Emma Denny

"Rears & Vices took me on a swashbuckling adventure from start to finish. A highly enjoyable poly pirate romp, lush with historical and nautical detail, with a fantastic cast of characters. I can't wait to dive more into E.M Caro's world." —Emma Denny, author of One Night in Hartswood

from @emmadenny.bsky.social:

Being told that publishers don't want historical romance while simultaneously bracing myself for the incoming flood of Bridgerton ads/interviews/think pieces/promos sure is Something

The Absolute Units art. Three giant sheep hover over the English countryside.

🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏

Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.

In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

Bona Books Presents A new queer literary magazine FANTABULOSA! Tales of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical, from radical and unapologetic queer voices. Science fiction, fantasy and horror Short fiction & poetry Submissions open now

ANNOUNCEMENT🎺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Introducing our bona new quarterly literary magazine:

FANTABULOSA!

Pushing the boundaries of bold, authentic, QUEER storytelling. Bringing you stories of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical.

& thanks to our brilliant #WrathMonth backers, we're fully funded for 2026 🤘

AVTM is out FEB 2026 and is available for pre-order now! Featuring:
- Second chance romance
- Marriage of convenience
- Emotional Support Hounds
- A nonbinary main character
- Watching your husband get fucked by his boyfriend

The cover for "A Vow Made Twice" by Emma Denny. It depicts three people against a forest green background, framed with darker green trees and bushes with green leaves and red flowers. The three figures are: Agnes, on the left, who has ginger hair tied in a plait and is wearing a long green dress and holding a taut bow in their hands. Ash, in the middle, who is tall with long, shaggy hair and beard. He has a scar on his face and is wearing the fancy clothes of a medieval lord, including a fur collar. To the far right is a third figure who stands further back than Agnes and Ash. He has long, blond hair and stands with arms crossed over a plain white tunic.

GUESS WHAT. I've got another book coming out. A VOW MADE TWICE is a queer, polyam #historicalromance set in the 1300s. After inheriting his father's title, Ash Barden needs to marry... but the memory of his long-dead lover still haunts him. Will he be forced to choose, or can a heart belong to two?

Ohh thank you! I will fully admit I've been hiding my head in the sand thinking "oh it'll be FINE" until suddenly I have to think about it and it is less fine, woops. Re: DMs, I can't actually access them (because of the Gov ID thing) but!! you could message me on IG if that's ok?

Looking for advice from other #historicalromance authors, agents or publishers - is the state of histrom trad publishing really that bad? Does anyone have any experience/anecdotes to share?

I am terribly ill and dying today (I have a cold) so I treated myself to this and as expected, it's LOVELY. What a cute idea, and gorgeously brought to life. I'd read a whole graphic novel about these two 😍

oH this sounds very up my street 👀

Ohhh I love this one! All of @sebastiannothwell.bsky.social 's books are super good

Things the UK gov will let me see: a real person being shot in the neck
Things the UK gov will not let me see: a drawing of a penis

oh NOOOOO D:

Our neighbours did the same for us, and afterwards one of the kids asked why we had "a monster" in the house. There's like a dozen things he could have meant. Turned out he was concerned about a framed Everything Everything album we've got 😅

I've done a very brief check, and one of the trans surgeries subs also has this block. Obviously the new law around NSFW content is absurd, but this? This is dangerous. Let's restrict access to support for trans people OR force them to give their ID to some shady website. That'll end well, I'm sure.

just tried to access r/reduction - a subreddit I've been using regularly to get references and advice about the sort of radical reduction I'd like to get, for Gender Reasons - and now I can't see any photos without submitting my ID.

Starting to put feelers out re: finding an agent, so if anyone knows of anyone looking for some fun queer #historicalromance (medieval/regency) please do point me in their direction 👀

Oh my gosh YES I knew there was one I forgot!!

Yeah exactly!! Like two guys bein' dudes in the woods? Eh, whatever, that's fine.

ohh AMAZING, thank you! I'll check these out :D

Yeah I agree! I've come across a few people in my research who were probably trans (as we'd describe them today), and it seems like a lot of the time if you turned up somewhere new and gave your chosen name and just did work and wasnt a dickhead then no one cared or questioned you that much 😅

Also... The Marriage of Likeness by John Boswell, Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages by Robert Mills, Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography (@aspencerhall.bsky.social) and basically all of Leah DeVun's papers/The Shape of Sex. @goingmedieval.bsky.social is also amazing!

The biggest thing I get told is "this wouldn't happen!", when there's literally no reason why *not*. Most of sources we have are legal docs or from the church so you knowww what they'll be like. It's like saying no one in 2025 does drugs because drugs are illegal. Like. That's not how it works 😅

Aha yeah its fun digging into that! Its difficult, too, because you don't want to make it too grim 😅 also this may be totally over the line but LMK if you want any book/paper recommendations! Im always excited to share ahaha

Oh absolutely, it's such an interesting sandbox to play in. And yeah! It's one of those things where you can see how we've always existed just in different ways, its so interesting.

I spent so long researching medieval sex/gender for book reasons and it's fascinating. It just keeps going, and there's sooo much you can do with it as a creator, too. Also, personally, I quite like how it all exists outside of modern labels? For me that feels quite freeing!

oh I'm very glad it's not just me who does this 😅

*glares at Bananagrams*

Final day of this sale!

This is SUPER important. Additionally: if you're in the UK and don't have an agent, I REALLY encourage you to join the Society of Authors, who provide free legal advice and contract vetting for members. Don't sign anything before you're sure you're not being screwed over!