The title of this blog post is a quote from Toni Morrison, “All good art is political. There is none that isn’t.” She goes on to point out that Shakespeare and Aeschylus wrote plays poking at kings, and that good art should be beautiful and political at the same time. That she wasn’t interested in art that wasn’t rooted in the world.

There is a meme going around on TikTok these days that starts by saying, “This is a dog account (or a horse account, or a gardening account, or a hiking account, insert the thing you love here) but also a political one because you can’t [do your favorite thing] if ICE shoots you in the face.”

(Yes, I do understand the irony of commenting on anything along these lines from a platform that is now state-run here in the US.)

Yesterday, I saw an Instagram post where a baker went on a tear because someone said she shouldn’t be political on her own account because her followers “weren’t there for that” and she was incandescent with rage that people assumed because she was into baking and cottage core that she was also into human rights violations and the acts of terrorism taking place in cities across the US right now. She stated unequivocally that she did not care if she lost followers because if that’s how people felt, she didn’t want those people following her in the first place.

And yet we’re frequently told as content creators, brand marketers, and artists looking to sell our work that being political is the LAST thing we should do. Usually by people who wish to see the status quo maintained and who do not feel at risk of losing any rights that matter to them.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Yesterday, I answered a #pretendpanel question on bluesky on whether I allowed politics to impact my writing.

The beginning of my threaded reply is screen shot here:

Yes. I began writing a story at the end of 2024 that was meant to be a fun little palette cleanser between Ginny Reese books, a paranormal cozy mystery in which the protagonist discovers her secret power is the ability to weaponize ice.

<insert your favorite face palm gif here>

Now I don’t write directly about politics or world events. During lockdown in 2020, my family had to separate into two households: one with high-risk and/or WFH members and me by myself, an essential worker expected to show up every day unless I was actively sick. I don’t make “great art” by any means. I write stories that I like to think are intelligent, captivating escapism. Between 2020 and 2021, I wrote two books, neither of which mentioned Covid-19. Bishop’s Gambit is set in the 1950s, prior to covid. An Embarrassment of Itches (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 1) was written at a time when the last thing I wanted to think about was the pandemic. Because Itches was a series starter, the lack of any mention of Covid has carried through the series.

But if you’ve read Itches (or any of my books for that matter), you know I write about female main characters coming into their strength and power with the support of their partners. Women who learn to stand up to bullies, to fight for what’s right. You’ll read “nevertheless, she persisted” worked into a paragraph, or find an explanation of why red lipstick became a statement against fascism (Hitler hated it). As for my heroes, you’re more likely to find cinnamon rolls than alpha males. Not pushovers by any means, but decent, kind men who don’t feel the need to degrade or humiliate the love of their lives.

So even if my stories aren’t political per se, they still reflect the things I believe in. Common decency, compassion, empathy. 

There’s a line from A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) where Ginny tells the killer that empathy is not a character flaw. I stand by that 100%.

Which is why it almost physically hurts for me to write what was supposed to be a take on Frozen meets Practical Magic. The ice metaphor is baked into the story–I can’t give my main character, Morgan Frost, a different super power. The story is 90% complete. I can either bin it or make the story more meaningful.

I chose to make it more meaningful. 

Yes, it’s still a lightweight paranormal cozy mystery, but I’m reworking certain elements. I’m taking back ice as a force for good in this story, and seeing that the powerful and corrupt get a satisfying comeuppance. I may not be able to make those changes in the real world, but I can make them in mine, and hopefully silly little stories like this one can help people get through a tough day by stepping outside their cares for a few hours. Maybe even give them hope.

This story hasn’t been released because it’s not ready yet. It’s not good enough. But when it is, there will be no doubt where I stand. Because it is more important to me to write a good story than it is to hit an arbitrary, self-imposed publishing deadline. It is more important to me to tell a good story than remain politically neutral in the hopes of not losing any followers. Because silence is a stance as well.