#contemporary fantasy author

[jacqueillustrates]

@ andromedaexists on Instagram (X) Commission for his upcoming book Desecrate!

[sea52501]

I hate winter

And I do not use the word hate, lightly. Ice, snow, wind chill factors, and all the trouble they bring have been one of the greatest struggles of my life. When I was a child, I lived in the more temperate Southern climate of North Carolina. Winters were cold, but seldom deadly. Now I live in Iowa, where winter hurts my face. I choose to endure this torment for my family’s sake. They love the…

[lainalit]

You would think with the way in which Sjm fans argue against Sjm criticism by saying that they "just turn their brain off while reading her books" that she writes cute little contemporary romance books alà Ali Hazelwood and that the critics are just being pretentious when in reality she writes fantasy books in which there are always poorly done themes of oppression, mental health, DV, SA classism, racism, feminism, disabilities, lgbtq+ etc. in it

[noahhawthorneauthor]

"Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me." -Bayard Rustin

*Edit to add that Adiba Jaigirdar is Bangladeshi/Irish, not Black. Apologies !

[rs-hawk]

Fluff only for this one. Woman Reader (sex irrelevant)

Your Godly lover had given you immortality after They nearly lost you. They couldn’t bear the idea of losing you. You hated Them for it even all these centuries later. You had to watch your family grow old and die. Your younger siblings. Their children. Their children’s children. Eventually you couldn’t even be around their descendants. It was too hard. All you could do was set up a trust fund each time you found out another had been born. You still had to take care of them somehow. They were all that was left in this world of your family.

You were a whispered legend in the county you lived in. Some thought you were a Spirit of the Forest that was from the pre-Colonization of the area. Some said you were a monster, lurking and read to eat unsuspecting youth who wandered into your trees. Others said you were stolen by a man who killed you. Very few whispered the truth, because those who had eventually were forced away from the area to allow it to be settled.

It wasn’t until some of your youngest sister’s descendants moved back to the area that you allowed yourself to peek at them. You’d find excuses to go to town, to find them. Your sister had been gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful woman aside from your mother that you’d ever seen. She was tall, with eyes like clay, hair like midnight and skin so smooth you always wanted to be the one to paint it. Her descendant was none of those things aside from beautiful.

Her eyes shun like the midday sky, with hair that curled and twisted in ways you’d never imagined before the settlers came. Her face was round and childlike despite the life line that aged her face. Her skin burned easily in the sun that your sister loved, but there was ink on that skin. A permanent painting of a bird. You couldn’t help but smile. The more you saw her, the more you wanted to get to know her. You were attached. You did get to know her. You two chatted, and her voice sounding like a melody. You loved her. She was almost like her sister had come back to you.

Then she died.

You felt like your heart was torn out of your chest. You screamed, cried, begged your Godly former lover to let you die, but They didn’t. Then, a few days after, you stood at the edge of her funeral, watching her cold body be lowered into the ground. You saw her husband standing there with their child. A beautiful little girl who reminded you so much of her mother.

It wasn’t long until you saw that same beautiful little girl curled up in a ball in the middle of the woods, sobbing. Her father said he wanted to go camping, then left her. You couldn’t let the search party find her. They would give her back to that man who said she ran off, and she was too young to deny it.

As you sat with her head in your lap and she started to fall asleep, having washed the dirt out of her golden hair, your Godly former lover appeared before you.

“This will hurt. It always does.”

You look at Them, your lower lip trembling. “I know, but I had to save her. He would have just done something else if this didn’t work.”

They look down at the little girl, tilting Their head. “Her heart reminds me of hers. Pure. Soft. She will grow up to be kind, just like her.”

“I miss her,” you whisper, voice cracking as you look down at the sleeping child.

Your Godly former lover lays Their hand on your shoulder, squeezing it softly. “I’m sorry for what I did to you. I love you.”

“I know. I wish you didn’t.”

“I know… me too.”

[mxxnlightwriting]

A Spark of Magic (✨) — The Masterlist

— Synopsis —

Life can change in an instant. Isaac had it all: place on the swimming team, popularity amongst his peers, and acceptance to a prestigious university. Until he didn’t. Now, he grows a tail whenever water is involved. He is running out of time and ideas. Danger looms around every corner. Alice has only wanted one thing: to get her magic back. After having her life turned upside down, reconnecting with her powers is the only way to prove her worth as a witch, and hopefully leave her small town for good. Help is worth risking everything. Isaac knows Alice might be his only chance at getting his life back, but her help doesn’t come without sacrifices. Differences must be put aside to find a solution, even when everything feels like it is trying to drive them apart. Luckily they seem to agree on one thing: this should be their secret. Secrets are hard to keep. The answers are even harder to find. Trust can be earned, but at what cost?

— Details —

age group/genre: young adult contemporary fantasy, coming of age, romance type: novel (1st in a series) pov: dual pov, third person, past tense status: published

— Features —

unexpected friends, dislike to lovers, witches, merfolk, shapeshifters, werewolves, made-up folklore, magical abilities, teenagers being teenagers, the weight of decisions you’re not 100% sure of, family, identity, self-acceptance, dealing with past trauma and its effects in the present, friendship, duty & honour, small town in the woods vibe, another dimension/realm and more!

— Index —

All Posts

Character Profiles

Inspiration

Excerpts

Playlist

Mood boards

A Spark of Magic is now available on all major retailers (incl. Kobo Plus) and you can also request it at your local library! I also have this story available through the highest tier of my monthly subscription on Inkitt.

[read chapter one] ● [read chapter two]

> A Spark of Magic 2 (🐚) Masterlist (coming soon) <

[books-and-strawberry-tea]

Books I always forget about cause they are on my kindle:

Am I the only one like this? I always forget what I have when its a digital collection. I've been collecting since I bought my kindle. I read heaps on my kindle. But I just keep adding more and more to my collection. So here's a list of books a want to read that's on there. If anyone has any feed back or recommendations about my list, please leave a comment! Also if you decide to look into the books on this list, be aware some are 18+ and have TW.

Vampires: Hollow - Legend (Series) Tethered (series) Court (started) The southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires (Started) Twilight (series) Court of the vampire queen (40%) From blood and ash Bitten and bound Vampire academy Die for you (aus) The vampire in the bookstore Bound to the vampires Empire of the vampire - Empire of the damned (series) Feathers so vicious (series) House of crimson hearts Shade of a blood moon blood oath - shadow heart - twisted soul (series)

Manga: Somethings wrong with us (Manga) Say i love you (Manga)

Contemporary/contemporary romance/dark romance ect: Den of vipers The predator The ritual Things we never got over The virgin suicides Ninth house - Hell bent (series) God of Malice Hate mail Hate (JAMES) Bridget jones diary Hunting adeline (Started) Kiss the sky The seven husbands of evelyn hugo Moments of mayhem Lights out Mine (AK ROSE) Falling leaves Twisted friction Saint - sinner - priest - midnight mass (series) Love of my after life Theif (MASSERY)

Fantasy/fantsy romance: The spell shop Yumi and the nightmare painter Gideon the ninth Kingdom of blood and betrayal (35%) - A kingdom of venom and vows (series) Heir of the beast (series) Whispers of the deep The crimson moth The orchid and the owl (started) The song of the marked A court of silver flames (started) Half a soul (series) The god and the gumiho A discovery of witches Psycho fae - psycho shifters - (series) Daughter of the moon goddess (30%) - Heart of the sun warrior Powerless The liars crown Forged by malice - bonded by thorns - Woven by gold (series) Heaven officials blessings The dragons bride Dark heir - dark rise (series) Legends and lattes Lightlark - Nightbane (ugh) The very secret society of irregular witches One dark window - two twisted crowns (series) The invisible life of addie larue One little nightmare Daughter of no worlds The unmaking of June farrow Feather so black Songbird of the sorrows What is dark within me (series) A dream so wicked - Sleeping beauty retelling Of darkness and ruination

Ghosty/Hauntings/Spirits/Halloweenie ect: When stars come out Black silk and Sympathy (Aus) Love letters to a serial killer Good girl bad blood (started) - as good as dead (series) House of hollow Chlorine Carving for cara Her soul to take (series) A soul to keep The curse of the flores women The haunting of blackwych grange Leather and lark Starling House A deadly education Spells for forgetting Rouge In the clearing (aus) In a dark mirror Creations captive

Japanese stories: 夏物語 (Breasts and Eggs JP ver) The full moon coffee shop If cats disappeared from the world (ENG/JP) Conveniance store woman Butter コーヒーが冷めないうちに - 川口 俊和 Days at the morisaki bookshop (series)

[up-in-flames-writing]

In lieu of Stuff Your Kindle day, can we talk about the issue of how the m/m genre of books, romance or not, is almost entirely dominated by women? Can we talk about how the most recognisable gay couples in media are written by women? Can we talk about how queer men can't even write about ourselves, how we are only allowed to exist when it's from the point of view of a straight woman sexualising us?

Can we talk about that? Or am I going to get called misogynistic for pointing out the disparity between who gets the writing deals, & who gets their books turned into movies, & whose shit gets popular versus whose doesn't? Can we talk about how m/m fiction is only allowed when it appeals to a cishet gaze, or is that too much for tumblr to take?

Can we also talk about how trans queer men are even more hated by publishing? Can we talk about how we get shit from both sides? Can we talk about how books about the experiences of being a queer man, written by queer men, never get the same recognition as books written by women on this subject (barring academia which has its own problems)?

Can we talk about that? Can we?

[earlronove]

While WHEREVER THE STARS CALL doesn't come out until October, don't forget I have two more #SFF novels already released you could try! 🌻HYMN OF MEMORY & 🌟 BORN OF SCOURGE!

🌻 A road trip at the end of summer to escape your divinity. 🌟 Travel through cold & dead lands to possibly end the world.

(Somehow, I like writing road trips, whether they be with an actual car, on foot, or a space ship.)

Readers agree: feelings await!

[authormikamathews]

Medusa

I have not seen the new Disney plus Percy Jackson series, but I did see the Medusa scene... damn! That was amazing, seriously, it fit and hit home in ways I have never expected. The book version does not hold a candle, Uncle Rick has really learned from himself.

"I am a Survivor." Simple, sweet and powerful. She made so many good points monster or not.

Go Uncle Rick and Miss Kennedy for your amazing portrayal of this character!

[author-a-holmes]

Nanowrimo 2023 Wrap Up...

So, I didn't make my 75k or break any personal records, but I'm really not mad about that. I don't know why I thought November was the nano event to try that in, November nano's are almost always a disaster for me. In fact, this is only the second time I've ever hit 50k in November.

But hit it, I did! Final count at 1-minute-to-midnight on November 30th was 51,841 words, which has brought my Darkling Manuscript up to 92,696. That's almost doubled the words I've written throughout the rest of 2023 which is incredible, and I'm so happy.

It also means that it looks like I'm still on track to complete the manuscript by January, which was really my main goal. All in all, I'd call this Nanowrimo a resounding success.

If you're interested in some of my other statistics, I've got some more numbers beneath the cut...

Number of Sprints in November: 132 Sprints Time Spent Writing in November: 43 hours, 45 minutes Estimated Remaining: 20-25k words or 7-10 Chapters.

[francescaswords]

Introducing ROTTING TREES, a Bezzina's Emporium of Magical Artefacts and Antiquities novel

Ta dahh! Cursenovel is called ROTTING TREES, and you can read it from 11th December at the No.1 Readers’ Club on Patreon. You can find the prologue and chapters one to three here.

All the women in Ariel Scarlet’s family die before the age of forty. Family legend blames a cursed Victorian necklace, and Ariel is determined to discover who cursed it and why. Sophey Cartwright works in Bezzina’s Emporium of Magical Artefacts and Antiquities. She can help Ariel find out the truth... but is Ariel ready to face the past and choose her own place in history?

The prologue is on Patreon now and I can’t wait for you to get to know Sophey and Ariel. I’ve put together a little info post on my blog.

[megjameswrites]

Enter the world of Strange Waters, where magic and mundane combine with the smell of salt water and coffee.

Lilith Hunt isn’t on the run. She left her abusive husband legally, for a new life on the small, close-knit island of Grey’s Skerry. There, she’s forged a home and a successful business, in a place that fills her with power and belonging. There isn’t much Lili can’t do- run a coffee shop, raise her son alone, protect her island home with old magic.

But even if Lili isn’t running, forces she can’t control are chasing her. Lili is a witch and has been through the many lifetimes she remembers- and even more that she doesn’t. Stalking her through all those lifetimes is something dark, something evil. Something so powerful that it was locked away in a cage eons before humans even existed. But the cage splintered, and the Shadow God is after Lili. Luckily, Lili refuses to back down. But while she can and will face any threat to her new life- from ancient evil to unanticipated ex-lovers to her teenage son’s hormones to the Skerry PTA- she does sort of wish those threats would decide not to come all at once. Can she and her family survive the darkness that’s coming to Grey’s Skerry? Or will she lose the life she’s worked so hard to build- and the rest of the world with it?

[thedenofcaseywolfe]

Whelp, time to get those books before they're banned! Please support queer, disabled, and BIPOC authors right now. Buy physical editions whenever possible, since digital access can be removed at any time.

