#While creating character descriptions for my queer novel MCs

[jesenslapetitemort]

I'm too niche for this world

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

“all queer media is one dimensional, tropey, mass market, and made for teenagers-” not true. look harder

Memorial: Mike and Benson have been together for a few years and are in the middle of determining if they're going to stay together when Mike learns that his estranged father is terminally ill, and goes to Japan to reconcile with him before his death. meanwhile Mike’s mother stays with Benson in the US. my favorite part of the novel was the part in Japan, exploring the relationship between Mike and his father (TW for racism and abuse) 

the luminous dead: w/w romance between a spelunker on a mission on an alien planet and the women who hired her for unknown reasons, who’s stationed on the surface and communicates with the mc through her high-tech caving suit. toxic but intriguing romance, killing eve and TMA fans you will enjoy this (TW for graphic descriptions of injury) 

The Vanished Birds: explores a society that was created after the Earth has been environmentally destroyed and humanity has moved onto space stations, and all space travel and commerce is controlled by corporations. queerness isn’t the focus of this book but many of the main characters are queer. beautiful writing, will make you super depressed in the best way (TW for child abuse) 

The Color Purple: Celie is separated from her sister in childhood when she’s forced into an abusive marriage by her father, but she continues to write to her over the years. an important part of the novel is the relationship that develops between Celie and her husband’s lover Shug. what I love about this book is that its an important look at misogynoir and abuse of vulnerable people, but Celie ultimately gets her happy ending. (TW for abuse, racism, sexual assault, incest) 

The Miseducation of Cameron Post: the first half chronicles the early life of Cameron, a closeted lesbian growing up in rural Montana in the 90′s. the second half is about Cameron’s experience in a conversion camp. I love the writing of this book, it’s very atmospheric. I felt like I could picture Cameron’s town in my sleep. (TW for conversion therapy, homophobia, self-harm) 

boys run the riot: manga, a trans boy who wants to work in men’s fashion one day works with two of his classmates to design and create a clothing line. I’ve only read the first volume so I cant speak on the series as a whole. the MC is only out to some people, so he gets misgendered and still wears the girls’ uniform in school. this might be difficult for some people to read, although there isn’t too much overt transphobia if I remember correctly (at least in the first volume)

The 57 bus: nonfiction, follows the stories of an agender teen who experienced a hate crime, and the boy who attacked them. A tough read, but a really important look at the justice system, racism, transphobia, and restorative justice (TW for transphobia and homophobia, violence, depictions of police and the justice system) 

our dreams at dusk: manga series about an LGBT+ center in Japan. follows gay, trans, and asexual characters. an interesting look at queer issues in Japan. also the art is gorgeous (TW for homophobia and transphobia) 

in the dream house: memoire about the author’s experience in an abusive sapphic relationship. super important, as abuse in queer relationships is so seldom talked about. hard to read but the writing is very lyrical and poetic, and beautiful (TW for abuse) 

ask the passengers:  mc is a girl who’s falling in love with another girl, while staying closeted from her gay friends because she’s not sure how to identify. the gimmick of the book is that the mc talks about her problems to airplanes in the sky, and this magically touches the lives of the people in the planes. I felt this part of the book was goofy and honestly I think it would be better without it, but I remember that the journey the mc goes through regarding her sexuality made me feel very seen (TW for homophobia) 

king and the dragonflies: written by the author of Felix Ever After. the rest of his books deserve an equal amount of attention. middlegrade, about a boy dealing with the death of his brother and coming to terms with his sexuality. I liked the relationship between King and his family. they weren’t super homophobic but they also weren’t completely accepting at first either, it felt like a very realistic and healthy depiction of a family (TW for homophobia, racism, child abuse) 

haven’t personally read, on my tbr: Giovanni’s Room, Nevada, Stone Butch Blues, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, My Cat Yugoslavia, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness 

“queer media is all boring period pieces and people getting divorced and experiencing horrible homophobia and tragedy-” not true. look harder

The Magic Fish: graphic novel, a young Vietnamese-American boy reads fairy tales with his mother to help her practice her english, and searches for a way to come out to her. some of my favorite art in a graphic novel, look it up its stunning

Honeygirl: going through quarter life crises and unsure of what to do after earning her PhD, the mc goes to vegas and ends up getting drunkenly married to a woman she doesnt know. the mc’s relationship with academia was very relatable to me 

whatever: basically just about the mc fucking around with his friends, being in a band, and discovering that hes gay. a lot of fun, love the characters

anything by Alice oseman: Alice Oseman is the only person I trust to write about the fandom experience in YA fiction. my personal fave is iwbft. disclaimer: I haven’t read solitaire, cant say whether its good or gay

Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World: middlegrade, Ivy’s family’s home is destroyed by a tornado, and shes also dealing with the fact that she’s realizing she’s a lesbian. some internalized homophobia, but everyone in Ivy’s life is really accepting and its very sweet

my love mix-up: manga, mc has a crush on a girl in his class and asks to borrow her eraser, and sees the name of a different boy written on it (this is a popular love charm in Japan). boy #2 sees the mc holding the eraser, and thinks HE has a crush on HIM. very wholesome and funny, and one of the few times I’ve read a manga that actually allows a character to have crushes on people of multiple genders. it deals with homophobia in some cases, which makes it feel grounded in reality, but all of the mc’s friends are very accepting, and its very cute. 

The Tarot Sequence: urban fantasy set in a modern magical society, mc is the heir to a family of the magical aristocracy, but since his family was killed he’s fallen from grace, is broke, and works as a mercenary for other powerful families. he tries to unravel the mystery of his family’s death on the side. m/m romance and found family. love the characters and the world building, and the author is planning for this to be a NINE book series. next book is coming out May 2022!! (TW for sexual assault) 

In Other Lands: mc gets recruited to go to magical summer camp, except he’s genre-savvy, hates fighting, and misses technology. super funny satire of portal fantasy books, but will also have you aching for the mc? elliot schafer my beloved 

havent personally read, on my tbr: a hero at the end of the world, the poster children, tell me how you really feel, heavy vinyl

we absolutely do have a long way to go in regards to queer representation, but it frustrates me to no end when I see post claiming that queer fiction is all one specific type of story. there are lots of queer creators out there writing unique, thoughtful, beautiful stories who deserve our support! if theres a particular type of queer fiction you would like to see, do a little digging because its likely that SOMETHING similar exists. it just doesnt exist on like disney+

also @lgbtqreads is an incredible resource, if you want to read something gay and have a specific genre or type of story in mind I highly recommend looking around on their blog 

additional recommendations welcome!

[beautifulpaxielreads]

Third Annual TBR Challenge, March 2022

Title: Vespertine (Vespertine #1)

Author/s: Margaret Rogerson

Page count: 393

Rep: Margaret Rogerson answered a Tumblr ask (link) stating that Artemisia, the MC, is aromantic/asexual, although I never discovered any specific mention of it in the text. Rogerson has said (in a Tumblr post that has since been deleted - I found the information on Goodreads [link]) that other characters in the novel are queer [link], and even though said queerness is not discussed in this book, it will be covered later on in the series. Also, it has been speculated that Artemisia is on the autism spectrum/is neurodivergent, but Rogerson has yet to confirm this information[link].

Trigger warnings: Animal abuse, descriptions of past child abuse (both physical and emotional) including confinement and self-harm using fire, body horror, murder (including references to mass murder), blood, anxiety, mental illness, violence, necromancy and possession of human bodies by spirits, religious bigotry, fire and fire-related injuries, self-harm, PTSD, battle scenes, medical content, psychological torture, ableism, minor warnings for bullying, suicide

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 (Four and a half stars out of five)

Read more under the cut for my slightly (ok, very) spoiler-ish thoughts.

Thoughts in brief (not that brief, lol):

You might notice in the photo I posted that this book is already looking a little worse for wear. If the amount of damage to a book is an indication of how well-loved it is, then this one is very, very well loved. Of all the Margaret Rogerson books I've read (granted, this is only the second), Vespertine is - in my opinion - the best yet. And it's going to be a series - how awesome is that?!

As I was reading, I kept flipping the pages back, trying to find bits of information that I had overlooked in order to better understand the place I was at. I was so invested in the plot and characters that I read late into the night and actually had to make myself put the book down.

I would like to applaud Rogerson (as well as all her supporters, promoters, editors, etc), because for her, this was an incredibly difficult book to write. She was in COVID isolation and was, in her words, "the most depressed I'd ever been in my life." Massive, massive respect and kudos to you, Madame Rogerson.

I cannot rave enough about Vespertine's MC, Artemisia. She was so well-rounded, so well-written. A character like her runs the risk of being unlikeable, but thanks to Rogerson's writing, this is never the case. Rogerson makes you care about Artemisia and care what happens to her - which is exactly what I, as a reader, want in the characters I'm reading about.

The world-building was really well done too - so carefully crafted and intricate, with the relics, spirits, nuns and the other religious aspects. I'll admit it took a while for me to fully grasp how it all worked, but once I did, I was invested and committed to the world that Rogerson had created.

Now I've talked about the worldbuilding, I simply must mention the revenant, the incredibly powerful, murder-hungry (at least at first) spirit that comes to inhabit Artemisia's body (apologies for my poor explanation, it makes more sense in the book, I promise). Despite its mass-murdering tendencies and hatred of the clergy (known as the Clerisy), it has a delightfully snarky wit and it grows to genuinely care for Artemisia, who, thanks to abuse suffered during her childhood, often forgets to eat or get proper rest. She, in turn, comes to increasingly rely on the revenant for lending her its power and its often blunt advice, and the two develop a close bond which is really heartwarming. The supporting characters were well-drawn too, particularly Mother Dolours and Marguerite.

Despite a slow start - and there were other places where it dragged a little (only a little!) - the plot moved along at a good pace and the eventual twist leading to the climax made logical sense, but also managed to be genuinely surprising.

Loved, loved, loved it - highly recommend! (But please do take the trigger warnings seriously).

[rataltouille]

For that wip folder game, I’d love to hear more about (The) Incompetent Children and What You’ve Lost in the Jasmine Woods if you’re up to share! (-@cecilsstorycorner)

of course let’s go!!

[this is my original work, do not use / repurpose / plagiarise in any form]

[THE] INCOMPETENT CHILDREN

[tw: cult mentions]

this was my og “cult story”, way before force majeure even happened. tbh IC has nothing in common with FM apart from the fact that they both involve a cult but still it's hard not to compare them? i’d say that IC is just a tonally very dark story; FM is kind of daylight horror-esque while IC is pure grit and zero chill.

the tentative logline: the incompetent children chronicles the rise of the present day leader of a religious and technological cult as his power is threatened as his childhood friend returns home, told in dual timelines.

don't ask me what “technological cult” even means i don't know. highlights:

childhood friends / crushes [except you’ll never know if it was mutual] to mortal enemies who also happen to be very annoyingly flirty [that's not an actual trope but it is the story]

queer relationships except it's toxic [oops]

betrayal as redemption

dual timelines: one when the mc was a child right until the point his friend, the antagonist / deuteragonist / love interest leaves the cult, and the present day one where said friend returns except he’s like. directly working against the mc now.

the spotify playlist has got the vibes + the cover is very on point

also this is i think the one story of mine which has a main cast of more than two living male characters lmaooo. there are zero excerpts i’ve written for it. like i don't write stuff for the wips in my writing queue until i actually near the point where they’ll be written, and this is like seventh on the list.

WHAT YOU’VE LOST IN THE JASMINE WOODS

omg this story... love it so much. the logline is this: a girl travels through a place with no one to keep her company except for herself and miles of breathing, dangerous wastelands in an attempt to find out who created her. facts:

this is a novella!! it would literally not work in any other form because there is not enough “conflict” for a short story and not enough “plot” for a novel. and also novella is an intriguing form which i’m excited to try out!

there is only one living character throughout the entire story, who is our protagonist, vasilisa. the entire story is just exploring her relationship with the extremely strange, vaguely fabulistic world around her. the ONLY conflict is with her surroundings. there are no other people here.

told fully in second person :)

exploring gender and being trans in a world where there is no “society” or “civilisation”

here’s the playlist because fun fact! this story was fully inspired by the song “the life of hilda”, and also “i lost something in the hills” by sibylle baier [as the title suggests]

i am actually dying to write this because it is literally my dream story: very little clear conflict, nothing but nature descriptions the entire time, fabulism, full second person omg, gender fuckery. this is most self-indulgent story ever and that’s so beautiful to me.

ask me about my wips!

[fuckwritersblock]

I’ve seen a few posts asking for recommendations for romance interactive/visual novels and finally I decided it would be better to just post about it rather than replying. Note that I have been playing this genre for years but I also am picky. There are some games that I have played which I would not necessarily rec*.

Interactive Novels (Purely text based)

The Wayhaven Chronicles (Mobile, Steam)

Creme de la Creme (Mobile, Steam)

Tally Ho (Mobile, Steam)

**Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Mobile, Steam)

Visual Novels

Arcade Spirits (PS 4, Switch, Xbox One, Steam, itch.io)

Choices (Mobile)

Dream Daddy (PS 4, Switch, Steam, Humble, Mobile)

A Rose in Winter (Steam, Itch.io)

You should also watch out for “Best Friend Forever” (Switch/Steam/Itch.io) and download the demo. I also personally have not yet played “Butterfly Soup” but I hear great things about it.

If you want to know more about the games along with the pros and cons are for each game (in my opinion) check under the cut. but it is. Long.

Interactive Novels

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Fantasy/romance. You play as a detective who has been tasked to solve a murder in your small town of Wayhaven. You have been tasked with agents from a mysterious agency, Unit Bravo, to help you. But are they all that they seem? 

Pros:

Sexy vampires. (This is not a spoiler it’s literally in the description of the game.)

The writing is incredible. Mishka Jenkins knows the tropes and uses them expertly.

The romances are all very good in their own unique way.

All of the characters are well developed and interesting.

There are two books of this series out!

Cons:

ACAB. And you play a detective at a station where there’s literally a state where you either are “by the book” or “bend the rules” so like. Not great.

There are two books out of seven for the series so know you will be left wanting more.

You can play as non-binary and there are a couple of background non-binary characters in the story but there are no non-binary romances.

Creme de la Creme - Adventure/romance (if you’re into dark academia, this is for you). You play as a student sent to a finishing school and are expected to bring prestige back to the family name.

Pros:

This plot takes some turns y’all.

You can play as non-binary and there also can be non-binary romance options!

There is aro/ace representation!!

Hannah Powell-Smith is married to a woman so like nice.

Cons:

There is some commentary that sometimes works well and sometimes falls flat. Mainly the critique on power and the upper class works well until the endings where many still benefit from this without characters putting much more thought in it.

Tally Ho - Comedy/Romance. Inspired by Wooster and Jeeves. You play a servant living in London during 1930′s. You work for Rory Wintermint, and must accompany them to their Aunt Primrose’s estate. Hijinks ensue.

Pros:

Light and fun and adorable.

Romances 

There are some really funny moments in this.

Cons:

This was one of my first interactive novels and I have spent hours and hours on this game and there are still achievements that I have absolutely no idea how to achieve.

It’s a light and airy game so know that if romance is your thing, it doesn’t delve as deep into those relationships as other games on here.

You can play with they/them pronouns but there is no other non-binary characters.

Fallen Hero: Rebirth - Action/Superhero. You play a former hero that has started acting on your plan to become a supervllian. You must work against your original crew and that gets. Complicated.

(**Heads up, this is a very good game it’s not romance-focused. I also have not replayed it in some time. and other people could describe it better than I have. So if this short description sounds interesting, I recommend looking it up on tumblr + other areas.)

 Pros:

Immersive and thoughtful small details.

The romances are complex and certainly not easy, but that’s certainly a strength of the writing.

Malin Rydén self-describes as “unapologetically queer”

Cons:

Not so much of a con but something yall should know! This game handles heavy topics as your character descends into villainy. Your character experiences depression and a variety of Rough Stuff. Keep that in mind if you are also in a rough place mentally rn.

I’m gonna be real with ya fam and I think this could just be me. There were multiple parts of this game that I felt lost in. I could not fully understand what was going on. BUT I also feel like in many places that is the intention for the character to feel disorientated so take that what you will.

Visual Novels

Arcade Spirits - Dating Sim/Comedy. You play as a depressed person who was just fired. You are convinced you are suffering from a generational long curse. Your phone matches you with a job at the Funplex arcade with various characters. Will you ensure the arcade survives? Will you find love along the way?

Pros:

this is GOD-TIER visual novel content y’all!!

The system that they use for stats are unlike anything I’ve ever seen but it’s leagues ahead. You do not have to be constantly monitoring your stats as you would typically for other games.

Made with so much love for the content and attention to detail. 

Diverse cast that are all so fun and lovable in their own way.

You get to create your MC’s hair/skin/clothes color and then you’ll see them throughout the game?? WILD.

Cons:

BECAUSE this game was made with love and and attention to detail, if you have absolutely no interest in the world of video games you may feel detached.

The character creator is very limited. Which I do get to a certain extent with all of the different shots they draw the MC in. But I hope you want your character to be thin with a lot of angular facial features 

Choices - An app where there is a series of stories you can play “chapters” of using keys, which replenish every couple of hours.

Pros:

It’s a very focused on modern romance stories, but there are also such a variety of different genres of books! Fantasy (Blades of Light & Shadow), Historical fiction/romance (Desire & Decorum), Thriller/Horror (It Lives in the Woods). I have PLENTY of recs if you hmu.

There are...Many a good romances in these tho like I have blushed and sighed and daydreamed about these stories.

Cons:

You need patience for this game. It’s a free app and therefore has a system where you need to understand the key system and be patient to collect “diamonds” to purchase premium choices.

Many of the books are gender-locked where you can only play as a woman.

Choices has been criticized that they need better treatment/more screentime for their characters of Color. They have said they are committing to do better, but we will see.

Same has been said about their wlw romances.

Just as there are good stories, there are also stories that have something to be desire. I have varying issues with some books that have plot holes, unengaging writing, etc. These are good for you to play to earn more diamonds though.

Dream Daddy - Dating Sim/Comedy. (This game was the talk of the town when it came out in 2017 but in case you weren’t in the genre at the time!!) You are a single dad who is moving with your daughter Amanda to Maple Bay. You meet other single dads and date them while also trying to be a good father to your daughter.

Pros:

This writing is sharp as a tack. The comedy is on point and this game does a great job transitioning into serious moments.

There are awesome little mini-games that you’ll find in these!

The characters of each datable dad first seem like caricatures, but their backstories are complex and have depth.

The character creator is chef’s kiss v good. AND you can play as a trans dad like how neat.

Cons:

There have been plenty of conversation about cons for this game but frankly I don’t truly believe it has a con for what it is.

If you’re not a pun person this game will be. Difficult.

A Rose in Winter - Romance. You are playing as Rose, a girl who determined to prove herself as a knight. She has found herself at an inn and must choose between a series of Princes to help on their journey.

Pros:

Cute stories!

Except for the green prince which is heart-fluttering. (and if you play, I recommend playing last)

Adorable art.

Cons:

This reads more like an ACTUAL visual novel. Your choice (besides the initial choice you make on which prince you pursue) means little, if there is choice at all.

It’s definitely simpler than other games on this list but that’s not a bad thing as much as you should know!

*Please know that I did not include The Arc*n* on purpose! I used to really love that app but the way certain things were handled (both IRL and in the plot) I would not recommend it now.