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Swords & Roses

Fantasy & Romance: Writing Adventures of a Self-Published Author

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I know I've been gone a long time. The effects of

I know I've been gone a long time. The effects of the pandemic hit me hard, harder than I ever thought they could when I first heard about the virus coming back from the UK, and I ended up having a breakdown. I knew I needed to step back to cope and so I did and I am so sorry for the lack of warning or explanation and no interaction with anyone about it. I feel awful but it had to happen.

In the meantime I was planning to come back with a tonne of new awesome content and news, I had everything planned out and I was ready to go. Then... the world exploded. It has been a long time coming but it just didn't feel like the right time. I honestly feel like a heel celebrating Pride and my birthday this week with everything happening. So I decided against my original plan but I feel the need to speak up.

I only have a small platform and I am not American but I want to add my voice to the chorus. I am white and with that comes enormous privilege and I need to use that privilege to take and stand and fight back or else I am culpable. Add to that that I am a lesbian which makes me a direct beneficiary of a riot against police brutality and homophobia lead by women of colour. Plus with the MLK poster I had on my wall all through my time at ANU, I'd be a hypocrite right jow ig I stayed quiet. It would go against everything that I believe to remain silent right now.

This is me throwing everything I have behind #BlackLivesMatter and as I am Australian #AboriginalLivesMatter because our black and brown people face the same issues. I do not want to continue to live in a world where black lives are treated as lesser in violent and unconscionable ways. It is an issue deeply rooted in western society and the very structure of the police institution.

The fact is white people do not have the same fears and concerns about the police. Even if you're gay and white, the police won't treat you the way they treat POC. It has to end. The police institution must be ripped down and a new system set in place. What that system will look like, I couldn't tell you but it must change before each of our countries become fascist police states.

This is the time. (Cont in comments)

This is a bit belated but I visited Baker Street i

This is a bit belated but I visited Baker Street in London on Saturday! I am so happy I got to see the Sherlock Holmes museum and stand in the great detective's home. Here's something you may not know about me: Sherlock Holmes is my favourite literary character. Now, of course I have loads of characters I love and I have a lot of books, shows, and movies that influenced me very early on in life. Sherlock Holmes wasn't even one of the first characters I loved, but he quickly became my favourite. I've read every book and seen every adaptation (or almost every, I might have missed a couple and I despise Elementary so I've only seen a couple of episodes). The first I saw was actually the Disney adaptation, The Great Mouse Detective. When my dad told me about Sherlock Holmes, I found a copy of A Study in Scarlet and after that I read The Hound of the Baskervilles and I was hooked. I love crime and mysteries but it wasn't even that that made me love Sherlock Holmes, it was his intelligence. It's the same reason I connected so quickly and easily to Spock when I was very young. I got bullied for being smart. I'm not a genius like they are but my intelligence is something I prize; it also made me a target for bullies. Sherlock Holmes and Spock made me feel more comfortable being smart. They were both a pretty big part of my formative years so seeing 221b Baker Street was a pretty special experience for me. The literary parts of this trip have been my favourite, Baker Street and Bath and Oxford. I'm a bit sad I didn't get to see Sherwood Forest because my other all time favourite literary character (and the character responsible for a huge chunk of my moral code) is Robin Hood, who I also fell in love with at an earily age because of the Disney animal adaptation. Thanks Disney, you're responsible for some of my more dubious traits haha.

I'm heading home tomorrow and I'm so sad to leave the UK but I WILL BE BACK!! I plan on doing grad school in Scotland in a couple of years. Prepare for an influx of photos once I'm home with my computer and get to editing the 5000 photos I took on this trip. I'm gonna miss this beautiful, green, rainy land and all of its history.

Wales has dragons, I was meant to be here 🐲

Wales has dragons, I was meant to be here 🐲

Today we drove through The Church of Mary in the H

Today we drove through The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave.

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