Sage Nestler's Blog, page 2

HELP NEEDED: Street Team Sign-Up

HELP NEEDED:  Street Team Sign-Up Hello, Everyone, We are in need of folx to join our street team for our next publication through my publisher, Pride with a Bite: “Waxing Off – A Novella” by E.E.W. Christman! Any and all help is appreciated. When you fill out the form, you can select what you would like to help […]

HELP NEEDED: Street Team Sign-Up

Hello, Everyone,

We are in need of folx to join our street team for our next publication through my publisher, Pride with a Bite: “Waxing Off – A Novella” by E.E.W. Christman! Any and all help is appreciated. When you fill out the form, you can select what you would like to help with, including the cover reveal, ARC review, etc.

About the Book

Welcome to Cat’s Cove

A struggling Pacific Northwest fishing town teeming with transphobes and werewolves…but not the ones you are thinking of.  

Drew is a non-binary werewolf, but hardly by choice. Having made a home for themself working in a fish fry joint and trying to hide their secret, their heightened sense of smell leads them to Gab – a female werewolf who is about to change their life in more ways than one.  Coming from a family that did nothing to make Drew feel comfortable in their own skin, their immediate connection with Gab is intimate and unexpected.  

But a collective of TERFs lurks nearby, and an attack makes it clear that they would prefer it if Gab fell in line, and Drew simply ceased to exist.  Little do they know what is coming for them.

Filled with ferocity, carnage, and the enduring power of queer love and acceptance, Waxing Off is a werewolf horror story with heart, and a testament to what it means to fight back, fight for yourself, and fight to exist.

By filling out the following form, you can choose which things you would like to help with, including the cover reveal, ARC reviews, and more.

Street Team Sign-Up

Something’s Coming and It Bites

Hello, Horror Fiends!

We just released our first teaser for the next book we are publishing through my queer horror publishing house – Pride with a Bite. I cannot wait to share more about this project with you all. It is going to come out just in time for Halloween – October 2025!

Four WordsQueerWerewolvesPunchingTERFs

TERF stands for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.” You may know about them due to frequent and vocal anti-transgender author J.K. Rowling. These feminists don’t see transgender females as female or transgender men as men. They have also gone so far as to accuse queer folx of being child molesters, and refuse to give transgender folx basic respect, access to healthcare, or public accommodations.

Learn More Here

This novella is a direct attack against individuals who hold these beliefs – which are so detrimental towards transgender and gender-expansive folx. It is ferocious, sexy, and downright fun. As a transgender individual, I was so excited when author E.E.W. Christman submitted this novella to us for consideration.

Make sure you sign-up for our newsletter to stay on top of this release, everything we are doing at Pride with a Bite, and all things queer horror!

Newsletter Sign-Up

Sage Moon

The Horror Maven & Editor-in-Chief of Pride with a Bite

ARC Review: A Heartfelt and Terrifying All Too Realistic Must-Read

An Early Review of Lucky Day by Chuck TingleSynopsis

Lucky Day is the newest novel of terror from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, where one woman must go up against the most horrifying concept of all: nothing.

Vera is a survivor of a global catastrophe known as the Low Probability Event, but she definitely isn’t thriving. Once a passionate professor of statistics, she no longer finds meaning in anything at all.

But when problematic government agent Layne knocks on her door, she’s the only one who can help him uncover the connection between deadly spates of absurdity and an improbably lucky casino. What’s happening in Vegas isn’t staying there, and the world is at risk of another disaster.

When it comes to Chuck Tingle, the only thing more terrifying than a serious horror novel is an absurd one…

Release Date

8/12/2025

Overall Rating

5/5

Spooky Rating

3/5

Gore Rating

3/5

Quick Take

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is at once a terrifying and heart wrenching portrayal of what staring into oblivion feels like, paired with invalidation of one’s sexuality, and finding some meaning despite a sense of despair and powerlessness. To say that this novel is timely is an understatement.

Tell Me More

Lucky Day is the epitome of what cosmic horror should be.

