Katherine Blakeman's Blog, page 7

Not Broken In The Slightest: Asexuality, And Why I Wrote About It

If you haven’t read it already, you may not be aware that Cass, the main character of my book The Summer We’ve Had, is asexual.

Wow! Shock! Horror! According to much of the bigoted closed-minded Twitterati I’ve been seeing on my timeline in the last few weeks, this is a travesty of love. Or indeed a travesty of anything. I’m going to explain, as simply and succinctly as I can, why it’s not. And why I decided to write about asexuality in my Sapphic fiction book.

Firstly, let’s define asexuality...

I Am Anxious And So Is My Kid, by SuaSponteBaker

There was a poem recited during one of the last episodes of Ted Lasso that I’d never heard before, but resonated with me in a big way. It starts out with: They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not meant to, but they do. It’s from Philip Larkin’s poem, This Be The Verse.We, Esposa and I, have reached that time-honored milestone as parents, of dealing with the teenage years as delightfully presented to us by our 13 year old son. As my wife’s moniker on SM is “Esposa”, so his is “Surly...

The Storm Is Real; And We Should Talk About It More by Ami Spencer

A few years ago, I was in a meeting with a *very* high ranking and important member of the company I work for (they were the global head of HR, me, a tiny little cog in a very large global company). I was explaining the local initiative which we were developing for increased mental health support, which included training all our people managers in mental health signposting. She looked at me and said "I love it all, but do you really think we should say mental health? It kind of scares people."

...

Crossroads In Life? Consider A Camino! by George Hannan

It crept up on me over time, more than a decade ago now. I almost didn’t notice. Just a word dropped here and there in conversations. The Camino. Hadn’t heard of it. Someone who knew it said it was a historic hiking route in Spain. Oh! Now I’m curious – as I’m a keen hiker. Google did the rest.

Turns out they were talking about the Camino Francés. It’s one of the routes Christian pilgrims and many others, collectively known as ‘peregrinos’, take to the purported burial place of the remains of ...

What I Call 'Such Fun': A Tribute To Miranda Hart and Her Sitcom

This article was meant to be part of a wider one on people who have influenced my writing career so far. I was hoping it would be a tremendous tome with a wide range of inspirational people, like an Acknowledgements section on steroids. But the more I sat and thought about it, the more I thought that Miranda Hart deserves her own post. The others, hopefully, will become a series. Later on.

For those of you who don’t know… Miranda Hart is a comedian, actress, author, dog-owner and all-around won...

Two Kinds Of Love: A Guest Post by Katja P

Some people write about love and happiness. About achieving dreams and inspiring moments. Others, like me, rarely write about it. I decided to make an exception, just this once. There are two kinds of love: (1) the unconditional kind – the kind without conditions; (2) the conditional kind – the kind with strings attached. The kind of love that stings. The kind of love that is painful. That leads to anxiousness, exhaustion, depression. The kind that causes harm to one’s self-worth. The kind that ...

Not All Heroes Wear Capes, Some Write Sapphic Romance by S-Jay Hart

When I opened up my blog to guest posts last week, S-Jay Hart was the second person to ask to be involved. (The first was Conny, who wrote about mental health, schizophrenia and dementia earlier this week.) I was so excited, because if I've learnt anything from working with S-Jay, it's that she has a wonderful way with words - her books Oh My Stars and Pluto & The Debris are testament to that!

I think everyone involved in Sapphic Fiction will be able to identify with what she's written here. Th...

TALK ABOUT IT: Mental Health, Schizophrenia and Dementia with Conny

Welcome to the first of hopefully many guest posts in Katherine's Corner. I am absolutely honoured to have been sent an article by the wonderful Conny, a dear friend of many people in the Sapphic Fiction community. This thought-provoking article will speak to many, and I thank Conny sincerely for being so open with us about her and her mother's experiences with mental health, schizophrenia and dementia.

If you also have a topic you would like to write about, then please do get in touch with me ...

A Message To Anyone Struggling: Sending Love

Hello there.

I don’t know why you’ve clicked on this blog. Perhaps someone sent it to you. Perhaps you saw it on social media and were curious. Perhaps you’re feeling down and clicked on this in the hope that it would cheer you up. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

In any case, hello and a warm welcome to you. Whyever you’re here, however you got here, I hope that this short message resonates with you in some way, and improves your day.

If you feel like you’re not loved, let me reassure ...

Sapphic Fiction February: The Finale

Provided you’re following me (or half the Sapphic fiction community) on social media, you’ll probably have noticed a vast amount of rainbow-coloured graphics like this one sprinkled across your feeds in the last month. That’s thanks to my month-long (well, thirty-two-day-long) blog event known as Sapphic Fiction February.

You probably know exactly what it is having seen the posts every day for the last month, but for those who don’t: in a nutshell, it was an interview with a Sapphic fiction aut...