Hey all!

This month, A THOUSAND DREADFUL CURSES celebrates its second birthday!

While the official publication is October 1, 2021, I celebrate this one on National Coming Out Day–not to soften the impact of a day that we need, but hopefully to highlight the importance of such a day.

A Thousand Dreadful Curses doesn’t fly off the shelves. I don’t think I’ve ever sold out of it at an event. In fact, it’s amazing if I sell more than 4 or 5 copies. There’s such a small population that would even be drawn to this book–at a very specific time of year, no less–and from there, the funnel just gets narrower: Who buys it? Then, who finishes it? And, who relates to it? So I’m always excited when a reader comes back to me and we can have a wonderful conversation about it. At a certain point, a book takes on a life of its own. Yes, it’s an extension of the writer, but it also becomes an extension of its readers. It becomes a conversation, and this is exactly what I hoped could happen with Curses.

Anyway, Curses isn’t my coming out story. It’s not necessarily a coming out story at all, but I hope there are pieces that people can relate to. In honor of Prince Jack’s birthday and National Coming Out Day, I thought I’d highlight a few of those pieces and why they spoke to me as the writer:

Prince Jack’s arranged marriage: I am not a royal, nor have I ever been betrothed to anyone. But I remember (and I know there are people who will relate) a time when I felt like I was suffocating on heteronormative standards–like all the world cared about was who I was going to fall in love with one day, how many kids we would have, and feeling like I’d just have to play along and make it work like some sort of royal arrangement. At the beginning of the book, Jack is forced into something just like this, and he can’t fully articulate why this doesn’t work for him. A lot of us can’t. But over time he begins to understand his feelings. And once he lets that out to someone who gets it, he can breathe. He can thrive.The Vegas Thunderlings: Early celebrity crushes, y’all… In the book, it’s a band. (I definitely had The Killers in mind.) For me, I remember an awkward conversation with my father when I was younger… He told me that one day, I’d start watching movies purely because of the beautiful women in the cast. And let’s just say he was kind of gross about such conversations, so I was like, nah, I’m pretty sure I won’t, and he was like, trust me you definitely will, and we went back and forth on it for probably like an hour at minimum. I can’t help but chuckle now when I think about my taste in shows and movies, and how sometimes, I don’t understand the action movies I’m watching, or Westworld, but I know I enjoy them anyway! (He probably wouldn’t find this funny, but I do!)“Peeling back the curtain”: Out of all the lines in the book, this is the one that comes directly from ME. I didn’t have a big “coming out moment”, and there are two reasons for that. First, coming out is a continuous, lifelong thing. Second, the labels always feel so nice and neat, but identities don’t always fit in one box. I’ve been asked, “Which letter of the alphabet soup describes you?” And that answer starts with a chuckle. For a while, B made sense to me, but over time I understood it was more of a G, but not necessarily in the ways most people experience attraction… so maybe it was more of an A or a D? You can see why I don’t go around starting this conversation even in spaces where I know it’s welcome. Everyone wants the simplest answer possible, and the best I can do is, “When Ben Barnes returns my calls, you’ll hear all about it.” Isaac’s friendships and family: I’m trying not to spoil the ending, but it IS a middle grade book, so you know there’s a whole message about love and kindness in there. And the through-line of the book isn’t the romantic subplot. It’s the fact that Isaac and Jack experience different kinds of love in their community. They each have the people who accept them, and this takes different forms. I know who these people are for me–some of them are even named throughout the book!

Anyway, everyone’s story is different, so I hope CURSES will continue to speak to others throughout the years.

For Jack’s birthday, he’d like you to treat yo’ self: Enjoy a pumpkin spice anything, listen to your favorite band, eat pizza, break a curse, hug your friends, get hyped for Halloween, and be proud of who you are!

A THOUSAND DREADFUL CURSES is on Amazon, and right now it happens to be really cheap. If you’ve read it, please leave a review! I’d love to hear from you!

Peace and happy fall!

Jacob