The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Book Appreciation with KJ Charles - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 115

Book Appreciation with KJ Charles

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 115 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.

• Books mentioned
  • Spring Flowering by Farah Mendlesohn
  • Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
  • Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
  • A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
  • Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to KJ Charles Online

• Website: kjcharleswroter.com
• Twitter: @kj_charles
• Facebook: KJ Charles Chat (group)

Interview with KJ Charles - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 114

Interview with KJ Charles

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 114 with Heather Rose Jones

A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.

In this episode we talk about:

• The delights of Edwardian genre fiction: country house murders and spies
• The attractions of writing romance protagonists with wealth and power
• Why KJ will never write about dukes
• How does “happily ever after” differ for f/f and m/m romances in history?
• The economics of women opting out of marriage
• Historical fiction as a way to avoid dealing with mobile phones in your plot
• Why KJ tackled an f/f romance
• The economics of reading and publishing f/f historicals
• Different flavors of f/f romance
• Trying to write political disaster fiction in the middle of a political disaster
• Books mentioned
  • Proper English by KJ Charles
  • Think of England by KJ Charles (in same series but with m/m romance)
  • Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
  • A Lady’s Desire by Lily Maxton
  • A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian
  • A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
  • Spectred Isle by KJ Charles
  • Last Couple in Hell (forthcoming) by KJ Charles (sequel to Spectred Isle)
  • Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles (m/m)

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to KJ Charles Online

• Website: kjcharleswriter.com
• Twitter: @kj_charles
• Facebook: KJ Charles Chat (group)

On the Shelf for July 2019 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 113

On the Shelf for July 2019

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 113 with Heather Rose Jones

Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.

In this episode we talk about:

• Call for submissions for the 2020 LHMP audio short story series. See here for details.
• Call for submissions for Bi Bookish Babe's anthology of stories about lgbtq+ women in history. See here for details.
• Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
  • Ehrenhalt, Lizzie and Tilly Laskey (eds). 2019. Precious and Adored: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890-1918. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul. ISBN 978-1-68134-129-3
  • Abbouchi, Mounawar. 2018. “Yde and Olive” in Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, vol 8.
  • Roos, Lena. 2017. “Cross-dressing among medieval Ashkenazi Jews: Confirming challenged group borders” in Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies vol 28 no. 2. 4-22
  • Blud, Victoria. 2017. The Unspeakable, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval Literature 1000-1400. D.S. Brewer, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-84384-468-6
  • Morrison, Susan Signe. 2017. A Medieval Woman's Companion. Oxbow Books, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-78570-079-8
  • Lowerre, Sandra. 2004. “To Rise Beyond Their Sex: Female Cross-Dressing Saints in Caxton’s Vitas Patrum” in Thomas Honegger (ed). Riddles, Knights and Cross-dressing Saints: Essays on Medieval English Language and Literature. Peter Lang, Bern. ISBN 3-03910-392-X
• Book Shopping for the blog
  • Nikolas Choniatus
  • Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography: Trans & Genderqueer Studies Terminology, Language, and Usage Guide [pre-print version]
  • "How far did medieval society recognize lesbianism in this period?" by Catherine Tideswell
• This month’s author guest is K.J. Charles
• This month’s essay topic is: Singlewomen and what they suggest about lesbian possibilities
• New and forthcoming fiction
  • Amazons: The Sanctuary of Themiscyra by Leïla Hedyth
  • 20 Hours to Charles Town: Madame Elvira's Magnificent Excursions by Charlotte Henley Babb
  • Between Boat and Shore by Rhiannon Grant (Manifold Press)
  • The Women of Dauphine by Deb Jannerson (NineStar Press)
  • The Tattooed Witch by Jules Landry
  • In My Heart by Bette Hawkins (Bella Books)
  • Delayed Rays of a Star: A Novel by Amanda Lee Koe (Nan A. Talese)
  • Secrets Well Kept by Lynn Ames (Phoenix Rising Press)
  • The Haunting of Heatherhurst Hall by Sebastian Nothwell
  • The Vampire's Relic: A Gothic Paranormal Romance (Read by Candlelight Book 5) by Gillian St. Kevern

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

By Her Pen She Conquers by Catherine Lundoff - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 112

By Her Pen She Conquers by Catherine Lundoff

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 112 with Heather Rose Jones

The second story in our 2019 fiction series: "By Her Pen" by previous LHMP author Catherine Lundoff.

