*If you're 12 or under, it's not legal for anyone to collect your e-mail address. You can subscribe to this blog in a reader and follow me on twitter to get much of the same information, just not put together in tidy packages. But heck, if you're 11 or 12, you already know that life isn't always tidy. Thanks!
In their article about "Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s," Hrag Vartanian writes, "Flipping through the book, it wasn’t that I felt that I learned a great deal about being LGBTQ, but what gave me comfort was the feeling that we’re not going anywhere. Seeing ourselves in the past is as much about being certain of our present and, dare I say, our future." and I think that's so true. Knowing our Queer past emboldens us to claim our place today, and lets us imagine a future that can be amazing!
We need Democrats to have majority control of the Senate, House of Representatives, and Presidency.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans, whose sole aim seems to be winning and holding power, goes against everything we all say we want our country to stand for: Liberty and Justice for All. Diversity. The American Dream.
Now they've rammed through yet another super-conservative judge, who will push the court -- and our country further from justice. Further from fairness for every one of us - Queer people, women, Black people, Indigenous People, People of Color, the disabled, religious minorities - all the disenfranchised and under-represented people.
We must stand up to them.
We must vote.
We must bend the arc of history - the arc of NOW - back towards justice.
VOTE them out.
VOTE for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
VOTE for Democratic Congresspeople.
VOTE for Democratic Senators.
The Democrats aren't perfect, but we see what Republicans in power care about.
"The rushed and unprecedented confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, in the middle of an ongoing election, should be a stark reminder to every American that your vote matters..."
Here's the summary of my presentation, which will be hosted by David Greene and the awesome folks at the Contra Costa County Library:
Your Voice Matters: Indie Publishing and You
Indie Publishing and Print on Demand can be game changers for you, your book, and under-served readers hungry for works that speak to them.
There’s lots to do to set yourself up for success:
1) Target Your Audience
2) Quality Wins the Day
3) Get Your Book Vetted
4) Join the Conversations Already Happening
5) Know Your Timeline and Then Publish
6) Target Your Audience (Now That You Have the Book!)
7) Celebrate Each Milestone
Repeat with your next book. And the next.
As an author, Lee Wind published the crowd-funded young adult novel “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill” celebrated by Publishers Weekly as an Indie Success Story and one of the top five independently published middle grade and young adult books of 2018. He has two books publishing from Indie Presses in 2021, the middle grade nonfiction “No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves” (Lerner) and the picture book “Red and Green and Blue and White” (Levine Querido.) As the director of marketing and programming for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Lee loves empowering indie publishers to have their voices heard. Learn more about Lee and his books at www.leewind.org Find out more about IBPA at www.ibpa-online.org
Every time something goes missing from the village, Sir Violet, the local knight, makes his way to the dragon's cave and negotiates the item's return. It's annoying, but at least the dragon is polite.
But when the dragon hoards a person, that's a step too far. Sir Violet storms off to the mountainside to escort the baker home, only to find a more complex mystery—a quest that leads him far beyond the cave. Accompanied by the missing baker's wife and the dragon himself, the dutiful village knight embarks on his greatest adventure yet.
Quite wonderfully, author Minerva explains, “This is the fairy tale I wish I could have had as a child. Now I’ve written it for all of us.” And in addition to the Aromantic Asexual main character, there are lesbian and trans supporting characters.
Add your review of “The Dragon of Ynys” in comments!
With reasons to vote and ways to keep Democracy healthy!
I'm joined in this podcast by fellow guest authors: Elissa Brent Weissman, author of The Length of a String; Barbara Bietz, author of Sweet Tamales for Purim; Jane Breskin Zalben, author of A Moon for Moe and Mo: Jacqueline Jules, author of The Generous Fish, Never Say a Mean Word Again, The Hardest Word; and
Anne-Marie Asner, author of the Matzah Ball Books series.
GLSEN's mission is pretty awesome: "to ensure that every member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression."
Towards being able to quantify that, GLSEN does this National School Climate Survey- the results for 2019 are in, and while the graphics are lovely, the data shows we have quite a distance to go to achieve that mission.
2 in 5 LGBTQ+ students of color were bullied or harassed based on race or ethnicity
86% of LGBTQ+ students were harassed or assaulted at school
84% of trans students felt unsafe at school because of their gender
What's the good news?
"Twenty years of research shows that dedicated support from teachers and staff, LGBTQ+ inclusive school policies, and continued investments in resources relate to better school outcomes for LGBTQ+ students. For example, the 62% of LGBTQ+ students who said their school had a GSA in 2019 felt safer, were less likely to miss school, and were less likely to hear homophobic or transphobic remarks."
GSAs change school dynamics and help shift the culture.
And one other really nice piece of news:
"Access to LGBTQ-related books and library resources increased in 2019 and was higher than all
previous years"
Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn't think he has a chance.
But Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works.
"When I was in school, everyone got to a certain age where they became interested in talking about only one thing: boys, girls and sex. Me though? I was only interested in comics."
Growing up, Rebecca assumes sex is just a scary new thing they will 'grow into' as they gets older, but when they leaves school, starts working, and does grow up, they starts to wonder why they doesn't want to have sex with other people.
