interesting about a family dealing with constant absences and returns? 

I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety when I began writing Death Valley Blooms, and one of the things I obsessed over was my parents’ ages. I have a good relationship with both, and for a year or more I just could not see past the knowledge that I’d outlive them, and that that was somehow the best outcome.

One of the more tragic ideas I couldn’t shake was the prospect of losing time—losing years—that could be spent in one another’s company: how much better would it be to “only” lose your mother (or sister, or aunt) for twenty years, rather than forever? Furthermore, how difficult would it be to accept and move through the resulting grief, then have those feelings and growth invalidated when the missing loved one returns? What does that do to a close-knit family when it happens over and over again?

What LGBTQIA+ rep can readers expect to find in this novella, and why is this rep important to you to include?

There’s no reason not to make characters queer in one way or another—or rather, there’s no more reason to make them queer than to make them straight. A story doesn’t hinge on the gender or sexual orientation of side characters, and even “boring,” everyday representation is a good thing.

For example, Mar’s closest friend is openly bisexual; she’s divorced from a man and dating a woman. It comes up in casual conversation a few times, but that’s all.

I identify as simply queer now, but I spent many years identifying as asexual, then as aro/ace (and so on and so forth as my perception of myself changed), while living in a near-constant state of fury and frustration at how hard it was to find ace main characters at all, let along ace main characters outside romantic subplots.

I didn’t plan for Mar’s aro/ace identity to become a strength, but it’s an important part of who she is. Part of why she’s so family-oriented is that she doesn’t care about finding a romantic partner. Her family is perfect the way it is, if only she could defy Death Valley and bring everyone together again.

The other queer rep I’d like to highlight is Mar’s aunt, Lucy, who is a trans woman. She’s got her own issues going on over the course of the story, but she doesn’t stand in the spotlight, either. I wanted to create a path for her to simply exist as a regular person dealing with a family curse and an increasingly desperate niece. (“Regular” is doing a lot of work here, I know.) But I wanted to remind readers that the environment does not give a rat’s behind about human-imposed boundaries, whether those be gender strictures or geographical boundaries.

Death Valley’s curse falls on the women of Mar and Lucy’s family, and both Mar and Lucy are women.

Death Valley is a character in the novella, much like the human characters. What was it like to develop this aspect of the novella? 

As a younger writer, I participated in a workshop where one colleague had a television background, and we talked a lot about the “white room syndrome,” where a scene entirely ignores its setting. The discussion left an impression, and over time my writing evolved from dutifully including setting descriptions to centering the setting alongside the characters.

Our surroundings in real life aren’t sentient, but speculative fiction is the perfect place to look beyond that natural end place. I’ve really loved trying to get into the headspace required to embody an inhuman, unpredictable, and nearly all-powerful true-neutral character, a vast ecosystem with little to no way of communicating directly with my human characters—sometimes I think of Death Valley’s character as alien as the actual location feels when visiting. And I’m definitely going to keep doing this in future stories!

For example, I have another story I’m working on about eating disorders with a gargoyle sent to live in exile in a different California desert.

Do you have anything that you want to share with readers, anything out now, or coming soon?

I’m in the middle of a companion novella for Death Valley Blooms! It picks up slightly before the end of Death Valley Blooms and is from a different character’s point of view. I have a beautiful cover created by the incomparable Rose Mayer, who also did the original, and I’ll be releasing the companion story sometime during summer 2026. I’ll be posting updates on bsky and via my author newsletter, which readers can sign up for on my website.

Like This? Try These!

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

S.M. Mack (she/her) is a 2019 MFA recipient in popular fiction from USM Stonecoast, the 2017 first place winner of the Katherine Patterson Prize for Young Adult Writing, and a Clarion 2012 grad. Her short fiction has been published in Fireside Fiction, Vine Leaves Literary Journal’s “Best of 2015” anthology, and the Clarion class of 2012’s seven Rainbow Anthologies, among others. Her novella Death Valley Blooms is part of Neon Hemlock’s 2025 Novella Series.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: whatsmacksaid.com

Bluesky: @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social
Instagram: @what_smacksaid

Death Valley Blooms Links

Neon Hemlock Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

READ A SAMPLE: Amazon Look Inside Feature

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar’s mother was called a decade ago, pulled underground to be used like a battery, and she herself has begun to feel Death Valley’s presence. Mar has an ace up her sleeve, though: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family?

What was the seed for your novella, Death Valley Blooms, and how did this sprout into the novella published by Neon Hemlock?

My Clarion class put out seven charity anthologies to help raise money for attendee scholarships.

Clarion lasts for six weeks from June to August, so we challenged ourselves to write a story from scratch each year, focusing on a different color of the rainbow.

My Yellow Volume story started at the (erroneous) assumption that all dirt in the southern Californian deserts is yellow, or at least yellow-ish.

From there, I did some daydreaming about how the ground might interact with people; I went from “skinning your hands and knees when you fall down” to “what if the blood spilled from a minor injury isn’t enough? What if blood isn’t enough? What if the ground eats you whole? Why would it do that?”

By the end of the first draft I knew I had something special, but I also knew I’d never be able to tease out the subtleties hiding in there under our short timeline. So I set it aside for a few years, and picked it back up during grad school.

