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rheaitis · 5 years

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Things to watch/read now the #GameOfThronesFinale has aired:

If you're here for something with the most tenuous connections to history & canon, but with more agentive PoC and a relative lack of casual sexual assault, may I interest you in #TheMusketeers.

If you want queer people and pirates and PoC and hyper-competent women and politics and platonic inter-gender friendships, please turn your gaze towards #BlackSails, and its iconic Unburying of the Gays, with added straight-baiting.

For polytheistic pseudo-Europe with queer people given a patron god, nurturing and non-creepy older men, visions, hallucinations, mentally-ill middle-aged women with a destiny, dynastic curses and marriages, please read #LoisMcMasterBujold's #Chalion series.

For three-planet dynastic politics, a disabled hero in an ableist world, personal and political loyalties, spy-masters and diplomats, badass and tactful and quiet and heroic women, and a canonical bisexual military hero and politician, read the #VorkosiganSaga by the same author.

For a disabled, acrobatic, quick-witted hero, a heroine I couldn't but read as Dark!Sansa, coups & conspiracies, irritated nobles, impending invasions, the sweetest boy to ever ascend a throne, gods & their chosen ones, the theft of earrings & empires, read #QueensThief+sequels.

For Stone Age mysticism, children on quests, telepathic wolves, and dark magic that threatens humanity, please read @MichellePaver's #ChroniclesofAncientDarkness. I know it's kidlit, but it *haunted* me for weeks. (Paver's Dark Matter and Thin Air are amazing spec-fic/horror stand-alone novels written for an older audience, beeteedubs)

For an exploration of medieval England & administration, religion, the consequences of war, the occupations of women beyond wife & whore, monastic life, aristocratic pursuits, the Crusades & their impact, please read #EllisPeters/#EdithPargeter's #BrotherCadfaelChronicles. (You can also watch these with #DerekJacobi in the lead role, if you can get hold of the 94-98 ITV series. Fewer episodes (13) than novels (20) but otoh Derek Jacobi!)

Staying with detectives but moving back in time to ancient Rome, read #LindseyDavis' #Falco series: a twenty-book romp through the length and breadth of the Roman Empire under Vespasian with crackling wit, historical accuracy, and gruesome deeds to spare.

If you'd rather have politics, please try #ColleenMcCullough's sprawling #MastersofRome, which takes you from #GaiusMarius all the way to #AugustusCaesar and made me fall predictably in love with the vicious, brilliant, queer #LuciusCorneliusSulla who I fancast as Ian Somerhalder

Or stroll back another three centuries for #MaryRenault's lush and amazing Ancient Greece novels, all the way from #Theseus to #AlexandertheGreat and then some. Complicated, queer, mystic and political, and the tiny bit of misogyny won't even register after Game of Thrones.

But I'm straying too far from dragons. @naominovik's #Temeraire series reimagines the Napoleonic War with dragons, and you should read it for stubborn & honourable, tactful & wounded, loyal & furious heroes, warrior women, a delightful Wellington, human & draconic politics.

Also, back to YA, but #MaggieStiefvater has a fabulous quartet of books with dead boys, living boys, magicians, oracles, dreaming trees, prophesied kings, a houseful of witchy women, queerness, friendship, & a goat-girl. Read #TheRavenBoys & wait for the sequel trilogy.

For queerness, politics, swords, assassins, family, love, magic, academia, and above all chocolate, please please read the amazing @EllenKushner's Swordspoint, its sequels & the prequel series Tremontaine. I know I talk about it often, but I feel like I can't talk about it enough

I feel certain I'm missing out on someone I love reading and will be sorry later. I assume everyone knows and has read #UrsulaleGuin #OctaviaButler @Nnedi, @zenaldehyde @kuangrf @tashadrinkstea @nkjemisin @seananmcguire? Good. Good.

Plus the amazing @Miminality @emilyenrose @her_nibsen, & all the free-to-read SF/F/H mags. if you haven't please check out @anathemaspec @PodCastle_org @LightspeedMag @fyremag @FiresideFiction @BCSmagazine @UncannyMagazine @strangehorizons. There's so much out there, just read.

Katherine Addison's #TheGoblinEmperor is both very kind and unflinching: a story of a neglected fourth son who abruptly becomes emperor, and all the consequences spiralling out from that. Featuring the sweetest boy who ever got a crown, version 2.0

Nicola Griffith's #Hild leaves me drunk and reeling every time I read it, and you should too: the life of St. Hilda of Whitby as intricate and detail-drenched as any fever-dream and just: political and historical and queer and feminine and everything the best bildungsromans can be.

All these writers are women, several are WoC, several are queer, some are all three. I got frustrated with GoT back in its first season, so much so I still haven't read A Dance with Dragons. I already read a fair bit of SFF/Hist; I'd read le Guin and McCullough. But at that point I started reading women authors in SFF deliberately and pretty much exclusively, because it wasn't a male genre, and I wanted to read about other worlds and times from a non-masc perspective as much as I could. I also read historical romances & a ton of fanfic.

