It's June All Month
But fight for LGBTQ+ rights all year
2025 Feelings
Dear Readers,
I admit that this year feels different. I’ve talked a lot here about feeling siloed off at times as a queer romance author, but there’s just been something more about it in 2025. Stacks of books on Instagram this month, nary a queer title or author in sight. Readers on the hellscape known as Threads happily flouting how much they don’t like sapphic romance or reading about women. None of this stuff is new (imagine me sitting backward in a chair and telling you in a relatable frank tone about this new thing MISOGYNY) but anyway it just feels more right now. It feels of the times.
Anyway there are a lot of bigger points to Pride Month but let me tell you that this year it feels extra special to me. I think about what it would have been like growing up in a different world this way; I am gen x and I had very little queer representation growing up AT ALL much less positive!! I am so glad to be an adult with a community and a lot of support, even when social media or certain other communities I’m in disappoint me. A lot of things do NOT disappoint me and, maybe it’s a low bar to clear, but that feels significant.
If you’re not in LA you may have heard a lot about the warzone our entire city is right now. I assure you that this is not true; the riots are protests and the violence in the protests is coming from ICE and the National Guard. The situation the current administration is telling the world about is exaggerated to the point of fiction; the only safety I am currently worried about is for the immigrants who make our city what it is and do not deserve to be hunted down and ripped away from their homes, period.
I do love that Los Angeles, whether an ICE raid or a fire, comes together to support its own. Talk shit all you want about LA, it’s fine, LA’s got its own back. I love this city and — like the queer community — I am proud to be a part of it. I always say that you can tell from my social media profiles the parts of my identity that are most important to me (gen x double scorpio) but queer Los Angeles resident is high up there too.
If you don’t normally scroll all the way through my footer, just know that my upcoming events have been updated to include a very cool event for Bookstore Romance Day at Grand Gesture Books in Portland. I also updated my romance novels section with new graphics (thanks, Canva!) and I think it looks very cute! Just FYI! Have I screamed enough about how much I love working with artist Simini Blocker? She does such a beautiful job capturing my characters ESPECIALLY making my fat babes look super hot.
xoxoAmy
Consumption
Pride edition!! (though again please read queer all year)
Reading
I just started Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig’s So Gay for You and I literally had to force myself to put it down to go pick up my dinner before it cooled into a sad pile of food no one wanted. The book is so readable and fun and relatable and just exactly what I wanted from it. I can’t wait to read more.
Also Reading
I got an early copy of Karelia Stetz-Waters and Fay Stetz-Waters’* Taste of Love and 1) loved it and 2) WAS MADE VERY HUNGRY BY IT.** It comes out next month so preorder it now or tell your library to!! OR BOTH!
Also Reading
I absolutely loved Anita Kelly’s How You Get the Girl which is less about sports than I feared (SORRY??) and more about how to be a vulnerable person who believes she’s worthy of love. Also a cat gets sick in this book BUT THE CAT IS OK!!!!! SPOILER ALERT! Sorry I am very tender about cats.
Also Reading AGAIN
I know I already shared Camille Kellogg’s The Next Chapter but it just came out this week and y’all I loved it so much I blurbed it (which you can kind of tell by this graphic that did not crop well). So I’m recommending it again! Happy Pride!
Links Roundup
Things I’ve read lately!
The New Dream Job: Stay-at-Home Son — I do worry about boys.
Inside the Whisper Campaign to Unseat The Bear As the Emmy’s Best Comedy — I went from talking about The Bear nonstop during/after season 2 to flat-out quitting it early on in season 3 so anyway it feels nice to not be alone here!
Events & Books!
*I referred to them to a friend as “a team of wives” which apparently was more confusing than I intended it. Anyway, they’re married. I think this is extremely cute!!!
**IN HOW MANY WAYS I mean this book is very sexy AND has a lot of delicious food in it
It’s me. I’m the whisper campaign!