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Rebellion: Writing Fantasy

Arachne Press Rebellion: Writing Fantasy, author talk and workshop Author Cherry Potts reads from her new novel The Dowry Blade, and discusses ways of writing fantasy with an opportunity for a short writing exercise for the audience. World building, weird logic and rule breaking at Brompton Library 210 Old Brompton Road London SW5 0BS Thursday…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 28th
Today let us raise a glass to Jane Rule 28 March 1931 – 27 November 2007 Jane Rule was the author of many lesbian novels, and an early exponent of the happy ending, most famous for her 1964 novel Desert of the Heart (filmed as Desert Hearts), what a relief it was to find her…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 19th
Alice French aka Octave Thanet March 19, 1850 – January 9, 1934 Alice French was an american writer of stories, journalistic essays and novels, using the pseudonym Octave Thanet – she chose Octave for being non gender specific. In 1883, Alice and her widowed friend Jane Allen Crawford set up home at Clover Bend Plantation…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 18th
Not strictly a birthday, as all I have for today’s admirable woman is a baptism date, but never mind, it will do. Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de la Fayette (Baptised) 18 March 1634 – 25 May 1693 I love those french aristocratic names, they go on for ages. Anyway, so Marie was a…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 17th
No Birthday today, so lets look back to yesterday and celebrate I. A. R. Wylie. 16 March 1885 – 4 November 1959. Ida Wylie (known to her friends as Uncle) was a novelist, screenwriter, magazine writer and poet. More than 30 of her works were made into films between 1915 and 1953. Ida had a…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 13th
Today we raise a glass to Janet Flanner, March 13 1892 – November 7 1978. Janet was a journalist, writing for the New Yorker, and as a war correspondent. She lived in Greenwich Village and there met and fell in love with Solita Solano (Sarah Wilkinson). Janet and Solita featured as Nip and Tuck, a pair…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 11th
No particular birthday today, so going back to that 8th March that was choc-a-bloc, lets share cake with Una Troubridge 8 March 1887 – 24 September 1963. At the tender age of ten Una lost her heart to a splendaciously ample and properly upholstered principal boy… whose sex was never for a moment ambiguous ……
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 9th
Raise your glasses, it’s the birthday of Vita Sackville-West 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962 writer, gardener and serial womaniser. Vita’s relationship with Violet Keppel (later Trefusis) is detailed in Portrait of A Marriage, by her son Nigel Nicholson. They met at school and at one point eloped to France. In her autobiography Violet…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 23rd February
Today we celebrate, a day late, Jane Bowles February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973. Jane was a writer who apart from her husband Paul, (also gay) had relationships exclusively with women. On the whole, these were short-lived. Virgil Thomson said of her all her life Jane was promiscuous. She didn’t really care too much…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 18th February
Raise your glasses in honour of Audre Lorde, 1934-1992 who described herself as black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. One of the women who taught me it was ok to be angry, in fact, more than ok, essential. My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of…
