Raven’s Embarrassing Halloween pictures from when she was a kid 😳

First off, a dark welcome to all the people who signed up to this newsletter from the Salem Vampire Market vamp I think you’ll feel right at home here 🧛‍♀️

Young Raven’s Halloween Costumes (AKA, the embarrassing pictures video)

As requested by poll, here’s the video of pictures of Young Raven’s Halloween Costumes. As I was going over my mom’s photo album, I realized how acutely embarrassing posting these images were going to be, but I had promised them to you lot, so here you go!

One More Time, With Feeling

I still really need more reviews of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, so I’m offering a treat in return for your time in writing the review 🍬

Please just take a moment from your day and click here and just write a thing or two that you enjoyed about the story. As with Amazon, it’s quantity over quality, so it really doesn’t matter if your review is not long or detailed, as long as it is there 🙏

Once the review posts, email me (you can just hit reply to this newsletter) or message me on IG or FB and let me know you’ve done a review, and I will mail you one of the shiny new stickers that were so popular at the Salem Vampire Market in appreciation 📨

You know you need one of these!

To get you in the mood to write your review, here’s a video I posted last week about how I named the ships in That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story ⛵

Salem Vampire Market recap 🧛‍♀️

Well, that couldn’t have been a much better vending experience! The fantastic people at Vampfangs had put the vendors into a beautiful space with both Salem feet-traffic (both locals and tourists—and there was no shortage of tourists that weekend—just getting to the Salem Old Town Hall was almost impossible!) and with gorgeous vampires from the Endless Nights Vampire Salon that was taking place on the upstairs floor.

After the lukewarm sales at Dark Forest Oddities Expo, I had not dared to hope my books would literally fly of my shelf, but I have never sold so many books so fast in all the time I’ve done vending. From the minute the event started until the last minutes before closing, I barely had a chance to take a sip of something or sit down for even 30 seconds.

There was an issue with the booth set up that had me running late enough that I wasn’t full in costume when the doors opened. After selling the first couple books in only half my costume, I had the delightful experience of selling a book while being laced into a corset—girl power if ever there was! ♀️💪

And the customers? I had three librarians! There were gorgeous vampires in completely perfect regalia. There was a woman who had come to Salem for the first time to celebrate her birthday and was buying my book for herself (you know she got the second book for free as a birthday gift!) There were fascinating people with fantastic hair and piercings and tattoos and hats. Everyone was super friendly and so appreciative — they kept thanking me for writing the series. I could get seriously spoiled by that 🤗

With my best buddy ​Lauren from Eclipse Costumes​ beside me and energy like that, I’ve seldom had more fun and I’ve never sold out completely of Blood Ex Libris before – by the last hour I had to start writing down contact info for people to order the books 🫠

Thank you Endless Nights Vampire Salon attendees and the good people (and tourists) of Salem for such a warm welcome and incredible support and encouragement. That’s just what this indie author needed 🥰

Instagram post by @raven.belasco

Banned Books Week

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. 

While the whole is devoted to talking about Banned Books, October 11th is Let Freedom Read Day. Check out the suggested activities and see what you can fit in to your schedule or put up on your social media 📅

I’ll be making a reel for that day, and I haven’t finished it yet, but I have gone over a list of banned books, to see what I’ve already read (and add some new ones to my TBR list!) It was 34 pages in total (and getting longer every day) 😧 and I figured my list was long enough before I got through all of them, so here, in no specific order, are some Banned Books I’ve read (often unaware that they were ever banned at all 🙄)

  • Lord of the Rings

  • Where The Wild Things Are 

  • Bridge to Terabithia 

  • Where The Sidewalk Ends

  • Stranger in a Strange Land 

  • 1619 Project 

  • Black Boy (& Native Son)

  • Invisible Man

  • The Great Gatsby 

  • Lysistrata 

  • Persepolis

  • Maus

  • A Farewell To Arms (& For Whom the Bell Tolls)

  • The Handmaids Tale

  • 1984 (& Animal Farm)

  • Lord of the Flies

  • Brave New World 

  • Lolita 

  • Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 

  • Go Ask Alice

  • The Call of the Wild

  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  • A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo 

  • The Golden Compass 

  • The Satanic Verses 

  • Freakonomics 

  • Pillars of the Earth 

From this weirdly eclectic list, these books in particular deeply impacted my life: Lord of the Rings, Where The Wild Things Are, Bridge to Terabithia, Black Boy, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and Stranger in a Strange Land. I cannot image the person I would be now without those books, and I feel so grateful that I grew up in a state that didn’t truck with book bans, and in a household with parents who let me read anything that was on the shelf of the home library, and let me have free choice at the public library.

Please take time during Banned Books week to talk to someone about the topic, or post something about your feelings about book banning, anything. This is a really desperately vital topic in the US right now, and the more we talk about it and raise awareness, the more we take steps to fight it, the more we support our freedoms, and the freedoms of future generations, and the future of libraries in this country.


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Amber Benson & Raven Belasco Hellmouth Con Video finally up!

For technical and boring reasons, it’s taken a minute to get this done and posted, but Maven of the Eventide and I were both committed to finally getting it up there, and together we made it happen!

This chat with Maven and Amber Benson was seriously one of the highlights of my life so far. The questions were great, the conversation was the best, and the audience was the superior kind you can expect from Buffy fandom. Go watch and enjoy it!

There’s still time to have your vote counted…

For those of you who have read this far, I’m YOUR fan, you glorious and fantastic creature! 😍 Until two weeks from now, be good or be good at it!😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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New Stickers!!️ Raven at Vampfangs Vampire Market 🧛‍♀️

Happy Spooky Season! 🎃

So this is not going to be an image-rich newsletter, because my desktop computer had an emotional meltdown and is off at a spa-getaway at the computer repair shop. Without that desktop, I can’t create any of my planned marketing or promotion for this Spooky Season, so it’s been a nasty little setback.

