Raven's Embarrassing Halloween pictures from when she was a kid 😳

First off, a dark welcome to all the people who signed up to this newsletter from the Salem Vampire Market vamp I think you’ll feel right at home here 🧛‍♀️

Young Raven’s Halloween Costumes (AKA, the embarrassing pictures video)

As requested by poll, here’s the video of pictures of Young Raven’s Halloween Costumes. As I was going over my mom’s photo album, I realized how acutely embarrassing posting these images were going to be, but I had promised them to you lot, so here you go!

One More Time, With Feeling

I still really need more reviews of That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, so I’m offering a treat in return for your time in writing the review 🍬

Please just take a moment from your day and click here and just write a thing or two that you enjoyed about the story. As with Amazon, it’s quantity over quality, so it really doesn’t matter if your review is not long or detailed, as long as it is there 🙏

Once the review posts, email me (you can just hit reply to this newsletter) or message me on IG or FB and let me know you’ve done a review, and I will mail you one of the shiny new stickers that were so popular at the Salem Vampire Market in appreciation 📨

To get you in the mood to write your review, here’s a video I posted last week about how I named the ships in That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story ⛵

Salem Vampire Market recap 🧛‍♀️

Well, that couldn’t have been a much better vending experience! The fantastic people at Vampfangs had put the vendors into a beautiful space with both Salem feet-traffic (both locals and tourists—and there was no shortage of tourists that weekend—just getting to the Salem Old Town Hall was almost impossible!) and with gorgeous vampires from the Endless Nights Vampire Salon that was taking place on the upstairs floor.

After the lukewarm sales at Dark Forest Oddities Expo, I had not dared to hope my books would literally fly of my shelf, but I have never sold so many books so fast in all the time I've done vending. From the minute the event started until the last minutes before closing, I barely had a chance to take a sip of something or sit down for even 30 seconds.

There was an issue with the booth set up that had me running late enough that I wasn’t full in costume when the doors opened. After selling the first couple books in only half my costume, I had the delightful experience of selling a book while being laced into a corset—girl power if ever there was! ♀️💪

And the customers? I had three librarians! There were gorgeous vampires in completely perfect regalia. There was a woman who had come to Salem for the first time to celebrate her birthday and was buying my book for herself (you know she got the second book for free as a birthday gift!) There were fascinating people with fantastic hair and piercings and tattoos and hats. Everyone was super friendly and so appreciative — they kept thanking me for writing the series. I could get seriously spoiled by that 🤗

With my best buddy ​Lauren from Eclipse Costumes​ beside me and energy like that, I've seldom had more fun and I've never sold out completely of Blood Ex Libris before - by the last hour I had to start writing down contact info for people to order the books 🫠

Thank you Endless Nights Vampire Salon attendees and the good people (and tourists) of Salem for such a warm welcome and incredible support and encouragement. That's just what this indie author needed 🥰

Banned Books Week

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. 

While the whole is devoted to talking about Banned Books, October 11^th is Let Freedom Read Day. Check out the suggested activities and see what you can fit in to your schedule or put up on your social media 📅

I’ll be making a reel for that day, and I haven’t finished it yet, but I have gone over a list of banned books, to see what I’ve already read (and add some new ones to my TBR list!) It was 34 pages in total (and getting longer every day) 😧 and I figured my list was long enough before I got through all of them, so here, in no specific order, are some Banned Books I’ve read (often unaware that they were ever banned at all 🙄)

From this weirdly eclectic list, these books in particular deeply impacted my life: Lord of the Rings, Where The Wild Things Are, Bridge to Terabithia, Black Boy, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and Stranger in a Strange Land. I cannot image the person I would be now without those books, and I feel so grateful that I grew up in a state that didn’t truck with book bans, and in a household with parents who let me read anything that was on the shelf of the home library, and let me have free choice at the public library.

Please take time during Banned Books week to talk to someone about the topic, or post something about your feelings about book banning, anything. This is a really desperately vital topic in the US right now, and the more we talk about it and raise awareness, the more we take steps to fight it, the more we support our freedoms, and the freedoms of future generations, and the future of libraries in this country.

And now for a Word from our Sponsor…

The #1 platform for newsletters. Period.

beehiiv is the one platform that does everything for your newsletter. And they do mean everything:

• A newsletter editor that makes your words shine like they belong on a bestseller list

• A no-code website builder that doubles as your 24/7 subscriber magnet

• Revenue tools that make earning money so easy it feels like cheating: ads, referrals, and paid subs

If you’ve got a newsletter (or even just the idea for one), beehiiv is the ultimate no-brainer.

Start for free on the absolute best platform for newsletters. No credit card required.

Amber Benson & Raven Belasco Hellmouth Con Video finally up!

For technical and boring reasons, it’s taken a minute to get this done and posted, but Maven of the Eventide and I were both committed to finally getting it up there, and together we made it happen!

This chat with Maven and Amber Benson was seriously one of the highlights of my life so far. The questions were great, the conversation was the best, and the audience was the superior kind you can expect from Buffy fandom. Go watch and enjoy it!

There’s still time to have your vote counted…

For those of you who have read this far, I’m YOUR fan, you glorious and fantastic creature! 😍 Until two weeks from now, be good or be good at it!😘

💭 I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

💞 Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here.

SHOP PAPERBACKS:

GET SOME SHORT STORY ACTION:

SHOP EBOOKS & AUDIOBOOKS: