Dear Internet,

First, I curated a list of romance tropes. When I last looked at the list, it was closing in 150+ tropes. Don’t ever say romance is formulaic. The only consistent thing about romance is the HEA (happily ever after) has to occur before it can be called a romance. If no HEA but romantic elements? Women’s fiction or whatever genre. Don’t look at me. I don’t make the rules.

It’s on sale.

I picked up four composition notebooks from a Big Box Store last week as they were 39¢ each. They are smaller (7’x9.5”) than standard size (8.5”x11”), which are my favorite size. Did I need the composition notebooks? No. I had several blank notebooks sitting at home I could use for my research, but hey, as it is the Rabey motto, “It was on sale.”

(I was cleaning out some stuff and found an unused fountain pen set I was gifted years ago. That came out of storage!)

Research a go-go

I began reviewing my notes on Edwardian romance and discovered that I had developed the heroine differently in each set of notes. Rather than give her all the things, I’ve pulled out some of her qualities and ended up with the start of a series. Right now, I can see four books. Each book can be read standalone, but the worlds are interconnected.

Part of the discovery of the series is what tropes to use for each, which is why the romance tropes doc got organized. Some elements of each story will be the same, such as the heroines are all in their mid-30s to mid-40s. However, aside from the age range, each heroine will be wholly their own.

The name of the series will be “Ladies of the Round Table,” as each heroine will be rebellious in their own way, just as many of the women in Arthurian legend were. (I checked ye olde Google and variations of the phrase show up pertaining to the legends of Arthur, but there is one use of the exact phrase for a female cigar-smoking social club in Houston that no longer seems to exist.)

I bought a ton of books when I came up with the idea of an Edwardian book of some forever years ago but I have no idea if I kept any with all my moves in the last decade. With what’s left of my collection split between here and Kentucky, I’ll need to go through to see what I can use.

In the interim, I’ve been using interlibrary loan to start checking out books related to my research. I am even reading a graphic novel, The New Deadwardians, about vampires and Zombies in Edwardian era England. It’s unfortunate the link goes to Amazon, but the book was published in 2013 and is long out of print. I’m frankly surprised I could get it via ILL! Also, unfortunately for me, it is not a series.

I’m also reading Mercedes Lackey’s The Serpent’s Shadow (Bookshop.org | Amazon | WorldCat), which is the first book in the Elemental Masters series. The Serpent’s Shadow is set in the Edwardian era, but I believe the other books are not. I’m not that far in, so I don’t have an opinion. Yet.

Over at my writers’ website, I’ve got online resources for the Edwardian and late Victorian eras. (I’ll need to update the page since this book is separate from the “Ladies of the Round Table” series.) You can also check out my wishlists over at Amazon and Bookshop.org.

(I’m trying to move my online book shopping from Amazon to Bookshop, but it pains me to say this: Amazon carries a lot of my wishlist books in stock that Bookshop does not, and/or the prices are significantly cheaper.)

Like with my other interests, I haven’t had a problem getting books via ILL, so that is saving me a boatload of money. I typically don’t refer back to a book for reference since I take notes, so not having a copy available is not going to be a pain.

Upcoming Writing Contests

I mentioned in Issue #54 there is a writing contest accepting submissions from September 1 to October 2 which in my head I plan on entering but I also fucking forgot about the stupid thing until a few days ago. I have nearly two months to finish my entries, get them edited, and then submit, but now I’m wavering on competing with two entries; one historical and the other contemporary. The contemporary, thankfully, has already had a pass edit and I need to work on that, but the historical is back in research mode. The very rough draft I have needs to be ripped apart since it is book one of the “The Ladies of the Round Table” series I mentioned in Issue #54.

So, who knows where it’ll end up.

Scarlet MacKenzie

I was thinking last week that I’m going to publish all my novels under the name of Scarlet MacKenzie. Lisa Rabey will continue to write articles for various publications, but for books, Scarlet MacKenzie it is.

For those of you who have been following my writing journey (or fuck, even my life journey), I’ve even thought about legally changing my name to Scarlet MacKenzie not long after I was nearly doxxed from the case. But then I decided I had been Lisa Rabey for decades, so why stop now?

But something in my head last week just popped up and said, “Yes, you’ll be Scarlet MacKenzie for everything writing-related now,” and my Lisa side of my brain just went, “OK.” No wishy-washiness, no hesitation, just acceptance.

Scarlet’s website needs a major overhaul (which I’ll be doing myself). I’m also going to use it as a tester for the newsletter and/or blog chicken and egg situation. The part about having an online presence that chaffs my chips is industry experts still recommend having fucking articles or a blog on your website to drive traffic with SEO EVEN THOUGH NO ONE READS THE DAMN THINGS. Yes, search engine algos will see you’re updating your website on a regular basis so when people search for you, it’ll drive traffic to your site but no one will actually read the blog or articles published.

It’s so fucking stupid.

You can, of course, drive traffic by promoting your articles everywhere online and hope to gain some traction but, again, who the fuck knows!

Sometimes I hate the internet.

If Ms. Scarlet does have a newsletter at some point, it will not be a part of the vast Lisa Rabey empire you receive today. That will be on your own free will to subscribe.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. Let’s hope I can get some actual writing done!

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Fundraiser

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for a walk on September 14. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 46 this year.

My goal is to raise $1000 USD. I've got under $500 more to go. Go to AFSP’s website to donate. I'll be posting an announcement in every issue of my newsletters and regularly on my social media until the day of the walk. If you can donate even $5 or share this link (https://bit.ly/AFSPWalk2025), you will be an amazing human being and doing me a huge solid.

Thank you.