Rose Serpent Press

Bookbindery blog [they/he] trans dykefag

[roseserpentpress]

Tagging guide🌹

My own posts:

rose serpent press = my own books!

rose serpent press yearly review = yearly post with all the links to the posts of books I made in the last year.

rose serpent press answers = answered asks

I also used to go by Raven and Snake bindery (in 2021), so some books may also be tagged under #raven and snake bindery.

Not tagging, but other blogs of mine include:

Personal and writing: @huginsmemory

Art, beyond bookbinding: @blae-kitta

Archival: @hugins-cabinet-of-curios

Misc tag guide otherwise (attempted implementation apr. 2 2024):

the literatures = photos of professionally published books, aesthetic

libraries & archives = media resources, any and all. Articles, movie archives, book PDFs, zines etc. may contain only one resource or multiple.

ao3 = what is says on package. May also tag 'ao3 reference' or 'AO3 tutorial'

fanbinding resources/fanbinding tutorial - resources for fanbinding/bookbinding.

typography & print = self explanatory

fandom relations = on interacting with others in fandom

Fandom treatises = posts discussing fandom and fanfiction, often on censorship and media literacy.

Wood pulp = beautiful paper!

All other posts are books lovingly made, but not by me!

More on RSP🐍

To all those that leave comments in the tags on my own books; thank you so much! I love reading them, they mean a lot to me! 💕

As of Sept 8 2022, I am part of Renegade Bindery Publishing, which follows this code of conduct.

If you want to learn more about Renegade Bookbinding Guild, who I've learned a lot from, then here's a link to the website (which includes links to bookbinding tutorials!).

Here's a post (as of July 17 2023) explaining the name and design behind Rose Serpent Press.

In solidarity against the ongoing settler colonial genocide in Palestine, of which similar projects my family has experienced and continue to experience: website of vetted Palestinian gofundmes

As well, below are my personal guidelines of consent and bookbinding:

To authors of fics I've done; I use the general rule of thumb that as long as you don't have a statement banning works off the fic, I won't always contact you specifically to ask consent to bind/post photos on tumblr- although I much do prefer to have your consent, and often do ask! I do this because as that you have posted your story publicly, you have automatically consented to personal (not commercial, however) use by others; although if you've specified how you want people to use your work, I will follow that (ie, specifically asks no works off of the fic = I will not bind). This is also applicable with my own fics I have published. As well, a lot of the reaching out I do for consent really is based on context- is the author easy to reach and speak to, and are still available to be reached?

I also want to say I do enjoy contacting authors as that being a writer myself, I enjoy it when people are enthusiastic about my fics- but I understand people may have different approaches than me and I respect that. As a result, if you are one of these authors which I have not personally contacted or have not responded and are uncomfortable about my social media post about your fanfic that has been bound, please let me know and I will remove it.

[yeoldenews]

A selection of animals from various 17th and 18th century calligraphy copybooks which were drawn with single lines to practice (and show off) penmanship strokes.

[ps-froggie]

the aftermath of an oration in poetry by lovckett aka @lovckett

orion sneaks into the archives to write poetry for dee. a stupid corny self indulgent habit. it's fine, though. it's not like he'd ever find out.

Fandom: Transformers One (2024)

Relationship: D-16/Orion Pax, Megatron/Optimus Prime, Homeslice/Dudebro

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Did another bind of this fic (first version here) as it was rewritten so I obviously needed the updated version on my shelf!

Another try at using Neenah Paper, this time the corvon shimmer in electric pink. Definitely much more durable compared to the last time I tried using paper on the spine of a hardcover pamphlet but still took some wear and tear just trying to get it in. Probably better used in a binding style that doesn't involve shoving the spine covering between the cover and the text block lol.

Kept it pretty simple for the typesetting this time, using Volkhov for the body text and Thinking Of Betty Light for the full title. I used a sparkle vector by nunny over on rawpixel to add some decoration to the title page.

