5 bloggers and writers who inspire me

5 bloggers and writers who inspire me
Photo: kaboompics.com

Authenticity is a word that thrown around a lot, so much so that I’m not even sure what it means anymore. Yet, if you ask what attracts me to certain bloggers and writers ‘authenticity’ is the first thing that comes to mind.

I’m drawn to bloggers whose words never feel forced, even if press samples are being featured. I’m drawn to writers whose love of writing leaps off the page or screen. I’m drawn to writers who aren’t afraid to write what hurts, even when it still hurts. I’m drawn to writers, who use writing to explore what they think, who aren’t afraid to change their minds and admit when they’re wrong. Is that authenticity? I can’t think of a better way to describe it.

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Notes on 33

Notes on 33

Questioning things is good, even when it means questioning yourself, especially when it involves questioning yourself.

Sexuality can be fluid. Yours changing doesn’t mean you were ever lying, to others or to yourself. You were you. You were the you of those moments. You are you.

Your queerness is not dependent on the gender of the person you are sleeping with. You are you.
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6 LGBTQ+ fiction recommendations

Review copy of Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser from the publisher, Granta Books, included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Queer fiction is not a single genre. Queer characters can and should appear in everything from Sci-Fi and fantasy to crime fiction. Queerness is not some “other” that can be ignored. Nor should it be ignored.

I’ve spoken before about what queerness in literature, TV, film and music meant to my young gay self. And what they meant to my twenty-something self, when I realised I was bisexual. Representation matters.

Younger me was particularly drawn to female queer characters, so the majority of this list is compiled of lesbian and bisexual women.

6 LGBTQ+ fiction recommendations - Part One

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5 questions with Margot Livesey

Mercury by Margot Livesey. Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from the publisher, Sceptre, via bookbridgr. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Mercury took me by surprise, when I read it back in April. It’s a slow moving, yet enthralling, exploration of love, marriage, obsession, and deceit. With a side of crime.

When the opportunity arose to ask Margot Livesey some questions, I jumped at the chance.

Mercury by Margot Livesey (Book Cover)

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5 questions with Caroline Farrell

Lady Beth by Caroline E. Farrell. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Beth has never told her son who his father is. She wants nothing more than to protect him, so it’s best he doesn’t know. The memories are too painful for Beth and there is nothing to be gained by revisiting them. Then tragedy strikes and Beth is lefty with no option but to deal with the aspects of her past she would rather forget.

Jesse wants to live his life, his own way, without his mother watching his every move. Why must she be so clingy? Can’t she see how suffocating she is being?

Lady Beth is a fast-paced tale of Dublin’s underworld; a tale of the affects of crime and drugs not only on those involved, but on the people around them. Farrell’s writing is taut and grabs your attention immediately.

Lady Beth by Caroline E. Farrell

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5 questions with Triona Scully

Nailing Jess by Triona Scully. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the author included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

How different would things be if Adam, not Eve, had taken the first bite? This is the premise of Triona Scully’s debut novel Nailing Jess; it’s a matriarchy where the gender roles are reversed.

DCI Jane Wayne has been reprimanded, again, for her inappropriate behaviour toward her colleagues. As result she has been replaced as the lead on a serial killer case by DI Ben Campbell. Wayne does not take this well. Demotion is one thing but taking orders from a man, and an ugly one at that, is an entirely different matter.

As a fan of crime fiction, I’ve given more than a little thought to how women are, more often than not, depicted within the genre. Nailing Jess shines a light on this by asking the reader to it view from a different perspective. If things are unsettling and jarring when they happen to men, why do we barely bat an eyelid when they happen to women? It’s an interesting experiment, well written and full of humour.

Nailing Jess by Triona Scully

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