Odd combinations are always interesting...

Welcome to Weird Sisters, Ink. 

We’re a group of creators with stories to tell. They’re niche, unique, under-the-radar. Some of them are fact, some of them fiction. I hope they’ll amuse you. 

Our plan for this blog is to showcase the writing of the group. We originally got together on a sunshiney afternoon, long before such a thing as social distancing had gloomed over the horizon, when we were all attending an event called 'The Coast Is Queer'. A collection of speakers and authors from the LGBTQ community in Brighton, England were celebrating and discussing writing and publishing. 

As we listened to the bright young things up there on the platform, we collectively noticed the yawning gulf opening up between the generations. We grew up devouring printed matter and solid books, writing with real pens and hammering out m.s. on ancient typewriters; thus acquiring skills which simply have no relevance in today's online world. 

But we also marched and campaigned and generally were coming 'out' long before it was safe to do so. We agreed, over coffee and cakes, that we did have something to offer after all; and stories to tell that are perhaps worth listening to.  

However, without a TikTok account, an Instagram face filter and a number of lipfilling injections, we all struggle to get our work out to the public. Publishers don't publish older lesbians' or bi-women's writing, unless perhaps you look like Gentleman Jack. Indeed, a great deal of the influential work of earlier women's fiction has gone out of print altogether.

So, in the future, we will showcase the works of us all.  And we are:

Jane Traies, who travels round the UK collecting stories from marginalised lesbians (older women, the neurodiverse, asylum seekers). Jane’s been interviewed by the BBC for Women’s Hour and her work is making a real difference to LGBTQ public perception. Her books Now You See Me and The Lives of Older Lesbians are fascinating reads.

Maggie Redding, who writes about the lives of girls and women with humour and insight. She has lived a colourful, brave life and brings to her semi-autobiographical novels clarity of vision and a powerful simplicity of style. 

Rohase Piercy, known for possibly the earliest Queer re-telling of Conan Doyle’s classic duo Holmes and Watson, likes to home in on well-known tales and re-tell them from unusual perspectives. Thus, for example, she has told Ann de Bourgh's version of Pride and Prejudice in Before Elizabeth and given us Constance Wilde's confidential diary of her time with Oscar Wilde in The Coward Does It With A Kiss.

Sylvia Daly is a natural lyricist, known to place satirical poems in unexpected places, a bit like a versifying Banksy. She's kindly contributing her prize-winning ballads and lyrics as we go along.

And I'll contribute as we go along - Charlie Raven is my pen name - and I also edit and work as a hypnotherapist. 

Odd combinations are always interesting, you might say.