Here we are in February, the day after Valentine’s (otherwise known as Cheap Candy Day.) And I’m going to also designate it “Leaning Into Hope” day this year.

Things are rough right now. This isn’t the place for a rant about politics, so I just want to say to everyone who inhabits the TQIA+ end of the queer rainbow, we see you, we are with you. You cannot be erased by proclamation or by intolerance. Your lives matter. Your presence in the world makes it a better place. And I cling to the belief that the arc of justice and equality, no matter how it sometimes is warped backward, bends toward hope. In my lifetime I have seen big changes that IMO can not be fully erased, even in the short term.

And as we lean into hope, our storytelling is both escape and affirmation. Queer stories have always existed, even when they were suppressed into illegal spaces. They are celebration, they are resistance.

I urge you to buy stories from TQIA+ authors (whether the characters are TQIA+ or not) and about TQIA+ characters (from any author.) I’m a member of a couple of Facebook groups that can help you find trans stories – Trans Romance Books and Trans Romance Reads. No doubt there are others. I can also give you book recs if you ask me.

And in the spirit of “first they came for the transgender folks” – all queer stories are resistance.

Right now, as one tiny corner of that story world (although not TQIA+), I want to let those who haven’t seen it know that they can, for the month of February, download 7 MM and MMM+ Workplace-romance novellas from various authors for free from Book Funnel. When I was asked to contribute, what I came up with was a contemporary-paranormal (was supposed to be just contemporary. Oops) set in the modern-day Necromancer world. Saved by the Rat is a standalone 17,000-word story set in the Necromancer universe in modern times. (content warning for violence)

You can find my story and 6 more brand new novellas HERE – https://books.bookfunnel.com/workplacemmromance/3jpwl1296p

* Kaje Harper – Saved by the Rat
* Gabbi Grey – Ginger in the City
* Michelle Dare – Three Friends Wanting More
* D.C. Emerson – You’re Ours
* Rinda Elliott – The Spy Who Vexed Me
* Skylar M. Cates – Fires and Liars
* Madalyn George – Todd’s Home: A Hampstead Valley Novella

All these novellas are intended to be stand-alone introductions to one of the author’s worlds, mainly contemporary. (I kind of broke that rule. It’s Harry the rat’s fault.) Newsletter signup is optional.

I hope folks enjoy these.

And I hope we see our community continue to grow, continue to read and recommend and advocate and speak up. Fiction supports, nourishes, feeds our souls, and changes hearts and minds. And it doesn’t have to be great literature to do so. So enjoy the books. Stay strong. Hold our community, and particularly its most endangered members, in your hearts and lives.

– Kaje Harper
Feb 2025