nickykyle

[nickykyle]

Okay folks it is time for a serious recommendation! If you enjoyed The Faerie Godmother’s Apprentice Wore Green, you need this book next.

The paperback copy will only be available until the end of December 2018 so if you want hardcopy, get your hands on it now! (The ebook will stay around after that, so if you can’t afford a new book right now don’t panic you can still read it later!) I haven’t finished reading all the stories in it yet, but I want to tell you about the first story in the book and one of my favorite stories ever.

It’s called When the Letter Comes by Sara Fox and it is incredible. Are you a fan of Harry Potter or any other story where characters discover a magical world? Wayward Children, Narnia, etc? YOU NEED TO READ THIS STORY. Did you grow-up always waiting, half-hoping, that the impossible would happen and an old closet or hidden passage or wax-sealed letter would lead you to a world of spells and stories? YOU NEED TO READ THIS STORY. Does part of you still hope that somehow, someday, you’ll find magic in the world? Is part of you forever sad by the fact that you haven’t? YOU NEED TO READ THIS STORY.

It will make you cry, and you will love it for that.

This is the story that everyone who grew up on promises of magical adventure that went unfulfilled needs to read. I have never been more serious about anything. This story broke my heart and healed it all at once. Read it.

[nickykyle]

❤️🧡💛💚💜💙 LT3 Celebrates Pride! 💙💜💚💛🧡❤️

Join LT3 this June to celebrate Pride! For the entire month of June, we’re giving you 20% off on all ebooks and paperbacks, and 32% off on all preorders. You can get these special Pride prices from June 1 through June 30, and pick up romances for the whole spectrum!

Visit the LT3 Book Market today!

[nickykyle]

Hey! Did you know I have a new Short Story coming out in three days?!

Yes, exactly that. That is the feeling I’m going for. 

Anyway, it’s about Henry who has been waiting her whole life for a letter to come. She’s planned out all the different ways it could happen, all the things it will change–and all the ways it will make the world right… Except when the letter comes it’s addressed to her sister.

You can Pre Order It | Or Buy Direct TODAY | Find it on GoodReads…

Or just read up a little on the fabulous color reveal on Booksmuggler’s Site. 

If you’re up for reviews please direct message me and I will do my best to hook you up. Otherwise–it’ll be available for free on the Booksmuggler’s site on the 22nd! The first time I’ve ever been looking forward to a Tuesday…

[nickykyle]

Hey Neil, should one ever start writing a sequel for their novel if the predecessor hasn't yet been published?

If you like. Or write a different book completely. Or short stories. But either way, don’t stop writing because you finished something and nobody has published it yet.

[nickykyle]

You're an amazing author and I love reading your stories! The stories themselves are always incredibly engaging and the characters are super multi-faceted, which is awesome. SO: Thank you for all the hard work that you do writing these stories! (Also: Thank you thank you thank you for your inclusion of aromantic identities. Seriously, thank you.)

Thank you so much! That is such a delight to hear, thank you!

And as an aro-ace myself, I will definitely be having lots of folk like that in my future stories, don’t you worry! (And honestly people of all sorts and varieties because representation and diversity is important, dammit, and it annoys me so much that there are people who don’t understand that. Ugh.)

[nickykyle]

elodieunderglass:

deducecanoe:

secondgenerationimmigrant:

twistedsardonic:

postmodernmulticoloredcloak:

photodox:

Ephesus // cats + ancient sites

I like to think the souls of the past lived on in the stray cats inhabiting the remains.

Fun fact: stray cats in Rome are not considered “strays” but “free cats” and they have legal citizenship of the city. They mostly live in the Roman ruins in the city and have legal rights and protection and are taken care of by thousands of specialized volunteers who make sure they’re healthy and fed. A lot of them also get sterilized and there are initiatives to get them adopted.

I guess cats everywhere have a kinship with ancient ruins :)

this does indeed make me feel so much better

I went to the Palace of Malia in Crete in December 2013. We were the only visitors in the whole archeologic site and the only other living beings around were the ticket lady and a super-affectionate cat.

She followed us around for the whole visit, well actually, she was walking in front of us as if she was guiding the tour and at the end of the visit she stopped by the offering table left in situ and took a drink.

Convince me she was not some sort of genius loci, if you can.

You had the best most magical tour guide.

The Mosque Cats in Morocco…. they KNOW something. There are the expected amount of skinny/hungry strays slinking all over the cities and towns, but the Mosque Cats are a breed apart. They perform many needful tasks, such as minding shoes and discreetly consuming pigeons, but they also sit in intense breadloaf or Bastet poses, communing with Higher Powers

[nickykyle]

The village of Styesville has a dragon problem, and is in sore need of a knight in shining armor to solve it for them. Instead, they get a strange traveler in a ragged cloak whom they barely even notice. Worse still, it soon becomes clear that the problem setting fire to their village isn't as simple as a dragon...

[nickykyle]

comixconnection:

On sale at Comix Connection - Mechanicsburg!

(with respect to John Romita Sr.)

Counter Monkey Sketch: Spider-Gwen #1

[nickykyle]

thingsifindwhileshelving:

I received a free ARC via NetGalley

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

ARC Review: The Faerie Godmother’s Apprentice Wore Green by Nicky Kyle

There’s a dragon pestering the small village of Styseville. An odd sort of dragon. There’s lots of singed roofs, stolen livestock, and panic, but it’s left the inn alone and nothing’s actually burned down. Still, a dragon is a dragon and it’s a pest that needs to be taken care of. The people of Styseville hope a knight will come and slay the beast, but it’s a small village and they have nothing to offer a knight in reward. No princesses in Styseville.

Their help comes in a different way, a way no one expects. A young woman - Dea- strides into the inn, takes a seat, and gets some information from the innkeeper’s daughter before she goes off to investigate and test a few theories. Those theories? This isn’t a proper dragon. How would she know? Well! She’s not only met a proper dragon, she’s becoming one.

The dragon pestering Styseville is, in actual fact, a magical impression of a dragon summoned by the innkeeper’s daughter in response to her unwanted engagement. Dea can’t fly the young girl away, but she can help her to a place where she can learn to control her magical powers. If she wants.

I really enjoyed this story. It’s such a cute little fairy tale, and it also reads like an introduction to a longer work. BUT it works well enough on it’s own. It’s a fun, quick read. 4/5 Stars

Arc review: the Faerie Godmother’s Apprentice Wore Green

[nickykyle]

aroaessidhe:

Edit: from now on this list will be over here on my blog! I won’t update this post any more.

sections: authors | characters | other books | webcomics

Keep reading

Ace/Aro books

[nickykyle]

asexual-representation:

This is the second of my posts examining trends in the recently-released Solitary Travelers collection that also apply to other books featuring ace characters. See part 1 for my observations about gender and romantic relationships.

TL;DR: Looking at all books that have ace characters, sci-fi/fantasy stories significantly outnumber contemporary/realistic, and many more are being written by non-ace authors than ace-identified ones. Ace characters who aren’t white are also lacking.

Keep reading

Ace Character Patterns: Genre & Authors

[nickykyle]

agentaletha:

asexual-representation:

asexual-representation:

The Solitary Travelers collection is a set of 16 novellas being published this month by Less Than Three Press, each featuring an asexual and/or aromantic protagonist. Looking into this collection has led me to notice some patterns regarding the ace characters, patterns that also hold true for other books. This is part 1 of my observations, focused on gender and romantic relationships.

TL;DR: There are many more m/m romances with ace characters than f/f or m/f. I only know of one book with a male ace character in an m/f  relationship. There are next to no non-binary or trans ace characters in books.

I’ll discuss these patterns in more detail below, and I’d love to know other people’s thoughts on why they might exist.

Keep reading

Since writing this post, I’ve discovered three more books with aces in f/f relationships–meaning there are twice as many as I originally thought! They are:

The recently-released novella As Autumn Leaves

Endless Days of Summer, a 2015 novel

Sabbath Flames, a 2011 novella

All three are contemporary/realistic.

I’ve been continuing to think about this and ran across this post: http://aceadmiral.tumblr.com/post/134956174133/writingfromfactorx-aceadmiral-you-wanted-to

I hadn’t really thought about asexual F/F relationships being a problem to wlw but I realized that I have touched on the edges of it before. It’s one of the reasons I don’t consider Fried Green Tomatoes to be ace at all, because to me it seems really obvious that they are intended to be lesbians. If you find meaningful representation in it, great, but it’s not ours. Also in real life I’ve seen understandable policing by a lesbian friend questioning someone who said she wanted a relationship with a woman but didn’t want it to be serious or long term and planned to eventually marry a man. This clarified my thoughts about the difference in how western (American specifically) society treats F/F and M/M relationships and what kind of stories we see most often.

F/F relationships are considered much less serious in pop culture, easily excused as a phase or sexual experimentation. I’m thinking of the idea of the “Lesbian Phase” or apparently (Google just informed me) “Lesbian until Graduation” And those are the tropes actually using the term lesbian instead of just “experimentation”. A woman can say she was just exploring or just doing it for attention or any other number of excuses because guys find it hot and it’s more acceptable to return to a state of availability to dudes and bisexuality is invisible. Also, as both OPs mention, there are many stories of intense ambiguous relationships between women. Perhaps there is less of a need to see intense non-sexual relationships between women because they are already being written since the default for relationships between women is platonic. So what is missing and what is more radical are stories with more of an emphasis on sexual relationships. No wonder we see less of an interest in asexual F/F romances. So, F/F relationships are taken less seriously, with the default for relationships between women being non-sexual.

M/M relationships in pop culture seem to be more all or nothing. It’s still not socially acceptable for men to express affection for other men. I think that the fact that slash shows men in intense, committed, openly emotional relationships in a culture where masculinity is equated with repression and stoicism is a large part of its appeal. The fairly large industry of M/M romance (and unofficially, slash) explores romantic and sexual affection, and bromance as a concept is starting to explore platonic m/m affection, but remains always ready to jump back to the safety of ‘no homo’ and a joke pointing out how hilarious even the possibility is. There isn’t nearly as much coverage of strong male friendships that aren’t repressed homosexuality. I can see that it could be easier/more the default to write an asexual romance than explore a platonic asexual relationship between two men. This would be an excellent place for queer platonic relationships to expand the idea of what a relationship can look like.

And of course men’s stories have always been considered universal while women’s stories are for women. We’re taught so young that girls will read stories about boys but boys aren’t expected or encouraged to read books about girls.

Also point I forget to add previously about the lack of M/F relationships: people/writers who actually know about asexuality are more likely to be part of the queer community and thus less interested in hetero relationships, even if they are non-normative in their sexual attraction.

Although it would be nice to have sex not be the indication of the seriousness of a relationship and for relationships to have much more fluid boxes/labels, something that I can actually see progress towards is having more representation of both asexual and sexual romantic relationships between women. I want to see enough representation for everyone and I think it’s within reach.

Ace Character Patterns: Gender & Romantic Relationships

[nickykyle]

nickykyle:

comixconnection:

On sale at Comix Connection - Mechanicsburg!

Counter Monkey Sketch: Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1

[nickykyle]

lessthanthreepress:

HAVE YOU PREORDERED THE FAERIE GODMOTHER’S APPRENTICE WORE GREEN BY NICKY KYLE?

Preorder your copy of The Godmother’s Apprentice Wore Green by Nicky Kyle by March 22, 2016 to save 15% off the cover price and earn reward points toward your next order!

The village of Styesville has a dragon problem, and is in sore need of a knight in shining armor to solve it for them. Instead, they get a strange traveler in a ragged cloak they barely even notice at first. Worse still, it soon becomes clear the problem setting fire to their village isn’t as simple as a dragon…

All preorders are available for purchasers to download the night before the release date (at app. 7:00 p.m. the night before) and LT3 sends an email notification when you can download your copy. Reserve your copy today!

[nickykyle]

nickykyle:

comixconnection:

On sale at Comix Connection - Mechanicsburg!

Counter Monkey Sketch: Star Wars Special C-3PO