megaeralwrites

[megaeralwrites]

Happy Pride Month, friends. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Arguing over sartorial matters yet again

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Naming characters? No sweat. Naming a story? *rends clothes, gnashes teeth, curses self unto the seventh generation*

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You guys. YOU GUYS. LOOK AT THIS THE SHABTI ART. LOOK AT THIS DASHIEL. LOOK AT THAT HERMANN. THE COLORS. THE LINEWORK. THE LITTLE CARTOON DASHIEL IN THE LAST SLIDE! AAAAAAAAH *gibbers incoherently, flails, falls over*

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Has your name every appeared in the credits of a book, or is it likely to in the near future? Then you should join AUTHORS AGAINST BOOK BANS! Transcript below the cut. A version of this zine formatted for print is available to download on my patreon.

Do you make books? Yes? I want YOU to join Authors Against Book Bans! By Maia Kobabe

WHAT IS AABB? 

A coalition of writers, illustrators, editors & other book creators, standing united against the unconstitutional movement to limit the freedom to read. We support the availability of diverse voices in our libraries, in our schools, & in our culture. We pledge to band together against the oppression of literature, to speak when our voices are silenced, to go where our bodies are needed, & to fight to ensure this freedom.

Our concern is not only for the books, but for the children, families, educators, librarians, & communities who suffer when the freedom to read is challenged and taken away.

WHAT CAN AABB OFFER YOU? 

- Regional groups working on legislation to protect authors & the freedom to read state-by-state

- Online trainings on digital security, public speaking, & how to counter book challenges in your community

-Affinity groups for BIPOC authors, queer authors, authors with disabilities, indie, nonfiction, romance writers & more

-Support if your book is challenged!

-A very active discord community

Author: What if my book hasn’t been challenged? 

Maia: JOIN!

Author: Ok, but what if I’m really busy and can’t do much organizing right now? 

Maia: JOIN ANYWAY! 

Even if all you do is sign up, your membership will help lend weight to the letters AABB sends to publishers & legislators. As of January 2025, AABB has 3500+ members. Check out the recent open letter to publishers on AABB’s socials & feel free to share it with your contacts. 

An Open Letter to Our Publishers- instagram.com/p/DCzYmKcR8uq

Maia: I’ve been facing intense challenges to my book since 2021. Knowing that I am not alone in the fight against censorship is what keeps my spirits up! 

Watching the folks in AABB share information, co-write legislation, show up to library & school board meetings, & speak up to publishers about the need to protect diverse books & minority authors has been amazing! 

This is a weird & scary time to be an author, but you are not alone! Join thousands of us fighting for the freedom to read, the freedom to write, the freedom to teach, the freedom to learn, & the freedom to share our stories!

AABB on instagram / AABB on bluesky

[megaeralwrites]

This is huge: You can now buy ebooks from Bookshop.org, a website that helps boost sales to local independent bookshops!

To read an ebook purchased from Bookshop.org, you must use their own app (for a mobile device) or read it in a web browser. So, unfortunately, you can't (yet) send it to your ereader, but still, you're able to buy ebooks and also share a little bit of that profit with your local bookstore, if they're an affiliate!

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I see you all in the reblogs going "????!?!?!" about "The Irish Were Egyptians Long Ago," which was also my reaction! It's played for laffs in the lyrics, but one of my professors at U. Chicago many years ago informed me that this is, in fact, A Thing. There's a medieval Irish legend about the Gaels being descended from an Egyptian princess named Scota, which was presumably the (very loose) inspiration for this song and others like it (yes, there's more than one--see below).

If you're curious about what the song actually sounds like, here's a recording by Billy Murray. But keep in mind that it's very much, uh... a product of its time.

And there's more than one song in my collection that touches on this notion. See also "Cleopatra Finnegan" (image courtesy of the Library of Congress because my copy is in a box somewhere):

These have been languishing in my old Flickr albums for years. I have a huge collection of these sheet music oddities from the Egyptian Revival craze of the 1910s-1920s (with a few earlier and later outliers). Some of them are hella weird.

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OC Kiss Week days 1 + 2 featuring my turn of the century morticians whom I love but never make any content for

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Hi! I’m currently reading The Shabti and really enjoying it!! I have to ask, as a lover of Jeeves stories, and your J/W fics specifically, is the bit with Dashiel finding an “infant Samuel at prayer” statue on Hermann’s mantlepiece an easter egg for the P. G. Wodehouse fans? I got so excited when I read that haha!

Yes, it 100% is!!! Ahahaha, I'm so glad someone spotted it! 😆

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Hey look, it's-a me! The Shabti and I will be at Romance Con in Milwaukee this September. Stop by to meet me and the rest of the massive lineup of romance authors--it's gonna be rad!

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Due to some changes taking place at CamCat, the paperback release for The Shabti will be happening a little later than expected this year. But if you've been waiting for it, rest assured . . . it's coming. Beware its inexorable approach.

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I wanted to do a more finished painting, but I have a horrific sloppy cold and I just don't have it in me. 🫠 So here's some slapdash Leyendecker-inspired Dashmann! I hope you all have the best possible 2025. See you in the new year...

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getting teary eyed thinking about gerda gottlieb's paintings of her wife after she transitioned

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If it's okay for me to step in with a self-rec, the main character of my debut novel, The Shabti, is a gay man with mobility issues and chronic pain caused by a leg injury.

hello there! :) i was wondering if you had any queer reads with a disabled main character? i’ve had so many ankle injuries and so much anxiety in the last couple of months that i could scream lol, so i thought reading a book where the main character is similar-ish to me might be a good bet! i’m just not exactly sure how to search for stuff like this, if that makes sense…

Yep, you can search right here! https://lgbtqreads.com/representation/disability-neurodivergence/

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If you missed out on grabbing The Shabti last time it was on sale, you're in luck! The eBook is $0.99 on Amazon, Apple Books, and Kobo (and possibly other places I don't know about). Treat yourself or snag it as a gift for your favorite fan of Egyptology, early 20th-century Spiritualism, 1930s pulp fiction, supernatural mystery, and/or M/M romance.

[megaeralwrites]

Here is my awards eligibility post for The Shabti, my spooky, sweet, and joyfully pulpy debut. A reformed phony medium and a gentle Egyptology professor grapple with a haunted artifact (and fall in love). 

Historical fantasy/supernatural thriller with a tender queer romance at its heart.

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Reblogging this because looking at them helps me feel better.

I'm on a drawing kick again, which is nice! The scene where Hermann and Dashiel dance to "What Is This Thing Called Love" is one of my favorite romantic moments in The Shabti.