In this brave, hilarious and empowering graphic memoir, we follow Rebecca as they navigate a culture obsessed with sex - from being bullied at school and trying to fit in with friends, to forcing themself into relationships and experiencing anxiety and OCD - before coming to understand and embrace their asexual identity.
First serialized on the popular app and website WebToon, Always Human ran from 2015-2017 and amassed over 76,000 unique subscribers during its run. Now reformatted for a print edition in sponsorship with GLAAD.
Here's the publisher description:
In the near-future, people use technology to give the illusion of all kinds of body modifications-but some people have "Egan's Syndrome," a highly sensitive immune system that rejects these "mods" and are unable to use them. Those who are affected maintain a "natural" appearance, reliant on cosmetics and hair dye at most to help them play with their looks.
Sunati is attracted to Austen the first time she sees her and is drawn to what she assumes is Austen's bravery and confidence to live life unmodded. When Sunati learns the truth, she's still attracted to Austen and asks her on a date. Gradually, their relationship unfolds as they deal with friends, family, and the emotional conflicts that come with every romance. Together, they will learn and grow in a story that reminds us no matter how technology evolves, we will remain . . . always human.
Too short. Too weird. Too quiet. Not true. Let Internet superstar Jeffrey Marsh help you end those negative thoughts and discover how wonderful you are.
An interactive experience, How to Be You invites you to make the book your own through activities such as coloring in charts, answering questions about how you do the things you do, and discovering patterns in your lives that may be holding you back. Through Jeffrey's own story of "growing up fabulous in a small farming town"--along with the stories of hero/ines who have transcended the stereotypes of race, age, and gender--you will discover that you are not alone.
Learn to deepen your relationship with yourself, boost your self-esteem and self-worth, and find the courage to take a leap that will change your life.
I'm excited about this one.
In the materials shared by the publisher, I was really struck by this quote from Jeffrey:
"I wrote the book for my 11-year-old self. If I could jump in a time machine, I would want young Jeffrey to have all the advice that's in How to Be You. In that way, this book is indended to be the manual that none of us got about truly loving ourselves and knowing that we belong."
A special shout out to my librarian friends and readers!
I hope you'll join me a week from today for this panel, moderated by Mahnaz Dar, with my fellow panelists Kyandreia Jones (Choose Your Own Adventure Spies: Mary Bowser); Randi Pink (Angel of Greenwood); Michael O. Tunnell (Desert Diary? Japanese American Kids Behind Barbed Wire); Paula Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement); and me - Lee Wind (No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves).
History is more than the dates and names in textbooks; it's the stories of everyday people—especially the accounts of marginalized people, which have often gone untold. These authors will discuss surfacing information that has gone unaddressed in history textbooks but that is vital to give students a well-rounded and nuanced understanding of history.
When is it happening? It's an Afternoon Concurrent Session I: 1:40 PM–2:30 PM ET | Remaking History in Fiction and Nonfiction
I hope you'll join us!
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
So much going on... Click here or the video above to watch the October 2020 edition of the Lee Wind video newsletter.
Transcript:
Hi Community, I'm Lee Wind. It's October 2020, and I've been thinking a lot about poetry. So, I'm going to do an acrostic today, that's going to be the structure of this enewsletter.
I was going to do HUBRIS, but it didn't have a "T" in it for Trump.
And then, I was going to do TRUMP, but then that was too much about Trump.
And anyway, I settled on this one. So, we'll spell it out together. The first letter of our acrostic is "V", for VOTE. [laughs]
I don't know about you, but I watched the first debate - well, I watched part of the first debate, for me, it was too much like watching a schoolyard bully incident, where the adult in charge, the moderator, had no power, and didn't stop the bully.
“Joe Biden is a stutterer. Like many others, he has overcome the disability by understanding it and exercising extraordinary perseverance and discipline. If you know and love a stutterer and you watched the presidential debate last night, within minutes it became obvious what was going on. Abusive tone of voice, rapid fire interruptions, zigzagging change of topic, personal insult and humiliation, and family pain are all tripwires that scramble a stutterer's ability to speak. There was nothing unplanned or spontaneous in the President's strategy. The bastards did not prep him to attack Joe. They prepped him to attack Joe's disability hoping that by triggering his stuttering they might deceive an audience unfamiliar with the disability into thinking that Joe was stupid, weak, uncertain, confused, or lost to dementia.”
I thought that was a really good analysis of what the heck was going on. Because it was horrible to witness. But there was a purpose to it, and it was sort of nasty. So, VOTE.
Actually, I just sort of gave it away, the acrostic, but let's keep going.
O! [It slips on the wall] Let's try it again!
O! [laughs] It's not all about politics. I have to say that something exciting is happening in October. On October 15, School Library Journal is doing a Day of Dialog, and I'm going to be on a panel!
It's called "Remaking History in Fiction and Nonfiction."
The moderator will be Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor at School Library Journal and Library Journal.
And my panelists, my fellow panelists are really going to be amazing:
Kyandreia Jones, Randi Pink, Michael O. Tunnel, and my friend Paula Yoo.
