Oh, Malinda Lo. You recently released your debut novel, Ash — a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella, set in a “pseudo-historical Celtic society.” You went to Wellesley, then followed up with a Master’s degree from Stanford, where you researched the “discourse and authorship” of The X-Files. You blog on the best gay lady pop culture site of all time, AfterEllen. And you wear lots of snappy blazers.

I loved the way you wrote candidly about your coming-out experience, and about the ways that a woman’s sexual orientation can become muddled and muffled by social narratives and expectations:

All signs in our culture point toward the boy-meets-girl love story, and I wanted that, too [...] It wasn’t until I began a relationship with a woman some three years after breaking up with my ex-boyfriend that things clicked into place: being with a woman was so different — just like the guests on Oprah said. The intensity, the closeness, all of it made me feel vividly alive. This was right.

I almost never buy books straight off the shelf, but I am scampering to my local bookery to purchase a hardcover copy of Ash. It’s not every day a new work of queer young adult fiction comes out. Ooh, look — a pun!

Lo: I can’t decide if I have a BrainCrush or a CrushCrush on you … I reckon both. Keep rockin’ those snappy blazers. You fill me with hope.

(Photo via AfterEllen)