What a week it’s been in the m/m romance world. Some people, of course, have been dealing with the consequences of m/m’s latest catfisher for a lot longer than a week though, and to everyone who was impacted by that person, I am so sorry that someone took advantage of your trust, and I’m so sorry that it took so long for the truth to come out.

All of this deceit and manipulation that’s been exposed over the past few days has left me feeling very angry for the victims, and I hope that the m/m community will again be a safe space for all of you instead of a toxic place. And it’s the responsibility of all of us who are a part of the m/m community to ensure that for you. I hope that we can rise to the challenge, because you are owed it. I hope the community doesn’t fail you again.

In related news, I am no longer a Riptide author. While my experiences with Riptide were nothing but positive, that clearly was not the case for all authors and I felt that I couldn’t, in good conscience, remain with Riptide.

So at the moment most of my books are up in the air. I’m in the process of getting my rights back and paying for the cover art, and I hope that I can have the books up for sale again as soon as possible. But the process is both messy and tedious, and I have no idea yet of what the timeframe will be.

Generally though, I’m feeling upbeat about the whole experience. It sucks that it was necessary, but so many authors and readers and bloggers and cover artists have offered their support that it’s impossible not to see the silver lining here: the m/m community is a long way from perfect, but I think that we are all trying to do better, and this week certainly shows that.

So thank you to everyone who has supported my decision to leave Riptide (and the decisions of my co-authors there). You’ve made the process a little easier.

I would like to add though, please don’t be too quick to judge those authors who haven’t left and who aren’t leaving. While I think Riptide has made the process as easy as possible, it still means taking a financial hit that not everyone is in a position to do. Some authors might not have the money to be able to afford new covers (or purchase their old ones) in order to republish. And this was by no means an easy decision for many of us to make to begin with, even before doing the maths.

So that’s it for this month, everyone. Next month I hope to be back to promoting my books—I’ve got a few coming out soon that I can’t wait to talk about! And I hope to see some of you at EuroPrideCon in Amsterdam in June!