Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 3d

I have been sick with covid for a *week* and I'm still sleeping like the dead every time I so much as lay my head down. I would like this to stop so I can get back to work please. *Pleaaaaaaaase* I have so much to do

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Queer Liberation Library @queerliblib.bsky.social · 5d

QUEER VAMPIRE BOOKS

Queer Liberation Library has over 70 queer vampire books we’re highlighting this month: libbyapp.com/library/quee....
go on, sink your teeth in 🧛

Libby

All over the world, local libraries offer millions of ebooks and audiobooks. You can borrow them — for free, instantly — with a library card and Libby: the award-winning, much-loved app for libraries.

libbyapp.com

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 7d

Words can't do justice to what these books mean to me and I can't wait for you all to see what Cat has in store! I mean heck, look at this cover! You knowwwwwww you're about to get a fun time with this cover. ^.^

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 8d

Learning to Bleed comes out March 18th and artist @scherville.com is so deeply talented I can hardly believe it!

This book is the 2nd in a trilogy that explores queerness and trauma through vampire lore, all against the backdrop of an impoverished rural community that has its own monsters 👀

Links⬇️

The cover of Learning to Bleed by Cat Rector, the sequel to Coal Gets In Your Veins. The cover is in the style of a classical painting, with a blush-grey background. In the foreground are two characters locked in a dipping embrace. Spencer, a pale man in a dark blue turtleneck sweater and jeans, with blonde bed-head hair, is holding up another character as she loses control and seems to be falling. His expression is lost and loving as he looks down at her. Laurel is leaning back in his arms, her long brown hair in waves over her back, her face up to the sky as her expression of uncontrolled rage stares upward. Her eyes are red and her mouth is wide open, showing her vampire fangs. A pool of blood soaks into the shoulder of Spencer’s sweater, coming from Laurel’s hand as it hangs above his shoulder. Laurel wears a tank top and red and black plaid. A red mist obscures their legs, making room for the title and author text. The cover artist is Scherville.

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 8d

Learning to Bleed comes out March 18th and artist @scherville.com is so deeply talented I can hardly believe it!

This book is the 2nd in a trilogy that explores queerness and trauma through vampire lore, all against the backdrop of an impoverished rural community that has its own monsters 👀

Links⬇️

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 9d

There's so many good books in this!!! (Including mine!) ^.^

Read Indie Fantasy.com @blog.readindiefantasy.com · 10d

It's still September, just about, but it's always time to read queer books. If you're looking to read more books featuring sapphic and lesbian characters, then here are 15 SFF books by indie authors to celebrate Sapphic September:

www.readindiefantasy.com/15-books-for...

A banner image featuring the sapphic flag (pink, white, and pink bands with a purple flower in the middle) and the text 15 books for sapphic September.

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 10d

Very, very soon, I get to show you the cover for Learning To Bleed by the very talented @scherville.com

I'm always excited about cover reveals but I think this is one you're going to ✨eat right up✨

(that was a vampire joke, laugh 😘)

The cover for the novel Coal Gets In Your Veins by Cat Rector sits next to an obscured cover that’s painted over with black. The text next to it reads “Cover Reveal October 1st. The Story Continues.”

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 10d

Can confirm not a thing in the Maritimes at least. Canada too big. That being said, my favourite sayings around here are "sook" (someone trying to get something by being said) "biff-ed" (to throw something) and the inhaled affirmative (my wife thinks my dad has a stroke every time he does this lol)

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 11d

I have never been this sick in my life, after years of fucking avoiding COVID, it finally got us circa an visiting in-law
And just. This is fucking *awful*. Never stop masking, going to mask more than fucking zorro

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 14d

Someone asked me what my books were all about this morning, and my four-nights-on-basically-no-sleep brain nearly supplied the answer of "If Evanescence was queer and allowed to murder people" and I have no idea where that sleep deprived thought came from but I don't think it's wrong

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 14d

Welllllllll isn't this a facinating idea. 👀

TriCon @tricon-hfx.bsky.social · 15d

Introducing TriCon! ✨May 15-17, 2026 in Kjipuktuk | #Halifax. Celebrating spec fic, we couldn't be prouder to have @amalelmohtar.com @englelaird.bsky.social and @kurestinarmada.bsky.social joining us as our Guests of Honour. Earlybird tickets available now! 🎟️ www.eventbrite.com/e/tricon-the...

