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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

@bibliorefuses.bsky.social

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linktr.ee/dr.susan.maxwell Bibliothèque des Refusés is the imprint of independent author & scholar Susan Maxwell. Fiction: Literary — Fantasy — Mystery (as R.S. Maxwell). Non-fiction: academic themes related to archives & fiction. Reviews.

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · Nov 7

Cocktail Time!🍸
-Base of irreal/speculative literary fiction
-Good dash of bureaucratic gothic
-Splash of ecocriticism (optional)
-Garnish with sprig of intertextuality
-Shake well & pour.
(For younger imbibers, replace items 1 & 2 with low fantasy & Irish mythology)
linktr.ee/dr.susan.maxwell

Susan Maxwell is an independent author and scholar who writes literary/slipstream fiction for adults, fantasy literature suitable for younger readers. The novel Good Red Herring was published by Little Island Books; subsequent novels and a short story collection have been published under the Bibliothèque des Refusés imprint. Maxwell holds a PhD for research on archives and the margins, and writes non-fiction related to archives and literature.

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Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.com · 1d

Virginia Faulkner was smart as a whip, funny as a heart attack, unfiltered in her cigarettes and opinions, and utterly uninterested in talking about herself.
So the last thing she would have wanted was for someone to write her biography.

www.nebraskapress.un...

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Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Bob Johnston @bobjohnstonbooks.bsky.social · 1d

16 years ago today we opened the doors to Dublin's newest bookshop.That @gutterbookshop.bsky.social continues to thrive today brings me so much joy. We created something that brought people together & celebrated books & reading. I feel like I added something good to the world & I'm so proud of that.

Photo from 2009 of the empty shop unit showing white walls, a pillar and slate floor.

Photo of the empty shop unit from 2009 showing the outside and entrance. It looks very grey and very empty.

Photo of the open bookshop full of books, cards and colour. There's people browsing books and lots of light

Photo of outside of the shop. The street is sunny and colourful with people walking past. Someone has just left the bookshop. You can see things in the windows and a glimpse of the Gutter sign.

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

The Modern Word was taken down by hackers in 2014, so the IA and Shipwreck Library also serve as timely metaphors for resilience and renewal in the face of cultural vandalism. These fragments they have shored against our ruins.
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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

Tthink I'm in love with @archive.org: The Modern Word is on the #WaybackMachine. Although Allen Ruch is painstakingly reconstituting this towering monument to #Modernist & #Postmodernist #Literature on his Shipwreck Library site, this process is far from complete. 1/2 web.archive.org/web/20140701...

web.archive.org

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know whether the correct response is keen anticipation at the prospect, or abject dread - it really depends on whether you will be drawing from life or not!

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Ong's Hat @ongs-hat.com · 2d

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 2d

Dipping into Lovecraft again on the e-reader, & was reminded on perusing Pickman's Model of his approving references in several stories to actual artists of the weird & fantastic. "I bet @johncoulthart.com has something on that," I thought.
Of course he has... www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2...

HP Lovecraft’s favourite artists

HP Lovecraft by Virgil Finlay, 1937.

www.johncoulthart.com

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 4d

Jessica, an outsider who has inherited a significant border property, is one of Thornapple's complications. And adding to her existing woes, she is now a suspect in an actual murder, a far less comforting experience than her delight in detective fiction has prepared her for. 4/4
books2read.com/b/dah

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Death at Hallowtide by R. S. Maxwell

books2read.com

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 4d

Death at Hallowtide introduces a new series and its two main protagonists—Jessica Quill, her life upended by personal and professional shocks, and Thornapple, beset by the complications of managing the border between the human world and the 'other side'. 3/4
books2read.com/b/dah

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Death at Hallowtide by R. S. Maxwell

books2read.com

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 4d

I had a lot of fun writing this book: in entering the fray in the mystery genre, I was returning as a writer to my roots as a reader. Whenever I pick up a book for comfort-reading, nine times out of ten it is a mystery, one that eschews graphic violence and unpleasantness. 2/4
books2read.com/b/dah

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 4d

It's Hallowe'en — time to mention my new book, Death at Hallowtide, written under an impenetrable pseudonym. Combining mystery & low fantasy, it is set in a (sadly, fictional) part of Ireland where the boundaries with the otherworld(s) are more porous than usual. 1/4
books2read.com/b/dah

Front cover of Death at Hallowtide by Susan Maxwell, writing as R. S. Maxwell. Line art. Top: pumpkin Jack-o'-Lantern. Bottom: white dog with red ears, walking from left to right. Centre: signpost pointing to Corrbofinn both left and right, to 'mysterious' and everyday aspects respectively. Left: small green bottle with skull-and-crossbones label, moon obscured by clouds, stone tower, crime-scene outline of body. Right: twig with leaves attached, cottage, pub sign, Mini Cooper car.

