All My Exes Live In Sex Flicks: Volume 1 of The Insafemode Journals
A fictionalized memoir about growing up queer and closeted on Cape Cod in the 1990s, and out in Boston in the early 2000s.
In 2003, I'd started a sex positive blog about awkward encounters via AOL, Craigslist, or a variety of queer hookup websites in the days before apps. I amassed a few thousand followers, was approached about publishing it via a prominent publishing house, and set about to turn my blog into a book. Then the site I was writing for was bought out and my blog was hacked. My publishing contact transitioned to a company that wasn't interested in the project. And I realized there was some incredibly problematic language and body-shaming "edginess" that I was ashamed to think was acceptable.
It's twenty years later now. I edited the book so that the heart remained but the protagonist punched only up, at himself, or specific targets. Still sarcastic, still scathing at points, but more self-aware and less shameful. While there are some stories dealing with grief and trauma, the focus is on the humor and how Not to try and overcome grief.