Blue graphic stating that Earlybird Tickets for TriCon: The Trident Conference for Soeculative Fiction are on sale now. Lower right corner says Kjipuktuk | Halifax, May 15-17 2026

Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 15d

Share your favorite black and white movie

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 15d

"hey Leslie, how did you celebrate getting your BBNYA finalist nod?"
"I deep cleaned my house x.x"

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 17d

I'm so proud that my vampire pirate captain and her queer crew of miscreants have made it to the finals! I'm so excited! Revenge of Captain Vessia is a BBNYA finalist!!!

BBNYA @bbnya.bsky.social · 17d

Congratulations to The Revenge of Captain Vessia by @cozywitch.bsky.social

You are through to the #BBNYA2025 final!!!

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 17d

I'm so proud that my vampire pirate captain and her queer crew of miscreants have made it to the finals! I'm so excited! Revenge of Captain Vessia is a BBNYA finalist!!!

BBNYA @bbnya.bsky.social · 17d

Congratulations to The Revenge of Captain Vessia by @cozywitch.bsky.social

You are through to the #BBNYA2025 final!!!

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

BBNYA @bbnya.bsky.social · 17d

#BBNYA2025 finalists announcements are incoming!!!!!

the joker is wearing a purple jacket and a black shirt

ALT: the joker is wearing a purple jacket and a black shirt

media.tenor.com

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 18d

Listen, when I inevitably get to the queer mecha-rouge fleet-betrayal sci-fi with undead pilots and nanobot vampires Ive been cooking for the last five years, we can work something out =P

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 18d

Absolutely! I'm imagining it like how they put long planks of wood into these super long steamers so they can bend them into shape around ship hulls, only supersized

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 18d

warp-space resistance filaments. Line them along the hull of the space ship so the chaotic forces of space time flows off the hull

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 22d

My initial thought is the MSVU art gallery, considering the Mount has one heck of a relationship with the crows on campus
(Or at least did when I went there before they redeveloped the old convent land)

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · 23d

While Revenge of Captain Vessia certainly has kissing in it, oh it's 100% trauma

Ela Bambust 🏳️‍⚧️ @ela-bambust.bsky.social · 24d

There

Calvin's dad meme:
the two kinds of trans fic are
trauma or kissing. all fic falls
under these two categories
Wrath Goddess Sing? Trauma
Demon Queen? Kissing
Nexus Alpha? Trauma.
Eggfic? kissing.

Despite frequently being
about kissing, HDG is
Trauma.

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 24d

It's soon be time to do a cover reveal for Learning to Bleed and the new cover is FIRE

Is anyone out there interested in helping me boost my reveal when the time comes? Features, shares, etc are all helpful 💕

A sneak peek of the cover of Learning to Bleed featuring Spencer looking down at something, someone's hand over his shoulder

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 25d

Putting together a folder of vampire books (especially indies) that I can toss in alongside my own vampire marketing this fall and winter. Help me make sure I didn't miss yours! 🩸

A picture of a feminine vampire closeup of fangs and blood red lips. The text reads "who do I know with vampire books? Putting together lists for marketing so toss me your favourites (and the books you wrote) so I don't miss any! Especially the indie books"

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

WriteHive 🐝 @writehive.bsky.social · 27d

The Indie Ink Awards winner announcements take place this Sunday Sept. 14 at 3pm ET/12 pm PT! If you'd like to receive the Zoom link to attend the ceremony, please RSVP: forms.gle/4t6TJGcmA6jQ...

graphic of cute astronaut pointing toward the sky and the text Indie Ink Awards 2025, September 14 | 3 pm ET with a starry background

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Reposted by Leslie Allen

Johannes T. Evans @johannestevans.bsky.social · Sep 8

Trans & Nonbinary Creators Boost

- Share your fiction, essays, poetry, fanfic, thinkpieces, and other writing below.
- Go into the replies and look for new works to read and share.
- Follow new trans creators and make your feed brighter!

NSFW and erotica welcome.

#WriteSky #BookSky

The text "Trans author? Share your work below!" with some background in the colours of the trans pride flag.

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Leslie Allen @cozywitch.bsky.social · Sep 8

You can find my trans self and my queer vampirates (yes, vampire pirates!) in my debut dark fantasy book!
You can even read the first four chapters *for free* on my website at leslieallen.com !

The cover of the book The Revenge of Captain Vessia by Leslie Allen, part of the Sails of Black and Blood series. A stoney-eyed woman sits at a long wooden table, her fingers intertwined to cover her mouth. blood drips down her chin and on the table is a goblet which also drips red. Her skin is white, but vampire-pale, and she has long brown-black hair that's braided on one side. On the table is an old-fashioned pistol, a candelabra with four candles, a red runner, and a few charts. The chair she sits in has a wide brim hat hanging on one side and a sword hanging off the other. The light peeks into the dark room through the window and black curtains drape along the back wall.

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