#LGBTQ Author

[gennsoup]

I am writing this because they told me to never start a sentence with because. But I wasn't trying to make a sentence--I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

[eight-littlenightmares]

rule: it is bad to force a queer person to come out.

exception: the one exception here, i’d say, is when you are an author and the queer person in question is a character in your book.

in that case, that motherfucker needs to get their bullshit together and stop keeping secrets from their author. seriously, how tf do they expect to be written when they’re so goddamn secretive about everything that the author needs to know in order to write them??

(..yes, i am having some frustrations with my characters refusing to help me out on figuring out their identity. most of them have gotten their act together tho. most of them.)

[mxnillinlore]

"How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers" is ALREADY at 500 copies sold and that's just in pre-orders of the physical copy alone! If you haven't done so yet, be sure to secure yours for when it releases next Friday, August 23rd, 2024, by ordering now on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Indigo, or by supporting your locally owned queer bookstore!

Be sure to also check out some of my upcoming discussion events with bookstores across North America!

August 27th - Saskatoon, SK, Canada; In-Person w/ Turning the Tide Bookstore @ 7:00 PM CST

August 28th - Calgary, AB, Canada; Instagram Live w/ Shelf Like Books @ 2:00 PM MDT

Sept 4th - Vancouver, BC, Canada; Zoom Discussion w/ Cross & Crows Books @ 7:30 PM CST

September 6th - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Zoom Discussion w/ Under the Rainbow Bookstore @ 6:00 PM CST

[future-journalist-adventures]

Inside my Head - A Collection of Short Stories

"Silent"

experience or daydream: experience

characters: me, "my friend" (🌘), classmates, substitute teacher

setting: mid-April; Friday afternoon; high school

content warnings: queerphobia

Vibrant colors danced through the hallway as a content smile spread across my face. The bassline of the upbeat music I blasted through my headphones vibrated in every inch of my body as I absentmindedly walked to the beat; the muffled sounds of other kids talking and laughing could be heard beneath the sound of the music. I watched as my friend and I walked in sync, resisting the urge to comment on it. I glanced over at the large black pin my friend was sporting, with the LGBTQ+ flag in the middle and the words “Silence is Loud” printed across it, before carefully adjusting my own matching pin. He flashed me a small smile, which I returned almost instinctively as we walked side-by-side into our biology classroom.

I turned off my music, taking my headphones off of my head and setting them down on my neck. My friend and I began to cross the room to put our things down at our seats, only to find something that would wipe the smiles right off of both of our faces. 

My heart seemed to stop for a moment. My stomach dropped, and the content feeling I once possessed had somehow vanished. I gaped breathlessly, watching as my classmates passed around a crumpled flyer with the same design as our pins, laughing at and mocking it. 

One of them glanced at my friend and I’s pins, going quiet for a moment before scoffing and smirking, holding out the flyer for both of us to see.

“So-” he began, still laughing, “are you guys really not allowed to talk?”

My friend and I exchanged nervous glances before slipping past them wordlessly.

My attempts to calm myself down, and to hide how much I was shaking now, were quickly failing. I shot the substitute teacher a desperate glance only to find that she hadn’t looked up from her desk at all. Sitting down at my desk, I replayed the scene in my head and watched as the kids continued their insensitive mockery.

As I finally began to calm myself down, I heard the sound of something hitting the floor, followed by an eruption of laughter. My head snapped up to see the flyer, now completely rolled into a ball, laying on the floor next to my friend’s desk. They quickly snatched it from the ground and stuffed it in their bag. Their head was turned away from me so I couldn’t see his face, but somehow I felt I knew exactly what they were thinking.

40 minutes later, the last bell of the day rang, signaling the end of our day of silence. But as I walked with my friend out of the room, across the hall, and up the stairs, we stayed silent: not because we had to, but because there was nothing left to say.

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

~ books read in 2023 ~

#9: The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

“Careful! We don’t want to fuck up and get caught again,” Teo whispered as muffled voices bickered inside his backpack.

