Queer Romance - Tumblr Posts
Book Thought Thursday: July 28, 2022
Book Thought Thursdays is a series I have started to help encourage myself and others to continue reading. I'll share my thoughts on books I've read, and everyone is free to add their own thoughts as well.
This week's book will be...
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley! (I've tried to find a bigger image six times so you're getting a smaller one)(and apologies for the pixely image on mobile)
Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ+
Published: December 2020
Length: 280 pages
How did I get it?: Once Upon a Bookclub: YA Edition
Plot: Melody McIntyre is plagued by a mysterious "curse": every time she dates someone during one of her school's shows, something goes horribly wrong. Tasked with being stage manager for the upcoming production of Les Mis, she's determined to break this "curse". It's easy not to fall in love...right?
Content Warnings: none
My Thoughts
Rating: 8.5/10
I've done stage crew for my whole high school career, so when I read that this book featured a stage manager, I was really excited! I don't remember if the author was involved in some way or if she just did her research pretty well but it all hit home lol. The dynamics between crew and cast can definitely be a bit...hostile, and she hit that right on the head. The queer representation, in my opinion, is great, but as someone who doesn't have two dads or have had a sapphic relationship like Melody has, I can't say that it's exactly accurate representation. Anyways, what is accurate at representing is high school theater and how freaking chaotic it is. There's rumors, there's traditions, there's a bat. It hits all the right notes lol.
There's a lot of deception in this book. I won't go into spoilers, but Melody keeps a lot of secrets and lies. As much as it annoyed me, that's what humans do. They lie to other people and keep secrets as if it's their life, even if it isn't that big of a deal in the first place. Even so, like I said, it was definitely annoying to watch her panic about trying to keep all these threads she's woven from tangling together.
The characters have a decent depth, and the writing was enticing. There's a section that sort of like drabbles to show as time goes on, that was a little weird and hard to get into but it showed plenty of sapphic fluff. It's a good queer romance book, and I recommend it to those who are looking for a soft romance with interesting characters set in the backdrop of high school theater.
Quotes
"First stop, the Beaconville High School theater tech booth, last stop, Broadway."
“You don’t make up for lying to someone by lying to them more.”
"The Little Mermaid (2015):
All run crew members must wear glitter eye shadow at all times. (This superstition is irrelevant of gender. Mermaids are WAY beyond the binary.)"
I want what they have
I am a little late with this post, but honestly of all the things I have written in the last year, this is the one I have the most feelings about.
Transcendence
This week I am posting stories that go for #aceweek. I wrote this initially for a contest that called for 300 word queer stories based on the word ink. I came up with the idea of trancedental ink, which is in line with the idea of soulmate marks, but marks taken by choice, and how this changes society. This actually has a background file that is about twice as long as the story, and might be a…
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Memento
Ok, so I am going to start by saying this is in no way autobiographical. All of my posts this week are part of asexual awareness (acceptance) week, and while this is not my story, I think it is probably someone out there’s story, and apparently I was inspired in a strange direction. Oh and this was based on the girlontheedge six sentence story prompt of keepsake. She kept the ring as a keepsake…
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Forget-Me-Not
Sorry for the delay, I thought I had scheduled this for release….but apparently not. The response to this weeks six-sentence story prompt and a continuation of last weeks story, this was written for the word prompt of CANVAS. I worked it a few times, but it still isn’t quite what I wanted. Tell me what you think? She hadn’t lost hope, but it was starting to stretch a little, wear thin in places,…
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Forever Yours
This was a micro fiction challenge, under 250 words, but written in the form of letters. It was supposed to be a challenge in terms of character voice, and I am not sure I nailed it, but these are two unsent letters. It’s another one that is not so happy. Sorry guys, Greg, You are my best friend, my person, and I will go to my grave with my biggest regret being that I don’t have the courage to…
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All-American
No idea where this one came from, just another unhappy child moving away to become who they are. I honestly believe you can’t quite make that transition into the person you are meant to be until you leave your childhood home. This is the story of Sam, who left home and became their own person. She looked down at the pictures of the child dressed up as as the all American little boy, in blue…
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White Knight
Hello Hello, and welcome to the event that will be Genre Flashfiction February. Yes, I am a little early on this one, but week one launched on Romance. This is the response to round one prompt: Write a piece under 300 words about the moment the character realizes they are in love. Follow Dan, as she realizes that Clive is a keeper. Enjoy! He cringed when he heard the knock on the door, not…
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The Reddest of Flags
So this week I fell off the posting wagon between finals, final assignments, work, NaNoWriMo, renovations, and an upcoming visitor, I forgot to edit my Friday work, and forgot to schedule this, my six sentence story based on the word valet. Follow our non-specific narrator as they drive up to a place that is out of there league, and realize that this is no ordinary dinner. I knew that a mistake…
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Three of a Kind
So this week’s story is a little out of character, and I am not sure what I was thinking when I was writing it. It feels a little like a summary of a longer story, but follow the story of Shilah, Stephan, and Grayson, who find a different way to look at happily ever after. Every morning she woke up, miserable, exhausted, over tired, and then she remembered. A smile slowly crossed her face as she…
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Not Prince Charming...
This week’s six sentence story is inspired by the word of the week FORGE. At first I thought metal, blacksmithing, because I have done that, and then I went in a completely different direction, specifically forgery. Follow our narrator as they look for love, and have some interesting experiences with online dating. While it isn’t exactly fluff, this one is a lot lighter than my usual entries, so…
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Chapters 16-18
Pretend like I market on here instead of forgetting...
