Is it already May?! I completely failed at writing and posting my April blog oops!!!!! Well, better late than never I suppose. April was amazing and super busy.
The month started with an AMAZING trip to New Orleans to attend and present at the Saints & Sinners Queer Literary Conference where I was on a panel about the future of queerness WITH Dorothy Allison who is basically my femme hero, moderated a panel on writing as activism and read from Lost Boi. I also got to attend a bunch of interesting workshops – including a master class with Dorothy Allison.
I don’t really enjoy conferences in general – I think I’m too much of an introvert for them, but Saints & Sinners is one that I make an exception for! This was my second time going and while I would love to see the conference be able to continue to grow and diversity the conference attendees it is really the only place where you can sit in a room full of LGBTQ authors and talk craft and identity. I live tweeted most of the conference and you can check out my experiences of panels and workshop on Twitter under the hashtag #SAS16
I feel like I left this years conference really inspired to keep thinking about what kinds of stories I’m most interested in telling and how I can make that happen.
Check out this cute picture of us together!!!
I also got some fun vacation time in New Orleans after the conference with my partner. We stayed In
a super cute hotel with a tiny balcony in a grapefruit tree! During the conference I tried to write out there just because it felt so Romantic – alas I just write my best on the subway here in NYC but it was beautiful. We did a lot of tourist sight seeing kinds of things-cemetery tour, ghost tour (yes I really saw a ghost) on a swamp tour where we got to see the bayou which is an ecosystem unlike anything I’ve ever seem! For sure a highlight of that for me was getting to see a real live g
ator! Did you know they eat marshmallows?! It was like seeing a living dinosaur! It wasn’t until I looked back at my photos that I realized just how big that gator was too! New Orleans was Definitely the 
kind of vacation fun I was in need of to rejuvenate a little from the stress of my muggle job. Also, we went to this SUPER creepy park
called “Storybook Land” that was recommended by a fellow queer leather person and OMG SO CREEPY!!! Totally the kind of place that nightmares are born aka i LOVED it!
I ended April with a long-weekend self imposed staycation writing retreat. It was really productive and I was able to finish writing the first draft of the queer, leather christmas novella that I’ve been playing around with for the past few months. I got the first draft finished and now getting to do my favorite thing – edit/revise! This first edit I’m working on now is really about insuring consistency. I made a little table for myself to track names/pronouns/pets/flagging – y’know the literary priorities, at least for me. This was a fun little project – not sure where it will live yet, stay tuned!
Alas I kinda gave up on my Neko Atsume cats but I have been keeping up with my Goodreads reading challenge of finishing a book a week! My favorite book I read in April actually kept me company on the flights to/from New Orleans and is Meliza Banales’ “Life Is Wonderful People Are Terrific” this book is a finalist for the Lammys this year and is super rad on so many levels – definitely suggest everyone check it out! In random pop culture news – Did I already mention how good Zootopia was? Seriously, if you haven’t seen that movie you should!!! I also really enjoyed The Jungle Book – it was visually stunning, and also REALLY scary! I actually jumped and shrieked at one point in the movie! I’m of course a sucker for all things Disney but these two are definitely stand out films that I recommend.
I’m getting SOOOOOOOOOO excited about the Lambda Literary Awards. I’ve got my fancy dress all picked out! The awards are the highlight of my literary year – the chance to be in the same room with so many incredible queer authors is pretty dreamy, and it’s overwhelming and thrilling to have Lost Boi as a finalist this year alongside so many super fabulous queer books! Last week I get to join some of the awesome local to NYC Lammy finalists for a reading at the Leslie Lohan Museum
Besides working on my novella, I’ve been keeping busy writing pieces for Curve Magazine and Dogster! I will have more articles in both of those publications coming in May including fun dog
product reviews, and my take on trending topics in canine news! Want to stay updated on What I’m writing ? Follow me on Twitter /Facebook – I try to always share things out there plus a whole lot of pictures of my furry kiddos, and photos from little adventures I go on which this spring has involved lots of trips to see cherry blossoms and my local zoo!
xoxo
Sassafras