Popped up to my favorite “beautiful city” last weekend to catch my amazing, talented godchild in Godspell. While visiting, I also met up with Katy, my CP, plus had dinner at 5 Napkin Burger, where Mike Jung kept me company in a way… though I regret getting hot sauce fingerprints on several pages!

Winter meows at me to follow her and leads me into the office so I can tell her what a good job she’s doing with her kittens. 💕

Thanks to the kitten cam, I was able to watch them every day while away for a work conference. In this screenshot she had gathered them all up under the magazine rack for cuddles and sleep. Only a week old and they don’t fit under there all together anymore!

Having a difficult high-pain day, but glad to be home to finally meet Winter’s three little snowballs! The kitten I found crying in the snow in January birthed three fluffy white babies under a magazine rack in my office last week. They are starting to stumble around & she loves showing them off.

If I may also share a best cat, this is Winter. I found her abandoned in the snow in January, about 5 months old and pregnant, and put up signs but have not found her family (if she has one). She just gave birth to three little kittens who looks like snowballs, all white, and she’s a very good mama.

If you see this, quote post with a beach photo from your gallery.

(Cancún 2025)

There’s so much to be sad & scared about. Racism, misogyny, fascism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, illiteracy, ignorance, ICE, famine, bird flu, book bans, abortion restriction, healthcare accessibility issues… it’s overwhelming. But we’ll keep fighting.

But that infuriates people. They hate us for being together. They hate that we’re happy. They hate the trans youth in our family for simply existing. They hate that we’re not closeted anymore. They hate that gay pride is vocal & visible. They hate that they can’t use THEIR religion to run OUR lives.

All we want to do is enjoy being married, own a home together, be each other’s voice in a medical emergency, take care of kids needing a temporary safe space, snuggle our pets, play games like Animal Crossing & Scrabble, binge watch classic TV, do community theatre & go on vacation once in a while.

I’ve known my wife for 20yrs. We are a happy, caring, solid couple with 1 kid in college & a few honorary kids we’ve helped raise; they are all thriving. In December we completed the process to become foster parents… & in January it became clear our marriage will likely be illegal again soon. Sigh.

I haven’t used BlueSky in a really long time but redownloaded the app today & will be using it to find and maintain connections with other authors, especially #KidLit & #MG writers, #Novel19s, Hollins Children’s Lit MFA ppl, #PitchWars ppl, teachers, librarians, booksellers, LGBTQIA+ community, etc.

It appears Facebook and Instagram are down. I hope they weren’t hacked 😬 but now I’m kicking myself because I don’t have contact info for most of my author friends and faves saved anywhere else. 💕

Brought the dogs for pet photos with Santa a few days ago! They came out so cute. Pixie (Pomeranian) is 18 years old this year and Higgins is about 7 or 8.

12 years, 12 books, and way more fanfiction than I care to admit.

Happy National Coming Out Day!
💖❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍💝
(Collage: The top pictures are of my wife & my first kiss in 2006 and on our wedding day in 2021. On the bottom are two of my favorite LGBTQIA+ kiddos who inspire my writing, and the last is from Pride last year featuring myself, my wife, & our friend.)