What a remarkable, wild, challenging, thrilling, scary, exciting, adventure ride of a year! I had two books publish this year, and thought a countdown list was a fun way to wrap things up…

5. RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE, the picture book I wrote, gorgeously illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky and beautifully published by Levine Querido received FIVE starred reviews, and the New York Times called it “beautiful!”

4. NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? was named to the Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books list, is a Cybils finalist, and continues to be talked about – with two new podcast interviews this December: The Powers Project podcast was a in-depth interview with Kurt Powers, who read the book and we really got into some great stuff (even the new Coming Out Colton reality TV series) , and the Mohanni Love podcast where Mohanni and I talked about words and labels and love.

3. I’m excited that QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL has a book dating profile – yup, you read that right – on the Booky Call app. It’s a very cool book discovery platform that works like a dating app – check it out, and I hope you’ll *swipe right* on my novel.

2. I’m a bit of a sucker for Queer-ified holiday movies. Single All The Way was fun, and I really loved this under four minute advertisement where Santa gets a boyfriend – it’s for the Norwegian postal service and it got me pretty emotional – in the best way.

1. Paul and I have completed something like nine events for RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE. The book tour has been all virtual, and the latest was our picture book being selected for the December 18, 2021 Barnes and Noble Storytime spotlight! I read the book, and Paul shares a great activity page for kids. It’s an honor, and very, very cool.

I’ll be taking a blogging break, and plan to be back in February 2022. See you then! Happy holidays, stay safe, and know that the light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you!
Lee