Within the novella are themes of consent and autonomy, but also the futility of people’s actions against a landscape that will outlast them. Where did these themes come from, and why explore them here?

One of my childhood refrains was “I can do it myself!” even when that was not objectively true. It insists on boundary-setting for both consent and autonomy—anyone who overrides one will inevitably override the other.

Death Valley Blooms’ main character, Mar, is very much a product of that mentality. She is determined to break her family’s curse, even though generations of women have succumbed to Death Valley’s call. She fights for her autonomy and nurtures a lifelong grudge against the curse for stealing her ability to consent. Because, of course, that’s what curses do: render those trapped under its power unable to protect their emotional, mental, and physical selves.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about climate change versus an individual’s effect on their environment. The physical world does not care how frightened or overwhelmed you and I are by wildfires, flash floods, or water scarcity. But if one small part of the world—Death Valley, in this case—reached out and demanded payment or help from an individual, how could we possibly say no? Even culpability and guilt aside, how could a single family of individuals possibly resist nature’s force? They can’t.

What to you was psychologically interesting about a family dealing with constant absences and returns? 

I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety when I began writing Death Valley Blooms, and one of the things I obsessed over was my parents’ ages. I have a good relationship with both, and for a year or more I just could not see past the knowledge that I’d outlive them, and that that was somehow the best outcome.

One of the more tragic ideas I couldn’t shake was the prospect of losing time—losing years—that could be spent in one another’s company: how much better would it be to “only” lose your mother (or sister, or aunt) for twenty years, rather than forever? Furthermore, how difficult would it be to accept and move through the resulting grief, then have those feelings and growth invalidated when the missing loved one returns? What does that do to a close-knit family when it happens over and over again?

What LGBTQIA+ rep can readers expect to find in this novella, and why is this rep important to you to include?

There’s no reason not to make characters queer in one way or another—or rather, there’s no more reason to make them queer than to make them straight. A story doesn’t hinge on the gender or sexual orientation of side characters, and even “boring,” everyday representation is a good thing.

For example, Mar’s closest friend is openly bisexual; she’s divorced from a man and dating a woman. It comes up in casual conversation a few times, but that’s all.

I identify as simply queer now, but I spent many years identifying as asexual, then as aro/ace (and so on and so forth as my perception of myself changed), while living in a near-constant state of fury and frustration at how hard it was to find ace main characters at all, let along ace main characters outside romantic subplots.

I didn’t plan for Mar’s aro/ace identity to become a strength, but it’s an important part of who she is. Part of why she’s so family-oriented is that she doesn’t care about finding a romantic partner. Her family is perfect the way it is, if only she could defy Death Valley and bring everyone together again.

The other queer rep I’d like to highlight is Mar’s aunt, Lucy, who is a trans woman. She’s got her own issues going on over the course of the story, but she doesn’t stand in the spotlight, either. I wanted to create a path for her to simply exist as a regular person dealing with a family curse and an increasingly desperate niece. (“Regular” is doing a lot of work here, I know.) But I wanted to remind readers that the environment does not give a rat’s behind about human-imposed boundaries, whether those be gender strictures or geographical boundaries.

Death Valley’s curse falls on the women of Mar and Lucy’s family, and both Mar and Lucy are women.

Death Valley is a character in the novella, much like the human characters. What was it like to develop this aspect of the novella? 

As a younger writer, I participated in a workshop where one colleague had a television background, and we talked a lot about the “white room syndrome,” where a scene entirely ignores its setting. The discussion left an impression, and over time my writing evolved from dutifully including setting descriptions to centering the setting alongside the characters.

Our surroundings in real life aren’t sentient, but speculative fiction is the perfect place to look beyond that natural end place. I’ve really loved trying to get into the headspace required to embody an inhuman, unpredictable, and nearly all-powerful true-neutral character, a vast ecosystem with little to no way of communicating directly with my human characters—sometimes I think of Death Valley’s character as alien as the actual location feels when visiting. And I’m definitely going to keep doing this in future stories!

For example, I have another story I’m working on about eating disorders with a gargoyle sent to live in exile in a different California desert.

Do you have anything that you want to share with readers, anything out now, or coming soon?

I’m in the middle of a companion novella for Death Valley Blooms! It picks up slightly before the end of Death Valley Blooms and is from a different character’s point of view. I have a beautiful cover created by the incomparable Rose Mayer, who also did the original, and I’ll be releasing the companion story sometime during summer 2026. I’ll be posting updates on bsky and via my author newsletter, which readers can sign up for on my website.

Like This? Try These!

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

S.M. Mack (she/her) is a 2019 MFA recipient in popular fiction from USM Stonecoast, the 2017 first place winner of the Katherine Patterson Prize for Young Adult Writing, and a Clarion 2012 grad. Her short fiction has been published in Fireside Fiction, Vine Leaves Literary Journal’s “Best of 2015” anthology, and the Clarion class of 2012’s seven Rainbow Anthologies, among others. Her novella Death Valley Blooms is part of Neon Hemlock’s 2025 Novella Series.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: whatsmacksaid.com

Bluesky: @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social
Instagram: @what_smacksaid

Death Valley Blooms Links

Neon Hemlock Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

READ A SAMPLE: Amazon Look Inside Feature

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar’s mother was called a decade ago, pulled underground to be used like a battery, and she herself has begun to feel Death Valley’s presence. Mar has an ace up her sleeve, though: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family?