(Oh. I forgot @Berlin_Marina! You should go read her stuff.)

IDK whether any of the authors I mentioned will get TV/film deals, and as everyone watching #TheMagicians can endlessly tell you, there's no guarantee an adaptation won't take away the things you liked most. So just. Go and read these wonderful worlds by these amazing women.

but uh. For creation & breaking of worlds, kinstrife & kinslaying, murder of innocents, incest & torture, imprisonment & kidnapping, werewolves & wizards, stars & sailors, spiders & demons & seafaring birds, humans & dwarves & elves & gods, turn to the master. Read some Tolkien.

#long post #book rec #SFF #historical fiction

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convenientalias · 5 years

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@haljathefangirlcat replied to this post:

I’ve never read any of the other titles, so maybe my opinion doesn’t count, but I’ve really loved Swordspoint and periodically re-read it. And if you end up liking the book or at least its setting, there’s also two sequel novels, a few short stories set in the same world, and a prequel series by multiple authors (currently ongoing) on Serial Box.

I’m glad we can all come together and agree Swordspoint was the best book in that selection.

And I do mean “we all” bc I JUST FINISHED READING IT AND IT WAS AMAZING I MEAN FUCKIGN SHIT I DID NOT EXPECT MY FEELINGS TO BE THIS STRONG ABOUT IT.

I think I’ll definitely be rereading it in the future too--and of course looking into the rest of the series! Tho I might wait a bit to read the rest of the series, I like to let these things sit on my tongue a bit (besides which, I’ll have to interlibrary loan the next book, which takes time).

Okay so some brief thoughts on Swordspoint:

WHY ARE ALEC AND ST. VIER SUCH A GOOD SHIP??

I am so glad that Michael Godwin did not get together with the duchess bc I was NOT SHIPPING IT (if it happens in future books, I’ll put up with it, but whatever).

APPLETHORPE.

KIDNAPPING!!!! y’all KNOW I have a soft spot for kidnapping

SWORDOJFDKSNFKs

IT WAS GOOODDDDD!!!!!!!!!!

......I’ll have more coherent thoughts some other day but in the meantime YES GOOD STUFF. If you wanna come chat about it, feel free! I have a lot of feelings.

#swordspoint #ellen kushner #books #conversing

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regardstosoulandromance · 7 years

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Could you explain what exactly Tremontaine is?

*clears throat* short answer is that Tremontaine is amazing, the bomb dot com.

The long answer got really long and kind of ramble-y and is under the cut.

Tremontaine is a serialized eBook series that’s a prequel to Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, but you don’t have to have read Swordspoint to understand Tremontaine*. There are currently three seasons of Tremontaine (season three is in progress right now), and you can basically think of each season as a book, and each episode as a chapter. Season one was published as a physical book.

Tremontaine is set in a fiction world that feels almost historical and regency-esque, but also has some light fantasy elements. The official descriptions always say SEX, SCANDAL, AND SWORDPLAY, which is very accurate and there’s also chocolate because chocolate makes the world go ‘round.

There’s multiple main characters (who are balanced wonderfully, usually I hate books with multiple main characters but this works) including:

Diane, Duchess Tremontaine: WHO IS SO BADASS. She’s married to William, Duke Tremontaine, but she’s decided to become the HBIC and nothing is going to stand in her way #TeamDuchess

Kaab (Ixkaab) Balam: actual banished princess who’s come to The City to live with her aunt and uncle. She is also badass and is a spy and training to become a swordswoman. Her family trade chocolate and she immediately falls in love with Tess the Hand, a Riverside forger.

Rafe Felton: Rafe is a student at the university who is friends with Kaab and Micah. He also quickly becomes lovers with William so yeah, he and Diane don’t like each other very much.

Micah: (I dont remember her last name) Micah is a mathematical genius who’s attending university disguised as a boy. She’s everyone’s favorite cinnamon roll and loves tomato pie. (Please no one hurt Micah ever)

Oh yeah and everyone is really really gay as heck**.

This is the main website and you can read the first episode of season one, for free, here!!!

All seasons are written by multiple authors including Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Tess Gratton, Karen Lord, Liz Duffy Adams, Racheline Maltese, Delia Sherman, Paul Witcover, Malinda Lo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Patty Bryant.

so in conclusion *bangs pots and pans together* READ TREMONTAINE. IT’S COOL, WELL-WRITTEN, LOTS OF REPRESENTATION, EVERYONE IS IN LOVE WITH DIANE.***

*I haven’t read Swordspoint, but I have read Swordpoint’s sequel, The Privilege of the Sword which is also good and I recommend it.

**I ship Kaab and Diane the most, but also like Diane and Esha (who’s in s2)

*** I heard about Tremontaine through @bedannibal-lectaurier who kept posting about it so I asked her what was up and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since so credit where credit is due.

#THIS IS LONG #i hope this answers your question lmao #answer #anonymous #Anonymous #Tremontaine meta #Tremontaine

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queershipblog · 6 years

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Who should star in a Tremontaine TV show?

