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Our Flag Means Obsession!

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I’m in love!! ♥️ I’ve fallen deep in fandom with quirky pirate rom-com, Our Flag Means Death. It’s been so long since I’ve had this kind of a fangirl high that I was starting to worry I no longer had it in me. But fear not! I may have the body of a middle-aged woman, but I have the heart and stomach of an asexual, greygender teenager, with a thing for the Golden Age of Sail, impossible love, and black-clad men who are vulnerable little boys underneath. Comedy. Romance. Representation. What’s not to like?   Fan art by  Anna Hopkinson  I’m not going to give away any spoilers for those who have not yet had the pleasure. But let me just say that Blackbeard and Stede (in the picture above) totally give me Tammo-and-Carlo vibes. (That’s Tammo and Carlo from my forthcoming novel Cage of Nightingales.  I wrote a bit about it in my previous blog .)  Cage is not about pirates, although it is set in a similar period. It has more of a Venetian Carnevale/ Amadeus/Phantom of the Opera flavour. And t
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LGBT+ History Month: Carlo and the Castrati

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  Me and Carlo: BBFs (by Kirsty Rolfe) I’d like to introduce you to Carlo. Some of you may have met him before, but he’s one of the two heroes of Cage of Nightingales , the first of my Angelio novels, which is finally due to be published this year by Deep Hearts YA . Carlo is a castrato singer. When we first meet him, he’s thirteen years old, a student at the Conservatorio Archangeli, a prestigious music school in the city-state of Angelio. He’s talented, kind, loves beautiful things, hates arguments, can be flirty, and just wants a friend who sees him as more than a beautiful voice. And he’s canonically asexual and biromantic. Just thought I’d get that out there. Carlo is named after Carlo Broschi (aka Farinelli), the most famous of the castrato singers of the 18th century. I’ve written quite a bit about Farinelli and the other castrati on this blog, but as it’s LGBT+ History Month (in the UK at least) I thought I’d share with you a few facts about them. “Portrait Group: The Singer Fa
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A Susanna Clarke Christmas

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 In these chilled-out days that bring the Christmas season to an end and crank the new year into a slow beginning, I’m looking back over the benign influence of Susanna Clarke on the Christmas I’ve just had. It began well before Christmas - in November, in fact - with my annual re-read of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Such a comfort read during the long, dark nights!  Then there was the happy discovery of a short story by Susanna Clarke on BBC Sounds (radio and podcast app). “ The Wood at Midwinter ” is about a 19th century girl called Merowdis who converses with animals, and sees the wood as a cathedral and the cathedral as a wood. I’m still trying to find out whether it’s based on a true story. It has all the whimsy and strangeness you would expect from Susanna Clarke. And after Christmas, I was spending some birthday money in town (yes, I have a Christmas birthday, and no, I don’t hate it) when I came across the board game of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for half price! I
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Tolkien’s Ace Princess?

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  The Rings of Power: Amazon Studios, 2022 Like many, I have been enjoying Amazon’s new drama series, The Rings of Power , based on JRR Tolkien’s mythos regarding the Second Age of Middle-Earth, Númenor and the Undying Lands. It’s driven me back to the source texts, to discover from where the creators of the series got their ideas.  One of those source texts is the book of Unfinished Tales . And that’s where I discovered the story of Aldarion and Erendis. It’s an unusual tale for Tolkien, in that it deals with the breakdown of a marriage. And while it provides canonical precedent for the Elves asking the Men of Númenor for help against the growing threat of Sauron’s return, that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about ace representation. Many people will find Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit pretty ace anyway. For me, the film trilogy in the 2000s was the beginning of my journey back to my true self. In my head, Legolas is ace. There’s nothing I know of in Tolkien to eith
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Howl’s Moving Castle: Always More To Discover

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  Warning: contains spoilers for the books and film. This year’s theme at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School is “Back to the Movies”. I’ve decided to go as a character from one of my favourite films ever: Howl’s Moving Castle . For that reason (as if I needed a reason!) I’ve been re-watching the film and re-reading the sequels, Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways . And as with the moving castle itself, there is always more to discover. Here are some of them. The Magician’s Cape  I’ve been reading this Swedish fairy tale by Anna Wahlenberg as part of my ongoing quest for asexual fairy tales. I think it could well qualify! But I couldn’t help noticing the similarities to Howl’s Moving Castle. The titular magician has a castle high on a mountain, in front of which “he conjured a wonderful garden where magnificent flowers glowed… There the magician would lie on a velvet couch under the branches watching beautiful young girls dance on the lawn, and sing and play the guitar.” Furthermore,
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Mid-year Book Freak Out

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 I got this list of questions from watching Jen Campbell’s YouTube channel (although someone else created the list). I think it’s mainly aimed at YouTubers, but I’ve adapted it to my own purposes, because it looked like fun.  A selection of books. Best book you’ve read in 2022 so far. How can I possibly choose? I’ve bought a lot of folklore books this year, mostly second-hand, which are all great. A very beautiful, illustrated book of Fairies and Elves . Likewise, an illustrated book of Celtic Pilgrimages. I enjoyed Storyland by Amy Jeffs, which is new this year. I loved The Last Firefox by Lee Newbury.  Best sequel you’ve read. Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory, which is the sequel to Tidelands. I listened to the audiobook version. New releases you haven’t read but want to. So many. The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield. Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman. The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola. To name but three.  Most anticipated releases for the second half of the year. The House of Fortu
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Mythical May: A Picture Journal

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 The “Merry month of May” has been filled with myth, legend and folklore for me. Here are some highlights. 1st May On May Morning, following the rare Black Moon, I walked the Pilgrim’s Way with my family, barefoot across the sands to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. That evening, we created a fantasy version of the island in a game of Wanderhome . 2nd May A visit to the amazing Barter Books in Alnwick, where I bought two books: Celtic Pilgrimages and Folk Tales of the British Isles , both of which I’m working my way through. Also that day, our crowdfunding campaign for the third Asexual Fairy Tales was successful. The book will be coming out in October! 5th May A visit to the new Centre for Folklore, Myth & Magic in Todmorden, with its excellent folklore library. Can’t wait to go back and do some proper research! 11th May Bought this book ( Storyland by Amy Jeffs) which I’ve just finished reading. I highly recommend it. She retells - with notes - all the medieval “origin myths” of t
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