Queer Love, Part 1

Queer love is getting married and then having three parties within the following year so all your friends and family don’t feel left out.

Queer love is ice-dyed tablecloths and a matching huppah, on top of and under which your loved ones put together puzzles and eat delicious food.

Queer love cannot be canceled by floods. Merely postponed.

Queer love is homemade syrups, juices, and cakes.

Queer love is the result of months of Art Chicken and side-by-side coffee sessions.

Queer love doesn’t care if Lenny Kravitz doesn’t write his own music.

Queer love is a deep love of redwoods and their properties.

Queer love is hidden messages, silent assents, lasting looks, and invisible dances.

Queer love appears when it is ready, and when it isn’t.

Recent Gigs

I’ve been a busy bee since I last published - an entire season of anime has come and gone! At the end of the Summer season, I provided additional voices for the following shows on Crunchyroll:

• Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Episode 21

• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Season 2 Episode 10

• The Great Cleric, Episode 11

• Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence, Episode 12

I’ve also provided additional voices for the following episodes of the Fall season:

• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Episode 1

• I’m In Love with the Villainess, Episode 4

Consume!

Y’all like Our Flag Means Death? Wanna read more pirate stories but are frustrated by the homogeny of the ones on offer? Look no further.

Fresh off her epic Daevabad Trilogy, Shannon Chakraborty has gifted the world a breakneck yarn about a noteworthy pirate who becomes a legend after deciding to take on one last job. Part heist narrative, part historical fiction, part epic fantasy, the book boasts a terrific heroine who would typically be found tucked away in a corner during published piratical tales (she’s Muslim? And a mother? And over 40? And she absolutely rocks). Add in some ruthless villains, apathetic djinn, and an electric supporting cast and you’ve got a recipe for success.

The cherry on top? Chakraborty cites ALL of her sources, so if you’re looking for diaries, histories, and fables in the same vein, she’s got you covered.

Performance of the Week

“Shy” is a story I would have loved as a teen. I was nearly incapable of talking to others like a normal person would, so the idea of a young girl with the world on her shoulders who can barely express herself would have had me doodling in my notebook and sighing out the window. Hearing Veronica Laux’s take on this character, brimming with sincerity and hinting under the temerity at the inevitable future where she grabs her fears by their necks and throws them out the window, takes me back to a time when I could have used a hero like her.

Birfday

On Thursday I turn 34. Here’s some stuff I’ve done in my 30s that I didn’t manage to accomplish in the decades before.

• I sought medical support for the anxiety that’s been coursing through my body my whole life — and stuck with it.

• I accepted that I am an improv kid and threw my lot in with some incredibly talented performers, spending more time on stage in a year and a half than I did in more than a decade in New York.

• I got a job that pays me enough to support my artistic needs without completely draining my mind, body, and soul.

• I read hundreds, yes, HUNDREDS of books.

• I adopted a cat — she’s wonderful.

• I was cast in my first supporting role in an anime dub — little Hollis would scream if she knew.

• I learned how to use my singing voice — and how to sing in public again.

Gotta remind yourself of the wins sometimes.

Hope you’ll stick with me for the next round.