Amazon Prime Video’s delicious gay romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue took the world by storm when it premiered this summer. But before it was a streaming juggernaut, it was the brainchild of nonbinary bisexual author Casey McQuiston.

The best-selling romance novel is a perfect example of how LGBTQ+ representation doesn’t always have to come at the cost of outing, homophobia, transphobia, pain, and/or misery. In fact, RWRB’s unapologetically sexy, romantic, hilarious, and joyous themes are what made it a powerhouse to begin with. And it’s not lost on McQuiston that one of their biggest accomplishments of the year, they feel, is getting to learn that “queer triumph doesn’t always require a struggle.”

“It’s OK if I spend a week just writing about people like me making out with each other in different fantastical settings, and it’s OK if my triumph of the day is just making breakfast,” they say. “Sometimes simple pleasures are defiant on their own.”

And RWRB is, indeed, a simple pleasure for so many of their fans in the community.

With a fourth book project on the way soon (this being a queer adult rom-com about lost loves, a European tour, food, wine, bisexuality, art, pleasure, and gender), and some top-secret film and television projects they can’t disclose the details of just yet, McQuiston’s media empire is steadily growing. It is a treat to witness younger LGBTQ+ generations get the kind of representative content they’ve long awaited.

“Queer fiction was such a formative experience for me because as a young person, it was the safest place I had to engage with queerness and the closest thing to a tangible queer community I could access,” they say. “So much of my work now as an author is about taking care of that conduit and preserving it for young queer and trans people who need it the way I did.” @casey.mcquiston