I'm running a popular romance course at the University of Liverpool... but only if enough people sign up! Come and join us! www.liverpool.ac.uk/continuing-e...

I'll be writing my local library system to ask them to drop Libby and seek alternatives: do any of my more knowledgable followers know of other (AI-free) platforms out there for libraries to use?

“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.

MY QUEEN

Fun fact, every time the PA at the arena says “She represents Dallas Figure Skating Club” my parter and I yell back “SHE REPRESENTS THE PANSEXUALS” in announcer voice. I actually cried, this was so good

They are not invincible. Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living. www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/a...

“pivot to video” no thanks I’m gonna pivot to the woods

I'm looking for books with transmasculine protagonists that might help me understand myself. I recently read Rules for Ghosting and found it relatable on so many levels. What's your top rec? I especially like romance, mystery, and sff. No sad endings please! 🌈📚💙 Special love to those who boost!

my university keeps coming up with all these ingenious strategies for making faculty do more work with the same (or less) money and like... imagine if they put that capacity for innovation towards... literally anything else 😑

birds do it bees do it even educated fleas do it let's do it let's fly into a window

The "no worries if not!" opposition party.

I’ll do a year-in-review eventually, but for now, a top 5 of books I read in 2025 (no particular order) - After Hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian - Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid - Martyr! Kaveh Akbar - Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, Andrea Lawlor - The Paris Match, Kate Clayborn

Finished translating a novel for publication, got a *lot* better at the piano, started thrifting a lot more of my clothes instead of buying new, extricated myself from some situations that were not helping my mental health.

You know what’s great? Owning physical copies of books you love

Annual tradition, albeit a little late this year

and there was one more, apparently in conversation with @romansdegare.bsky.social it's so easy to lose things on the internet, sigh

what time would i have to start my heated rivalry full rewatch on new years eve in order to ring in the new year right at the moment Ilya says I love you, asking for a friend who is definitely not me, I'm fine and very mentally balanced

Darmok And Salad At Tanagra

I know that the idea there’s anything we’re “not discussing enough” with respect to Heated Rivalry is laughable but… I’m not sure we’re discussing enough how meaningful it was for Shane to say he forgives his mom, rather than that there was “nothing to forgive”

i had to drop what i was doing to make this

Time for my annual re-watch!

Now that the Japanese Skating Federation has picked its team, I am doing my solemn duty and letting everyone know that if you only watch figure skating at the Olympics, you will miss out on this, indisputably the coolest and most fun short program of 2025 😩 youtu.be/9wbfy4qxwHQ

ok, my blog is mostly defunct at this point, but if I was to briefly resurrect it for a side-by-side close reading of the same scene from Heated Rivalry in book and TV show form... would people read that?

you ever read a book so bad you wanna go back to mesopotamia and uninvent writing

If I could ask one thing of the Heated Rivalry TV adaptation (which is basically perfect, no notes), it's that its popularity could bring back high-heat, high-angst romances Let this be what kills the romcom

I do not want your AI slop I do not want it in my mop I do not want it in my house I do not want it in my mouse I do not like brain-rotting AI spam I do not want it, Sam Alt-man

Guys, what are we going to do with ourselves after the last episode of Heated Rivalry airs, asking for a friend?

My childhood masterpiece of an egg-carton angel’s still got it

Let it be known that I got a GIANT gold star on my most recent Beethoven piece

Look: it’s all anyone’s talking about, it’s certainly all I’m thinking about, so now is as good a time as any to remind everyone that I wrote about Heated Rivalry over 5 years ago (!) on my blog: closereadingromance.com/2020/04/17/f...

'tis the season where I honestly make myself believe I'm going to resurrect my blog in the new year

About to cook and ABSURD amount of food for two people, only one of whom eats animal products

Question for any romance novel history people out there: does anyone know who might have been the first romance author to write/publish strict dual POV, ie: in equally distributed, alternating chapters? (Or, first-ish, I know tracking firstness in literature is complicated) Feel free to RT/boost

Me, 5 minutes into every re-read of an Erin McLellan novella: WHY aren’t there 100,000 more of these so I never have to read anything else 😍😭😍😭😍😭😍 Nobody does joyful, queer sex-positivity quite like this, I’m telling you

I am so ready to read some romance novels that take Big Risks. Give me stakes. Real imperfections. Trust me to not need your characters to be exemplary, highly-therapized individuals. I’d like a theme or two, but I am not a baby bird, and I can chew on it myself

Anyone read any good angsty romances lately?

Also worth keeping in mind that if you use this service as an author, I (as a translator) may personally come piss in your Cheerios some morning. You never know.

Oh what's this? One of my favorite romance series of all time is on sale?

I am not an influencer, but please help me boost Palestinian-owned Nabiha cafe on U street near 17th in DC. The coffee is AMAZING, staff is super friendly, links to donate to Gazan families are easily accessible for customers who want to help

Not me getting the address wrong in the last post… hold please 😔

If you saw me going for a 5 mile run on the streets of DC while absolutely sobbing my eyes out to the audiobook of Atmosphere, no you didn’t, it was dark out, you were probably mistaken

Feeding America has a page where you can input your zip code and it'll show you all of the food banks near you overlaid on a map. If you need it, it's there. If you don't need it, think about donating money if you have it and your time if you don't. www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

In case anyone wants some recs for this mini-trope www.instagram.com/p/ClEJz8wOVz...

what's the tiniest microtrope in romance that lights your soul on fire? examples: mine is when a person's expression subtly "softens" while looking at their LI in public I have a friend who loves when 2 characters sit on opposite sides of a wall/closed door and each press their hands to it

the Muppets have been real quiet since the Louvre heist

Couldn’t protest today as I was stuck on a train for 8 hours, but when I got back to DC the mood felt… different? Lighter? Idk, I’m usually a cynic, but I think today mattered

folks can complain about the effectiveness of scheduled orderly mass protest but to think about it another way its the closest thing we have to the opening scene of A Muppet Christmas Carol where all the muppets sing "there goes Mr. Dipshit, there goes Mr. Ass" to Scrooge and it clearly bothered him

In Philadelphia, #nokings goes back a long way.

This also indicates the essential dishonesty of saying “it’s just a tool.” A hammer is a tool. Nobody writes about the “inevitability” of hammers. Nobody has ever studied the harmful effects of hammers on learning and concluded that teachers must all hit their students with hammers “responsibly.”