What was the seed for your novella, Death Valley Blooms, and how did this sprout into the novella published by Neon Hemlock?

My Clarion class put out seven charity anthologies to help raise money for attendee scholarships.

Clarion lasts for six weeks from June to August, so we challenged ourselves to write a story from scratch each year, focusing on a different color of the rainbow.

My Yellow Volume story started at the (erroneous) assumption that all dirt in the southern Californian deserts is yellow, or at least yellow-ish.

From there, I did some daydreaming about how the ground might interact with people; I went from “skinning your hands and knees when you fall down” to “what if the blood spilled from a minor injury isn’t enough? What if blood isn’t enough? What if the ground eats you whole? Why would it do that?”

By the end of the first draft I knew I had something special, but I also knew I’d never be able to tease out the subtleties hiding in there under our short timeline. So I set it aside for a few years, and picked it back up during grad school.

Within the novella are themes of consent and autonomy, but also the futility of people’s actions against a landscape that will outlast them. Where did these themes come from, and why explore them here?

One of my childhood refrains was “I can do it myself!” even when that was not objectively true. It insists on boundary-setting for both consent and autonomy—anyone who overrides one will inevitably override the other.

Death Valley Blooms’ main character, Mar, is very much a product of that mentality. She is determined to break her family’s curse, even though generations of women have succumbed to Death Valley’s call. She fights for her autonomy and nurtures a lifelong grudge against the curse for stealing her ability to consent. Because, of course, that’s what curses do: render those trapped under its power unable to protect their emotional, mental, and physical selves.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about climate change versus an individual’s effect on their environment. The physical world does not care how frightened or overwhelmed you and I are by wildfires, flash floods, or water scarcity. But if one small part of the world—Death Valley, in this case—reached out and demanded payment or help from an individual, how could we possibly say no? Even culpability and guilt aside, how could a single family of individuals possibly resist nature’s force? They can’t.

What to you was psychologically interesting about a family dealing with constant absences and returns? 

I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety when I began writing Death Valley Blooms, and one of the things I obsessed over was my parents’ ages. I have a good relationship with both, and for a year or more I just could not see past the knowledge that I’d outlive them, and that that was somehow the best outcome.

One of the more tragic ideas I couldn’t shake was the prospect of losing time—losing years—that could be spent in one another’s company: how much better would it be to “only” lose your mother (or sister, or aunt) for twenty years, rather than forever? Furthermore, how difficult would it be to accept and move through the resulting grief, then have those feelings and growth invalidated when the missing loved one returns? What does that do to a close-knit family when it happens over and over again?

What LGBTQIA+ rep can readers expect to find in this novella, and why is this rep important to you to include?

There’s no reason not to make characters queer in one way or another—or rather, there’s no more reason to make them queer than to make them straight. A story doesn’t hinge on the gender or sexual orientation of side characters, and even “boring,” everyday representation is a good thing.

For example, Mar’s closest friend is openly bisexual; she’s divorced from a man and dating a woman. It comes up in casual conversation a few times, but that’s all.

I identify as simply queer now, but I spent many years identifying as asexual, then as aro/ace (and so on and so forth as my perception of myself changed), while living in a near-constant state of fury and frustration at how hard it was to find ace main characters at all, let along ace main characters outside romantic subplots.

I didn’t plan for Mar’s aro/ace identity to become a strength, but it’s an important part of who she is. Part of why she’s so family-oriented is that she doesn’t care about finding a romantic partner. Her family is perfect the way it is, if only she could defy Death Valley and bring everyone together again.

The other queer rep I’d like to highlight is Mar’s aunt, Lucy, who is a trans woman. She’s got her own issues going on over the course of the story, but she doesn’t stand in the spotlight, either. I wanted to create a path for her to simply exist as a regular person dealing with a family curse and an increasingly desperate niece. (“Regular” is doing a lot of work here, I know.) But I wanted to remind readers that the environment does not give a rat’s behind about human-imposed boundaries, whether those be gender strictures or geographical boundaries.

Death Valley’s curse falls on the women of Mar and Lucy’s family, and both Mar and Lucy are women.

Death Valley is a character in the novella, much like the human characters. What was it like to develop this aspect of the novella? 

As a younger writer, I participated in a workshop where one colleague had a television background, and we talked a lot about the “white room syndrome,” where a scene entirely ignores its setting. The discussion left an impression, and over time my writing evolved from dutifully including setting descriptions to centering the setting alongside the characters.

Our surroundings in real life aren’t sentient, but speculative fiction is the perfect place to look beyond that natural end place. I’ve really loved trying to get into the headspace required to embody an inhuman, unpredictable, and nearly all-powerful true-neutral character, a vast ecosystem with little to no way of communicating directly with my human characters—sometimes I think of Death Valley’s character as alien as the actual location feels when visiting. And I’m definitely going to keep doing this in future stories!

For example, I have another story I’m working on about eating disorders with a gargoyle sent to live in exile in a different California desert.

Do you have anything that you want to share with readers, anything out now, or coming soon?

I’m in the middle of a companion novella for Death Valley Blooms! It picks up slightly before the end of Death Valley Blooms and is from a different character’s point of view. I have a beautiful cover created by the incomparable Rose Mayer, who also did the original, and I’ll be releasing the companion story sometime during summer 2026. I’ll be posting updates on bsky and via my author newsletter, which readers can sign up for on my website.

Like This? Try These!

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

S.M. Mack (she/her) is a 2019 MFA recipient in popular fiction from USM Stonecoast, the 2017 first place winner of the Katherine Patterson Prize for Young Adult Writing, and a Clarion 2012 grad. Her short fiction has been published in Fireside Fiction, Vine Leaves Literary Journal’s “Best of 2015” anthology, and the Clarion class of 2012’s seven Rainbow Anthologies, among others. Her novella Death Valley Blooms is part of Neon Hemlock’s 2025 Novella Series.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: whatsmacksaid.com

Bluesky: @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social
Instagram: @what_smacksaid

Death Valley Blooms Links

Neon Hemlock Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

READ A SAMPLE: Amazon Look Inside Feature

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar’s mother was called a decade ago, pulled underground to be used like a battery, and she herself has begun to feel Death Valley’s presence. Mar has an ace up her sleeve, though: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family?

What was the seed for your novella, Death Valley Blooms, and how did this sprout into the novella published by Neon Hemlock?

My Clarion class put out seven charity anthologies to help raise money for attendee scholarships.

Clarion lasts for six weeks from June to August, so we challenged ourselves to write a story from scratch each year, focusing on a different color of the rainbow.

My Yellow Volume story started at the (erroneous) assumption that all dirt in the southern Californian deserts is yellow, or at least yellow-ish.

From there, I did some daydreaming about how the ground might interact with people; I went from “skinning your hands and knees when you fall down” to “what if the blood spilled from a minor injury isn’t enough? What if blood isn’t enough? What if the ground eats you whole? Why would it do that?”

By the end of the first draft I knew I had something special, but I also knew I’d never be able to tease out the subtleties hiding in there under our short timeline. So I set it aside for a few years, and picked it back up during grad school.

Within the novella are themes of consent and autonomy, but also the futility of people’s actions against a landscape that will outlast them. Where did these themes come from, and why explore them here?

One of my childhood refrains was “I can do it myself!” even when that was not objectively true. It insists on boundary-setting for both consent and autonomy—anyone who overrides one will inevitably override the other.

Death Valley Blooms’ main character, Mar, is very much a product of that mentality. She is determined to break her family’s curse, even though generations of women have succumbed to Death Valley’s call. She fights for her autonomy and nurtures a lifelong grudge against the curse for stealing her ability to consent. Because, of course, that’s what curses do: render those trapped under its power unable to protect their emotional, mental, and physical selves.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about climate change versus an individual’s effect on their environment. The physical world does not care how frightened or overwhelmed you and I are by wildfires, flash floods, or water scarcity. But if one small part of the world—Death Valley, in this case—reached out and demanded payment or help from an individual, how could we possibly say no? Even culpability and guilt aside, how could a single family of individuals possibly resist nature’s force? They can’t.

What to you was psychologically interesting about a family dealing with constant absences and returns? 

I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety when I began writing Death Valley Blooms, and one of the things I obsessed over was my parents’ ages. I have a good relationship with both, and for a year or more I just could not see past the knowledge that I’d outlive them, and that that was somehow the best outcome.

One of the more tragic ideas I couldn’t shake was the prospect of losing time—losing years—that could be spent in one another’s company: how much better would it be to “only” lose your mother (or sister, or aunt) for twenty years, rather than forever? Furthermore, how difficult would it be to accept and move through the resulting grief, then have those feelings and growth invalidated when the missing loved one returns? What does that do to a close-knit family when it happens over and over again?

What LGBTQIA+ rep can readers expect to find in this novella, and why is this rep important to you to include?

There’s no reason not to make characters queer in one way or another—or rather, there’s no more reason to make them queer than to make them straight. A story doesn’t hinge on the gender or sexual orientation of side characters, and even “boring,” everyday representation is a good thing.

For example, Mar’s closest friend is openly bisexual; she’s divorced from a man and dating a woman. It comes up in casual conversation a few times, but that’s all.

I identify as simply queer now, but I spent many years identifying as asexual, then as aro/ace (and so on and so forth as my perception of myself changed), while living in a near-constant state of fury and frustration at how hard it was to find ace main characters at all, let along ace main characters outside romantic subplots.

I didn’t plan for Mar’s aro/ace identity to become a strength, but it’s an important part of who she is. Part of why she’s so family-oriented is that she doesn’t care about finding a romantic partner. Her family is perfect the way it is, if only she could defy Death Valley and bring everyone together again.

The other queer rep I’d like to highlight is Mar’s aunt, Lucy, who is a trans woman. She’s got her own issues going on over the course of the story, but she doesn’t stand in the spotlight, either. I wanted to create a path for her to simply exist as a regular person dealing with a family curse and an increasingly desperate niece. (“Regular” is doing a lot of work here, I know.) But I wanted to remind readers that the environment does not give a rat’s behind about human-imposed boundaries, whether those be gender strictures or geographical boundaries.

Death Valley’s curse falls on the women of Mar and Lucy’s family, and both Mar and Lucy are women.

Death Valley is a character in the novella, much like the human characters. What was it like to develop this aspect of the novella? 

As a younger writer, I participated in a workshop where one colleague had a television background, and we talked a lot about the “white room syndrome,” where a scene entirely ignores its setting. The discussion left an impression, and over time my writing evolved from dutifully including setting descriptions to centering the setting alongside the characters.

Our surroundings in real life aren’t sentient, but speculative fiction is the perfect place to look beyond that natural end place. I’ve really loved trying to get into the headspace required to embody an inhuman, unpredictable, and nearly all-powerful true-neutral character, a vast ecosystem with little to no way of communicating directly with my human characters—sometimes I think of Death Valley’s character as alien as the actual location feels when visiting. And I’m definitely going to keep doing this in future stories!

For example, I have another story I’m working on about eating disorders with a gargoyle sent to live in exile in a different California desert.

Do you have anything that you want to share with readers, anything out now, or coming soon?

I’m in the middle of a companion novella for Death Valley Blooms! It picks up slightly before the end of Death Valley Blooms and is from a different character’s point of view. I have a beautiful cover created by the incomparable Rose Mayer, who also did the original, and I’ll be releasing the companion story sometime during summer 2026. I’ll be posting updates on bsky and via my author newsletter, which readers can sign up for on my website.

Like This? Try These!

Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack

S.M. Mack (she/her) is a 2019 MFA recipient in popular fiction from USM Stonecoast, the 2017 first place winner of the Katherine Patterson Prize for Young Adult Writing, and a Clarion 2012 grad. Her short fiction has been published in Fireside Fiction, Vine Leaves Literary Journal’s “Best of 2015” anthology, and the Clarion class of 2012’s seven Rainbow Anthologies, among others. Her novella Death Valley Blooms is part of Neon Hemlock’s 2025 Novella Series.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: whatsmacksaid.com

Bluesky: @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social
Instagram: @what_smacksaid

Death Valley Blooms Links

Neon Hemlock Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

READ A SAMPLE: Amazon Look Inside Feature

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar’s mother was called a decade ago, pulled underground to be used like a battery, and she herself has begun to feel Death Valley’s presence. Mar has an ace up her sleeve, though: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family?

What was the seed for your novella, Death Valley Blooms, and how did this sprout into the novella published by Neon Hemlock?

My Clarion class put out seven charity anthologies to help raise money for attendee scholarships.

Clarion lasts for six weeks from June to August, so we challenged ourselves to write a story from scratch each year, focusing on a different color of the rainbow.

My Yellow Volume story started at the (erroneous) assumption that all dirt in the southern Californian deserts is yellow, or at least yellow-ish.

From there, I did some daydreaming about how the ground might interact with people; I went from “skinning your hands and knees when you fall down” to “what if the blood spilled from a minor injury isn’t enough? What if blood isn’t enough? What if the ground eats you whole? Why would it do that?”

By the end of the first draft I knew I had something special, but I also knew I’d never be able to tease out the subtleties hiding in there under our short timeline. So I set it aside for a few years, and picked it back up during grad school.

Within the novella are themes of consent and autonomy, but also the futility of people’s actions against a landscape that will outlast them. Where did these themes come from, and why explore them here?

One of my childhood refrains was “I can do it myself!” even when that was not objectively true. It insists on boundary-setting for both consent and autonomy—anyone who overrides one will inevitably override the other.

Death Valley Blooms’ main character, Mar, is very much a product of that mentality. She is determined to break her family’s curse, even though generations of women have succumbed to Death Valley’s call. She fights for her autonomy and nurtures a lifelong grudge against the curse for stealing her ability to consent. Because, of course, that’s what curses do: render those trapped under its power unable to protect their emotional, mental, and physical selves.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about climate change versus an individual’s effect on their environment. The physical world does not care how frightened or overwhelmed you and I are by wildfires, flash floods, or water scarcity. But if one small part of the world—Death Valley, in this case—reached out and demanded payment or help from an individual, how could we possibly say no? Even culpability and guilt aside, how could a single family of individuals possibly resist nature’s force? They can’t.

What to you was psychologically interesting about a family dealing with constant absences and returns? 

I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety when I began writing Death Valley Blooms, and one of the things I obsessed over was my parents’ ages. I have a good relationship with both, and for a year or more I just could not see past the knowledge that I’d outlive them, and that that was somehow the best outcome.

One of the more tragic ideas I couldn’t shake was the prospect of losing time—losing years—that could be spent in one another’s company: how much better would it be to “only” lose your mother (or sister, or aunt) for twenty years, rather than forever? Furthermore, how difficult would it be to accept and move through the resulting grief, then have those feelings and growth invalidated when the missing loved one returns? What does that do to a close-knit family when it happens over and over again?

What LGBTQIA+ rep can readers expect to find in this novella, and why is this rep important to you to include?

There’s no reason not to make characters queer in one way or another—or rather, there’s no more reason to make them queer than to make them straight. A story doesn’t hinge on the gender or sexual orientation of side characters, and even “boring,” everyday representation is a good thing.

