I’m a writer because I need to write. I have things to say, and I wasn’t gifted enough (or maybe in the right way) to express them through acting or art or music, and so I write.

Most days, writing is a strictly solitary sport, practiced in a dark room staring at a bright screen. We do it because we love it, because we need it, and because when we don’t do it, something doesn’t feel right.

And then we wrap up our little word babies and set them adrift on the river, hoping someone downstream picks them up and gives them love and finds a little joy in the process.

Armisted Maupin said it well in his Afterword for Tales of the City:

“When a novel has survived for twenty years, it’s virtually on its own. It goes gallivanting all over the place without so much as a postcard hime to its bewildered parent. Royalty sheets can offer some clues as to its whereabouts, but not the sort of vivid details the author really cares about.”

While my novels haven’t been around for twenty years (yet) and haven’t seen anywhere near the levels of success that Maupin’s have, I know what he’s getting at here. As artists, we crave the reaction to our art, and it’s rare that we actually get it.

Sometimes though, we get lucky.

I wrote a novella called “Slow Thaw” for Mischief Corner Books’ holiday collection in 2018. It’s a gay/trans love story set in one of the harshest locations on Earth – Antarctica. And it’s also about climate change. Adding that element was an intentional choice, but not one I was sure would be welcomed in the greater world.

I feel I have a responsbility as an author – especially as a sci fi author – to make the warning bells ring far and wide as I see us slipping into deeper and deeper danger. And a large part of this is due to both climate change and to the climate change deniers, egged on by Big Oil and their friends. It’s a bad habit we’re hooked on, and like many street drugs, it’s eventually it’s going to kill us.

Then I started getting reviews like this one:

“I enjoyed this book, but the happily ever after didn’t take away the grim message about what we’re doing to this planet and how irreversible the damage may be, and sooner than we think.”

And this one:

“It’s a tale that I’m glad I read as it’s made me focus again on ‘green’ stuff that is in the back, not the forefront, of my mind, and yes it needs to be in the latter. No, I’m not about to become an activist, lol! but I will try more to do my bit for the planet.”

And this one:

“A fast-paced romance set in Antarctica. Unfortunately it was very realistic portrayal of what could be a testament to the perils we face due to climate change! A fact too many politicians refuse to accept.”

Sure, I don’t have a huge platform like Steven King or Armisted Maupin or even some of the bigger names in our own queer romance market. But what I wrote made a difference in these three people’s lives and perceptions, and I’m sure in many more who didn’t take the time to leave a review.

What we do as writers matters, and it can change the world in ways small and large.

It’s a fact I’ll remember the next time I sit down in front of my keyboard and start to write.