My Visit To Camp Brave Trails - The LGBTQ Teen Leadership Summer Camp I Wish I Could Have Gone To When I Was A Teen!

What an experience!

Deep in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles, at a summer campgrounds, in a dusty community hall next to a small stream. With rainbow flags, and unicorns, and visible symbols of pride everywhere I turned...

The 60 campers gathered, along with many of their counselors, and I got to tell the story-behind-the-story of "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill!"

This was so

amazingly important

and wonderful

The teens were so focused, and appreciative, and snapped their agreement at a number of things I shared, and applauded so heartily after I read them a section of the book—the section where I gave Wyatt the same goosebump moment I had, of realizing that maybe Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy.

I answered questions, and then my time was over, and they dove into their social activism projects.  I hung out, had dinner with them afterwards and all in all spoke with maybe twenty of the young people. I signed their ARC copies of my book, I signed their journals, I even signed one of my bookmarks! (I had bookmarks to give away, too!)

One handed me my first piece of teen fan art! (Click here to see it.)

Nice things the teens said to me about "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" that I quick-jotted down afterwards so I wouldn't forget:

"I read it in 24 hours. It was good!"

Said while holding my book in their hands: "Thank you. I grew up without seeing any queer representation in media, so it means a lot." 

"I read it and really liked it."

"Thank you so much. This means so much to me."

They asked more questions, shared about their own writing, and overall gave me so much hope. We did this—our community came together to fund giving these young people each a copy of "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" as part of a vision to empower them... and we did!

It was a huge moment, and I'm so grateful. My thanks to Jess and Kayla for indeed being BRAVE and putting forth Camp Brave Trails as my non-profit partner in getting 810 donated copies of my book into the hands of LGBTQ and Allied teens!

And if you are—or know—an LGBTQ teen, check out Camp Brave Trails. There are still a handful of spots left in some of their summer sessions, and the environment of being marinated in so much love and acceptance with a group of LGBTQ peers seems absolutely wonderful and transformative.

It's another Livestream Event for "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" - $5 Bill Origami Demo and Q&A with author Lee Wind

UPDATE:
Here's the link to watch the recording of this $5 Bill Origami Demo:

https://www.facebook.com/leewind/videos/10214739519418138/

* *
Hi Community,

A lot of people watched our first livestream (instant antiquing), and I hope you can join me for this Facebook Live event today, Saturday March 3, 2018 at Noon Pacific time. (Just an hour from my posting this!)

You should be able to see it here:
https://www.facebook.com/leewind/videos

It's all to celebrate the "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" Kickstarter, and our barn-raising to together donate more than 720 copies of the YA novel to empower LGBTQ and Allied Teens.

I hope you can join in the fun!
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

ps- if the timing doesn't work for you, I'll post the link this afternoon so you can watch the recorded show.

Livestream Event for "Queer as a Five-Dolllar Bill" - Instant Antiquing Demo and Q&A with author Lee Wind

UPDATE: The live event went great, and you can watch the recording here: You can check out the video recording here: https://www.facebook.com/leewind/videos/10214628586084874/

Hi Community,

I hope you can join me for this Live event today, Monday February 19, 2018 at Noon Pacific time.

You should be able to see it here:
https://www.facebook.com/leewind/videos

And if you're on Facebook, you can access the livestreamed video from the event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1565897090190780

What will we be doing?

In the first chapter of my YA novel, our main character Wyatt is doing one of his chores for his family’s Lincoln Slept Here Bed and Breakfast – instant antiquing brand-new laser-printed documents (copies of the Emancipation Proclamation) to make them look old and more “authentic,” even though everyone knows they’re not. It’s something they sell in their B&B’s Lincoln and Civil War Memorabilia Alcove.

To write this scene, I had to figure out exactly how Wyatt would do it. So I experimented in my kitchen lab (okay, my kitchen) and, with some help from my brother John Wind, came up with the perfect recipe.

In this livestream event, I’ll demonstrate cooking-show style how you can make your own instant antique, and answer questions about the novel and the ongoing (and already past its goal) Kickstarter campaign to empower LGBTQ Teens with a secret from history!

I haven't done a Facebook Live event before, so here's hoping the technology learning-curve is smooth. Here's also hoping you can join us!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

p.s.: If the timing doesn't work for you to join live, the recording will be available on my Facebook timeline, and I'll share it here after the livestream.

Stretch Goals for the "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" Kickstarter!

We did it (in 6 days)! What an amazing community! Now, let's empower even more LGBTQ and Allied Teens!

If we reach $11,500:

On behalf of all of you, I’ll donate a bonus 50 copies of “Queer as a Five-Dollar bill” to a QAAFDB Nonprofit Partner (see below for the call for QAAFDB Nonprofit Partners.)

Stretch Goal Call for QAAFDB Nonprofit Partners

For every $1,000 raised beyond our initial goal, we can donate a bonus 50 copies of “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill” to LGBTQ and Allied Teens (over and above the donated copies built into the backer rewards.)

And here’s the cool new twist: while the backer reward-donated copies will be distributed with the help of Camp Brave Trails in Los Angeles/Southern California, there are LGBTQ and Allied teens who could be empowered by knowing this secret from history, by reading this novel, who live in YOUR area, too. And each case of 50 bonus copies can be given away to LGBTQ and Allied Teens by one of those nonprofit partners!

So let’s do some matchmaking!

• We’re looking for nonprofits who work with LGBTQ Teens.
• Who will commit to distributing 50 free copies of “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill” to their LGBTQ and Allied Teens.
• Who will agree to help vet the book with the language: “A [name of nonprofit] Recommended Read!” (This is super-important as the book isn’t being vetted by traditional publishing.)
• Who will share about the project with their community (i.e., via email and/or newsletter.)

Think you’ve got a likely match? Have a point person at that nonprofit reach out to me at: leewind (at) roadrunner (dot) com and we’ll get it set up. Please note:

• First come, first served.
• QAAFDB Nonprofit Partners will be announced in September 2018.
• If more bonus copies of "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" are available for donation than there are QAAFDB Nonprofit Partners, they will be distributed with the help of Camp Brave Trails.

Let’s see how far we can take this.

Let’s see how many LGBTQ and Allied Teens we can empower!

Thank you for your help, and for continuing to spread the word!

How many copies will be donated to LGBTQ and Allied Teens so far?

Visit this blog “I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?” at http://www.leewind.org/ and check out the top right column for a daily updated total! It's magical, watching the number grow!

Visit the Kickstarter Campaign for "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" here!

We did it! 100% Funded! 400 Copies of "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" will be donated to LGBTQ and Allied Teens!

WOW!!!



Thank you so much!