For example, Mar’s closest friend is openly bisexual; she’s divorced from a man and dating a woman. It comes up in casual conversation a few times, but that’s all.

I identify as simply queer now, but I spent many years identifying as asexual, then as aro/ace (and so on and so forth as my perception of myself changed), while living in a near-constant state of fury and frustration at how hard it was to find ace main characters at all, let along ace main characters outside romantic subplots.

I didn’t plan for Mar’s aro/ace identity to become a strength, but it’s an important part of who she is. Part of why she’s so family-oriented is that she doesn’t care about finding a romantic partner. Her family is perfect the way it is, if only she could defy Death Valley and bring everyone together again.

The other queer rep I’d like to highlight is Mar’s aunt, Lucy, who is a trans woman. She’s got her own issues going on over the course of the story, but she doesn’t stand in the spotlight, either. I wanted to create a path for her to simply exist as a regular person dealing with a family curse and an increasingly desperate niece. (“Regular” is doing a lot of work here, I know.) But I wanted to remind readers that the environment does not give a rat’s behind about human-imposed boundaries, whether those be gender strictures or geographical boundaries.

Death Valley’s curse falls on the women of Mar and Lucy’s family, and both Mar and Lucy are women.

Death Valley is a character in the novella, much like the human characters. What was it like to develop this aspect of the novella? 

As a younger writer, I participated in a workshop where one colleague had a television background, and we talked a lot about the “white room syndrome,” where a scene entirely ignores its setting. The discussion left an impression, and over time my writing evolved from dutifully including setting descriptions to centering the setting alongside the characters.

Our surroundings in real life aren’t sentient, but speculative fiction is the perfect place to look beyond that natural end place. I’ve really loved trying to get into the headspace required to embody an inhuman, unpredictable, and nearly all-powerful true-neutral character, a vast ecosystem with little to no way of communicating directly with my human characters—sometimes I think of Death Valley’s character as alien as the actual location feels when visiting. And I’m definitely going to keep doing this in future stories!

For example, I have another story I’m working on about eating disorders with a gargoyle sent to live in exile in a different California desert.

Do you have anything that you want to share with readers, anything out now, or coming soon?

I’m in the middle of a companion novella for Death Valley Blooms! It picks up slightly before the end of Death Valley Blooms and is from a different character’s point of view. I have a beautiful cover created by the incomparable Rose Mayer, who also did the original, and I’ll be releasing the companion story sometime during summer 2026. I’ll be posting updates on bsky and via my author newsletter, which readers can sign up for on my website.

Like This? Try These!

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

A Very Queer March – Itch Bundle

A bundle of queer books for March just dropped! Check out this bundle hosted by Niranjan with content from 43 creators, totalling 63 titles.

The bundle of 63 titles is available for $60, which is a saving of 75%. (It would be $249 to buy all the books individually at their usual markup.)

You can also click on the covers of books that particularly interest you to buy them individually, or get them in the bundle for just less than $1 each.

This contains titles by authors who have appeared here in Author Spotlights!

Check out Spotlight posts by Katta Kis, Merlina Garance, Shane Blackheart, Odessa Silver, and H.S. Kallinger, all highlighting their work. I’ve also interviewed Amara Lynn previously on queer superheroes, and you can also check out my podcast episode with L.B. Shimaira. If that tempts you, go grab the bundle, or get their work separately.

All these eBooks are DRM free, which means you can download them, send them to your choice of eReader, and gift them to someone else to do the same.

Includes the Following Titles:

Best Friends Bury Bodies by C.M. Rosens with Bisexual, Gay, Aro, Poly, and Sapphic rep

When a search for a missing music star leads to murder, how far will his old friends – and old flame – go?

The Day We Ate Grandad by C.M. Rosens with Pansexual, Bisexual, Polyam, Gay, Ace and Aro rep

What’s family without a little sacrifice?

Like Salt And Whisky by Merlina Garance with genderqueer and trans rep

A nostalgic second chance queer romance between a heartbroken man and his long lost childhood best friend who might just be the love of his life. 

Paris at Nightfall by Merlina Garance with gay rep

“In an early 20th century Paris emptied of its population and surveilled by the Army, two men are trying to survive.

Would that include falling in love?”

My Lord by L. B. Shimaira with Bi, pan, polyam rep

“A queer, polyamorous, slow-burn erotic gothic horror novel.

Meya is Lord Deminas’ latest chambermaid and favourite source of blood to drink. To avoid being his next servant to vanish, she must uncover all of Castle Tristanja’s dark secrets.”

Love at the Rock Show by Katta Kis with pansexual and other queer reps

“A burnt-out former pop star 

A sweet, broke psychic… who hates him

The festival tour that changes everything “

No Love in LA by Katta Kis with queer and non-binary rep

“A heavy metal goddess with a crush on… 

The stern goth who hates her…

The spark that ignites them both. “

Moth Pit by Amara Lynn with nonbinary, demi, and bi rep

A non-binary/male mothman romance.

Moth Woods by Amara Lynn with pansexual and genderfluid rep

A mothman x Flatwoods Monster West Virginia romance 

A Demon to Save Me by H.S. Kallinger with Pansexual, bisexual, nonbinary  trans, intersex, gay, lesbian, and demiromantic rep

Coming of age as a queer, neurodivergent, empathic dhampir is complicated enough without accidentally adding a demon into the mix.

