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Thought more than a little about sharing this, but: my book is queer, and it's queer in this specifically forever-half-in-the-closet way that I don't see enough in fiction. When you're sure, but know too well the risks and consequences to that certainty.
This is true even if it's a collection. It's actually a curious time lapse: the publication history doesn't reflect when the stories were written, because it took some of them a long time to sell, but the earlier fiction buries the queerness while some later stories celebrate it.
It's not exactly intentional, but it's inevitable: that the fiction I write mirrors my own understanding of being a queer person and queer author. Such that I calibrate how much I want to share that with strangers, or people who know me well and can directly influence my life.
It's queer in the way that I, an Asian immigrant from one of the most Catholic countries in Asia, exist. It's queer like my Twitter is sometimes-queer but my Facebook never is. It's queer in the same way that I still shake a little when I tell someone this about me, irl.
It's queer in the way that all my young life I've been an overachieving honor student. For years, even after I knew, I thought the best thing was to stay quiet because it would wreck everyone's image of me--it would not "optimize" the life I wanted. In fact it might harm it.
It's queer in the same way that, at Harvard Business School, I realized so many of my same overachieving cohort did not come out until their mid- or late- 20s, and "covered" at work, because of the repercussions of being queer when you're trying to fast-track achieve in business.
It's queer in the same way that I'm telling y'all this now because I want to say it, and I doubt myself for wanting that. It's hesitantly queer and slightly apologetic that it's not MORE queer; it's hopefully queer that the world won't implode even if it claims that queerness.
It's queer in the way that one of my dearest friends asked me if she could mention queerness in the blurb because she was worried that it would put me through something I did not want to be put through: the scrutiny of family, "holding court over my identity." Over a book.
It's queer in a way that I wish were easier to celebrate. It's queer in a way that's quietly tired. It's necessarily queer because this is hopefully the first of several books, and they are all--you guessed it--pretty queer, so it had to happen sooner or later.
It's queer and despite my mingled fear and anxiety, I'm writing v specifically for the demisexual bi Pinoy kid that imbibed too much, from media and life, that this was not a valid way to feel or exist, that can't admit it to themselves yet except through bad poetry in a journal.
So, that's all. This book means a lot to me and this reason is one of them!! And still: terrifying. I talk a bit more about this double existence in the below thread, but...numbered days for hiding, tbh. Thanks for letting me share. https://twitter.com/visyap/status/1304818882805260288
PS this is that queer book! I would love it if you ordered from your local bookstore via the link below, or directly from my publisher @smallbeerpress. (PH based folks you can email [email protected]) 
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731821
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731821
