Jules Cassidy and Robin Chadwick…
made TIME Magazine’s list of the 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now.
It’s not every day a nearly twenty-year-old book makes a list like this!
TIME had a really nice write up, saying:
With Suzanne Brockmann’s 2007 high-octane queer romance, All Through the Night, she crucially helped expand the genre by publishing a mainstream romance novel with a main character who is gay…. When the book starts, it’s a few nights before Christmas, and FBI agent Jules Cassidy, who became a fan favorite after making his debut in Brockmann’s 2001 novel, The Defiant Hero, and his fiancé, Hollywood hunk Robin Chadwick, are preparing for their seemingly doomed wedding.
You can read the entire piece about ATTN here: https://time.com/6996609/all-through-the-night/
“Crucially helped expand the genre,” they say. I love that, because that indeed was my intention, from the very start of my romance writing career.
You see, back in the day, I was not preaching to the choir. In fact, quite a few of my readers had their hearts and minds changed by their long friendship with Jules, through the course of my nineteen-book Troubleshooters series. (ATTN was TS # 12, FYI.)
So yes, my eternal thanks to all of you who, absolutely, made FBI agent Jules Cassidy a “fan favorite,” and clamored for me to include his romantic story arc in my “high-octane” military romance novels.
In all honesty, I was gonna do it anyway and drag you along, kicking and screaming, if necessary. But it was really nice that (most of) you went all-in for Jules’s chance to win an HEA that ended in a legal marriage for Jules and his man!
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for that!
So let’s talk about why I’m extra excited that this book is on Time’s list of “Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now.”
Right now. Right now. Right now.
Right now is a hot, steaming, terrifying mess.
It’s a time of terrible stress and peril for our democracy—for our very freedom as Americans.
In this hot mess in which we all find ourselves right now, the rights of my son and his husband and all of our LGBTQ+ family and friends are on the line. The rights of women are on the line. The rights of Black people, of anyone not viewed as white (and cis male) are on the line. The rights of all of us to worship the god of our choice (including no god at all) are on the line.
And in this upcoming election, with voting that ends on November 5th, we Americans will decide if we choose democracy over fascism.
We’ll decide if we move forward into the future or go back… to a time where Jules and Robin would be forced to live in the shadows.
I’m in this battle for my LGTBQ+ family’s existence, for our freedom, for our rights as Americans, and whether or not you know it, your rights are on the line, too, too.
But let’s bring this back to my TIME Best-50 book, All Through the Night.
If democracy doesn’t win in November, the tremendous progressive work toward marriage equality that we all helped achieve by writing, buying, reading, and putting All Through the Night on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list back in 2007 will begin to unravel.
To remind you, as stated in the TIME Best 50 Romance Novels to Read Right Now blurb on All Through the Night:
(Brockmann donated all of her earnings from All Through the Night, in perpetuity, to MassEquality, a Boston-based organization dedicated to defending LGBTQ rights in the state.)
(You gotta love a blurb that includes a bit in parentheses. Have I ever sent you a newsletter that didn’t include at least one? No. No I have not.)
As many of you know, all of my advances and royalties and subrights royalties (well over $300,000 to date) from this book where Jules and Robin get married in Boston continue to go to MassEquality, an organization that led the way in achieving marriage rights for LGBTQ+ people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—an organization that clearly still has an important role to play in protecting LGBTQ+ rights today.
Because, well… By now you’ve surely heard of Project 2025.
And if you haven’t...
Taraji P. Henson says it best:
“Pay attention! It’s not a secret! Look it up! They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens! The Project 2025 plan is not a game! LOOK IT UP!!”
LOOK IT UP, indeed!
Project 2025, exactly as it was written, all 900+ pages of it, is right there on the internet for all to read.
Project 2025 strips rights and freedoms away from all of us, but let’s focus, shall we, on what it will do to our LGBTQ+ friends and family—like my son, your trans daughter, your gay uncle, your pansexual best friend, and your favorite fictional character Jules Cassidy and his husband Robin.
A writer I admire, Even Hurst, says it best:
Project 2025 Wants Its Hands On Your Porn (To Outlaw It And Imprison Its Makers) That's actual porn, and also they think 'gay people existing' is porn.
He writes:
Let’s use this fun searchable version of Project 2025 to find the times it mentions hot boner porns.
Again with the creepy fixation on trans people. This time it’s more explicit, though: “Pornography should be outlawed.” And people who make it “should be imprisoned.” (Note from Suz: Me. That’s me they’re talking about and all of your other favorite authors of LGBTQ+ romance novels.) And “educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.” Etc.
You notice how they seem to be talking about two entirely separate things at the same time? That’s not an accident.
Evan goes on to write:
Remember that these people believe exposure to the existence of LGBTQ people is tantamount to and on the same level as exposure to pornography.
