Ep #120 – LUST & FOUND

“MINOTAURS IN KILTS”

This week Sarah Jean hosts the podcast with special guests authors Angel Martinez and Freddy MacKay as we conclude our January “Romance Retellings” theme with a global exploration of Queer Romance retellings

EP 120 HOST

> SARAH JEAN (she/her) From the woods of Massachusetts, Sarah Jean has been reading queer romance for 12 years. She runs a queer book club called Rainbow Readers of Massachusetts (https://www.facebook.com/rainbowreadersmass/) that celebrates queer lives, joy, and empowerment through genre fiction. When not reading or listening to books Sarah is plotting her queer historical romances, cuddling with her cats, and planning her next adventure. Follow Sarah on Twitter @queer_reader

EP 120 GUESTS

> ANGEL MARTINEZ (she/her) Angel Martinez is the pen name of a writer of several genres who writes both kinds of queer fiction – Science Fiction and Fantasy. (What? There are others?) Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware, (and full time inside the author’s head) Angel has one husband, one son, at least one cat at any given time, a changing variety of other furred and scaled companions, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate. You can follow Angel online at angelmartinezauthor.weebly.com and on Twitter @AngelMartinezrr

> FREDDY MACKAY (they/them/their) Freddy is a bisexual, biromantic, genderfluid nerd and geek who grew up in the Midwest playing soccer, diving, swimming and doing gymnastics, along with running around outside as much as possible—preferably spending that time in swamps and hiking through forests. The haphazard escapades have not changed, except some of them have been replaced with a healthy geocaching addiction and a love for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Freddy likes worms, dancing and being outside… and toll passes, but you’ll have to ask on that one. You can follow Freddy online at freddysstereograph.weebly.com and on Twitter @FreddyMacKay

EP 120 DISCUSSION

> Freddy refers to the 1975 Japanese anime retelling of The Little Mermaid which hews closely to the original Hans Christian Andersen fairytale and does NOT have a happy ending

Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070326/

> Sarah Jean refers to the animated film Happily Ever After (1990) the Snow White retelling with the Dwarfellas

Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099733/

> Sarah Jean refers to the illustrated Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815158.Rapunzel

> Angel refers to the fairytale The Goose Girl

Link: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm089.html

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_Girl

> Title: Peter Darling

Author: Austin Chant

Relation to Theme: Peter Pan retelling

Represenation: Queer/Trans author, trans mc

Content Warnings: transphobia, misgendering, dead naming, gender dysphoria, suicidal ideation

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33358438-peter-darling

Link: https://austinchant.com/2017/02/09/on-obligatory-scenes-in-trans-romance/ what Sarah references as the blog post Austin made as the forced outing scene that was cut

NOTE: Peter Darling was also discussed in RomBkPod ep #117

Link: http://lustandfoundreads.com/rombkpod/ep-117/

> Title: No Man of Woman Born

Author: Ana Mardoll

Relation to theme: Original stories in fairytale settings

Representation: Trans author, trans, nonbinary, genderfluid MCs

Content Warnings: each story contains its own content warning guide

S1: violence, bloodshed, community ableism, sacrificial victims, self sacrifice

S2: border walls, population purges, violence, mention of self harm

S3: violence and sexualized violence, bloodshed, death of family/parents/minor children

S4 : misgendering, parental bigotry, mention of parental death

S5: magical curses, non-consensual kissing, mention of self harm

S6: government oppression, mention of emergecy ceasarean births, mention of rape

S7: none identified

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39878322-no-man-of-woman-born

> Title: Vassily the Beautiful

Author: Angel Martinez

Relation to theme: retelling of Vasilisa the Beautiful

Representation: Queer MCs, disabled MC

Content Warnings: drug addiction, murder, parental abuse

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22456604-vassily-the-beautiful

> Sarah Jean highly recommends the audio book for Vassily the Beautiful as narrated by Greg Boudreaux

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35915347-vassily-the-beautiful

> Sarah Jean also recommends The Brandywine Investigations by Angel Martinez a series of queer mythological retellings

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/133250-brandywine-investigations

> Sarah Jean briefly mentions the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan which are NOT romance

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40736-percy-jackson-and-the-olympians

> Sarah Jean recommends The Ice Princess’s Fair Illusion by Lynn E. O’Connacht a queer retelling of King Thrushbeard

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41800952-the-ice-princess-s-fair-illusion

> Sarah Jean quickly mentions Claudie Arseneault whose book Baker Thief was discussed in RomBkPod ep #112

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39979131-baker-thief

Link: http://lustandfoundreads.com/rombkpod/ep-112/

> Sarah Jean mentions In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard a queer Beauty and the Beast retelling which Angel and Freddy recommend

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41724928-in-the-vanishers-palace

> Sarah Jean refers to Waiting on the Rain by Freddy MacKay a romance inspired by Thai folklore

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43720390-waiting-on-the-rain

> In this episode we spend a lot of time discussing Japanese yokai or mythological spirits

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai

> Angel mentions the Japanese anime icon Hayao Miyazaki and the film Spirited Away (2001)

Link: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/

> Freddy recommends two manga retellings by Bohra Naono:

>> MIDNIGHT STRANGER by Bohra Naono

Link: https://www.sublimemanga.com/reader/706

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27778613-midnight-stranger-vol-1

>> THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN by Bohra Naono

Link: https://www.sublimemanga.com/reader/573

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9400518-three-wolves-mountain

> Freddy mentions the Japanese art icon Hokusai

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai

Link: https://www.christies.com/features/10-things-to-know-about-Hokusai-9742-3.aspx

> Sarah Jean recommends Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh a queer retelling of The Green Man pagan myth

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43459657-silver-in-the-wood

> Angel recommends the Greenwode series by J. Tullos Hennig which is a queer pagan Robin Hood retelling

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23571391-greenwode

NOTE: This series was also discussed in RomBkPod ep #112

Link: http://lustandfoundreads.com/rombkpod/ep-112/

> Sarah Jean mentions Nottingham by Anna Burke a queer Robin Hood retelling that was just publishedin Jan 2020

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45990075-nottingham

> Sarah Jean mentions Robbergirl by S.T. Gibson a queer Robin Hood retelling

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43154099-robbergirl

> Sarah Jean mentions Jane Eyre retellings including Rose Lerner’s upcoming retelling The Sea May Burn, due sometime in 2020, and L.L. McKinney’s Escaping Mr. Rochester due in 2022

Link: http://www.roselerner.com/coming-soon/

Link: http://thebookvoyagers.blogspot.com/2019/07/cover-the-sea-may-burn-rose-lerner.html

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48760736-escaping-mr-rochester

> Sarah Jean mentions Pulchritude by Ana Mardoll a Beauty and the Beast retelling which is deliberately NOT a romance

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13495039-pulchritude

> Sarah Jean recommends The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles which is a queer Prisoner of Zenda retelling

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39326122-the-henchmen-of-zenda

> Sarah Jean mentions Undue Influence by Jenny Holiday a queer retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40686361-undue-influence

NOTE: This book was also recommended in RomBkPod ep #117

Link: http://lustandfoundreads.com/rombkpod/ep-117/

> TItle: The Raven and the Reindeer