#and that includes Brittas for my Emma

[lgbtqreads]

Hello I have just finished Home Field Advantage and I want more sports. I really enjoyed Running with Lions, Break the Fall, and She drives me crazy. Particularly love focus on the sport, like them playing matches or doing lots of training. Do you know of any titles? Thank you! (I am so, SO excited for Out of our league!!!)

Aah you are speaking my language, clearly! First of all, Like Other Girls by Britta Lundin should be top of your list. It obviously has things in common with Home Field Advantage but it's like 75% heavier on football (and misogyny) and lighter on romance. Actually, I just realized I wrote a post on queer teen athletes, so just check that out here: https://shepherd.com/best-books/queer-teen-athletes

For that post, I only included books I've read from start to finish (and still didn't have space for Bruised by Tanya Boteju, which I did enjoy!), but there's also Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei, Catch and Cradle by Katia Rose in New Adult, and Sidelined by Kara Bietz, and keep your eyes peeled later this year for You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie. Also, while the female quarterback in Home and Away by Cam Montgomery isn't queer, the love interest is, so check it out anyway.

(And yay, thank you! Can confirm that as with most anthologies I helm, you will definitely find some queer and trans athletes in there!)

(Also, gonna take off my queer hat for a second and just mention that if you haven't read Sarah Henning, you must - Throw Like a Girl and It's All in How You Fall. Also Michigan vs. the Boys by Carrie Allen. And Cold Day in the Sun by Sara Biren. And Dangerous Play by Emma Kress, and Gravity by Sarah Deming. Okay, I'll stop now.)

[cabeswaterdrowned]

ask game:

tsc (i’m sorry i always ask about them, my brainrot is strong and i love hearing your thoughts)

and community

don’t apologize pls lol I also am brain rotting hard and have few people to talk about it with so it’s appreciated :)

The Shadowhunter Chronicles

M/F OTP: there are others I really like or love in a more normal way, but Emma/Julian Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa are the ones that hit on another level for me emotionally, I’m clinically insane about them. Also it’s a bit hilarious to think about, since this was formative media for me (I first read TID in late elementary/middle school and TDA as they were coming out in high school) how my taste in ships generally speaking was shaped… like if you look at pairings I gravitate towards in other fandoms since there are def patterns xd. The impact!

Other M/F ships I have love for (including this category because ik i don’t talk about them as much and in another fandom where I had less dynamics I’m super fond of to choose from I could have placed them in that first category think of them as like second tier Otp’s for me ): Mark/Cristina, James/Cordelia, Simon/Isabelle (last one also was formative they were thee hot girl/soft boy nerd ship to me in middle school. But it has been a while so unsure if they’d hit the same on reread, they are the tmi couple I would most like to see in the better in black collection though!)

M/M OTP: Jem/Will! And then follow up Kit/Ty Surefire ways to get me invested in a ship: they do necromancy together, meet cute with a knife to the throat, they break up without ever dating. Triple check.

F/F OTP: along those lines it’s Lucie x Grace literally the main reason I want to reread TLH (well I do also just want to see how it reads back to back and not broken up and I have other reasons but like. Those are less important) is to be able to properly write fic about them, like it genuinely pisses me off this fandom is so boring and tasteless I can’t believe I actually miss the legacies fandom they were annoying as hell but at least they understood that when women do dark magic together it’s polite to write detailed analysis of how gay they are 😭. The way I know cc has seen Buffy too like flop. Also it just fits archetypes of antagonistic femslash I tend to love in general see: Julia/Marina Aria/Alison Elena/Rebekah and more

OT3: Herongraystairs and then Kierarktina

Friendship OTP: Tessa & Magnus + Will & Magnus! And for familial relationships I adore all The Blackthorn siblings in TDA and their dynamics but especially Julian and Mark’s relationship is v compelling to me and I also love Cordelia and Alastair’s relationship v much it was my favorite overall development in TLH. And then for psuedo familial dynamics I Love Charlotte’s relationships with Tessa Jem Will and Jessamine. her relationship with Jem might be my softest spot overall especially because they have moments in CP2 that make me go 🥺 but as a documented Tessa lover I adore how having Charlotte as a mentor figure effects her arc. So those are my favorites Ik I failed at picking just one. Oh I also adore Emma and Cristina’s friendship although I also sometimes ship them romantically

Canon OTP: Blackstairs Wessa Jessa like I said

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crackship? I will admit that during my CP reread I did look up how many Will/Magnus fics there are on ao3 although I did not read them (there are 12 for inquiring minds).

Anti-OTP: The worst ship to me is Jordan/Maia but it’s been a long time so the vitriol has worn off and I don’t have another solid notp besides them but the other canon pairings I’m #unimpressed with are Clace Ghostwriter and Gracetopher … Lucie/Jesse probably irks me the most these days because I actually want to like them because the concept is so good but the execution falls flat for me and I really like Lucie and want someone more interesting for her (like Grace lol.)

Community

M/F OTP: ultimately when I’m actually watching the show it’s Jeff/Britta love their emmaxknightleycore vibes. But I did get really into Abed x Annie at one point and even wrote some fic about it over quarantine (when I first got into Comm) so I have a soft spot for that concept too

M/M OTP: Troy/Abed. They of course are The otp of the show.

F/F OTP: not really otp status but well I did write this Annie x Britta Carmilla Au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728689?view_adult=true

(I orphaned that account post quarantine)

OT3: Troy/Abed/Annie

Friendship OTP: I mean all the study group dynamics but I especially have soft spots for Annie and Troy + Abed and Britta moments

Canon OTP: Jeff/Britta

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crack …

Anti-OTP: I just don’t like Jeff/Annie I used to viscerally hate it these days I’m just like. It’s not for me lol.

[thecharmingknightemma]

basic promo for my Community verses/muses

from this blog where she’s an oc character and ouat has nothing to do with it:

Emma Blanchard-Nolan as a Greendale teacher or student: after the end of the serie, due to a typical Greendale chaotic situation in which Dean Pelton needed to hire more teachers, any teachers, for basically no money, Emma offered her friend her time and volunteered to be a temporary ‘self care teacher’ which really just means she’s offering advice to her students. She’s no less ridiculous than most people at Greendale, so she’s fitting in pretty well. May come back as a counselor every now and then // if we plan to have threads with Greendale students, to make things more believable, it’s a younger 25 years old Emma who enrolled to get more education in relation to her bails bondman job: Spanish classes, psychology classes, economy classes, anything that would help her be better but in a school that would make easier for someone like her to actually pass the class and to keep following her own life outside.

[about] [rules]

from @musesonawhim my multimuse sideblog

my test muse Britta Perry, though keep in mind that there are some canon divergences and I prefer post-Greendale threads where she’s less out of control, also she never made up with her parents and they are treated as the horrible people they are. (Look out for triggering themes!)

[about page] [rules]

[theomnilegent]

2021 Upcoming LGBTQIA Fiction I’m Excited For!

This is my top nine for women-led queer fiction for this year! I am so excited to read each of these books. Each of these books features lesbian or bisexual women and most are romances or coming-of-age stories. A lot of these are #ownvoices stories and many are by authors who already have proven themselves as great writers of LGBT fiction.

Below you’ll find titles, summaries and goodreads links to the above books. This year there are plenty of tropes to be found in these stories, including enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, and starcrossed lovers! I’m so excited for all the enemies-to-lovers stories there are this year, and I can’t wait to read everything on this list.

Bruised by Tanya Boteju To Daya Wijesinghe, a bruise is a mixture of comfort and control. Since her parents died in an accident she survived, bruises have become a way to keep her pain on the surface of her skin so she doesn’t need to deal with the ache deep in her heart. So when chance and circumstances bring her to a roller derby bout, Daya is hooked. Yes, the rules are confusing and the sport seems to require the kind of teamwork and human interaction Daya generally avoids. But the opportunities to bruise are countless, and Daya realizes that if she’s going to keep her emotional pain at bay, she’ll need all the opportunities she can get. The deeper Daya immerses herself into the world of roller derby, though, the more she realizes it’s not the simple physical pain-fest she was hoping for. Her rough-and-tumble teammates and their fans push her limits in ways she never imagined, bringing Daya to big truths about love, loss, strength, and healing.

Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth Aideen has plenty of problems she can’t fix. Her best (and only) friend is pulling away. Her mother’s drinking problem is a constant concern. She’s even running out of outlandish diseases to fake so she can skip PE. But when Aideen stumbles on her nemesis, overachiever Meabh Kowalski, in the midst of a full-blown meltdown, she sees a problem that—unlike her own disaster of a life—seems refreshingly easy to solve. Meabh is desperate to escape her crushing pile of extracurriculars. Aideen volunteers to help. By pushing Meabh down the stairs. Problem? Solved. Meabh’s sprained ankle is the perfect excuse to ditch her overwhelming schedule. But when another student learns about their little scheme and brings Aideen another “client” who needs her “help,” it kicks off a semester of traded favors, ill-advised hijinks, and an unexpected chance at love. Fixing other people’s problems won’t fix her own, but it might be the push she needs to start.

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen After losing spectacularly to her ex-girlfriend in their first game since their break up, Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, the incredibly beautiful and incredibly mean Irene Abraham. Things only get worse when their nosey, do-gooder moms get involved and the girls are forced to carpool together until Irene’s car gets out of the shop. Their bumpy start only gets bumpier the more time they spend together. But when an opportunity presents itself for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex (and climb her school’s social ladder at the same time), she bribes Irene into playing along. Hijinks, heartbreak, and gay fake-dating scheme for the ages.

Like Other Girls by Britta Lundin Teen lesbian Mara joins her rural high school's football team, and in doing so inspires four more girls to join, upending the boys' club culture and sparking a mini-revolution.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston A 23-year-old realises her subway crush is displaced from 1970's Brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it's too late... 

Afterlove by Tanya Byrne Ash Persaud is about to become a reaper in the afterlife, but she is determined to see her first love Poppy Morgan again, the only thing that separates them is death. Car headlights. The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars. But she made it, she's still here. Or is she? This New Year's Eve, Ash is gets an RSVP from the afterlife she can't decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city's dead to await their fate. But Ash can't forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again...even if it means they only get a few more days together.

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school's code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother. The two are drawn to each other and can't deny their growing feelings. But while Morgan--out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start--doesn't want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn't ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together?

I Think I Love You by Auriane Desombre Arch-nemeses Emma, a die-hard romantic, and more-practical minded Sophia find themselves competing against one another for a coveted first-prize trip to a film festival in Los Angeles...what happens if their rivalry turns into a romance?

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar Everyone likes Humaira "Hani" Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita "Ishu" Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl. Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.

[letsreadwomen]

books for baby gays

gather round queer kiddos, for this book rec of stories featuring wlw of all designations, where happy things happen and bad things do not (nearly as much). I’ve aimed for happy endings and not too much tragedy or pain over the course of these stories, but (unfortunately) haven’t read all of them so do let me know if any mistakes slipped through.

This list is heavy on the fiction because I’m mainly aiming to provide some solace and warmth. Where there is some overlap between categories (e.g. coming out after uni and the what comes next section, or if you’re looking for escapism then the background-to-no romance section might also be useful) I have only included a book under one or the other, not duplicated.

All links direct through to the Storygraph, which includes reader-sourced content warnings on all titles so do make sure to check those out as well (and if you want you can follow me here). Now, have at it!

Coming out and of age

At middle school / primary school / roughly under age 12

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter To The World by Ashley Herring Blake

The House You Pass On The Way by Jacqueline Woodson

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O’Neill (graphic novel)

At high school

You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson

Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

The Gallery Of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz

Georgia Peaches And Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Leah On The Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Style by Chelsea M. Cameron

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

At uni

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi

Learning Curves by Ceillie Simkiss

Outside / after school

Like Water by Rebecca Podos

The Princess And The Fangirl by Ashey Poston

Ship It by Britta Lundin

Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera

Coming out after uni

The London Of Us by Clare Lydon

Breaking Character by Lee Winter

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman

Out And Proud by Lisa Young (directs to Bella Books)

What comes after the big come out

Everything Leads To You by Nina LeCour

Double Exposure by Chelsea Cameron

A Hidden Hope by Laura Ambrose

Seriously... I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres (non fiction)

Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch (non fiction)

Escapism (i.e. genre fiction where queerphobia isn’t a thing)

Of Fire And Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember

Belle Revolte by Linsey Miller

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker with Wendy Xu (graphic novel)

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages

The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta

Ash by Malinda Lo

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

An Accident Of Stars by Foz Meadows

The Art Of Saving The World by Corinne Duyvis

Water Witch: The Deceiver’s Grave by Nene Adams

Romance & identity take a back seat

The Black Veins by Ashia Monet

Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy

Lumberjanes by Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Walters with Brooklyn A. Allen (graphic novel)

Princeless: Raven The Pirate Princess by Rosy Higgins (graphic novel)

Classics

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

The how tos and histories

How We Get Free: Black Feminism And The Combahee River Collective, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Sapphistries: A Global History Of Love Between Women by Leila J. Rupp

Overshare: Love, Laughs, Sexuality And Secrets by Rosie Spaughton and Rose Wllen Dix

Rewriting The Rules: An Anti-Self Help Guide To Love, Sex And Relationships by Meg-John Barker

Coming Out Stories: Personal Experiences Of Coming Out From Across The LGBTQ+ Spectrum, edited by Emma Goswell and Sam Walker

Further reading

Definitely make sure to check out @bellabooks​, publisher of wlw stories!

@bookriot​‘s Queer Women’s History Reads and Books About LGBT History, but make sure to poke around the whole website

Gay’s The Word bookshop: based in London but ships worldwide, I’m mainly including it here because it has an excellent filter system with settings for category and identity to help you find the books you want to read

All of @biandlesbianliterature really, but especially the Coming Out Later In Life book list

The books section over at Autostraddle is really everything I ever wanted

All of the LAMBDA nominees ever, and you can filter them by various aspects!

[sandalaris]

for the new writer asks: 1, 4, 6 and 7? But if you're bored and want to do the other 3, please go for it, all the questions are so interesting

I put the requested questions in bold and the others I italicized. :) Thanks for the ask!

1. Which of your own finished fics have you re-read the most?

Probably Intervening Processes (We’ve Got This). A Suicide Squad inspired Sterek fic that I’ve had a half-written sequel to in the works. It has its flaws, but I still really like it and when in a Teen Wolf mood, work on its sequel.

2. Which of your own finished fics will you probably never read again because then you’ll have to remember how much you don’t like it/how hard it was to write/how annoying the fandom was/some other negative association?

iLet Him (no link because I’m embarrassed I ever wrote it, but I also refuse to take it down because I know what its like to lose a fic you enjoy reading and if even one person likes it then I won’t take it away from them). Its an iCarly fanfic I wrote back in 2009. All my fics from then are not really good, although a few are OK, but this one was the first one to get a less than positive review. I’ve developed thicker skin since then but at the time it hurt that someone disliked it enough to tell me it was bad.

3. You can only use one musical artist or poet just for lyric titles for the rest of your life: who would it be?

I am so bad with knowing artists its not even funny. I wanna says Grandson or Panic!At The Disco. I feel like Panic has a lot of interestingly worded lines that would be fun to play with as titles, but I think Grandson’s lyrics might fit my fics a little better maybe? As for poets... I’m even worse at poets than I am at song artists. At least when I hear a song I like I can glance at the screen and see the singer’s/band’s name, when I read a poem I like I don’t even notice who wrote it, I just enjoy how it makes me feel.

4. What’s your favorite opening line you’ve ever written?

I went back and read all my opening lines and I don’t actual have strong feelings about any of them. :/ There are plenty of whole opening paragraphs I like well enough, but opening first lines are kind of my achilles heel. If I had to pick the the ones I felt were the best of an otherwise bland bunch, I’d go with:

Baby, We’re a Cliche: “The first time Derek is set to meet someone at a bar, and really he blames Erica for the entire mess of things thankyouverymuch, it goes exactly as well as he expects.”

and

She Really Is a Funny Girl: “Emma Swan's arrival spawned many seemingly coincidental occurrences. Unspoken, and therefore unconnected, by the people of Storybrooke.” (Which is technically more than one line, but if I had written it today I’d have made it one sentence.)

5. What’s your favorite closing line you’ve ever written?

I just realized I’d been assuming this and number four are referring to the first line of the first chapter and last line of the last chapter, when technically I could have translated either questions as the first or last line of any scene and/or chapter I wished. Oh well.

You’re a Hurricane, I’m a Flood: “He should let her go. He won't, but he should.” as it perfectly sums up how I feel about the Trevor/Rene relationship on the show Travelers.

6. Which character would you include in more fics if you felt more confident writing them?

Shirley Bennet from Community. I find myself finding excuses for her to be elsewhere because I feel like I can’t get her down quite right. The closest I’ve ever gotten to getting her right is in an AU where she’s a cop trying to arrest Jeff and Britta. It doesn’t make it any easier that with seven main characters, its pretty easy to shove her to the back during scenes. I don’t want to do that Shirley though, I like her too much to not at least try to include her.

7. What is one plot point or character or title you would change for any of your finished fics?

Finished fic? Maybe the title Cake Batter (no link, sorry) because it was something that only made sense to me, a little inside joke that was then separated by about three degrees, and I know I could have done better on coming up with a title.

Unfinished, I’ve been itching to rewrite All the Little Pieces as I was experimenting with writing styles while in the thick of it and am unhappy with quite a few chapters. I can barely bring myself to work on the next chapters in it because the fact that it needs fixing keeps distracting me. I also wish I would have stuck with my original scene for when Richie learns Kate is with Seth/at Uncle Eddie’s in A Lesson in Navigation, but I completely changed the entire thing before I even got to the chapter because of a line I’d written in an already posted chapter and instead of fixing what Seth said and adding an A/N to clear up any confusion, I pulled my hair out trying to make the new scene work and while I feel I’ve managed to keep it from being a total disaster, the original one was much better.

[the-sound-and-the-fury]

Books of 2018

And here is my my annual book round up! This year I bumped my Goodreads challenge up from 70 to 80, and wound up reading 113 (which is a little less than last year, but some of these books were very long). But I once again benefited from my friend group being so dedicated to harassing each other with more books to read (and also the Silent Book Club that meets in Boston which has given me some time to focus on reading).

But as usual, I’ve bolded my top 18 books, and italicized my next 10 honorable mentions. And I’ve put a strike through my bottom 5 books that I managed to finish. This was a little difficult to do because I reread a few books this year (like Harry Potter, and The Princess Diaries) and I’m not including those.That said, the rereads affected my ratings, and I really didn’t find myself blown away by as many books. This is also possibly because a lot of these books were part of series, but ultimately I felt I had a significant majority of books that were either pretty good or meh.

(I would also link to all my monthly posts for these, but I’d read that links will interfere with searching tags on Tumblr (because this website is working overtime to dig its own grave), so you can just search Books of 2018 on my page for yourself.)

Dirty Deeds - HelenKay Dimon

Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher

The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies #1) - KJ Charles

Everything is Awful - Matt Bellassai

Foolish Hearts - Emma Mills (OwlCrate)

A Case of Possession (A Charm of Magpies #2) - KJ Charles

The Dead Moms Club - Kate Spencer

First Frost (Waverly Family #2) - Sarah Addison Allen

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) - Holly Black (January 2018 OwlCrate)

Persepolis Riding (The Expanse #7) - James SA Corey

Flight of Magpies (A Charm of Magpies #3) - KJ Charles

HeartShip (Full Hearts #1) - Amy Jo Cousins

HeartOn (Fully Hearts #2) - Amy Jo Cousins

The Last of August (Charlotte Holmes #2) - Brittany Cavallaro

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli (reread)

Remedial Rocket Science (Chemistry Lessons #1) - Susannah Nix

The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) - Melissa Albert (OwlCrate)

Intermediate Thermodynamics (Chemistry Lessons #2) - Susannah Nix

Boy Toys (Hot Off the Ice #3) - AE Wasp

Skater Boy (Hot Off the Ice #4) - AE Wasp

The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare

Opal (The Raven Cycle #4.5) - Maggie Stiefvater

Vicious (Villains #1) - VE Schwab

The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3) - Brittany Cavallro

When the Moon Was Ours - Anna-Marie McLemore

Working It (Ringside Romance #1) - Christine d’Abo

Faking It (Ringside Romance #2) - Christine d’Abo

The Color of Magic (Discworld #1) - Terry Pratchett

Making It (Ringside Romance #3) - Christine d’Abo

Losing It (Ringside Romance #4) - Christine d’Abo

Advanced Physical Chemistry (Chemistry Lessons #3) - Susannah Nix

Caraval (Caraval #1) - Stephanie Garber

These Vicious Masks (These Vicious Masks #1) - Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (HP #1) - JK Rowling

Carry the Ocean (The Roosevelt #1) - Heidi Cullinan

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (HP #2) - JKR

Squared Away (Out of Uniform #5) - Annabeth Albert

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (HP #3) - JKR

Helping Hand (Housemates #1) - Jay Northcote

Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game #1) - Amanda Foody

Like a Lover (Housemates #2) - Jay Northcote

Practice Makes Perfect (Housemates #3) - Jay Northcote

Watching and Wanting (Housemates #4) - Jay Northcote

Puddin’ (Dumplin’ #2) - Julie Murphy

Starting from Scratch (Housemates $5) - Jay Northcote

Pretty in Pink (Housemates #6) - Jay Northcote

Can’t Help Myself - Meredith Goldstein

The Astonishing Color of After - Emily XR Pan

Adrift (Cruising #1) - LA Witt

How to Marry a Werewolf (Claw and Courtship #1) - Gail Carriger

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP #4) - JKR

A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOTAR #3.1) - Sarah J Maas

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (HP #5) - JKR

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HP #6) - JKR

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HP #7) - JKR

City of Ghosts (Cassidy Blake #1) - Victoria Schwab

Leah on the Offbeat (Creekwood #2/Simonverse #3) - Becky Albertalli

Level Up - Annabeth Albert

Ship It - Britta Lundin

Failure is an Option - H Jon Benjamin

From Twinkle, With Love - Sandhya Menon

Daughter of the Siren Queen (DOTPK #2) - Tricia Levenseller

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark - Michelle McNamara

Tight Quarters (Out of Uniform #6) - Annabeth Albert

Summer of Salt - Katrina Leno

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy #1) - Katherine Arden

And I Darken (The Conqueror’s Saga #1) - Kiersten White

On Duty (Smoke and Bullets #1) - AR Barley

Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep #1) - Mira Grant

Broken Protocol (Smoke and Bullets #1) - AR Barley

A Duke in the Night (The Devils of Dover #1) - Kelly Bowen

I’ve Got My Duke to Keep Me Warm (The Lords of Worth #1) - Kelly Bowen

A Good Rogue is Hard to Find (The Lords of Worth #2) - Kelly Bowen

You’re the Earl That I Want (The Lords of Worth #3) - Kelly Bowen

Duke of My Heart (Season for Scandal #1) - Kelly Bowen

From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess (From the Notes of a Middle School Princess #1) - Meg Cabot

Royal Wedding Disaster (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess #2) - Meg Cabot

A Duke to Remember (Season for Scandal #2) - Kelly Bowen

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

Royal Crush ( From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess #3) - Meg Cabot

The Looking Glass - Janet McNally

Royal Crown (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess #4) - Meg Cabot

Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman

Princess in Love (The Princess Diaries #3) - Meg Cabot

Competence (The Custard Protocol #3) - Gail Carriger

Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5) - Sarah J Maas

Princess in Waiting (The Princess Diaries #4) - Meg Cabot

Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory

Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer #2) - Laini Taylor

Vengeful (Villains #2) - VE Schwab

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Syncopation (Twisted Wishes #1) - Anna Zabo

Leo Loves Aries (Signs of Love #1) - Anyta Sunday

Scorpio Hates Virgo (Signs of Love #2) - Anyta Sunday

Gemini Keeps Capricorn (Signs of Love #3) - Anyta Sunday

Before the Devil Breaks You (The Diviners #3) - Libba Bray

The Hating Game - Sally Thorne

Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass #6) - Sarah J Maas

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) - Sarah J Maas

Pride - Ibi Zoboi

The Final Empire/Mistborn (Mistborn #1) - Brandon Sanderson

The Omega Objection (San Andreas Shifters #2) - GL Carriger

This is Kind of and Epic Love Story - Kheryn Callendar

The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang

Strange Practice (Dr. Greta Helsing #1) - Vivian Shaw

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

First & Then - Emma Mills

The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Carroll

What Happens at Christmas - Jay Northcote

Better Not Pout - Annabeth Albert

DNF

The Glass Spare (The Glass Spare #1) - Lauren DeStefano (OwlCrate)

The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare

Running With Lions - Julian Winters

[marjaystuff]

Elise Cooper Interviews Ronald H Balson

Defending Britta Stein (Book 6 Liam Taggert and Catherine Lockhart)

Ronald H. Balson

St. Martin’s Press

Sept 7th, 2021

Defending Britta Stein by Ronald H. Balson is a wonderful read. Although the book has some courtroom drama including legal strategy and loopholes, most of the story is Britta Stein’s recounting of the events leading up to and during World War II in Denmark. This is historical fiction at its best with bravery, betrayal, and redemption.

Britta Stein is a 92-year-old Jewish Danish woman who emigrated to America. She is being sued for defamation after being seen and then admitting to spray painting “Coward,” “Traitor,” “Collaborator,” and “War Criminal” on the walls of a restaurant. The owner, 95-year-old Ole Henryks, will be honored by the Danish/American Association for his many civic and charitable contributions. Frequently appearing on local TV, he is well known for his actions of saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II and is considered a hero.  But not to Britta who claims he was anything but and sent Jews to their deaths including her sister and brother-in-law. 

Attorney Catherine Lockhart and Investigator Liam Taggart, husband, and wife, have agreed to defend Britta and have as an assistant counsel her granddaughter Emma. The plot alternates between present day Chicago (2018) and Britta’s oral account of her memories of her homeland of Denmark prior to the presence of the Nazis and during World War II. They are up against “Six o’clock” Sterling Sparks, Henryk’s’ shady attorney, who pushes for a speedy trial and is willing to waive witness lists and pretrial exhibits. Readers anxiously turn the pages hoping Britta will be vindicated since they take a journey with her during the horrific events.

What is very interesting is the way Balson contrasts defamation versus freedom of speech, the consequences of staying versus leaving, and Denmark’s role in protecting its Jewish citizens. 

This book will stay with readers well after they finish the book. The author has an incredible way of telling a story with sympathetic heroes and monstrous villains before and during World War II. The story has mystery, intrigue, suspense, and history all intertwined into a riveting novel.

Elise Cooper:  Why Denmark?

Ronald H. Balson:  I wanted to tell the story of what this country did since it was so unique and extraordinary.  They unified and came together as a country, they came together to hide, protect, and ultimately rescue 7,600 of their Jewish brethren from certain death. Other countries did not do it: not Belgium, not France, not Norway, not any other country. 

EC:  It was interesting that Hitler made a non-aggression pact with Denmark, The Cooperation Agreement?

RHB:  Denmark got a pass from Hitler who considered the country small and not a military force.  But he needed this country to get into the North Sea.  For whatever reason he decided not to totally occupy Denmark and to peacefully co-exist.  Denmark ran its own internal affairs and was allowed to govern their Jewish population until 1943.  

EC:  The Danish people were incredible?

RHB:  I hoped to get across through the civil jury trial here in America what it was like to be a Dane and Jewish.  As I recounted in the book, there were plenty of non-Jews who put themselves at risk to help save the 7600 Jewish citizens in Denmark.  They were hidden in hospitals, churches, stores, and homes.  Many also helped the Jews get to Sweden. I wanted to show how the Danes had emotional pride and belief in their own country. 

EC: You discuss the debate about staying versus leaving?

RHB:  I have this scene in the book between Catherine her lawyer, and Britta.  Catherine says, “I know it’s easy for me to say in hindsight, and it’s not fair, I shouldn’t judge, but the consequences of staying were dire, yet they found some reason to ignore the writing on the wall, which to me defies logic and good sense.”  Britta responds, that if they could see into the future a wiser decision could have been made; yet, they “would have packed up and left everything and everyone… your job, your home, your profession, and headed off blindly in some unknown direction… At that time, in 1943 Hitler owned Europe.”

EC:  You seem to explore this in many of your books?

RHB:  It is a constant theme in a lot of my books.  They all had the same opportunity to leave.  But how does someone leave everything including family and community.  Where would they go? How many countries would have taken in millions of Jews? What the Nazis did continued to escalate, and no one could imagine the concentration camps.  Many thought they could last out the war.  

EC:  How would you describe Britta-I thought of her like Golda Meir?

RHB:  Really interesting.  She was a spunky young woman and now in her 90s she is a spunky older woman.  She is a fighter, passionate, principled, independent, determined, and headstrong. 

EC: She was accused of having a Nazi symbol but denied it?

RHB: She said she would never use these symbols because then it becomes a part of her language. 

EC:  In the story there is an explanation between freedom of speech and defamation?

RHB: I have a scene in the book where Catherine explains to Britta that freedom of speech is not absolute.  No one can use words to legally defame someone. If someone is accused of criminal conduct, crimes of moral turpitude, and coalescence with the Nazi Party there can be serious consequences. Traitor, Nazi agent, and Nazi collaborator are defamatory on their face.  But couldn’t liar, informer, and betrayer be opinions?

EC:  How would you describe the granddaughter, Emma?

RHB: She is learning a lot about her grandmother who she admires.  She is a brilliant young lawyer who is articulate and dignified.

EC:  What about the lawyer Sterling Sparks?

RHB:  He is called “Six O’clock Sparks” for a reason. I have been practicing law for over 49 years and have met plenty of Sterlings. He knows how to work the media.  Very flashy but not that sharp as a lawyer. Very brash, narcissistic, over-confident, and conceited.

EC:  What do you want readers to get out of your books?

RHB:  I think of historical fiction like cheating.  The backdrop has already been written by history.  My job as a writer is to create characters, a plot, and a setting to weave into the history, making sure a certain point is brought out.  I want my readers to be invested in the fictional characters created.  My goal is for people to learn something.

EC:  What about your next book?

RHB:  It will not have Catherine and Liam although I think I will write another one with them. This next book takes place in 1945 with some espionage.  It will possibly come out in September next year.  

THANK YOU!!

[mermaidsirennikita]

January 2017 Book Roundup

Because I’m excessively nerdy and decided that I wasn’t working on enough shit this year, I’m going to try to keep track of how many books I read/attempt to read each month this year.  This is my covert way of trying to push books that you would maybe? not? try? on you because honestly, I feel like I see so many of the same books over and over on Tumblr.  And many of them are good!  But many more are overlooked.  Without further ado:

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.  5/5.  This is a great romcom to read while you think the world is ending.  It’s pure fluff, except for the smutty parts.  It’s the tale of Lucy and Joshua, two incredibly passive aggressive coworkers at a publishing company who are competing for a job while also wanting to hatefuck each other.  Joshua’s just mean enough without being a total dick?  Lucy can dish it?  A must read.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May.  3/5.  To be honest, I feel like I gave this three stars on Goodreads purely because I feel like other people will like this.  It’s your classic Victorian Era girl slays evil fairies book, which I normally would love, but--the writing just wasn’t for me.  It did have a nice romance percolating between the heroine and the evil faerie who wasn’t that evil.  But to be super honest, I expected more sex.  Why did I?  I don’t know.

Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath.  4.5/5.  I believe that this began as a Tumblr?  Essentially, Porath takes women of history (and mythology) that he thinks Disney would never make a movie out of, gives them a little write-up, and accompanies these write-ups with delightful Disneyfied drawings of them.  I honestly loved this, and only took half a star off because of the whole “I’m not sure about all of the women in this book being portrayed accurately because I don’t know about many of them” thing.  (He did include the “Caterina Sforza flashed her vag at everyone” story which, while popular, is bullshit.)  The fact that Porath used so many women I genuinely had never heard of really impressed me--I love these “bad women” collections, but most of the time I know the stories already.  Well done.

Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin.  3/5.  This book taps into the story of three sisters who live with their parents in a border town.  Why do they live in a border town?  Because their terminally ill mother regularly travels to Mexico for illegal cancer treatments.  This story was actually pretty interesting throughout and drew me in--but I predicted the twist VERY early on, and it seemed like much of the story depended on that.  Still worth the read if you’re interested in a very different YA with an out-there angle.

Ever The Hunted by Erin Summerhill.  4/5.  Following the death of her bounty hunter father, Britta is forced to help the king’s men track down his killer--who is suspected to be her childhood friend Cohen (who she’s obviously secretly in love with).  This book was not full of surprises.  It is a pretty standard YA fantasy.  But the romance is good--very much built on the two characters knowing each other, which is different for YA--and there’s a cool hook at the end.  It’s not going to SHOCK you, but it is enjoyable.

Poison’s Kiss by Breeana Shields.  2/5.  Marinda is used for her unique ability--she kills with a kiss.  Her employer/”owner” turns her towards a boy that she grows attached to, and--gasp, she doesn’t want to kill him.  This idea was kind of interesting, but like... No.  The writing is nothing special, the love is instant, and while the mythology is interesting, as it turns out the writer is not Indian.  Which is okay, except the mythology is and the world is based on India and according to several other reviewers she used terminology incorrectly and just didn’t seem to do her research.  Nah.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint.  5/5.  In 1960s New York, working class single mother Ruth Malone wakes up to find her two young children missing.  When they’re discovered dead a couple of days later, attention quickly turns to Ruth’s sexual exploits, drinking, and seemingly cold behavior.  This was SO GOOD.  Based on a real case (don’t google it), this story focuses not only on the perspective of Ruth, but on that of a male reporter who becomes obsessed with her as he follows her case.  Which annoyed me at first--until I realized where Flint was going with this.  Definitely a good book to read when you’re in the mood to hate men.

Windwitch by Susan Dennard.  4/5.  A followup to the first book, “Truthwitch” so I won’t say much.  Suffice to say that this is a YA high fantasy that focuses on Yseult and Safi, two girls gifted with witchery and their various exploits with people who alternately want to kill and help them.  This series has a great focus on female friendship, and the characters are diverse.  I also appreciate Yseult’s arc in particular, as it grew in this book and went in promising places.  (I want her to get with this guy who was a bad guy at first, and like... I’m not proud.)  The second book actually really improved upon the first and went in unexpected places, so--give this series a try.

Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia.  4/5.  This story begins with the discovery of the corpse of teenage Hattie.  A non-linear storyline and the perspectives of Hattie, the local sheriff, and a schoolteacher new to town tell the story of what happened to her.  This book surprised me--I didn’t expect for the protagonist to be as dark as she was, seeing as she was the “dead white girl” of the story.  While certain aspects surprised me more than others, this is less about who killed Hattie and more about daily lies and the capacity of men to romanticize themselves.

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore.  5/5.  I’ve already written about this book on my blog.  It’s about the romance between childhood friends Sam and Miel, it’s full of magical realism, and it touches on real issues--cultural divides, being transgender, sexuality, etc.  It’s beautiful, every word is poetic, I love it, read this.

Frostblood by Elly Blake.  1/5.  I... really do not like this book.  It had all the issues of Poison’s Kiss, except the concept wasn’t that interesting either.  Very boring, very typical YA Fantasy.  I don’t even know how to explain what it’s about because it’s that... Paint by numbers?  Just don’t.

[thecharmingknightemma]

okay but when it comes to canon characters will I ever not pick the least loved canon character who went through the most overlooked trauma and never got to react to it enough or was villainized for normal reactions and force them to work through it?

I have written

Jemma Simmons, the mother of overexaggerated trauma which she mostly faced alone and without any control on it, and on top of it who reacted so little to it that her own fans forget anything ever happened to her because she ‘represses’ aka the writers only care when it’s plot relevant, written as either a dark Jemma who snaps and stops being nice around s2 and alien Jemma who does represses even if she shows signs of break and gets to also live s4 crap before rightfully breaking, written also as communicating with friends who are also wonderfully written as fighting for her health 

Emma Swan, the mother of more realistic trauma who never got any justice, was actually a lot more functional than she should have been, and therefore I got to write as more broken so that she could heal instead of having everything swept under the rug, plus as being allowed to dislike people who hurt her, sue me

Jiaying from aos, a woman who thanks to her regenerative powers lived too long through her literal dissection before she died and came back, plenty reasons to go insane there but also still a chance to do better 

Britta Perry from Community: it’s too triggery to be explained but let’s say that her parents did plenty abusive things to her including her dad siding with a pervert in a dinosaur costume, and I want to write her actually sharing it, dealing with it, but also not being completely unrealistic because it’s fun and having meaningful relationships and people growing out of their ‘Britta is the worst’ mindset 

Clarke Griffin punished for things she was forced to do and that she asked people to please give her other option she could pick so she wouldn’t have to do them but there were none, actually getting aus where she got loving relationships instead of being alone 80%  of the time  (also ships, it’s so easy for me to ship her) 

finally, even my au princess Emma at least gets to show consequences of what villains did in her family’s past because even in an au in which her family won t doesn’t erase the horrors they went through. Plus, Emma not allowing anyone to equate her love for dresses or kindness to weakness, and being allowed to defend herself despite trauma and not ‘thanks’ to it

like. I have a pattern here? either it’s people I mostly just want to write some platonic or shippy relationships for that I didn’t have enough of in canon... or it’s this mess

[broochesfrombhutan]

Bibliography

This is a list of all the sources I used for my project:

Altmann, Karin. 2015. Fabric of Life - Textile Arts in Bhutan. Culture, Tradition and Transformation. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

Cowen, Tyler. "The Fate of Culture." The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 26, no. 4 (2002): 78-84.

Dhondup, K. "Tibet's Influence in Ladakh and Bhutan." The Tibet Journal 2, no. 2 (1977): 69-73.

Karan, Pradyumna P., and Cotton Mather. "Art and Geography: Patterns in the Himalaya." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 66, no. 4 (1976): 487-515.

Lees, Emma. “Intangible Cultural Heritage in a Modernizing Bhutan: The Question of Remaining Viable and Dynamic.” International Journal of Cultural Property 18, no. 2 (2011): 179–200.

Lo, Joseph, Lisa Macintyre & Britta Kalkreuter (2016) Investigating Markers of Authenticity: The Weavers’ Perspective Insights from a Study on Bhutanese Hand-woven Kira Textiles, TEXTILE, 14:3, 306-325.

White, J. Claude. "The Arts and Crafts of Tibet and the Eastern Himalayas." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 58, no. 2998 (1910): 584-94.