Bonus comparison of this new binding with the old:

[ventresses]

This is a perfect time to read the brilliant and unforgettable graphic novel(s) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, about growing up in Iran during and after the Iranian Revolution, and the rise of the oppressive theocracy that persists to this day.

Both graphic novels are available free online (Persepolis vol. 1, Persepolis vol. 2)

It also was adapted to a wonderful film (co-directed and co-written by the author) which is available to watch for free on Sundance Now (sign up for the free trial)

[othellho]

Ingram, John Henry, Flora Symbolica: The language and sentiment of flowers, (London: 1869).

[ocularshingles]

Free PDF at the Biodiversity Heritage Library

[mikkeneko]

#i was sceptical for a minute cause these illustrations don't match the plants in every case#(rounded dandelion leaves serrated willow leaves same leaves on crocus and aloe etc)#but these are the section headers NOT illustrations/representations of individual flowers#anyways. found a link. gorgeous book.

[kineticpenguin]

At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields

[kineticpenguin]

At the risk of sounding like an effete intellectual, I do actually think you should be allowed to just take college courses indefinitely

[yourunderwaterskies]

technically you can, if you don't care about degrees.

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

When searching, the phrases you're looking for are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), or you can do a general search of say, "free online college courses." Oh, and so you don't get surprised like I did, have an avoid: Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian site and not a valid MOOC place. Sign up with them and you will get things like THIS IS WHY THE LEFT IS TURNING YOUR KIDS TRANS AND GAY in your inbox.

[aloeverawrites]

@yourunderwaterskies I wanted to say thank you so much for adding these links, seriously, they've been life-changingly helpful to me-

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

Humanity in War

Learn more about the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Program to train policy professionals, government officials, academics,

Kaya

Kaya is a free humanitarian learning platform which offers hundreds of training opportunities across a range of key topics, including the hu

[azaablue]

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.

[pangur-and-grim]

Queer Books and Authors are at a Breaking Point

Authors, agents, publishers: every part of the industry is seeing the strain of five years of escalating anti-LGBTQ censorship.

[pangur-and-grim]

if you'd like to show support, here are some upcoming queer books:

When Life Gives You Corpses is a brilliant YA about a cursed praying mantis who falls for a young witch. Yield Under Great Persuasion is a raunchy, but surprisingly sweet story about two men repairing their relationship. Fabulous Bodies is a horror story about a queer rockstar rising from the dead.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is a fantasy set in a vividly imagined land, where two women (who happen to kiss) are the key to healing the broken sky. You're No Better is a story about a teen struggling in the shadow of his murderous parent. Oil on Canvas is about a woman who finds disturbing paintings in the home of her dead mother.

and then here's a list of 26 queer books by Black authors set to publish this year, and a 10 upcoming books by trans authors. if you want to fight back against queer censorship, use your wallet! or (if that's not an option) you can contact your local library and ask them to stock a copy.

[insideslooklike]

middle and ring lesbian archive is a great resource btw. highly recommend perusing issues of erotic mag on our backs and leatherdyke zine brat attack :)

[xexir]

Heya! Just wanted to say I followed you for your art and then a little while ago realized your also the author of twwtbg!!! Holy shit man, I love that fic so much, it's incredible and hot and I always get super excited when you drop a new chapter ❤️

I also do some bookbinding (my account has examples), and if you're okay with it, when you finish the fic would you mind if I bound it? It would just be for my personal use beyond posting photos of the finished book on my Tumblr, and could share the typeset after of you so desire. No worries if you would prefer not :)

I also know you've mentioned shortening it, but I think it's great as is, but that's up to you in the end!

oh my gosh! this is so so sweet, thank you!! <3

that would be amazing... the patience and talent for that kind of thing is unmatched...!!! i'm absolutely down for that. you'll be the first to know when i finish it!

i've just seen your work and holy shit. everyone needs to go look at your blog now!! 🫵 ‼️

[roseserpentpress]

