Just Julian - the other side of the "Romeo For Real" Gay Teen Coming Out Story

Just Julian by Markus Harwood-Jones

After years of bullying at school, 19-year-old Julian is depressed. He sees a glimmer of hope after meeting the similarly out-of-place Romeo at a party and sharing a kiss with him. The only problem: Romeo has always identified as straight and he hangs out with a group of intolerant guys. But as the two begin to fall in love, Julian finds strength he never knew he had.

When Romeo’s old friends come after the couple, a vicious fight puts both Julian and Romeo in the hospital. The two boys decide to take a stand for their right for respect.

The companion novel to the author's "Romeo for Real." 

Add your review of "Just Julian" in comments!

Photos from My Amazing Book Launch Party Weekend!

What a wonderful launch weekend here in Los Angeles!

Friday night in Pasadena:

Signage at Pasadena's Art Night!

scenes from a panel - left to right: Brandy Colbert, me (!), and C.B. Lee

More scenes from a panel

Each of us with our queer YA books!

What a great conversation!

Just one of the amazing posters celebrating LGBTQ athletes that filled the teen room at the Pasadena Public Library

Saturday morning in West Hollywood:

The West Hollywood Library event, with their YA librarian Dione Surdez

scenes from a signing

new friends

tried and true friends

Mid-day in Pasadena:

The San Gabriel Valley Pride authors tent

More signing fun

books for all!

The evening event in Santa Monica:

Waiting backstage while I was introduced

Me on stage at Highways

Reading!

The evening's mascot

Celebrating with good friends!

Thanks to all my family, friends, and community that joined in the celebration, and to everyone who send good vibes!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

Today's My Book Launch Celebration - All Day, All Over L.A.!

Hello Community!

It has been a quite a journey to get to this amazing moment, and I'm hoping you can join me at one or more of these events today, Saturday October 13, 2018, to celebrate the publication of my debut teen novel, "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill".

The day will start at 10:30am-11:30am in West Hollywood, with a Teen Reads Week event at the West Hollywood County Public Library's West Hollywood Room. I'll talk a bit, read from the book, answer questions, and do a signing. Address: West Hollywood County Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90064.

Then at 1:00pm - 2:00pm in Pasadena I'll be part of the San Gabriel Valley Pride celebration with a time slot at the author's tent, where I'll once again talk a bit, read from the book, answer questions, and do a signing. Address: Pasadena Central Park, 275 S. Raymond Aveneu, Pasadena, CA 91105

The day's big finale is at 7:00pm-10:00pm, with a Party at Highways in Santa Monica. We have the entire theater for a talk, reading, Q&A, signing... and a BIG DANCE PARTY! There will be fruit, and desserts, and sparkling apple cider to toast to this book that is heading out into the world to make a difference in LGBTQ teen lives. Address: Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

If you're local, or are in Los Angeles, I'd love to see you!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,


Lee

Tonight is Pasadena Art Night! Join Brandy Colbert, C.B. Lee, and Me for a YA panel and reading at the Pasadena Public Library - Central!

More details here: https://ww5.cityofpasadena.net/library/event/artnight-2/

Brandy's "Little and Lion" won the Stonewall award and is amazing, and C.B. now has two books in her kick-ass Bi heroine series! It's going to be a great discussion.

And then, after the panel and reading, there's going to be a Queer Kid Lit Hangout - a change to gather with the community of folks writing and illustrating works for kids and teens with LGBTQ characters and themes.

We hope you can join us!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

Romeo for Real - A Gay Teen Struggles with Coming Out

Romeo For Real by Markus Harwood-Jones

On the surface, Romeo has it all: success on the basketball court, a group of friends, and the beautiful Rosie. Deep down he knows something is missing: all he feels for Rosie is friendship. Everything changes when he shares a kiss with openly gay Julian at a party. Despite their obvious attraction, Romeo is less sure of himself than ever, and leaves without even telling Julian his name.

With Rosie’s support, Romeo begins exploring his sexuality—and ends up running into Julian again. Realizing how little he knows about other sexual orientations and gender identities, Romeo begins to see the world in a whole new light, and he and Julian begin to fall in love. But his homophobic friends and family can’t accept him as gay. After a violent confrontation with one of his old friends, Romeo becomes determined to prove that his love for Julian is real and right.

