• Discussions and Guest Posts

    Discussion: Stop Turning Us Into Tragedies

    In case you hadn’t realised, it’s LGBT History Month this month! (I know, I know, it looks a little like we hadn’t realised, but just wait til you see the doozy of a rec list Anna has for you later on.) This post was born after I finished a book, went to look it up on Google for whatever reason, and found that it had been turned into a film. But not only had it been turned into a film, it had been turned into a tragic film.

    The book, by tragic gay ending standards, was relatively benign. Yes, it was bittersweet and the characters didn’t end up together, but they both survived. The film had obliterated that. So, of course, I got annoyed, said to Anna “hey how do you feel about this as a discussion post” and wrote about a third of it just for the catharsis.

    The premise of this post is this: we have enough tragic stories as is without straight people taking what happy stories we’ve written for ourselves and making them tragic in the name of some bullshit historical accuracy. So. Enjoy.

    (And don’t forget, we have various rec lists of nonfictionhistorical fictionperiod dramas and historical f/f!)

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: Writing Comics with Cait

    This is the last of our celebratory guest posts – but not the least! We figured five is a very nice number & were super lucky to get five amazing people to write for us. Today’s post is by Lou. We’ve met on book twitter, which seems to bee the place to meet interesting & talented people, doesn’t it. She’s an aspiring author and believe me, y’all really want her to land a book deal! Meanwhile, you can read a webcomic she cowrites with an illustrator friend. Or follow her on twitter.

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: Found Family and LGBT in the Periphery

    Charlotte lowkey makes fun of me for this, but if she let me, I probably would turn this blog into a shrine for Kayla. I’m just a big fan of her work, okay guys? And not without reasons, because everything she already published is amazing.

    Anyway, I guess it comes as no surprise then that I asked her to write something for Reads Rainbow’s anniversary. And if you’ve read either of her books, you know that found family is a bit of a signature trope for her. So enjoy!

    You can follow Kayla Ancrum on twitter (and you should, because she’s hilarious) & read our interview with her for some more content!

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: Expanding the Possibilities of Fantasy: LGBTQ Representation in Malinda Lo’s Books

    Today I’m very excited to host another dear friend on our blog! I’ve known Amrita for about four years and can honestly tell she’s one of the most talented writers & poets I have ever met. So you can imagine how happy I was when she agreed to write about something close to her heart.

    You can find some of Amrita’s writing here or just go ahead and follow her on twitter.

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: The Many Coming Outs of Gabriela Martins

    We’re here two days after our blog anniversary with another guest post & we’re hoping you are all still in the mood to celebrate with us.

    Today, we have an essay by Gabriela Martins. I met her around a year ago, I think, thanks to the book twitter community & being friends with her has been amazing. That’s why I was thrilled when she agreed to writing something for our blog!

    You can follow Gabhi on twitter @ gabhimartins or visit her writer’s website: gabrielawrites.com.

    And hey, we actually interviewed her a few weeks back!

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: I’m Bi so I’m Greedy (For More)

    Exactly one year ago today, we started this blog. (Yeah, the time’s flown by for us as well!) And because it’s our first blogiversary, we wanted to do a little thing to celebrate that. So, for the next ten days or so, we’re hosting a series of guest bloggers, to talk about whatever topic they choose (LGBT-related, obviously), and then finishing up with a post by us, as an extra thank you for all the support you’ve shown us.

    (Because, in case it wasn’t clear, we wouldn’t be doing this without that support.)

    Our first guest is Shri, who blogs over at sunandchai (go follow if you don’t already!) and is on twitter @sunandchai.

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Discussion: Perceptions of Marketing LGBT Books

    How publishers market (or don’t market) LGBT books is something me and Anna have complained about a fair bit to each other before. So we thought, why not turn those complaints into a bit of a discussion. As people who aim to promote pretty much every single LGBT book we can find, this is something important to us. We want these books to do well, so the way they often get marketed is… annoying to us in the least.

    Before we start, we want to make it absolutely clear that we have nothing to do with publishing in any way. This is just our (often frustrated) perspective as readers and as bloggers.

    So, let’s go!

  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Discussion: The Value of Ownvoices Lit

    This is the first of our two discussion posts for the month. This topic is one that’s close to the ethos of this blog. We started it wanting to promote LGBT lit, but over and above that, ownvoices LGBT lit. Because God knows we get little of that as is (growing, sure, but little in the grand scheme of things). So we wanted to talk a little about the value that it has to us specifically. Ownvoices means something different to everyone, and that’s one of the beautiful things about it.

    Obviously, we all know the value of ownvoices literature in general. Having people tell their own stories gives them an authenticity that you don’t get otherwise. And some stories – especially when it comes to marginalized characters – are just not yours to tell. But for each reader ownvoices books will bring back different memories, touch upon different emotions. Each reader will have different reasons to seek out ownvoices books. That’s what we want to focus on today. You all know we champion ownvoices LGBT books, so let us explain exactly why.