September 2022
The seasons are changing - I hope not too tumultuously in your part of the globe!
I am delighted to share with you the release of Queer Weird West Tales, an anthology of 22 stories of which I'm very proud. It is a kind of companion volume to my novel Writ in Blood, in that both explore the Queer, the Weird and the West.
I am also participating in a promotion of MM Romance featuring Performers, with my own A Threefold Cord on sale until 26 September.
All the details are below...
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If you love romances that feature actors, musicians, dancers and other performers, we have a wonderful promotion for you! There are 40 authors participating, so there's sure to be something here that will rock your boat. As part of the celebrations, my own novel A Threefold Cord is 50% off in my Payhip store!
Click through to the BookFunnel promo to see all the offerings from myself and other authors - but only until 26 September.
Happy reading!
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I am so very proud of our new anthology Queer Weird West Tales, which was officially released on 31 August.
The 22 stories - totalling 115,000 words of quality reading - include a fantastic diversity in characters and settings. The common elements are Queer (LGBTQ+ main characters), Weird (speculative fiction), and West (the American Old West or other frontiers) - everything else was up for grabs!
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Frontiers have always attracted the Other - where they find that the Other is always already there. These 22 stories explore what happens when queer characters encounter weirdness on the edge of the worlds they know.
Authors: Julie Bozza, J.A. Bryson, Dannye Chase, S.E. Denton, Miguel Flores, Adele Gardner, Roy Gray, KC Grifant, Peter Hackney, Bryn Hammond, Narrelle M Harris, Justin Warren Jackson, Toshiya Kamei, Catherine Lundoff, Bunny McFadden, Angus McIntyre, Atlin Merrick, Eleanor Musgrove, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Lauren Scharhag, Sara L. Uckelman, and Dawn Vogel.
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Payhip store!
I have a Payhip store attached to my website. You can use this to buy my currently available ebooks directly from me, in epub, mobi and pdf formats. (There are some free stories there, too...)
The link is: payhip.com/juliebozza
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Writ in Blood merchandise!
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As you've seen already, the awesome Mags Kulbicka provided the most gorgeous artwork for my Writ in Blood novel - for the front and back covers, as well as five full-page illustrations of specific moments in the story. I just love it!
I love the artwork in the book itself - but I also need a new mouse pad, and I want Johnny Ringo on my coffee mug, a print of the cover illustration for my study wall, and... and it's all too good to keep to myself. So Mags and I set up a shop on RedBubble, so we could all enjoy ourselves!
Please do drop by for a browse... We have all of Mags' artwork available - some options branded with the title, and some not. I'm sure you'll find plenty to covet - and of course if we haven't made a particular combination of art and product available, then just let us know!
Happy trails, pard!
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Writ in Blood reviewed by the Historical Novel Society!
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... and if you haven't even read Writ in Blood yet (despite the beautiful illustrations tempting you hither), this wonderful review by Paula Martinac for the Historical Novel Society might convince you to give it a try!
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The Wild West gets a queer retelling in this inventive historical with a hint of fantasy. Three point-of-view characters based on real white men of the 1880s—Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Johnny Ringo—cross paths again and again on their way to the vivid setting of Tombstone, Arizona.
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With robberies, arrests, skirmishes, card games, and sex stitching it all together, the plot follows the basic historical facts but isn’t the point of Bozza’s novel. Instead, she delves into her characters’ personalities and secret demons, offering creative insights into men who have passed into legend.
In Bozza’s hands, lawman Earp suffers from ennui and yearns to settle down with his wife and brothers. “I’m tired of arresting people for things I don’t care about,” he complains. Gambler Holliday is a Shakespeare-quoting bisexual whose touching bromance with Earp proves a bone of contention with common-law wife Kate Elder, a well-to-do prostitute. Outlaw Ringo, a hard-drinking loner and poet, has visions in which he couples with a handsome spirit he fears is the devil incarnate come to claim his soul for killing a man.
The three narratives wind slowly together toward the inevitable Gunfight at the O.K. Corral of 1881, which is over in what Earp calls “the grimmest half-minute” of his life. But the famous gunfight isn’t really the novel’s climax, with more than a fourth of the book remaining after the shootout. The pace doesn’t drag, though, because readers care about the men involved—especially tortured Ringo, whose grim end delivers a gut-wrench. What could have added to the novel is a keener sense of the women in the historical record; the author gives intriguing glimpses of their independence, but they come off flat compared to the fleshed-out men.
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I am delighted by this reflection of what I wrote, of what I wanted to do with this story, and what I hoped to convey. If this sounds like your kind of novel, here's a Universal Book Link - and you'll find all the details on my blog, including an excerpt and other reviews.
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My Review of The Fanfiction Reader
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The Fanfiction Reader: Folk Tales for the Digital Age by Francesca Coppa
University of Michigan Press
Blurb: Written originally as a fanfiction for the series Twilight, the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey has made obvious what was always clear to fans and literary scholars alike: that it is an essential human activity to read and retell epic stories of famous heroic characters. The Fanfiction Reader showcases the extent to which the archetypal storytelling exemplified by fanfiction has continuities with older forms: the communal tale-telling cultures of the past and the remix cultures of the present have much in common. Short stories that draw on franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, James Bond, and others are accompanied by short contextual and analytical essays wherein Coppa treats fanfiction—a genre primarily written by women and minorities—as a rich literary tradition in which non-mainstream themes and values can thrive.
Find it on Goodreads and Amazon.com.
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Review: I absolutely adored this book. It might seem redundant for an active fan to read, but I just leapt at the chance to explore an overview of fannish tropes and concerns, and enjoy carefully curated examples of peak fanfic - things I probably would never have found on my own. All that, and a cover by one of my favourite artists!
The more I think about it, the more I enjoyed it! I love that the chosen fandoms were all the big, obvious ones. But the chosen fics demonstrated the awesome variety of works, with rare pairs, different characters, and "out of left field" ideas all being given their due. These are not only the OTPs and "business as usual" fics...
Loved it. Just loved it. Can we please have a Volume 2 some day?
Actually, a Volume 0 would be great, too! To cover all those old / obscure fandoms listed on page viii. As a fannish oldie I was, like, "Mate, that was just yesterday...?!"
Highly recommended!
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GLO, Sydney, 15 April 2023
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It's time to start planning events again - and crossing our fingers that all will be well!
I am planning to attend GLO (Gay Lit Oz) an LGBT+ Genre Author Signing Event to be held in Sydney, Australia on 15 April 2023. All kinds of wonderful authors will be there - and I hope you will be, too!
Join the Facebook group to keep up to date with the news.
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And I'd love for you to join my Facebook group!
I have a Facebook group for my friends, readers and fellow travellers, called Life, Libraries, Love and Knitting. We are a small group so far, with a fairly low-key dynamic - while I want to keep the atmosphere relaxed and informal, I would love for more of you to join us!
As you'll gather from the group's name, I don't intend this to be all about me and my writing, but instead about anything in life that we love, whether that's knitting or not!
Please do click the link and ask to join. As required by Facebook, there are rules to agree to and questions to answer - but seeing as that's part of their efforts to keep interactions civil, I trust you won't find it too onerous.
We'd love to see you there!
P.S. This is where I make ARCs available…
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