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Celia Lake

@celialake.bsky.social

2.1K followers 990 following 630 posts

Author (cosy historical fantasy romance) : avid devourer of information : librarian by day : knitter : general geek in several directions. https://celialake.com and https://www.celialake.com/links/

celialake.com

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 24d

Claiming the Tower is about two women in 1854 refusing to keep doing what isn't working and beginning to build something better together.

Full of:
- Choosing their battles
- Drinking chocolate
- Community dynamics
- A date at the Crystal Palace
- Finding support

celialake.com/book/claimin...

Claiming the Tower by Celia Lake standing by a cup of tea and pomegranates, with spices and a spoon. The cover has two women in silhouette in 1850s Victorian dresses, one holding a cup of drinking chocolate, the other reaching to touch the first woman's face. A castle with three towers and crenallations is at the bottom, also in silhouette.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 2d

And 160+ books on sale with Cozy The Day Away!

cozyfantasysale.promisepress.org

Pastiche - a great intro to my books - is on sale in ebook and (if you get it from me directly), audio.

Edwardian mystery, a museum, an arranged marriage to love match romance, and a heroine with fibromyalgia.

Home - Cozy Fantasy Sale

This is the home page for the Cozy the Day Away Sale series, where the first-ever cozy fantasy group sale happens! Sales in 2025 have…

cozyfantasysale.promisepress.org

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 2d

HearthCon has a lot of great panels! Here's all the info.

sites.google.com/view/lazydra...

I'm on:

Gaslamp and Regency Cozy Fantasy (4pm PDT, 7pm EDT Saturday)

&

Seasonal Cozy Fantasy(9am PDT, 12pm EDT Sunday)

I'm speaking at HearthCon! An online conference for Cozy Fantasy lovers. Join us online at lazydragonbooks.com October 11th and 12th.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 2d

It's a great weekend for cosy fantasy lovers! HearthCon (whole series of free panels and discussions and events) and Cozy The Day Away, a two day cosy fantasy book sale!

I'm on two panels at HearthCon and Pastiche (both ebook and audio) is on sale! More details below.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 4d

I'd be one of the sleep deprived (read it in two nights). I do not regret a moment of the sleep deprivation, fully agree with these comments.

Great ADHD representation, a fantastic look at people trying to figure out what went wrong, and tremendously spooky gothic glory.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 5d

And I still use the non-traumatic bits of 'write emails about complex topics that mostly are functional with people having Strong Emotions and are Not At Their Best' skills most days of my current professional life.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 5d

I still regularly refer to you as my best manager (and you have now had some stiff competition) because of the way you both took care of the team and figured out so much about how to use our specific skills in a way that let us do our best work (with less damage).

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 7d

@kiyanicoll.bsky.social has just been helping me debug a thing I've been trying to figure out how to do, and I am so delighted.

It's going to take a bit (a couple of books into the next 1920s series) to play out, but I can seed something about it sooner.

I love it when existing backstory clicks!

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 7d

It's the sensible historical alternative to including cat pictures for a break in the middle of a difficult topic. (Or dog pictures!)

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 7d

Elise is having another sale! (For some inconvenient bills). So many gorgeous shinies!

LionessElise @lionesselise.bsky.social · 7d

Quick Sunday night (and maybe Monday and Tuesday) sale is happening now, because I have inconvenient bills that could use some convenient sales.

35% off a lot of things.
Done when the bills are covered.
Have fun!

www.etsy.com/shop/Lioness...

www.etsy.com

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

To be fair, I know I say "it is meet and right so to do" to you fairly often.

(I started life Episcopalian, and the liturgical language really sticks sometimes!)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

Also, this gives me fuel for staring into the depths of the Met Office Weather Reports for April and May 1949 and rearranging some plot dates this weekend.

(It'd make more sense for the later plot to be happening into early May, so... rearranging data it is.)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

I have been complimented twice today on my fierce tenacity in tracking down historical information at work today. Two different questions!

I might be particularly extra about this, but I'm consistent (my writing, too). I am delighted it gets appreciated sometimes. It hasn't always been.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

Entirely reasonable! It was just impossible to write a "this is why this music is relevant" without referencing the plot.

(Or at least, entirely beyond my ability!)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

I normally have specific music on when I'm writing, but this is the only one that's produced a structured playlist. I have hopes a future book will do it again.

(I'm eyeing down the road in the writing stack that is going to spend some time with opera and ballet maybe.)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

Quoting lyrics is so tricky! But the playlist has been great, and it was great when I was writing it.

As the playlist page talks about, this book also fixed my relationship with listening to classic music after a college course broke it 20 years earlier.

www.celialake.com/music-of-bes...

The Music of Best Foot Forward - Celia Lake

Best Foot Forward references a number of classical music pieces. Read about the music, explore a playlist, and dive into the history!

www.celialake.com

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

The other two good options:

1922, when Carillon returns to Albion in Ancient Trust (free novella) : celialake.com/book/ancient...

Or Goblin Fruit (linked in the thread above) in 1924, which is his romance with Lizzie.

Ancient Trust - Celia Lake

Ancient Trust is a standalone novella extra of 40,000 words. Geoffrey Carillon has spent much of his life both before and after the Great War travelling the world. In February of 1922, his older bro...

celialake.com

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 10d

This is a great place to start with Carillon! He appears earlier in his own personal timeline, but BFF has everything you might need to know as it becomes relevant.

I write so that people can pick up almost anywhere, the rare exceptions are explicitly noted in the blurb and the reading order page.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

And there might have been a minor intervention from your friends on this point, too.

(Because yes, the book will continue to have time to be ready! That's okay! You are doing more than plenty already!)

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

While I'd definitely like the money, I am extremely glad that this has consequences for the model (and I hope for other people trying to do the same thing going forward).

That isn't actually nothing!

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

My family has a tradition of horrendous penmanship until we get to about college age, where we have all independently taken up some degree of calligraphy and ended up with unique but readable handwriting.

(Not taking bets on how neurodiversity plays into this at this time.)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

This was my decision, for the same reasons.

While I am not a lawyer, I have done - and done well - in a full copyright law course. I knew how unlikely a class action lawsuit going after any meaningful amount of money was.

Forgiving past me is an ongoing process, yep.

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

It was a great conversation, I feel supported in doing what I do.

And I'll be fine when the adrenalin settles down again.

(Now going back to my Other Task, which is necessary catalogue tidying.)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 11d

Day job moments: our quite new CEO stopped by (to wish my colleagues happy Archives Month) and I had 15 minutes of talking about complex historical figures on no notice.

(My work provides a selection of those, though we remain pleased that one of our founders was adored by everyone who knew him.)

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Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 12d

Seconding the 'laughably untrue'.

For one thing, no horse is ever truly entirely stationary for long! They're living beings. They keep breathing and moving and twitching an ear or a tail.

(Takes *less* work than horse in motion. That's different.)

Celia Lake @celialake.bsky.social · 14d

How could we deny that cat?

(My copy is sitting on my phone waiting for me to have time to read it tonight! Looking forward to it so much.)

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