(And Why They Still Hurt)
After years of writing in silence—submitting manuscripts, shelving drafts, waiting for the mythical “right time”—I finally stopped waiting.
I self-published. Loudly. Messily. Honestly.
These books aren’t polished for comfort. They’re blood-wrapped confessions, survivors’ testaments, trauma told with teeth and tenderness. Below are 30 lines I never thought I’d write, but did. Because someone out there needs to read them.
1. “He made staying less about endurance, more about joy.”
📖 The Trauma Bible: My Queer Psalms
This one hurts because joy didn’t used to feel possible.
Get it on Amazon
2. “Love didn’t leave when my hair did.”
📖 While You Were Here
Grief and chemo stripped me, but love stayed. That’s the miracle.
Get it on Amazon
3. “I didn’t survive the fire just to live in the ash.”
📖 Small Town Gayby
Because survival isn’t the end—it’s the beginning.
Get it on Amazon
4. “They said I was too much. So I made a cathedral of my excess.”
📖 A Queer Kind of Hallelujah
Because shame taught me how to build altars out of defiance.
Get it on Amazon
5. “I’ve buried pieces of myself in people who never planned to stay.”
📖 Daddy Issues Anonymous
Oof. Still working on this one.
Get it on Amazon
6. “The hardest part wasn’t loving you. It was surviving the version of me I became for you.”
📖 Something Tender Survives
This line cost me more than I’d like to admit.
Get it on Amazon
7. “Hope doesn’t knock. It sneaks in through grief’s open window.”
📖 Pour Out Start Over
Hope was never loud—it was stubborn.
Get it on Amazon
8. “He was a better ghost than a husband.”
📖 Beautiful Things I Almost Believed
Because sometimes love is just a haunting in progress.
Get it on Amazon
9. “The truth didn’t set me free. It cost me everything.”
📖 The Closet Strategist
Brutal. Necessary. Queer politics in a nutshell.
Get it on Amazon
10. “I gave them every version of myself but the real one.”
📖 The Silent Code
Because I didn’t think the real one would survive.
Get it on Amazon
11. “We learned to say I love you through doorframes and damage control.”
📖 The Fairy Godfather
Because sometimes family is a war zone.
Get it on Amazon
12. “I was never asking to be healed—only held.”
📖 The Unspoken Cord
Because healing felt impossible. Being seen didn’t.
Get it on Amazon
13. “My childhood is a crime scene no one investigated.”
📖 Small Town Gayby: If You’re Perfect
That one still stings.
Get it on Amazon
14. “He held my panic like prayer.”
📖 Mojo Interrupted
Because love isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s just present.
Get it on Amazon
15. “Even rot can bloom if it’s tended gently.”
📖 Salt and Static
A truth I needed to write.
Get it on Amazon
16. “I stopped asking God to fix me when I realized he made them, too.”
📖 The Trauma Bible
One of the queerest, most sacred things I’ve ever said.
Get it on Amazon
17. “He only loved the mask. So I let it love him back.”
📖 Neon & Grit
Because sometimes, we perform survival.
Get it on Amazon
18. “I wasn’t ready to live without him. So I didn’t.”
📖 While You Were Here
Grief has its own timeline.
Get it on Amazon
19. “He called me sin. I called him Sunday.”
📖 A Queer Kind of Hallelujah
Because queerness and holiness aren’t opposites.
Get it on Amazon
20. “I didn’t want revenge. I wanted to matter.”
📖 The Blood Debt
There’s a difference.
Get it on Amazon
21. “I cried for someone who’d taught me not to cry.”
📖 Small Town Gayby: Where the Scar Remains
That paradox? It’ll break you.
Get it on Amazon
22. “The apology never came. I forgave him anyway.”
📖 Small Town Gayby: Rebirth Isn’t Painless
Forgiveness was never for him.
Get it on Amazon
23. “We laughed so we didn’t scream.”
📖 No Vacancy for Sanity
Because laughter is sometimes just panic in disguise.
Get it on Amazon
24. “I kissed him like he was the last soft thing left.”
📖 The Killer Bee
When softness is rebellion.
Get it on Amazon
25. “Love wasn’t the antidote. But it numbed the bite.”
📖 The Bitter Aftertaste
Because apocalypse is easier with someone’s hand in yours.
Get it on Amazon
26. “They buried the truth in silence and called it peace.”
📖 The Silent Code
Yep. Still pissed.
Get it on Amazon
27. “I was never the problem. Just the proof.”
📖 Don’t Ask, Don’t Die.
Of what they didn’t want to face.
Get it on Amazon
28. “She didn’t have to stay. But she did.”
📖 While You Were Here
This one’s for Daisy. Always.
Get it on Amazon
29. “I fought for breath so long, I forgot what it meant to rest.”
📖 Something Tender Survives
Because even healing can feel like a fight.
Get it on Amazon
30. “He didn’t save me. But he gave me a reason to save myself.”
📖 The Trauma Bible
The gospel of love.
Get it on Amazon
🛒 Want to read more?
Here’s my Amazon author page.
It’s full of darkly funny, trauma-informed, queer-as-hell stories I probably shouldn’t have told—but did.
Because someone needed to.
And I’m someone now.
Let me know if you’d like this post formatted for your blog with an image banner, or turned into a carousel for socials.