Everything Is Wonderful Now by Shane Blackheart with Trans, poly, and disability/mental illness rep

When Dark is good and Light is evil…

Open Wound by Shane Blackheart with Trans, nonbinary, ace/aro, poly, disability, and mental illness rep

Vexis is something much more frightening and ancient than an angel or a demon…

Of Spells and Love by Odessa Silver with Aro/Ace rep

Will Noemi find peace within herself, or sink deeper into the depths?

Fimbulvinter’s Fires by A.M. Weald with gay and nonbinary rep

A heart-pounding yet tender tale of compassion, survival, and the lengths we’ll go to protect those we love.

Emergence by A.M. Weald with Achilean, Poly, Bi rep

A cozy post-apocalyptic queer romance where friends separated by sealed underground pods finally get the chance to meet.

Well of Souls by Harmonia Grey with trans and bi rep

A queer reimagining of the Eurydice and Orpheus tragic myth.

Errant Wings by S. Jean with gay rep

Errant Wings is the story of Asher who grows angel wings instead of the devil wings he expects, and now has to contend with his entire life in disarray and a city that wants to force him to live his life their way.

Once Upon a Wave of Witches by Helen Whistberry with ace, nonbinary, and lesbian rep

Join Beatrice and Amelia, two ladies of a certain age, on a wild adventure as they take to the skies and plunge into the depths of the sea to save a friend and break a curse. A unique and uplifting fantasy tale!

Doce Drosera by anita with lesbian, POC, and fat rep

Doce Drosera follows the lesbian biologist Vanessa travelling to the same region her situationship Mirella disappeared one month earlier. The grieving and Mirella’s haunting presence pushes Vanessa towards a twisted fate in the heart of the forest. 

Higanbana by Jake Vanguard with gay, bi, trans, and depression rep

A young man trapped in an abusive relationship finds a fallen angel – will they save each other from their demon or will they drag each other deeper into Hell?

Impostor (Children of Lorcan Book 2) by J. M. Rose with Achillean,  Bi, Poly, and Aroace rep

Nikolai Petrov hates lies. 

The Nightstalker’s Mark by Joachim Heijndermans with lesbian, transgender, and blindness rep

After work, hospital worker Adrianne steals blood from the blood bank to provide for her lover, the vampire Carm. 

Return the Rose by Joachim Heijndermans with lesbian rep and magical gender changing

The Beauty that had broken the Beast’s spell is now queen…yet she still yearns for the creature he was, consumed by erotic memories and desperate to have her beautiful beast returned to her.

Dark Heart of Ilmoure by Cara N. Delaney with Lesbian and bisexual rep

Iris Grey returns to her hometown hoping to heal old wounds. Instead, she finds a cold welcome, a family keeping secrets, and a sinister plot at the heart of the town.

Reborn in Ash by Gabrielle Steele with Non Binary, Demi, and Sapphic rep

Reborn in Ash is a dark epic fantasy where a thief discovers she can use newly-returned magic, but when she accidentally kills a man with it, she’s dragged into the service of the king and must train alongside other emerging mages – hard to do when she’s vowed to never care about anyone again.

Children by Bjørn Larssen with gay, aro/ace rep

Defy the Gods. Forge your destiny. A grimdark Norse mythology retelling.

Fruits of the Gods by William C. Tracy with sapphic and trans rep

Two sisters escape confinement, learn seasonal fruit magic, and plot to overthrow a corrupt government!

My Heart is Human by William C. Tracy with Gay and trans rep 

Joel is on the run from the government while an AI tries to take over his mind!

The Salt in the Sea by J.D. Rivers with achillean rep

Victor, a lonely veteran werewolf, gets a second chance with the one-night stand who has lingered in his heart. 

Lightbringer by J.D. Rivers with achilean rep

In a lonely valley where darkness laps at the ragged shore of reality, there rests a village where the people are reborn each time they die. 

Gift of Darkness by C.L. Carhart with lesbian and bisexual rep

They say a Teuton witch shouldn’t desire an outsider. But love never follows the rules.

Gift of Wind by C.L. Carhart with bisexual rep

Second chance or impending disaster? A scarred witch collides with her darkest muse.

The Selkie and the Minstrel by Elis Madsen with ace, gay, lesbian, and nonbinary rep

After escaping from poachers, Delmar is lost and just trying to get back to the ocean. He’s discovered by a traveling minstrel band who helps him get back home. 

Our Simulated Selves by Nikki Null with Trans rep

A mind-bending quantum thriller about a dating sim, brainscanners, a digital apocalypse, trans epiphanies, and tabletop gaming at a cozy queer café.

Vengeance Is Our Legacy by MC Burnell/ Jeremy Rayne with gay rep

They hated each other on sight but became best friends over the course of the adventure they didn’t want to have together.

The Exile and His Fool by MC Burnell/ Jeremy Rayne with gay rep

Mateo’s exile is hopelessly boring, but falling for a man who isn’t sure what he wants or even who he is may not be a great alternative.

Black Sails to Sunward by Sheila Jenné with lesbian rep

On a sailing ship in space, either you’re loyal to the Martian Empire, or you’re the enemy. 

