Morning, Team! Just a couple of quick updates around November being Transgender Awareness Month. There’s a particular focus on the second week of the month being Transgender Awareness Week, leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on the 20th. I have an auction and a book bundle to bring to your attention.
Firstly, although I often present as a small, poorly upholstered, often irritable middle-aged lady, I am in fact non binary. Additionally I have family members who are trans. I am lucky because in my day to day life, I pass. I am quite happy with that. I am old enough and self-confident enough and able to hide enough that I am safe in my rural UK area and I am at peace with the difference between my body and my brain. Other people are not so lucky or choose not to hide. It is very important to me that somehow we move from the vilification of trans people in the UK that is being driven by a small, bigoted minority to acceptance, equality under the law and just letting everyone get on with their lives.
Secondly then, there is a literary-community driven online auction supporting trans organisations in the UK running starting on the sixth of November and running over the weekend. You can find it here. There’s a load of really good book-stuff there, from custom book-binds to offers to feature your name in upcoming releases. Trans rights in the UK is in a lamentable and frightening state and this is an effort to raise awareness about how scary it is for people, as well as to raise money. So even if you can’t afford to bid, please do consider sharing? I will send out a reminder over the weekend, too!
Finally, I am part of an itchio bundle for the next couple of weeks. There are twenty-seven SciFi and Fantasy books by trans and non-binary authors available for $27. Please do have a look and see if it takes your fancy as there are some really fantastic reads there. I did send this out in my newsletter earlier in the week and as I explained then, I am trying to point readers to itchio rather than the bigger platforms as people who publish there have so much more control, particularly compared to the Zon. It has very much a feel of pre-Draft-to-Digital Smashwords and the more I get to grips with it the more I like it. It’s very inclusive.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading.
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