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 4d

It is Halloween. Turnip Head
Will soon be given his face,
A slit, two triangles, a hole.
His brains litter the table top.
A candle stub will be his soul.

Michael Longley, 'Halloween'

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 12d

"…giving the appearance in places of Kenneth Anger directing one of Jean Rollin’s vampire films."
Yet another fascinating archaeological find from @johncoulthart.com

John Coulthart @johncoulthart.com · 13d

New blog post: Kosmische vampires

Kosmische vampires

Here at last is something I've been waiting many years to see. Vampira is a strange German TV film which shouldn't be confused with the horror comedy from 1974 that shares its name. Descriptions of the German Vampira make it sound like a drama-documentary but it's really a kind of illustrated lecture with vampires as the predominant theme. George Moorse directed for the WDR TV channel which broadcast the film in 1971.

www.johncoulthart.com

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 17d

😁

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 17d

Congratulations! A truly monstrous achievement.

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 20d

Now I can't stop myself hearing this over and over in my head to the tune of Duran Duran's 'Girls on Film'...

Chris Roberts @oneeyegrey.bsky.social · 20d

As featured in my #roadkillthrenodies (free download kids) www.thecityoverthewater.com/roadkillpoems
and lest we forget

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Stephen Baird @bigbeardybooks.bsky.social · 20d

Let's hear from you writers, tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other

#WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚

alt text please

A sketch of a small pile of books with the words “Meet the Author” superimposed

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 20d

Greetings! I am an independent author & scholar who writes literary/slipstream, fantasy, & mystery fiction, and non-fiction related to archives & literature. Latest book is (the appropriately seasonal) Death at Hallowtide, a cosy mystery/fantasy set in Ireland.
Links linktr.ee/dr.susan.max...

Cover of Death at Hallowtide.
Book description on back cover:
Corrbofinn. A place where things are… different. Where Jessica Quill has inherited a house and land. And where she has just become the number one suspect in the murder of local wide boy Tony Millar.
Jessica's life has entered uncharted waters. A job she hates, a cheating partner, her unexpected inheritance, and the final straw: tripping over a corpse in the rain when she comes to rural Ireland to arrange the sale of her property.
But Herne's Acre is no ordinary place. It’s a key crossing-point on the borderlands between the mortal world and the otherworlds of the sidhe. And now it is to be sold by a stranger unfamiliar with the true nature of Corrbofinn, a source of considerable anxiety for Thornapple, that very civil servant of the Borderlands Commission.
Bewildered, grumpy, and armed only with knowledge of toxic plants and classic detective stories, Jessica pursues her own inquiries to clear her name. Corrbofinn yields some of its mysteries along with new friends—human, canine, and… Well. You know.
Increasingly conflicted, Jessica’s sensible self squares off against her dreams of a different life. But she makes enemies, too, leading to a deadly showdown on Hallowe'en, when the borders between worlds are at their most fluid and uncanny.

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kuzhali manickavel/குழலி மாணிக்கவேல் @kuzhalimanickavel.bsky.social · 20d

that one time when someone said they thought my writing was unapologetic and i immediately said i was sorry

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 20d

"There is something almost modernist about A Pickle’s neologisms, the printed voice of a Revolution-era eccentric, and how they are haltingly joined through his listing cadence."

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 21d

After complaints about Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1797) being entirely devoid of punctuation, in future editions the eccentric businessman supplied a supplemental page so that people “may peper and solt as they please”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dexter-pickle

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 21d

“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀
⠀
From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path — publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1450880306207240194/photo/1...

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Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 23d

ICYMI I wrote about this unconventional, absurd family saga set in communist Czechoslovakia. @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

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Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Henry Bartholomew @henrybartholomew.bsky.social · 23d

Something cosmic this way comes... the special issue of Gothic Studies I have been working on - Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic - is now in production ready for its November publication. Thrilled with the depth and breadth of insight and expertise from the contributors. More updates soon!

Three large stacks of first edition copies of Algernon Blackwood books

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Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 24d

I feel like the title of my book - Theology in the Early British and Irish Gothic - isn't very sexy or puts people off thinking 'well, I'm not interested in theology so... meh'.

But my books offers well researched challenges on key Gothic issues 1/

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Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 25d

😆