You only need to know three things. First thing is, I will be reading at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York's Lower East Side on Tuesday May 20 at 7pm. I will be reading alongside two talented young writers whom I admire very much: Jeremy Jordan King, a fellow Bold Strokes Books author who has a really killer gay YA paranormal romance series, and Elliott DeLine, the author of two luminous and powerful transgender coming of age novels. When these two writers are really old and there are lots of posters up in community centers with their quotations on them and kids always have to read their books for the summer reading program and their faces are on the Barnes & Noble bag*, all the intellectuals will be saying, "Yes, yes, I followed their careers since the early days, since 2014." So this is your chance to make it true when you say that years from now.

*okay, that's not gonna happen; Barnes & Noble will be out of business before you can say jack robinson and I find it hard to feel sorry for them.

This reading at Bluestockings is also the launch event for Frenemy of the People. Frenemy is now available for sale wherever fine books are sold on the internet (like here for example), but the reading will be your first chance to buy it in a store and get it signed. So it should be very festive, and I guarantee a high level of literary awesomeness, if not from me then definitely from those other two. Bluestockings is a really terrific store and it will always have a place right in the center of my heart because it brought me and my girlfriend Aine together, many many years ago. My apologies to folks who can't make it to NYC. It's gonna suck to be you on May 20 at 7pm.

Second thing you need to know is, my lesbian science fiction YA novel Swans & Klons is available as an audiobook from audible.com. I can't believe I didn't tell you that before! I am really pleased about this. You know how I always said that my target audience was all sighted people who can read English? Well, now my target audience is anyone who can read or understand English. I am really happy that Swans & Klons is now accessible to people who are blind, visually impaired, and dyslexic, as well as folks who need something to listen to during their long commute or who just plain like audio books. I think the actor, Rachel Butera, who read it did a really terrific job and she has a cool voice. You can listen to a free sample if you follow the link above.

Third thing, you need to know about Jeannette Eyerly. My plan was to end every blog post praising a living writer instead of saving all the appreciation for after their death. But I have to deviate from this a little to talk about Eyerly, who died in 2008 at the age of 100. If, like me, you grew up in the '70s and '80s, you probably have vivid memories of her YA novels such as Radigan Cares; The Phaedra Complex; He's My Baby, Now; and See Dave Run. They were gritty, even lurid, "problem novels." See Dave Run for example is just a list of TRIGGER WARNINGS, as it covers parental abuse, running away from home, STDs, "sleeping with"/being molested by an older woman, and suicide. (And it's a smidge homophobic too, so don't read it when you're feeling fragile.) Why am I singing the praises of this writer? Because she's amazing! When I first read these books I was a pre-teen and I thought, "Wow! This is the real deal!" Then I read them as a sulky teen and I thought, "Oh, COME on!" (But I kept reading them.) Then just recently I re-read See Dave Run, and I was totally blown away by her narrative ability. (The story is told by all these different people who knew Dave, not by Dave himself. Guess why?) And you know how old Jeannette Eyerly was when she wrote this novel? SEVENTY years old! So I give her a free pass for being a little hyperbolic about the perils of the teen years. Anyway, her papers are archived at the University of Iowa, where she went to college, so if I'm ever in the area I will check them out.