And so we have lived through another month of winter and the GOP regime. On this President's Day, I hope you find some #smallacts way to resist, and persist in working toward a better future -- particularly for those who are being targeted by the Republicans in power. I also encourage you to sign up for Hanna's new weekly #gloamingpictures newsletter which delivers reminders to take a breath, look at something pretty, and find respite.
Image: Teazle in silhouette looking out the dining room window through the white and red patterned curtains.I've been spending much of this weekend working on some stitching projects, both for Persistent Stitches and pieces promised to friends (or, in this weekend's case, my in-laws) that I am slowly reaching completion on. I'm so grateful to report that as of this writing Persistent Stitches fundraising has reached $440.00 given, nearly 50% of the total goal I set on January 1st for the entire year. A big thanks to my co-Stitchers, friend Molly and mother Janet, who have contributed pieces to the project. I know at least a couple of additional friends are working on offerings as well. We've been able to keep to my goal of having at least one new offering every Monday. Isn't this baby hat and booties by my mom the greatest?
Image: Knitted rainbow hat and booties displayed on a wood table top in the sunshine.Crafting rarely combines very easily with reading (alas!) so while I've been stitching television has become something of a renewed necessity to keep my brain ticking over. Two weeks ago I began watching my way through Shetland and yesterday discovered -- WHY WORLD DID YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME?! -- that Julie Graham and Anna Chancellor play an established couple and dear goddess do I want their backstory (and their present and future stories) now.
Image: Rhona (Julie Graham) and Phyllis (Anna Chancellor) in a still from Shetland (Season 3).I have also been enjoying the sweet familial relationships between main character Jimmy Perez, a widower, his teenage daughter Cassie, and Cassie's biological father Duncan who drifts in and out of their loves as a non-custodial co-parent. I am frankly stunned that Archive of Our Own only features twenty total fanworks about this series, of which only eight are Rhona/Phyllis and four are Jimmy/Duncan.
Speaking of fanfic, it's #FemslashFebruary and earlier in the month I finished posting a ~9,000 word fic about Jean McBrien (The Bletchley Circle) and Hilda Pierce (Foyle's War) meeting and falling in love in wartime England. Doing my part to put more f/f relationships into the vast sea of fanworks that exist in the world. I'm also working on a spin-off from my Twelvetide Drabble Sam Stewart/Susan Gray story (also a blending of characters from The Bletchley Circle and Foyle's War) that I may or may not start posting before the month was out -- it depends on what my stalwart beta readers have to say on draft one!
Prompted by a cyclical conversation Hanna and I have about the baffling lack of f/f romance novels generally and f/f historical romance specifically (hello female worlds of love and ritual?) I have set out to create a list of f/f historical romance. You can find that work in progress here on GoodReads.
A few words of caution: Inclusion on this list does not mean, automatically, that the title is recommended. In many cases I have not yet read the book; it only means that someone brought it to my attention as a romance that
a) is set in a time/place before ~1980 and
b) involves a central, sexually- and/or romantically-intimate relationship between two (or more) female-identified individuals (this includes relationships that are m/f/f, for example).
Some of these titles, I have been warned, have racist themes and some involve characters where it is unclear whether (in modern terms) one of the individuals is a trans man OR is a woman who is gender crossing for practical reasons, or identifies as butch but not male. My desire at this point is to be both over-inclusive in my categorization, but I ultimately don't wish to mis-gender any characters and will remove titles later on if it becomes clear they don't belong.
Image: The cover of Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin.
From this list, I am currently reading Michelle Martin's Pembroke Park (Naiad Press, 1986) which romance writer Cat Sebastian has encouraged me multiple times to get my hands on. I finally found a used copy and an report that (having read to chapter seven last night) it is practically perfect as a Jane Austen + lesbians sort of way. Speaking of Austen and lesbians, may I also recommend this beautiful piece of Mary Crawford/Fanny Price Mansfield Park fanfic that a friend sent my way a few weeks ago. Why are there not thousands upon thousands of regency romances featuring female "companions" and their ladies? Get on fixing that, world.
Image: Hanna and Teazle read in bed together. Cats are so helpful!
In nonfiction, my review titles for 2018 have begun to pick up. I particularly enjoyed a new history of Christianity and politics, Christian: The Politics of a Word in America and Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice, both of which will be released in April of this year. This past week, I also began reading The Wages of History: Emotional Labor on Public History's Front Lines by Amy Tyson (2013).
Hanna and I are gearing up to go live on Wednesday (2/21) with the first issue of the online magazine Dósis: medical humanities + social justice that we co-edit with our friend and colleague Brandy Schillace; the first issue will feature four essays on the theme of "sickness and health in the era of Trump"; our contributors are looking at women's health, sex workers' rights, the global gag rule, and madness.
I'll close with a song we sang in church this month: "Everything Possible" by Fred Small, a member of our congregation (the link takes you to a performance by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, who apparently close their Christmas concerts with this song every year). The lyrics read, in part,
...I will sing you a song no one sang to me
May it keep you good company.
You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done.
There are girls who grow up strong and bold
There are boys quiet and kind
Some race on ahead, some follow behind
Some go in their own way and time
Some women love women, some men love men
Some raise children, some never do
You can dream all the day never reaching the end
Of everything possible for you...
Image: Two .gif images of stand-up comic Mae Martin saying, "...like if parents get a gay baby it should be like finding a four leaf clover...it should be like oh my god...you got one!"
I was searching for a Mae Martin gif earlier in the month and came across this routine which I had forgotten about and have to share with you for obvious reasons (e.g. that there is never a bad moment in which to enjoy a Mae Martin gif).
#Boston Winter
Image: Cloud-streaked sky at sunset, looking west, above the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Until March,
Anna