Chuck Tingle is known as an autistic, queer author. But almost everything else about him is an enigma.

The Montana-based writer will answer interview questions only via email using playful terms of phrase and a collection of terms like “buckaroos” that have become a second language to fans. For his rare public appearances, he wears a bag over his head. This month, he is scheduled to stop at Booksmith to promote his debut full-length horror novel, “Camp Damascus,” a scathing rebuke of gay conversion therapy. And yes, he plans to have his face covered.

“I always wear my pink mask in public, which is actually a way to unmask in certain ways,” Tingle wrote in an email, adding that he will sign books and answer questions while wearing “one of several cool suits” he bought for his book tour appearances.

Tingle is expected to be joined by San Francisco writer Charlie Jane Anders, award-winning queer author of books and comics, as well as a founder of several events around the city, like the monthly literary variety show “Writers With Drinks.” Anders and Tingle met at San Diego Comic Con in 2022, and since then, Anders told The Chronicle, she’s seen her friend “become a voice for queer and trans people under attack.”

Tingle is best known for his string of surrealistic erotica stories like “Conservative Pounded by the Realization That the Protest Music He Grew Up On Does Not Actually Support His Current Hateful Ideology.” In that one, an anti-unicorn senator is violated by a well-hung CD case of his favorite anti-establishment band in a statuary garden dedicated to Tingle himself. The cover features Tingle’s trademark Photoshop style, where smiling faces are grafted onto inanimate objects next to traditional romance cover models.

These covers have made Tingle a celebrated, albeit niche, punk rock author and an internet icon, thanks to viral shares. It didn’t take long for him to graduate from having billionaire Bigfoot heartthrobs as protagonists to scathing social commentary, such as his trans-dinosaurparody of “Harry Potter.”

“Camp Damascus,” published by horror house Tor Nightfire, is proof that Tingle is more than bizarre sex scenes and trolling. The book is a devastatingly sincere story about a 20-year-old autistic woman named Rose who finds out her close-knit religious community is more sinister than she thinks. When she begins feeling attracted to other women, she receives a visit from a demonic entity dressed like a Target employee. Slowly, she realizes the terrible things her church will do to “save” queer people. The story is intended to resonate with readers who have suffered through a “pray the gay away” approach or ayouth internment camp.

“Horror is a very important and cathartic genre but it also involves a lot of trauma,” said Tingle. “So I do take time to plan out exactly how I want my horror to be presented and what I’m giving to the audience, especially because I write stories about and for marginalized groups of queer and neurodivergent buckaroos.”

Compared to his erotica, “Camp Damascus” is almost normal. The grammar is orthodox; there are no hallmarks of the Tingleverse like cryptids or horny anthropomorphic representations of concepts, and nary a sex scene. Instead, Tingle guides Rose through understanding the trauma her community visited on her. It’s a love story, and a defiant one at that.

That defiance is why another San Francisco author, Jonathan Fortin (“Lilitu: The Memoirs of a Succubus”), believes Tingle is on the rise. Fortin knows transitioning from being a self-published author to working with one of the hottest mainstream horror publishers in the country is no small feat.

“There’s so much rebellion to his work,” said Fortin. “He knows he’s pigeonholed as an erotic artist, but with ‘Damascus,’ he’s writing serious horror. Tor (Nightfire) is huge. … His titles are a chronicle of the discourse and memes of the important stories of the day.”

Tingle himself recognizes that releasing through Tor Nightfire is a chance for his words to reach a new audience.

“跟你the dang truth it does notneedto be released traditionally, but there was a choice made to try something new and to spread a message of love to as many buckaroos as possible,” said Tingle. “Really that is always my motivation, to speak from my heart and create a space where buds can be themselves and celebrate their unique way, and making that space as big as possible is part of my journey.”

The reproach to anti-LGBT bigotry from Tingle is well-timed, as more than500 anti-LGBTQ billshave been filed across the country in state legislatures over the last two years. Many of them became law and hamper the rights of gender/sex minorities. Meanwhile, conversion therapy remains legal in many states, including Tingle’s own Montana,despite being ineffective and dangerous. A voice like Tingle’s, bizarre as it may sometimes be, is needed, said Anders.

“I think it’s a way to show we are here and that we’re going to stay here,” Anders said. “Our lived experiences matter, and we deserve to live and love as ourselves. The more they try to erase us, the more we will continue to be here.”

Jef Rouner is a freelance writer.