This book came into my life at the perfect time, in an incredibly weird way.  I started reading it on the same date that the main catastrophic event in the book occurs.  If this wasn’t eerie enough, I feel like the main character’s mindset matches my own.  I marked so many quotes within the book that I could probably just quote the entire thing. 

Where Chuck Tingle gets the ideas for his books, I’ll never know – but this one solidified him in my top 5 favorite horror authors.  While Bury Your Gays is one of my favorite books of all time, this one is right up there with it. 

Lucky Day begins with an event called the Low-Probability Event, where everything that could go wrong goes wrong in the most bizarre way.  The event, in turn, causes countless deaths, many of which our main character witnesses firsthand.  The book focuses on Vera, a bisexual woman, who is a statistics professor and has just published a book.  As a neurodivergent person, I felt like Vera may have been coded in this way.  Statistics were her passion, and she relied on them for control and understanding of the world.  But after the event occurs, and she witnesses countless deaths, she loses the ability to find meaning or purpose in anything.  She feels like everything she ever thought she knew was wrong, and this sends her to a very dark place. 

The nihilism, grief, and depression representation cut me to my core because I felt like I was seeing myself reflected on the page.  Spending time with Vera’s character made me feel less alone at a time when I am also having a hard time finding the point in anything.

Throughout the book, Vera struggles with her sexuality being invalidated, which makes her feel like her true self doesn’t exist at all.  While Vera struggled with her mother invalidating her, I liked how Tingle included a fellow queer character invalidating her sexuality.  Unfortunately, this is all too common in the queer community – especially of late.  He did so well tackling the difficult subjects of a world gone wrong and feeling meaningless against oblivion.  While there was humor and wit, I will never forget a lot of the gory (and inexplicable) imagery included.  However, the fear of everything we ever thought to be a certain way not being true, and losing that sense of control, filled me with mind-numbing terror.  This also made me realize why cosmic is one of the few sub-genres of horror left that never fails to terrify me. 

Lucky Day is too complex to sum up in a review without going on and on, so just go ahead and read it when it comes out.  I promise you it won’t be a comfortable read, but the best books aren’t.

Rating Scales for Reference

(Click images to zoom in)

*Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the ARC!

Pre-Order: The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Hello, Horror Fiends,

I am excited to share with you a pre-order campaign for The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne! I am in the middle of reading my ARC, and I am absolutely loving it. It is heartbreaking and terrifying in all of the best ways. I can already tell that this is going to be a five-star read for me. Stay tuned for my review!

I read Tatiana’s YA debut, Such Lovely Skin, last year and was blown away by it. Tatiana is such a lovely person and an extremely talented author. She brings a fresh and raw voice to the horror genre, and I love how she incorporates mental health, trauma, and grief into her writing. She does so with ease, which is not something that is easy to do. It blows me away.

Find all of the info you need about The Mean Ones below, including the pre-order link !

Midsommar meets The Final Girl Support Group in this horror novel about a woman who survived cult killings as a child and is striving to be “normal,” but a spontaneous trip into the woods and the voices in her head keep pulling her to the dark side.

So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man–as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing–this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

PRE-ORDER HERE LEARN MORE ABOUT TATIANA Make a one-time donation

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Come See My Assistant Publisher at Pride with a Bite TOMORROW in Toronto!

If you are in the Toronto area in Canada, come see my Co-Founder & Assistant Publisher, Sarah Laudenbach, from Pride with a Bite TOMORROW!

She will have copies of our anthology, We Bite Back: A Queer Charity Anthology, as well as Lowell Jameson’s premiere poetry collection, Through the Realm of the Vacant Prince, with signed bookplates.

You will also get to see a sneak peek of what we are working on!

Location

5015 Glen Erin Drive

Mississauga, ON L5M 4Z5

(905) 820-8336

LOCATION WEBSITE About Pride with a Bite

Pride with a Bite publishes horror and horror-adjacent works by queer creators, with a focus on novels, novellas, collections, and artwork. Our books are distributed globally in physical stores and through online outlets. We are partnered with bookstores in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, and are part of the Horror Writer’s Association. Our team members are located in the US and Canada.