Read Atrophy of the Eternal Forest for free on Tapas!! It's amazing, I swear
delilah green and claire sutherland.
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!! 🏳️🌈
Clip-Art Comic Challenge ✨️
This is pretty old, but in honor of me re-writing the chapter this comic shows, I figure I'd post. 🎉
Depiction of a scene from 🌐7 Circles🌐 Ch.4 -made using only free clip-art on canva!
So that's how Seeker and Val 'meet' for the first time! This was weirdly difficult AND fun to make. Maybe one day I'll make another one~
7C Taglist: @gioiaalbanoart @biblicallyaccuratefruitbat @katenewmanwrites @pencilpusher1000 @lychhiker-writes @autism-purgatory @wyked-ao3 @cowboybrunch @zackprincebooks @smellyrottentrees @fortunatetragedy @aalinaaaaaa @the-golden-comet @urbiggestfan-01 @quillswriting @nbkuhn @ddgraywrites @desastreus @nbkuhn @theglitchywriterboi @shanakin-skywalker @honeybewrites @sincerelydorky
I kknow absolutely nothing about your characters but are they homosexuals
They look it
That there group of characters are in fact genuine ho-mo-sexuals, yessiree.
[To be more queerly precise here:
🌻Klaus is pansexual, panromantic, cisgendered. Sexually nonmonogamous but flexible, romantically open to polyfidelity.
💋Kazimier is grey-ace but pansexual, somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, and is gender-fluid. Strictly nonmonogamous sexually, romantically.. unwilling.
🌠Seeker is androsexual, biromantic, and intersex with some demifem identifying. Culturally predisposed to polyamory.
🐁Val is pretty apathetic to all notions of these identities, he identifies as a bloke just lookin to get by.
At least that's how they are off the top of my head lmao 😅]
Tagging peeps incase any o yall wanna talk about how your characters identify.
@gioiaalbanoart @biblicallyaccuratefruitbat @katenewmanwrites @lychhiker-writes @autism-purgatory
@wyked-ao3 @cowboybrunch @zackprincebooks @smellyrottentrees @tragedycoded
@aalinaaaaaa @the-golden-comet @quillswriting @nbkuhn @ddgraywrites
@desastreus @theglitchywriterboi @shanakin-skywalker @honeybewrites @sincerelydorky (hmu to be +/- to my taglist!)
The true queer experience consists of two factors.
1) trying to understand if you like that person or if you just admire them
2) falling for someone knowing damn well that you will never have a chance
(definitely not from personal experience;-;)
Last February, I found out that I'd lost my ability to connect with my audience for publishing tabletop games, and my brain, being dumb and stupid, decided We Were Done Making Games Then. (I know it's stupid. I don't get it either.) I didn't make a single thing that wasn't for work for nearly six months.
Late August last year (not sure of the exact date), I said fuck that, and started making notes for a novel inspired by a friend's weird, wild, and wonderful multiplayer journaling game about witches. It was finished before the end of the year, and after EXTENSIVE revisions is currently being queried with seven literary agents (not including the one who already rejected me).
AND NOW, I've just finished writing the last scene of a SECOND novel, a sequel, and it feels SO. GOOD.
I'd say I don't know what demon of productivity possessed me, except that's not true. It's NICE pouring my energy into cozy stories about weirdos like me, who are too weird and broken to fit into any of the usual boxes we draw around sexuality and gender. It's NICE writing honest depictions of mental illness and trauma fucking up people's relationships, and having people find happy endings anyway. And it's NICE writing meaningful, found family relationships that matter just as much as the romance. There's so much completely unavoidable, awful, tedious bullshit in the world that I have to wrestle with as a trans person. It's healing pouring my feelings about that into something positive.
Two novels in less than a year! Man. Now I just need someone to publish them so I can share these wholesome disaster bisexual dumbasses with the world.
(NGL, I also had a lot of fucking fun writing the smut. That was pretty good too.)
Snippet from my queer polyamorous romance novel, Community Witch - an unapologetically trope-y, cozy, and relationship-driven romance story about the healing from trauma, found family, and joyful queer relationships. (Looking to publish next year.) ---
“My life has turned into a Lifemark movie,” Aspen groaned, flopping dramatically onto their bed. “Thirty year old enby leaves the big city, including their terrible partner and the job they hate, to move to a beautiful small town, has meet cute with beautiful stranger before running into The One That Got Away.”
There was a choking sound on the other end of the line.
“You’re allowed to laugh,” Aspen grumbled. “Even I think it’s ridiculous, and I’m living it.”
Becks didn’t laugh, but Aspen could hear the grin in her voice. “I assume the beautiful stranger is Rav, but who is The One That Got Away?”
“Remember that guy I was hopelessly in love with in high school? The wholesome football player?”
“Maybe?”
“My best friend? The one that was over all the time?”
“Oh my god, that himbo you tutored, then pined for the rest of high school? The one you wanted to smash from orbit?”
“Not a himbo,” Aspen bristled, unable to argue with the rest of Becks’ description. “Anyway. She’s Nat now. I ran into her at the gym just now when I was dropping off cards around town. And we’re going to catch up when she’s done with work.”
This time, Becks did laugh – gleeful peals that made Aspen smile despite themself.