All posts by Julie

about

About Libra-Tiger

When I write novels and stories, I always aspire to this ideal:

The best fiction is where art, philosophy and adventure all meet.

You can discover whether I achieve that via this site, LIBRAtiger, which acts as a central hub for the titles I have published. Manifold Press were kind enough to publish my LGBTQ+ fiction and male-male romance; these titles have now been re-released under the LIBRAtiger imprint. I am proud that my stories have been included in Manifold Press’s anthologies. MxM Bookmark have begun translating some of my titles into French. Ooh la la! I have also begun publishing my own general fiction.

The name of this site incorporates my Western astrological sign Libra and my Chinese zodiac sign Tiger. To be honest, I take astrology with a few grains of salt – but I still get a kick out of being a Libra-Tiger, and there’s plenty about both signs to like! On a more serious note, I like how the harmony and considered thought of the Libran scales contrasts with the energy and unpredictability of the tiger. Activities such as writing necessarily find a balance between two such forces – and so here I am, with one half of me prowling through the creative jungle, while the other half watches and considers and proofreads.

My biography and Transformative Works Statement can be found on the About Julie Bozza page.

I would – of course! – love to hear from you about art, philosophy, adventure, or indeed anything else you’d like to talk about. Please feel free to use the comment forms on any page of this site, or email me directly via [email protected]

Happy browsing – and happy reading!

Love in Every Stitch, M/M romance

Love in Every Stitch

Blurb: Jake is a trapper working high in the mountains of Wyoming Territory, usually not seeing another human from one month to the next. Recently, however, he’s had an unexpected guest – an Easterner named Edwin, who pitches in to ensure that Jake has enough supplies to survive the coming winter. As the evenings draw in, Jake works on knitting a blanket, adding a bit of love (and maybe even magic) into every stitch, hoping to entice Edwin to join him under its warmth…

Genre: male-male romance; historical; Western; supernatural; short story

Word count: 2,600

Available in ebook format from:

Reader sites:

Published on 19 December 2020.

LGBTQ+ fiction, Rock Paper Water

Rock Paper Water

Blurb: Daniel and Aron are both 17 and go to the same school in Canberra. There the similarities end. But when their families meet at the Yadboro campsite, the two young men are expected to hang out together. They still don’t have much in common, but their differences might be more interesting than either had anticipated…

Genre: LGBTQ fiction; gay and pan characters; young adult; contemporary; Australia; Christmas; short story

Word count: 3,600

Written for the Rainbow Advent Calendar 2019, with thanks to Alex Jane for organising this festive event!

Available in ebook format from:

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Published on 4 December 2019.

Heroines, speculative fiction

Heroines

An Anthology of Short Fiction and Poetry (Volume 2)

Blurb: With a focus on reclaiming the stories of women in history and reimagining the heroines of legend, fairytale, and mythology, in ways that are both resonant and startlingly new The Heroines Anthology Volume 2 presents a challenging and soulful collection that interrogates the traditional power dynamics of classic literature, while touching on the deeper questions of women’s true nature.

Edited by Sarah Nicholson and Caitlin White, with poetry and short fiction by award winning and emerging writers including Julie Watts, Anna Jacobson, Therese Doherty, Jan Napier, Alicia Gilmore, Anne Walsh, Barbara Taylor, Jena Woodhouse, Louise Pieper, Hannah Wheeler, Clio Davidson-Lynch , Rita Togini, Pamela Hart, Kim Waters, Julie Bozza, Toni Brisland, Deanne Leber, Louise Hopewell, Jayne Fenton Keane, Linda Godfrey, Toni Brisland, Wes Lee, Margaret Bradstock, Kate O’Neill, Freddy Iryss and Jane Frank.

Genre: general fiction; women; historical; contemporary; myths; anthology

Page count: 121

Available in paperback format from:

Reader sites:

Published on 15 September 2019.

Banner image by Luke Braswell on Unsplash.