That said, the upcoming next vending event is this coming Saturday!

This is your excuse to wander around Salem MA in full vamp costume!

I will be vending at the Vampfangs Salem Vampire Market, which is on the same day as their Vampire Salon and can be attended in conjunction with each other!

  • Vampfangs Salem Vampire Market

  • Sept 20th 2025

  • 3PM-9PM

  • Old Town Hall

  • 32 Derby Square, Salem, MA 01970

This is your excuse to roam Salem in full vampire mode, support local goth artists and artisans, and then party with the undead. It’s a perfect warm-up for Halloween!

Stickers!

In strangely thrilling news, the stickers I ordered back in the beginning of August have finally come in (I was supposed to have them for the DFO Expo, dammit) and they are really gorgeous and I’m so excited about them!

It’s the subtlety I love most about them…

These will be available for free to newsletter subscribers if you come down to a future event to say hi, or if you order something from ravenbelas.co you will absolutely get a sticker in the package. (If you have been putting off ordering one or two of the gorgeous leather bookmarks, this is your sign…!)

That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story still desperately needs reviews 🙏

If you’ve read this novelette and haven’t left a review yet, I still seriously need reviews because I cannot start marketing the book properly until I have met a certain threshold of reviews. Please blame Amazon for me being annoying about this, but this sweet little story has the potential to really get wider attention, and one of the things holding it back is the lack of reviews. People are reading it, loving it—and just not reviewing it. So pretty pretty please, just give a few moments of your day 🙏 It doesn’t need to be a long review, even just a sentence will do. You will have my eternal gratitude!

Here is a link that takes you directly to the review page.

An author’s eye view of the Dark Forest Oddities Expo

As you’ll remember, the last event I did was a brand new goth/queer/freaks, geeks, and weirdos kind of event, that mixed vendors with burlesque performances, drag numbers, and general delightful chaos.

It was a mixed bag event for me. On the plus side, I did reach a new audience who hopefully will stick around (welcome to those of you reading this newsletter after signing up at or after the expo!) and in particular, met these fantastic old school goths who brought great conversation to my table, and then bought a copy of every book I had to sell. Future customers have a lot to live up to!

Duck Duck Goose is so over. Now we play Goth Goth Pirate!

On the downside, however, the table itself was so expensive that I only made $5 over that expense in sales, meaning I really can’t afford to do that event again. It also was a physically grueling day (trying to shout about the books to potential customers over the throbbing music of the performances takes a lot out of you) and I ended up too sick to get out of bed for three days after it, which is always a scary risk for a chronically ill person like me doing vending. So on every level the costs of doing this event were too high, but I am glad I tried it, and I made some great connections with new readers and fellow vendors, so it was not a disaster, just not something I should repeat.

Blood Depths (Book IV) finally back at sea! 🌊

After the saga of me losing my sensitivity reader and deciding to just do a bunch more research and hoping that, by the time I find a replacement this new character has had enough thought and new knowledge/understanding go into her that the reader won’t suggest any massive rewrites at the eleventh hour, I’ve finally gotten into a good place with Blood Depths again.

After I had crammed a massive amount of information into my brain, I realized that what I needed to do was an actual writing exercise. I sat down and wrote the new character’s auto-biography, up to where we meet her in Blood Depths.

This is a new thing for me. I’ve always just been able to create, hold, and understand my characters in my mind, not needing external stuff. But this complex character is going to require a lot from me to get her right, so I wanted to intimately know every detail of her life and how she felt about the things that had happened to her, the choices she’d made, etc. it also gave me a most-perfect opportunity to fully discover her voice, so that writing her can be as easy as writing Noosh or any other character.

What do you know? It worked! I had a great time doing the exercise, and now I am able to take what I have and rework this new character’s chapters so that she is consistent and fully-realized (and also I am hopefully not seriously messing up culturally or otherwise on that level.)

So now I can happily sink back into crafting the story, making it better than it was before, and then finally start rolling out new chapters. I feel really good about the choices I’ve made and the writing I am now doing…which to be painfully honest is a relief, because I was feeling a bit lost at sea (pun, hahaha) for a few weeks there.

Being a writer is really hard, you know! 😂

In great news, my computer guy just called to let me know that I can come in and pick up my now relaxed and revived machine 💃 (When do I get my own spa week, is what I’d like to know?!🤷‍♀️) so the next newsletter will be back up to the usual standards!

Thanks, as always, for your patience and support as I navigate through the challenges of being an indie author. I really rely upon you newsletter readers as my rock, the people who are seriously there for me, who actually read the whole damn thing and take the time to click on stuff. A lot of other author’s newsletter have vastly less numbers of people even opening the email, and the fact that so many of you do is something that bolsters me through the rougher parts of trying to make it as an author. So please know how much you are appreciated!

There’s still time to have your vote counted…

As always, be good or be good at it!😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Spooky Season Is Upon Us! 🎃

Greetings and Salutations this Season of the Witch 🧙‍♀️

First up in today’s newsletter, please take a moment to vote for That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story for Best Sapphic Rivals-to-Lovers story

It’s the 29th book down on the poll (to make it easier to find.) There are only four days left of polling, so please just take a moment right now to click – you don’t have to sign up for anything, just vote and done – and thank you! 🥰

Diving into Spooky Season 👻

You may remember that last newsletter, I was whining that I didn’t book as many events as I’d hoped for the Spooky Season. Well, one of the events I had given up on came through! (Sadly, doing a reading at my local library fell through—I’m really sad about that one, as I have not yet done a reading at a library and I feel like I’ve not really made it as an author until that happy moment in my life occurs.)

