Hi! I'm Holly (she/her/it/its). I’m a queer femme horror writer based in the UK. This is my scrapbook.
About Me:
- I got my BA in Creative Writing and my MA in Victorian Gothic, and I love to chat about both.
- My current full-time job is being chronically ill. I may post about this sometimes under #chronic health tag.
- My general chatting tag is #the bat chats.
Current Projects:
- An untitled vampire novel still in its early stages
- Burn Me Like A Page. This is the sequel to Break Me Like A Pattern, my gargantuan Magnus Archives fic which reimagines Michael Shelley as the Archivist.
- An essay on the figure of the vampire as fashion icon, for Blood & Brocade: an IWTV charity fanzine.
- Various short stories, poems, and other plates spinning in the background. Discussions of my writing are tagged #my writing.
Housekeeping:
- I'm an intersectional feminist and I want this blog to be a safe space for trans folks. TERFs will be blocked on sight.
- I don't reblog donation posts, so please don't ask me to reblog yours.
- I have a tag system, though I've yet to make a page explaining it. If there's anything you want me to tag, shoot me an ask and I'll see what I can do.
It's Disability Pride Month, so here's some writing tips from me, a full-time professional author who is disabled and lives with multiple chronic illnesses.
I deal with chronic pain and fatigue, executive dysfunction, brain fog, and mobility issues. I have been a professional author sinve 2021.
1. Write what YOU want to write, not what the world needs or what people say you should write.
You don't owe the world representation or inspiring words on the subject of your pain or disability. Write what moves you and that YOU feel passionate about. You don't have to JUST write about disability.
2. Let daily goals motivate you, not shame or frustrate you
It's great to write or work daily if you can, but if you need a rest day or time to decompress, it's better to let yourself do that than power through and set yourself up for exhaustion, pain, or a flare-up. Give your body grace.
3. Let it take time
When you're disabled, it feels like time is constantly being stolen from you - by your fatigue or accessibility issues, by administrative burden, by the amount of time it takes to communicate things, etc.
Writing will take more time too, and that's okay.
4. Swap Between Projects
If you struggle to focus on one project at a time, it's not cheating or abandonment or undisciplined to swap between multiple drafts and ideas. Let yourself enjoy the process. Let things marinate and come back to them months later. Follow your passion in the moment.
5. Feed the tank
People say that good writers need to read, and sure, if they can, that's great - but "reading" doesn't just mean reading a book. You're engaging with the text from a craftsman's perspective: how did they write it? Why does it work or not work? What can you learn from it?
If you can't focus on text right now or can't hold a book, you can still apply those questions and skills to other media: to videogames, movies, TV, the news, to art, to music. You're taking apart in your head or in conversation, seeing how it works, and taking lessons for yourself.
All of that gives you skills, and should also give you inspiration. Everything doesn't come from nothing in your imagination: you need to fuel that engine with stories, characters, ideas, and feelings that you find inspiring, exciting, and fun.
I currently have 60+ comments waiting on responses in my AO3 inbox. Thankfully tomorrow's going to be a rest day, so I should get the chance to settle down with a coffee and reply to them all.
If you're currently waiting for a response from me: thank you for your patience, thank you for your comment, and I'll get back to you very soon 🖤
devastating when good characters are put into a stupid show. you were born to fly but that evil hag of a showrunner clipped your golden wings. be free on ao3, my little dove. be free
“you’re just mad that The Vampire Lestat is about the vampire Lestat”
I WISH it was. I wish AMC’s The Vampire Lestat had anything to do with Anne Rice’s character Lestat de Lioncourt as presented in her book The Vampire Lestat. Instead, this blond guy running around calling himself Lestat might as well be Jarda Klapek
“you’re just mad that the show isn’t the one you made up in your head”
At least the one I made up in my head is based on The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
- my commissions are open. you can send me a dm for more info
- you can buy prints on my inprnt (https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/teller-of-tragedies/) and wallpapers on mi kofi (https://ko-fi.com/telleroftragedies)
- you can also find me on tiktok (https://www.tiktok.com/@teller.of.tragedies) and instagram (https://www.instagram.com/teller.of.tragedies/)
“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks
I see people arguing that the slave remarks in Episode 6 of The Vampire Lestat were a callback to the slave remarks in Episode 6 of Season 1 of Interview with the Vampire. If that's true, then it is the perfect example of why black writers were needed in the room. And I mean black writers specifically, not just "people of color." The contrast between how the two episodes handled the subject shows that.