A video I watched for visual ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKQq664ttc

Websites (including sources for the images in my podcast):

https://www.bhutanpeacefultour.com/destinations/bhutan-at-a-glance/eastern-region/trashigang/radhi-village/

https://www-oxfordartonline-com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000008616

https://yeewongmagazine.com/the-classic-buddhist-queen/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2018/02/27/why-bhutan-is-still-out-of-this-world/#5cd4f6a744be

http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Shabdrung_Ngawang_Namgyal

https://www.tibettravel.org/bhutan-tour/bhutan-location-on-map.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugyen_Wangchuck

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/412009065892372651/

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/dress-fastener-thinkhab

https://twitter.com/gertsroyals/status/810970337793966080

https://authenticbhutantours.com/bhutan-weaving-tour/

https://www.bhutantraveladventures.com/bhutan-tours/eastern-bhutan-tour/

https://www.marketakalvachova.com/2018/01/04/life-monks-bhutan/

https://www.nwrafting.com/international/whitewater-rafters-guide-8-auspicious-symbols-buddhism

https://collection.maas.museum/object/363285

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90530/clasps-unknown/

https://blog.sivanaspirit.com/endless-knot-buddhism/

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/bhutan/background/other-features/the-bhutanese-way-of-life/72b5d456-0711-49eb-86d4-42834b6116f4/a/nar/72b5d456-0711-49eb-86d4-42834b6116f4/355819

https://www.raonline.ch/pages/bt/visin2/bt_dress01a.html

https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/

[vileart]

Three Shows and a Dramaturgy: Tim Marriot @ Edfringe

A Warning From History – Mengele 

As the Labour Party argues over the definition of anti-Semitism* and the Israeli government approves a Jewish Nation State**, divisions deepen and boundaries blur.

All across Europe and the USA extremist views advance and the Far Right begins to creep into government.

Against this contemporary background, Smokescreen Productions offers a warning from history at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Mengele takes us back to a beach in Brazil in 1979 when a drowning man is washed up on a beach where he meets a mysterious woman.

The play imagines the notorious doctor of Auschwitz confronted by the woman he assumes has saved him. 

Mengele Trailer from Smokescreen Visuals Ltd on Vimeo.

Shell Shock Tackles Major Mental Health Issue Related Deaths of Veterans

Fringe Encore Winner and Best Solo Show, Adelaide Fringe 18 The Ministry of Defence has just admitted that it “does not hold information on the causes of death for all UK Armed Forces veterans”*.

This includes the growing numbers among our estimated 2.6 million former service men and women who take their own lives.

The multiple award-winning play Shell Shock,which is coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 11 August as part of the Army@TheFringe programme, tackles the mental health challenges faced by some veterans trying to return to civilian life. 

All Change – Ivor’s Not Going Quietly

Ivor waits, his train of thought broken by his fragmented and decaying memory. 

His daughter Lily packs a bag, preparing him for a “home”. But Ivor’s not going quietly. As fast as Lily packs, he unpacks...

Performed by sitcom veteran Tim Marriott  with Stefanie Rossi as Lily, it’s a tale for our times, addressing the issues of failing memory and caring for an aging parent – something growing numbers of us can expect to face in years to come.

First of all, how do you define mental health? What does the term mean to you - do you have a social model of sanity, for example, or is it concerned with neural atypical conditions?

We are all happy to discuss our physical health… I wear a Fitbit tracker and will happily bore anyone to death about how many steps I have taken today, this week, this month… but there is a stigma around mental health that, in order to be truly healthy, we should address. Mental health therefore means to me exactly that – a healthy, balanced, exercised and fit mental state… or not. 

I don’t think of mental health in terms of expected social norms, or psychosis, but more in terms of how I react to stress and pressure on a daily basis. There are neuroses, injuries, degenerative conditions, physical and mental traumas and imbalances covered by the very general term ‘mental health’, but on a day to day, the phrase makes me think of emotional and intellectual well being.

What areas of mental health are you looking at in the performance?

I am doing three shows at EdFringe that

can be seen to deal with different aspects of 

mental health. Two established shows and one new one. ‘ Mengele’ exposes the mind of a narcissistic sociopath, ‘Shell Shock’ charts the descent through toxic masculinity into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The new show, ‘All Change’ is a deeply personal family story about living with dementia interpreted through a domestic and comedic setting.

In what ways do you hope that your play can help the audience to move forward in their understanding and actions towards a greater sense of mental good health?

In ‘All Change’, we use humour to bring the audience into the world of Ivor and his daughter Lily as she attempts to prepare him for life in a ‘home’. Her gentle handling of this irascible character says much about how we can respond to the condition and ease the confusion of the sufferer. Though the play also contains other complexities in that Lily has her own issues that she struggles to share with her father as his mind slips away. The play is not didactic, that is not our style, but hopes to at least provoke a conversation or two.

And given the high pressure nature of the Fringe, do you have any ideas about positive self-care during August in Edinburgh.

Performing three plays during the fringe will be a challenge and the level of involvement in each one, the emotional and physical demands of each role will make us vulnerable to anxiety and stress. Audience reaction and reviews can feel very personal and you can’t win ‘em all, so we need to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth.  As a reviewer myself, I try and take account of

this when offering a written response as I know what negative criticism can feel like and how destructive it can be to one’s mental health.  I will try and make myself and my company as resilient as possible by keeping physically fit, eating and sleeping well, keeping regular hours and avoiding too many late nights and alcohol!

Josef Mengele, known in the camp as “The Angel of Death”, escaped justice after WW2 and escaped to South America. 

The woman challenges him to attempt to justify the unjustifiable and in so doing exposes the rhetoric of a sociopathic narcissist, echoing arguments we hear again today.

Created following advice from the Holocaust Educational Trust and endorsed by the Amud Aish Museum of New York, Mengele seeks to engage, educate and provoke conversations about the issues of today as much as of the past. 

A short run at Edinburgh last year was followed by an award to take the play to New York as a Fringe Encore winner, then on to a sell out season at Adelaide Fringe 2018. 

Inspired by the novel Right to Die, the play is written by Philip Wharam and Tim Marriott, who also performs it with Stefanie Rossi and Emma Wingrove.

Mengele, the play, is inspired by and written to acknowledge the chilling truth expressed by Auschwitz survivor Lydia Tischler who said: “all of us have the capacity to be sadistic and horrible to other people. The potential for destructiveness is in all of us.”Marriott says:“It is vital for us to understand such men as Mengele, to learn from history, to stop others like them from rising again.”

Adapted from Gulf War veteran Neil Blower Watkins’ autobiographical novel of the same name Shell Shocktells the story of long-serving soldier Tommy Atkins’ attempts to return to Civvy Street and his undiagnosed PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). 

The effects of PTSD amongst generations of ex-military and first responders in a social media driven society where we are constantly under pressure to live “happy and fulfilled” lives are huge. 

Shell Shockwas adapted for the stage and is performed by BBC comedy veteran Tim Marriott (The Brittas Empire) and was created in association with military and mental health charities as a stigma reduction project for the military community and beyond. Earlier this year it was named Best Solo Show at the Adelaide Fringe.

The play is ultimately positive, offering hope and support, and is followed by informal interactive feedback sessions, or “Fire Circles”, where others are encouraged to share their own stories.

Marriott said:“PTSD can be a huge challenge for veterans. All too often the symptoms are repressed, unrecognised and often go untreated, especially in a culture defined by masculine grit. For generations we have taught our young men tobe embarrassed about their emotions and hide them, or avoid communicating them – unless in anger. This is now recognised as Toxic Masculinity.”

As Tommy shares his observations on the absurdities of the everyday with the audience, so the cracks in his military grit become apparent. As he represses his reactions to flashbacks, he rails at the world in increasing outrage. Nothing is safe. From post office queues to Ikea, computer games to ‘phone zombies, all feel the force of his frustration. 

Listings Details

·       Venue: Army @ The Fringe in association with Summerhall, Hepburn House Army Reserve Centre, East Claremont Street (Venue 210)

·       Time: 17:30

·       Duration: 60 mins

·       Dates: 11, 12, 14-19, 21-25 August. Previews 10 August. 

·       Tickets: £9 to £12

·       Bookings: https://festival18.summerhall.co.uk/book-tickets/

·       Advisory: Contains strong language

Marriott said:“Hundreds of thousands of families across the UK are affected by dementia every year. It has an immense impact on the lives of everyone it touches and as time ticks on its something that any of us might eventually suffer. But whilst the personal tragedy of dementia is at the heart of All Change, it’s very much a play filled with humanity, warmth and humour.”

All Changebegan life as a devised project, inspired by the work of St Wilfrid’s Hospice, workshopped with drama students and scripted by Toby H Marriott, on an emerging writers course at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Based on personal experience, the play was then developed into a compact professional production, researched and developed in Bristol and at Brighton Fringe and now premiering at Edinburgh.

Alzheimer’s Society fact file

·     There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over one million by 2025. This will soar to two million by 2051.

·     Some 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that’s one every three minutes.

·     One in six people over the age of 80 have dementia.

·     Some 70% of people in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems.

There are over 40,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK.

See https://www.alzheimers.org.uk

- Ends -

Listings Details

·       Venue: Assembly George Square Theatre, The Box, EH8 9JZ (Venue 8)

·       Time: 12:20  

·       Duration: 50 mins

·       Dates: 9,11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 27 August. Previews 9 August 

·       Tickets: Previews £10 (£9); 11-27 August £12 (£11) 

·        Marriottis best known for seven series of BBC TV's leisure centre sit-com The Brittas Empire, appearing in every episode as deputy manager, Gavin. Other TV credits include Allo Allo, Doctors, The Bill, An Actor's Life for Me, The Main Event, Luv and film credits include the forthcoming features The Real Thing, Love Type D and Revelation. He recently returned to the stage after an 18-year career break teaching English and drama. He is also appearing in two other Fringe 2018 productions, Shell Shockand All Change.

from the vileblog https://ift.tt/2AaKCfI

[onceandfuturekiki]

I guess this is an appropriate post for Valentine’s day...

A couple of weeks ago someone asked if I could post a list of all the ships I have that are canon and all of the ships I have that fanon. This turned into something of an endeavor as I struggled to categorize some of them and ended up with a variety of categories, as there are the unambiguous canon ships that got together and the unambiguous fanon ships that were never written as romantic, but also things like ships that got together but didn’t end up together for one reason or another, ships that were written romantically but someone died before they could get together and so on.

So these are the categories I came up with:

Canon - ended up together

Canon - currently together on an ongoing show

Canon - Got together but broke up

Canon - Got together but one or both died

Written with romantic intent but never got together 

Written with romantic intent but difficult to categorize (due to intentionally problematic framing, etc.)

Completely fanon

Currently too ambiguous to categorize

There are a few that I had a hard time categorizing for various reasons and I made a note of that when it applied. There are also some shows that I stopped watching or haven’t caught up on so I don’t know the current status of the ship and what is listed is what the status was when I last saw the show. I also made note of those cases.

This is just ships from the shows I’ve watched/listened to (as I a including podcasts). It does not include ships from books, movies, plays, comics, etc. And it doesn’t include any soap ships, which would be a massive list on its own and would only have one ship in the “Canon- ended up together” category.

I’ve been shipping for a long, long time so it’s entirely possible that I still left some ships off the list.

This is in no kind of alphabetical order or anything like that. I might work on doing that later.

Naturally, considering the categories, there are some big spoilers for a variety of shows. Continue at your own risk.

Canon- ended up together

Joanie/Jane, Deadwood

Shelly/Bobby, Twin Peaks

Josh/Donna, The West Wing

CJ/Danny, The West Wing

Jed/Abby, The West Wing

Charlie/Zoey, The West Wing

Phryne/Jack, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Ned/Chuck, Pushing Daisies

Jeff/Annie, Community

Desmond/Penny, Lost

Bobbi/Hunter, Agents of SHIELD

Penny/Dagr, Caper

Laurie/Travis, Cougartown

Karen/Nick, Dirty Sexy Money

Jeremy/Nola, Dirty Sexy Money

Amy/Rory, Doctor Who

Niles/Daphne, Frasier

Kaylee/Simon, Firefly

Mal/Inara, Firefly

Galavant/Isabella, Galavant

Dot/Hugh, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

PJ/Bobby, My Boys

Don/Sloan, The Newsroom

Mac/Will, The Newsroom

Ann/Chris, Parks and Rec

Ben/Leslie, Parks and Rec

April/Andy, Parks and Rec

Charlie/Kirsten, Party of Five 

Emerson/Simone, Pushing Daisies

Morgan/Conner, Spooked

Tessa/Ryan, Suburgatory

Matt/Harriet, Studio 60

Danny/Jordan, Studio 60

Tom/Lucy, Studio 60

Davis/Jeanette, Treme 

Frank/Sadie, Beyond Belief

Aver-E/Iron Ron/Gork, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Felton/The Widow Johnson, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Sparks/Ginny, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Croach/Red, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Banjo/The Hobo Princess, Down in Moonshine Holler

Veronica/Logan, Veronica Mars (ultimately decided to include the movie)

Canon - currently together on an ongoing series

Vax/Keyleth, Critical Role

Vex/Percy, Critical Role

Kima/Allura, Critical Role

Fitz/Simmons, Agents of SHIELD (haven’t watched since the middle/end of last season)

Canon - got together but broke up

Britta/Troy, Community

Toby/Andy, The West Wing

Sparks/Red, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Nucky/Margaret, Boardwalk Empire 

Anya/Xander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (ultimately chose this category as they weren’t really back together when she died)

Willow/Oz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Sam/Diane, Cheers

Brian/Andrea, Dirty Sexy Money (the narrative was heading toward reconciliation, but the show was canceled)

Sherlock/Jamie, Elementary

Shoshana/Ray, Girls

Ava/Boyd, Justified

Mindy/Danny, The Mindy Project (haven’t watched since midway through last season)

Belle/Rumple, Once Upon a Time

Sarah/Bailey, Party of Five

Charlie/Daphne, Party of Five

Julia/Griffin, Party of Five 

George/Dallas, Suburgatory

Annie/Davis, Treme

Donna/Jack, The West Wing

Britta/Rick, Community

Rumple/Belle, Once Upon a Time

Red/Jim, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Buffy/Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (only considering the tv canon of the Buffyverse and not the comics)

Canon - got together but one or both died

Simon/Alesha, Misfits

Annie/Mitchell, Being Human

Chance/Catherine, Human Target

Sawyer/Juliet, Lost

Charlie/Claire, Lost

Wesley/Lilah, Angel

Bill/Laura, Battlestar Galactica

Galen/Cally, Battlestar Galactica 

Jimmy/Angela, Boardwalk Empire

Jimmy/Pearl, Boardwalk Empire

Willow/Tara, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Carmelita/Patrick, Dirty Sexy Money

Zoey/Wash, Firefly

Hurley/Libby, Lost

Jin/Sun, Lost

John/Alice, Luther

Ethan/Brona, Penny Dreadful

Root/Shaw, Person of Interest

John/Mary, Sherlock

Jack/Ianto, Torchwood

Glenn/Maggie, The Walking Dead

Written with romantic intent but never got together

Emma/Neal, Once Upon a Time

Emma/Graham, Once Upon a Time

Leo/Annabeth, The West Wing

Olive/Alfredo, Pushing Daisies

Daniel/Charlotte, Lost

Shannon/Boone, Lost

Allura/Tiberius, Critical Role

Rachel/Sark, Alias

Ally/John, Ally McBeal

Cordelia/Angel, Angel

George Michael/Maeby, Arrested Development

Mason/Daisy, Dead Like Me

Cooper/Audrey, Twin Peaks

Jeremy/Lisa, Dirty Sexy Money

Rose/The Doctor (ultimately added in this category as I personally do not feel that Rose/Ten!Too is the same thing as Rose/The Doctor)

Clara/The Doctor, Doctor Who

Arya/Gendry, Game of Thrones

Jamie/Brienne, Game of Thrones

Sarah/Jimmy, Grandfathered

Codex/Fawkes, The Guild

Eddie/Fiona, Keen Eddie

Kelly/Nathan, Misfits

Henry/Eliza, Selfie

Stiles/Lydia, Teen Wolf (haven’t watched since middle of last season)

Stiles/Cora, Teen Wolf

Parrish/Lydia, Teen Wolf (haven’t watched since middle of last season)

Stiles/Erica, Teen Wolf

Reese/Carter, Person of Interest

Tosh/Owen, Torchwood

Beth/Daryl, The Walking Dead

Sam/Ainsley, The West Wing

Sam/Mallory, The West Wing

Sam/Connie, The West Wing

Written with romantic intent but difficult to categorize (due to intentionally problematic framing, etc.)