LEARN MORE Make a one-time donation

Thank you so much for your support! Your donation helps me to keep sharing the beauty of horror, especially works by marginalized creators, with the world.

DonateMake a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthlyMake a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

Author Acquisition Announcement: E.E.W. Christman

I am so excited to be able to share with you our newest author acquisition at my publisher, Pride with a Bite, E.E.W. Christman!

We will be publishing E.E.W. Christman’s novella, Waxing Off, in October 2025. The book will feature artwork by our partnered artist, Nick Dunkenstein.

Two words: gay werewolvesStay tuned for more updates! LEARN MORE ABOUT E.E.W. CHRISTMAN Make a one-time donation

Thank you so much for your support! Your donation helps me to keep sharing the beauty of horror, especially works by marginalized creators, with the world.

DonateMake a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthlyMake a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

Author Interview with “The Friendly Bear We Don’t Deserve” Paul Coccia

Book: Recommended Reading

Author: Paul Coccia



I had the pleasure of discovering Paul Coccia when I was put on a tour for his newest book, "Recommended Reading." I quite literally fell in love with this book, and with Paul as a person. We have formed a friendship, and I am so excited about the queer joy and vunerability to YA lit concerning body image especially. I hope that you enjoy our interview, and that it inspires you to read the book – or share it with any kids that you know. It is a treasure!

- Sage Nestler, MSW (He/They) – Founder of Peachy Keen Reviews & Bibliotherapy

Paul, growing up as a plus-size, queer, book loving kid, your new novel “Recommended Reading” spoke to me. I didn’t have access to any books with queer characters, let alone plus size ones. Bobby is quite literally my doppleganger! What were some of your inspirations for creating Bobby’s character?

Samesies! A lot of who I am tends to bleed into my characters and give them life.

I often got asked with my first book, Cub, if I was the main character. With Recommended Reading, I keep getting that readers hear my voice when they read Bobby. Physically, we’re similar although I think Bobby rocks his curves better.

When I was trying to understand Bobby, he struck me as a lot of my favourite aspects of Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse, especially Clueless’ adaptation. He’s meddlesome but well-meaning, benevolent, socially aware yet lacking self-awareness at times, and he has pretty good self-esteem, so he holds a belief he knows better than those around him.

I also fell in love with Bobby’s big main character energy. He isn’t going to let how he looks or who he is stop him from achieving his goals. In fact, sometimes he’s a bit too determined.

There are not nearly enough queer YA books that feature plus-size characters (with the exception of our beloved Julie Murphy.) With the way your story reached my inner child, I am so excited for how it will touch, and is already touching, other readers. Why do you think body diversity is important in young adult books specifically?

That there isn’t a Julie Murphy Official Fan Club may only be because there would be fist fights to see who the ultimate super fan is. We are all super fans! Julie is absolutely phenomenal.

I consider myself fortunate and privileged that I get to take part in the conversation surrounding weight, body image, and body/fat positivity. I learn a lot from these conversations. It’s also important to note that body diversity isn’t just about weight but includes other elements such as race, culture, gender, or ability.

To get personal, I was a kid whose pediatrician convinced my parents to put me on a diet from the age of six. I don’t blame my parents by the way who were doing what they felt was best for my health, especially not my mom who, as a woman, was raised in a culture where she was constantly being told to lose weight and was held to unrealistic body image standards. I saw my grandma and nonna struggle too and there are really funny stories about my grandma and I going on fad diets together.

But what I absorbed from the medical system and other places (school, neighbors, strangers who made comments) was that my body was wrong and needed correction. And when I didn’t lose weight, I wasn’t working hard enough at or committing hard enough to the solution. There was also messaging around morality because to that pediatrician, I was lazy and should be ashamed I wasn’t able to lose weight and look like my siblings or other kids. By the time I hit puberty, I was seeing a dietician and nutritionist which wasn’t a bad experience but was demoralizing. No surprise, I still do a lot of unpacking and dismantling of the relationships I developed with my own body and food and still have hang ups. Writing a character like Bobby helps me write a narrative that I was never going to be allowed to live.