Add your review of "Romeo for Real" in comments!

"Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" Makes It Into The Semi-Finals Round of the BookLife Prize!

More book news from launch week to share...

On October 1st, the top five middle grade and young adult books were selected as "semi-finalists" in Publishers Weekly's BookLife Prize...

"The mission of the BookLife Prize is to discover, cultivate, support, and celebrate great works of unpublished or self-published writing by independent authors."

I'm thrilled and very honored that "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" is being celebrated as a "great work," and I'm excited to see what happens next in the competition.

Thanks for being part of the adventure,
Lee

Launch Week Saturday News: My Guest Blog Post At Cynsations!

Cynthia Leitich Smith is iconic in our world of Children's Literature. So the opportunity to tell the story behind the story of "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" at her famous Cynsations blog is an incredible way to spread the word not just about my debut novel, but also about the secret from history that sparked it all!

I'm very grateful.

Read the full guest post, “From Kickstarter to Book - The Wild Roller Coaster of Publishing My Debut YA Novel”, here.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,

Lee

The "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" Audiobook Sampler

I'm so excited about the audiobook currently in production—here's a sneak peek, or listen, of the first two chapters.



The amazing narration is by Michael Crouch (who also did the audiobook for Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda), and the theme music is inspired by the Civil War-era song "Two Brothers" by Irving Gordon, arranged and performed by Doug Pettibone.

The audiobook will be available this November 2018!

Thanks for an amazing launch week, all.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

An Amazing Shout Out to "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" in the Santa Monica Daily Press

Continuing a wonderful launch week, my friend David Pisarra has a column in this local Southern California paper, and what he wrote this week about my debut book is remarkable:

Reading this young adult novel one feels the angst and anguish Wyatt faced when disclosing world shattering information, both about Lincoln, and himself. This novel is one of the seminal books of this year, and will be for decades. It is the modern gay version of “Are you there god? It’s me Margaret”. It should be mandatory reading in history, government and English classes as a way to open minds, reduce homophobia, improve the self-esteem of LGBTQ teens and start dialogues about sex and sexuality in health classes. —David Pisarra

Click here to read the whole piece.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

I'm on the Radio LIVE at 4:17pm Pacific Today, on the Starstyle®-Be the Star You Are!® show with host Cynthia Brian

So looking forward to being on Cynthia's show!

Listen here: https://www.voiceamerica.com/promo/episode/109316

I'm very grateful for this opportunity to spread the word about "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" — and the amazing secret from history that inspired it — to listeners of the Starstyle®-Be the Star You Are!® show on the VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel!

What a launch week!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

It's Launch Day for "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill!"

Join me over at Facebook Live today: https://www.facebook.com/events/569139270206437/

It's a virtual party in two parts,

From 9am-10am Pacific

And then

From Noon-1pm Pacific

In those two hours, with an eBook price drop (from $6.99 down to $2.99) and a super-special offer to get a FREE AUDIOBOOK of the novel, we’ll see if we can get Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill to hit the Amazon eBook bestseller list!

I’ll answer questions, and share some cool things that have been happening with the book (including the in-production audiobook), and we’ll all cheer as we join together to empower LGBTQ and Allied Teens!

Hope to see you online...

Oh, and Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill is officially available TODAY, everywhere books are sold! Yay!

To get your FREE audiobook, buy your copy of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill today, October 2, 2018, between 9am-10am Pacific or between Noon-1pm Pacific here:


leewindbook.com


take a screen shot of your receipt/transaction, and facebook message, twitter message, or email me at leewind (at) roadrunner (dot) com. Make sure to include your email so I can send you the digital audiobook files in November!


And thank you!

Here's the first virtual launch party recording!





And here's the second virtual launch party recording!



And perhaps most amazing of all, on launch day (Oct 2, 2018) "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" hit the top 15 of Amazon's New Releases in Teen & YA Gay & Lesbian Fiction!

Thank you all!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

Tonight's Free "Crowdfunding Queer Lit" Panel is Online at 7pm Pacific

UPDATE Nov 14, 2018: Here's the recording:


Join me, Tee Franklin, and Tobi Harper for a great discussion about crowdfunding LGBTQ Literature.