The first event of the season is coming up on Saturday September 6th . That’s the Dark Forest Oddities Expo, and it’s a BIG ONE.

There are over fifty vendors, food and a bar serving themed drinks, a horror themed burlesque show and drag performance, a cosplay contest, and more!

It will be 11am to 6pm at the Boston Marriot Peabody, 8A Centennial Drive, Peabody, MA – Only $10 to get in (tickets available at the door) and FREE parking! More info here.

Eclipse Costumes and I will be vending side-by-side, so come hang out with us, and check out the pirate corsets that will be available in honor of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story! We will also have a PRIZE WHEEL with some fantastic Halloween-themed prizes!

If you can’t make it to this event, then on Sept 20th I will be vending at Salem Vampire Market!

I would love to give you more information on its hours and such, but they have not been published yet. So just mark it on your calendars and I (hopefully!) will have all the information for you in the next newsletter!

The next event will be the Spooky Geek Faire at Pandemonium Books & Games, on Sunday October 19th. More about that event in the next newsletter as well!

Update on Book IV: Blood Depths ⚓

There is an exciting important character coming up in this book (as well as seeing lots of old friends again, including Sadie the Goat and Gallus Mag!) and I had found a sensitivity reader to help ensure that I got this character right.

However, after sending the first half of payment, the company ceased communicating with me (everyone steer clear of Salt and Sage Books!) and while I have done what is needed to get my money back, I am desperately lacking a Somali-American female sensitivity reader.

When I wrote about my issues with getting the permissions to use the lyrics to “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in a previous email, one of you amazing readers stepped up and helped (and again thank you to that fantastic friend!) so I am just putting it out in this newsletter, in case by some incredible coincidence, one of you knows just the right woman for the job. Just hit reply to this newsletter if you do, or have any other information that might be useful—and thank you, all of you, for being the best readers an author could hope for. I know I say it a lot, but I really do cherish you and your support means the world to me 🥰

Anyways, in the absence of that sensitivity reader, I have stopped writing for a bit to go back and do more research so that I have an even deeper understanding of this character, and hopefully, by the time I do find my sensitivity reader, I’ll have done such a good job of writing this character, and there won’t be too many cultural fuck-ups to catch.

So, yes, it’s been another slowdown, which delights neither you nor I. But I have only one more book to basically devour whole before I feel ready to rework what I’ve already written (and honestly, it’s mostly adding some details, and doing a little rewriting, but that part won’t take very long. The stuff I’ve learned is mixing with my existing ideas for the character and it’s all becoming clear and actionable in my mind—which is a relief, I won’t lie 😂 )

This story is definitely not rolling out in linear order anymore, but then, Blood Ex Libris was massively reworked during the years I was trying to place it with an agent or publisher, and Blood Demands had that situation where Orélie the Self-Anointed basically inserted himself into the book against my objections, so really only Blood Eternal has ever been a particularly linearly-written book, and it’s basically a frame story for the origin of the am’r, so I’m not even sure it counts 🙄😁

Excuse this shorter newsletter, my dears. I am overwhelmed with “Spooky Season” prep. The coming few newsletters are going to be as stuffed with goodies as you could hope for, but for today, I’m signing off. As always, be good or be good at it!😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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The Funny Business of Sex Scenes 😜

Hey Fabulous Readers! I hope your summer has had some lovely bits in it, so far.

I’m going to start with a listing of my Spooky Season events 👻

It’s a strangely short list at present, but that’s because either I didn’t book things back in April/May (for places that have their shit together) so I am annoyingly waitlisted for a number of events, or I’m still waiting to hear back (from the places that don’t have their shit together.) It has been entirely frustrating. I started the process of planning my September/October right after I got back from Hellmouth in June, and I was too late for some events and too early for others. I need to make copious notes for next year’s planning, obviously.

Right now, the schedule is:

🎃 The Dark Forest Oddities Expo – September 6th  

🎃 Pandemonium’s Spooky Geek Faire – October 20th (link coming in a future newsletter)

🎃 Possibly doing a reading at my local public library on the week of Halloween (I just need the event coordinator to get back to me)

None of my local events that would have a good customer base for me are having vending at their October 31st events, so on Great Pumpkin Day I will just do my annual tradition of taking the day off and carving a huge-ass pumpkin and then handing out candy. I’m conflicted because Halloween is on a Friday this year, and I would really have liked to work a fun event. But at the same time, taking the day off to observe my goth High Holy Day is probably much better for me.

Me starting my annual Day of Carving back in 2022

So now that you have marked those in your calendars…

My most recent article for Publisher’s Weekly Booklife!

Honest, I swear, I didn’t actually intend to write about sex! When I asked Booklife what they wanted me to write for them next, they said, “Actually, an article on writing good sex scenes would be perfect,” and what else was I to do, except write an article that actually I am perfectly qualified to write 😁

It’s gotten some lovely compliments through, so I am very happy I wrote it, and I hope it helps some author write a better sex scene!

Ooey-gooey am’r

Here’s the most recent from my “Things I’ve Learned From My Characters” Series…

I know, I know. It’s so lovey-dovey. But if anyone deserves that, it’s Zoraida, who went through one of the more excruciating losses of love of any of the am’r.

(If you have no idea what I’m talking about, may I recommend to you Blood Triad, where Zoraida tells Noosh her heartbreaking story…and then finds something unexpected…)

My next item is a plea for those of you who have read That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story to drop a quick review of it on Amazon.*

Amazon treats books differently the more reviews they get. That is: the more reviews your book gets, the more exposure it is given. You can imagine how stressful this is for authors. When we need more exposure the most we don’t get it! Amazon is truly pure capitalism: the better you are doing, the easier it gets for you.

