In this episode of #dkLa! Friends: Not Your CEO’s Corner, Layeh sits down with Michael Zislis, founder of JPN Guides, to explore the art of immersive travel in Japan.

Michael shares how cultural fluency, historical storytelling, and personalized planning can transform any trip into a deeper journey.

From local traditions to hidden gems, his approach encourages travelers to step off the beaten path and engage authentically with Japan’s past and present.

This is an episode about curiosity, respect, and the transformative power of travel — one guidebook at a time.

Welcome to the season finale of #dkLa! Friends – the Pride Month Special that wraps up our very first year of stories, surprises, and long-form conversations with creative minds.

Today’s guest is Alex Kingsley — writer, game designer, playwright, and comedic weirdo of the highest caliber. In a year that’s taken us across timelines, genres, and unexpected friendships, this feels like the right kind of strange to end on.

Alex is the author of Empress of Dust, a sci-fi debut that blends queerness and world-building with poetic precision, published by Space Wizard Science Fantasy. They’re also the voice behind The Strange Garden and Other Weird Tales — a collection that asks what it means to be strange, to be human, and to laugh through the uncanny.

In this episode, we talk creative process, queerness in genre fiction, and what it means to tell the truth… through something that feels delightfully unreal.

🌀 Expect:

Awkward joys of being "too weird" for the mainstream

How fiction holds queerness, grief, and love in the same breath

A full-circle reflection on indie storytelling and year one of #dkLa! Friends

🎧 This one’s for the misfits, the dreamers, the genre-hopping believers.

Because the strange things often end up being the true things.

Thanks for reading Real Anarchy: A #dkLa! Zine Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome to a very special episode of #dkLa! Friends — Layeh’s Bookshelf, as we celebrate one year of this beautiful community... and Pride Month with a guest who embodies resilience, imagination, and the spirit of indie storytelling.

Meet Heather Tracy, writer, copy editor, and co-captain of the fiercely independent press Space Wizard Science Fantasy. Her debut novel, Only a Chapter, is a speculative romance that bends timelines, explores parallel realities, and holds within it a raw, personal reflection of her breast cancer journey — woven into a tale of love, queerness, and defiant hope.

Beyond the page, Heather is also the mastermind behind Melvin’s Travel Adventures, a travel agency designed for fellow nerds, offering curated ‘Nerdventures’ that make fandom dreams come true.

This episode is a joyful dive into:

📖 The power of writing as a form of survival and transformation

🌈 How queerness, community, and chosen family shape her creative world

💪 Turning adversity into art — and why speculative fiction is the perfect canvas for radical honesty

✈️ Her adventures in blending geek culture, travel, and storytelling

A tribute to the magic of indie publishing, the strength of queer stories, and the endless chapters we continue to write for ourselves.

Thanks for reading Real Anarchy: A #dkLa! Zine Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.