Catherine is an award-winning writer, editor, and publisher from Minneapolis. She is the author of the queer werewolf novel Silver Moon and the collection Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and is the editor of the fantastical pirate anthology Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space), as well as having a number of published short stories in many genres. She is also the publisher of Queen of Swords Press, a genre fiction publisher specializing in fiction from out of this world.

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Catherine Lundoff Online

• Website: Catherine Lundoff
• Website: Queen of Swords Press
• Twitter: @clundoff
• Twitter: @qospress
• Facebook: Catherine Lundoff

Emily Dickinson Goes to the Movies - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 111

Emily Dickinson Goes to the Movies

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 111 with Heather Rose Jones

Was famous American poet Emily Dickinson a lesbian? The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast looks at her life through the lens of the movie camera, and especially the current film Wild Nights with Emily.

In this episode we talk about:

• Different understandings of Dickinson's life
• The process of mythologizing and de-mythologizing
• The usefulness of different angles on a historic figure
• What we loved in Dickinson movies...and what we didn't like quite so much
• Movies about Emily Dickinson
  • Wild Nights with Emily
  • A Quiet Passion
  • The Belle of Amherst
• Other shows mentioned
  • Gentleman Jack
  • Drunk HIstory
  • The Little Hours (Molly Shannon co-stars)
• Books mentioned
  • Surpassing the Love of Men by Lillian Faderman
  • The Complete Poems of Emily DIckinson edited by LThomas H. Johnson
• Poems mentioned
  • "Wild nights -- Wild nights!" by Emily Dickinson
  • "Because I could not stop for death" by Emily Dickinson
  • "After great pain, a formal feeling comes" by Emily Dickinson
  • "I died for beauty" by Emily Dickinson
• This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Emily Dickinson

A partial transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Trystan L. Bass and Frock Flicks Online

• Website: Frock Flicks
• Email Frock Flicks
• Twitter: @FrockFlicks
• Facebook: Frock Flicks

Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 2) - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 110

Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 2)

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 110 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:

• What is Anna looking for in f/f historical romances?
• Rich backstories and complex social networks
• The default assumption that women’s lives can only exist in relation to men, and how this affects even f/f fiction
• What were the shapes of women’s lives in history and how could f/f stories fit into those spaces
• The ways in which many popular m/f and m/m historical fiction tropes don’t fit f/f lives and relationships
• Constructing a “ladder of intimacy” for female characters that feels true to women’s lives
• How do historic definitions of “sex” affect how we imagine f/f sexuality in historical fiction?
• Why is actual sex so often absent in f/f fan fiction?
• Embedding sex scenes in the particularity of the characters’ lives and experience
• The conflicting tensions in reader reactions around sex scenes--is it “romance novels without sex” or “non-romance novels with romantic elements”?
• Embedding queer historic characters in a community of marginalized identities
• K.J. Charles and Cat Sebastian as authors creating series of connected novels that build queer community over time
• The misperception that queer “happily ever after” is unhistorical
• Writing characters as part of an existing queer historical continuum--the example of Charlotte Cushman
• Looking for stories with feminism and intersectional identities: non-white characters, disabled characters, non-privileged characters *
• Promoting diversity as readers and identifying our own biases
• Are women inherently uninteresting? The problem of “himpathy”.
• Books mentioned
  • All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister
  • ”A Sweet Yuletide” by E.E. Ottoman
  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
  • Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen (m/f)
  • Kiss of the Spindle by Nancy Campbell Allen (m/f)
  • The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian (m/m but has secondary f/f couple)
  • RWA racism and homophobia letters controversy (blog by Ivy Quinn)
  • LHMPodcast on Charlotte Cushman
  • Sins of the Cities series by K.J. Charles (m/m)
  • Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
  • Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Anna Clutterbuck-Cook Online

• Website: The Feminist Librarian
• Twitter: @feministlib
• Archive of Our Own: elizajane

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

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

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Anna Clutterbuck-Cook Online

• Website: The Feminist Librarian
• Twitter: @feministlib
• Archive of Our Own: elizajane

On the Shelf for June 2019 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 108

On the Shelf for June 2019

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 108 with Heather Rose Jones

Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.