The myth of “hard work will reward you” doesn’t apply on Amazon (as it doesn’t really apply in larger capitalism, either). You can bust your ass writing a brilliant book, work hard to both get a great cover artist and afford to pay them what they deserve, learn all the tricks of optimally laying out a book and the cover to best attract readers, learn how to write the best and most appealing copy about your book, put in time and money learning how to find the best keywords and categories on Amazon, you can do everything, and your book will languish on Amazon, getting no sales, because you don’t have enough reviews to make it “count.”

This is why pretty much every newsletter now, I am begging you for reviews. I need lots of things to go right for me to succeed as an author, and many of those things are luck-based and not in my control (which is deeply frustrating for someone who is happy to do the hard work to get where she needs to go!), but one of the things that is proven to work, and which I have some control over is getting reviews for my books.

So part of my job is finding the ways to encourage you to take a moment from your day and post a review up on Amazon. I’m not asking for a huge time investment, even just writing a one sentence review saying you enjoyed reading the book is enough to boost the book’s value in Amazon’s cold, uncaring eyes.

This is what I hate most about being an indie author. Stephen King doesn’t have to beg for reviews. His publisher is doing everything they can to help him succeed. Which is in no way casting aspersions on Mr. King’s writing, it’s just that “Rank hath its privilege,” and he has gotten to a place where there is a whole machine set up to help him succeed. Indie authors have nothing to help us succeed, and writing good books doesn’t actually help us. Even the best, most incandescent writing can get lost because it just doesn’t have the money behind it to get it in front of enough eyes that it can start building its own momentum.

If you think my last sentence means that people who write mediocre books but have lots of disposable income to throw at marketing and promotion will see those books do better than great writers who don’t have money to throw at promoting their books, and who don’t hit a lucky moment where the right person in the right mood on the right day just happens across their book, you are thinking right.

And it makes me angry.  

But there is nothing I can do except try to learn all the tips and tricks I can to get the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series to that lucky moment.

And beg you for reviews.

* Noto Bene: Of course the ‘Zon is evil and it is regrettable that I must do business with them. For those of you who have sworn off them, please know that I envy your ability to do this, and for you the other three places where reviews can help me are:

📚 Bookbub

📚 Goodreads

📚 The Storygraph

Okay, that’s it for me for August. I’ll see you September 2nd !

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Start your Halloween shopping at the Dark Forest Oddities Expo 🎃

Mark your calendars: Sept 6th 2025! 🗓️

Instagram post by @dark_forest_oddities_

Just minutes away from downtown Salem MA, the DFO expo is the perfect place to start spooky season, offering a selection of: Oddities, books, horror merch, Halloween collectibles, jewelry, crystals, comics, Funko, alt clothing, dark art, tarot readings, film premieres, and adult toys! There will be 60 amazing local vendors and live performances and also a cosplay competition with a first prize of $250.00!

My table will be right alongside Eclipse Costumes – which means Lauren and I will be getting up to shenanigans yet again, and also means that you can come, hang out with us, and walk away with books AND a new corset! And I have it on good authority that Lauren will be whippin’ up some PIRATE CORSETS to sell in conjunction with That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, so there’s your Halloween costume sorted out! (Or, well, at least mine 😀 )

So save the date and get ready for some treats 🍬

Blood Depths Update 🌊

I’ve finished the first third of Blood Depths, and am digging in to a complex transitional chapter…

After a loss of about 20,000 words back when I was first writing my first novel (Blood Ex Libris) , I now save to

  • the local computer drive

  • a ruggedized external hard drive

  • cloud storage

Because you never know what will fail you, and I’m damned if I will ever lose a word again! (Deciding that what you have written down is shit and needs rewriting, and deleting that so you can start fresh is a different matter. You have choice and control over that, which is all the difference in the world…)

When I am drafting, the frequency of saving the file is almost OCD, because I am terrified that the computer will shut down and I will lose the story I’ve just gotten to flow out of my brain into words that exist outside my brain 💭

So, just to prove that writing a book is really not a romantic process, here is what I click on myriad times per writing session 😂😭

The first third is now off to a new sensitivity editor. I’m trying a new thing, where I get sensitivity edits at three points along the way, so that none of my mistakes get baked in, and I can get any problems sorted before they require massive rewrites (or just not having to go through a 100,000 word document looking for those issues and rewriting around them and hoping I don’t miss anything!)

As we head into the next chapter (Chapter Eight, for those playing along at home) I find that I was overly ambitious in telling you that Noosh would shortly be in Lagos, Nigeria.

It turns out that not only is Africa a big-ass continent—I did already know this, but knowing Africa is huge is one thing and actually looking at the distances in numeric form is a whole other!—but also Noosh needs to get some more information and meet some people before she gets to Lagos (because of evolving plot reasons) and so I decided to scrap the idea of flying from Tangier to Lagos (which was going to be complicated in and of itself—even flying a private plane across Africa is a complex affair) or going around by ship. So we’re gonna drive!

There are two potential routes by car. So we are going down the Atlantic coast, which means we go through Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, and finally get to Nigeria. Plenty of time in which to meet the people we need to meet, and an excuse to bring back a feature from Blood Ex Libris that hasn’t been explored since then…

We shall have some fun! And I already have a resource for editing that section, phew! 😮‍💨

So I must amend the “Where in the World is Noosh?” graphic…

Desert on one side, ocean on the other! And how will the am’r cope with all that sunshine?!

