Tuttle Did It

When Life Gives You Corpses is a brilliant YA about a cursed praying mantis who falls for a young witch. Yield Under Great Persuasion is a raunchy, but surprisingly sweet story about two men repairing their relationship. Fabulous Bodies is a horror story about a queer rockstar rising from the dead.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is a fantasy set in a vividly imagined land, where two women (who happen to kiss) are the key to healing the broken sky. You're No Better is a story about a teen struggling in the shadow of his murderous parent. Oil on Canvas is about a woman who finds disturbing paintings in the home of her dead mother.

(Some) Queer Presses:

Lurid Editions are "a publishing project committed to intentional and conscientious acts of archival repair". They are "attentive to how marginalised histories are forgotten and remembered, [and] hungry to rediscover overlooked queer books". They've just received funding from Arts Council England to engage queer readers in a project to contribute to the archive!

Cipher Press "We’re really keen on the idea that queer and minority stories are for everybody, and we want to make our books – and the stories they tell - accessible to all" (what an amazing mission statement!)

Anamot Press "Anamot [Անամոթ] means shameless in Armenian. ⁣⁣Anamot Press publishes poetry and prose on intersecting experiences of gender, sexuality, race, migration, class, belonging and loss - with no shame."

(Some) Queer Bookshops

Queer Lit Oh man, I remember when this was just a tiny little shop, and now they're the biggest LGBT+ bookshop in Europe! They do amazing work in donating books about being trans to schools and parliament! They have a pay-it-forward board that will make you sob with its notes of love and support. (You can tell I wish I still lived nearby)

Lighthouse For Scottish friends - "a queer-owned and woman led independent community bookshop. We are an unapologetically activist, intersectional, feminist, antiracist, lgbtq+ community space"

Gay's The Word The OG Queer bookshop in the UK. One day I will make my pilgrimage!!

They've been at risk of shutting down, and recently had a fundraiser that did manage to be successful, but they still need support. They are stabilised but not okay.

They were established in 1976 (which is interesting cos Gay's The Word opened in 1979 but is still counted as "the oldest queer book store in Britain" I guess).

Lavender’s Menace was a second home to me when I was doing my MA-- this was the safe haven for me in that terrible time.

Lavender's Menace has a digital online archive, you can visit online in the book store, and they collaborate with the Museum of Edinburgh for readings and events. And they have a wee online shop!

Save Lavender’s Menace

Edinburgh’s only queer bookstore is at risk.

They’ve managed to temporarily stabilise with crowdfunding, but please donate if you can because with all the fuckery in the world right now, that won’t last long.

Books are more important than ever. With the rise in ai, people have forgotten how to do the most basic fact checking and most basic tasks. They’ve forgotten how to read for fun.

And with monsters like Musk running some of that ai, be assured that queer voices will be erased more and more as ai continues to expand like the grotesque virus that it is.

We need bookstores— especially ones dedicated to queer content.

But this is more than a bookstore, this is a queer content ARCHIVE. They’re saving crucial materials from history.

Also, may I remind you that queer history has a tendency to go up in flames throughout history— like when the Nazis burnt the archive of over 20,000 books when they destroyed a transgender clinic almost 100 years ago.

What’s that? You didn’t know they were doing trans surgeries and hormone therapies almost 100 years ago? There’s a reason for that.

Our history has always been suppressed and destroyed, so archives like this are so crucial to keeping our histories alive.

With the rise in privacy restrictions like the laws passed in the UK recently, we all had concerns that queer content would be restricted.

We told you this law would be used to harm marginalised communities— primarily LGTBQIA+ communities in the name of ‘safety for children.’ But they are already censoring us.

Bookstores are more important than ever— especially when access to queer materials is being blocked by your own government online.

Ye lads know what to do. Donate if you can. Share on any platforms if you cannot. Shop from them if you can. Tell people about them and get attention on them so more people donate.

For any poets out there there is also an incentive for a 1+1 talk with a poet who will read your work and give you feedback!

There is also a non-fiction workshop incentive you can join for you non-fiction writers out there.

Lots of goodies, or you can just give without taking an incentive. But please check them out!

This place was a safe haven for me when I really had NO safety or security whatsoever. Please check them out! Order books from them, use their digital archive, go see them in person. This place absolutely needs to remain in this world.

Please visit their website. This is such a wonderful bookstore and queer history archive, and they are amazing. Please check them out! Support them if you can.

Thanks for thinking about it!

Sorry to be a buzzkill-- It's a cute video, it's fun to watch. But they probably pop minimum 100 balloons-- maybe each. And I seriously doubt someone is going to go through and pick up every single piece-- I don't think it's possible to, honestly.

I think because we grow up with balloons, we don't even consider the damage. But they can take up to 4 years to decompose into microplastics that will get into the soil and waterways-- assuming that animals (especially marine life) don't swallow them and suffocate, first. (and that's not even going into the damage balloon strings and helium can do). If you really want to depress yourself, you can look up images and see all the dead animals who were either entangled or suffocated by balloon pieces. I wouldn't recommend it, though.

They do make biodegradable balloons! And balloons are fun. But they're also an absolute menace to the environment, sadly. So please stop using the latex and mylar balloons, they're so dangerous and they're one of those things that because we've just seen them our whole lives, it doesn't even register that they could be dangerous.

Tell them they don’t have the right to assume anyone’s identity or pronouns.

When they only list M or F to identify by, ask them why there are not more options. Tell them that you expect to see more options because not everyone fits into those two boxes. You don’t have to select one of the others if you don’t identify that way. But ask these people why there are not options for the people who do.

Demands that they have more titles that are gender free when you’re filling out forms and it just says Mr. or Ms. No, you don’t have to use them if you do not identify that way. Just ask why they I insist on having such an antiquated system with only two binary options in this century. When we know better.

When pronouns options are not listed on something, ask them why they’re not listed. Ask them where the boxes are so you can self identify, rather than have others tried to determine it.

They don’t care when we ask. We are just the freaks to them, remember?

But. When you ask? When you normals ask, it normalise it. And then other normals will start to listen. Because they ain’t gonna listen to us. We’re the freaks.