Peter/Lydia, Teen Wolf

Al/Trixie, Deadwood

Starbuck/Leoben, Battlestar Galactica

Skye/Ward, Agents of SHIELD

Completely fanon

Hook/Aurora, Once Upon a Time

Toby/Ginger, The West Wing

River/Jayne, Firefly

Kate/Sayid, Lost

Claire/Sawyer, Lost

Gilmore/Kashaw, Critical Role

Percy/Ripley, Critical Role

Joan/Bell, Elementary

Raylan/Wendy, Justified

Tess/Neal, The Newsroom

Tess/Gary, The Newsroom

Tinkerbelle/Nova, Once Upon a Time

Hook/Regina, Once Upon a Time 

Root/Finch, Person of Interest

Tom/Suzanne, Studio 60

Simon/Jeannie, Studio 60

Malia/Liam, Teen Wolf

Sheriff Stilinski/Melissa, Teen Wolf (haven’t watched since middle of last season)

Maeve/Clementine, Westworld

Sayid/Claire, Lost

Leo/Margaret, The West Wing

Dawn/Andrew, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Frankie/Britta, Community

Tinkerbelle/Hook, Once Upon a Time

Sparks/Pemily, Sparks Nevada: Marshall on Mars

Red/Mercy, Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars

Scanlan/Sherri, Critical Role

Ben/Juliet, Lost

Captain Laserbeam/Philip Fathom, Thrilling Adventure Hour

Amelia/Abigail, Amelia Earhart: Fearless Flyer

Amelia/Abigail/Jefferson, Amelia Earhard: Fearless Flyer and Jefferson Reid: Ace American

Willow/Amy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Neal/Maggie, The Newsroom

Currently too ambiguous to categorize

Sherlock/Molly, Sherlock

Sansa/Tyrion, Game of Thrones

Teddy/Dolores, Westworld

Maeve/Hector, Westworld

Abed/Rachel, Community

Regina/Robin, Once Upon a Time (this is in this category not because it's difficult to categorize on the show, but for me. I ship OQ in canon only as the writing in-series is terrible. So technically, yes, they were together in canon, but canon OQ is not what I ship)

[broochesfrombhutan]

My Research Proposal

While submitted in December, I keep referring back to my research proposal to see if the current direction I am going in with my actual research answers the questions I set out to. So far, despite some difficulties with the accessibility of some of the information/documents I would like to use, I have been able to start answering the questions set out for myself.

Research Proposal

The Object

The object I have chosen is a Bhutanese koma, or rather an identitical pair of them (DUROM.1968.43.d-e). The Oriental Museum dates it between 1900 and 1950. It has a gold and silver surface with a turquoise stone in the centre. Its shape is of a series of superimposed squares at different angles. It has an intricate floral design which is also heavily symmetrical. The koma is a brooch worn by Bhutanese women as part of Bhutanese national dress, which was introduced in the 17th century and is still compulsory in positions of government and certain formal occasions.

Rationale for Choice

When I first saw my object, I was drawn by how it managed to maintain a sense of simplicity while also being intricately decorated. The fact that the object is from Bhutan also appealed to me, since it is a country with a rich culture with very little outside interference; the fact that it is a culture I am not overly familiar with also made the object more appealing. The origin of the object (a donation by Queen Grandmother Kesang Choden of Bhutan) fascinated me since it raises the question of why a powerful woman of significant status would be interested in donating to museums across the world.

Research Questions

My research will aim to answer the following questions:

·       What is the significance of the symbols in the decoration of the brooches?

·       What is the role that traditional Bhutanese dress plays in shaping Bhutanese identity?

·       What does this tradition tell us about the lives of women in Bhutanese society?

·       Why did Queen Grandmother Kesang Choden have an interest in cultural heritage?

Contact with the Oriental Museum

I had a meeting at the Oriental Museum (29/10/19) with Gillian Ramsey where I was allowed access to the files about the acquisition of the object, as well as a copy of a previous Archaeology student’s research project on my object.

Review of Existing Information

The museum acquired the brooches in 1968. I looked through the correspondence between Philip Rawson who worked at the museum at the time and a man named Michael Aris who travelled to Bhutan. They discuss the objects (the brooches were donated along with some textiles) and Queen Grandmother Kesang Choden, the donator.

I was also provided with a research project of a former Archaeology student at Durham which contained detailed information about the physical composition of the brooches, including the materials it is made from and analysis of its structure and appearance.

I carried some research on traditional Bhutanese dress and its history (see websites listed in further sources).

Literature Review

These books and articles will form the starting point of my research into the Bhutanese koma and textiles, as well as helping me develop my understanding of Bhutanese culture and history.

·       Altmann, Karin. 2015. Fabric of life - Textile Arts in Bhutan. Culture, Tradition and Transformation. Berlin: De Gruyter.

·       Lo, Joseph, Lisa Macintyre, and Britta Kalkreuter. 2016. "Investigating Markers of Authenticity: The Weavers’ Perspective Insights from A Study on Bhutanese Hand-Woven Kira Textiles". TEXTILE 14 (3): 306-325.

·       Karan, Prayumna P. and Mather, Cotton. 1976. “Art and Geography: Patterns in The Himilaya”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 66(4): 487-512.

·       Lees, Emma. 2011. "Intangible Cultural Heritage in A Modernizing Bhutan: The Question of Remaining Viable and Dynamic". International Journal of Cultural Property 18 (2): 179-200.

·       Pommaret, Françoise. 2002. "Weaving Hidden Threads: Some Ethno-historical Clues on the Artistic Affinities between Eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh”. The Tibet Journal 27, no. 1/2: 177-96.

Further Sources

Similar objects from other museums may be used for comparison:

·       The Victoria and Albert Museum set of koma made in 1971[1].

·       The Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (Australia) has a set of koma dated between 1920-70.[2]

These websites were used for information on Bhutanese national dress (specifically female dress).

https://www.raonline.ch/pages/bt/visin2/bt_dress01a.html

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/bhutan/background/other-features/the-bhutanese-way-of-life/72b5d456-0711-49eb-86d4-42834b6116f4/a/nar/72b5d456-0711-49eb-86d4-42834b6116f4/355819

https://www.thetextileatlas.com/craft-stories/kira-tingma-and-aikapur-weaving-bhutan

Reflective Analysis

At this initial juncture, most of the research I have come across has either been to do with national dress in general, or Bhutanese textiles, not the koma themselves. Therefore, as stated in my research questions, in addition to analysing the images on the koma, I will look at Bhutanese dress as a whole; my research has suggested that it is not just the brooches that are significant but the entire national dress. As mentioned in the correspondence and shown by the presence of similar objects at other museums, my object is not a typical piece of unique art in Western terms; it was created with a practical purpose and there is no credited ‘artist’ behind the object. Thus, instead of trying to analyse why the object was made, I will research why Queen Grandmother Kesang Choden donated the object and also donated to various other museums. This also raises the issue of how art is defined, since these brooches are a common item of clothing. However, the rich cultural history of Bhutan, including its national dress, will allow me to research the significance of wearing national dress, including the koma, and how they shape Bhutanese identity.

[1] http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90530/clasps-unknown/

[2] https://collection.maas.museum/object/363285