In 1986, Ellen Kushner published the novel Swordspoint, which became a foundational work for the 'fantasy of manners' subgenre. Swordspoint, a novel about a bisexual swordsman and his scholarly lover, and its sequels have become a classic of LGBTQ fantasy. In 2015, Ellen Kushner paired up with Serial Box, which provides serialized short stories, to create a prequel to Swordspoint: Tremontaine. This serial story stands alone from the original novel and expands the diversity of the cast, bringing in more female characters and characters of color. And, of course, the majority of the characters are queer.

With its serialized format, Tremontaine is easy to envision as a TV show. But who should star? I have some suggestions, so gear up for some steam and swordplay.

CLICK HERE: See our fancast for Tremontaine!

#tremontaine #stephanie beatriz #hayley atwell #elodie yung #esther povitsky #fancast

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lgbt-ya · 7 years

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On writing diverse characters in today's cultural climate

Note: This blog post originally appeared at Quora via Serial Box, where you can find serialized fiction released in episodes week after week. Tessa Gratton is one of the writers on Tremontaine season 3.

Tremontaine is the critically acclaimed prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside novels, which developed a cult following beginning with Swordspoint in 1987. The “Fantasy of Manners” focuses on decadent world building and interpersonal intrigue, and has been noted for its progressive expression of gender and sexuality. Team-written by some of today’s most exciting authors, Tremontaine season 3 is brought to you by Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Karen Lord, Delia Sherman, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, Tessa Gratton, and Liz Duffy Adams. The first episode is available for free at Serial Box and can be found here.

Listen.

Writing diverse characters is about craft.

You take the time and do the work to get it right. That means research, that means practice, that means reading widely, that means consulting experts. It means building diversity into the foundation of your story, from the world to theme to plot. It means finding empathy for people who aren’t you and prioritizing their needs. It means getting out of the way. It means putting down a project or character because it’s not yours, and you can’t do it without harm. It means examining yourself and your position in power structures, your privileges, your prejudices. It means making yourself sit the f*ck down to let somebody else talk. If you want to write a good book, you practice your craft. It’s that simple; it’s that complicated.

Writing diverse characters is political.

You are political. You have a unique political position with regards to power structures, community, and marginalizations. We live in society, we write in society, we sell books and talk about them in society. You can’t escape political space if you want an audience, if you want your stories to matter.

So you have to accept that writing is political. If you can’t accept that you will never “get it right.”

There is no magical advice for writing diversity, just like there’s no magical advice that will teach you to craft a world or connect plot holes. It’s hard, because writing is hard. My best advice boils down to: write with empathy. Empathy shouldn’t be hard, but we’ve made it so over centuries of story-telling that prioritizes and promotes a single story. We’ve normalized white patriarchy and not only neglected but systemically punished and destroyed any person or community that deviates. We’ve erased them.

To write with empathy you must put aside your ego. You have to strip away your privilege, even if that means you have to let somebody else have the space to tell the story. Empathy is supposed to be an equalizing force, but power ruins that by centering some experiences, and pushing all others to the margins. If you exist toward the margins you’ve been forced to empathize with the center all your life. If you exist toward the center you’ve been taught your story, your problems, your aspirations and goals are more valuable. That you yourself are more valuable. You’ve never needed empathy to survive.

Well, you need it now.

That is what I mean by saying you must build diversity into the foundation of your story: you have to knock down your own foundational prejudices and privileges, and then rebuild your own foundations. Because the story comes from you, and you are a political creature.

Reach for empathy. Tear down your privileges. Write a story.

Tessa Gratton has wanted to be a paleontologist or a wizard since she was seven. After traveling the world with her military family, she acquired a BA (and the important parts of an MA) in Gender Studies, then settled down in Kansas to tell stories about monsters, magic, and kissing. She’s the author of The Blood Journals Series and Gods of New Asgard Series, co-author of YA writing books The Curiosities and The Anatomy of Curiosity, as well as dozens of short stories available in anthologies and on merryfates.com. In addition to Tremontaine, her current projects include The Queens of Innis Lear coming in 2018 from Tor. Visit her at tessagratton.com or @tessagratton. You can read Tremontaine here.

Tremontaine by Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Patty Bryant and Paul Witcover

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository

Blurb: Welcome to Tremontaine, the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside series that began with Swordspoint! A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue.

#tremontaine #serial box #ellen kushner

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drkarenlord · 7 years

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Free fiction, Tremontaine, and me

Hello, and welcome! Some of you know me as the author of Redemption in Indigo, and some of you saw me recently hosting the Hugo Awards at this year’s Worldcon in Helsinki.

There’s something else you need to know. I am the newest writer for Tremontaine on Serial Box.

Sex, Scandal, Swordplay... and Chocolate! The prequel to Ellen Kushner's cult classic Swordspoint is back for a third Season starting October 11th!

I’ve absolutely loved writing for Season 3, and I’m certain you’re going to enjoy reading it and listening to it!