From teen novels to graphic novellas to poetry, our diverse Queer stories are being published and promoted using crowdfunding. Learn how these authors and publishers harnessed the power of their communities, hear excerpts of their crowd-funded creations, and get inspired about crowdfunding your next project.

Register for the free online event here.

Hope to see you there!
Lee

Celebrate with me!

My dear, wonderful community,

At long last, after quite a roller coaster ride, my debut teen novel will be published. This upcoming Tuesday, October 2, 2018, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill heads out into the world, and into the hands, and minds, and hearts of readers.

I’ll be having two days of parties to celebrate (Oct 2, 2018 online, and Oct 13, 2018 all over Los Angeles), and I’m hoping you can join me for some or all of the fun ahead!

A virtual Facebook Live party on Tuesday October 2, 2018
This is actually in two parts:
From 9am-10am Pacific
And then
From Noon-1pm Pacific

In those two hours, with an eBook price drop (from $6.99 down to $2.99) and a super-special offer to get a FREE AUDIOBOOK of the novel, we’ll see if we can get Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill to hit the Amazon eBook bestseller list!

I’ll answer questions, and share some cool things that have been happening with the book (including the in-production audiobook), and we’ll all cheer as we join together to empower LGBTQ and Allied Teens!

If we’re not already connected on Facebook, I’m
leewind
over there. If you’re on Facebook, ping me, and I’ll bounce you back the invite to make it easy.

Details here:
https://www.leewind.org/2018/09/a-livestream-book-launch-party-on.html

and

Parties all over Los Angeles on Saturday, October 13, 2018

10:30am - 11:30am
West Hollywood Library Teen Read Week Event: "Meet Lee Wind, Author of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" West Hollywood Room. West Hollywood Public Library, West Hollywood, California.
Details: https://www.leewind.org/2018/09/west-hollywood-public-library-my-teen.html

1:00pm - 2:00pm
San Gabriel Valley Pride: Authors Tent.
Pasadena's Central Park. Pasadena, California.
Details: https://www.sgvpride.org/

7:00pm - 10:00pm
Launch Party at Highways. Santa Monica, California
Details: https://highwaysperformance.org/event/lee-wind-queer-as-a-five-dollar-bill-book-launch-party/

Whether you can join for none, some, or all, please know how grateful I am for your support as I travel a brand new road: that of a published author!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee


P.S.: There will be more Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill book events in the future, including Palm Springs and Philadelphia in November 2018 and #KidLitCon19 and the Bay Area Book Festival in Oakland, California in 2019. You can see a partial listing of upcoming events here: https://www.leewind.org/2018/09/lees-queer-as-five-dollar-bill-book.html

It's Banned Books Week - Read With PRIDE (even in Maine's Rumford Public Library)

This time, religious folks were protesting the inclusion of LGBTQ books in a display of books that had been banned!

Happily, there was a librarian from the LGBTQ community who stood up and spoke out, people who supported that librarian, and ultimately a unanimous vote by the library's trustees to leave the current display intact.

Read the full article by Nick Duffy at Pink News here.

Tune Into Dr. Marissa's Talk Show Today (Tuesday Sept 25, 2018) To Hear Me On The Air!

Here's how Dr. Marissa (a.k.a. "The Asian Oprah") put it on instagram:

So how would we see sexual orientation if one of the presidents was gay? THIS WEEK it’s the last week of the month so time for my Sexual Healing series...where I am determined to make Pleasure a G-Rated Topic!! My special guest is @iamleewind author of a new YA book “Queer as a Five Dollar Bill” on my positive award-winning talk radio show “Take my advice I'm not using it: Get Balanced with #Drmarissa", the new Asian Dr. Ruth”

Broadcasting Live out of the Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood California with @ubnradiotv www.UBNRadio.com/Channel-1 at 'Naturally High Noon' 12pm PST Tuesday and then Saturday at 2 pm on my syndicated @cnbc and @NBC News Radio channel @kcaaradio AM 1050 FM 102.3 and 106.5 livestream www.KCAARadio.com and everywhere on @iheartradio !!

I hope you'll tune in!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee