July Newsletter

Rebecca Blanton
Jul 2
4 min read

Dear Readers:

Welcome to July! How the hell is the first half of the year gone? It’s flying by for me.

Hope everyone had a great Pride month. I know here in northern California there were a ton of events. Despite being in a conservative county, Nevada City made National Geographic for being a small town who supports its queer folks. One step closer to my personal quest to making this spot a queer haven!

On that note, Nevada County, Grass Valley, and Nevada City all issued Pride month proclamations. We had a few oppositions from representatives (boo!) but they were overruled by reasonable folks. One way to shift the balance of power is to sit on a commission. Here is a list of the open spots. You can have a voice on everything from the Library to Sanitation Committee. If you want help filling out an application or more information, please hit me up. I am also hosting a fundraiser in September for Heidi Hall who is running against the Trump sycophant Kevin Kiley. Kiley is odious to everything reasonable in the world. We must get him out! Interested in donating or helping out? Email me.

I guess we are now a country with concentration camps. We have people dying while in custody because of little or no food, no healthcare, and abuse at the hands of ICE. If you want to take action, here are some options. Call your federal representatives to oppose the mega-bill currently on the floor. This bill provides billions more for ICE funding. Shut it down and prevent your taxes from supporting this horror show. Need to find your reps or their phone numbers? Use Congress.gov. You can support CNN’s “ICEBlock” app This is an app where you can report ICE actions and help keep people safe. The ACLU is filing dozens of lawsuits to stop ICE raids, prevent the government from banning the press from reporting on its actions and more. If you can, send them a donation to support this work.

While all the horrible things our government is doing can feel overwhelming, I’m finding places which help keep me going. One surprising resource is Rob Brezny. I began reading his :”Free Will Astrology” in the San Jose free paper when I was a teen. His substack is great! He writes about resistance and then provides horoscope. I’m also in love with Ijemoa Oluo’s writing. She is thoughtful, radical and eloquent. Start with her substack, then check out her books.

Current Works

I’m working on a title for the book. Right now the top two options are:

Brave and Crazy: Navigating BDSM and Mental Illness

Unconventional Behavior: BDSM, Neurodivergence, and Mental Illness

Thoughts and feedback appreciated.

I’m in the process of taking snippets from the book to turn into blog and substack posts. Those should start appearing soonish. I significantly updated the blog site to include all the great books I read for this project. Looking for a good read, information on mental illness and/or kink? Check out the improved site. I also transferred all the affiliate links to Bookshop.org . This removes all Amazon links and moves them to a site which supports independent bookstores. Additionally, the site donates 10% of profits to keep small bookstores alive. Additionally, I have created my own “shop” on Bookshop.org with great reads, kink authors I recommend, and lists of Fat Chicks on Top authors. Going through my shop provides me a small payment for every book you buy without increasing the cost of the book. It’s an easy way to help support this work.

I have also added a few new tools to my website. These include the Yes/No/Maybe list for emotional and mental health. It is designed to help you develop the language to talk to partners about what you experience. There is also my symptom tracker to help you communicate effectively with medial professionals. You can get them both at LoveLettersToAUnicorn.com/Resources .

R/W/L

I started Ramadan Ramsey. It’s another YA novel and I’m digging it. I enjoy YA fiction. They are quick reads and it’s lovely to see how much more representation there is since my childhood and the Sweet Valley High series. I also ordered The Politicized Practitioner which addresses how social workers are political actors. I’ve also started reading Dr. Jenn Mullan’s Decolonizing Therapy. It’s fantastic!

I started watching Animal Kingdom on Netflix. Crime family, unhealthy relationships, action, and more. The gay character on this show fascinated me. The representation of hypermasculine, sport-centric gay dudes in crime dramas is rare. The character is complex and well-written. Watching the show feels like playing with a loose tooth- not necessarily pleasurable, but not not pleasurable. I watched Pee Wee Herman as Himself. Loved it! I love Paul Rubens and this showed a more complex picture of him than I expected. Well worth tuning in. I also binged The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. So, I’m not a reality TV fan and never got into any of The Real Housewives. However, watching these horror-shows of humanity got me all sucked in. LOL Very typical reality TV, but watching thin, blonde conservative women get stupid is kind of fun.

Final Thoughts

I’m off to edit my book for the next couple of months. It’s looking like an early 2026 publishing date. Til then, I’ll continue working on mental health and BDSM Thanks for supporting me! Hope to see some of you out at events in the area.

Oh… also, looking at organizing a gay skate night in August in Nevada City. August 16 is the possible date at the moment. Pencil it in!