Exploring Queer Books [Preview]

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Bi Pod, a podcast about all things bisexual.

[00:00:03] I'm Evan and my pronouns are vei and nem.

[00:00:06] And I'm Christina. My pronouns are she and her.

[00:00:09] We welcome anyone who has any kind of relationship with or curiosity about queerness.

[00:00:14] The Bi Pod is an ad-free community-supported podcast.

[00:00:17] You can support us for as little as $2 a month.

[00:00:20] To join the community or get more information about the podcast,

[00:00:23] visit patreon.com slash the Bi Pod.

[00:00:25] This podcast is one piece of the long history of bisexual and queer discourse.

[00:00:30] We don't know everything.

[00:00:32] We're here to be part of the conversation.

[00:00:35] Let's get into it.

[00:00:53] Hi Evan.

[00:00:55] Hi Christina.

[00:00:56] Today is a very good day for you and your special interests, isn't it?

[00:01:03] It is. Indeed it is.

[00:01:06] We're talking about queer books and queer book talk.

[00:01:10] And we have a very special guest with us.

[00:01:12] Welcome to the podcast, Maggie.

[00:01:15] Hi.

[00:01:16] Hi.

[00:01:17] So excited to chat with you today.

[00:01:20] Yes, thank you. I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:23] You want to tell our listeners a little bit about you

[00:01:27] and be what your relationship to queerness is?

[00:01:31] I am 27.

[00:01:33] My pronouns are she, her.

[00:01:35] My name is Maggie.

[00:01:36] And I started this Instagram account like maybe three or four years ago,

[00:01:41] maybe like three years ago as like a way for me to anonymously explore my bisexuality.

[00:01:47] I had just come out to my therapist and she recommended that I go online.

[00:01:51] So I started there and I think through my little anonymous Instagram,

[00:01:57] before it was a bookstore, I was like searching

[00:02:00] bisexual hashtags and I definitely came across the bipod that way.

[00:02:04] And then I found some other like community in my area,

[00:02:09] if you know the Bisexual Resource Center, I don't know if that's that big on the West Coast,

[00:02:13] but I don't know exactly how big it is, but I found it and I like a local chapter.

[00:02:18] And I would do like little meetings with other bisexuals.

[00:02:22] And then that was like my way to come out to other people because I don't know,

[00:02:29] I didn't really feel super confident coming out to people in real life.

[00:02:34] So I started reading books and sort of found more community with like

[00:02:41] characters and people in media.

[00:02:43] And that's sort of my like queer community, my little found family,

[00:02:46] but they're all fictitious, which is still cute for me.

[00:02:50] I agree. Still cute for you.

[00:02:54] I love that.

[00:02:56] I feel like we also need to mention to the people we need to give you credit.

[00:02:59] Maggie is the president of our street team.

[00:03:03] She's got girl teed stickers on her water bottle.

[00:03:06] She's telling the people about my queer book, about the podcast,

[00:03:11] eventually Evan's queer book.

[00:03:12] Evan, you have to make a sticker just so that you can give one to Maggie

[00:03:15] so that Maggie can spread the good word.

[00:03:18] Water bottle stickers, I don't know.

[00:03:21] It's like the grassroots working.

[00:03:22] Like I bring my giant, it's a big Stanley.

[00:03:25] It's like 40 ounces.

[00:03:26] It's not like the handle one, like with the side handle.

[00:03:29] It has a top and I bring this thing to like all the staff meetings.

[00:03:32] Everyone wants to know what is girl teeth.

[00:03:35] And I'm like, it's a great book of like poetry.

[00:03:38] You should check it out.

[00:03:39] If you're interested in other things, check these things out.

[00:03:42] I'm like plugging on the street.

[00:03:44] Yes.

[00:03:45] In the workplace.

[00:03:45] So thank you.

[00:03:46] Yeah, I'm here.

[00:03:48] Thank you.

[00:03:48] We appreciate the service.

[00:03:50] Doing the good work.

[00:03:51] Truly.

[00:03:55] So we're talking about books mostly today.

[00:03:58] What kind of books do you find yourself typically gravitating towards?

[00:04:03] Like to give us a starting point.

[00:04:06] So I started my little book journey mostly in like YA books.

[00:04:14] I was kind of looking for something like, I don't know, literally I walked into

[00:04:18] the Barnes and Noble and looked for books, picked them out.

[00:04:21] Based by their cover.

[00:04:23] And I started in the YA section because I was looking for like romance,

[00:04:26] but I know that adult romance can sometimes be spicy.

[00:04:31] And that wasn't, at the beginning of my journey, that wasn't really what I was

[00:04:34] looking for.

[00:04:35] But now I've like, I've got my toes wet a little bit more and a little bit

[00:04:40] more spicy romance.

[00:04:41] But mostly all the books that I read, I really try to like keep like

[00:04:45] some sort of queer theme happening.

[00:04:47] Like I'll read a romance if the both of me and characters are like,

[00:04:53] oh boy and a girl.

[00:04:54] But hopefully in my experience, I'm really looking for maybe one of them to be

[00:04:58] bi or maybe another multisexual identity.

[00:05:01] Or maybe there's a great main side character who's not just like

[00:05:04] the gay best friend.

[00:05:05] Maybe they're like more in-depth.

[00:05:07] So I'm looking for like representation in my books.

[00:05:10] So I really want to say like, I don't know, my top story graph,

[00:05:15] if you're on story graph or something like that, my top sections are LGBTQIA books,

[00:05:22] contemporary romance and YA.

[00:05:24] And then also sometimes memoirs.

[00:05:27] Like I'll read somebody's memoir.

[00:05:29] Those are fun.

[00:05:30] We need to connect on story graph so I can see all the things that you're reading.

[00:05:36] Oh fun, fun.

[00:05:37] Okay sure yeah.

[00:05:38] No we can, I think you can add people on that so we can do that.

[00:05:41] Yeah.

[00:05:41] Okay perfect.

[00:05:42] I just like coerce my friends into, I'm like you read books,

[00:05:46] you need to be on this app because I want to see what you're reading.

[00:05:49] Yeah it's literally like, it's called story graph because they make graphs and like they

[00:05:53] make a pie chart so for me I like to look through like if I've only read like two or

[00:05:58] three books this month that's fine because like a quarter of the pie is YA and like a third

[00:06:03] of them were audio books look at you so it's fun.

[00:06:05] They make like literal graphs.

[00:06:07] I'm here for it.

[00:06:09] It's excellent.

[00:06:11] Have you started the pairing yet?

[00:06:13] No I'm not, I'm not said it yet.

[00:06:16] So good, so good.

[00:06:18] But I have seen it like everywhere and it's blowing up and I'm like really excited for it so.

[00:06:23] Yeah um.

[00:06:24] On my TBR.

[00:06:26] I like didn't think that I could love a book more than red, white and royal blue

[00:06:30] and then I read the pairing.

[00:06:32] Okay but see like that's what I'm sitting here for is so

[00:06:35] for the people who might not be in I didn't even put red, white and royal blue on my list

[00:06:40] I'm looking over that's okay our listeners have already heard about it.

[00:06:43] I'm sitting here like listeners do you remember Casey McQuiston like I'm sitting here

[00:06:47] like I really a collector of um authors like if I like one book I'm probably gonna like all of

[00:06:52] them so yeah that's how I'm feeling about the pairing is that I really loved it so

[00:06:57] red, white and royal blue the first one not the first one they're not connected what am I

[00:07:01] trying to say I know what you're saying Casey's first book

[00:07:06] I want to hear all your thoughts when you read it okay

[00:07:10] It is spicier than red, white and royal blue that's okay I know um I so I have been trying

[00:07:18] to get into more because I definitely felt like I was in a box with YA and I was recommending

[00:07:23] a bunch of books to my friends and one of my friends was like listen why are they all in

[00:07:30] high school I can't read another high school story and I'm like why like but why not so after

[00:07:37] those like literal critiques I was like okay I can read books about people of my age and I

[00:07:41] I'm calling this genre like new adult where they're um maybe like fresh out of college maybe they're

[00:07:46] similar in age to me but there's like some spice and then I've also definitely read like adult

[00:07:52] books it's just I'm I don't know I'm Irish Catholic I grew up Irish Catholics

[00:07:57] all nervous and I can't talk about sex so yeah I can't take that so fair you and you don't have to

[00:08:05] yeah you can like that you like what Evan has not invited me to be on story graph because they would

[00:08:09] just see that I'm just like reading a book about the cultural history of hot dogs or something

[00:08:13] literally the book I'm reading right now like nobody it's fine you carry whatever you want

[00:08:18] I'm a vegetarian which is why that's funny oh I like that I'm a vegetarian

[00:08:23] I don't know I mean I think reading a book about the cultural history of hot dogs is funny in and

[00:08:30] of itself that's true you don't have to be a vegetarian that does add an extra layer though yeah

[00:08:36] I think it does for sure it prompted Christina to get really excited when I ate on my god

[00:08:43] I was like I'm craving on as I say that sounds uh-huh the people are going to read between

[00:08:51] yeah no it wasn't erotic at all but um I have been craving a hot dog and I was like that'll ruin my

[00:08:56] body I will be so sick if I eat a hot dog but then Evan ordered a hot dog and I was like oh I can

[00:09:00] just stand next to them and kind and like smell it and then I'm satisfied it really worked for me

