agayprince

[agayprince]

[agayprince]

[agayprince]

Lukadrien June day 23: Grief Bit of a different take on the prompt! Only one chapter to go!

@lukadrienmonth

[agayprince]

read his book. he's hot and it's very good.

[agayprince]

✨💚Dragon Flute and Power Sword❤️✨

Here are the weapons of Tommy and Jason, had fun drawing these up, stay tuned for when I unveil the anticipated old man yaoi drawing tomorrow 👌🏾🏳️‍🌈

[agayprince]

i drew fanart of you do you like it 😛

Out of every ask this is the most hurtful one I've ever received

[agayprince]

When are regular, non-event requests going to open up again?

I have no idea, probably sometime in the summer, because this event will work like the live-action event. I will simultaneously make regular and event polls to get through both request boxes. Oh, if you guys want to hear the piping hot tea from ASU and that incompetent teacher. It was almost as bad as art school. I could get into that at a later date

If you want to know why I have not gotten through the request box, yeah, not this semester, thankfully. But last semester, I had a college professor who was so incompetent. He nearly cost me my scholarship, not because I had bad grades, but because he didn't do his job. Plus, you guys went very obscure with your request. That doesn't even include how some of you guys found a new way to mess up the submission format that completely messes up my spreadsheet. So I haven't had time to track down photos and deal with the formatting issues when I had all that University BS going on simultaneously.

But I hope to get through both request boxes quickly once I no longer have to deal with school. My blog is currently on hiatus until the 27th because of finals. Please bear with me, people, this is the last time. I am one person. Hopefully, once I get a good rhythm, I will start the sideblog back up. We're just going to have to see how this goes

[agayprince]

Aomine Daiki/Kuroko Tetsuya (Kuroko no Basket)

Important: Please do not vote if you don't know the characters.

[agayprince]

Midorima Shintarou/Takao Kazunari (Kuroko no Basket)

Important: Please do not vote if you don't know the characters.

[agayprince]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Eric "Bitty" Bittle - Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Wei Wuxian- Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji- Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard- All for the Game by Nora Sakavic

Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon Nav- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries below:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Setting: Golden Age of Hollywood, 1950s–1960s

Historical fiction, Golden Age of Hollywood, 1950s, 1960s, adult

Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles (Lilywhite Boys #1)

Lord Alexander Pyne-ffoulkes is the younger son of the Duke of Ilvar, with a bitter grudge against his wealthy father. The Duke intends to give his Duchess a priceless diamond parure on their wedding anniversary—so Alec hires a pair of jewel thieves to steal it.

The Duke's remote castle is a difficult target, and Alec needs a way to get the thieves in. Soldier-turned-criminal Jerry Crozier has the answer: he'll pose as a Society gentleman and become Alec's new best friend.

But Jerry is a dangerous man: controlling, remote, and devastating. He effortlessly teases out the lonely young nobleman’s most secret desires, and soon he’s got Alec in his bed—and the palm of his hand.

Or maybe not. Because as the plot thickens, betrayals, secrets, new loves, and old evils come to light. Now the jewel thief and the aristocrat must keep up the pretence, find their way through a maze of privilege and deceit, and confront the truth of what's between them…all without getting caught.

Setting: Victorian England, 1890s

Historical fiction, romance, heist, late Victorian, 1890s, adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.

Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.

A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations.

Setting: Rhode Island, 1900s and present day

Horror, historical fiction, contemporary, mystery, gothic, 1900s, adult

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

Endorsement from submitter: "Badass lesbian knight, lesbian princess, gay nerd prince, depressed gay duke what more could you want"

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run-up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy, and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, Gwen and Art make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight, and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen's royal brother. Lex Croucher's Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.

Setting: Medieval, post-Camelot

Historical-ish fiction, romance, romantic comedy, medieval, Aruthuriana, young adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan

Endorsement from submitter #1: "extremely nuanced portrayals/discussions of gender and sexuality within the relative historical context; very primarily historical, secondary genre is arguably more magical realism than straightforward fantasy"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "A cast full of queer characters who do awful things to get the throne"

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Setting: 14th-century China (1345), Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Fantasy, historical fiction, alternate history, epic fantasy, 1340s, series, adult

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

In 1859, ex–East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall with an injury that almost cost him his leg. When the India Office recruits him for an expedition to fetch quinine—essential for the treatment of malaria—from deep within Peru, he knows it's a terrible idea; nearly every able-bodied expeditionary who's made the attempt has died, and he can barely walk. But Merrick is eager to escape the strange events plaguing his family's crumbling estate, so he sets off, against his better judgment, for the edge of the Amazon.

There he meets Raphael, a priest around whom the villagers spin unsettling stories of impossible disappearances, cursed woods, and living stone. Merrick must separate truth from fairy tale, and gradually he realizes that Raphael is the key to a legacy left by generations of Tremayne explorers before him, one which will prove more valuable than quinine, and far more dangerous.

Setting: 1860s in Peru

Historical fiction, fantasy, adventure, mystery, magical realism, mid-Victorian, adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries below:

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

From the moment Marion first lays eyes on Tom—her best friend's big brother, broad, blond, blue-eyed—she is smitten. And when he comes home from National Service to be a policeman, Marion, a newly qualified teacher, is determined to win him. Unable to acknowledge the signs that something is amiss, she plunges into marriage, sure that her love is enough for both of them…

But Tom has another life, another equally overpowering claim on his affections. Patrick, a curator at the Brighton Museum, is also besotted with his policeman, and opens Tom's eyes to a world previously unknown to him. But in an age when those of 'minority status' were condemned by society and the law, it is safer for this policeman to marry his teacher. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.

