I’m an artist, seamstress, and writer, so am always looking for new, fun creative projects! I opened this store several years ago to sell clip-on bow ties and custom embroidered handkerchiefs with library call numbers on them.

I closed my Etsy store when I started writing my first novel, Behrouz Gets Lucky, a queer erotic romance that was published in 2016. I‘d become too busy working full-time and writing to keep my Etsy store open.

Fast forward to 2016; I met a fabulous collaborator at my straight job! He edited and I wrote The Butch Lesbians of the 20s, 30s, and 40s Coloring Book, quickly followed by The Butch Lesbians of the 50s, 60s, and 70s Coloring Book. I researched and wrote biographies of the historical international butches for each coloring book. I loved learning more about our rich queer history; it gave me hope, despite my rising despair and helplessness with the right wing direction of politics in the US.

In early 2018, I started my next project, which ended up being the book, Resistance: The LGBT Fight Against Fascism in WWII, which was released in November of 2018. The parallels between our current situation and the early 1930s had become obvious to many of us. I was fueled by my intense anger and my desire to give my people a road-map of how our ancestors resisted. I could not stop writing, and soon the coloring book outgrew it’s roots, becoming a fully illustrated history book of LGBT activists and citizens during the time period immediately preceding WWII and the war. Resistance: The LGBT Fight Against Fascism in WWII was a finalist for the highest LGBTQ book award in the nation, the Lambda.

But, I remained furious. How could I not be livid with rage? One thing that I learned while researching Resistance: The LGBT Fight Against Fascism in WWII, was that we need to act, to resist, using our unique skills and talents, and that each act of resistance is valuable.

I reopened my Etsy store because my skill in resistance is creativity. These bandanas are an expression of my outrage; let them become an expression of yours. As to another book, I’m in the final stages of editing a sequel to Behrouz Gets Lucky.
- Avery Cassell