Diane Ackland
@author.dianeackland.com
Author, geek, creative. Writer of sexy books to geek out about. Neurospicy and disabled. Bisexual disaster and trash goblin. Pen name for Molly Schlemmer.
http://www.dianeackland.com
http://www.dianeackland.com
OK, I think my Sherlock Holmes: Vampire Hunter story might be coming together, but now it’s set in a Belle Epoque-style fantasy world.
Because my brain loves overcomplicating things.
Because my brain loves overcomplicating things.
December 3, 2025 at 9:17 PM
OK, I think my Sherlock Holmes: Vampire Hunter story might be coming together, but now it’s set in a Belle Epoque-style fantasy world.
Because my brain loves overcomplicating things.
Because my brain loves overcomplicating things.
Reposted by Diane Ackland
Everyone in Chicago needs to read this AND TAKE ACTION. Everyone else should read this and ask what's happening where you are with your public library systems.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:
You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries
“Libraries embody everything that we need right now to fight back against fascism," says Sara Heymann.
organizingmythoughts.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Everyone in Chicago needs to read this AND TAKE ACTION. Everyone else should read this and ask what's happening where you are with your public library systems.
Feeling the urge to make my buff, autistic Sherlock-Holmes-as-vampire-hunter romance work again. Maybe I can come up with a plot that actually works this time.
December 2, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Feeling the urge to make my buff, autistic Sherlock-Holmes-as-vampire-hunter romance work again. Maybe I can come up with a plot that actually works this time.
Ope, we’ve hit “Romance doesn’t need an HEA” in the Discourse Drinking Game, bottoms up everyone!
December 2, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Ope, we’ve hit “Romance doesn’t need an HEA” in the Discourse Drinking Game, bottoms up everyone!
Reposted by Diane Ackland
This sale ends today with Cyber Monday!
Get white-hot F/X romantic suspense with a lot of terrible guys getting exactly what they deserve, starting with the protagonist's horrible husband:
Get white-hot F/X romantic suspense with a lot of terrible guys getting exactly what they deserve, starting with the protagonist's horrible husband:
December 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
This sale ends today with Cyber Monday!
Get white-hot F/X romantic suspense with a lot of terrible guys getting exactly what they deserve, starting with the protagonist's horrible husband:
Get white-hot F/X romantic suspense with a lot of terrible guys getting exactly what they deserve, starting with the protagonist's horrible husband:
Reposted by Diane Ackland
Read my cozy plus size m/m romance 'More to Love right now for FREE on Koboplus or Everand. Wrestling coach Emmy Park is content living romance through books—until he meets Jamir Cunningham, the charming owner of his favorite shop. bit.ly/moretolovero... #mmromance
December 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Read my cozy plus size m/m romance 'More to Love right now for FREE on Koboplus or Everand. Wrestling coach Emmy Park is content living romance through books—until he meets Jamir Cunningham, the charming owner of his favorite shop. bit.ly/moretolovero... #mmromance
Reposted by Diane Ackland
Soylent green but with rationing.
December 1, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Soylent green but with rationing.
Great thread. To add on to this, I think we white women need to explore why the current dark romance zeitgeist is so rooted in being treated abusively and in ways BIPOC women have historically been treated w/r/t sex.
Sometimes I think about how violent, sex negative, and weirdly vanilla dark romance is. I also wish I could explain proper gang/mafia related codes of ethics vs an MMC who is just violent and emotionally abusive. Loving a bad man is different than he’s not bad because I love him.
November 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Great thread. To add on to this, I think we white women need to explore why the current dark romance zeitgeist is so rooted in being treated abusively and in ways BIPOC women have historically been treated w/r/t sex.
Reposted by Diane Ackland
💕 payhip.com/BloomWithBry...
Other Links!
💕 C*shApp: $JackHarbon
💕 V*nmo: @/BrynnMalik
💕 ko-fi.com/jackharbonbo...
Other Links!
💕 C*shApp: $JackHarbon
💕 V*nmo: @/BrynnMalik
💕 ko-fi.com/jackharbonbo...
