Ring ring!
Hello? Oh, shit! Pride Month is calling, and I must go—so I leave you with the following updates as I run off to dance around in this month full of sunshine and rainbows (I mean, mostly).
Your girl has been yapping
Lonely Planet’s LGBTQ+ Travel Guide Arrives Just in Time for Pride i.e. my interview and photo shoot for the New York Times (online on June 3, in the Wednesday Briefing newsletter on June 4, in the Travel Dispatch newsletter on June 11, and in the print edition of the paper on June 16)
Morning News NOW for NBC News (5-minute video segment, from 33:08 to 37:52)
Hello, Rose City! on KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon (5-minute video segment)
Stereotypes: Straight Talk from Queer Voices for NPR member station KALW: Bay Area Public Radio (12-minute preview/full 40-minute episode)
Gays Reading: A Book Podcast for Everyone (audio-only on Spotify/video on YouTube)
Zero to Travel Podcast (an hour on audio, because brevity is not my strong suit)
what I’ve been up to besides yapping this Pride Month
Stumbling upon my book in the front windows of the American Book Center in Amsterdam and Catnap Books in Haarlem and crying happy tears in my surprise and delight both times (I’ll also be speaking at the latter this Saturday, June 21 at 4 p.m. for an author chat in celebration of the bookshop’s first anniversary, in case any readers based in the Netherlands want to come hang out!)
Prepping my talking points as the Keynote Speaker for the PRIDE June Virtual Writing Retreat this Sunday, June 22 — just one of many LGBTQ+ writing retreats offered by Wandering Creative Life, for those curious!
Reading queer lit like The Three Lives of Cate Kay and One Last Stop and Bury Our Bones in the Mindnight Soil and whichever gay books are the lucky ones to be plucked off of my miles-long TBR next
Watching the latest episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (Season 10) virtually with pals back in Richmond every weekend and gaggggggging over this season’s queens and guest stars and bro-ass bracket format and shady point pin distribution politics
Dancing and shower karaoke-ing to Last Girls At The Party and The Giver and Something Beautiful and FUFN (Fuck You For Now) and Leave Me Alone and SALVATION and Man of the Year and all the other sapphic 2025 music releases I can get my giddy greedy gay girl gremlin hands on
How’s your June going?
Not queer enough, you say? Then may I humbly offer: