This fight over “should authors get paid for their work” debate boils down to this: many, MANY people do not see art as labor.
If art isn’t labor, then you don’t have to change your political views to justify piracy. Easy peasy!
Specifically, trans people.
The thing about so-called generative artificial intelligence is, the intelligence isn't artificial. It's real. It's OURS. The techbros stole our intelligence (our data, our thoughts, our stories, our art) and used the software to regurgitate it and spackle it together into digital particleboard.
Need a little escapism? Grab my bestselling #mmromance “Splinter” free on Amazon, only until Friday! 💖 getbook.at/Splinter
#gayromancebooks #biromance #queerromance #lgbtqreads #authorsofbluesky
Thank you! Yes, my DMs should be open 😊
“If we claim to be men, we cannot experience oppression based on our unique position within patriarchy; if we insist on accurately naming our experiences, then we must erase our identities as men.”
Read more: open.substack.com/pub/edaviesa...
(Free, ofc—we don’t give these guys money.)
In the end, I gave up on trying to say enough to be useful while staying within the character limit. 😂
My rewritten and expanded essay “The Double Bind of Transmasculinity” is available here for free: open.substack.com/pub/edaviesa...
I’m seeking representation for the manuscript of The Desert as I continue work on it.
So, if you know any book agents who’d dream of pitching “Whipping Girl meets The Transgender Issue, with a strong transatlantic transmasc voice”… hook us up? 😘
Fun fact: this came about because I was trying to edit and repost the tweet thread that inspired The Desert here, but the character limit kept stumping me.
So I ran wild and probably added a thousand words. 😂
I’ve been working on my first nonfiction book.
“The Desert: The Exile of Transmasculinity” is about why/how we must be made invisible or impossible in the public imagination.
But we need transmasculine conversations toward liberation now, so I started a Substack.
Here’s the first post.
This is the first page of this morning’s edition of the Globe and Mail (arguably the English Canadian paper of record)
I don’t remember seeing anything like this before
My wife shared this today. She is the best.
#poetry
Get in good trouble, necessary trouble.
All applications for gender marker change are on hold while the State Department changes this policy.
Anyone who now submits an application for a change runs the risk of losing access to their passport and documents while their application is being processed.
I’d marry Rena Yehuda any day. And this is just the beginning. 😉 Someday soon, we’ll hold the weddings we’d dreamed of to celebrate with loved ones in Brooklyn and London.
In the meantime, we’re protecting the foundation of our relationship: our freedom, together alone together. 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Our rings are family heirlooms made new by the promises we exchanged. A network of friends helped transform our complicated feelings into a beautiful ceremony by witnessing, officiating, and photographing the joy that—despite the circumstances forcing our hand—is all ours, ours, ours. 💍✨🥰
I flew out to New York City before the inauguration, and we got married above a Manhattan mini-storage building. 😁
The incoming US administration refuses to acknowledge our genders from day 1. Project 2025 takes aim at us from page 1. Neither the UK nor Canada is safe, either. We’re going to have to fight like hell to protect our lives, our creative careers, and each other.
Our love is a radical act of defiance in a rising tide of authoritarianism, but our rights are not a given. They’re Jewish, I’m disabled and deaf, and we’re both transfags through and through.
Introducing Rena Yehuda Newman… my husband. 💖
I can’t describe how proud and happy I am. The last few years have been the hardest of my life; Rena Yehuda has been my cornerstone.
Even after a decade of writing happy endings, I keep discovering what it means to love and be loved so well.
The looters I want to talk about are the ones who stole our safe and stable climate from us. Millennia of planetary harm for individuals' profit. They set the fires.
One of the weirder things about watching the hard right turn of big tech is that it really reminds you that they don’t think people outside America are real
Reminds me of the time @edaviesauthor.bsky.social and I were writing in the same room and paused to mime so we could figure out scene blocking.
Ed was putting hands together to check sex positions.
I was holding an imaginary shotgun to sight along.
We write very different genres 😂
CALLING ALL AMERICAN READERS!
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@edaviesauthor.bsky.social, his boyfriend Rena Yehuda Newman and I are squeezing in a quick US sign and ship event of signed paperbacks, zines and art!
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THE ORDER FORM CLOSES ON SATURDAY! So don't delay!
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forms.gle/xr7kDeWk1vXn...
Uh oh. I only willingly consume peppermint at 2am in the hospital when I’m a gas giant. And I grew up with Red Dye Number Twizzler, then was shocked by black liquorice (as Europe calls it, liquorice). Placed my bets and hopes on red…
This was sweet, mellow, delightful. Would actually buy. What???
This one took some faffing to let the water cool, but it was worth it.
Various tea shops have pitched (overpriced) floral visions of these pearls blossoming brightly in my cup. Does the pitch still work on me? Yes. Is this a solid green tea? Also yes. Pleasing, but not joyous.
This smells healthy, yet relaxing.
Strange if you’ve missed several days and are drinking multiple cups in a row, like being thrown headlong from Christmas Eve into a Mediterranean summer break.
But also not unpleasant—a little sour, which keeps it from being cloying.
Teapigs advent calendar (from @poopraven.bsky.social) plus writing deadlines equals…
I can’t believe I’m pretending to review tea on the internet. #writerlife
Anyway, we started strong! Real punchy winter smell, but without tasting like the garnish from the office Christmas party punch bowl.
Did you know that @edaviesauthor.bsky.social & I are doing a UK Sign & Ship! Order paperbacks in time for Xmas!
Did you also know that I’m offering TWO paperback exclusives that you can’t get from Amazon? One of them has limited stock, so once they’re gone, THEY’RE GONE!
forms.gle/7vW8Fpe5e25X...