Rating: 5/5

[eternitysirys]

First illustration for "Eternity's Irys" is complete!

No it's not the cover, but it's the first of three full page illustrations going into the book! It features a scene directly from the pages, but no context because spoilers!

It's absolutely stunning and I can't wait to see the next two!

Illustrations will only be available in print format so if you want a copy with this gorgeous art in it, consider picking up a soft cover in October! Pre-orders will launch as soon as I figure out how best to handle it without Amazon's involvement.

If the book doesn't sound like your kind of thing, please enjoy the works of @firelocket (Rhett) regardless! Crazy beautiful stuff!

[bookaddict24-7]

AUTHOR FEATURE:

﹒Mark Oshiro﹒

Six Books Written By this Author:

The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure

Anger is a Gift

Each of Us a Desert

The Insiders

Into the Light

You Only Live Once, David Bravo

___

Happy reading!

[thelegacyofgreyleaf]

Stories from Kyoguild #1

The Falcon Takes Flight

By Eveline Brooks

***

As the young tiefling girl comes to, all she can hear is the ringing in her ear from the initial explosion, the cracking and popping of the engulfing flame around her. A glowing red light is all she can see as what was once her home is suddenly falling to ruin around her. The elegant spires and structures of this methodically constructed monastery, which once would bustle with life of all shapes and sizes, is fracturing as the wood that makes up the structures splinters and pops in the inferno.

Yavari looks around at her surroundings. Dazed, she is able to make out the blue glow of the gem at the end of her staff. Being on the ground, she crawls through the rubble and debris to her staff. Upon grabbing it, the gemstone projects three glowing orbs that emit a golden aura. A shadow can be seen, they are tall, muscular, and massive. A boar-kin maybe? No. A half-orc.

The orcish figure exclaims, “Raeburn! Over here!” Yavari dashes out of the collapsing building as it comes crashing down. Upon stepping out of the blaze, she falls to her knees. Before her body is pulled to the ground by gravity’s magnetic force, she is grabbed by her shoulders and is pulled to her feet.

“What were you thinking? You could have been killed.” He says.

“My apologies, Archdruid Torrig.” She mutters barely. “The children. The fire. It was too much. It was too far late by the time we arrived.” Yavari releases a sigh as she falls unconscious.

Torrig looks up, with his student cradled in his arms, to watch the building crumble. As he gazes at the support beams, he thinks of the times his tutor would bring him to this temple to practice druidcraft and the Druidic language. The walls and books marked only by Druidic sigils. Each one, more unique and intricate than the last. They all give off a powerful, mystical feeling that only those who draw power from nature itself can understand. “Who could do such a thing?” He says, and as Torrig reminisces on the times of old, lightning strikes.

As the flash fades quickly out of the darkened night sky which is lit by the surrounding flames. An arrow pierces the back of Torrig. He lets out a mighty roar through his jagged asymmetrical tusks. His roar booms throughout the monastery, even after he’s stopped it continues to echo off the enflamed walls.

Torrig falls to his knees as a hooded figure, slim and tall, steps closer and closer to his back. With one quick motion and a second strike of lightning, the assailant plunges a jagged dagger into the back of the Archdruid.

Once again, the mighty half-orc lets out a roar that echoes the surrounding forest. Now his thoughts go from his childhood and upbringing, to his son. Now realizing that if he were to give up, he would lose everything. He wouldn’t be able to raise his son.

Torrig picks up his mace and swings it faster than any creature should be allowed to swing a weapon of such mass. The hooded assailant’s legs get shot out from underneath them. Yavari’s unconscious body falls out of his arms and naturally rolls into a tall bed of flowers. The patch of flowers are tall enough to completely engulf her.

The assailant mutters, “so long” As a wave of purple and gold energy blast is released from his hand, sending Torrig flying into the side of the building. The assailant stands up and looks around. “Raeburn!” He draws a blood red sword. The blade, slightly curved back to slice through it’s prey. The sword emits a dark mystical aura, one that could never be natural. “Ya-vaa-riii!” He calls out. “Damn, she got away. Who knows, maybe the inferno consumed her.” As he begins to walk away, Yavari regains consciousness.

Before getting out of the flowers, Young Raeburn simply asks one word: “Torrig?”

The hooded figure turns around with haste, a magical wind lifts him by the cloak and drops him on the bed of flowers. He raises his cursed blade and slashes through the flowers. As the flowers begin to rapidly decay and fall, there is no sign of Yavari. The only living being left is a single Falcon flying away.

The Falcon flies enough away to land on a tree, she turns back into herself. And there she is, Young Yavari Raeburn. Having lost it all, she begins to simply cry. As she does, the leaves begin to close in around her. The leaves contain her in what could only be described as a cocoon. Occasionally, her cries can be heard around the tree. And there, she waits, for whoever wills to get her down and help her resolve the murder of her tutor and the destruction of her home. Yavari hasn’t given up before. She never loses hope. She never loses faith in the nature of the world. But now, she’s at least questioning it.

“What could I have possibly done?”

[maratellsstories]

I don't want to be an airport book author

You know those books. Copies of a book that went big and now everyone wants to hop on the trend. If you liked the original book, the one that started the trend, you will have fun. It's way better than sitting bored, waiting for a plane. But on the way home you will throw it to the nearest bin and not even remember what it was about. I definitely don't want to be an airport book author. I want to share my dreams and touch people with my stories and yes not everyone will like or even understand them. That's ok. I am really happy when someone likes them but also I am happy when people hate them. It means I did a good job and my story touched them enough to provoke anger. What I don't want is "it was ok…I suppose"

Why do you write? What is your goal as an author?

[booksbybrennon]

“A 10, but…” with the cast of my novel: Home

Lake is a 10, but he broke his own finger during a school play

Ezra is a 10, but he can be overbearing

Maya is a 10, but she’s a mean drunk

Wyatt is a 10, but he knows it

Malik is a 10, but he pretends to lose video games to Tai

Tai is a 10, but they think they’re as big as Malik (Malik is 6’2 and Tai is 5’4)

[gennsoup]

"I died, and you carried me. I gambled, and you covered my bet. You kept the faith, and were the instrument of both my vengeance and my grace."

Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth

[wherenihilistdreamsdie]

My audiobook is now live! Enjoy!

[mxnillinlore]

I got to sit down with Billy Lore and Kate Sloan on my favorite podcast, The Dildorks, to talk about queer movies, trans joy, t4t relationships, furries and my latest book, "How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers"🥰

Give it a listen here: https://thedildorks.com/episodes/gender-splendor

[the-loneliest-skies]

Little Blue Drowning Light

Little blue light, shining in the sea Little blue light, so close to me Little blue light, my guiding force Little blue light, dragging me down

Oh to be a sailor, with timers and dials To leave everything all behind To crash into a book and dive onto a couch To sink away into a world not quite our own To never have to worry again

But here i am tied to my light Keeping me up all night; Here i am, not studying, working, or dreaming Wrapped in the cold-warmth of my light— static drowning my ears and thumbs getting sore But at least, oh at least, at least I have my little blue light

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

~ books read in 2022 ~

#22: The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

“It was like dreaming,” said Yetu, throat raw.

[eternitysirys]

I got my proofs today.

I cried.

A lot.

This is surreal.

My book. With my cover and custom art inside? This is mine. Holy crap it's mine.

Everything came out so stunning. This is my book. I just... I can't...

I keep swinging between tears of joy and numbness.

This is all I've ever wanted to accomplish in life. A dream come true and I can hold it in my hand.

Anyway, to business!

Two copies, two finishes on the cover. Left is glossy, right is matte. The smudges on matte are tears, please disregard! What's your preference??

Thank you everyone who's supported me on this project just by interacting with my posts. It means the world. Please reblog this around town so we can get some feedback!