101: Matt Cain: The Castle of Stories, LGBTQ+ Fiction & Pansy Publishing

This week on In My Good Books, Susie is joined by bestselling author, journalist and LGBTQ+ advocate Matt Cain to kick off Pride Month with a warm, funny and thought-provoking conversation about storytelling, identity, publishing and queer history.Matt chats about his uplifting new novel The Castle of Stories, a beautiful story set in a real-life Italian castle inherited by his husband’s family. The novel follows a newly blended family spending the summer restoring the crumbling property, only to uncover hidden secrets from the past through old letters and photographs. The conversation also explores LGBTQ+ history and the importance of preserving stories that were often erased or hidden. Matt shares how his role as a patron of LGBTQ+ History Month has influenced his writing and explains why fiction can help fill in the gaps left behind by history.Matt also opens up about his experiences in publishing and why he decided to launch his own independent LGBTQ+ publisher, Pansy Publishing. He talks candidly about the challenges queer authors still face in commercial fiction, the importance of making books accessible to everyone and why reading should never feel elitist or intimidating.There’s also plenty of behind-the-scenes chat about Matt’s new Substack diary project, where he plans to share the realities of life as an author and publisher — including plenty of publishing industry gossip. You can subscribe here: https://substack.com/@mattcainwriterBooks discussed in this episode include:The Mercy Step by Marsha HutchinsonHuman Animal by Seth InsuaFruit Fly by Josh SilverPlus, Matt gives a sneak peek at the historical fiction project he’s currently working on.Whether you’re looking for your next Pride Month read, interested in the future of queer publishing, or simply love uplifting conversations about books and creativity, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.You can follow Matt Cain online and find out more about The Castle of Stories and Pansy Publishing here:https://www.mattcainwriter.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGn9eSVxN6Rul1iD7752aFdpwsE2-obMOPJPfsNqJg_7YGh0LNtQvGkXYtDJ7s_aem_6Z57qPJofLY0rKJLGGRarQhttps://pansybooks.co.uk/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnXu5j1NNnoyex3a1OvBRgrBhxVOw_-Lk1claV4LHy1MD3upzp28YJkxzO_64_aem_GdKvKWv53eRoK_ubjlmt4gYou can buy The Castle of Stories here: https://pansybooks.co.uk/linktree/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnEcdmz3Tk5qjfQ1woMaVWjHDF9G7CZASZ2Oq8I46n2g03E47mKBLCEvILNw8_aem_QOGAEdeFkVxlaiE1zlbD7w