Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 1) - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 109

2020-10-06

Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 1) The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 109 with Heather Rose Jones In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. This time we had so much to talk about we split it into two episodes. In this episode we talk about: How the pricing structure of lesbian romance can form a barrier to general readers entering the market Decoding how to find books that hit your sweet spot when...

Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 1) The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 109 with Heather Rose Jones

In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. This time we had so much to talk about we split it into two episodes.

In this episode we talk about:

How the pricing structure of lesbian romance can form a barrier to general readers entering the market
Decoding how to find books that hit your sweet spot when entering a new reading community
How the history of lesbian small presses shapes price and content expectations
Some comparisons between f/f and m/m book communities
How latent sexism in the romance market affects the acceptance of f/f stories
Popular m/m and m/f romance authors putting a toe in the waters of f/f romance--what does it mean for f/f-only authors?
How do we overcome barriers to cross-promotion between siloed reading communities, when recommendation networks don’t overlap
Lesbian publishing as a “walled garden”--the ups and downs of curated spaces
Dealing with cross-gender motifs in historical fiction
Complications of gender and sexuality in historic societies
How to identify with characters without owning them--resource scarcity and contested spaces
Three models for communicating queer content in books: the donut shop, the whisper network, and the detailed menu
Fan fiction and learning acceptance of multiple readings of a text
Gender dynamics in fan fiction and the distribution of f/f stories
Envisioning independent women in history--how the sexism of popular media lies to us about the lives of historic women
Fan fiction generations pre- and post-Xena
Books and Resources Mentioned
- ”That Could Be Enough” by Alyssa Cole
- f/f fiction by K.J. Charles
- f/f fiction by Jordan Hawke
- The Ripped Bodice (bookstore)
- Smart Bitches Trashy Books (website and podcast)
- ”Black Widow, Scarce Resources And High-Stakes Stories” by Linda Holmes (NPR essay)
- ”The Mazarinette and the Musketeer by Heather Rose Jones
- Anna’s f/f fan fiction for Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs
- Archiev of Our Own