Aiden Thomas 🇵🇸

Quick Rose City Comicon photo dump!!!
Sidekicks and side quests moderated by @readingismagical.bsky.social with @tkingfisher.com and Terry Brooks and the lovely @rmgilligan.bsky.social and @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social was such a cool discussion!

i legit get overwhelmed thinking about it 😭💖🥹

Photograph of a small round table inside the American bookstore Barnes and Noble with a sign celebrating “Our Monthly Young Adult Pick: Cemetery Boys (by) Aiden Thomas.” Smaller white text below contains a blurb by K. Ancrum, author of The Wicker King: “A story much bigger than the paper that binds it, Cemetery Boys is the tender intricacy we have all been waiting for." Stacks of the book surround the sign on both sides.

Not a corporate shill, but it’s hard to put into words the impact of seeing a display of @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social’s Cemetery Boys - with its trans, gay, Latino protagonist - as the YA pick of the month at Barnes and Noble in my red state yesterday. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💗

Queer books from our giveaway! Check out my 📌 on IG for details.

Thanks to @transhorrors.bsky.social, @tqsims.bsky.social, @xvictoriawrites.bsky.social, @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social, @nghivo.bsky.social @zefrrr.bsky.social, @sophieburnham.bsky.social, @clmontblanc.bsky.social & more for your books!

Cemetery Boys — Multnomah County Library Cemetery Boys — Thomas, Aiden, — Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to...

Try Cemetery Boys by @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social if you want to read "LGBTQ books for spooky season." #AskALibrarian

here’s my appearances on Velshi’s banned Book Club on MSNBC this morning! 🤩

Velshi Banned Book Club: ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas A deft exploration of identity, self-acceptance, and the power of first love, “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas is a masterclass in why fantasy isn’t just such a popular genre, but why it is used so often to explore complex topics. When exploring a nuanced and complicated topic like transgender identity and understanding, fantasy helps make it more tangible to readers. “We’re talking about heavy stuff,” says Thomas, “I’m always going to ease it a little bit with a little magic and mystery.”

Why is fantasy such an important and popular genre? “Cemetery Boys” author @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social says when “we’re talking about heavy stuff [...] it eases it a little bit with a little magic and mystery and mayhem.” #VelshiBannedBookClub #Velshi
www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/w...

Velshi Banned Book Club: ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas A deft exploration of identity, self-acceptance, and the power of first love, “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas is a masterclass in why fantasy isn’t just such a popular genre, but why it is used so often to explore complex topics. When exploring a nuanced and complicated topic like transgender identity and understanding, fantasy helps make it more tangible to readers. “We’re talking about heavy stuff,” says Thomas, “I’m always going to ease it a little bit with a little magic and mystery.”

Why is fantasy such an important and popular genre? “Cemetery Boys” author @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social says when “we’re talking about heavy stuff [...] it eases it a little bit with a little magic and mystery and mayhem.” #VelshiBannedBookClub #Velshi
www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/w...

IM VERY EXCITED!

FRIENDS! tomorrow i’ll be on @msnbc.com for the @alivelshinews.bsky.social Banned Book Club to talk about “Cemetery Boys”, it’s 5 year anniversary, and the new paperback!

this is a HUGE deal and it’d mean a lot to me if you tuned in! my segment will start at 11:45 am ET / 8:45 am PT!

Just some of the books from next month’s massive giveaway for 🇵🇸 on Instagram! Check out my IG (same name) for rules.

Thanks to @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social, @lisellesambury.bsky.social, @camrikohler.bsky.social, @sarahgailey.bsky.social, @literarydesiree.bsky.social, and more for donating!

FRIENDS! the KidLit4CeaseFire, We The People auction is now live!!

you can bid on signed/personalized copies of "Cemetery Boys" and "The Sunbearer Trials", along with other amazing items and services!

check them out here! www.32auctions.com/organization...

Seattle Worldcon has asked for feedback on their Discord. I have obliged:

This is such an inexcusable error. When you're running something like this, you HAVE to honor the fact that this might be the most important night of someone's life.

Do better.

As respectfully as possible, if you are a Hugo MC it is your actual job to make sure you have the pronunciations of the people you are celebrating down. If you don’t get given a list from Worldcon you need to make your own or demand one in time to learn.

This is egregious.

so much ick, Xoch!! 😖

publishing makes us believe that in order to matter — to “make it” and been taken seriously as an author — we HAVE to cater to the people running an award to get a nomination, to then only to be treated with disrespect once we finally DO make it.

I KNOW THIS AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT.

AND there was no pronunciation guide given to the presenters for Darcie Little Badger’s title “Sheine Lende” 🫠

i literally said “nominate BIPOC but rarely win”

A Censorship Tale Ensnares a Prestigious Book Prize - PEN America The CCP’s censorship system transforms the people who should be the greatest defenders of creative freedom into accomplices of censorship.

source: pen.org/a-censorship...

WHY are we still holding the #HugoAwards on some pedestal when we KNOW they censored Xiran Jay Zhao from the Lodestar list because the execs wanted to go to China?? or the fact that they nominate BIPOC but rarely win?? and then treated Kamilah Cole this way??

HUGO AWARDS DONT GIVE AF ABOUT BIPOC.

THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!

i’m so glad you liked it!!

Helloooo!! I finished Celestial Monsters and OH MY WORD THIS SERIES WAS SO GOOD I would definitely recommend! @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social is SUCH A GOOD WRITER

I'm definitely taking notes for how plot development, Character arcs, and world building was executed

#sunbearertrials #book #art #queer

thank you so much for coming!!! 💖💖💖

Picture of yours truly with Sandra Proudman and Aiden Thomas at Barnes and Noble

So fun! I had the amazing opportunity of meeting author & agent @sandraproudman.bsky.social (go read Salvación, a YA Latinx fantasy—it’s so good!) & NYT Bestselling author @aidenschmaiden.bsky.social of Cemetery Boys, now in paperback! Both are so kind and I love seeing Latinx rep!

this book has changed my life in ways i can’t explain.

i wrote it hoping one person might feel seen. now, five years later, it’s in classrooms, libraries, and your hands.

thank you for every message, drawing, cosplay, reread, and scream 💖😭

🚨HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT🚨
the new Cemetery Boys paperback is a @barnesandnoble Book Club Pick for August!!

it’s got:
📝 a heartfelt anniversary letter
👻 a bonus scene that made me emotional
🔮 a sneak peek of Espíritu (aka the long-awaited chaos sequel)!

I CANNOT WAAAAAAIT!!!