Support Jack Harbon
Support Jack Harbon
ko-fi.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:43 PM
💕 payhip.com/BloomWithBry...
Other Links!
💕 C*shApp: $JackHarbon
💕 V*nmo: @/BrynnMalik
💕 ko-fi.com/jackharbonbo...
Other Links!
💕 C*shApp: $JackHarbon
💕 V*nmo: @/BrynnMalik
💕 ko-fi.com/jackharbonbo...
Reposted by Diane Ackland
Hi divas! I've been putting off a dentist visit because I can't afford it, but the pain has gotten to the point where I can't ignore it, so I'm running a sale on my services! All services are 50% including book covers, formatting, promo graphics, author logos, and more. Please boost! 💕 (Links below)
November 28, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Hi divas! I've been putting off a dentist visit because I can't afford it, but the pain has gotten to the point where I can't ignore it, so I'm running a sale on my services! All services are 50% including book covers, formatting, promo graphics, author logos, and more. Please boost! 💕 (Links below)
Decided to peek in on Threads and the Romance Discourse is just discoursing harder so I'm going to back away slowly and hope I don't get attacked.
November 25, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Decided to peek in on Threads and the Romance Discourse is just discoursing harder so I'm going to back away slowly and hope I don't get attacked.
Y'all need to join up! Come for the writing challenge, stay for the late-night heartfelt chats and amazing companionship!
We’re back at it again! #20kin5DaysJan begins on January 21–25, 2026—a five-day, high-energy writing sprint where we knock out 20,000 words together.
open.substack.com/pub/20kin5da...
open.substack.com/pub/20kin5da...
November 25, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Y'all need to join up! Come for the writing challenge, stay for the late-night heartfelt chats and amazing companionship!
Reposted by Diane Ackland
I see the book pirating discourse is going around again, and I’m just so tired, y’all.
If you want books to continue to exist, do not steal books. Period. The end.
“But but but…”
No.
There are so many free options out there: fanfiction, libraries, etc. You don’t need to steal books to read.
If you want books to continue to exist, do not steal books. Period. The end.
“But but but…”
No.
There are so many free options out there: fanfiction, libraries, etc. You don’t need to steal books to read.
November 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I see the book pirating discourse is going around again, and I’m just so tired, y’all.
If you want books to continue to exist, do not steal books. Period. The end.
“But but but…”
No.
There are so many free options out there: fanfiction, libraries, etc. You don’t need to steal books to read.
If you want books to continue to exist, do not steal books. Period. The end.
“But but but…”
No.
There are so many free options out there: fanfiction, libraries, etc. You don’t need to steal books to read.
But can we talk about how Rufus Wainright changed the song by rewriting the lyric “the holy dove was moving too” to “the holy dark was moving too”? And how that is a fascinating and, IMO, better lyric?
November 22, 2025 at 8:33 PM
But can we talk about how Rufus Wainright changed the song by rewriting the lyric “the holy dove was moving too” to “the holy dark was moving too”? And how that is a fascinating and, IMO, better lyric?
Me: “I need to eat and run some errands.“
ADHD: “OK, but what if you just did one more row of crochet on your project?“
Internet: *breaks through wall like the Kool-Aid Man and steals my attention*
ADHD: “OK, but what if you just did one more row of crochet on your project?“
Internet: *breaks through wall like the Kool-Aid Man and steals my attention*
November 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Me: “I need to eat and run some errands.“
ADHD: “OK, but what if you just did one more row of crochet on your project?“
Internet: *breaks through wall like the Kool-Aid Man and steals my attention*
ADHD: “OK, but what if you just did one more row of crochet on your project?“
Internet: *breaks through wall like the Kool-Aid Man and steals my attention*
*buzzes in* What is 2girls1cup?
I saw it, I regret it, let us never speak of it again.
November 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
*buzzes in* What is 2girls1cup?
Glad to know it’s not just me!
Do you all feel absolutely crazy as I do with everything going on? Please say yes
November 21, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Glad to know it’s not just me!