Porn! It can mean whatever you want it to mean! (And it also means actual porn, which, again, they want to ban and imprison those who make it.)
When they talk about “transgender ideology and the sexualization of children,” they really aren’t talking about PornHub. They’re talking about young adult books that discuss sex with young adults like they’re, well, young adults….
This is what their book-banning, book-burning crusade is about.
This is related to their helplessness and rage over the fact that LGBTQ people exist, and they can’t seem to do a fucking thing about it. These people have been told time and time and time again that LGBTQ people simply exist, that children do not have to be “groomed” into it, that they don’t have to be brainwashed into the idea, but they refuse to believe it. They cling to silly fantasies that they can prevent their own children from being LGBTQ — ha ha — if only they prevent them from being exposed to LGBTQ people and “ideology.”
They want to make sure their kids aren’t exposed to messages that it’s OK to be LGBTQ — that you don’t have to kill yourself or hide in the closet from yourself your entire life — because that interferes with their own grooming of their children, into the hateful Project 2025 white Christian Nazi sickfuck lifestyle.
That means TV. That means drag queens reading The Poky Little Puppy at the library. That means books where LGBTQ kids can see themselves represented, even in discussions about sex.
You can (and should!) read Evan’s entire article here. https://www.wonkette.com/p/project-2025-wants-its-hands-on-your
So the people behind Project 2025 (a who’s who of Trump appointees from his past administration) think I should be in jail for the books and films and TV shows I write. Let me repeat that for you: "THE PEOPLE WHO PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE IT SHOULD BE IMPRISONED."
So that’s what’ll happen to me and other writers of LGBTQ+ books, TV shows and movies under Project 2025.
Let’s look at what happens to Jules and Robin—or to your fifteen year old daughter who just came out, and will meet and want to marry the woman of her dreams in 2034:
Using Evan’s fun searchable version of Project 2025, I typed in “marriage” and found:
From p. 513:
For the sake of child well-being, programs should affirm that children require and deserve both the love and nurturing of a mother and the play and protection of a father. (Note from Suz: Is it just me or do you think that sounds creepy AF, too? Moms “love and nurture,” while Dads “play and protect”…? WTF? Of course these are the people who believe that women should stay in marriages with men who beat them for the “sake of the children.”) Despite recent congressional bills like the Respect for Marriage Act that redefine marriage to be the union between any two individuals, HMRE program grants should be available to faith- based recipients who affirm that marriage is between not just any two adults, but one man and one unrelated woman. (Note from Suz: Emphasis mine.)
Also from p. 513
…maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family.
Okay. So yeah.
We’ve learned the hard way from the gang behind Project 2025 that an established right like, oh, say, abortion can be taken away.
And they flat-out told us when they took away our right to abortion that they’re coming after equal marriage.
What will that look like when it’s gone? Will Jules and Robin’s marriage be allowed to stand, be “grandfathered in” if you will, so that only your fifteen year old lesbian daughter and her future soulmate will suffer? (With hundreds of thousands of their unable-to-get-married peers?)
Who can know?
But I do know this:
If we stand together, if we vote in record numbers FOR democracy, FOR moving forward instead of back, FOR our shared values of love and equality and inclusion…?
We can keep Project 2025 from become our ugly-ass future.
So.
To celebrate my groundbreaking 2007 queer romance novel All Through the Night’s appearance on TIME’s 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now list, I’m gonna give you MY list of great informative sources that you can read, watch, and—most importantly—share with your friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers to make sure they, too, know about Project 2025’s plan to take away our hard-won American freedoms.
Articles about Project 2025
We’ll start with People Magazine, who did some solid, nonpartisan, fact-based and tremendously accessible reporting on the creepy weirdness that is Project 2025. This is the link I send out first, when I want relatively low-info people to pay attention to what Project 2025 means for our future: https://people.com/what-is-project-2025-inside-far-right-plan-trump-presidency-8622964
Michael Harriot’s brilliant piece I read the entire Project 2025. Here are the top 10 ways it would harm Black America in The Grio is an important must-read-and-share: https://thegrio.com/2024/07/15/i-read-the-entire-project-2025-here-are-the-top-10-ways-it-would-harm-black-america/
Here’s my favorite site for plain talk about Project 2025—the Red Wine and Blue Project 2025 Explainer: https://redwine.blue/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/project_2025_explainer.pdf
And here’s Red Wine and Blue’s Project 2025 Toolkit with great info and graphics that’re easy to share: https://redwine.blue/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/project_2025_toolkit.pdf
Here’s the Early Worm’s Project 2025 page: https://www.erlywrm.com/project-2024
And Democracy Forward’s People’s Guide to Project 2025: https://democracyforward.org/the-peoples-guide-to-project-2025/
And don’t forget Evan Hurst’s “fun” searchable link to the actual 900+ page Project 2025, so you can read this weird and creepy shit exactly as it’s been written: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24088042-project-2025s-mandate-for-leadership-the-conservative-promise
Videos about Project 2025
Check out Jessica Craven’s video: “Think you know how bad Project 2025 is? Think again.” (And while you’re at it, subscribe to Jessica’s Chop Wood Carry Water, a daily enewsletter that provides easy, doable tasks to help save democracy.) https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com
Here’s another great video called “If you haven’t heard about Project 2025:”
Historian Heather Cox Richardson Talks Project 2025:
Here’s an informative video in which Senator Elizabeth Warren discusses what Project 2025 means to the finances of the average American family: (Spoiler alert: taxes will go up around $2500 for the average family of four while billionaires get $$$$$ back. This is not speculation, the gang behind Project 2025 actually provides the math!!)
