Dracula’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Christmas 🧛💣🎄

Since I know this story is what you want most, here is the link!

If you want to know more first, here’s some info:

The story is set at the same time as the first three chapters of Blood Ex Libris, but from Sandu’s perspective—and yes, that means you get the full story of his being am’r-napped and tortured that he only glosses over at the Big Am’r Summit in the Rave Cave.

So the two main features of the story are: seeing the meeting of Noosh and Sandu’s through Sandu’s eyes, and then the rest of the story is just the kind of thrilling torture and revengeful action-y escape that you want from holiday films like Die Hard, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Red One, or Violent Night. It’s got “Christmas-specific torture” — you’ll need to read it to get it, but I think you’ll all find it a kick in the pants

Plus, for those of you who prefer less open-door spice, this story takes place before all that gets going in Blood Ex Libris, so it’s just violent vampire action, not sexy vampire action. All the other stuff you love is there, however: swearing in Romanian, historical bits, global settings — the usual BAAS recipe for am’r goodness.

I didn’t mean to write this story this year. My publisher has been demanding it for some time now, and suddenly, in late November, the story just started happening in my brain, so I had to rush to get it out on the page.

It actually fucked up quite a few of my other plans, hustling to get the story done and edited and published before Xmas. So please go grab your copy, because I really put the sweat, blood, and tears into this one!

(There was supposed to be a fancier cover — I found a great artist and we were totally on the same page about the cover art, but then there was a misunderstanding about the delivery date. So there will be a better cover in the future, but for now I just wanted to get it out to you all, and since it’s an ebook, the title page works well enough until the real cover comes along.)

(N.B.—if you are completely opposed to spending money on Amazon — which I understand and believe me I wish I could sell books without involving Amazon at all — email me and we’ll get you the story another way)

This is the final newsletter of 2025! 🕰️

I’m exhausted. It’s been an insane year! 😵

📅January — IIP republished Blood Ad Infinitum as Blood Eternal (may I never have to rename a book EVER!) and I got to give a talk with Cecilia Tan to Emerson College about being an indie author

📅February — the second year of the Villaintine’s Day vote. I love this tradition! But also my hand surgery that totally messed up my writing schedule for the whole year

📅March — Die Feen released their song about Blood Eternal “Mistakes

📅April – May — the drama of writing Finding Bela Lugosi for the doomed Bauhaus anthology, then finding out the editor of said anthology was “not someone you’d want to work with” (I am putting this so very delicately!) and then the quest for getting the rights to use the lyrics from “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” from Bauhaus, managing to get it published for World Dracula Day; plus doing readings online and posting videos about vampires and being an indie author (And it’s still free online!)

Instagram post

📅June — going to the literal Sunnydale Hellmouth and getting to do a panel with the most fantastic Amber Benson

📅July — That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story makes a huge splash, and I attend Readercon for the first time, and totally fall in love with the convention

📅August — Yet another article published in Book Life by Publisher’s Weekly. And I finally get back to work on Blood Depths

📅September — I try vending at new places, like the Dark Forest Oddities Expo (not the greatest success) and the Vampfangs Vampire Market (a shockingly great success)

📅October — I have the best time ever on The Historic Lesbian Motifs podcast and of course Paulette Kennedy’s Live series, and vending at my beloved Pandemonium, as well as having my bestie over for carving punkins on Halloween

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📅November — Back into Blood Depths, but get surprise-attacked by the Sandu Xmas Story that demands to be written…

Editing the Sandu Xmas story two days ago, with the vital assistance of Archie, of course!

📅December — trip to LA to finally record Blood Eternal with Amber Benson, publish Dracula’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Christmas, and working on a whole bunch of other exciting stuff for 2026

I feel like it was a pretty damn important year for both the series and for me as an author and person. Writing the shorter stories proved to me as a writer that I can really get a lot out of writing things that aren’t novels (I had done it before, but once I started writing novels those really took over!) and they also brought a lot of new readers to the series.

