Katherine Blakeman's Blog, page 2

Undiscovered: 50 Sapphic books you probably don't know about!

It’s no secret that it’s Pride month right now. Yes, that glorious month of colours and gayness, where companies stick a rainbow on their social media profiles and profess themselves allies. Goodreads supplies us with a page of ‘beloved LGBTQ+ stories’, the majority of which have hundreds if not thousands of ratings.

And this is all well and good – I’m sure they are all wonderful books. But this ostracises newer authors. Or less well-known authors. Like me and so many others. We’re doing our...

Helen West: Mental Health Musings 2024

You know when you find a book that you literally cannot stop reading? The kind of book that you fall into whenever you have a spare moment (and even when you don’t), that you think about when you should be doing something else, and that stays with you for a long time after you’ve finished reading it? To the point where you’ve re-read it multiple times? Those are few and far between for me, but A Silent Song was one of them. This book takes a deep-dive (quite literally) into selective mutism, P...

Laury A. Egan: Mental Health Musings 2024

I first got to know Laury (she/her) last year, when she and I discovered that we both had an interest in Dissociative Identity Disorder. I had just released The Summer We’ve Had , a Sapphic romance in which a woman with depression and a woman with DID fall in love alongside their mental health conditions. Laury, meanwhile, was in the process of writing Jack & I , a psychological thriller in which two people inhabit the same body, and grapple for power throughout a tumultuous time. I’ve just fini...

Jacqueline Ramsden: Mental Health Musings 2024

In my humble opinion, Jacqueline Ramsden (she/they) has an absolutely uncanny ability to hit the nail on the head with her characters. Every book of theirs is a delight, with characters so vivid you feel that you actually know them as personal friends – every layer of them, including whatever struggles or mental health conditions they may be dealing with too. The Art of Growing is a book I’ve read three times now because Sloane and Polly were such intriguing characters, and having read Jacquel...

Hayden Quinn: Mental Health Musings 2024

Those of you who followed last year’s Sapphic Fiction February may recall Hayden’s first interview with me. We touched briefly on mental health in writing then, especially given that Hayden (she/her) has a degree and a career in Psychology, and that she’s also posted a series of videos about self-harm on YouTube, on a channel called The Blade And Beyond . Mental health runs as a theme throughout a lot of her books, and what better time to interview her again than Mental Health Awareness Week? A...

Violet Morley: Mental Health Musings 2024

If you haven’t read a book by Violet Morley (she/her) yet… I mean, WHAT are you doing? Violet is an immensely talented writer who can create compelling stories in all sorts of time eras, modern-day and in years gone by. Mental health is a theme throughout several of her books, but particularly Sprinkled in the Stars (which features autism) and The Dating Show (autism and anxiety). I am always intrigued to find out what motivates my fellow writers, and Violet is no exception. So let’s take it a...

Hayley Anderton: Mental Health Musings 2024

Hayley Anderton (she/her) does such a lot for indie authors. From online events such as Indie April (in which I was lucky enough to participate last year) to various Indie Author Spectaculars, Winter Wonderlands and even awards, I have the greatest admiration for her, and wonder how she does it. I found Sapphic Fiction February a mammoth task on its own, so how Hayley juggles all these events AND finds the time to write her own books is a mystery to me! And write them brilliantly. I loved Home...

Teresa Purkis: Mental Health Musings 2024

A stalwart of the Sapphic Fiction community, you may know Terry Purkis (she/her) through her Coming Home series, and her books that revolve around The Perfect Blend coffee shop. If you know her well – or if you’ve even had the briefest interaction with her – you’ll know that she is also a lovely human being. In the first of a week-long series, in which I share interviews every day of Mental Health Week with authors (mostly of Sapphic fiction) who’ve written about mental health, I knew I had to...

Everybody's talking about ME... well, some hopes!

ME being Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, of course. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Not ME as in, well, me. Although who knows, perhaps if my plans for world domination come to fruition, everybody will be talking about me…!

I kid, I kid. I don’t have the energy for world domination, even if I do have a lot of angst at the current state of the world. All I can do is rally for change within my present limits as a self-published author. And a self-published author with ME/CFS, at that.

You may be wonderin...

Lesbian Visibility Week: What is it, and what does it mean?

Provided you’ve not been hiding in a hole over the last four days (or potentially prior) when it comes to social media, you will have probably noticed a number of posts commemorating Lesbian Visibility Week. The name may have given you pause – I know it did for me, the first time I heard it. Lesbian Visibility Week? Aren’t lesbians visible in everyday life? To which I answer: yes, as people we are… but unfortunately, our identities very much are not.

Here's why.

We have Lesbian Visibility We...