Talk, Games & queere Vibes incoming 🎙️🎮🏳️‍🌈
Einen coolen Space schaffen, laut sein, empowern & nebenbei ordentlich zocken — ich freu mich riesig auf euch! ✊💜

#PrideMonth #QueerVisibility #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Disability #QueerGaming #LGBTQIA #LGBTQIAplus #InclusionMatters #RepresentationMatters #OwnVoices #TransAwareness #QueerCommunity #DisabledCreator #AccessibilityInGaming #PrideGaming #Pride2025 #QueerJoy #CouchCoop #Livestream #TwitchStreamer #TwitchCommunity #QueerActivism #WeExist

Queere Romane geben queeren Menschen eine Stimme – und zeigen, wie universell der Wunsch nach Glück ist.

#OwnVoices #QueerReads #LesenVerbindet #Queer #Bücher #QueereRomane #LGBTQIA

🧵 Ihr wollt unsere Geschichten – aber nicht unsere Sichtbarkeit? Ernsthaft?!

Ich bin so müde davon.
Wirklich.
Immer wieder kommen Journalist*innen mit der Bitte: „Erzähl uns deine Geschichte. Erzähl uns, wie es ist, mehrfach diskriminiert zu werden. Wir wollen deine Perspektive. Die ist so wichtig.“⬇️

#Trans #OwnVoices #TransIsBeautiful #Queer #LGBTQIA #DisabilityJustice #Disability #DisabilityAwareness #Sichtbarkeit #RepresentationMatters #Representation #Tokenism

Looking for beta readers for Moon Money, my gritty cyberpunk novelette (8.7k words). It’s got ghosts in the machine, broken men, & code that dreams. Queer. Disabled. Bleeding with grief & defiance. If you like stories that flicker like static & hurt a little—DM me. 💀💾🚬
#BetaReaders #Cyberpunk #QueerFiction #DisabilityLit #OwnVoices #AmWriting #MastoWriters

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FevdcmOA4QwGMZkcoAj3CCKEmYHCJc2XCw5xwn7IQlc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Just finished "To a Darker Shore" by Leanne Schwartz. It's a blend of fantasy (a genre I enjoyed a lot when younger but which I now feel is hit-or-miss depending on the politics of the author) and romance (a genre I'm currently a bit obsessed with) and I enjoyed it very much. The element of an #OwnVoices autistic perspective was interesting, and the mythology was pretty cool. Even though I felt as though monstrousness could have been explored from an even better angle, the complexity in this book was comfortable, and it to my mind successfully-enough avoided the veneer of racism that runs through the mainstream fantasy tradition.

#AmReading

Feeling a little proud and a lot grateful! 🌊📚

If you're curious about neurodiversity, creativity, or life on the spectrum, maybe this is a gentle companion for your holiday. 🐚✨

Thanks to everyone who supported me along the way 💛

Direct link to Amazon: https://a.co/d/4rZ1XO1 .

#InsideTheAutside #Neurodiversity #AutisticVoices #HolidayReads #SummerReading #ActuallyAutistic #MentalHealthAwareness #RepresentationMatters #DisabilityJustice #CreativityAndNeurodiversity #OwnVoices

Just finished "Statistically Speaking" by Debbie Johnson. It's coincidentally the second book dealing with adoption that I've just finished, though I suspect in both cases not #OwnVoices, which I also suspect matters somewhat. I was well-absorbed and enjoyed it immensely, but was left again with the reservation that I'm sure it may reflect only that small facet of real life which is pleasing and/or tolerable to a wide audience, and may thus in its own way make things more difficult for those whose realities it does not reflect. I find myself very glad to have also recently read Mama by Nikkya Hargrove, which is autobiographical and which as a result of having more real-world complexity drives its similar point about found family home with more force, to me (to be fair, Johnson's work has a decent amount of real life complexity, for a novel).

#AmReading

Spotlight #BookReview: PARK AVENUE by Renée Ahdieh, an intricate web of family dynamics, legal complexities, & hidden agendas, culminating in a shocking ending! @reneeahdieh @flatiron_books #bookstagram #AsianAmericanFiction #dysfuntionalfamilyfiction #legalfiction #mustread #ownvoices #booksky

http://stacyalesi.com/2025/06/03/spotlight-review-park-avenue-by-renee-ahdieh/

https://youtu.be/85HVzd--O7Q

This one has been sitting on the back burner for a little while. I think it's its time now.