One of my goals had been to get out there and vend more and attend more conventions. It was baby-steps, but I think I chose mostly good places and they were worth the time, energy, and money. Because of my chronic illness, committing to three-day events is terrifying, and even a one-day event can cause me to lose a week after in recovery time. My next goal is to figure out vending in a state where I’m not already set up for paying sales tax, and just doing as many conventions as my health will allow.

My biggest goal for 2026 is just to get Blood Depths written as fast and as well as I possibly can. While I think all the distractions in 2025 were worthy endeavors, there are a lot of new characters I can’t wait for you to meet, and I really just want to sink back into novel writing, and just do the thing I love most about being an author—you know, write books—with less Other Stuff getting in the way.

Thank you all for sticking with me through another year of trying to figure out how to do this indie author thing. You newsletter readers are really the rock in the storm for me, and I deeply appreciate every one of you who takes the time to read each bi-monthly email, respond to polls and other questions, and support each story as it comes your way.

I hope you have a safe and joyful holiday season, and I look forward to sharing the world of the am’r with you in 2026! 🥂 And of course, until the next newsletter, 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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You Hear It First: Exciting News For BAAS Readers!!️

I’m going to throw in some vital news and updates up front here, but then the rest of this newsletter is a travelogue sharing my recent trip to LA. I’m only posting it here, for you my beloved newsletter readers

🎉First and most importantly, I can now announce that Blood Eternal has FINALLY been recorded in audiobook 🎉

Read again (and of course!) by Amber Benson. You guys are hearing it first! There will be more news about the audiobook in the coming weeks, but read the travelogue below to get the inside scoop…

The Sandu Xmas story is done in the first draft and just sent to the editor! I’m trying to get a cover happening while she does her thang…

I will be vending at the Pandemonium Holiday Faire On Sunday Dec 14

Be there or risk Santa’s Naughty List!

I’ll bring free hot chocolate and of course my red sharpie for signing your books ✒️ ⁠ If you are looking to shop local and indie, or just need to grab a few more items to check off your own Santa list, there will be unique vendors selling a variety of geeky wares: Illustrations, hand-made stuffed animals, bags, jewelry, dice, and so much more 🎁 ⁠ The faire will run from 12 PM to 5 PM. See you there! ✨

There are also freshly printed copies of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story (for those of you who somehow don’t have yours yet) so if you can come down and get it signed in person, I’ll be wearing my ugly Xmas sweater and serving up free hot cocoa!

If you live too far away, order your signed copies here and I will get them out to you ASAP. If you order in the next couple days there’s still time for books to get there to be under the tree or by the menorah, or wherever you pile your prezzies 🎁🎁🎁

Don’t forget, ebooks and audiobooks make great holiday gifts, and they don’t require worrying about shipping times. All my audiobooks are up on Audible, through your other preferred audiobook provider, or you can buy them directly from me to own without membership issues

Special LA Trip Travelogue—Ride Along With Raven As She Goes On An Author Adventure

📆 Friday 5th

Flying out from BOS to LAX. Flight very full, but people are in good spirits and friendly, and it’s almost like the government shutdown didn’t wreck such disaster on commercial aviation just a few weeks ago.

Looking forward to six uninterrupted hours of editing the Sandu Xmas story…

California here I come!

Just woke up from an accidental three hour nap! I can’t ever sleep on planes, but I had packed myself a big container of Turkey Day leftovers, and apparently, enough tryptophan, carbs and fats will give me a case of “the itis” that will overcome even my discomfort in flying! Good to know for the future…but now I’m kinda annoyed I only got one hour of editing in

***

It was a really smooth flight, got my luggage with no problems, and now ensconced with my friend Mija in Long Beach. I love this town. I have been promised Mexican food every day I’m out here, to make up for the lack of it in MA. Tonight is tacos, baby! 🌮🌮

📆 Sat 6th

Ugh, jet lag is horrible. Spending the day resting before having to be “on” in the evening.

Picked up by Lore to drive over to the movie viewings and dinner. We hold a business meeting through the infamous LA traffic. Very productive that way, at least!

***
Home, too tired to keep my eyes open. What an amazing evening! Met and chatted with some really fun and interesting people, doing cool projects. Watched two classic horror films (Equinox and The Blob) and learned about how they were made. Delicious mango sticky rice after dinner! And I got to ride a little train!

