Ten years is a really long time. I don’t even know what to say about that, except last week I got a tremendous acknowledgment from a whole bunch of my absolute favorite queer authors about what this site has meant to them, and though it took me a while to read it because I couldn’t stop crying, it was the best thing in the entire world, up there with when two of my best friends commissioned the banner you see above for the 5th anniversary.
It won’t surprise you to learn that this site is a lot of work. I think it’s important work, obviously. I could say I think it’s more important now than ever, and that’s probably true, but the truth is I’ve always thought it’s of the utmost importance and that’s why I do it.
Why I created it way back in 2016 (and conceived it even further back) was based on two ideas:
1) There are a bunch of great queer sites, each with a specialty of sorts, but none that encompasses all categories and genres in this sort of way.
2) There’s so little queer lit, and there are so many people discovering queerness at different stages of life, and so many people who grew up having so much less than we do now, that people are much more likely to read cross-category and cross-genre preferences when it comes to queer lit than is typical elsewhere.
The former is still true, as far as I know. The latter, heh. Let’s just say the site has grown a lot. When I started this site, the lists were so, so small. I always say that if I’d known how much queer lit would blow up in the years following 2016, I probably would’ve never embarked on a project like this. We’ve come a very long way from “Should I even bother with a Middle Grade page?”
If you’ve found some great books through the site, I’m so glad. If you’ve felt seen by the site, I’m so glad. If you’ve felt acknowledged, your work celebrated, I’m so glad. If you use this site as a resource, whether you’re a librarian or an educator or a bookseller, I’m so freaking glad. There are a million things I wanted this site to do that I simply never had the time for, but there are also a million things that it’s done in its ten years of existence and I wouldn’t take that back for anything.
When I wrote a post for the 5th anniversary, I included some fun facts, so, let’s do some more of those, mostly to shut me up.
This is post number 1,734. There are currently 51 posts scheduled between tomorrow and February 5, 2027.
Officially, as of writing this, the site has received 3,265,393 hits.
The largest social media following is on BlueSky, at 26.8K. Tumblr is next with 24.8K.
The most viewed page on the entire site is also probably the idea I was most excited about conceiving, which is Romance by Trope/Archetype. Second most, by the way, is Middle Grade.
The most viewed post on the entire site is… Most Anticipated Adult Fiction: January-June 2022. Fun fact: January-June always gets more views than July and December. Give those latter months some love!
But now I want to hear from you. If you’ve used the site at all in the past 10 years, what have you used it for? What’s your favorite book you’ve discovered with it? And if there’s a rec post you’ve been hoping for and haven’t seen yet, what is it??
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Shelly Jay Shore to reveal the cover of their upcoming Romance, Love Me Like a Rock Song, releasing August 25, 2026 from Dell! Here’s the story:
Delilah is a lyricist looking for a muse. Emmett is a golem ready to be unmade.
From the bestselling author of Rules for Ghostingcomes a soul-stirring, romantic novel about a jilted singer-songwriter, her unexpected hitchhiker, and the road trip of a lifetime.
But there’s more to Emmett than meets the eye. Emmett is a golem, a human-ish being of Jewish mythology who was created from clay to serve a now-deceased master. No longer needed, their final task is to make their way back to the California cave where they were made in order to undo the magic that brought them to life in the first place. But the longer Emmett spends with Delilah—who has plenty of secrets and insecurities of her own—as they cross the country to visit historical queer locales from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the more their ending feels like something to fight, rather than something set in stone.
As the California coast brings Delilah’s writing deadline—and Emmett’s fate—closer with every passing mile, Delilah has to decide just what song it is she wants to write…and whether writing the album of a lifetime is worth losing a love she never expected to find.
Part road trip romcom, part epistolary exploration of America’s vibrant queer culture, and all a love letter to the phrase “it’s about the journey, not the destination,” Love Me Like a Rock Song is a glorious love story about discovering who we are and what we want, and what it means to be human.
And here’s the killer cover designed and illustrated by Amy Perez!
Shelly Jay Shore is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. She writes for anxious queer millennials, sufferers of Eldest Daughter Syndrome, recovering summer camp counselors, and anyone struggling with the enormity of being a person trying to make the world kinder, softer, and more tender. Her debut novel, Rules for Ghosting, was a national bestseller and was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s Best Romances of the Year.
These are all novels/novellas, but for an anthology, check out At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler, and for a multi-author series, check out The GriMM TalesÂ
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Trip Galey and R.D. Pires, authors of the upcoming Science Fantasy The Fall of the House of Valenziaga and Epic Fantasy Before the Ghost Sea, respectively! With both books launching Kickstarters this month, the authors wanted to chat about their projects, so before we get started, here’s a little more on those!
Virtus is the handsome, golden-tongued heir to House Valenziaga. He has wealth, privilege, influence, as many lovers as he could want…and his life is a living hell. His mother, the ageless Vainglory Valenziaga, is a world-breaking tyrant and she holds Virtus’ very existence firmly in a razor-manicured fist.
Not all mothers love their children; not all rulers deserve their crown.