And if you can't BUY books, then there's still ways to help us authors out. Boosting posts, writing/sharing reviews, and checking out our books from the library (even if you don't read them). Checking out books through digital services like Hoopla gives us a small royalty each time, and it also helps libraries when it comes to funding and what they're more likely to add to the collection.

Please considering adding my books to your collection and/or checking them out at the library: AuthorCaseyWolfe.carrd.co

[sometimesraven]

"What I need," she huffed, waving the barmaid over again, "is three more drinks, and to get laid."

Erik's smile only grew wider then, gaining a cheeky edge as she ordered them both another round, "...I can help with that~"

---------------

(mild) NSFT??? On MY tunglr dot com? apparently so.

Thought for OC Kiss Week I might draw a scene I never wrote for Reckless Truth -- exactly what happens between Erik and Lydia after the bar scene :P Nice lil bit of platonic tiddy kissing on this lovely tuesday evening

tumblr eradicated this before even with censorship so if you wanna see the full image I posted it over on Pillowfort

taglist:

@smallvillecrows

[rs-hawk]

Daedalus’ son, his perfect creation, Icarus, loved the sun and warmth as his father, as talented and smart a man as he was, had sculpted him with the help of a slave woman, Naukrate. Icarus didn’t care about his father’s work, nor the fact that Minos was using that same work to torment the world around them, but what he did care about was being able to bathe in the warmth of the sun again. His secret love, Apollo.

Icarus would stand on the table Minos gave them for his father to work on, pressing his face against the bars separating him from the sun’s light. The warmth seeping into his once cool, marble skin made him shiver. Goosebumps sprang up on his arms, making him press his face harder against the bars. More eager and desperate for the warmth of his love.

However, he couldn’t reach him. He swallowed hard, tears pricking his eyes as he climbed off the table. Apollo was constantly on his mind. Just once, he wanted to see the face of the God he loved so. Part of him was embarrassed of the love he hid in his heart for him, but more than that, he was scared he would die in this little cell, never being able to bask in his sunlight again, much less see his face even once.

Daedalus knew his son longed for freedom, though he didn’t know the reason he was so desperate for it. However, seeing the longing in his son’s eyes as he looked out at the dawn sky cemented his determination to help him escape.

It took time. Longer than Daedalus thought, but he was able to create the wings that would be their path to freedom, and to Icarus’s demise. Icarus was the one to rip the bars from the window, a feat of strength that his father attributed to his once solid marble body. The duo dove from the ledge, flying high above the sea but low below the sun.

“Father, can I go higher?” Icarus called over the roaring winds as he danced through the sky, eager to touch as much of the sunlight as he could.

“A bit, but be careful,” Daedalus called back, unable to see that his son wasn’t heeding his previous warnings about how the wax from the wings could melt if they got too hot.

Suddenly, as Icarus soared through the sky- he saw him. His love. Apollo. The Sun God’s chariot typically raced through the sky, but to the shock of the young Icarus, he saw it slowed, as if watching him. Then, he saw the face of the God he longed for.

He froze, not even realizing that being so close was making the wax melt, or that by freezing and not flapping his arms, he had made himself began to fall. Apollo’s face shifted from curiosity and something else. Something softer. More personal. Affection? Lust? To horror and guilt.

“Apollo,” Icarus whispered, his hand out stretched towards the God after he realized that even when he flapped his arms, there was no feathers left to help him soar.

Apollo stared in shock, seemingly frozen as well. Icarus wondered what he was thinking when he saw Apollo calling out for someone as he leaned over the side of the chariot, extending his hand towards him. Daedalus heard the agonized cry of the God and it startled him so badly that he faltered, nearly falling himself. He looked over and saw his son nearly to the ocean.

“Icarus!” he screamed as he tried to reach him, flying as fast as he could.

“Good-bye Father,” Icarus smiled, his body slamming against the surface of the sea.

As he did, Apollo’s cry made the sky turn dark, and Daedalus nearly followed his son into the water, but he held onto hope as he prayed to Poseidon, promising to return the bull the Sea God had gave Minos if he protected his son. He swore on his life he would give his life to Athena as penitence for nearly killing his nephew. He told Hades he would design the most lavish garden for his wife Persephone if he just saved his son. He promise Thanatos anything he wanted. Please, someone, just save his son.

Once he reached the shore, he searched for the body of his son. Apollo’s chariot was gone. The sky dark with the stars shining brightly overhead, lending all the light Daedalus needed to find the broken pieces of marble that had once been his beloved son. His greatest treasure, and his greatest creation.