For those of you who’ve never read my work (and for those of you who have!) here’s a short, short story featuring two characters from my sci-fi books The Best of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game. Please click below to read Naraldi and Sayr in ‘A Time Traveller Addresses His Apprentice’.

A Time Traveller Addresses His Apprentice

Sayr Speaks to Naraldi

You will find that time is a drug.

Take it long enough and you will begin to build up a resistance. Take it long enough and you will begin to develop an addiction. You will tell yourself ‘one more trip, just one more’ because of course this time will be the particular set of circumstances and battery of choices that will lead to the desired outcome.

You will become a dilettante in some areas, a connoisseur in others. That dynasty you track for eight generations, dipping in and out of their lives for a day or two at a time. That stranger you meet and live with for three entire years of ordinary time, your extended vacation from the burden of eternity. Which will you know better, the dynasty or the stranger? Same snapshot, different angle of view, different resolution. You will not find answers, only examples. The dynasty you fall in love with; the stranger remains a stranger.

You will try to pace yourself and allow your mind to recover from each sojourn. Eventually, nothing will work. You will see it all, and recognise that there is yet more all to see. You will become exhausted by apocalyptic wastelands, and bored by utopias. Unused potential will frustrate you with the agony of fruit hanging just out of reach. Lack of potential will frustrate you with the futility of a desert without oases. Brief victories become more painful than long generations of unrelenting oppression. That desired outcome can be so close, so tantalisingly near, so present … and then gone, worse than if it had never been.

You will have it, and you will never be able to keep it.

You will try despair. You will attempt destruction. You plot to assassinate your own grandfathers, and when that fails you will realise at last that you can never visit the past or future of your own timeline. Nothing that you do can make a difference to your universe. Something cracks in your brain and your heart. You spend fruitless millennia trying to exterminate the evolutionary ancestor of your entire species. You almost decide to obliterate your planet, but that scares you sober because you finally remember that it was the destruction of your world that brought you to this state – an apprentice time traveller, seeking to undo the grief of your myriad kin.

You will try suicide first before you try any of these things, but the universe will protect you. It will not allow you to destroy yourself, not directly, not by proxy. You are not mine to destroy it tells you. You must return to your own timeline for that.

After the addiction, after the crash – rehabilitation. You will start humbly, allowing random chance to navigate your course. You will become an observer, not an actor, and thus you will learn. You are a grain of sand, an alien particle barely tolerated by an environment that is not your home. You may achieve some small effect, a scratch on the impermeable stone of destiny, but the universe will slowly move to erase any change that it does not sanction.

You will discover that there is a game being played, and you are not, and will never be, a player. You are far too small to sit at this table. The miracle is that you are even allowed to watch. When you have learned enough, you may be permitted the honour of becoming a pawn. But such a pawn! Awake, aware of the game and the other slumbering pieces and the long, complex strategies that unfold over time and space!

You will learn to sing and say, ‘I am a brief and beautiful note in a larger song’. And you will truly understand that this is no tragedy. This is the kadosh kadosh kadosh. This is the song of creation, the thrum of existence.

You will find peace.

You will be ready to return.

You will speak this poem to the next apprentice.

#Tremontaine #The Best of All Possible Worlds #The Galaxy Game #fantasy #science fiction #literature #books #serial fiction

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sixofravens-reads · 7 years

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Genre asks please? :)

Hi!

Oh dear this could be tough haha

1. Scariest book?

Hmmmm I don’t know if its actually the scariest, but I read The Monstrumologist right after my wisdom teeth surgery, while still kind of out of it on painkillers, and gave myself horrible nightmares for two nights in a row. Maybe I should give it another chance sometime....while stone-cold sober lol

2. Best fantasy world?

OHHH MAAAAAN DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE!!!

I love Tortall and Emelan, the world from Swordspoint is brilliant, Bundelag is an old, old favourite, Narnia is delightful, LoTR is of course amazing, the world from Dragonlance is fun, Bordertown is another fave, also the world from The Naming....

Why, why have I not fallen through a crack in the floor or crawled through a wardrobe and ended up somewhere cool yet?!?!?!

3. Funniest book?

Hmmmm 10 Things I Can See From Here had me in stitches a few times, same with Dress Codes for Small Towns. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is fantastic as well.

4. Saddest book?

Uhhhhh I avoid sad books lol so this is tough. Down Among the Sticks and Bones was pretty heartbreaking, even though it’s a prequel and I *know* things mostly end well...

5. Book you would never want to read?

Uhhhh anything that uses rape/sexual assault as a lazy substitute for plot/character development honestly. Also, I tried reading Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind once and I don’t think I could ever finish the series. He really likes to torture his characters, I guess.

#kraken-spines

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biandlesbianliterature · 7 years

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[image description: a graphic with a collage of the book covers listed below. The text reads “Lesbian & Bi Books: New In May!”]