I hope readers are able to see that their bodies are not problems to be fixed. Weight loss isn’t necessarily THE or even A solution. Frankly, it may not be achievable or even desirable. It was not healthy. I was made to feel very alone and also separate from my own body, which created a cycle in a child where it became very easy to look at my body as something deserving of criticism and hate. I would never wish someone else to have to experience these things, and so writing for young adults who can reject a damaging narrative earlier than I did is optimistic resistance on my part.

It’s important we keep telling stories where the plot issue and resolution hinge entirely on issues of appearance or identity. Showing a fat character living a happy, healthy life should not be that revolutionary, and I hope one day soon it no longer is.

The way you presented queer and body joy, while also highlighting the difficulties that can simultaneously arise, especially in adolescence, was so raw and honest. What would you like readers to know who might be struggling with their body image?

It’s important to remember that as we age, our bodies will change. So, it’s important to love your body as it is today, not as it may be tomorrow or may never be. I’m all for having the body you want, but realistically, you’ve got the one you have right now and tomorrow may not come. A lot of time is wasted on self-hate that you could spend enjoying yourself and living your life.

People like me or Bobby (and there are a lot of us) need to know we are beautiful, we were made right, and we are deserving of love no matter what body we live in. And it is our bodies, and we should rock them.

I also think it’s important to note that as someone no longer a teen myself, I look back on photos and I look young and (to toot my own horn) hot! All I remember feeling like was an ugly blob. I wasted not just time but energy and didn’t do things because I believed I was huge and hideous. I was not any of those things. My perspective was so off, and it took time to gain a more honest perspective. I also was probably spending my time and energy doing more damage to myself than good.

Also, your body is a fact. It doesn’t require anybody’s explanations or opinions. It just is. And you can be happy in it. You can be happy, period. No explanations or opinions needed for that either.

I loved the way you made Bobby’s connection with books seem so intimate. As a bibliotherapist myself, I loved how he essentially was a blossoming bibliotherapist with his ability to choose books for people based on what they need in the moment. What are some books that have been healing for you?

Books that were healing to me were usually because the right book came to me at the right moment. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan was one and it was a hard book for me at first because it was the first queer book I read where the protagonists weren’t dealing with homophobia as the main issue in a queer story AND it was happy! Crazy! I’d only ever read queer books that ended in heartbreak, misery, or death and where the entire plot hinged on identity.

Another book that came to me at just the right moment was Michelle Kadarusman’s The Theory of Hummingbirds. It’s a book as much about a girl born with a clubfoot and her aspirations for when she has her final surgery to heal it as it is about reassessing and re-establishing one’s dreams and what it’s like to be extraordinary.

With laughter being good medicine, no books make me laugh as hard as Susan Juby’s. I adore them all. Each novel is a gem but her most recent are a series of murder mysteries starring a former Buddhist monk turned butler turned detective (reluctantly, by necessity) named Helen Thorpe. No one but Susan could pull off this premise. Susan was also the one who told me to read Boy Meets Boy, so we love Susan.

What is something you would tell your younger self that you wish you had known at the time?

My semi-serious answer is to start a skincare routine immediately. It’s good advice. An SPF moisturizer and a good cleanser will keep your skin from a lot of damage.

I think I might be a bit of a Cass, Bobby’s mother, and encourage a younger me to make more mistakes and take more risks (within reason.)

Mistakes just mean you learn how to correct and/or move on. There is always an excuse not to do the thing, so just do the thing. I don’t want to be in an assisted living facility one day thinking about the things I wish I did and knowing the only thing that held me back was me. It’s easier to do them and if you fail, oh well, you didn’t fail because you didn’t try.

“We Bite Back” is Now Available in Various Barnes & Noble Bookstores

I am thrilled to announce that we have been approved at my Queer Horror Publishing House – Pride with a Bite – by Barnes & Noble to have our charity anthology, We Bite Back, stocked IN-STORE at various locations across the United States!

Publishing this anthology in such a short timeframe was incredibly difficult, but we are so excited about the impact it is having! We have already raised upwards of $225 from this first quarter of royalties from Human Rights Campaign, and numerous bookstores across the globe are stocking it both online and in-store. A few indie stores even sold out of all copies!