This is fantastic advice! You can also think of writing sex as writing a fight scene. Both involve coordinating bodies in a give-and-take scenario, and need to communicate what the character is feeling in their body. Get the choreography down and then you can add in the sensuality and eroticism.
I think a lot of authors nervous about writing their first intimate scene tend to overcomplicate the situation.
Your scene can be short. 1-3 pages is perfectly fine. All you're asking yourself is what would you want done to you? What would you want to do to a lover? Then write it.
Your scene can be short. 1-3 pages is perfectly fine. All you're asking yourself is what would you want done to you? What would you want to do to a lover? Then write it.
November 21, 2025 at 12:17 PM
This is fantastic advice! You can also think of writing sex as writing a fight scene. Both involve coordinating bodies in a give-and-take scenario, and need to communicate what the character is feeling in their body. Get the choreography down and then you can add in the sensuality and eroticism.
Reposted by Diane Ackland
I want people to displace the imaginary depictions of *revolutions* that they have come to create in their heads with the actual small revolutionary acts that happen daily. We might get closer to revolution that way.
November 20, 2025 at 7:36 PM
I want people to displace the imaginary depictions of *revolutions* that they have come to create in their heads with the actual small revolutionary acts that happen daily. We might get closer to revolution that way.
Share a TV series you’ve watched from beginning to end more than once.
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Share a TV series you’ve watched from beginning to end more than once.
Reposted by Diane Ackland
Community cat people: Straw is for strays. Cloth materials can get wet and freeze.
Please repost
Please repost
November 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Community cat people: Straw is for strays. Cloth materials can get wet and freeze.
Please repost
Please repost
I don’t believe in ghosts, except for the ghosts at Kenyon College.
True story: my grandfather lived in Old Kenyon in ‘49, and went home to Akron on a whim the weekend the building burned down.
http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x2521.html
True story: my grandfather lived in Old Kenyon in ‘49, and went home to Akron on a whim the weekend the building burned down.
http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x2521.html
do you believe in ghosts or are you like me, a person who finds themself saying all the time “I absolutely don’t believe in ghosts, but this place has ghosts.”
November 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
I don’t believe in ghosts, except for the ghosts at Kenyon College.
True story: my grandfather lived in Old Kenyon in ‘49, and went home to Akron on a whim the weekend the building burned down.
http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x2521.html
True story: my grandfather lived in Old Kenyon in ‘49, and went home to Akron on a whim the weekend the building burned down.
http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x2521.html
Reposted by Diane Ackland
If only I didn't have chronic illnesses that are genetically linked and keep me from doing things like exercise.
People need to stop linking health to morality because there are so many reasons for a person to have health issues. It's nuanced and some of it is out of the individual's control.
People need to stop linking health to morality because there are so many reasons for a person to have health issues. It's nuanced and some of it is out of the individual's control.
Yeah, if you grow up in a food desert, or near a polluting company, or work for a company that doesn't let you take appropriate breaks, or get hit by someone else's car, shame on you for not taking care of your health.
Markwayne Mullin: "Reward people for being healthy. Think about this. Healthcare is the only industry that you're not rewarded for taking care of your responsibility. If you think about homeowners insurance, if you're within 500 feet of a fire hydrant, your insurance goes down."
November 19, 2025 at 8:10 PM
If only I didn't have chronic illnesses that are genetically linked and keep me from doing things like exercise.
People need to stop linking health to morality because there are so many reasons for a person to have health issues. It's nuanced and some of it is out of the individual's control.
People need to stop linking health to morality because there are so many reasons for a person to have health issues. It's nuanced and some of it is out of the individual's control.
Entering my slut era*.
*taking care of my body, wearing crop tops despite teh Fat, and writing erotica.
*taking care of my body, wearing crop tops despite teh Fat, and writing erotica.
November 18, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Entering my slut era*.
*taking care of my body, wearing crop tops despite teh Fat, and writing erotica.
*taking care of my body, wearing crop tops despite teh Fat, and writing erotica.