I was introduced tonight as “Raven Belasco—she’s an accomplished author,” so I’m going to need you all to add that to my name henceforth: “Raven Belasco—Accomplished Author”

(Very happy the little terrier in The Blob didn’t die! I was so worried about them! Was very glad to find out it ran away. I hope it ended up in a good place eventually. Also, possibly more worrying: does climate change mean that The Blob is going to eat us all?!)

📆 Sun 7th

Heading to the studio shortly to do the final recordings for Blood Eternal. Excited to spend time with Amber, and finally meet our recording engineer par excellence, Eli, in person.

***
Exhausted, in bed. Can barely hold my eyes open, but want to get down these memories…

Today was one of the best days of my author career. Met Lore at the gorgeous little recording studio where Blood Eternal has been being recorded. Amber and Eli were already inside, starting the pickups. Came in, hugged people, got to work. It was so much fun, and so damn impressive, being there for the process and getting to help out a bit with the last tricky pronunciation issues.

Then, the part I’d had some butterflies for: me getting behind the mic myself, to record the opening and closing parts of the book.

Back in college, I’d had a radio show (the Indigo Hours, where I played jazz and blues) and in my previous job for the language course company I ended up in their recording studio a number of times. But it had been a hot minute since I was trying to sound all professional with a mic in hand.

I did my best, enjoyed myself, and they say I sounded good (I’ll find out soon enough if they were just being kind!) and that was a wrap on Blood Eternal!

Me being a little too excited about “That’s a wrap!”

We celebrated with a meal at an amazing café, and sat and talked into the afternoon. The café had these insane gluten free waffles, and a lavender matcha, and so my part of the discussion was very much powered by caffeine and sugar.

Lore and I wandered around a bit after that, having a roving business meeting that included wandering around The Ripped Bodice, and ending up in a boba joint.

I’d run out of spoons some time ago by that point, and getting back to Long Beach included a stop at the wonderful Mexican place from the other night and getting more delicious tacos and mango agua fresca.

Passing out now 😵

📆 Mon 8th

The original plan for the day got rescheduled for a future trip, so today was a “free day,” and in discussion with Mija, I realized what I wanted most was to sit in a café and write. (Technically, edit, but since I love all the stages of writing that’s all good.) So she suggested an appropriate spot called The Library Coffee Shop and after brunch and a visit to the dog park with her fantastic pup, we finally found ourselves ensconced there with caffeine (I got a fantastic latte called the Vanilla Goddess, and which lived up to the name!) and our laptops open, as we sat and wrote together.

Coffee and editing

The author at work

I really have the bestest friends 💖

Got almost all the edits in, and really enjoyed just sitting in a café and writing, which I never get to do back home because there isn’t a café in walking distance from my home now, and I really can’t see wasting the time driving to a café, when I could just get my computer fired up and get on with it. (Back when I lived in SF, I would walk Cairngorm down to the café to write—they adored him and made much of him—and after enough writing had occurred, I’d walk him home, thus getting both writing and walkies done in one swell foop.)

Anyway, since I was really wiped out from the previous two days, this was low-key day was just perfect.

It got even perfecter when some friends I hadn’t seen for too many years stopped by and we chatted for a couple hours like no time had passed at all.

Falling into bed so happy 😊

📆 Tues 9th

One last thing to do, then I can go home to my Archie boy! Just “have to” have a brunch with the amazing Paulette Kennedy, whom I’ve been both idolizing and adoring from a distance, and now I can do so in the flesh!

Finally hanging out together!

We met for brunch at Lunetta and holy fuck, the food and drinks at that place are beyond perfect, and it was a beautiful place to sit and talk for a couple hours, about writing and personal stuff, and anything and everything.

I love talking with other authors. We can discuss the difficulties of dealing with Amazon or Ingram, the complexities of doing conventions, and all writer’s issues from which book layout software is best to laughing about our favorite bad reviews, and never get tired of these topics.