And if you want to laugh a little while you’re horrified by Project 2025, here’s John Oliver’s explanation:
Ditto for Stephen Colbert on Project 2025:
Okay.
Go forth and share!
One last thing to say about the TIME list: The entire 50-book list is worth your time and attention. Lotta my own fav authors are on this list—and it is a very modern, progressive, diverse list of books that is truly representative of 2024’s romance genre. (Good job, TIME book team!)
It’s up to us to make sure that these fine books also represent 2025’s romance genre—and that we still have a romance genre in 2025!!
Here’s a link to the entire list: https://time.com/collection/best-romance-books/
And here’s a piece called How We Chose The List: https://time.com/7003679/how-we-chose-best-romance-books/
Okay, I was lying. This is the last thing I have to say about the TIME list:
To celebrate being on this illustrious list, Ballantine Books has put the American ebook edition of All Through the Night on e-sale for U.S.$3.99
You can find links to all of your fav U.S. ebooksellers on my website’s All Through the Night page: https://suzannebrockmann.com/books/troubleshooters/all-through-the-night/
So. (Are you still here, still reading? Go, you! You care, that’s terrific!!!)
Project 2025.
What do we do? How do we fight back?
#1) We make sure we’re registered to vote, and we throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic and democracy-supporting candidates up and down the ballot, including (especially!!) in our local school board and library board elections. Yeah, I’m telling you to vote deep dark blue and maybe you don’t like that idea, but it’s time to face the facts that your grandfather’s conservative party is long gone. Your choice in this election is to join us long-time, hard-core progressives, or to vote for the people who want an authoritarian dictatorship, with everything that comes with Project 2025. This is not a game. Hold your nose if you have to, and vote for the not-fascists. (Me, I’ll be voting with joy in my heart. I think Kamala Harris is brilliant and strong, and the perfect leader for this moment in time.)
#2) We make sure all of our family and friends recognize that we’re in danger of losing many (more) of our taken-for-granted freedoms if Project 2025 is put into play, so we must get LOUD and spread the word.
#3) Volunteer! Do something to help register democrats and independents and then volunteer to get out the vote when early voting starts in late September. (The Fated States team of phonebanking romance writers and readers is getting ready to activate! Sign up to be notified for that at https://fatedmates.net/fatedstates!)
Until then, I’ve been postcarding with Field Team 6 to register democrats in swing states—this is an organization that is truly as cool as its name. More about them in a later newsletter, but do check them out. Their motto is “Register Democrats, Save the World!” I’ve been working with them and postcarding to folks in North Carolina. It’s easy to do—and it’s something to do RIGHT NOW! (Hey! That’s the theme of this newsletter, thanks TIME Magazine!)
#4) Vote for Harris (and every Dem on your ballot) on Day One of early voting! If you fill out and return your ballot on the very first day that mail-in voting starts in your state, this allows your state Democratic Party’s GOTV campaign to cross your name off their list and stop calling you! If every reliable Democrat votes ASAP, the campaign can then focus on getting out the vote among all of the less reliable Dem voters, which means we can turn out waaaay more Democrats to vote—which means we’ll win. (I know a lot of people like to vote on “election day,” but really that’s the dead-last day of voting. Voting on the very first day actually increases turn-out, too! People see the huge numbers and get on the train!)
Re: #3 above (Volunteer!): Here’s the link to the main Field Team 6 page: https://www.fieldteam6.org Do check them out!
If you want to find out more about FT6’s postcarding efforts, go to Field Team 6’s home page, click on “Volunteer” and select “postcarding” from the dropdown menu!
Again, more about that in my next (much too long) email!
Okay, that’s it for now!
Whew, that was a long one. Thank you for your time and attention.
Please never stop fighting for our freedom, for our democracy, for equality, equity, peace, love, hope, and for the rights of ALL of our neighbors both here and around the world,
Suz
P.S. How about that Tim Walz, huh?