@xiranjayzhao.bsky.social if you're looking for the author

#TheHeirsLair #review #BookReview #fantasy #UrbanFantasy #FantasyReview #UrbanFantasyReview #OwnVoices #ChineseFolklore

Just read Fat Girls Dance by Cathleen Meredith, yet another semi-random venture into the currently-popular novels section of my library, rather than my recent YA staples. It's excellent. Fascinating and well-written just as fiction, but also empowering and perspective-upgrading (and I'm a married white cis man who is only beer-belly fat, plus already well into #BodyPositive thinking).

It bridges really well with Mama by Nikkya Hargrove, and with Does My Body Offend You by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt, both of which I went through recently. Yet another home fucking run for #OwnVoices, which felt extra good to read after Dream State was so disappointing. It really digs into and helps the reader explore body positivity just like Does My Body Offend You does with feminism.

#AmReading

#WritersCoffeeClub May 17. How do you ‘write what you know’? continued

That's not to say you can just fabricate anything. When I write about bending space using an interstellar gate, it is based at least on a thorough amateur study of physics, the speed of light, etc. Could I make some shit up after reading 0 books about the science? Sure, but again small authentic details are crucial. So in this sense, I would say it's worthwhile to research things you want to write about from a content perspective.

This brings us to the third and final "write what you know" in the context of the human condition. Here is where we run into #ownvoices situations. While I think it's vital to have #lgbtq characters, for instance, you will NEVER catch me writing a coming of age gay love story because I'm a straight dude and that is NOT my story to tell.

2/2

Just finished reading Dream State by Eric Puchner, and it kind of pissed me off. I think I can see exactly why it might be popular with a certain WASPy liberal "literati" type that probably includes a lot of influential reviewers, but to me, it's points about love & life, despite being much more complex, ring just about as hollow (and harmful) as a Disney movie.

I've got a lot of quibbles, but I think most galling to me was a throwaway line near the beginning about why platonic relationships get so much less glory in media than romantic ones, when so much of the plot proceeds to revolve around a stale agency-free romantic attraction model that's certainly more complex on its face than a Disney romance but which is ultimately just as misleading.

Go read Loveless or really any YA #OwnVoices romance (especially queer) and you'll be learning more & better lessons about the human condition.

Kann man sich selbst treu bleiben, wenn einem die Welt beibringt, sich zu verleugnen? Wie viel Ablehnung kann ein junger Mensch ertragen, bevor er sich selbst verliert? Wie fühlt es sich an, wenn Liebe mit Schuld und Angst verknüpft ist, von Anfang an? Chukwuebuka Ibeh geht diesen Fragen in seinem Debütroman „Wünschen“ (2024) nach.
Wir begleiten Obiefuna, der im Nigeria der 2000/10er Jahre aufwächst. Als Jugendlicher wird er nach einem intimen Moment mit einem Jungen von seinem Vater in ein erzkonservatives Internat geschickt.
Die Geschichte folgt der typischen Dramaturgie einer ComingOut-Erzählung, ohne jedoch Klischees aufzugreifen. Ibehs Sprache ist klar, empathisch, und bleibt auch in sexuellen Szenen glaubwürdig. Auch Cornelius Reibers Übersetzung verdient großes Lob.
Was dieses Buch besonders macht? Es ist nicht nur die Nähe zu Obiefunas Gedankenwelt, die schnell weiterlesen lässt. Es ist auch der größere Kontext: die erschütternde Lage von LGBTQ+-Menschen in Nigeria, einem Land, das wirtschaftlich wächst, gleichzeitig aber unter dem Einfluss religiöser Gruppen Menschenrechte mit Füßen tritt.
Der Roman verwebt so persönliche Geschichte mit globalen Strömungen, und zeigt wie weltpolitische Entwicklungen sogar das Leben eines Jugendlichen in Port Harcourt berühren können.
Einige Begriffe bleiben unübersetzt, ein Glossar wäre bereichernd gewesen. bei den Nebenfiguren, allen voran Obiefunas Vater, hätte ich mir mehr Tiefe gewünscht. Doch Uzoamaka, seine Mutter, ist ein Lichtblick: eine Figur voller innerer Konflikte und Stärke.
„Wünschen“ eine große Leseempfehlung von mir!
Die wunderschöne Ausgabe stammt aus der „Weltempfänger“-Reihe der #Büchergilde.

#Wünschen #ChukwuebukaIbeh #Buchtipp #ComingOut #lgbtq #Debütroman #OwnVoices #Literatur #Roman #lesen #bookstodon

Dropping June 1st:
How to Weaponize ChatGPT Not a writing guide.
A survival tool.

Built for disabled authors.
Neurodivergent minds.
People who don’t get second chances to get it right.

No code. No tutorials. Just fire, structure, and a way forward.

If your brain collapses mid-sentence, this will hold the line.