Riptide Summer by Lisa Freeman (YA)

The year is 1973, and Nani is firmly established as one of the top girls in the State Beach lineup. She’s looking forward to a long, relaxing summer of days spent in the sun with her surfer boyfriend, and to secret nights with Rox, the lineup’s queen supreme. But when surf god Nigel breaks her heart, and Rox reveals a secret that tears their friendship—and the lineup—apart, Nani is left to pick up the pieces. If she can’t recruit new Honey Girls to the lineup, the friends will lose their reputation as the beach’s top babes. With the summer spiraling out of control, Nani starts to question everything she’s always believed about how to rule the beach. Maybe it’s time to leave the rules behind, starting with the most important one: Girls don’t surf.

What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging by Monica Meneghetti (Memoir)

The redefinition of family values as seen from the eyes of a polyamorous, queer Italian Canadian obsessed with food. This mouthwatering, intimate, and sensual memoir traces Monica Meneghetti's unique life journey through her relationship with food, family and love. As the youngest child of a traditional Italian-Catholic immigrant family, Monica learns the intimacy of the dinner table and the ritual of meals, along with the requirements of conformity both at the table and in life. Monica is thirteen when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoes a mastectomy. When her mother dies three years later, Monica considers the existence of her own breasts and her emerging sexuality in the context of grief and the disintegration of her sense of family. As Monica becomes an adult, she discovers a part of her self that rebels against the rigours of her traditional upbringing. And as the layers of her sexuality are revealed she begins to understand that like herbs infusing a sauce with flavour; her differences add a delicious complexity to her life. But in coming to terms with her place in the margins of the margins, Monica must also face the challenge of coming out while living in a small town, years before same-sex marriage and amendments to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms created safer spaces for queers. Through risk, courage and heartbreak, she ultimately redefines and recreates family and identity according to her own alternative vision.

The Gift by Barbara Browning (Literary Fiction)

In the midst of Occupy, Barbara Andersen begins spamming people indiscriminately with ukulele covers of sentimental songs. A series of inappropriate intimacies ensues, including an erotically charged correspondence and then collaboration with an extraordinarily gifted and troubled musician living in Germany.

Large Animals: Stories by Jess Arndt (Short Stories)

JESS ARNDT’s striking debut collection confronts what it means to have a body. Boldly straddling the line between the imagined and the real, the masculine and the feminine, the knowable and the impossible, these twelve stories are an exhilarating and profoundly original expression of voice. In “Jeff,” Lily Tomlin confuses Jess for Jeff, instigating a dark and hilarious identity crisis. In “Together,” a couple battles a mysterious STD that slowly undoes their relationship, while outside a ferocious weed colonizes their urban garden. And in “Contrails,” a character on the precipice of a seismic change goes on a tour of past lovers, confronting their own reluctance to move on. Arndt’s subjects are canny observers even while they remain dangerously blind to their own truest impulses. Often unnamed, these narrators challenge the limits of language―collectively, their voices create a transgressive new formal space that makes room for the queer, the nonconforming, the undefined. And yet, while they crave connection, love, and understanding, they are constantly at risk of destroying themselves. Large Animals pitches toward the heart, pushing at all our most tender parts―our sex organs, our geography, our words, and the tendons and nerves of our culture.

Tremontaine (Tremontaine Season One) created by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy)

Welcome to Tremontaine, the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside series that began with Swordspoint! A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue. Originally presented serially in 13 episodes by Serial Box, this omnibus collects all installments of Tremontaine Season One into one edition.

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: And Other Stories by Chavisa Woods (Short Stories)

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country paints a vivid image of the bizarre characters that live on the fringes in America’s heartland. They don't do what you expect them to do. These aren't typical stories of triumph over adversity, but something completely other. It's "Murakami meets the meth heads" says National Book Foundation award winner Samantha Hunt. "Reader, you have never before seen anything like this." The eight stories in this literary collection present a brilliantly surreal and sardonic landscape and language, and offer a periscope into the heart of the rural poor. Among the singular characters, you'll meet: a “zombie” who secretly resides in a local cemetery; a queer teen goth who is facing ostracism from her small town evangelical church; a woman who leaves New York City once a year to visit her little brothers in the backwoods Midwest, only to discover they’ve been having trouble with some meth dealers and UFOs that trouble the area. In the backdrop of all the stories are the endless American wars and occupations, overshadowed, for these characters, by the many early deaths of their friends and family, that occur regularly for a whole host of reasons.

Pride & Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes by Kathleen Archambeau

Stories of success, happiness and hope from the LGBT community Stories that comprise the best of LGBT history ─ Pride and Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes tells the stories of queer citizens of the world living OUT and proud happy, fulfilling, successful lives. Diverse and global. Famous and unsung. There is a story here for everyone in the LGBT community who has ever questioned their sexual orientation or gender identity, or discovered it.

Award-winning writer and longtime LGBTQ activist Kathleen Archambeau tells the untold stories from diverse LGBT community voices around the corner or around the world. Not like the depressing, sinister, shadowy stories of the past, this book highlights queer people living open, happy, fulfilling and successful lives.

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julie Ember (Fantasy YA)

Having long wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the merfolk's fortress. But when Ersel's childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: Say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier's brutal king.