Anyway, I’m sure you all have world maps up on your walls and are moving the pushpin every time I send out one of these, so move that pin back! But next newsletter, I promise there will be forward momentum! 🚗🛣️

So many, many vampire pirates! 🦜

I started Book IV, Blood Depths so damn long ago that actually not many of you newsletter readers will either remember or will have ever heard that the whole point of the novel is vampire pirates. (And thanks again to the wonderful supporter of the series who suggested it to me in a late night phone call, all those years ago! 🥰)

I was still signed with the Terrible Former Publisher back then, and so while I had started the document for Book IV and written the first sentences, I had to take time away from writing it to get the rights for my first three books reverted, and then figure out how to to indie publish them. It took, oh, you know, a few years. I was posting pictures of me doing the original research for the book back in 2021…

Instagram post by @raven.belasco

Instagram post by @raven.belasco

Instagram post by @raven.belasco

Instagram post by @raven.belasco

So this story has been bobbing around in my head all this time, and that’s why it’s crashing forth out of my brain with such intensity 🤯

It also explains so many of the recently-published stories: Boysie Singh and his minions from “Interview with the Vagabond King,” and Sadie the Goat and Gallus Mag from That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story are all characters who I found doing research and who I intended to put in Blood Depths as side characters…only their stories are too good to gloss over, so they ended up starring in their own stories as hors d’oeuvres—and once you get to the main course, you’ll recognize these colorful characters from having learned those stories already 💖

So starting down the vampire pirate journey has changed my life, and the stories I write, and I am so happy about that. We are in a time of needing escapist stories to get us through the day, so that we can recharge and keep up the fight. What could possibly be more escapist than vampire pirates? (Well, yes, dinosaurs on a spaceship, but that was already taken! 😉 )


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An interview with me about LVP is up at the charmingly named website I ❤️SapphFic

There’s some great questions in there, including what the perfume for the book would smell like, and “What song does your character put on to start your book launch party?“ Go read it!

OK, this newsletter is long enough. I’ll ramble on more in the next one. I hope you enjoyed this one, and that you are staying cool and managing to find some moments of enjoyment in your summer.

There will be some big news coming along pretty soon about the next audiobook, and in light of that, I wanted to check in with the newer subscribers on their feelings about listening to books… 🎧

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Happy Lesbian Vampire Pirates Day! 🏴‍☠️🥳

Ahoy, Me Hearties! All Hands on Deck!

Today is the Day to “go on account” (become a pirate). Today is the day That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story is officially published, when this good ship weighs anchor and hoists the mizzen! ⚓⛵🦜🏴‍☠️

You may well already have this adorable little book in your library, as a special edition has been available at Hellmouth convention, Readercon 34 (and welcome new newsletter readers who signed up for this newsletter this past weekend—I think you’ll like it here!), and through this very newsletter, but those collector’s edition red covers are officially sold out! If you missed it, well, that’s what you get for being a lubber—but all is not lost, and you can buy the standard edition (which has all the goodness of the story inside the pretty black-and-blue cover) on Amazon and through my website, and of course, requesting it at your local bookstore or library…

As with at Hellmouth Con, this past weekend at Readercon That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story is a book that sells itself. People see the title (which, let’s not forget, you newsletter readers insisted I use—and thank you for that!) and come over to the table to demand a copy. People see it in their friend’s hands and ask where they got it—and come over to the table and demand a copy. By this point in time, I am pretty sure this little book will sell more copies than anything else I ever write.

And you know what, I’m not mad at it. First off, I’m still tickled by the “story behind the story” (that of Sadie “The Goat” and Gallus Mag’s beef, the whole ear situation, and the happy ending—if you call wearing your former left ear in a locket around your neck a happy ending, but these things were kinda relative in the 1860s…) so I am happy that people are learning that tidbit of pirate / New York history. Secondly, I think I lived up to the story in my retelling of it, so I am proud that for many people, this will be their first taste of my writing. And finally—if it is my fate to be best known for writing a story call That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, well, honestly, is that such a bad fate? No, it will only make me beam with pride: authorial pride 🥹 and queer pride 🏳️‍🌈

The regular request for reviews (authors gotta do this!)

By now you all know that us indie authors are made or broken by how many reviews we can get over on the ‘Zon, because books with more reviews get treated differently. And I hope you will all take a moment to do short reviews of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, over there.

But for “Finding Bela Lugosi,” it’s another matter. We won’t be listing it on the ‘Zon, because it’s only going to be given away, in a variety of different ways. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t get and shouldn’t get reviews, because that’s still deeply valuable to me as an author. So if you have that other sweet little book, please take a moment to throw some stars at it and say a sentence or two 🙏🙏🙏

Review on GoodReads

Review on The StoryGraph

Readercon 34: It doesn’t get much better than this! 🎉

In my Con-garb and ready to make friends!

I’m still completely exhausted from Readercon as I try to coherently write this newsletter (thank goodness for spell check, is all I’m sayin’) but while I’m exhausted in body, in mind and spirit I’m energized and bouncing. And honestly, what better way to compliment a convention?

I didn’t even get to any of the amazing panels (and these were primo topics: “Bisexuals in Science Fiction: Still Hip After All These Years?” “Biting the Other: The Transforming Racialization of Vampires,” “The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy,” “The Molotov Cocktail Approach to Plotting Stories,” etc.) and I had a brilliant time. The people who stopped by the table brought excellent conversation. And these are the kinds of readers who ask the best questions. One reader was hesitating, and I said, “Hey, ask questions!” and they asked about how I created the am’r, and after we geeked out together on that level, they ended up buying all the books. Another customer queried, “Are you working out your relationship drama and unresolved issues through vampires? Or have you been to therapy outside of writing this series?” and after I recovered from laughing too hard to breathe (this is a deliberate dig at a certain Big Name vampire writer—and not wrong!😂) I assured them that I had done therapy before starting the series, and that these books were really not like that series—and they felt comfortable to go ahead and make some purchases.

