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Showing posts from 2021

Berry Christmas!

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  “The holly bears a berry as red as any blood…” There are many berries we associate with Christmas time. I still need to get around to making this year’s frozen haws (hawthorn berries) into some kind of jam or syrup. (Blame the post-vaccine fatigue!)  I’d like to share with you three traditional Christmas tales about berries and cherries. The Miracle of Marjatta I retell this episode from the Finnish national epic The Kalevala in my book Asexual Myths & Tales. It’s a version of the Nativity story, told through the lens of Finland’s pagan past.  The maiden Marjatta (Mary) becomes miraculously pregnant by eating a cowberry that cries out to her, “Pick me!” When the pregnancy starts to show, one believes her tale, and she is forced to search around for a sauna in which to give birth. She asks Herod (here, the village headman) for use of his sauna, but he refuses. So she goes into a stable, where the cattle create a sauna with their warm breath. Her son becomes the one who ousts the s

So Many Beauties, So Many Beasts!

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  Beauty and the Beast is my favourite fairy tale. I will read just about any version of it. So I thought I would share with you some of my Beauty and the Beast collection, arranged into categories for your convenience. Classic tellings 1. Madame Le Prince de Beaumont This is the classic version on which most modern retellings are based. (I have it as an e-book). Although here, Beauty is one of six children (three brothers and three sisters) and no particular reason is given as to why the Beast was enchanted. The rest is much as we’ve come to expect: the impoverished merchant, the request for a rose, the sumptuous palace, the magic ring etc. 2. Madame de Villeneuve This is actually the older version. It is much longer and more detailed, with a lot of backstory about the enchanted Prince and the world of the Fairies. Interestingly, in this version, Beauty has a recurring dream about a young man “beautiful as Cupid” (a reference to the tale’s origins in the myth of Cupid & Psyche), w

Ace Week: Reviewing Ace-Rep Fiction

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  It’s Ace Week! A week set apart to raise awareness of identities on the asexual/aromantic spectrum and to campaign on issues that matter to us. For example, why young people should learn about ace-spec identities in school. This year, I was asked by Stonewall to make a 59 second video on that topic, which should appear on their TikTok during this week. But I’ve also been reading. To help with my own writing, I asked around for recommendations of YA fiction with ace representation. Then I bought two of them and had a read. The books in question are: Loveless by Alice Oseman (author of Heartstopper ) and The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. These are two very different books. Loveless is a contemporary story about a girl called Georgia who goes to university hoping to find the big romance that has so far eluded her, but ends up finding herself. The Lady’s Guide  is a historical adventure set in an unspecified part of the 18th century, about a girl called Felicity

Shout Out to the Bookshops!

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We might not have seen much of them during the pandemic, but bookshops are still here for us. Personally, I've still been ordering through bookshop sites, even while I've been at home. And now that I'm tentatively stepping back outside, the one thing I look forward to most is time spent browsing in bookshops. But this week, I'd like to give a specially big shout out to the three bookshops who are now stocking copies of Asexual Fairy Tales and Asexual Myths and Tales . That's: Bookish Type in Leeds  [here] Gay Pride Shop in Manchester  [here] Lighthouse in Edinburgh  [here] THANK YOU!! And a big contratulations to my local bookshop, Waterstones Bradford Wool Exchange, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Not only is it in one of the most beautiful historic buildings, but is a great supporter of Bradford Literature Festival. This week, I had my first proper visit since lockdown. Not only did I buy a couple of young adult titles with asexual representat

Witch or Saint? A Fine Line

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  Today, I visited two famous caves in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire: St Robert’s Cave and the much more famous Mother Shipton’s Cave. Both are located by the banks of the River Nidd in the remains of Royal Forest of Knaresborough. Both once housed figures who were considered capable of working (or speaking) wonders. Both spoke truth to power in their day. So why is Ursula Shipton (neé Sontheil) remembered as a witch, while Robert Flower is remembered as a saint? I had been wanting to revisit both caves for some time. And to me, both felt like sacred sites. The cave where Ursula Shipton was allegedly born during a storm, is next to the mystical petrifying or dropping well. Water from a stream pools on top of a cave, then drops into a pool beneath, gradually turning anything in its path to stone. It’s an enchanting spot!  And round the side of that is the entrance to the “wishing well”, a cleft in the rock where the magical water pools, and into which you can dip your hand. This really

Swanwick in the Time of COVID.

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  My 2021 Swanwick programme and notebook. Normally, my week at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in Derbyshire is the highlight of my summer. But normality is something none of us has seen for the best part of two years. This year, I had my head in the sand, pretending it wasn’t happening until almost the last moment, afraid to either cancel or not cancel. So let’s just say that when I arrived at The Hayes Conference Centre, my anxiety levels were back to the way they used to be in my earlier Swanwick years. In those days, I spent most of my time lurking around the edges and retreating to my room. This year, I did much the same, for different reasons. Thankfully, the Hayes had wonderful precautions in place (numerous sanitising stations, picnic lunches etc.) Sadly, none of my particular friends were able to attend, which combined with my increased need for distancing to make it a little lonelier than usual. But there were still many happy moments and useful pieces of learning - especial

The Anne Lister Pilgrimage

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A few weeks ago, I walked the Anne Lister Pilgrimage in Halifax . This is a self-guided walk, going from Halifax Minster to Shibden Hall and back, with “pauses for thought” along the way, relating to Anne’s life and faith. This is my first pilgrimage since becoming a member of the Community of Aidan & Hilda , and I did it on the last day of Pride Month, wearing my Gentleman Jack T-shirt.  I quite like the idea of a pilgrimage devoted to someone not known for being a saint. We’re aware of her faults. (All those seductions! Acting like a typical Tory landowner.) But we can also see her trying to genuinely engage with the Divine, as the person she was. Here are a few pictures: Someone left this encouraging message along the way. The Halifax Beacon. The thought below goes with it. I love that there is more than one Permissive Path. Destination reached! I’m not sweaty, I’m not sweaty…

Unconscious Bias: A Conscious Confession

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  “The Origin of Love”, Anna Hopkinson 2019. Yesterday, something happened to me that has not happened before. I had to part ways with an editor on moral grounds. The person in question objected to my explicit reveal that the protagonist and his nemesis were conjoined twins in a former life. The reason? Apparently, two pairs of conjoined twins in one story “stretched credulity” and raised distracting questions about “who gets to move the limbs etc.” Couldn’t they just be normal twins or best friends? No, they couldn’t. I felt honour bound to say these comments sounded prejudiced, and I couldn’t accept the edits. I’m sure this editor did not intend to be prejudiced. It was unconscious bias. * This morning, I watched David Harewood’s documentary for the BBC, “Why is Covid Killing People of Colour?” It contained some shocking statistics; not least the grossly disproportionate number of Pakistani people living in deprived areas (something particularly relevant to my home town of Bradford).