Oops I looked at the sun

And other fun stuff

Greetings, sunshine!

Happy eclipse day! I’m pleased to report I looked it through the special glasses then proceeded to remove the glasses and continue looking like a dumb ass! Love it!!

In other news, my Late Bloomer tour officially starts this Saturday with a signing at The Hop in Asheville, NC, an ice cream shop I worked at during college! Make sure to get any personalized/disturbing doodle copies pre-ordered through Malaprop’s before Saturday!

All additional event registration links and additional info can be found here!

Release Reflections

Content warning: the following discusses homophobia

We’re only one week away from the release of Late Bloomer and, honestly, I’m so ready for my personal anticipation to be over and for it to be out! Releasing a book is a very vulnerable thing, but this one, while wonderful and exciting in so many ways, has felt particularly raw.

This is my first sapphic book. It was a story I wanted to write for a long time, but one I had a lot of anxiety and trepidation to tackle. I’m bisexual, but it took me quite a long time to come out to family and friends with my identity. I’ve been in a relationship with a man for over a decade, and my hetero-presenting relationship affords me a lot of privilege when navigating through society, but it’s also an identity that’s easily erased or questioned on how we fit into the queer community.

I was never pressured by my editor or agent to come out or disclose my sexual identity when I started writing Late Bloomer, it was something we discussed to help me prepare and set expectations on what the publishing process of this book would like like.

There is often tremendous pressure on authors to “validate” their sexuality when writing queer books or prove they have a right to tell queer stories. While I can understand to a point where this comes from—a desire to have authentic voices telling these narratives and to discourage the fetishization of queer stories and people profiting off the experiences (often via trauma porn) that are not their own. But sexual identity and disclosure of one’s sexuality is still not a safe thing for so many people in this world.

When it came to deciding how I wanted to proceed with writing a sapphic romance, I knew in my heart it was also the right time for me to come out to my family and friends. Again, I am afforded tremendous privilege in my knowledge I would still be loved by those I told and would not face any threats to my well-being by saying it, but it was still a scary, emotional process that was one of the most vulnerable things I’d ever done.

That is until I started marketing Late Bloomer lol.

This is my fifth published book, and the previous four also had their share of aches and pains on the journey to release day, primarily in the form of ableism regarding my neurodivergent and/or mentally ill characters. In so many ways, I felt like I’d built up my armor around the tags and messages I received invalidating the lives of neurodivergent individuals. But I wasn’t prepared for how challenging it would be to see that in conjunction with homophobia.

Late Bloomer isn’t even released yet, and in these months leading up to publication day I’ve received death threats, encouragements to end my life, DMs and linked reviews about how disgusting women loving women is and how they would never read a book with two women falling in love. I’ve had my sexuality questioned, been told I don’t have a right to tell this story because my partner is a man, and quite an uptick in people going out of their way to try and disrupt my peace by dumping all of these archaic feelings on my virtual doorstep.

I felt inclined to write Late Bloomer because I wanted to witness two queer, neurodiverse women embarking on a profound and joyful love. I wanted to explore their intersection of queerness and disability. I wanted to show two opposite people being silly and goofy and finding romance and acceptance in a low-stakes situation that affords them the time to emotionally unravel with each other. I am so excited for this book to be out in the world because it was a story I needed to see on my own journey , and these characters were such a comfort to me in a challenging time in my life, but boy am I weary from the emotional work that I couldn’t fully anticipate until I was deep in it.

While I really do firmly believe the majority of people are good and kind and loving, the voices of those that aren’t can often be so loud. I encourage everyone to do what they can to diversify their shelves and read/support queer books, especially those written by BIPOC and marginalized authors. A great resource to discover more books is LGBTQ Reads!

Pre-Order Goodies!

Don’t forget! Novel Neighbor pre-orders include 🌸exclusive🌸 swag designed by yours truly! Who wouldn’t want an “every garden needs a hoe!” sticker???? Place your preorder here! (please note, these are while supplies lasts so don’t wait!)

Already preordered or have your go to bookstore you love to support? Never fear! All preorders—any format from any retailer— are eligible to get this absolutely stunning vellum overlay of the flower farm and cabin that is central to Late Bloomer if you submit your receipt here. The one and only Jenifer Prince, who designed the Late Bloomer cover and is generally one of my favorite contemporary artists, was kind enough to make this glorious illustration, and was such a treat to work with. She incorporated flowers mentioned throughout the book and also chose colors to reflect the bi-pride flag in honor of Opal 🥹💖.

The [Horrifying] GIF

The End 🤡

All my love,
Mazey ❤️🧠🦷