THIS RIGHT HERE is what I love best. Readers who know vampires and who are demanding something fresh to the genre. Readers who realize how much there is still to explore in the global vampire mythoi—and want to read it, dammit! Readers who may have read some disappointing vampire stories in the past, but who cannot close their hearts to these eternally fascinating creatures of the night.

To be honest, there were some disappointing moments over the three days of vending: people who came over to the table, and then realized it was vampires on offer and said, “I don’t like vampires” or “vampires are so overdone.”

I totally get “different strokes for different folks,” and I personally have genres that I don’t dip into unless I get a strong recommendation from someone I trust, but whenever anyone said, “I don’t like vampires,” I really had to stop myself from replying, “Which vampire hurt you?” I mean, either you don’t know much about the genre and just assume you don’t like vampires, or yeah, there was one vampire story, be it book or TV or film, that turned you off. And if that is the case, refusing to try another vampire story again is basically cutting off your fangs to spite your face…

And as for “overdone,” yeah, sure, there have been a lot of vampire books published recently. There have also been a ton of superhero movies produced, and they are still filling theatres and quite a few of them have really relevant messages and novel ways of looking at the genre. And if “overdone” is really a thing, then why are we even at a genre convention? Because space ships are overdone, and fantasy quests are SO overdone, and sword and sorcery needed to be left behind in the ‘80s, and etc. through every facet of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There is not one genre that can’t be thrillingly alive again through the application of fresh ideas/viewpoints and good writing. Like vampires, stories don’t die, and they just need some new blood to bring them back to their most compelling selves.

My amazing friend and minion-for-the-weekend, El-G. I cannot thank her enough for her energy and endless enthusiasm 💝 Shenanigans were sheeeenaniganed!

But, rant aside, I got a lot more enthusiasm for the undead than negativity at Readercon 34, and it was a truly satisfying and inspiring weekend (I even got to attend one of the infamous afterparties, and it was the cherry on top on a perfect fiction sundae!)—I will be back next year, and I hope to see YOU there!

Have badge, will convention! (Also, reppin’ the wonderful Podcast Writers Drinking Coffee! Give it a listen!)


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OK, well, prepping for Readercon took time away from writing Book IV, and of course so does everything else I do—like this newsletter! So I will do what I know you all want most from me, and I’ll go get back to writing‼️ But if you have any questions, thoughts, other stuff to share, just hit “reply” and that email will arrive in my inbox!

For our new readers, there’s an AMA going on, where you can request what I talk about next in videos for YouTube and of course in this newsletter…

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story ☠️

So, as you all know, That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story had a special limited edition run that we sold at the Hellmouth Convention. The Hellmouth Edition had a special red cover and says it’s a special edition on the back and inside the front cover. Literally the only place they can be bought was from the 2025 Hellmouth convention and this newsletter, so this is a rare and special little book.

There are still about 15 left, so grab yours before they are gone for good. 

Yo ho yo ho…

A pirate’s life for me!

However, if you have been waiting for the standard edition to be published, the pub date is July 22nd . It will have this beautiful blue and black cover, and you can now preorder the ebook on Amazon!

It was this very newsletter who helped come up with the title! Old school subscribers will remember that I was having a helluva time coming up with a title that, in a succinct and catchy way and which captured all the elements of the story. (I’m now describing it as “Gangs of New York meets Our Flag Means Death,” which is actually a pretty perfect shorthand. I didn’t mean for it to be that thing when I wrote it…but I’m not mad that it turned out that way 😂)

Anyway, I turned to this newsletter and begged for help with coming up for a title…and the wise readers of this esteemed publication said with one voice. “Why would you change the working title? Just keep calling it That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story!”

And so I did. And let me tell you how many people have expressed delight with the title since then. On its first weekend out, many people stopped by the table and bought that book, who would have otherwise have just walked on by, simply because of that title.

Thank you all so much for guiding me in the right direction, there. I’ve never had trouble coming up with a book title before, but if I ever do again, you lot are who will be who I turn to! 🙌


Swag for you! Lux handcrafted leather bookmarks for the true fans!

I cannot express how in love with these I am. They are handcrafted, using traditional and ecological leatherworking techniques, just for us, by a small company that normally makes leather goods for, uh, shall we say, kinkier purposes…

Your choice just getting titles or getting quotes from the story! They feel lovely in the hand, and look gorgeous poking out of your book!

So go grab one — or a few — and you’ll get bookmarks people are jealous of while you support two small businesses at once: win-win-win!


Where In The World Is Noosh?

But will she bring me home an “I ❤️Lagos” t-shirt, I ask you?!

This week Noosh has finally left Morocco (after some crazy revelations that even I wasn’t expecting—I am definitely not in control of this story 😂) and is in Lagos for short time before moving on to the next location, which is where most of the story’s action will take place.

I’m just getting started on Chapter Seven today! 💃

My brilliant cover artist, Kwasi, has said he has time now to get the cover for Blood Depths (nickname B4) rolling, and he has all the information to work from, so I will actually get to do a cover release well in advance of launch for this book. I’ll share that as soon as possible, and I’m so excited about it!

When all the books re-released after leaving The Terrible First Publisher, it was pure chaos and we were learning everything as we went, and everything was harder than anticipated, and took longer. So we are only now finally in a place where we can publish a new book and give it all the time it requires for the proper marketing stages (Advance Review Copies sent out in advance for blurbing, etc.) and basically finally do everything right (because we now have some idea what we are doing, which is nice!) I am really looking forward to my books finally getting the treatment they deserve—which they were never going to get with The Terrible First Publisher, and which the republished books couldn’t properly get, as they were being re-released. It was a good way to learn what all we needed to do, at least, but it did basically mean that the first three books in the series were brought into the world both times in pure chaos. I am so very much looking forward to less chaos this time around!