They say “never meet your heroes,” but sometimes it goes very right. I’ve met Jim Carrol and it was unforgettable, I met Samuel Delany and he was so kind to a star-struck college student who wanted to be a writer someday. And of course, Amber Benson! 💖 And today I met Paulette in person, and it was even better than our already wonderful online interactions 💝

On the redeye back east

At the airport, waiting for the redeye back to Boston, I got a killer massage and then finished up my leftover tacos and waffles while sitting at a nice table which charged my laptop.

Looking back over this trip, I feel so much gratitude. I have been taken care of by the kindest of friends. I have gotten to spend time with genuinely amazing people, having the best conversations. I’ve gotten to see my third “baby” Blood Eternal take the final step into being a Real Audiobook and be part of the process in the most fun way, and enjoyed networking and schmoozing like I was born to it. And I got to move the newest story along towards being ready to publish in my spare moments!

I love being a writer. I just want to do this for the rest of my life, please!

6 AM BOSTON. My eyes are really red! 😂

So that’s the story of the trip. Thank you for sharing that with me! 🥰 More news about the Blood Eternal audiobook forthcoming…

I will get out one more newsletter before the holidays descend upon us, to get you the link to the Sandu Xmas story ebook. Good luck with the holiday madness, and 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 Sandu Christmas story for your holiday wish list! 🎁

💥Well, I have an exciting announcement to make—to my surprise 💥

Due to some other things that I still can’t yet announce [vibrates with frustration] there has been a thrilling development in the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series stories

For Supah Sekrit Reazins, the period of time in Blood Ex Libris where Sandu disappears out of Noosh’s life for three months (right in the first chapters of the book) needed to be told from Sandu’s point of view, giving the full story of his capture, torture, and escape for the very first time

And, since it takes place over the holiday season, well, if Die Hard can be an Xmas movie, this story should absolutely follow in that grand tradition 🧨🎄🧨

So, the first draft of the story is going to be complete before Turkey Day, and after that it will be beaten into shape by my amazing editor, and gotten out in ebook form in time for holiday shopping!

This was, as you will remember from previous emails, so very much NOT the plan. But since I need this story pronto, and since it’s being very obliging and damn near writing itself, I am not fighting the utter reworking of my life and calendar.

Those of you who have been grumbling about how often Blood Depths has been put off will be grumpy with me, I understand. However, I cannot deny the results of the last newsletter’s poll, wherein those of you who want to see rough snippets were very vocal and undeniable.

FINE THEN, but only because you insist

So, I’m going to bow to your demands—which is not easy for me because I really prefer to present finished drafts of things and pretend they were that good from the very start —and start including “The Raw View” into newsletters.

Because of the few of you who didn’t not want the slightest bit of spoilers, I will always put that section at the bottom of the newsletter, and give lots of warning in advance.

The 100 Minutes War

My pretty boy and me, in our Viking-era finest. Be terrified!

I would have spent the whole weekend on the computer banging out the whole story in just seven days, except for the fact that I had made plans I couldn’t get out of for last weekend. The SCA event called the 100 Minutes War happens this November weekend every year—generally taking over my birthday, but that’s not a terrible thing, because it’s one of my favorite SCA events of the year, and I get to see lots of people whom I adore.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures this year, because I was showing my bestie and her husband around their first SCA event, and working with Archie to set him up for success in being a good and happy Service Dog, so I didn’t have the phone out much for pictures. However, here is Archie and me in our matching Viking garb in a rare quiet moment in the day.

It was very good to be off-screens for the weekend, and the later good whisky and good mead fueled naked hot-tub-under-the-stars party was really a quite perfect way to celebrate a birthday! (There were three people celebrating their birthdays in the tub, so we had a fair bit of celebrating to get through! And, no, there will be no pictures from that 😂)

But now, rejuvenated by getting as close to an am’r sort of weekend as one can get and still be kee (there was a huge pitched battle plus dubious decisions in a hot-tub 😂) I’m getting back to work getting you the stories you need! Indeed, I would already be back in the Sandu Xmas story if I didn’t have to write this newsletter, so I’m going to keep it short and get back to what you really want from me…

🆕 The Raw View 🥩 🆕

Here’s a touching reunion of dear old friends from the Sandu Xmas story (title forthcoming as soon as I can make up my mind)