[00:09:06] personally but I definitely I definitely like I know it smells really good and I'm here for it

[00:09:10] like I don't know I like to live vicariously through meat eaters yeah exactly Maggie gets it

[00:09:16] exactly if this is anyone's like first time listening to us they're going to be like what is

[00:09:23] happening smelling hot dogs I mean it is what it is welcome to the pipeline

[00:09:33] anyway sorry to derail the hot dogs um back to YA um you and I guess like other books you might

[00:09:41] read um I know that you just attended lavender con um can you tell us like how it was what it is maybe

[00:09:49] for folks who don't know yeah I attended lavender con it was a convention in Washington DC and it was

[00:09:56] for um I want to call them all like indie authors but I don't know if they're all independent or

[00:10:03] not but they're maybe like smaller published like um all queer authors and I followed them

[00:10:10] through my author that I was there for was Timothy Genofsky um he's written like a lot of

[00:10:19] like male male romances and they're really cute and sweet his like first books were very um

[00:10:24] he he was calling them new adult um they're like kind of sweet kind of soft romances without

[00:10:30] like a lot of spice but then um he has like newer books he's part of a newer publishing

[00:10:34] company that's like getting more adult more spicy books so I followed him he was posting about lavender

[00:10:41] con and then I was like wow look at me I really want to go to this I'm gonna spend money and go to

[00:10:47] DC for the weekend and I was gonna go with my at-the-time boyfriend but we have since broken

[00:10:53] up and good thing because he was like not the best partner and ally and I was actually worried

[00:10:59] about going to lavender con with my straight boyfriend who was gonna be like not really helpful

[00:11:05] and not like a good um partner to have at this event but I ended up going with my mom so thank

[00:11:11] god I went with her because I was really anxious and worried to like say oh these are my authors

[00:11:15] like I have all of his books on the shelf and then a couple of other authors I was excited

[00:11:20] to see like Jenna Miller and um Brian Kennedy was there as well those were like the people I

[00:11:27] was going to see but I met a bunch of other ones and I was nervous but my mom was there she like

[00:11:33] introduced me to other people and she even got interested in some other books um and it was

[00:11:40] cool because I got to branch out from just um like my little clear romances I talked to

[00:11:48] authors and like learned heard their little book spills about their like clear fantasy books

[00:11:54] and um just other types of genres that are still queer because I think for me I'm like looking

[00:11:59] for representation and sorry to asexual people but for the most part like in books that's kind of a

[00:12:07] romance so it was it's hard to find that kind of representation and it is hard to find like

[00:12:13] ascript in this so I don't know it's fun to see different genres and learn like different things

[00:12:18] um there were two panels that I got to attend as part of the um Lavender con and the first one

[00:12:26] was the importance of writing YA like queer YA or something it had like a longer fancier title

[00:12:33] and that one had Jenna Miller who I was there for she's wrote the book um that I was reading at

[00:12:40] the time out of character and also she has We Got the Beat there's like two great books

[00:12:45] I was there for her and I attended her panel um and she was talking to two other authors

[00:12:51] I wrote them all down but she was talking to me I don't want you to think I was like

[00:12:56] so into it I wrote a lot of things down because I was like I'm gonna prepare

[00:12:59] but she was talking to Brian Kennedy and Tobias Madden about like why it's so important to

[00:13:06] write books that are like four queer teens and other people like not what um I think they

[00:13:13] started it by saying some percentage like a really high percentage of YA readers are actually adults

[00:13:19] and me like hi that's me I'm in the room um and they all just talked about even though they write

[00:13:26] different types of books and they write different types of characters and different types of things

[00:13:30] the major themes are still there like you're not the only person who feels this way you're not

[00:13:36] alone in your what you're going through and maybe like other people have had really hard experiences

[00:13:44] and the authors are trying to like not shy away from that so that you can say like this hard

[00:13:48] experience I've had in coming out or in being accepted or not being accepted like these experiences

[00:13:54] are shared experiences even if it's not somebody I actually know in my real life you know yeah

[00:14:02] absolutely yeah and I feel like um reading we got a lot of questions from listeners about like

[00:14:08] what exploring your bisexuality or exploring your queerness can look like especially if you're

[00:14:13] like in a long-term monogamous relationship or some other structure and I think that what you

[00:14:20] said earlier and then like this experience you've had being at the convention um like reading

[00:14:28] queer stories and collecting queer characters as like um I think maybe not community but like

[00:14:36] as part of your world like as like the people who are in your head like the the stories that you

[00:14:42] get to see and then going in person and like meeting people who are making queer work and

[00:14:47] consuming queer work that is a really great way to get to explore queerness that like

[00:14:52] doesn't involve you like having to kiss other people or whatever like it's like it's self exploration

[00:14:59] um and I think that's really cool to get to do that.

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