Determined to forge a different fate, Ersel seeks help from the divine Loki. But such deals are never straightforward, and the outcome sees her exiled from the only home and protection she's known. To save herself from perishing in the barren, underwater wasteland and be reunited with the human she's come to love, Ersel must try to outsmart the God of Lies.

[Warning for Seafarer’s Kiss: the villain (the God of Lies) is nonbinary and is the only nonbinary representation in the book.]

How To Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake (YA)

Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances. One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace’s room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace’s world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again. How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter’s relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.

Nico & Tucker by Rachel Gold (Fiction, NA)

The decision can’t be put off any longer. A medical crisis turns Nico’s body into a battleground, crushing Nico under conflicting family pressures. Having lived genderqueer for years, Nico is used to getting strong reactions (and uninvited opinions!) from everyone, but it is Tucker’s reaction that hurts the most. Jess Tucker didn’t mean to hurt Nico, but she panicked. And after the worst year of her life, she’s hanging on by a thread. Forget recovery time and therapy, she needs to put the past behind her and be normal again. But when her relationship with Nico becomes more than she can handle, she cuts and runs. In this riveting sequel to Just Girls, comes a love story about bodies, healing, and knowing who you really are.

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms: Erotic Lesbian Fairy Tales edited by Sacchi Green (Erotica)

In this sexy anthology of fantastical short stories, women are no longer just damsels in distress. Instead, strong, passionate females race to the rescue of their female lovers in this new collection of erotic fantasy.

The stories within Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms are masterfully crafted to lead your mind down unexpected paths to your favorite fantasy adventure, from the classic fairy-tales of Little Red Riding Hood to Rapunzel to the modern marvel of Game of Thrones. They will wash over you in an epic sea of words meant to entice and embolden your inner princess, heroine, or both.

Enter a time where you may be abducted by bandits or seduced by witches one second and find your heart spellbound by a dryad the next. But be warned, gentle traveler! With this new, provocative collection edited by Sacchi Green, the stories may begin with “Once upon a time”, but they will leave you coming back, time and time again.

Rough Patch by Nicole Markotic (YA)

When fifteen-year-old Keira starts high school, she almost wishes she could write "Hi, my name is Keira, and I'm bisexual!" on her nametag. Needless to say, she's actually terrified to announce—let alone fully explore—her sexuality. Quirky but shy, loyal yet a bit zany, Keira navigates her growing interest in kissing both girls and boys while not alienating her BFF, boy-crazy Sita. As the two acclimate to their new high school, they manage to find lunch tablemates and make lists of the school's cutest boys. But Keira is caught "in between"—unable to fully participate, yet too scared to come clean.

She's also feeling the pressure of family: parents who married too young and have differing parenting styles; a younger sister in a wheelchair from whom adults expect either too little or too much; and her popular older brother who takes pleasure in taunting Keira. She finds solace in preparing for the regional finals of figure skating, a hobby she knows is geeky and "het girl" yet instills her with confidence. But when she meets a girl named Jayne who seems perfect for her, she isn't so confident she can pull off her charade any longer.

Rough Patch is an honest, heart-wrenching novel about finding your place in the world, and about how to pick yourself up after taking a spill.

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin (Fiction)

Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure. Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes a rich kid turned criminal and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover, as well as a bored, mischievous overachiever and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend. Illustrating a process of liberation from the strictures of gender through radical self-inquiry, Notes of a Crocodile is a poignant masterpiece of social defiance by a singular voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

Birdy Flynn by Helen Donohoe (YA)

Birdy Flynn carries secrets. There is the secret of Birdy’s dead grandmother’s cat. How the boys tortured it and Birdy had to drown it in the river to stop it from suffer-ing. There’s the secret of Mrs. Cope, the teacher who touched Birdy. The secret of the gypsy girl at school who Birdy likes. But she can’t tell anyone about any of these secrets. Because Birdy’s other secret is that while she fights as good as the boys, she is a girl, and she doesn’t always feel like a girl is supposed to. So Birdy holds on to her secrets and tries to become what others want, even it if means losing herself. BIRDY FLYNN is a beautifully nuanced and deeply felt portrayal of a girl growing up amid an imperfect family, and an imperfect world, to become the person she was meant to be.

Not One Day by Anne Garréta (Fiction)

Not One Day begins with a maxim: “Not one day without a woman.” What follows is an intimate, erotic, and sometimes bitter recounting of loves and lovers past, breathtakingly written, exploring the interplay between memory, fantasy, and desire.

“For life is too short to submit to reading poorly written books and sleeping with women one does not love.”

Anne Garréta, author of the groundbreaking novel Sphinx (Deep Vellum, 2015), is a member of the renowned Oulipo literary group. Not One Day won the Prix Médicis in 2002, recognizing Garréta as an author “whose fame does not yet match their talent.”

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman (Romance) (only $1.99!)