In this episode we talk about:

• My recent conferences
• Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
  • Frankfurter, David. 2001. “The Perils of Love: Magic and Countermagic in Coptic Egypt” in Journal of the History of Sexuality vol.10 no. 3/4 480-500.
  • Horváth, Aleksandra Djaji?. 2011. ‘Of Female Chastity and Male Arms: The Balkan ‘Man-Woman’ in the Age of the World Picture” in Journal of the History of Sexuality vol. 20 no. 2 358-381.
  • Sienna, Noam (ed). 2019. A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969. Print-O-Craft, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-9905155-6-2
  • Loughlin, Marie H. 2014. Same-Sex Desire in Early Modern England, 1550-1735: An Anthology of Literary Texts and Contexts. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-8208-5
  • Ehrenhalt, Lizzie and Tilly Laskey (eds). 2019. Precious and Adored: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890-1918. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul. ISBN 978-1-68134-129-3
  • Abbouchi, Mounawar. 2018. “Yde and Olive” in Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, vol 8.
  • Perret, Michele. 1985. “Travesties et Transsexuelles: Yde, Silence, Grisandole, Blanchandine” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 25:3 pp.328-340
• Book Shopping for the blog
  • Illicit Sex: Identity Politics in Early Modern Culture edited by Thomas Dipiero and Pat Gil
  • The Single Woman in Medieval and Early Modern England: Her Life and Representation edited by Laurel Amtower and Dorothea Kehler
  • The Unspeakable, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval Literature 1000-1400 by Victoria Blud
• This month’s guest is Anna Clutterbuck-Cook
• This month’s essay topic is: Emily Dickenson in movies
• New and forthcoming fiction
  • Clio Rising by Paula Martinac (Bywater Books)
  • The Rhythm of the Tide: A lesbian novel by Lia Curling (self-published)
  • An Impossible Distance to Fall by Miriam McNamara (Sky Pony Press)
  • A Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics: Feminine Pursuits by Olivia Waite (Avon Impulse)
  • Louisa (Trumbull Family Saga Book 8) by Jenn LeBlanc (Illustrated Romance)

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

The True History of Catharina Vizzani - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 107

The True History of Catharina Vizzani

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 107 with Heather Rose Jones

This is the exciting and somewhat surprising story of an 18th century Italian woman who received a surprising level of acceptance for her sexual orientation, both from her parents and from an employer.

In this episode we talk about:

• The outline of Catherine Vizzani’s life
• Readings from the English translation of her biography, in all their 18th century glory
• The full text of the 1755 English translations of Catherine Vizzani’s biography can be found here.

This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:

• The True History and Adventures of Catharine Vizzani / Breve storia della vita di Catterina Vizzani (Giovanni Battista Bianchi)

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Historic Lesbians on the Screen: What We Love - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 106

Historic Lesbians on the Screen: What We Love

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 106 with Heather Rose Jones

The folks on the Lesbian Talk Show facebook group tell me about their favorite lesbian historical movies and miniseries

Movies Mentioned

• The Favourite (2018)
• Gentleman Jack (2019)
• Wild Nights with Emily (2018)
• Tipping the Velvet (2002)
• Fingersmith (2005)
• The Handmaiden (2016)
• The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010)
• If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
• Vita and Virginia (2018)
• Orlando (1992)
• The Hours (2002)
• Packed in a Trunk (2015)
• Carol (2015)
• Reaching for the Moon (2013)
• Albert Nobbs (2012)
• Aimee & Jaguar (1999)

Interview by Elizabeth Andersen with Madeleine Olnek about Wild Nights with Emily on The Tenth Voice 

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)