Lena Cole

Chapter XII: In which Mary has to display her meager magical skills before a daunting audience, and in which Olive smiles. marymarchbanks.wordpress.com/2026/10/17/c... 🌈💜

Look forward to November! Here is a list of new #non_fiction #books about the #18thcentury scheduled for next month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/ #Regency #Napoleon #history #18thc

learning about medieval guild structure in paris to make sure my regency cheese romance doesn't dishonor the dairy ancestors

Today is National Black Cat Day 🐈‍⬛ , which raises awareness about how hard it is for black cats to get adopted from shelters & dispels the superstitions that still surround them. 🐈‍⬛ In their honor, I give you some black cats in ancient art & archaeological sites. www.americanhumane.org/public-educa...

For the love of every god that is, was, or ever will be, GET OFF SUBSTACK.

extra-long newsletter because I needed to tell you about Wilfrid Voynich and Cordelia Vorkosigan (separately), and, of course, romance novels www.feliciadavin.com/having-been-...

Looking for queer historical romance with sinister supernatural shenanigans? Of course you are. THE SECRET CASEBOOK OF SIMON FEXIMAL and SPECTRED ISLE are both 99p everywhere this week! (If sale isn't showing where you are give it time, includes Amazon and all the usual suspects, e only)

Also making me really happy: this gorgeous @kjcharleswriter.com ARC that arrived today! I've already started, and (as expected) it's just wonderful. www.kjcharleswriter.com/all-books/th... #booksky

In which I have an Opinion: (free to read) www.patreon.com/matociquala/...

Chapter 13: In which Mr. Hart pays a call on the household and perplexingly appears to be paying court. marymarchbanks.wordpress.com/2026/10/24/c... 🌈💜📚⏳

MCM London! Come to the forest, allow it to beguile you! WB-01, opposite Posca Pens!

Struggling to actually write fiction again ... Will have to follow my advice from last time (writing a oneshot fic of no consequence to loosen up).

Everyone fall in love with your OCs and original projects !!!! it heals the soul in so many ways

If you order from the publisher now, you can have a signed copy for $19.99, along with a dubious sword sticker, while supplies last! BY GRABTHAR'S HAMMER, WHAT A SAVINGS.

#SFFChat Q4 Warning that this is an extremely rough draft, but here's the first mention of a unicorn in the short story I'm currently working on!

Made these meringues tonight so I could bring most of them into work tomorrow for a coworker who had a rough one: www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9847/... Very good recipe!

Chapter 11: In which Mary takes advantage of a migraine in order to take a hackney cab out of Mayfair. marymarchbanks.wordpress.com/2026/10/10/c... 🌈💜 #IndieAuthors #SapphicRomance #HistoricalFantasy

Bryn Celli Ddu for #TombTuesday. This place was designed so that the light would enter at midsummer, but the guardian stone would always stand in the shadows, observing.

SHARDS OF HONOR is wildly romantic and I think more romance writers and readers should read it and talk about it

Yeah, that is basically what I've used Amazon for in recent years.

Engaging with an existing trope or plot pattern, isn't about simplicity or robot formulas. It's rather about an acknowledgement of the history of your field, a constant intertextual conversation with (or against) the meanings that have built up around certain tropes.

Moth 🔦 first picture in my October series!

For Arrow Collar Man: for Robert, a combo of queer community and someone in particular he can belong to (that man cannot be loverless); for Clarence, infinite fabric and infinite time to make gorgeous gowns for an audience to admire on him. #LitHodgePodge

Cousin, Juliette (2026). "Austen Remapped: Diaspora, Race, and the Rewriting of Pride and Prejudice in Uzma Jalaluddin’s Ayesha at Last and Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors." Persuasions : The Jane Austen Journal On-Line 46.2. Free to read online at:

Arrow Collar Man! Now with summary and tropes+ on a handy graphic! 📚 books2read.com/b/mYP6MV #WriteSky 🌈💜

The gossamer muslin used to create early c19th gowns was sometimes described as ‘woven wind’, an amazing description for the lightweight fabric. Here it has been embroidered with wool and I can only imagine the challenges that came with such stitching. C1815 #NGVMelbourne #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

Gaston trying to kill the Beast at the end of Beauty and the Beast, out on the castle roof in the dark and the rain. I believe I was four when I saw that in the theater ...

That's why I aim for character interactions first. Bringing up backstory topics naturally in dialogue is my main technique. I once read advice that suggested using dialogue instead of explaining something in narration, which I find particularly useful, even if I don't follow it all the time.

Repeating what other people said. I used to struggle with this, too, because I wanted to show EVERYTHING. The reader doesn't care. They don't want to see everything. Just go to the next scene. Or if it's within a scene, just a single sentence moving everything along with suffice.

Give the villain/antagonist a defensible argument. We can hate Thanos’ methods all we want, but he has a salient point - When resources are limited, growth cannot be unlimited. “But he could have snapped and made that not true.” Yes, and then there’s no story to tell, now is there?

I'd like to once again remind you for #BannedBooksWeek that Huckleberry Finn and Animal Farm don't need you to go out of your way to read them. Instead, support a book, and author, who a ban can actually hurt.

I don't deny that dogs can sometimes be quite lovely but what I will say is I don't trust their opinions. If a cat recommended me an album it had bought, I'd totally check it out. If a dog did the same, I'd promise to listen to the album, out of politeness, with no intention of actually doing so

Finished reading Heated Rivalry, and tbh my main thought is still something I noticed 30% of the way in, namely: it was a Whole Thing that Reid was supposed to have said "coming untouched" and it was a sign of her unfamiliarity with Real Gay Sex Culture, but that phrase does not occur in the book???

Autumn is essentially a gothic spring.

Saturday morning, and that means it's Mary Marchbanks time! Chapter 10: In which Mary spends the morning with her aunt and her aunt's companion, and observes them both. marymarchbanks.wordpress.com/2026/10/03/c... 🌈💜 #WriteSky

Saturday morning, and that means it's Mary Marchbanks time! Chapter 10: In which Mary spends the morning with her aunt and her aunt's companion, and observes them both. marymarchbanks.wordpress.com/2026/10/03/c... 🌈💜 #WriteSky

I am very pleased to say that Arrow Collar Man is now up on nearly all platforms! Historical m/m romance set in upstate New York ca. 1905, and the Leyendecker references are deliberate and relevant! 📚 books2read.com/u/mYP6MV

Squeaking under the wire of #SapphicSeptember is my latest newsletter: buttondown.com/lenacole/arc... Contains a roundup of this month's Mary Marchbanks chapters and links to where Arrow Collar Man's been released! 🌈💜