Before I get into that comparison, I want to make something clear. I didn't like the introduction of a slave-master narrative into the unholy family dynamic. The racial implications made me uncomfortable. However, discomfort and offense are not the same thing. While I found it unsettling, I did not find it racist or anti-Black, and that's the key distinction.
In Episode 6 of Season 1, there are two instances where Claudia uses the word "slave". The first time, she is referring to both herself and Louis. She is essentially saying that they are under Lestat's control, trapped in Rue Royale, prisoners of Lestat, his slaves. In that context, "slave" is being used to describe their lack of freedom and autonomy. The second time, she refers not only to herself and Louis, but also to Lestat. She draws a parallel between their situation and Lestat's situation with Magnus. Just as Claudia and Louis are trapped under Lestat's control, Lestat was once under Magnus's control. He was Magnus's slave, and he ultimately killed him rather than continue living that way (we know that's not what happened but that's what Claudia believed). In both instances, the word "slave" is tied to a circumstance, not an identity. It is being used to describe a power dynamic: control, imprisonment, coercion, and domination. You could replace the word "slave" with "prisoner" and the point would remain intact. More importantly, the narrative makes a deliberate effort not to tie slavery to Louis and Claudia's race. Applying the same language to Lestat is what makes that distinction clear. The point is not, "Louis and Claudia are slaves because they are black." The point is, "Louis and Claudia are slaves because they are trapped under Lestat's control," just as Lestat was trapped under Magnus's. Now, viewers can absolutely be uncomfortable with the racial implications of using that metaphor in the first place. I certainly was. But I don't think anyone can honestly argue that the use of the word slave in this scenario was racist.
The writers managed to create discomfort, arguably one of their goals without resorting to anti-Black rhetoric. That's exactly the kind of nuance the black creatives involved in season 1 brought to the story.
Now compare that to Episode 6 of The Vampire Lestat. Claudia calls Louis a slave and then goes further, suggesting that slavery is part of who he is. She implies it is in his DNA as demonstrated by her saying that "slave" is etched into his ribs. Add the "nappy-headed" remark on top of it, and the conversation is no longer about a power dynamic. It becomes an attack on Louis's identity as a black person.
That is the fundamental difference. In Season 1, slavery was used as a metaphor for control. In The Vampire Lestat, slavery is framed as something intrinsic to Louis himself. The word is no longer describing his circumstances; it is describing who he supposedly is. The narrative shifts from "you are being treated like a slave" to "being a slave is part of your nature."
Those are not remotely the same thing. You cannot write a scene in which a Black character tells another Black character that slavery is essentially woven into his DNA, pair it with a racialized insult like "nappy-headed," and then act surprised when viewers, particularly black viewers find it offensive. So if those remarks were intended to be a callback to Season 1 Episode 6, then the callback was an utter failure.
What made the Season 1 dialogue worked was that it treated slavery as a condition imposed on people. What makes the Vampire Lestat dialogue offensive is that it treats slavery as something inherent to Louis. One is about oppression; the other flirts with the idea that oppression is an innate trait. That is not a minor difference. It is the entire issue. And if you genuinely cannot see the difference between using slavery as a metaphor for imprisonment and using slavery as a marker of a black character's identity, then I really don't know what to tell you.
The contrast between the two episodes is precisely why having black writers in the room matter. Season 1 showed that you can explore themes of domination, control, and power between black and white characters, while navigating the racial implications with nuance. The Vampire Lestat Episode 6 shows what happens when that nuance is absent.
