Life Mask is set in the world of late eighteenth-century British high society.  This period saw economic crises, impending war, and the threat of revolution, but also an increasingly educated population and more social mobility.  A few women were beginning to access careers, especially in literature and the arts, but they still lived in a world in ( Read more... )

First some reading material, a list of 100 Books by black women  and the  impressive (if slightly daunting) prospect that is the The Lesbrary Good Reads Project.

Some Writing wisdom from Toni Morrison and here she is again being completely awesome in an interview.

I was pleased to see lesbian writer, Sarah Schulman, getting her latest book reviewed ( Read more... )

There were moments, while reading this book, at which involuntary exclamations would burst from me.  “Argh!” I would cry and my partner, who had already finished it, would look at me sympathetically and nod her head. Are You My Mother? came as something of a shock to my system, inducing far more powerful resonances with my relationship with my own ( Read more... )

"Throughout my life somebody has always tried to set the boundaries of who and what I will be allowed to be: if working class, an intellectual, upwardly mobile type who knows her place, or at least the virtues of gratitude; if a lesbian, an acceptable lesbian, not too forward about the details of her sexual practice; if a writer, a humble, ( Read more... )

"The one thing that everybody wants is to be free…not to be managed, threatened, directed, restrained, obliged, fearful, administered, they want none of these things they all want to feel free, the word discipline, and forbidden and investigated and imprisoned brings horror and fear into all hearts, they do not want to be afraid not more than is ( Read more... )

Via The Hathor Legacy, I found this great webcomic about eating disorders from a woman (also a lesbian) who has recently been diagnosed with anorexia: I Do Not Have an Eating Disorder

Well worth reading if you have an eating disorder, or if you constantly tell yourself that you don't have an eating disorder.

I especially like the way she makes ( Read more... )

Here are 5 famous authors who were famous for something other than their writing

Apparently Great Expectations is the peoples’ favourite Dickens novel.

From Elisa Rolle, a post about lesbian pulp writer Ann Bannon. I’ve never read any of her novels ::hangs head in shame::

Most of you have probably already seen this, “Straightening” Gay Characters in ( Read more... )

The Sealed Letter is the second book that I’ve read by wide-ranging lesbian writer, Emma Donoghue.  While I enjoyed the romance of Landing, the historical fiction of The Sealed Letter is more my speed - Victorians! Repressed lesbians! Sex scandals! The early British women’s movement! … what’s not to like?

The Sealed Letter is a fictional ( Read more... )

From S.E Smith writing in Bitch Magazine, an interesting post, We’re All Mad Here: Race, Gender and Mental Illness in Pop Culture 

From The Guardian, The Secret Garden’s Hidden Depths.  The Secret Garden was one of my favourite books when I was a kid.

10 Things you Probably didn’t know about Star Trek .  I didn’t know any of these things.

In response ( Read more... )

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