Heroines

reviews: Heroines

Review by Sarah Rose McKenzie on her blog

Summary: Overall, I found Heroines to be an evocative, compelling collection of feminist writing and fairy tales reborn. Not only is the writing itself rich and varied, but the characterisation too; with pieces composed from the perspectives of famous characters, goddesses, historical figures, and of course, modern-day heroines of their own stories.

While many of the stories and poems have unhappy endings, I finished the last page of Heroines feeling invigorated and inspired. The anthology fills in spaces where women’s voices have been swallowed and reclaims the autonomy that is rightfully theirs. Girls and women are ever hungry for representation – and in Heroines, we can see ourselves reflected, in all our formidable glory.

Heroines

stories: Chooser of the Slain

I was very impressed by the quality of the stories to be found in the first Heroines anthology, and (while feeling somewhat daunted) I was determined to try writing something to submit to the second anthology.

The focus of the anthologies is on “reclaiming the stories of women in history and reimagining the heroines of legend, fairytale, and mythology”. I’m a fan of John Keats, and I love his ballad “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, so I felt that was a good place to start.

La Belle Dame of the ballad – the beautiful woman without mercy – is only seen from the knight’s point of view. She seduces men away from life and hope, and condemns them to lingering in a shadowy nowhere, caught between life and death.

Many of us will be familiar with the imagery, even if we’ve never read the poem, as the femme fatale trope has long been popular. The Pre-Raphaelite painters in particular were inspired by Keats’ ballad, producing a number of works including the one above, painted by Henry Meynell Rheam in 1901 (source: Wikipedia).

“But what is the woman’s point of view?” I wondered. None (few?) of us see ourselves as the villain of the story. Maybe she is performing a useful service, saving them from the experience of a painful death, gathering more knights for King Arthur in his long slumber, or something along those lines. When I mused about this to my sister and fellow author, Bryn Hammond, she immediately pointed me at the Valkyries, who collected slain heroes from battlefields and took them to their reward of an afterlife in Valhalla.

And so was born Lily, my gentle, English pastoral version of a Valkyrie, who we meet in the no man’s land between the trenches of the Great War…

The story itself is rather short, but it captures what I wanted to say and in its way covers rather a lot of ground. I hope you will be intrigued enough to give it a try! I can guarantee you that Chooser of the Slain is at least in very good company.

Crisis at Christmas, M/M romance

Crisis at Christmas

Blurb: Oliver volunteers for Crisis at Christmas to help the homeless. The last thing he expects is that he’ll meet someone.

Genre: male-male romance; contemporary; Christmas story; short story

Word count: 2,500

Written for the Rainbow Advent Calendar 2018, with thanks to Alex Jane. If you are able to do so, please support Crisis, the national UK charity aiming to end homelessness.

Available in ebook format from:

Reader sites:

Published on 3 December 2018.

Crisis at Christmas

reviews: Crisis at Christmas

Readers on Goodreads:

  • Marge gave it four stars and said: Wonderful little story with likeable characters and a hopeful ending. Although it’s complete unto itself, I would love to read more about Oliver and Finn.
  • Sara said: Nine beautiful pages that filled my heart and made me long for so much more of Finn and Oliver.
  • Hart gave it four stars and said: This is a very good but very short slice-of-life Christmas story. … It only took me a few minutes to read, but I know it will stay with me – like everything Julie Bozza writes!
  • Don Bradshaw gave it four stars and said: I’ve read most of Ms. Bozza’s books. This sweet short lived up all of my expectations.
  • Shelley Chastagner gave it four stars and said: The feeling of hope came through from page one. I loved that Oliver saw Finn as a person from the moment he meets him. Not as a homeless person, not as someone less than, just a man. The plans they make together made me smile and left me feeling that all would be right in the end.
LGBTQ+ fiction, No Holds Bard

No Holds Bard

Modern LGBTQ+ fiction inspired by the works of William Shakespeare

Blurb: Ten authors, twelve extraordinary stories. From a novel solution to the Plantagenet succession crisis to revelations about the private lives of Prince Hal and – separately! – Brutus and Cassius, plus a surprise ending for Twelfth Night, no play is safe. We have marriage proposals and murder; subtle scheming villainy; a missing manuscript; a haunting… Whether set within the framework of a play, or spotlighting actors, characters, or the Bard himself, these stories will have you viewing Shakespeare in a whole new light. It’s definitely not the kind of thing they taught us in school…

Take a deep breath. Dive in. Prepare to be astonished!

