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J.P.: Why hello everybody. My name is JP Der-Boghossian and for our new listeners to this podcast we have a new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life that drops next week but today This Queer Book presents Seven Minutes in Book Heaven where I interview Queer authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and to cuddle up with. My guest today is Michele Kirichanskaya.. Hello! t's so good to have you here.

Michele: Thank you for inviting me.

J.P.: Michele and I are going to spend seven minutes in this virtual studio talking about their new book Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World while also getting to know more about the amazing journalist writer and human who is Michele Kirchenskaya so Michele are you ready?

Michele: I am and thank you for the compliment.

J.P.: Absolutely. I am going to set the timer and here, we, are.
Question number one: would you please describe for our listeners your new book Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on existing in an Allo world?

Michele: The official overview is: As an Ace or questioning person in an oh so Allo world you're probably in desperate need of a cheat sheet. Allow us to introduce your new asexual best friend and essential resource, serving up the life hacks you need to fully embrace the Ace. Expect interviews with remarkable Aces across the spectrum, advice on navigating different communities and low key ways to flaunt your identity. Basically it is like a field guide to being asexual within an allo normative world, allo meaning someone who is not asexual. Basically, meaning Ace 101, beyond just the basic definition of asexuality meaning and orientation where you experience little to no sexual attraction

J.P.: From what I can tell it's a new book filling a void in the literature right?

Michele: Prior to this book there have been a minimum number of non-fiction books about a-sexuality. Julie Decker's Invisible Orientation was kind of the first one in that field and then Angela Chan's book Ace with Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It's actually great because they're publishing a wide number of Ace titles including my own so I'm not a token Ace writer but they're helping fill a void of sexual non fiction literature.

J.P.: I love that. We will include links to those books as well in the show notes. Question number two, what's a sentence from a novel or a poem or other book that every time you read it, it gives you all the feels?

Michele: Can I cheat a little by backtracking and diving off the last sentence before to give context to this sentence that I'm really proud of today. This is from what I wrote for a catapult called Confessions of a Little Mermaid. The sentence goes: I sat closed mouthed, locked in my body as hers down my cheeks the taste of silence and salt heavy on my trunk.

J.P.: I really like that. What's the name of the essay?

Michele: The essay is called Confessions of a Little Mermaid. A little background, Ii basically contextualize the story of the Little Mermaid both the Disney version and the original transcription Anderson version with Mike Periences with speech therapy growing up so basically when you're a kid who basically is non verbal until they're five years old, language is a bit of a painful subject and so the experience of feeling locked in my body as i said of not being able to articulate it's the way that i would have wanted to the experience I saw reflected in this fairy tale

J.P.: We're going to link that too in the show notes So much great writing

Michele: Thank you

J.P.: Question number three; What's a sentence from a novel essay poem or other book that every time you read it it gives you all the feels

Michele: Oh, from other books okay. A quote that I absolutely love every time I read it is “to feel awake when my eyes are open” which is from The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.

J.P.: I like that a lot. Question number four: What's the best romantic scene you've ever read?

Michele: Gosh that's such a hard question because i love reading romance but a book that I recently read and a line that I loved from that book was ‘It was only after I met you that I rediscovered that it's such a simple thing to be happy’ which is from a volume of a book series called Heaven's Official Blessing by Xiang Tong Xiu.

J.P.: What a lovely thought particularly for right now right with everything that we're going through that's giving me some feels.

Michelez: I am currently a fan of Chinese made literature which is basically like the literature that focuses on homo romantic love and so when the story, which is basically an epic Queer fairy tale between two men and these characters go through it like they go through hell and back and just to have the simple quoted saying ‘you bring such happiness and tenderness to my life’... I love the simplicity of it.

J.P: Question number five: what are your favorite sense or smells to write about?

Michele: Everybody focused so much on sense as a writer but I always focus more on touch as a writer. I do like water scenes. I am an avid swimmer so the smell of chlorine is something that's often comforting or the smell of rain or snow. I often love when I'm describing a person that I love. Having them describing what they smell like and what their scent means to me is also something that's pleasant to write about.

J.P.: I like that. The smell of water and yeah, chlorine is very evocative. Question number six: what is the worst writing advice you've ever got?

Michele: Write every day.

J.P.: Another guest that said that too.

Michele: I know

J.P.: It's bad.

Michele: I heard it. It's bad and it's also unrealistic. It comes from a good place a majority of the time. I had a professor who mentioned it but the reality is if you're a person who's dealing with extenuating circumstances that can affect their writing life. Let's say you're someone who has depression or you're neurodivergent, then your mind and body literally cannot handle the pressures of something like that and it only freezes you as a writer because you feel like, oh I can't live up to this expectation and so that freezes your ability to write at all!

J.P.: I agree one hundred per cent. Let's get the word out. Question number seven: promote yourself. How do we pre order your book? How do we follow you on social?

Michele: To pre order my book you can go to Kingsley Publishers. I am currently active on Twitter for as long as it's existing. Michelle Kiche one. I am also on Instagram under my name as well as my author's website which is Michelle Kirchkanskaya dot com

J.P.: Perfect. and we are also going to link for a promo code in our show notes that's going to give you a discount if you pre order the book will also include that on our website and our socials. That is all the time that we have today. Thank you so much Michele for being here.

Michele: Thank you for inviting me.

J.P.: My pleasure! This has been another episode of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven, which is presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! Our podcasts are Executive Produced by Jim Pounds. Our Associate Producers are Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith. You can be an Associate Producer and welcome you to join us! All the details are at patreon.com/thisqueerbook. Transcripts of all of our episodes are available on thisqueerbook.com. You can buy the books featured on our podcasts on our Bookshop page: thisqueerbook.com/bookshop. We are on Facebook, plus we’re @thisqueerbook Instagram and Twitter, and soon to be on Spoutible. My name is J.P. Der Boghossian and stay tuned to this space every Tuesday for new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven and on March 7th we premiere the third season of This Queer Book Saved My Life! Until then, see you Queers and Allies in the bookstores!

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