Unfolding through the dual narratives of Marion and Patrick, both writing about the man at the centre of their lives, this beautifully-told, painful, tragic story is revealed. It is a tale of wasted years, misguided love and thwarted hope, of how at a time when the country was on the verge of change so much was still impossible.

Setting: Brighton, 1950s

Historical fiction, 1950s, adult

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic.

“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill—but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid.

But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes—even if that means becoming the monster herself.

Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page.

Setting: 1930s, Hollywood

Historical fiction, fantasy, 1930s, old Hollywood, magical realism, adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Endorsement from submitter: "A story heavy on colonization, identity, and how love can be lost before it is given the chance to be found. An alternate history of 1830s England afoot with magic, with footnotes to detail the differences and similarities of the world."

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

Setting: alternate history of 1830s England

Historical fiction, fantasy, alternate history, academia, politics, colonialism, 1820s, 1830s, adult

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

Endorsement from submitter: "Queer supernatural historical fiction, featuring Talmudic study partners Uriel the angel and Little Ash, a demon. When a former resident of their tiny shtetl (so small it's only known as Shtetl) disappears, the pair set forth to America to find her, facing threats both supernatural and mundane (but no less dangerous for them)."

A queer immigrant fairytale about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.

Setting: Late 19th century, Pale of Settlement (eastern Europe) and New York City

Fantasy, historical fiction, folklore, turn-of-the-century, young adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Last Binding trilogy (A Marvellous Light, A Restless Truth, A Power Unbound) by Freya Marske

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A trilogy of books set in a magical Edwardian England, the Last Binding series focuses on three queer couples who come together in order to solve a conspiracy threatening all magic. It’s a masterful blending of fantasy, historical fiction, and romance, with a splash of mystery and Wodehousian romp. Expect magical manor house parties with beautiful wallpaper, as well as explorations of power, trust, and what we owe the land. The prose is absolutely gorgeous and evocative. The characters and their emotional arcs form the beating heart of the story, intertwined with beautifully crafted romance. The worldbuilding feels organic and deeply rooted within this hidden magical society. These books are thoughtful, tender, scorching, and fun all at once."

Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

Setting: Edwardian England, 1908–1909

Fantasy, historical fiction, romance, magic, Edwardian, 1900s, gaslamp fantasy, series, adult

Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold (Julian Lynes and Ned Mathey series)

Endorsement from submitter: "A private detective and his trusted magician friend investigate a very suspicious murder featuring silver candlesticks. Holmes and Watson, only with magic and actually queer on page!"

His practice newly established, metaphysician Ned Mathey can’t afford to turn away any clients. But the latest Londoner to seek Ned’s magical aid gives him pause: Mr Edgar Nevett, an arrogant banker, is the father of the bully who made Ned’s life hell at boarding school. Nevertheless, Ned accepts the commission to ensure the Nevett family silver bears no ancient or modern curses, and then prepares to banish the Nevett family to unpleasant memory again. Until Edgar Nevett is killed by an enchanted silver candlestick—one of the pieces Ned declared magically harmless.

Calling on his old school friend Julian Lynes—private detective and another victim of the younger Nevett—Ned races to solve the murder, clear the stain on his professional reputation, and lay to rest the ghosts of his past.

Assisted by Ned’s able secretary Miss Frost, who has unexpected metaphysical skills of her own, Ned and Julian explore London’s criminal underworld and sodomitical demimonde, uncover secrets and scandals, confront the unexpected murderer and the mysteries of their own relationship.

In Death by Silver veteran authors Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold introduce a Victorian London where magic works, influencing every aspect of civilized life, and two very appealing detectives.

Setting: Victorian London

Historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, Victorian, series, adult

[agayprince]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves.

Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God and flooded with a mighty evil.

As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.

Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1620 witch trials, The Mercies is a feminist story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.

Setting: Norway, 1617–1620

Historical fiction, early 1600s, adult

A Gentleman's Gentleman by TJ Alexander

Endorsement from submitter #1: "Trans love story. Christopher needs to get a wife to inherit his title, manor, etc. So he must go to London for the season. Which means he needs to hire a valet. Romance ensues."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "Trans historical romance with different titles in US and UK. Lord Christopher needs a wife, so he needs to go to town for the season, and so he needs a valet. But he does not want or need a valet, who could discover his secret. He hires a handsome valet; hijnks ensue."

The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a “man of unusual make” and even more unusual habits: he prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the ton as possible, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler, Plinkton, than the swarm of servants and hangers-on befitting a man of his station.

But Christopher's pleasant, if occasionally lonely life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by the end of the Season if he intends to keep his family's fortune and the Eden's End estate. Christopher cannot imagine a worse fate: as he isn't attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff.

Enter James Harding, Christopher's new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season . . . a friendship that threatens to shatter under the looming shadow of Christopher’s impending nuptials—and the secrets both men are keeping.

With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced, complex portrait of trans identity and relationships that’s as relevant now as it was during the Regency era, A Gentleman's Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.

Setting: Regency England

Historical fiction, romance, Regency, adult