Black Jacket Babe

Black Jacket Babe

Hidden Figures (2016) dir. Theodore Melfi

Barbados will become a republic on Nov. 30, 2021 […]. The move will jettison formal ties to the crown going back nearly 500 years to the reign of James I. […] Jamaica may soon follow suit. The Caribbean basin’s other largest countries colonized by England – Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago – became republics in the 1970s. St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines have also debated the idea. […] For Barbados, the legacy of empire and the wealth generated by plantation slavery through 68 governors and eight governors-general appointed by London will recede even further into the past as the country removes the 94-year-old Elizabeth II as head of state. […] The British took control of Barbados in 1625. The first settlers grew tobacco. Sugar-cane plantations were introduced a few decades later, but indentured servants from the British Isles […] produced fewer profits than their replacements: hundreds of thousands of African slaves. […] [C.C.], 54, who grew up in St. Michael Parish, Barbados and moved to the U.S. in 2000, was keenly aware of Queen Elizabeth’s role in Bajan society as he grew up […]. The [Boston-area] resident, whose wife also hails from “Bim,” as islanders call [Barbados], said he viewed the queen’s removal as head of state through a practical […] lens. […] “If we have to get rid of the queen, it’s like cutting out your appendix. If it annoys you, you can get rid of it and easily live without it.”

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Brian Wright O’Connor. “Barbados cutting ties to the crown.” The Bay State Banner. 23 September 2020.

Legendborn  (2020)

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

by Tracy Deonn

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Tracy Deonn is a writer and second-generation fangirl. She grew up in central North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning her master’s degree in communication and performance studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy speaks on panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, reads fanfic, arranges puppy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. She can be found on Twitter at @TracyDeonn and at TracyDeonn.com.

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