We have many new stores to share that have begun to stock the anthology (including a few in the UK and Australia), so keep an eye out for news on those!

Thank you to everyone who has supported this anthology, and to our contributors for lending their voices. We are truly making a difference!

SHOP “WE BITE BACK” ON OUR WEBSITE

Interview with Author Erika T. Wurth

Erika T. Wurth is a Native author of the new book, The Haunting of Room 904 – a book I devoured not once but twice, and I am not usually a re-reader. Her novel, White Horse, was my introduction to her work, and I immediately loved the gritty and graceful voice she brings to the horror & thriller genres. She is a local author to me, and having grown up in Colorado, I admire how she incorporates landmarks that are so iconic to Denver. This book highlights a tragedy that occurred here, referred to as “the massacre.” Erika incorporated this historical event with paranormal themes in such a searing, yet delicate, way.

I enjoyed reviewing an early copy of The Haunting of Room 904 and interviewing Erika for its release. I am excited to share our interview with you, and I hope that it inspires you to pick up not only her book but to actively read works by Native authors.

SM: It has been a long time since I found a novel so enthralling that I read it in a single evening, and your novel The Haunting of Room 904 did just that. Can you tell me what inspired you to write such a heartfelt yet heartbreaking and essential novel?

ETW: I’m so glad you found it so engaging! The plot in particular, was a bear for me with this one. As to inspiration, a lot of things were going on for me. I like to think I write for joy, primarily, but in many ways, the central themes in this novel revolve around grief and trauma. Historical trauma, regarding the massacre, and intense professional trauma—I feel that at a time in which Natives are gaining ground, there’s also a tremendous amount of violence and lateral violence when it comes to our work. I wish non-natives would check their sources, when it comes to what they’re seeing about us. I was also going through a difficult family trauma at the time, and I think that’s clear with the theme of differences and deep similarities between siblings and how that can affect one’s fundamental identity. However, I also wanted to write a novel about how ceremony can be contemporary and magical and can help us move forward in our lives.

Learning about the massacre made me so angry, first because of how horrific it was, and second because I had never heard of it before. What made you want to incorporate this specific history into your novel?

I grew up not far from where this massacre occurred (right outside of Denver)— so in many ways, it’s always on my mind. Additionally, I have a cousin whose ancestors lost relatives at that massacre.  However, if folks want to read a novel that also addresses Sand Creek by someone who is Cheyenne/Arapahoe, they should read WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange. But it felt necessary to address, and in fact disrespectful not to address something that happened so close to where I grew up and affected someone I love so much.

Being from Colorado myself, I love how you incorporated such important landmarks and chose to highlight the Brown Palace in this novel. Is there a reason you chose this landmark as the focal point of your story?

In many ways, I chose it because it’s cool. And also because I grew up not far from the Brown Palace, and have gone there for various reasons over the years. But mainly because it’s reputed to be haunted. Room 904 is supposed to be haunted by someone I very much based the character off of, a fascinating historical figure when it comes to the city of Denver—though I took much in terms of poetic license. It’s said that when there wasn’t a phone in the room, and the Brown was doing major renovations, they kept getting calls from that room. Additionally, it’s just a great Denver landmark.

By incorporating grief, trauma, and Native history that is so often ignored, your novel is an incredible tool for spreading awareness and increasing empathy. What do you hope that readers will take away from your novel?

I have to admit, I hope that people read works by Indigenous authors for more than education— for fun and joy and because the art of the thing is equal to the art of any book by any person. Because one can always read an essay about subject matter. And I don’t think I’m any different, for example, from a southern writer (of any ethnic background) who incorporates aspects of southern history into their work, which also has a deep history of grief and trauma. That said, though I very much enjoyed incorporating things like haunted mirrors, demons, and other ghostly stuff, of course Native history, specifically as relates to my ancestral line, and to Colorado, matters to me very much.

About Erika T. Wurth

Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and BOTM Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She is an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman for books, and Dana Spector for film. She lives in Denver with her partner, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs.

Please Read: https://erikatwurth.com/statement-on-identity-and-harassment/