Small-batch independent yarn dyer Clara Ziegler is eager to brainstorm new color combinations--if only she could come up with ideas she likes as much as last time! When she sees Danielle Solomon's paintings of Florida wildlife by chance at a neighborhood gallery, she finds her source of inspiration. Outspoken, passionate, and complicated, Danielle herself soon proves even more captivating than her artwork... Fluffy Jewish f/f contemporary set in the author's childhood home of South Florida.

Queer Women Books Out This Month!

See more lesbian and bi women new releases at Women in Words, or more queer new releases at Lambda Literary.

If you liked this post, consider supporting FYLL and the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month to be entered to win a lesbian/queer women book every month, as well as getting exclusive Lesbian Literature 101 updates!

Or buy us a coffee on ko-fi as a one-time donation!

#queer books #lesbian books #long post

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ellenkushner · 7 years

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“If queer fantasy of manners sounds like your thing, you’ll probably enjoy this series.”

#tremontaine #swordspoint #swordspoint prequel #mary anne mohanraj #tessa gratton

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malindalo · 7 years

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The print edition of TREMONTAINE Season 1 is now available!

You may remember that a couple of years ago I was on the writing staff for a serialized prequel to Ellen Kushner's groundbreaking fantasy novel Swordspoint. If you've ever wished there was a queer Three Musketeers, this is it!

The prequel, Tremontaine, is set about 15 years before Swordspoint, and focuses on two ambitious and totally different women: Diane, the Duchess Tremontaine, who has plenty of ambition and very few hangups about how to achieve her goals; and Ixkaab Balam, the first daughter of a trading family from across the sea, who struggles to balance her family's business with her own hot temper and love for sword fighting (and the ladies).

Tremontaine was first released as a digital serial, sort of like a TV series, but if you're more accustomed to getting your fantasy in a paper format, now's your chance to dive in. Saga Press has released the entire first season as both a hardcover and a paperback. It's a hefty tome — perfect for epic tale it tells!

Here are a couple of very nice reviews of the print edition:

"Well-paced, excellently written, delighting in the opportunity to fully indulge in its drama of manners (and swords), it's one of the most accomplished and purely enjoyable things I've read in a while. I recommend it highly." — Locus Magazine

"Strong and charming … Kushner is joined by six peers, and the talented authors do a great job of juggling a large cast. Series fans will welcome the addition of racial diversity to a series that was already notable for its spotlighting of queer people and women. … the overall tale is excellent." — Publishers Weekly

In honor of the print publication, fellow Tremontaine writer Alaya Dawn Johnson and I guest posted at John Scalzi's Whatever blog, nerding out over our love for background research, specifically focusing on the cross-cultural trade of chocolate. Yes! I know! Read it here.

Happy birthday, print Tremontaine!

You can get your own copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound.

#Tremontaine #Saga Press

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cavesalamander · 7 years

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Do you have any queer book recs? Preferably not the kind where it's like a coming out book or a Queer Struggle™?

Thanks for the ask!

Honestly I don’t go seeking out a lot of queer books for just that reason - also because being ace and mostly aro, I tend to go for heavy world building and action/adventure, with romance being mostly incidental, if there at all. Also series that last a while and let me know the characters really well.

I also don’t tend to read books that aren’t already at least somewhat popular, so if you want more indie queer book recs, please go check out https://twitter.com/tatehallaway this badass lady on the twitters. I haven’t read any of her books (yet, entirely because I haven’t read anything longer than a couple thousand words in way too long) but I met her at World Con where she hosted a panel on diversity in fiction. She’s a queer writer and is super approachable and friendly. I’m sure she’d be able to point you in the right direction, if not rec some of her own books!

I also would totally recommend checking out Mark Oshiro who recently wrote and got his own book published!! I’m super excited for him, and I’m gonna buy it at some point. His reviews of books are really entertaining too, and he gets pretty autobiographical during them. His fans often recommend queer books and TV shows to him too - so then you get to watch him cry when he realizes that this character that he fell in love with is SURPRISE GAY and he’s so happy he can’t with the emotions. (He’s also a total sweetheart in person holy crap. I got to talk to him at World Con too.)

There’s also TritonYA, which is a publishing house that is working on publishing queer YA genre fiction. I haven’t read any of the 3 books they posted so far because I don’t have the f o c u s these days, and none of them really caught my interest from the summary.

As for books I’VE read... (Apologies that these are like all from cis straight authors afaik, they’re just the ones who I read/ started reading 10+ years ago when I used to read all the time... and back then there just wasn’t the visibility of queer authors, and I didn’t go searching for particular books. I just don’t read very much anymore aaahhh!)

The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce is FANTASTIC. It’s very much romance light - very heavy on the friendship and bonds between the four main characters. But one of the four MCs is lesbian, and there are other queer secondary characters. One of the other girls reads to me as ace/aro too, but that hasn’t been confirmed. (And like 99% of the time my hopes are dashed, but I can see Pierce actually writing an ace character who stays ace.)

Keep in mind that when the series starts they’re like 10, so romance doesn’t come into play until the later books when they’re 16, which is when one of the characters realizes she’s into girls and not boys.