⚠️⚠️⚠️ WARNING SPOILERS ⚠️⚠️⚠️ WARNING SPOILERS ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Now that you’ve had a taste of it, I hope you’re looking forward to the story as much as I am to sharing it with you! 💖

To those who have made it this far down, you are fucking amazing and I adore you! 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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The story of Blood Ex Libris

Post the insane Spooky Season events and marketing drive, it’s a time of fallowness for this author. Of course I’ll do a bit of Winter Holiday stuff, but the real highlight of my book promotion year has just passed, and now I want to just focus inward—and get that next novel closer to publication 💪

That means the newsletter this month are not going to be the high energy, thrilling affairs you’ve gotten used to. If what I am doing is research and pure creation, it’s not much to write about. Here are some pictures from the weekend, of me continuing the research part…

At the library, grabbing 2 more research books!

Diving right into the research, with my co-author helping!

But yeah, unless I share snippets of the writing with you, we’re not in a very dynamic place right now—from your point of view. From mine, I’m actually in the place I like best, which is just me and the page, and the words pouring out of my mind onto the page.

Where, sadly, they won’t come out perfect the first time, but will require lots of editing—and sometimes being deleted in chunks and completely reworked. But I’m a very weird writer, and I actually enjoy the “polishing” process as much as the pure creativity part, so as far as I’m concerned, all the best parts of being a writer are ahead of me, this month.

There’s a bunch of new readers to this newsletter—warm greetings to those of you who signed up at the Pandemonium Spooky Geek Faire! So I thought for this newsletter I’d go back and tell the story of how Blood Ex Libris came to be in the first place.

I knew I’d wanted to be an author all the way back in 1st Grade. (Although it was “author-illustrator” at the time. Sadly, reality has forced me to admit the fact that I cannot draw images the way I can draw with words.) In case you were wondering, this “what do I want to do when I grow up moment” came in between “paleontologist” (which since I couldn’t say my “l”s yet was said as “paweontowogist”) and “the Goddess Athena” (I apparently thought it was the kind of job that would have openings—which turned out later to be the plot of Fred Saberhagen’s excellent Books of the Gods fantasy series, so I was not the only one thinking about that!)

I wrote stories. I had “published” my first book by then. It was about the legend of the phoenix, and it was called “The Firebird,” and I did both the story and illustrations in Crayola marker. “Publication” was being displayed in the local library. I was deeply proud.

I was constantly working on stories after that. I always had a story I was working on, but the novels never got more than a few chapters in.

When I was 17 I became sick and never got well again. I was finally diagnosed with ME/CFS, but before I ever got a diagnosis I had found one of the things that would help get me through, and that was science fiction. I started by plundering my parent’s library, then whenever I was well enough I dragged my unwell ass to the local library and brought home huge stacks of books, which I used as pure escapism from my physical reality.

It was then that I first read Robert Heinlein and Samuel Delany. Both of those writers made me decide, “I can really do this!” and I started writing a science fiction novel.

The first iteration of the science fiction novel that I will actually finish someday…

That novel got stopped and restarted for years, each time coming in at a different angle. I kept realizing that I hadn’t really lived enough to tell the story I wanted to tell. I was keeping busy with life (getting my research in! 😂) so there was no rush—but I had no doubt that I was a writer and that I would eventually get a novel done and out into the world.

And then one night, I dreamed the first sex scene from Blood Ex Libris—in detail! I woke up, and grabbed my laptop and wrote it out. In doing so, I realized I knew it was Vlad Dracula but he was going by another name, and I knew a fair bit already about the main character Noosh. So I went back to the beginning of the story and started writing it, to catch up to that first sex scene.

And then I kept going. There was a huge set-back when I lost about 3000 words I’d written, and I stopped writing for six months because I was so upset about it, but I finally got over it and dove back into finishing the story. (It’s crazy to me now that I nearly didn’t write the book because I had lost only 3000 words. On a good day, I can write that many words in one day!)

Anyway, that’s the story of how Blood Ex Libris, and the whole Blood & Ancient Scrolls Series began. There’s a lot more story about the story, about how I managed to get it out into the world for you to read, but that’s for another time.

I’ll go back to working on the next novel now, as I know so many of you wish I’d get it out NOW. Thank you for your patience in waiting for it! And thank you to all who made it this far in the newsletter today. You are the bestest of fans and I so deeply appreciate you! 💖

Until the next newsletter, 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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Trick or treat! 🎃🍬🧻👻

This is it! The week of Halloween! I don’t know what you’ve been doing (possibly focusing on small wee issues in other aspects of life, not that there is anything news-worthy happening these days…) but as you can see from my previous September and October newsletters, this holiday has taken over my life for two months.

That’s OK. I chose this life when my subconscious presented me with a dream that would become the first words I wrote in Blood Ex Libris, and I chose it again when I pushed myself to write the whole book, no matter how hard it was (it was not the first novel I started writing, but it was the first novel I finished), and I chose it every day, because it would be vastly easier to get a normal day job that pays the bills, not trying to make it as an indie author in this cold and uncaring world.

Since I chose it every day—“Every day is Halloween”—here I am at the rewarding end of an intense and exhausting … well, let’s call it a “crucible,” in honor of the play about the Salem Witch Trials, and thus stay on theme 😉

I have a lot to get to in this newsletter, so let’s dive into the open top of the jack-o-lantern, shall we?

First Off Is Poll Results & This Year’s Halloween Costume Pictures!

The results of the “What book would you like to go on sale for Halloween?” poll was hands-down That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story 🏴‍☠️🎉

So Archie and I both dressed in pirate garb, to celebrate That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story. (He and I are both more pansexual than “lesbian,” but we hopefully got the “vampire pirate” part down 😁)

On the ultimate nerdy level, these images were shot at an SCA event, which provided a lovely wooden building that was reasonably a pirate ship. Of course, this did also mean that the attendees of the event were affectionately teasing me about being a pirate the rest of the day 😂 Here, for your enjoyment, are the results…

As you see, I saved the best for last, as Archie is really stepping up his role as “author’s dog” by now being the most compelling part of the marketing 😁 And as per your request, That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story (in ebook) is dropped to ONLY 99c until midnight on October 31st! I’m not planning to do this sale ever again, so if you do not already have your ebook copy, avast ye and grab yer plunder!

(If you want a paperback copy and think it’s unfair that only the ebook is on sale, email me and tell me you demand a sale on the paperback in the grand piratical tradition. I will send along a coupon code, because one must respect the Pirate Code!)

 Last Sunday was Pandemonium’s Spooky Geek Faire…

and let’s just say it reaffirmed that Pandemonium Books & Games is one of the best places in the world to vend. I love the staff at Pandy, and I love the people who frequent the store. “Freaks, Nerds, and Weirdos” was an MTV program back in the ‘90s, and it’s the people who I feel most comfortable around (being all three of those things, myself) and it pretty well describes the fabulous people who come through Pandy’s doors. So I knew that the people walking past the my table would enjoy all the elements of my books: the dark fantasy/horror genre to start, and then the working in of historical characters with nerdy Easter Eggs, my method of creating the am’r using both myth and science, the fantasy language I created for the series, and of course, Noosh being a librarian and loving books so much! (Also the queerness—there is much intersection of the queer communities and the geeky communities 🩷❤️🧡💛💛💚🩵💙💜🤎🖤)

My bestie came out to sit with me (and sell my books better than I can) and while I had intended to take a bunch of pictures, we ended up with only this selfie—but what more did we need?

Caffeined-up vampire pirates ready to sell you books!

The Art of Writing Vampires, with Paulette Kennedy

Last week I had a treat I’d been waiting for all spooky season, to discuss the art and science of writing vampires. If you missed it, click below for the whole discussion, in which I explain my “Build-A-Vampire Workshop” theory and bring up an old Romanian myth where vampires had tails…

Instagram post by @pkennedywrites


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What’s next?

First and most important, the rest of the newsletters for this year will go back to having regular updates of my progress in the next novel. Yay yay yay! You don’t know how frustrating it’s been not to be working on that 🫤

But besides that, there are about to be two Very Big Announcements that I think will have you all very excited. I’ve been working on some stuff behind the scenes and not able to mention it (which is also frustrating 😂 ) so keep watching this space for more‼️

For those of you who have read this far, have an amazing Hallowe’en and please send me pictures of you in costume or your decorations! 🎃 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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You🫵choose the Halloween sale! 🎃

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

I had an amazing time talking with Heather Rose Jones on her wonderful and detailed podcast about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction.

If you are watching my videos on YouTube, would you please follow me? It turns out that YouTube treats you better if you have 100+ followers. So if you take a moment to click on “Follow” you could really impact how YouTube works for me as a marketing platform. Us Indie Authors need every little bit of help, and this one is free and only takes a second!

Here’s the link to the episode, Episode 325: On the Shelf for October 2025. The interview with myself starts at 26 minutes in.

After we finished the interview, we kept chatting for another hour! It turns out that Heather is also in the SCA, so we had a of shared experiences and overlapping interests. It was actually really good that I hadn’t stalked her too hard before the interview, because after it was, over, I googled her name and realized that I’ve been using resources that she put online about historic sewing methods for years. If I’d know it was that Heather Rose Jones, I would have been all fan-girly and tongue-tied 🤓🤪

The Spooky Geek Faire is only FIVE days away! 🗓️

This image is also a teaser for this year’s Halloween pictures… 👻

Featuring vendors with one-of-a-kind art pieces, handmade plush, illustrations, comics, books, and more! No sign-up or entrance fee are necessary to attend.

Sunday, October 19th from 12 PM to 5 PM at Pandemonium Books & Games 4 Pleasant St, Cambridge, MA 02139

I WILL be bringing my famous mulled cider again this year, so come down, buy any of the books from the series that you are missing or get your books signed, and have a glass of cider and hang out in one of the coolest places in the Boston Area!

Author-y stuff

I discovered over my time doing vending that the old first person description on the back of my novels was turning some potential customers off, so I took a moment to make new back-of-book text and to add some wonderful new blurbs to the cover as well. I’m really happy how it came out—here’s a video of me unboxing them and you can see the delight on my face!


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Oct 23rd will be a special Halloween LIVE with Paulette Kennedy

Paulette is brilliant fucking author, and if you haven’t read anything by her yet, you have a real treat in story for you. She writes this kind of historical feminist gothic fiction that is absolutely addictive. It’s hard to say which my favorite of her books is, but I am deeply fond of The Artist of Blackberry Grange, which (I think) is the most delightfully escapist of all her work. Her newest project is still available in Kickstarter, as part of the Once Upon A Gothic set, and it’s a retelling of Dracula from the eyes of one of Dracula’s brides. I had the privilege of reading it as an advance review copy and it’s soooooo good. You should definitely check the set out.

Anyway, now that I’ve given Paulette due adulation, I’m so excited to announce that I get to hang out with her (and all of you) on October 23rd on her page on Instagram, doing an IG live to talk about vampires and Halloween and Things That Go Bump In The Night. This newsletter won’t be published again until after the 23rd , so I recommend that you either go follow Paulette or keep an eye on my IG page, as I will be posting a notification there before showtime.

The last time we talked was a really excellent conversation, but in the year intervening we’ve gotten to know each other better and had this deeply satisfactory mutual appreciation society develop 🥰 so this year the discussion is going to be absolutely next level, two literary geeks just feeding off each other’s intelligence and having a blast with it, so seriously, don’t miss it!

And Now It’s Time! YOU Choose the Halloween Sale! 🫵

I couldn’t make up my mind on which book(s) should go on sale this Halloween. And then I thought, “You know, the Newsletter Readers always know best: Ask Them!” So that’s exactly what I’m doing. Are you missing a book from the series? Need one to give as a gift? It’s like “Trick or Treat” only it’s just the treat 😁

Finally, I did that video for Banned Books week that I talked about in the last newsletter. Here it is. I got a little passionate as I was making it, so when I start talking about your first amendment rights, I actually surprised myself by getting really heated, which you can actually see. I knew I cared deeply about this topic, but was not expecting to get so passionate on camera like that!

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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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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