Anyway, in a chapter or two I’ll give another update, so stay tuned! 📻


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“Interview with the Vagabond King” finally has some reviews! 🙌

But it really needs more. I’ve realized that most of you somehow never got the story when it was offered for free. While it’s only 99¢ on Amazon, I really need some more reviews (Amazon treats your book differently the more reviews it gets), so if anyone is curious about the story, I would be delighted to send you a free copy in trade for a review. Just reply to this email 📨

This story is one I am very proud of. It was a special treat for me to write an epistolary story (and I know some of you really love those, too.) It all came about as I was doing research for Blood Depths, and came across this Trinidadian pirate named Boysie Singh. His life was so over-the-top, so much more like fiction than reality, and I knew he’d have to be an extra in the novel…but he deserved more than that!

So I gave him pride of place in this story—whereupon I discovered that I was writing something that was seriously intense, and really scary! Entering that world is really rough on the character narrating the story, and I think that’s right. The am’r are scary monsters, and not every kee who encounters them is going to have a Noosh-like experience. This is the story of when the am’r are not quite so sexy, not quite people you want to run off with and join their underground world. It’s important to see that side of them, too.

Thank you to those who have taken a moment to review the story, and if you are just reading it now, ENJOY! 🏴‍☠️


There will be some big news coming along pretty soon about the next audiobook, and in light of that, I wanted to check in with the newer subscribers on their feelings about listening to books… 🎧

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Raven’s Adventures on the Hellmouth

OK, so I will get into my travelogue in a moment, but first I want to offer the readers of this newsletter access to paperback versions of the two most recent stories in the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series: one of which is only available this way, and the other isn’t actually officially published, yet!

IIP was giving out copies of “Finding Bela Lugosi” at Hellmouth, and if the ebook version just isn’t doing it for you, readers of this newsletter can also get the paperback version, which is only going to be available through this offer, or at in-person events.

It’s soooo gorgeous!

We loves it, my Precious!

If you want a FREE copy of the paperback, just for being a wonderful newsletter subscriber, I have about 50 copies that I brought home with me from Hellmouth, so email rb@ravenbelas.co with your preferred shipping address, and I will personally send it out to you. First come, first serve, so don’t put it off!

The other exceptionally cool thing that IIP did was to make up Hellmouth Exclusive Editions of That Lesbian Vampire Pirates Story—before it has been officially published! I got to take home the remaining 30 copies (they went like hot cakes – apparently the title had something to do with it, so thanks to all you newsletter readers who told me to just go ahead and use the working title! 😁)

If you want to buy one of the few remaining copies, here is the link:


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OK, with those vital topics taken care of, let’s get in to the tale itself…

With my chronic illness, travel really takes it out of me, so I am deeply lucky that I have a friend in the LA area who has a guest room and was supportive of me crashing out in it for a day before the convention.

So basically, I flew. I slept.

I flew.

I slept.

Ah, the deeply glamorous life of the chronically ill! You have to coordinate time for “rebuilding spoons” into travel. It’s annoying as fuck, but you cannot not do it because then you’ll just get somewhere and promptly be unable to do anything, which is not a fantastic plan either.

Moving on to the actually glamorous part: my panel with Amber Benson was on the first day of the Hellmouth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) convention.

Is me! Squeee!

I did an hour of signing in the morning, then took a little time just to wander the Sunnydale High campus. The convention was just getting starting, so there was energy but not chaos, and there was a gorgeous cool breeze after the stifling vendor’s area in the gymnasium.

Seeing the familiar locations from the show was magical. It’s one of the things that sets this convention apart from others: being able to walk around a place that is such a vital part of the show.

This hour of just calm enjoyment was one of the wonderful parts of the weekend, but it was not the last, by far!

I then headed off to the green room to eat lunch and hang out with Maven of the Eventide who would be interviewing us, while waiting for Amber to arrive.

Amber got there and we were hustled off to the backstage area, to be announced and walk out to our places.

I’ve done panels at conventions before, but this was my first time walking out on-stage to applause for one. Which I realized as I was walking across the stage LOL. Happily, all those years of performing at ManRay and giving talks of all kinds came in handy, and I just rolled with it.

Maven and me and Amber. Yes, I laughed a lot, because it was such an amazing conversation

I can’t believe I hold my mic like a teacup, with my pinky extended! What even is that?!

Maven will be posting the video of the panel, and I will get that link out to you ASAP. I can’t wait to see it myself, but also am secretly hoping I was as well-spoken and witty as I think I was… 😉

Me doin’ my job!

The next day was more book signings at the table, and wonderful interactions with existing readers and new friends. Some of those new friends have signed up to this newsletter, and welcome to all of you! Buffy fans are the bestest!

Remember this window…?

When you are doing cheesy author photos and a new friend shows up with a stake…

I wanna be Slayer! No, it’s my turn now!

Must share Mr. Pointy!

There were some important conversations with Amber and my publisher during this trip, and I will have some very exciting announcements to roll out to you in the coming weeks. There’s a lot of really cool stuff that will be happening with the series in the coming year, and I am so thrilled and can’t wait to share!

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Raven Reading Live Online on June 6th

This is just a shorter newsletter this week after the big drop of Finding Bela Lugosi last week. (Click here to grab it if you missed it!) But the news keeps on rolling, so next up:

I’ll be doing a FREE reading over Zoom at NOON EST on Friday June 6th. It’s a really cool group called “Strong Women, Strange Worlds” and I’m really excited to be working with them.

This will be an amazing panel of women and non-binary authors of speculative fiction, and there will be giveaways and chat with the authors. The Event is FREE but you have to pre-register, so if even if you are not sure you’ll make it, just take moment and register so that if you find you have the time, you’re good to go.

