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Letters from London: Gay Capital of the UK

by
Canal - David C. Dawson

London is without question the gay capital of the UK, in terms of the size of its LGBT population. But what about outside London? This will be contentious. Brighton is generally considered to be the gay capital of the United Kingdom. So says Wikipedia. The seaside city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of England has the largest LGBT population, outside London, in the UK. That’s according to a city census in 2014. Brighton is like the US’s Provincetown, or Germany’s Berlin. It’s had a long history of welcoming LGBT people. Back in the nineteenth century, during the Napoleonic wars, there were many soldiers stationed in the area. … Read more

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Letters from London: Fetish Fun

by
David C. Dawson

It’s the great London clean up. One by one, fetish clubs for gay men are closing across London. Places where men who like leather and other fetish gear can meet and – play. In the 1980s there were more than a dozen fetish clubs in London. Now there are fewer than five. The latest to close was XXL Club on the south bank of the Thames. It had some of the best music. And on a Saturday night it would be packed with beefy bears in leather harnesses. No more. Before XXL closed, Bloc South in Vauxhall became victim to the relentless ‘progress’ of building development. And before that, a … Read more

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Reflections on a Theme

by
A.L. Lester

Last month’s blog post about My Creative Process™ has handily led me on to this month’s and an issue I’m having with The Flowers of Time, my main work in progress. Flowers is a f/enby romance between Edie and Jones, set in the Himalayas in the 1780s. This was a new historical period and geographical location for me when I started it nearly twelve months ago and it’s been extremely interesting to research. It’s also the first thing I have written with a trans MC and as such it’s been strange to write. Not in a bad way… but just… strange.  Jones is AFAB and non-binary, or possible agender. She … Read more

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Creative Process. It’s a thing.

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The Creative Process - A.L. Lester

Apologies for being a bit late with my post this month- school holidays are really disruptive routine-wise. This is possibly why I’ve been giving some thought to my creative process over the past few weeks. I’ve got an amazing ability to take on too much and at the moment that means two active works in progress. (What were you thinking you fool? do I hear you cry? Or is that just my inner self?) I’m serializing one work for subscribers to my monthly newsletter and ko-fi and chipping away steadily at a second ‘proper’ work. They are both set in my Lost in Time universe, but are a hundred and … Read more

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Letters from London: Pride and Progress

by
Pride - David Dawson

There’s a lot to celebrate this year. Fifty years since the Stonewall riots in New York. This was a major landmark in our history. It’s an event that led to decades of change around the world. Now, it’s not only legal to be LGBTQI in 125 countries, but we can get married in 32 of them. Of course, that means there are 70 countries where being LGBTQI is illegal. And nine countries where it’s punishable by death. We’ve still got work to do. Here in London, I attended Pride at the end of June. My boyfriend and I held hands as we walked through Soho, and later along the South … Read more

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Author Expectations Versus Reality

by
A. L. Lester

I’ve been writing one way and another since Miss Lowe told me off for using ‘again and again’ repetitively in my story about a man climbing a mountain circa 1978. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of myself as ‘a writer’ or an ‘author’. It was always something I was going to become in my future. I’m nearly fifty now and my first book was published about eighteen months ago with JMS Books. My second was published this year, I have two ‘official’ works in progress in the same series and two more in my head. The future is here… but I still don’t really feel like a ‘proper’ … Read more

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Making Magic: Introduction Post

by
Miranda Turner

Recently Scott sent out a call for new contributors to this blog, and I answered. So for my first post, I figured it would be good to introduce who I am and why I have any authority on any of these subjects. (Spoiler alert: I don’t, but I have opinions. Lots and lots of meaningless opinions.) I am Miranda Turner, and I’m a fairly new author, my first book having been published in December of 2018. I’ve been editing for almost four years now for several authors, mostly those in the LGBTQ+ community. I write primarily Urban Fantasy so far, but I have both a Sci-Fi book and a Thriller … Read more

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Introducing Myself: Being Semi-Closeted in Rural England

by
Peacock feathers - A.L. Lester

Scott asked for writers to step up and do some blogging for the QRI site, so here I am – I can waffle for a good thousand words at a time on pretty much any given subject! I’d be delighted if people wanted to ask me things or give me a topic, so please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions or topics for me to work with. I reckon I have time to write once a month, give or take. Firstly, who am I and how have I come to be here? Well, I’m Ally and I live in the rural south-west of the UK, … Read more

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Feeling the Characters

by
Where There's Smoke - BL Morticia

Greetings folks. Here’s a blog about writing characters! When talking to an author, you might hear how excited they are about their stories. They tell you about what went into the creating plot, the inspiration behind the story, and then the fun part; how they came up with their characters. In a lot of instances, this character might be made up of someone they know or even an extension of themselves or, it may be a someone they want to know or dream about. A lot of mine are all the above. Their personalities are a mix of someone I know or want to know. If the character is somewhat … Read more

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Words: Resolution

by
Diet - J.V. Speyer

It’s a whole new year.  The holiday season is officially behind us and we’re one week into our “new year, new me” selves.  Many of us have made New Year’s resolutions to help ourselves try to be better people or somehow improve our lives going forward into 2019, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  It’s natural to want to build, and to want to make things better. I made resolutions – or rather, Resolutions, capital letter and all – every year from the time I was a little kid.  It was a tradition.  Everyone wanted to find some way in which they could do better.  The thing with resolutions is … Read more