My Speculative Climate Romance Novel about Fighting Fascism is Getting Published!

Yes, I know everything else is awful.

I was hoping that there wouldn’t come a time when I believed the world needed my spicy and fun romp through fascism that ends with a general strike that wins. But here we are, and it’s coming out next year with Green Writers Press!

Here’s the Publisher’s Market Place announcement that came out on Friday!

WHAT TO DO NOW

For those of you who want to know what to do NOW before my book comes out in a year, I’d recommend holding a small gathering at your house using this editable script: weareworthfightingfor.com.

For those of you who just want to know about my journey to writing fun and spicy fiction about fascism and climate collapse, the rest of this is for you…

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

A couple of years ago I took a year off of paid work to deal with some crises, write and think about the intersection of climate and democracy, find a book club and writing group, and write a trashy romance novel that spoke to me.

I had internalized so much grind culture that it was hard to remember my humanity during that time. I couldn’t watch our climate spin out of control and our democracy backslide and not be fighting every waking hour to turn things around, could I? If I wasn’t organizing a training or a protest, running a complex coalition, or pushing for a game-changing treaty or law, who was I?

Writing this novel made me feel like I was still a person who had power. It allowed my brain to go to the worst places that I feared we were heading both on climate and democracy and still find love, laughter, and life there. It allowed me to be a creator of a world where people came together and loved and fought back even though their world was objectively terrible.

Here’s how I pitched the book:

I have turned to writing fiction because my assessment is that our movement does not have enough stories about how we will win. I wrote a work of climate fiction that is accessible and fun because it is what I want to read and it is what I see young climate activists clamoring to read. I believe that activists deserve fun and pleasure! Women [and LGBTQ+ and male-identifying] activists deserve romance novels that aren’t steeped in patriarchy and dare to promulgate serious messages. We all deserve to know multiple possible stories of how we win. We need to be able to picture winning– winning no matter how bad it gets. I want my readers to be able to imagine how we get to and then live in a future where we take care of each other and live in harmony with Mother Earth.

GRATITUDE

If you are getting this email then you did something I’m grateful for— thank you! Shout out to my friend Stosh who was going through a similar transition out of a big job and talked me off of a ledge a couple times AND sent me voice memos with input on my sex scenes; My friend Mikhiela who knew the romance genre, agriculture, and the climate world and used all that to send me notes I needed; and also shout out to my friend Joe who made me believe that I had something to offer in thinking through the future of democracy. I have such an incredibly talented group of friends, from democracy to climate and sex, lol, I’m just sorry I can’t name and thank all of you. I will do a few more though :)

I toyed for a long time with the idea of *not* publishing this book, and at that time I shared it with the incredibly supportive and talented Bill McKibben (who you should follow on Substack). Bill not only read my book, but he wrote me a blurb that I kept in my notes on my phone to keep me motivated. I read Bill’s Blurb to everyone who looked like they needed a pick-me-up, and let me tell you, it worked. I’m not going to share his blurb today (I need to ask Bill if it’s okay to share :), but imho the blurb is better than the book— and I’m not dissing my book when I say that. The blurb is *that* good.

Anyhow, after a lot of back and forth with my writing/sharing groups— THANK YOU to the amazingly talented Beyond Bud and Salon de Things crews—- and some nudging and developmental editing from Fran Liebowitz, who I connected with on Reedsy, I landed a deal to publish this book with the incredible Dede Cummings at Green Writers Press. I grateful that the default for Green Writers Press is recycled paper, soy ink and all the things I’d otherwise have to negotiate.

What’s Now & What’s Next

There’s no getting around that our current reality sucks, and is only going to suck more for a while. It sucks that the courts let the instigator of a violent insurrection on the ballot, shielded him from the law, and tried to give him immunity for anything he does as President in advance. It sucks that our country is so atomized that disinformation takes hold so easily. And it sucks that we lost the election to a narcissistic sexual abuser who is a wannabe dictator.

On the bright side, there is a way out, and that way out starts today (see note about what to do NOW above).

Another silver lining is that these were the conditions under which I told myself I would publish my book no matter what. Because ultimately, this is a silly book about taking down a silly dictator that’s informed by what works when taking down a dictator— something I fear we may need to know a little about in the years ahead.

I can’t wait to submit my draft, meet my editor, and get this out to press in a year. I hope at that point THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE RATED G is the fun, sex-filled romp about taking down fascism that the people need. In the meantime, I’ll share updates, cover reveals, links to pre-orders, and the like here on my substack.

I’ll also share short updates on what I’m organizing towards IRL, and what you can do to make our journey to a world where we care for each other more phenomenal and fun than you already make it. Thank you for being awesome!