Authors, agents, publishers: every part of the industry is seeing the strain of five years of escalating anti-LGBTQ censorship.
if you'd like to show support, here are some upcoming queer books:
When Life Gives You Corpses is a brilliant YA about a cursed praying mantis who falls for a young witch. Yield Under Great Persuasion is a raunchy, but surprisingly sweet story of two men repairing their relationship. Fabulous Bodies is a horror story about a queer rockstar rising from the dead.
This is Where the Future Bleeds is a fantasy set in a vividly imagined land, where two women (who happen to kiss) are the key to healing the broken sky. You're No Better is a story about a teen struggling in the shadow of his murderous parent. Oil on Canvas is about a woman who finds disturbing paintings in the home of her dead mother.
and then here's a list of 26 queer books by Black authors set to publish this year, and a 10 upcoming books by trans authors. if you want to fight back against queer censorship, use your wallet! or (if that's not an option) you can contact your local library and ask them to stock a copy.
Blood on the Icehouse Wall is a fantasy with a time travelling lesbian witch and her asexual werewolf girlfriend trying to undo their mistakes.
Salts of Mercury is the best book I've read this year and features a non-binary necromancer explaining why they did all that treason.
An Unexpected Attachment is an erotic novella about an android who's just got a penis attachment and wants to try it out for the first time.
Three Men in Orbit is inspired by Three Men in a Boat and tells the story of three men taking an excursion to a space station and then the moon. One of the characters is a trans woman and the author is openly trans.
Specific links to my work can be found on https://lrlam.co.uk/ Dragonfall & Emberclaw - weird, queer dragons. A nonbinary thief is accidentally soul-bonds to a handsome stranger they don't realize is a dragon shifter in disguise. Set in a queer celebratory world where it's considered rude to assume a stranger's gender, but there's still a lot of classicism. I was really lucky that Dragonfall was a B&N speculative pick in 2024, but I have dealt with a fair amount of transphobia for releasing it. Pantomime, Shadowplay, Masquerade - queer magic circus. The intersex daughter of a noble family runs away and joins the circus as a male aerialist's apprentice in this gaslamp fantasy. I recently rewrote and re-released it after Dragonfall got a boost. One of my proudest moments as a writer is knowing that 3 readers named themselves Micah when they transitioned in part as a nod to my main character.
Seven Devils & Seven Mercies - Co-written with Elizabeth May. Star Wars, but make it gayer and more stabby. A foul-mouthed pilot and a princess who ran away to work for the rebellion in disguise have to go on a mission despite hating each other. The ship they steal has three women on it: a courtesan, a mercenary, and a young, genius hacker. Together, they might be able to take down the evil empire destroying the galaxy. A trans woman is the leader of the rebellion. We had a lot of fun writing this.
False Hearts & Shattered Minds - Queer cyberpunk. False Hearts has formerly conjoined twins, cults, and brain hacking. One sister goes undercover as her sister to find out who she killed and why. Both sisters are bi. in Shattered Minds, a female serial killer who became deliberately addicted to dream drugs so she doesn't hurt anyone has a bunch of encrypted information dumped into her head by a former co-worker, and has to unlock it along with a gang of hackers to take down an evil company. The love interest is a trans man.
Romancing the Beat - some F/F romance novellas set in the publishing world that I released to get out a bit of my publishing angst while also being sweet and spicy. I've been out here in traditional publishing since 2012 or so, but I am feeling pretty uncertain about my writing future and whether I'll still be able to keep writing queer books. Checking out my work from the library, purchasing, reviewing, signal boosting, telling a friend--all is massively helpful and I'm very grateful.
