rablackwellwrites

[rablackwellwrites]

~new video~ go check it out if you are like I was, screaming with despair into the void about the lack of queer representation, and the abundance of homophobia in fantasy worlds! fear not my friends, there is a solution: read indie!

[rablackwellwrites]

reblog if you have skilled writer friends and you're damn proud of them

[rablackwellwrites]

I learned how to type on a typewriter, and I have been told that, when I'm typing, it sounds like I'm trying to murder the keyboard. Well, a few weeks ago, I saw another writer with a typewriter style mechanical keyboard and I was like 😍

So here is my new clicky clicky typewriter keyboard!

Soooo much beautiful clicking, so many lovely sounds and lights. I can already feel the words flowing.

[rablackwellwrites]

Hydrangea collection.

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books made of magic, fairytales, poems and love

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I've picked two books from the TBR Tombola today, and through a series of wild coincidences they are both:

Books on my Kobo

Re-reads

Born from the internet (especially tumblr)

Written by one of my friends

Anyway hurrah for What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling and Hunger Pangs by @thebibliosphere 🎉

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Hey, ive been really interested in your book but ive heard a whole lot of chaos that comes from companies taking money from the authors and since I dont know anything for sure, do you have a place where I can buy your book and be sure you receive as much as possible?

The main place to get my book would be from Amazon at the moment. I will look more closely at other options, but as of right now, they're the only ones who will print on demand and take care of basically the whole process for me when someone orders. They aren't much more helpful with selling than traditional publishers, but the main thing they are is *accessible*

If someone finds me a service that's easy to use, easy to access, does all the work like Amazon does, and pays better, I desperately hope they'll let me know because there are eleventy billion publishers out there and they ALL SWEAR to be the best thing for authors on the planet.

Researching this type of thing is extremely time consuming and I don't know if I can trust aggregators to compare and contrast them in an honest way so that I can make the best decision

Because when I choose a new publisher, I would like them to be my publisher for life. I don't want to make this choice again. This has been years, and it's only getting harder and more companies are being scammy and stupid and predatory. At least with Amazon I know what I'm getting

Goodness, I kinda didn't mean to info dump like this, but I need to put this information out into the world because I actually need help with this. Everybody thinks *their* publishing company is the best, but then when I look into them, there are massive problems even getting the book into their system. Or it costs money. Or the quality sucks. Or the wait times suck for customers. Or the pay rate isn't any higher after all the fees

I'm not just writing. I have an entire life to take care of, and this would take many, many, MANY hours to research.

Please, if someone is willing to help????

[rablackwellwrites]

*Picks up jester by back of his tunic and gives him a shake* Jingle jingle pay attention

[rablackwellwrites]

the color signatures of various elements when ignited

FB image credit: Ceres Science

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gay vampire novels 🤝 QLL 🤝 academic queer theory

shoutout to our patrons in academia! <3 we love hearing how y’all use the library 🌈📚

two more weeks of our fundraiser, and we’re 50% to our goal of $50k! chip in, spread the word, & help us thrive through the next year & beyond 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️📚

[rablackwellwrites]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 1B

Book summaries below:

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

It is not the monster you must fear, but the monster it makes of men. . .

For readers of Circe or Ariadne, a brilliant literary revisiting of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein with a fresh, queer, provocative twist.

Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, but she doesn't know why or how…

The 1850s is a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary, with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband Henry, but without wealth and connections, their options are limited.

But when Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle's past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing their future… Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland, to Henry's intriguing but reclusive sister Maisie, and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret.

Our Hideous Progeny is a sumptuous tale of ambition and obsession, of forbidden love and sabotage; an adventure story that blends classic, immersive storytelling with contemporary themes.

Setting: London, 1850

Historical fiction, retelling, gothic, Victorian, 1850s, adult

The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery

The story of two women whose lives intersect in late-nineteenth-century Japan, The Teahouse Fire is also a portrait of one of the most fascinating places and times in all of history—Japan as it opens its doors to the West. It was a period when wearing a different color kimono could make a political statement, when women stopped blackening their teeth to profess an allegiance to Western ideas, and when Japan’s most mysterious rite—the tea ceremony—became not just a sacramental meal, but a ritual battlefield.

We see it all through the eyes of Aurelia, an American orphan adopted by the Shin family, proprietors of a tea ceremony school, after their daughter, Yukako, finds her hiding on their grounds. Aurelia becomes Yukako’s closest companion, and they, the Shin family, and all of Japan face a time of great challenges and uncertainty. Told in an enchanting and unforgettable voice, The Teahouse Fire is a lively, provocative, and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability.

Setting: Late 19th-century Japan

Historical fiction, literary fiction, turn-of-the-century, adult

[rablackwellwrites]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 1B

Book summaries below:

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city's biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can't let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming's newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He's barely able to run his life—he's never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he'll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can't deny. But what feels possible in secret—this fragile, tender thing between them—seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they're willing to fight.

Setting: 1950s New York

Historical fiction, romance, 1950s, adult

That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole

Mercy Alston knows the best thing to do with pesky feelings like "love" and "hope": avoid them at all cost. Serving as a maid to Eliza Hamilton, and an assistant in the woman's stubborn desire to preserve her late husband's legacy, has driven that point home for Mercy—as have her own previous heartbreaks. When Andromeda Stiel shows up at Hamilton Grange for an interview in her grandfather's stead, Mercy's resolution to live a quiet, pain-free life is tested by the beautiful, flirtatious, and entirely overwhelming dressmaker.

Andromeda is a woman who knows what she wants and resolutely overcomes anything that tries to stop her. She's a seamstress, shopkeeper, and soon to be owner of her very own boarding house—if she doesn't get distracted by Mercy, a luminescent woman furiously trying to dim her own light. Andromeda is intrigued, and when Mercy declares that she doesn't believe in love—well, Andromeda does love a challenge.

They find in each other both friendship and a fierce attraction that won't be denied. Mercy begins dusting off the parts of herself she'd locked away for safekeeping, and Andromeda finds in Mercy something more fulfilling than the thrill of the chase. Neither is prepared for love, though, and both must learn to trust in the possibility that it will be enough.

Setting: 1820s New York

Historical fiction, romance, 1820s, novella, adult

[rablackwellwrites]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 1B

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.

Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.

Setting: World War I

Historical fiction, literary fiction, WWI, war novel, 1910s, adult

The Comfortable Courtesan: Being Memoirs by Clorinda Cathcart [That Has Been a Lady of the Town These Several Years] by L.A. Hall (The Comfortable Courtesan series)

Endorsement from submitter: "A sex and sex work positive polyamorous(F/F/M) historical romance written with an eye to historical accuracy. Madam C— is a delightfully benevolent schemer and she deserves all the love."

Apologia for my temerity in writing this memoir: I shall not say how, and why, at the age of 15 I became the mistress of the Earl of Craven, because I never had the kind of opportunities that Harriette Wilson wast’d.

However, I enjoy’d the patronage of a number of generous suitors, and in particular, at the age of 27 I fell in with a wealthy Northern ironmaster, whose sound financial advice even more than his generosity ensur’d me the means for comfortable living without the need for writing scandal-monging memoirs, indeed enabling me to support a number of charitable enterprizes.

This narrative sets out to encourage a rational and prudent approach to the profession of harlotry and to dispel the notion that a fallen woman is bound to die in the gutter, pennyless and poxt, afore her 30th year.

Setting: Regency London

Historical fiction, pastiche, diary fiction, Regency, series, adult

[rablackwellwrites]

What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started

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kill the imposter syndrome in your head because not only is there someone out there doing it worse than you, they’re also using chat gpt to do it