Leta Blake

author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.

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Leta Blake Recommends Kit Brisby's ROGUE MAGIC! Check it out! #gay #romance

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I’m thrilled to welcome Kit Brisby today to talk about her excellent book Rogue Magic! It was one of my favorite books I beta read last year and I highly recommend it!

Let’s get started:

1. Rogue Magic is deeply romantic, but more than that it’s a wonderful but never heavy-handed allegory for persecution based on religion, race, or any other human quality that might go against the values of the established culture. Was this intentional on your part?

 

Persecution based on religion, race, and countless other identities has existed for centuries. It’s a common theme in stories, and I don’t think I was doing anything revolutionary here! When I wrote this book, the political climate in the United States hadn’t quite reached its current fever pitch. I’ll be honest – I hoped that by the time the book was released, our nation might be entering a time of healing under the leadership of the first female president.

But that’s another story entirely.

Ultimately, I believe #ownvoices is incredibly important, and while ROGUE MAGIC might be read as an allegory about what marginalized people face today, I urge readers to seek stories written by members of those populations. I’m a queer white woman with anxiety. I can speak to those experiences, but I can’t begin to speak to the lived experiences of people of color, Muslims, and other marginalized people. I’m touched that readers have drawn parallels but a direct parallel was not my intention.

 

2. Do you remember the first moment this story came alive in your mind? The point of inspiration? Can you tell us a bit about it and how it made you feel inside?

 

The opening scene was always the foundation of this book. The act of sacrifice and the immediate consequences. The mix of confusion and fear and empathy. I get a little squiggly feeling in my stomach over that scene, and it’s that kind of excitement/inspiration that fuels me as a writer as the story unfolds.

 
3. Was there a point with this story when you felt like it was too much, or that you’d never be able to complete it satisfactorily? What got you through that time and led you to persevere?
I’m always very excited for the first 15,000 words of a new draft. Then I enter the “despair and whining” phase until I’ve got about 15% left. I stick to a fairly stern drafting schedule that gets me through the agony of the “I’ll never finish this garbage” doldrums. Revisions and line edits can be rough, but in this case I had amazing guidance. That always makes the hard work more gratifying.

 

4. Many authors write with music playing or use songs to drive inspiration and channel emotion. Is there a particular song (or songs) that will forever be attached to Rogue Magic or its characters for you?

 

I listen to moody Google Play Radio stations when I’m writing. I also listen to short, curated playlists that help me get into characters’ headspaces. The Shins played a large part in ROGUE MAGIC’s playlist, along with a little Belle and Sebastian. I have a feeling that was more Levi’s influence than Byron’s.

 

5. You have an annual star chart you use to track your writing and edits. I found it deeply inspiring and started doing a similar one for myself. Do you want to briefly explain it?

 

I’m deeply inspired by author V.E. Schwab. She popularized the “star chart” method and uses monthly calendars. Her productivity is amazing, and she’s very transparent with her fans about the amount of labor that goes into producing a book. Using a star chart to tracking drafting is particularly motivating, but I’ve found a lot of value in visualizing revisions, which aren’t nearly as sexy as cranking out brand new words. (But they’re so much more important!) I use a year calendar from NeuYear.net to track my book-related work.

 

6. What is the one thing you hope readers take away from Rogue Magic and what is the one thing you are most proud of when it comes to the book?

 

I hope readers enjoy themselves as the story unfolds. I’ve found great comfort and escape in books throughout my life, and it’s truly the greatest honor to offer that to others.

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Thank you, Kit! Congratulations on the release of Rogue Magic! 

Leta Blake Will Be Attending RainbowCon|July 16-19, 2015 – Celebrating Artistic Diversity!

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I’m going to be attending Rainbow Con this July! If you’re in the Tampa area, come out and see me!

I’ll be sitting and speaking on the following panels:

Collaborations in Writing, Thursday, July 16, 2pm
Taboos in Fiction and Fandom, Friday, July 17, 11am
Tropes: Subverting, Averting, and Inverting, Friday, July 17, 4pm
Author Signing, Saturday, July 18, 10am
#ItsGonnaBeFun #BeThere #LoveIt

“Take a walk on the wild side!

The Second Annual Rainbow Conference (RainbowCon) is coming up this July at the Holiday Inn Westshore by Tampa International Airport in Florida. It’s an exciting event centered around QUILTBAG (Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual, and Gay/Genderqueer) multimedia. This includes fiction, fanfiction, non-fiction, television, movies, stage, music, comics, fan art, and anything else involving QUILTBAG media. For 2015 and 2016, we’re being hosted by the lovely Holiday Inn Westshore in Tampa, Florida!”

via RainbowCon – Celebrating Artistic Diversity!.

224 authors giving away books for the LGBTQ Push Back Giveaway! #bethechange #pushback

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“224 authors, review bloggers, and publishers have got together to offer something wonderful: a reward for people who do a little bit to give back to charity. Instead of spending $5 on a book in the next two weeks, give that $5 to an LGBT charity of your choice, tell us about it in the comments, and go into the draw to win a book from one of our participating donors. And because it’s not all about money, if you can’t make a donation then please take a moment to share a charity’s links and tell us about that instead.

Three fundraisers have been set up to counter the hateful effects of Indiana’s SB 101. #Pizza4Equality is aiming to match the money raised by *that* pizza parlor, with all donations going to Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Fund. Another fundraiser is aiming to raise $100,000 for Indiana Youth Group. Finally, Planting Peace is trying to raise $100,000 to provide beds for homeless LGBT people.

Please consider giving to one of these deserving fundraisers, or any other LGBT charity anywhere in the world. We’re not telling you where you should donate your time and money, only asking that you do. The smallest things can make the biggest difference, and together, we can do something incredible.”

Find out more at Diverse Reader! You can register to win! So many authors! So many books! Let’s do something together for change!

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LGBT Month: Interview with Leta Blake – Im With Geek #books #amreading

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LGBT Month: Interview with Leta Blake – I’m With Geek.

Click above to read my interview for I’m With Geek. Hayley asked some wonderful, thoughtful questions that I really enjoyed answering. Go have a peek! Also, check out their whole site! It’s very interesting and well-done!

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Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. And also on iBooks.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

I Swear I’m Not A Creeper But This Might Be Kinda Creepy #twitter #instagram #gaydads

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So, I sort of follow the twitter of these gay dads that I’ve never met and will likely never meet. (And probably shouldn’t meet because I feel weird about the fact that I follow their twitter and they have no clue I exist.) I look at their twitter feed daily to see what’s up with their twins and if they’ve posted any new pics or videos. Their kids are seriously adorable and when they smile or laugh, it’s like the world becomes a better place in an instant.

This is not Matt and Josh, but I felt like it would be way creepy to put their family pictures on my blog. Like that would feel creepier to me than following them daily on Twitter, which I already feel creepy about anyway.

Now, my bff will tell you that guys and babies are my kryptonite and it’s true. Men? Babies? I’m in. So maybe that explains it. But, thinking about it today, I believe it’s a little more than that. These kids are so damn happy and so obviously loved that it brings me joy just looking at their pictures. How could anyone be against this? These fathers worked very hard to have these children. They jumped through a ton of very interesting (and possibly controversial) loops to get their son and daughter. You can read all about that journey here on their blog.

I realized something else today about Matt and Josh’s twitter/blog while reading a comment from another man I follow. He admitted that he’d realized yet again how lucky he was to be alive. As a gay man, he’d struggled through his adolescence with self-loathing and suicidal thoughts because he didn’t see the possibility of a future that looked anything like the life he has now–a legally recognized husband, home, happiness. So, I realized, yeah, it might be weird that I look at pics of this family, but it hit me that if I’m looking at them, there are other people who find them, too. And some of those people might be adolescents who maybe haven’t ever seen or imagined Matt and Josh’s reality. And maybe some of those people are the parents or grandparents of a kid who has just come out and who need to see that, hey, their kid can find love and have whatever kind of life they’ve dreamed of, even if it includes a husband and kids.

(By the way, I believe there is absolutely value to be found in a life that doesn’t involve anything as ‘heteronormative’ in appearance as a wedding and a family, so don’t take this to mean I value this above all life choices. But, hey, can we really call two married, gay men raising children ‘heteronormative’ at all? I would challenge that assumption. But moving along.)

So, I guess I wanted to take a moment to thank Josh and Matt for sharing their life online for people to see and learn what is capable of happening in this world. If we need to see it to believe and achieve it, then Josh and Matt are showing a lot of folks that it can be done.

Pat & Billy are GETTING MARRIED! #vlog #gay #marriage

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A friend of mine suggested to me that I watch Pat & Billy vlogs on YouTube awhile back when I was having a bad day. She guaranteed that these videos would cheer me up and bring me joy. Oh my gosh, you guys, seriously, these vids have become my absolute go-to videos for feeling good.

So, let me walk you through some highlights so you can also fall in love with them and start to follow them on YouTube (and Twitter and Instagram) like I have. *cough*

1. How they met which is a charming, wonderful, sweet, and awwww-my-heart story. (Though please ignore the one moment of ableism which they at least seemed to catch and cut off quickly.)

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2. How they got engaged. Loved it because it was realistic and not some over-the-top story of full-on dance numbers and hot air balloon rides.

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3. Their discussion of PDA and if they do PDA and why or why not.

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4. Will they take each other’s last name? This one isn’t so much darling as just really interesting. As a woman, I had so many of these same issues when I got married. I liked seeing dudes struggle with this.

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5. And they answer with charm and hilarious adorableness the really annoying question of “Who is the bride?”

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6. Pat and Billy react to the many outraged reactions to their announcement that they were not going to have a traditional tiered wedding cake. Hilarious! Adorable! Too cute!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/GppAOveFQzw]

Now, admit it! You love them, too! Go forth and follow them on social media far and wide! Do not follow them in person, though, because that’s creepy.