Happy Pride, everyone! I'm holding onto the joy and fierceness of this month's celebration in spite of all the darkness and chaos in the world. 

I've got some suggestions below for ways to celebrate Pride (have you supported a trans creator this month?). But first...

New story in Worlds of Possibility

The latest (and sadly final) issue of Worlds of Possibility is out now, and it includes my flash "Stories Never Die But Live Forever On the Winds." I'm thrilled and honored to be alongside so many great authors in the last issue of this fantastic project. Editor Julia Rios is great at picking stories with a core of optimism, and their care and attention to detail really shows.

Check out the full table of contents and options to get your copy. Individual stories should be up on Julia's website at some point in the future, but I don't have a timeline on that.

Julia describes my story as "conservative bigots try to burn books to keep their children from reading them, but the results are unexpected. Let all of us be like the winds in this story!" It needs the content warnings you'd expect for a story about banning books, but it's ultimately hopeful. 

The idea came out of a flash fiction contest I took part in this January: one of the prompts was "It's raining [blank]." After the many, many inevitable "it's raining men" jokes on the contest slack chat, I started wondering what would happen if it started raining books. Books that people needed. This was the result, and I hope you like it.

Other news

I had a fantastic time at Fourth Street Fantasy earlier this month, and as always, I came away with a thousand new ideas buzzing in my head. It's among my favorite conferences, and the discussions are always deep and thought-provoking. I was happy to be on a panel entitled "After The End: Structure and the Scouring of the Shire" about what happens after the Big Bad is defeated.

My next event is Worldcon Seattle, happening this August. I don't know my schedule yet, but I'll let you know next month which (if any) programming I'm on.

Another new release (from Marie Vibbert)

I want to shout out author Marie Vibbert, whose book Andrei and the Hellcats is coming out in a couple weeks. The sequel to Gallactic Hellcats, it's a fun space opera romp with her snarky queer heroines, plus about 1000% more of Andrei the delightful pansexual sex-positive sentient robot. Plus many plans gone disastrously wrong.

I suspect anyone who loved my Brennex trilogy will enjoy Marie's books, too. You can pre-order Andrei now, which gives you the perfect amount of time to catch up with the first book.

This Pride, support trans people and trans creators

If you haven't been living under a rock (which... sounds nice right now, honestly, rock-living might be underrated), you know that this is a rough year for the LGBTQ+ community and for trans and nonbinary people in particular. In honor of Pride month, here are two (not mutually exclusive!) ways to support this community that's been targeted with such unwarranted hate.

1. Donate to your local trans rights group or Advocates for Trans Equality! Your donation helps them help trans and nonbinary people and fight the glut of anti-trans legislation that's happening right now. If you're in a position to give monthly, that's even better--the need sadly isn't going away any time soon.
2. Support trans and nonbinary creators! Buy their art! Buy their books! Tell your friends about your favorites!

To help with the second point, here are a few books I've loved by authors who (to the best of my knowledge) are trans or nonbinary. 

(At some point I'll share books by other queer authors and/or books with strong LGBTQ representation. I feel a tension between wanting to support authors who are openly trans or queer, and respecting that some authors may not be out for very valid reasons, and some non-queer authors write excellent queer representation, and these folks still deserve support. What to do? Read more queer books of all sorts!)

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach. If you love very weird, creative worldbuilding (Maori inspired, but also quirkiness like, giant mushrooms!) and many queer characters, this one's for you. It's on my list to re-read so I can read the sequel, The Sunforge.

The Tensorate novellas by Neon Yang. A Chinese-inspired world with a very cool gender system and lots of adventure and sibling relationships.

Peter Darling by S.A. Austin Chant. This trans retelling of Peter Pan, where Wendy is just an identity that Peter abandoned, is warm and heart-wrenching all at once. It's probably my favorite take on this story.

Ninefox Gambit, and the rest of Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee. Not for the faint of heart, but this story of the resurrection of a brilliant but mad general is very queer, violently revolutionary, and darkly delightful. This one is also on my list to reread. It's quite a ride.

Warped State and the Gifted of Brennex trilogy by... me! My queer, upbeat space opera trilogy's got evil corporations, brave labor organizers, gay interspecies love, and a gender-questioning sentient spaceship. It's lighthearted and fast-paced enough to be a good summer read, and optimistic enough to (I hope) make you feel a little better after reading the news.

Last but not least: did you know it's been hot out? Here in the northeast, the unreasonable weather is the only topic of conversation right now. Ada and Charlie are making me jealous by spending their days like this, because it's about how I feel.

And a bonus cute animal: we having lunch out when this teeny tiny bun-bun stopped to say hi. So smol! It disappeared moments after I took this photo.

Until next time,

Jo Miles