I still remember five years ago, when I had driven up to what is now South Fulton to the State of Black Sci-Fi Convention. I got to meet Milton Davis, Darrell Johnson, Balogun Ojetade and several others, and was especially glad that we had someone (Darrell) writing LGBT-inclusive Black-oriented speculative fiction, for youth and YA even! And that Milton is from Columbus! Quite an experience, was wishing I could come back for Sunday but that was out of the question.

Got back home, got to sleep, woke up and saw the news of a mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando the night before.

One of the worst mornings I’ve had in my life. Whiplash.