#WritingCommunity #DisabledWriters #NeurodivergentWriters #IndieAuthors #CreativeSurvival #ChronicIllnessWriting #MentalHealthWriters #OwnVoices #RageLit #JuneBookDrop

#BookReview: The Drowners by David A. Anderson – A Powerful LGBTQI Coming-of-Age Story ~ 4✨~ 💙📚 @crackedwriter #YALit #OwnVoices #MentalHealth #Friendship

The Drowners by David A. Anderson is a poignant coming-of-age novel that explores the complexities of adolescence, identity, and self-discovery, with a particular focus on LGBTQI themes.

https://ginaraemitchell.com/the-drowners/

https://ginaraemitchell.com/drowners/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Just finished "This Book Won't Burn" by Samira Ahmed which continues a streak of excellent #OwnVoices YA lit, with a bonus being that it canonically mentions and cites a bunch of other great books I've read recently, so the books it cites I haven't read yet give me a natural recs list.

Just like "Anger is a Gift" that it cites and which I also finished recently, I feel like it helps fuel my will to resist.

Want to Be a Beta Reader for The Ordinary Bruja?

Something in the dark knows her name… and I hope you do too.

Hey familia-Vacitos
I’m so excited (and honestly, a little nervous) to share this with you. After months of edits, rewrites, and emotionally walking through the fog of grief, doubt, and ancestral magic… my next book, The Ordinary Bruja, is almost ready.

But before I take the next big step—I need your help.

I’m officially opening up beta reader sign-ups for a small group of readers who want to be part of this story’s final transformation.

🌿 What is The Ordinary Bruja?

It’s a Dominican-American psychological horror + magical realism novel about Marisol Espinal, a woman returning home to a town that won’t let her forget who she used to be. Haunted by grief, twisted family secrets, and a cursed hill that calls her by name, she uncovers that her family’s magic was never truly lost—just buried.

This story is about:

• 🖤 Grief that lingers in the walls
• 🌀 Magic passed down through silence
• 🌙 The tension between identity and inheritance
• ✊🏽 And what it means to reclaim the power you were taught to fear

If you’re into books like The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, White Smoke, or anything that blends supernatural dread with soul-deep reflection—you’ll vibe with this.

🕯 What’s a Beta Reader?

A beta reader is someone who reads an early version of a book before it’s published and gives the author feedback. Think of yourself as my creative confidant—you’re not proofreading or editing line-by-line. You’re helping me answer questions like:

• Did you care about Marisol?
• Did the story hook you?
• Did the magical rules make sense?
• Were there parts that confused, bored, or emotionally wrecked you (in the best way)?

You’ll get to read the book before anyone else, give feedback, and help shape this story into its final form.

📅 What’s the Timeline?

• Beta sign-ups close: April 30
• Reading begins: May 1
• Feedback due: May 31
  (I’ll send reminders + keep it flexible for life things—we’re human here.)

✨ Want to Join the Beta Crew? (Fill the form below)

Thank you for joining The Ordinary Bruja Beta Reader Crew. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

I’ll send you everything you need: the manuscript, feedback questions, and a warm thank-you from the bottom of my bookish little heart.

If you’ve ever connected with my work, resonated with themes of healing, cultural identity, or just want to read a haunting-ass story about a girl who stops running and starts remembering—this is for you.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Let’s bring The Ordinary Bruja to life, together.

🧿 P.S.

If you’re not ready to beta read but want to support the book, you can:
💬 Share this post
📩 Sign up for my newsletter
📚 Grab my free preview here

#ancestralStories #betaReaders #culturalIdentity #DominicanAuthor #indieAuthorSupport #magicalRealism #newAdultFiction #OwnVoices #PsychologicalHorror #TheOrdinaryBruja

I'm known for my #queer #UrbanFantasy tales and a few #dystopian and #mmromance novels out through
NineStar Press

My Amazon page - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kevin-Klehr/author/B00D010VPA?ccs_id=2a7e4926-ed7c-4dac-98ca-2d26885be7d6
My latest project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i293mf-CBhk&ab_channel=KevinKlehr
My website - https://kevinklehr.com/
My newsletter - https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/207911/70531774719985591/share
#gay #ownvoices #author #writingcommunity

A podcast for #WritingResourceWednesday

Ever had an agent or editor tell you they can't represent or buy a manuscript with diverse characters because it isn't #OwnVoices? There are valid reasons for this but doesn't mean you're at a dead end.

@ktempestbradford & agent DongWon Song join the Writing Excuses podcast tackle the question: "In this climate in publishing, can we even DO this, anymore?"

Short answer: YES, YOU CAN.

Listen here 👇🏾

https://writingtheother.com/wto...