Genre: Memoir/LGBTQ
Description:
Rules of Teaching:
1. Clone thyself
2. Learn teleportation. The sooner the better.
3. Trust no one.
These are the rules I learned as a middle
school teacher, though it was the last one that drove me from the classroom
forever. Like many educators, I couldn’t survive the politics. After thirteen
years, I bailed. How did I, an abuse-surviving queer, end up teaching in the
middle of the Bible Belt? Better yet, how did I survive?
New Rule of Life:
1. Neither my silence nor my identity is for
sale at any price.
My former vice principal said it best
(though I wasn’t supposed to see that email) when he asked, “Why does she
always have to write a damn novel?”
So here I am. Writing a damn novel. As to
the why…because I believe in changing the world, one word at a time.
Navigating discrimination, whether it’s from
employers, medical professionals, colleagues, or family, is often fraught with
uncertainty. Join Raven Oak on their journey of transition and self-discovery
in a world built on silence.
Author:
An award-winning author of numerous speculative fiction books as well
as a contributor to several short story anthologies, Raven Oak is a former
teacher, queer, and disabled. She fled the south for Seattle where she now
lives with her wife and is a fulltime author.
Appraisal:
Countless times in reviews of memoirs I’ve said that one of the things
I like about memoirs, at least those that are well done, is if the author is
different than me in some way that it helps me to better understand people who
are different. That might be different in experiences, in upbringing, gender, or
many other things. This book delivered for me in this regard as there are
numerous differences between Raven Oak and me. I haven’t had the struggles that
she has had (yes, we could describe it as me having privilege, relative to
her). I think me understanding those struggles she has gone through is helpful
for me to understand others, but I also couldn’t help but notice that in spite
of the differences that we’re not entirely different. I could relate to many of
her thoughts and opinions, goals, etc. I suspect most people who gave this a read
could both learn from and be inspired by it.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is based on an advance reader copy, so I can’t gauge the final
product in this area.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words
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