Yayyy! Extremely excited to work on it once you've finished, already cookin' up ideas... :DDD And first to know!!! I'm blushing! And awww thanks for the compliment about my work, always happy to give back to the spectacular writing of this bandom 😤❤️

[madebytaylorursula]

A near perfect version of my Project Hail Mary rebind with painted edges! This won’t be listed in my Etsy shop for a while. I am prepping for an in-person event at the end of the month, and I have to make sure I have stock to sell there! A few listings I am letting sell out, or I am making inactive for now while I prep for the Makers Festival on May 30th in Massachusetts. I plan to have a few copies of some of my most popular listings - like Dune, PHM, Jurassic Park, and more ready to be sold then. This is one reason why rebinds are so expensive! They take so long to make, you can only make so many at any given time. I am excited for the festival - I am just not sure how popular rebinds will be, so I may be overly prepping, but better safe than sorry.

My Etsy and Insta are also @madebytaylorursula

[roseserpentpress]

Another fantastic Danger Days FunPoison fic by @liberxi , You Be My Detonator, with a positively charming story that I adore; what can I say, found family fucks me up in the best way. Cover design is literally a copied exploding warning sign minus the triangular border; the centering of the exploding object mimics the sun in the DD album cover, and the flatness of the red was to mimic the flat colour of the warning sign. Originally, the explosion was going to be in yellow, but I realized I could use gold foil, in which I had a lot more fun using and think it came out much nicer than a flat yellow. The title page image is taken from a file folder on images taken from the DD music video sets. It was a tricky book to design, considering that explosions doesn't necessarily bring a more cozy, found-family feeling vibe, but overall I like the way it turned out and think it fits well, especially considering what found family we are talking about.

Video of handling below the cut, and fic description as always:

You Be My Detonator by @liberxi (E, 50k)

Party Poison would never turn down another killjoy in need; even if said killjoy is the most annoying little shit in the Zones.

Meanwhile Fun Ghoul is only looking for a crew to hide out with for a couple of days. But he ends up finding a lot more than that - a family.

---

New and exclusive: The not-remotely-canon-related story of how Fun Ghoul joined the Fabulous Killjoys!

Nothing dramatic happens in this at all. It's literally just queer people in the desert being incredibly annoying and loving each other very much. If that's your thing.

[szynkaaa]

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

old rebind design, made a matching slipcase for it this time

[thekidsfromyestergay]

The Roar of the Crowd that gave me Heartache to Sing

An exploration of global city of music fandom culture, through the lens of My Chemical Romance

Published the paper from my presentation over on substack! Go check it out!

[genderkoolaid]

hey boy don't kill yourself. green's dictionary of slang is available online and allows you to explore 500 years of english vulgarity. you can search by part of speech, source, time period, etymology, and usage. there's a whole category for gay slang. they even have specific citations listed so you can see the exact context for yourself. boy did you know that in 1927 "to kneel at the altar" was slang for "to sodomize"

[genderkoolaid]

some other hits:

Princess: an effeminate and relatively youthful male homosexual or lesbian (1931-4)

Daffodil: effeminate young man (1925)

To throw a fuck into: to have sex with (1919)

Top sergeant: a masculine lesbian (1939) [‘she takes command of the girls’ privates’]

Lily: penis (1919)

Wolf: sexually aggressive man (1847); a homosexual top (1918)

Soul kiss: a deep kiss, involving putting one’s tongue into one’s partner’s mouth (1907)

Tom: a lesbian (1909); [in 'old tom'] prostitute catering to lesbians (1966)

Church mouse: a male homosexual who frequents crowded churches in order to fondle any potential sex partners. (1941)

Discover one's gender: to accept or acknowledge one’s homosexuality (1941) / Lose one's gender: To return to living as a heterosexual

Minty: a masculine lesbian (1941)

Also a lot of early 20th century vulgarity is recorded in Letter from My Father, which is a collection of letters published by a man who's dad was, in short, a major slut and human disaster who wrote about his sex life for his son. It's insane. You can find copies of it online & it's a wild fucking read (literally!) and I think a really interesting look at the life of a person who goes against our stereotypes of what people in the past were "supposed" to be like.

