So I know that I said that these newsletters would A.) be bimonthly and B.) generally go out on Wednesday, but the fact that I couldn’t talk about so much stuff was making it hard for me to do the newsletter in the past month since the last one went out … but this reason this one goes out on a Friday is because TODAY IS THE BIG DAY for one of my BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS!
So, AT LONG LAST, here goes Announcement The First!
In early September 2001, the news I was hearing about the Supreme Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade was freaking me out. (With good reason, we’ve since all discovered ?) I wanted to send lots of money to help the various causes and institutions that were trying to help women directly impacted, and protect the rights of all women. But I did not have the kind of money I wanted to donate.
But I did have some skills. And passion to spare. So, in the coming years, I reached out to authors asking for them to donate stories to an anthology. As that moved along, I reached out to publishers, to help me make this vision into reality. After landing with the highly-respected Aqueduct Press, I could breathe a little easier, but there was still so much to do to ensure this project would make it to Actually Being A Thing In The World. (Which would be tedious to list, so I won’t, but let’s just say I truly stretched my previously assumed limits along the way.) Today we sent out the Press Release so I can FINALLY TALK ABOUT IT.
Here’s the blurb, which sums it up best:
Here’s the list of amazing authors who came in on this project with me: Kathleen Alcalá, Elizabeth Bear, Raven Belasco, Tara Campbell, Anya De Niro, Jaymee Goh, Cynthia Gralla, K Ibura, Ellen Klages, Annalee Newitz, Nisi Shawl, Cecilia Tan, Sonya Taaffe, Helena María Viramontes, and an introduction by international social justice activist Maggie Mayhem.
(See, I told you it was an amazing list ?)
And here’s the equally amazing cover, by brilliant artist Jenifer Prince
And here’s the Instagram, so you can keep up with all the news: https://www.instagram.com/adventuresinautonomy/
My name’s Raven Belasco, and I’m a dark fantasy writer. These newsletters are about my work and that #authorlife. Updates out bimonthly to subscribers. Feel free to send your friends to my Beehiiv, where they can read the most recent letters and subscribe.
If you don’t want these getting lost in the spam filter, please add ravenbelasco@gmail.com to your email system’s address book or contacts.
Of course, that’s not the only thing I’ve been doing with my time. I can’t actually talk directly about the other project YET, but I can talk about how it’s impacting my life, so it needs a codename. Because codenames are cool. Let’s call it Project Phoenix. You’ll see why that’s so meaningful as soon as I can move things along to the Announcement Day….
But at least today we get one Announcement Day. And it’s a pretty good one. I’m so proud of this baby, this absolute labor of love. Of course, now that it’s announced in the world, we hit a new stage of things, which is me marketing and promoting the hell out of this thing, so that we can raise as much money as possible for NARAL.
So. If you would like to review the book, please let me know. Even just on Amazon, you’d be amazed how much those little reviews matter. And, if you know someone who reviews books on a more professional level and might like to review this anthology, please get in touch. The most important thing right now is Getting The Word Out There, and I’ll take all the help I can get.
Of course, as soon as the pre-order link goes up, you, my adored newsletter readers, will be the first to know!
Shooting Things
If you follow my author Instagram you’ll know I’ve finally been granted good enough health to take up archery. I’m getting out to the “butt” (teehee?) set up at the end of the back garden. It’s very much swampland back there, so I do my practicing in wellies. And when I went out on Monday, the mosquitoes let me know it was now Their Time, so I will be trialing a lot of different bug sprays, this spring-summer-fall. But I am absolutely aware how lucky I am to have space to practice in, and I do not take it for granted.
Getting out there for practice always makes me feel so good. Well, emotionally. Physically, I am definitely dealing with building up muscle I lost during the periods where my spine was so bad I was basically bed-bound for a while. So that feels like you’d expect. But it’s totally worth it, because archery is totally a joy to me.
Yes, of course, bows and arrows will show up in future am’r stories. It obviously won’t stop an angry am’r altogether, but if your aim is good, you might slow them down in a beneficial way…. ?
In the meantime, when life hits me with frustrations, I can go out back and take aim at whatever the problem is with some arrows. Imaginary targets are reasonably satisfying, when you get a good grouping. ?
I’ll try to get the next newsletter out to you in two weeks, but until the next newsletter hits your inbox, stay well, and be good … or be good at it! ?