Pride Mini-Spotlights #1 - J.M Frey & J Greene.
A new kind of Spotlight being done exclusively for Pride Month-- well, maybe exclusively.
Welcome to a new kind of post I’m doing here on Substack. See, there’s this thing called Pride, and as a queer myself, it’s my duty to uplift others during this time. And recently I’ve been doing that in the form of a Weekly Pride Picks post, where I showcase books from queer authors.
The next issue of that comes out next Wednesday, but let’s get back to today’s topic. Mini-Spotlights. Yes, you’ve seen the big ones I make on this blog— highlighting various authors and writers every week. Yet I’ve never done any more social media oriented.
There are so many folks out there that do them too, but everyone’s style is different. And I wanted to add to that mix as well. So, if you guys like these, I may continue to do them after Pride Month ends. And lastly, if you’re a queer author, I’d love to have you on one of these. I still have seven spots open, so please sign-up here.
Here are the first two below, featuring J.M Frey, and J Greene.
1. Fantasy & Romance Author J.M Frey
Our first mini-spotlight features Fantasy & Romance Author J.M Frey, who has been writing since 1991.
J.M Frey is an author and lapsed academic. She writes queer speculative fiction and fantasy, both fabulist cozy romances and high fantasy epics.
Her debut novel TRIPTYCH was nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and garnered a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly, and her most recent novel TIME AND TIDE was named one of The New York Times’ Best Romances of the Year. Her life’s ambition is to step foot on every continent — only three left!
She lives in Toronto where she is surrounded by houseplants, because she is allergic to anything with fur. Like her main character, she is also allergic to chocolate. But not wine.
And below are some questions J.M answered for the Spotlight.
Q: What inspired you to be a writer?
I was a child actor and I loved telling stories that way. As I grew older I wrote fanfic for the sheer joy of exploring a different kind of storytelling, and that eventually morphed into original stories in university. I just love getting to create new worlds and pretend to be different people— It’s wonderful to allow love to win over, and over, and over again.
Q: Is there anything you want readers to take away from your work?
My work is very often social issues driven and thinky, so I want folks to not only enjoy the stories, but feel like they grew as a person while they were having adventures alongside my characters.
J.M’s latest book Nine-Tenths comes out on June 30th, but it is available for pre-order now. And I do hope to see this book take off and find great success, too! It’s why this is one of my next reads, and one of my upcoming reviews!
You can discover more of J.M Frey and her work on Tiktok, Threads, Instagram, and Bluesky. Or hop over to her website, and Substack.
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2. Sci-Fi & Fantasy Author J Greene.
Our second mini-spotlight features Sci-Fi & Fantasy Author J Greene, who has been writing for at least 12 years.
J is a queer, disabled white person, who wants to write stories that would have helped them growing up. They currently live with a very spoiled rabbit, a very lovely partner, and an ever-growing collection of books. Warm-Blooded is their debut novel, they they have ideas for at least a dozen more.
And below are a couple questions J answered for the Spotlight.
Q: What inspired you to be a writer?
Honestly, I don’t remember! I’ve always written short stories and wanted to write longer fiction, always was a reader and loved getting lost in a story. It’s been a part of me for so long I don’t remember when it all began.
Q: Is there anything you want readers to take away from your work?
There is always hope, there are always people who see you for you and love you anyways, and there will always be something worth fighting for.
J Greene’s debut novel Warm Blooded is out now, and we did feature it in that last Pride Month Picks post we did. Thanks J for letting me feature you in this mini-spotlight! It’s a lot of fun doing these, and I really do hope your book get’s some sales.
With that being said you can discover J on Instagram or Threads, or over on their website.
Those were our first two Pride Month mini-spotlights, and more will be popping up both here and on my Threads throughout the month. While these blog-posts will be up on Wednesday, Threads gets them early and spread out every other day. So may be worth the follow there.
But that’s about it for today’s mini-spotlight post. If you’d like to see these become a regular thing after Pride is over, please participate in that poll below. And I’ll see you next time, buh-bye!