The series is so good too. Pierce’s world building is so good always. She’s like my fuckin idol when it comes to how she does it. The lesbian chara’s character arc about realizing she’s into girls is handled pretty well IMO - the world as a whole isn’t homophobic, so the struggle is mild and mostly self discovery. And the romance is centered around the political struggles happening at the time - is the girl she likes flirting back bc REAL FEELINGS or bc SNEAKY POLITICS!? And SHOULD SHE STAY OR SHOULD SHE GO. Which, given the story as a whole, (and her other writings) this is pretty much in line with how a het romance would be treated.

Trials of Apollo and the Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan are pretty good too. I don’t like Riordan’s worldbuilding like I love Pierce’s, and he’s writing as a cis straight man but his books are still a lot of fun. There’s a gay kid who gets a couple of POV chapters in an earlier series, (Percy Jackson) but he’s got a lot more of The Struggle going on in his story. (Kinda understandable considering he was born in the 30s, but still.)

Trials follows, well, Apollo who is unapollogetically bi because that’s canon greek myth. (Incidentally, one of his kids is dating the Struggle boy from before and they are very cute together, if a fairly background relationship). Apollo is also totally full of himself and hilarious, and his trials are of course gonna be about how he has to eat a big fuckin slice of humble pie because that’s how grecian trials work. Only like one or two books are out so far, but it looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun!

Magnus Chase is about a guy who dies and gets sent to Valhalla and becomes a demigod basically. In the second book, a third MC is introduced who is genderfluid/bigender, and by the end of it, Magnus is kinda crushing on her so, that’s cool! I’m not sure yet how it’s gonna be played, since Magnus so far seems to be striaght, and sometimes his love interest is a boy... but I have a pretty good feeling it’s going to be addressed.

Riordan’s a cis straight white dude but he’s definitely done his research. Some of the bits come off kinda “here’s my research laid out” but he started his first series with the goal of, “I want my son to see heroes who are like him. Heroes with ADHD and dyslexia.” And now he’s like “I have fans who are poc, and fans who are queer, and I want them to see themselves too.” And his stories are fun. Which is the important part, in my opinion!

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell is actually a webcomic, not a novel, but the MC is most likely aro/ace, and her best friend is bi, who currently is in a relationship with another girl - and there’s at least two other queer couples in the story... and strong hints that one of the characters is a trans girl, and another that used to be a female rabbit but is now a male human, gender unknown as of yet. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by the change though.

It’s also a book about robots and magic and birds and ROBOTS and family legacy and friendship and love and R O B O T S!!! Listen it’s just REALLY GOOD OKAY? Please read it. Please please please!!

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Johnathan Stroud is one of my all time favorite book series, though it’s the least explicitly queer. There’s no romance in it whatsoever, and the human MC reads to me as aro/ace. (The one time he feels something resembling sexual attraction, he realizes almost instantly that something is Wrong and that he was put under a spell. Lmao...) Human MC is also a ginormous fucking shitlord but I love him a lot, and compared to all the other shitlords in the series, he’s actually pretty moral.

Demon MC is also a shitlord, and somehow works as human MC’s moral compass. Also he’s hilarious. And okay, so... when I was younger, I never really read into anything. But demon MC has this boy from his past who he absolutely loves a lot. You can choose to read it whichever way you want, but it’s a very deep and strong love. QP is likely though unintentional hahaa! Very important... I really need to read the prequel book to see more into how the relationship developed...

A girl is introduced as an MC in the second? and third book. She’s Very Good and also not a love interest. Like it’s way easier to read into a romance between the demon and the boy from his past than it is to read into girl MC and boy MC.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner This one I actually got on rec from the librarian I asked for queer books. It’s an older book, like from the 80s and this one I’m pretty sure the author IDs as bi, so hey that’s at least one rec from a queer author. The book is just set in a fantasy world where sexuality is like WHATEVER! and everyone fights with swords and honor and the MC and everyone else are all total fucking pricks but also bisexual.

It’s the most adult and romancy book out of all of them, but the love scenes aren’t explicit or anything. Definitely a recommended read if you wanna see some earlier rep. The copy of the book I got from the library had a recommendation by GRRM on the cover - one that I think predated his rise to fame. You can definitely see why he’d like it. There’s lots of political drama, affairs, murder, swords, etc.

People die, and I don’t necessarily want to spoil you on if the MC or the MC’s love interest dies unless you want me to (You’re welcome to ask!), but it IS a romance, and it’s not centered around The Struggle at all, and I don’t think it counts as Bury Your Gays if EVERYONE is queer!

So that’s what I have off the top of my head. I only counted MAIN characters in this, none of that “someone was gay once in the background see? representation!!!” crap. And like I said, it’s been a while since I’ve really sat down and read anything in earnest. The Swordspoint book was the only one I found while I was actively looking for queer books, the rest is just happy happenstance!

Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to reblog!

#pride month #if you need any book recs #i love these books a lot #AND NOW I GOTTA GET TO WORK!!!#houdinioverlord

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