July 2025

The only constant in life is its challenges. We can either spend all our energy avoiding them, trying to fix them, or staying on our path. It’s all hard, so we have to choose the right hard for us. Sometimes there are no fixes, so the best thing to do is stay the course.

Romance with a Body Count

Author Elizabeth Barone’s Reader Newsletter

Archive: January 2025 | February 2025 | April 2025

When I wrote A Touch of Gold in 2020, we’d lost my Noni and our family home. I baked my grief into the book, and wrote a way for Goldie to save her family’s home.

Cut to 2025, I’m working on the last book in the series while staring down the barrel of being homeless.

I really don’t need any more writing inspiration! 😅

The only constant in life is its challenges. We can either spend all our energy avoiding them, trying to fix them, or staying on our path. It’s all hard, so we have to choose the right hard for us. Sometimes there are no fixes, so the best thing to do is stay the course.

For me, that means writing.

It’s really hard to focus when everything is crashing around you. Lately I’ve been practicing my original reason for writing: to stay sane. Over the years, my why evolved first to keeping my mind occupied while sick and unemployed, then to giving my readers more of the story they loved. I struggle with the fawn trauma response, so I’ve done a lot of people pleasing over the years, almost always to my detriment. Going back to basics and writing for myself has been so healing.

Whether you’re struggling with health issues, horrified by the evils of the world, or going through something else entirely, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on your why. You don’t have to be a writer to have a why; my best friend says her five children are hers. It can be that simple and wholesome. We all need a light that keeps us going.

What’s yours?

What I’m Working On

Summer is in full swing, and for me that means a renewed focus on my work in progress, Sleeve of Hearts. It’s slow going as ever, but a change in attitude has made things a bit easier. Instead of beating on myself for only being able to do one thing a day—often that one thing is making a meal—I’m shifting to focusing on one thing at a time. I’m practicing prioritizing my needs and keeping my expectations realistic. Much like anything else in life, it’s a work in progress; it’s a practice, never perfect. I’m practicing remembering that.

I’m so grateful for my publisher for being so understanding and supportive while I duke it out with this book and my own body and brain. Their publishing schedule is set for the next two years, so I’m hoping Sleeve of Hearts will see a 2028 release.

You don’t have to wait three years to go back to Stagwood Falls, though!

Get a (Fictional) Tattoo for Only $5

Inflation’s fucking crazy lately. I’m sure I don’t even want to know the going hourly rate for a tattoo these days. Let my apprentice Kinsley tattoo you fictionally!

I’ll turn you into a character in Sleeve of Hearts and your fictional self will receive a tattoo, microblading or permanent makeup, or haircut or braiding from apprentice Kinsley. All you have to do is upgrade to a paid sponsor of my newsletter for $5/month!

I’ll post a rough draft of your scene on my website, and you’ll see the edited version in the published book.

Don’t worry, if you don’t want to upgrade, you’ll still get my free reader newsletter and occasional goodies. But if you do upgrade, you’ll also get access to serialized editions of my books and exclusive goodies (like new stickers before they even hit my shop).

Become a sponsor now!

Thank you so much to my Sponsors Lauren, B., Dee, and Katy! Look out for your characters’ scenes soon.

Free River Reapers novella

As my email subscriber, you can now read Her Mercy for free! All 25 chapters are now live.

If you’ve already read Mercy and Bree’s story, leave a comment with your emoji reaction to the novella. Mine would be like 🦋🦅🖤!

What’s your biggest challenge this summer? Let’s cheer each other on—tell us yours by replying to this email, or you can leave a comment on my website.

I hope you and your loved ones are as well as can be, and that your summer’s giving all the good vibes. Or at least good AC. 😉

This summer, I’m having six MRIs and a tilt table study to assess what lupus is doing all up in my brain and nervous system. I could let the fear freeze me in place, or I can choose to see these scary tests as a scheduled nap and amusement park ride. I’m somewhere in between—like I said, I’m practicing.

May you always be in practice as a beautiful work in progress, too.

Happy reading!

Age verification laws have been spreading like wildfire, and now that Bluesky is requiring all U.K. users to verify their identity and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Texas law blocking minors from viewing porn, authors need to prepare.

Here in the States where I live, we are under a christofascist administration. Evil people have been passing laws targeting immigrants and transgender people, and if you’ve read Project 2025, you know what’s coming next. I believe this administration and other fascist lawmakers are using age verification and children’s safety to push their agenda. Don’t get me wrong—as an auntie of nine, of course I want kids to be safe online! But let’s leave that up to their parents to monitor, rather than instilling sweeping legislation that strips adults of privacy and access to information, and violates authors’ freedom of speech.

Age verification violates internet users’ privacy. If you use anonymous social media accounts to protect yourself from an abuser or simply because you want to talk about romance without your co-workers discovering your guilty pleasure, age verification will make it impossible to remain so. It can also be used to target authors, especially those writing romance, erotica, or LGBTQ+ characters. Fascists love labeling anything they don’t like as porn.

These laws are already effecting authors. If you live in the U.K. and use a pen name, you’ll have to provide photo ID, scan your face, or upload a pic of your bank card to continue using Bluesky starting July 25th. That’s only two weeks away.

There are a few things you can do.

I know I’ve been beating on this drum forever, but seriously, if you’re an author, you need your own website and email list. When you own your platform, it can’t be damaged by social media algorithms changing or new laws passing. Too many of us got dicknotized by Facebook/Instagram/Meta and the like; it’s time to take back control. Make sure you have a way of contacting your readers no matter what.

It’s only a matter of time before platforms like WordPress.com and SubStack require age verification, so if you post chapters or excerpts of your spicy romance on these platforms, you could be fined millions of dollars. From the Verge article I linked above:

The UK passed the Online Safety Act in 2023, which privacy advocates have warned will “lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users.” Another part of the law is coming into force on July 25th, requiring sites and apps containing porn and harmful content to provide “highly effective age assurance.” Platforms that don’t comply with the new rules will face fines of up to £18 million ($24 million) or 10 percent of their worldwide revenue, whichever is higher.

These laws, as written, are insane. Who decides which content is “harmful”? And why are lawmakers hiding behind the very same children they won’t pass gun control laws to protect? I digress, but what the actual fuck?

I’ve been posting excerpts, chapters, and whole texts from my romance books for years. Right now I have this content on my website freely available to everyone, some locked to my email subscribers, and some locked to paid members. Under these laws, authors won’t be able to post such content on our own websites or social media without some sort of “highly effective age assurance” if someone deems it “harmful.”

I’ve long been against self-censorship on social media to bypass bots flagging and people pettily reporting posts. I believe that in this political climate, with a convicted rapist in the White House, it’s obscene to soften the word rape to “grape.” Rape is real. It happens to 1 in 3 real people, probably more. It happens to children. It happened to me. It should be shocking to hear. And from an artist’s perspective, it’s fucking silly to use symbols or emoji to write words like sex or cock. Yet everyone just rolled over and complied, adopting ridiculous terms like unalived instead of killed (another word that’s supposed to be shocking).

An age verification bill just passed in Ohio, despite criticism from the ACLU that the way it’s written is vague and could be weaponized. The “blue” state I live in, Connecticut, is considering passing a similar law. We all need to be pushing back on these laws. Call and write your senators and representatives, submit comments on bills being written, attend town halls. We cannot rollover.

You can choose to not verify your identity, but unfortunately this results in a restricted account. Bluesky won’t allow unverified users to send or receive DMs, or view content that is “adult appropriate.” Considering Bluesky flags stock photos as porn because a woman is showing her *gasp* stomach, and doesn’t answer DMs or appeal requests, I don’t have much faith.

It’s only a matter of time before the other social media apps follow suit. Instagram has long been working on tools for age verification. I believe our best bet is sticking together and fighting these laws, while amending our own business plans and practices in preparation for a more restricted internet. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and fight like hell to protect privacy and information.

Do you think you will be affected by age verification laws? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or send me an email! I’d love to hear what you make of all this.

Photo by Jansen Yang on Unsplash