Why Authors Coming Out Is an Incredible Thing, For So Many Reasons

I am so proud to be a part of the YA community, and book Twitter in general. We're passionate about the books we read, and the authors who write them. And we are, for the most part, a hugely supportive and accepting. Being so I'm sure has helped the wonderful authors who have recently come to announce to the world who they really are.

Very recently, and over the past year or so, we have seen authors come out on Twitter and elsewhere online:

• YA author Juno Dawson, formerly James Dawson, came out as transgender back in October 2015. 
• For Queer Romance Month, to talk about his own gender identity, NA (and soon to be YA author!) author Elliot Wake, formerly Leah Raeder, wrote Why I Wrote Cam Girl, then on 1st January, came out as transgender.
• YA author Chelsea M. Cameron also chose the beginning of the year to come out.
• And Ashley Herring Blake, whose debut YA novel Suffer Love is published this year, came out as bisexual last year.

You might think, why is this any of our business? Well, for trans authors, we need to know their change of name in order for fans to buy their future books which will be written under their real name. But otherwise, surely it isn't really something we need to know, like with an author's sexuality, right?

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Review: All of the Above by James Dawson

All of the Above by James Dawson (review copy) - When sixteen-year-old Toria Grand arrives at her new school she needs to work out who her friends are in a crazy whirl of worry, exam pressure and anxiety over fitting in. Things start looking up when Toria meets the funny and foul-mouthed Polly, who's the coolest girl that Toria has ever seen. Polly and the rest of the 'alternative' kids take Toria under their wing. And that's when she meets the irresistible Nico Mancini, the bassist in a local band - and it's instalove at first sight! Toria likes Nico, Nico likes Toria, but then there's Polly ... love and friendship have a funny way of going round in circles. From Goodreads.

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Guest Review: Charlie Morris on Hollow Pike by James Dawson

Today, awesomely, I have a guest review to share with you from Charlie Morris of Charlie in a Book. Charlie is and indie bookseller at The Book House, and is studying for her MA as an Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies student, where her MA major project is a marketing plan for an LGBTQ inclusive young adult fiction book. For LGBTQ YA Month, Charlie is reviewing Hollow Pike by James Dawson, with a focus on the LGBTQ elements.

Hollow Pike by James Dawson

Hollow Pike is a dark mystery story which follows a coven of friends, Lis, Kitty, Delilah and Jack, as they deal with horrific visions, murder and rumours of witchcraft. It’s like Mean Girls meets nineties teen horror film The Craft. It also casually includes a lesbian couple and a questioning boy among the core characters, making it one of few young adult genre fiction books published in the UK to do so.

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Review: Hollow Pike by James Dawson

Hollow Pike by James Dawson - Something wicked this way comes...

She thought she'd be safe in the country, but you can't escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her.

Lis thinks she's being paranoid - after all who would want to murder her? She doesn't believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn't believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you're alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps...

Hollow Pike - where witchcraft never sleeps. From Amazon UK

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