Elin Annalise, Asexual Romance Writer

 This is a summary of the updates about Looking For Hope that I posted on Twitter in March 2022, along with an update from April 2022.  March 2022:  LOOKING FOR HOPE is one of the hardest books I’ve written. I wrote it while in hospital, and two months ago, again in hospital, I was trying to finish its edits. Then Amazon messed up and cancelled all the preorders. None of these have been reinstated. They won’t even list the book now. And I’m just…exhausted and deflated. When Amazon cancelled it, I lost all the motivation to keep editing it. I haven’t touched it since then. And now I just don’t know what to do with it. It was a pretty destroying book to write, and I feel defeated. I haven’t had the energy to argue with Amazon to get the title back up, and part of me just thinks maybe I should leave it be and not release this book (at least, at the moment). There are preorders on other platforms but as Amazon holds the monopoly for indie titles, I am really considering cancelling this boo

 They had the opportunity to include asexuality… you know, on the colour that represents asexuality… but instead they wrote ‘straight’.  I spotted this poster at my local NHS walk-in centre. Very disappointing.  Ace erasure and exclusion is exactly why days such as #InternationalAsexualityDay are important.

  A Twitter thread from my @ ElinAnnalise account  Whenever I tweet about Asexuality and the need for more awareness and ace education, there’s always someone who’ll say I’m looking for something to be oppressed about or moan about, and that aces aren’t affected like other queer people. Um, ace oppression and erasure IS real. Can’t believe I’m having this conversation the day after International Ace Day either. 🙄🙄🙄  We need more awareness & education, because common responses to telling someone you’re ace are:  “You should see a doctor.”  “It’s not a real thing.” “You’ll find someone in the end.” “Is it because of trauma?”  “That’s unnatural.”  “I can fix you” or “I will fix you.”  “I choose not to have sex sometimes too!”  “You’re just scared.”  “You should see a therapist.”  “So you have no emotions?”  “Wow, you’re missing out.”  “It must mean you’re not happy.” “I think you’re just repressing your sexuality.”  “You’re not a whole person.” “Wow, that’s weird and creep.” [stil

 The manuscript I’m working on is becoming less and less like a romance, and more like a contemporary about healing/friendship/different types of love, with suspense and a romantic subplot. I’m really stuck on what to call it as I don’t like the term ‘women’s fiction’…  Ideas? Here’s the mood board I made…  Why don’t I like the term ‘Women’s Fiction’?  Well, it doesn’t really tell you much about the genre. It seems kind of sexist, like women have to have their own classification especially for them, and there’s no genre for ‘men’s fiction’—which, to me, kind of implies that (almost all?) other genres are written primarily with men in mind, and all stories for women just get put into this one category?  Like, it also means men likely won’t read women’s fiction for fear of being seen as feminine … so why class a whole genre of books as being just for women? What is it about them that mean men shouldn’t read them? Are these stories deemed too emotional and weak? Too trashy? I know romance

So, I’ve not posted on here in years, which is a little embarrassing. To be honest, I kind of forgot I had this website. I write under three different names, and I’d been using one of my other websites as a catch-all type thing for everything I write. But I realised that just wasn’t really working. The books I write with my other two names are dark and strange, about haunted girls and powerful families—which doesn’t really sum up my ace romances and women’s fiction at all! So I’ve decided to separate my books onto different websites again. Thus, ElinAnnalise.com is being resurrected!  I’m slowly updating this site with my new books that have released in the last two years…  I’ll add some of my Twitter threads here, probably writing them up a little more, as I’ve been using my Twitter for a lot of updates and ramblings recently. But I think it makes sense to return to blogging as well.  And I’ll update with writing news too—of which, I have lots to share!  So, a brief look here at what’