A Life in Too Many Margins by S. E. Thomson with Trans, ace, queer, disabled, autistic, and ADHD rep

A fictional memoir of a quadruply-marginalized disaster-human with zero chill. A book for anyone who ever felt like too much or not enough.

Alchemy of Chaos by Ruth Miranda with queer, sapphic, gay, and bi rep

When Professor Ezra King’s old classmates at St Cyr start showing up dead, his demons resurface, and the ghosts of his past threaten to rise from their graves…

Crystal Gunslinger – The Obsidian Outlaws by O.Z Laws with Bi and Trans rep

A Dark Fantasy Western Adventure

Yes, Captain by O.Z Laws with trans and lesbian rep

A short, sweet, and smutty story set among the stars.

A Stellar Spy by Maya Darjani with Bisexual rep

A futuristic, magic-fueled homage to the great classics of the spy genre: the cerebral musings of John le Carre with the excitement of The Americans.

The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani with Acespec rep

For fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, and KB Wagers. Get swept away into a lush and romantic space opera that transcends time, untangles court intrigue, and spans the entire Galactic Whorl.

UNGRATEFUL by mk zariel with trans and lesbian rep

poetry against queer assimilationism. anthems for the trans imagination. a rant about middle school boys. a six-year-old’s obsession with dragons. a lovesong for trans people at magic the gathering tournaments. a prose poem reminding us that assimilation is a problem. a reminder that computers are actually very gay. a trans-assimilationist dystopia. and hope.

UNTIMEZONE by mk zariel with trans and neuroqueer rep

i want to be reminded why i came out 

The Towers of Nine by Alyssa Louttit with Aro, Ace, Lesbian, Gay and Pansexual rep 

Serafina Stewart’s here to become a real witch and it’s going to take far more than ghosts and spiders to make her give up.

To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien with Gay, PoC rep

Hamish has one choice: Follow tradition or his heart. How can he win with the odds stacked against him?

To Poison a Prince by Aldrea Alien with Gay, PoC, and other queer rep

Someone is out to murder his husband and he might just be the reason they succeed.

A Study on Magic and Crystals by May Barros with Aro/ace, demi, agender, alloaro, autistic, adhd, queerplatonic, and poly rep

Talita is sent on a mission to solve the magienergetic crisis of the kingdom

Journey Home by May Barros with aromantic and queerplatonic rep

Amara e Luiza are two witches that live in a queerplatonic relationship. 

Lost Blades by Liz Sauco with Ace and gay rep

A thief on the run from crimes he both did and did not commit and a ninja trying to help his country break free from the Empire get pulled into an ancient battle between magic, life, and a force that seeks to end existence itself.

Colors of Magic by Liz Sauco with Ace, gay, bi, and lesbian rep

A set of nine short stories set before Lost Blades (some shortly before, others long before) looking at moments in the lives of characters such as Hades, Jak, Sukra, Ander, and more.

Final Night by Kell Shaw with Lesbian and trans rep

“Lukie’s been murdered. And she needs answers. 

Book 1 of the Revenant Records”

Feral Night by Kell Shaw with Ace/bi and trans rep

“Lukie’s father is trapped in the Underworld and it’s all her fault. 

Book 2 of the Revenant Records”

Structural Integrity by Tabitha O’Connell with trans, gay, and acespec rep

A demolition order for Kel’s favorite building could salvage her and Yaan’s crumbling relationship… or cause its collapse.

Structural Strain by Tabitha O’Connell with trans, gay, and acespec rep

Sequel to Structural Integrity

Shadows Dark and Deadly Andrea Marie Johnson with Bi, nonbinary, and poly rep

Become an assassin’s apprentice to get out of the cold? Sure, what could go wrong?

A Mutual Connection by Kay Claire with nonbinary, fat, trans, pansexual, and ADHD rep

Two online friends from across the globe meet each other in person when they both start working at the same tattoo studio. 

A Summer with the Immortal by Paris Vivian with Bi, lesbian, and agender rep

Acacia, the renowned immortal of Eopolis, has run into trouble with his new biotech project. 

Blade Broken by Niranjan with Bi, Gay, Sapphic, Ace, Aro, PoC, and mental health/illness rep

A spy lurking in the shadows, a nation on the verge of an invasion, a man desperate to protect his home.

Colliding Forces by Niranjan with Gay, BI, Aro, mental health/illness rep

His clock is ticking, and his only way out are the aliens who think him an enemy

Rin in Time Immemorial by L’Poni with Gay rep

A collection of flash stories, story poems and lore about Rinaldo Karrucci, the femboy dragon prince and his life with his werewolf boyfriend Argönon

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

#beverlylandersonbooks #beverlylanderson #writing #amwriting #queerauthor #autisticauthor #writingmeme #writingmemes #writingmemesofinstagram #writingmemeoftheday #funnymemes

For #AceWeek, 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗴𝘀 is part of an Ace Pride Bundle of 25 works written by ace authors and/or featuring ace characters. Available over on Itchio for only $25!!

Show your love and grab your bundle here: https://riyati.ink/ace2025-1

#QueerBooks #AceAuthor #QueerAuthor #HowSIxSavedTheFrogs #QueerSFF