If you enjoyed Finding Bela Lugosi…

Please take a moment to write up a quick review. It doesn’t have to be a novel in itself, just throw some stars at it and say a thing or two that you liked about it.

Getting reviews really, really helps indie authors like me! Thank you in advance for taking a few moments to do this! 🖤

The Sex Questionnaire Redux

There are so many new subscribers (Hello, new friends! 👋) to this newsletter that I am bringing back the Question of Sex

Based on the popularity of authors like Laurell K. Hamilton, when I started writing this series I thought that vampire story readers expected a certain amount of spice. And since I can write very good spicy scenes, I made them vital to the plot, and had fun writing all of it. And ever since, it’s been a point of pride to me that the loving sex scenes in my books were as explicit as the brutal violence, and balanced it out well ⚖️

But I’m at the point now where I could change things, if fans of the series have strong feelings on the matter. So if you have read even one book in the series, could you please take a moment to do this short poll (just 7 questions!) and let me know what YOU think, and I will factor that into how I write Book Depths and all the following books in the series…

So now you get to have your say. Take control! (In either a sexy or non-sexy way, you choose!) 😉


Yesterday I posted the start of a new series to IG. Long-time readers of this newsletter will remember I posted a video to YT of me going over the full “Am’r Dictionary” (i.e., all the words in the am’r language so far) but because it’s longer length, lots of people just don’t have time to watch the full thing, whereas they can do a “word a week” reel much easier.

For those new to the series, I created the am’r language as I wrote the first book in the series, and it’s been a very popular feature with readers. As with the languages in Game of Thrones, this makes the world of the series feel so much more real and immersive. Here’s a little secret: if you’re having trouble pronouncing the language, just imagine having extra-long K9 teeth in your mouth and it will help 🧛

(If you ever wondered just how much of a geeky nerd I am, this video of me talking about a fantasy language I created should really answer that question for all time 😂)

So that’s what we’ll be doing from now on, starting with “adharmhem.” Enjoy!

Instagram post by @raven.belasco


‼️Reminder: you can still ask me anything…! And you know I will make a video to answer it! 😁

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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Your FREE STORY for World Dracula Day! 🧛

🦇HAPPY WORLD DRACULA DAY!🦇This is what you’ve been waiting so patiently for: Finding Bela Lugosi!

Follow these instructions to get your free story

  1. Go to: https://BookHip.com/TCAPFXV

  2. It will prompt you to sign up for this newsletter, but just go ahead, it will recognize your email and you won’t get double the newsletters or anything silly like that

  3. The link to the ebook will be sent to your email

  4. You will have 14 days to claim the book from the moment you activate the offer

  5. If you want to share with friends, send them the above link or forward them this newsletter

  6. Enjoy—and let me know what you think!

 You wanted my goth history…?

It was World Goth Day on May 22nd , and I dropped a fun little video for all of you who have be insisting in the “Ask Raven Anything” poll that that’s what you’re here for. There are more individual stories coming—at your request!—but here is a basic overview. Get ready to get dark…

Raven Belasco in conversation with Amber Benson at Hellmouth Con

I will be at Hellmouth Con, in Torrance CA, from June 13-15. I will be selling signed copies of the series—and there will be a secret surprise new swag item for everyone buying the books on the Hellmouth! (While supplies last, obvs.)

When I’m not vending, I will be doing a panel with Amber Benson (you know, Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). We’ll be talking about writing dark fantasy and about vampires, and I think it’s going to be an amazing conversation.

For those of you who can’t make it, it will be recorded, but if you possibly can get to the Hellmouth that weekend, it is entirely worth your time. This convention happens at the high school where Buffy was shot, so it’s really immersive. Also, Buffy fans are, generally speaking, particularly sweet and welcoming people—even if Buffy isn’t your main fandom, you’ll be made welcome. Also, just check out all who will be attending: you all know what a huge Trekkie I am, and I’m beyond excited to meet Armin Shimerman 🤓


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Today is World Dracula Day!

Two of the books in the series have been published on this day, and so it holds extra meaning for me.

From a series I’m doing on IG/FB about what my characters have taught me

I was fascinated by Vlad Țepeș since about age 12. I remember going to the local library’s book sale, and in one of the cardboard boxes on the lawn in front of the library was In Search of Dracula by Raymond T McNally & Radu Florescu.

I had no idea at the time, but that moment would change my life. In that moment, however, I just excitedly added “A true history of Dracula and vampire legends—with 60 illustrations!” to my pile of used books to buy.

This is the very book I grabbed out of the box; a little battered now!

I had already read Stoker’s Dracula (I was a precocious lil nerdling and in my “paranormal phase” to boot: anything about vampires, ghosts, werewolves, cryptids, or psychic phenomena was a must-read for me; I had already devoured all the books on witchcraft a year or so before) so I knew that story perfectly well. But the real story was so much more fascinating—which is how I still feel today. And why the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series deals with Vlad Țepeș as a historical figure and not as merely Stoker’s Count.

It was with shock and delight that many years later, I found out that my friend Dr. Ligia Buzan (who had done the Romanian language and sensitivity edits for the series) was actually a student of the esteemed Radu Florescu, and getting to talk to her about working with him, and about Romanian vampire myth has been one of the highlights of being a vampire author 💝

I want to take a moment to thank all of you for being such an amazing support system. I’m so lucky not to have just distant unknown “fans” but readers who are truly invested in the series and in me as an author. You lot are what’s making this whole indie author thing actually work, and are giving me a chance to live my passion. I’m glad that on this special day, I am able to give back to you.

I raise a glass of your favorite red beverage to you! 🍷 May you (metaphorically) impale every enemy that tries to stand in your way!

 ‼️Reminder: you can still ask me anything…!

To everyone who made it this far, you’re fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! 😘

💭 I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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