So that's really exciting! I'm going to be on a panel, I'll be talking about my book coming out from Lerner, NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?, And I'm really excited to be part of that, and to reach all those librarians, and have a great conversation about how history has been sanitized for the protection of the people in power, and has sort of disenfranchised so many people - women, disabled people, people of color, and LGBTQ people. So I'm really excited to be part of that.
The next letter in our acrostic is "T"!
Back to politics. So, Trump makes it all about Trump, but I want us to take a moment and just acknowledge that Joe Biden is, in fact, a pretty stand up guy. And in fact, in his evolution towards embracing Queer people and Queer rights, he actually came out publicly in favor of Gay marriage before President Obama did it, and in fact kind of pressured President Obama to do, which was a very cool moment, back in 2012.
So, shout out to Joe. Also, Kamala Harris - amazing, can we talk?
So it's not just voting against Trump, it's really voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and really acknowledging that if we can get the shift of power to happen in the Senate so it isn't controlled by Republicans, we may be able to, as Obama always quoted Reverend Martin Luther King, [Jr.] saying, bend the arc of history towards justice. 'Cause it's been bending the wrong way, and we need to get it back.
And then, "E" is the final letter of our Acrostic.
And it's because I'm Excited, because it was just announced that I sold a picture book to Arthur Levine of Levine Querido, and I'm really amazingly... It's like an endurance sport.
"E" could also be for Endurance sport. Because writing books for kids and teens, it takes a long time. First of all, to get good enough, and then to find the right home for the projects that you're doing. Wow. I've been writing picture book manuscripts for 16 years - more than 16 years, and finally sold one. It's my debut picture book. The illustrator's going to be the incredible Paul [O.] Zelinsky, I am just like pinching myself because Wow, it is so exciting!
It's called RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE, and it's about two kids who are friends, one celebrates Chanukah, and the other celebrates Christmas, and something happens in their town, and how they band together to stand up, for each other and for themselves, and against hate and for love. It's inspired by a true story, and I can't wait for you to see it. I'm very excited.
So, there you go. Sort of like a Sesame Street episode. Today's - this month's - video newsletter is brought to you by the acrostic VOTE. I hope you do.
Take care, stay safe, and until next month, hopefully we'll have good news in November.
'Bye, take care. The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you.
I have been dreaming of having a picture book manuscript I wrote deemed good enough for an agent to love, good enough for a publisher to love, good enough for an amazing illustrator to love for a very long time. Like 16 years.
So it is with immense delight that I share the announcement that just happened yesterday in Publishers Weekly's Children's Bookshelf:
The announcement text reads:
Arthur Levine at Levine Querido has acquired world rights to Lee Wind's (l.) debut picture book, Red and Green and Blue and White, inspired by the true story of how an entire town stood up to hate during the Chanukah / Christmas season. Caldecott Medalist Paul O. Zelinsky will illustrate; publication is slated for 2021. Marietta Zacker at Gallt & Zacker represented the author, and the artist represented himself.
It is a moment of ebullient gratitude... to my amazing agent Marietta Zacker, for loving this story enough to find it a publishing home. To the story's legendary editor, publisher Arthur A. Levine for loving it enough to acquire it and share it with readers everywhere. To the story's celebrated and oh-so-talented illustrator, Paul O. Zelinsky (!!!) who is taking my words and fashioning magic on the page. Magic, I tell you. Magic.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thanks as well to my friend (and elementary school librarian) Yapha Mason, who introduced me to to the true story eight years ago.
I'm so excited to introduce kids – and the world – to this story of friendship between two kids (one who celebrates Chanukah, the other who celebrates Christmas) who together inspire an entire town to stand up for each other, to stand up for community, to stand up for love.
I can't wait for you all to read it.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Disclosure: As of July 5, 2020, if you click on a book here on this blog and it takes you to bookshop.org, there is an affiliate relationship in place where 10% of that book order will come back to me, Lee Wind. I hope that works for you. And if it doesn't, no worries. I hope you buy your books somewhere that feels good to you. Thanks!
What if you knew a secret from history that could change the world?
“Get Balanced with Dr. Marissa Pei” Talk Radio show - Lee booked as featured guest on September 25
October 2018 - Publish Date of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill: Oct 2, 2018
Lambda Literary Festival - panel on Crowdfunding Queer Lit and reading - online Oct 1. Register here.
Star Style Radio Show with Cynthia Brian - Lee featured guest on October 3 program. Listen here.
Pasadena Fall Art Night - YA panel on Oct 12 in Pasadena
West Hollywood Library Teen Read Week - 10:30am October 13
San Gabriel Valley Pride - Authors Tent presentation, 1:00 pm on Oct 13 in Pasadena
Launch Party at Highways - 7:00pm in Santa Monica
Models of Pride - present "Discover our LGBTQ History" and give out free copies of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill from the Camp Brave Trails booth on Oct 20 in Los Angeles
November 2018
Book Baby Independent Authors Conference - lead networking session "How do you measure success?" in Philadelphia, PA
Presentation and Reading at Palm Springs Public Library on Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill on Nov 7
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