An anthology edited by Fiona Pickles and featuring authors Julie Bozza, Siobhan Dunlop, Adam Fitzroy, Bryn Hammond, Erin Horáková, Molly Katz, Vanessa Mulberry, Eleanor Musgrove, Michelle Peart, and Jay Lewis Taylor.

Genre: LGBTQ+ fiction; historical; contemporary; William Shakespeare; anthology

Click here for the blurbs.

Word count: 67,000

Available in ebook and paperback formats from:

Reader sites:

Published on 1 May 2018.

No Holds Bard

reviews: No Holds Bard

Historical Novel Society: review by Kristen McQuinn

Excerpt and conclusion: … a delightful collection of Shakespeare tales, revised and revisited for a modern audience and with an LGBT focus. …

For me, the highlights were Julie Bozza’s “In Fair Verona,” a version of Romeo and Juliet focusing on the ghost of Mercutio influencing Lord Byron; Siobhan Dunlop’s “Imitate the Sun,” about a modern London-based troupe of all-women Shakespearean actors preparing to perform Henry IV and their behind-the-scenes dramas and insecurities; Michelle Peart’s “Lost,” [Julie Bozza’s “In a Dark House”] a continuation of Twelfth Night in the form of a conversation, mostly, between Feste and Malvolio; and Adam Fitzroy’s “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t,” a retelling of Macbeth as a modern murder case.

Each entry in the anthology deals with some aspect that is important within the LGBTQ+ community and highlights it in a way that makes it relevant to all readers. This is a terrific approach, since everyone needs more insight, understanding, and empathy into all facets of life, not just what we are familiar with already. Literature such as No Holds Bard does exactly that, while also taking an irreverent approach to the Bard himself in the process. I think Shakespeare would have approved! Definitely recommended.

No Holds Bard on Goodreads

  • Rohase Piercy gave it 4 stars and said: Well, this was fun! Such a variety of approaches to putting an LGBTQ twist on Shakespeare’s works, with twelve stories from eleven different authors. I enjoyed all of them, but I’ll tell you my four favourites: Erin Horakova’s ‘Couched In A Curious Bed’ gives us a new slant on Richard of York’s ‘difference’ and a novel ending to the Wars of the Roses in Henry VI; Julie Bozza’s ‘In Fair Verona’ features a romantic encounter between Lord Byron to Romeo & Juliet’s Mercutio – no mean feat across two centuries! Bryn Hammond gives us an ageing Shakespeare collaborating on his last play, ‘Two Noble Kinsmen’ and pouring out his heart to his character Princess Emilia as he struggles to give voice both to her sexuality and that of her two suitors in a way that will avoid the controversy caused by publication of his Sonnets; and my personal favourite is Jay Lewis Taylor’s very clever ‘After the Storm’, in which the characters from The Tempest are transported to Wales and given an alternative but parallel story narrated from the point of view of poor captive Ariel. This anthology has made me want to open my long-neglected Complete Works of Shakespeare for the first time in years – which I hope is a tribute in itself.
  • Bellbomb Bellbomb gave it 5 stars and said: … my initial decision to buy the book was because I’m an avid fan of some of the authors included in this anthology (Julie Bozza and Adam Fitzroy) and I just couldn’t get enough of their writing, and because this was from Manifold Press which you can’t go wrong with any of their publications. I’m glad I’ve found many new gems in this anthology whom I will be looking out for more of their full length novels in the future. This is one of those rare anthologies which I believe I’ll pick up to reread many times.