Anyways feel free to add y'all's favs to this post. & if you use this for gay historical fanfic please share with the class

[genderkoolaid]

#OH THIS IS EXTREMELY EXTREMELY HELPFUL#writing#resources#saving for later#maybe i should move my 1920s story from '25 to '27 because..... bro..........

note for writers: these are dated to the first time they were recorded, not necessarily to their first use. I imagine for many of these, they came about naturally through spoken language before they were written down anywhere. This is especially true of more underground slang because it's probably being recorded (in ways we still have) the least. So if you wanna use a term but it's a little off date-wise, give yourself some wiggle room.

also gonna take this moment to highlight two more i found recently:

Best boy: a sweetheart, a boyfriend, a husband. (1893) [w the obvious equivalent term 'best girl']

Honeydripper or honeydrips: a sexual partner (1917)

Like. Honeydripper?????? That's so horny I can't stop thinking about it. We need to bring THAT back

[makingqueerhistory]

Visibility, Memory, and the Stories We Collect | Royal Alberta Museum

Stories about the lived experiences of queer people have often been cast to the edges of, or fully omitted from, our shared history in museums and archives. A review of RAM’s existing collections showed that our representation of 2SLGBTQIA+ Albertans was limited and one dimensional. These collections were largely donated by white, cisgender, gay men to showcase their community activism in the mid-to-late 20th century. These items make up a cornerstone of Alberta’s queer history, to be sure, but tell us little about other community members or even what these individuals spent the rest of their lives doing. What about queer joy and celebration? Grief and remembrance? Gender exploration and transitions? Night life? Family life? Community? Friendships and relationships? With these gaps in mind, the Royal Alberta Museum put out a public call for donations of items that represent queer history and experiences in Alberta, in the hopes that we can collect items that better reflect the diverse lived experiences of our queer neighbours within the collection.

One of the first responses to our call for donations came via voice message, offering us a 1970s book about working with women’s groups found in a local little free library. I returned the call to gather a bit more information and discerned that while the book had some fascinating content, it ultimately had no ties to Alberta beyond its present location. In conversation, though, I learned this potential donor was Harper-Hugo Darling (they/them), a Métis queer historian, author, and podcaster in the Edmonton area with roots running through southern Alberta. Harper-Hugo mentioned that they’d spent time in Lethbridge and Fort Macleod in their youth (the latter being where they’d formed a Gay-Straight Alliance at their high school), volunteered at the Edmonton Pride Centre’s Trans Camp, and were in possession of a zine about pregnancy for trans people that had been published here in Alberta.

[roseserpentpress]

Another fantastic Danger Days FunPoison fic by @liberxi , You Be My Detonator, with a positively charming story that I adore; what can I say, found family fucks me up in the best way. Cover design is literally a copied exploding warning sign minus the triangular border; the centering of the exploding object mimics the sun in the DD album cover, and the flatness of the red was to mimic the flat colour of the warning sign. Originally, the explosion was going to be in yellow, but I realized I could use gold foil, in which I had a lot more fun using and think it came out much nicer than a flat yellow. The title page image is taken from a file folder on images taken from the DD music video sets. It was a tricky book to design, considering that explosions doesn't necessarily bring a more cozy, found-family feeling vibe, but overall I like the way it turned out and think it fits well, especially considering what found family we are talking about.

Video of handling below the cut, and fic description as always:

You Be My Detonator by @liberxi (E, 50k)

Party Poison would never turn down another killjoy in need; even if said killjoy is the most annoying little shit in the Zones.

Meanwhile Fun Ghoul is only looking for a crew to hide out with for a couple of days. But he ends up finding a lot more than that - a family.

---

New and exclusive: The not-remotely-canon-related story of how Fun Ghoul joined the Fabulous Killjoys!

Nothing dramatic happens in this at all. It's literally just queer people in the desert being incredibly annoying and loving each other very much. If that's your thing.