Marriage equality is 10 years old...

Hello my loves 😍 

Another week down. I want to sit here and rant about so many things, from the US bombing Iran to AI winning in court to the Supreme Court’s decisions on Friday to character AI…

One thing I will do is share an open letter to publishers that was originally posted on LitHub and signed by a lot of authors. Generative AI is a scourge and, I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic here, is a direct threat to humanity and our planet. Stay tuned to my podcast tomorrow for more thoughts in THAT vein.

Y’all, I am…so tired. Tired of being sad, of being angry, of being tired. Tired of waking up in the morning and waiting with bated breath to see whether our governing fascists are going to take steps to actively worsen our lives and those of people around the globe. It is exhausting to live and want and dream and desire and love in the world today.

But I’m more scared of stopping, so…chugging along.

From the heart 💗

Ten years of marriage equality in the US

Ten years ago this Thursday, I was a 22-year-old college graduate. I spent the summer of 2015 in Madisonville, KY, interning for the local paper and preparing to move to New York City in the fall. [ASIDE — holy crap how much have I changed over the past 10 years!!!!]

On June 26, 2015, I was sitting at my computer in the newspaper’s office when the news broke — the Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage across the US.

I didn’t know much about queer life or even queer people at the time. I had a few friends from college who were gay men, and I was grappling with whether my faith would allow me to affirm them. I probably still called it a “lifestyle.” I cried over the book of Romans in the New Testament because it confirmed that God didn’t like homosexuality.

I was, in other words, still deeply entrenched in my evangelical faith and homophobic lifestyle.

But. [There’s always a but, isn’t there?]

But I knew that said homophobia didn’t sit quite right in my spirit. I knew that vitriol toward queer people wasn’t what I wanted to express. And I knew that the posts from Christians on my Facebook feed made me deeply, viscerally uncomfortable. It was cruel and hateful — two things I was sure my God was not.

It was the beginning, I think now, of my deconstruction, the process that eventually led to me realizing I was gay myself, and the first step in a lifelong journey toward figuring out what I actually believe, who I am, and how I want to interact with the world around me.

There are…millions of reasons to be grateful for that day in 2015. Countless couples were able to legally marry and gain the protections afforded to spouses but not unmarried partners. It was a resounding horn trumpeting the progress of culture away from homophobia and toward acceptance, normalization, affirmation. It was a day that is bigger than me, bigger than any one queer couple, big enough to encompass so many lives both then and now.

But I, personally, am grateful for a much more selfish reason. I’m grateful because that day allowed me to see the ugliness of so many evangelicals whom I had admired and followed for 22 years. It opened my eyes, and I’ve been learning to see anew ever since.

Being queer is the honor of my lifetime. It is joyous and beautiful, it has brought me community and love in so many ways, and I am so so fucking Proud of myself and my queer loved ones. Even when it’s hard, when parents recoil at the mere thought of a picture book that hints at same-sex parents or someone I love makes a snarky comment about being disgusted at the sight of two men holding hands. Even when it hurts — it is a joy. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Happy end of Pride, babes, but remember that it’s a year-round endeavor and that we’re not just proud, we’re angry and ready to fight, for our rights and those of every marginalized person. Let’s go.

From the question box ❓

What makes you want to keep pushing through in trad pub?

A personal question! But maybe my thoughts on trad pub will clarify things for anyone else ☺️ 

First things first — I will share a link to an essay I wrote that published this month on She Writes that actually talks about exactly this!

In addition to the reasons there, I am going to say that I’m not opposed to indie or self-publishing my adult romances. I have a preference for trad pub, for reasons that I think are good — I kind of need that upfront advance, I want the editorial + marketing + distribution support, I want my agent to get paid LOL — but that’s not to say that I’ll never write a book that a publisher won’t want, or that I personally feel is more suited to an indie life [because sometimes, certain books will do better self-pubbed! That could be due to their tropes, their subgenre, their themes, or even the style of writing].

One final reason? Because I’m stubborn, y’all. I’ve been going at this for like 12 years now. I’m not changing my plans until some publisher somewhere agrees to publish my book. It’s just not happening!

From the shelf 📚

No Body No Crime, by Tess Sharpe

Oh, you are not READY for the sheer brilliance that is this book! I adored Tess’s YA The Girls I’ve Been, and when she announced No Body No Crime as a sapphic adult thriller, I was like…okay well let’s go! I was lucky enough to get an eARC of this book via Netgalley, and I devoured it.

Tess’ books are so twisty and time-bendy. With multiple POVs across a few timelines, we follow Mel and Chloe after Mel was tasked with bringing Chloe back home. You see, Chloe disappeared six years ago, and no one in her family has been able to find her since.

Mel and Chloe have a history — both of love and of disaster — and we catch glimpses of that while we see Mel track Chloe down and then disaster strikes and holy shit holy shit holy SHIT this book is EVERYTHING. It’s romantic and yet thrilling, high adrenaline yet emotional. Tess Sharpe is a writing god, that’s all there is to it I guess!

I highly recommend a preorder as I can guarantee this book is one you’ll want to return to again and again!

Alla prossima 👋

Okay, I missed sending a newsletter last week for ~reasons~ of being convinced that no one would care, but I’m back today because turns out eye care. So I wasn’t able to share the podcast episode we published on June 16th! It was with the incredible Jen Ferguson, and we chatted about stakes. Check it out below!

Hey, next Sunday we’ll be in July, which means Sundays with Karis is premiering! Sundays with Karis is a weekly video interview series I’m doing with romance authors. My first interview, which will go live next Sunday at 3:30 pm ET, is with Dahlia Adler! Subscribe to my YouTube so the episodes go straight to your subscriptions feed!

For those of you who remember, I’m still working on Operation: First Kiss. Things are not going. Wish me luck out in these streets!

That’s all for today, loves.

— Karis xoxo