#quilly gets political

[aziraphales-library]

Hello and thank you for being a great source of fics! I read a super sweet outsider AU that included Crowley singing Abba songs and I need more! Are there any Abba themed fics you would recommend to us?

Hi! Here are some fics featuring ABBA songs/references, and a couple of Mamma Mia! fics...

The Stars Were Bright, My Dear Boy by not_joeys_secret_account (T)

It’s 1977 and Aziraphale and Crowley go to see Star Wars in the theatre, and, surprisingly, Aziraphale has never heard of ABBA

And Everything Is You by acetonitril (T)

Once a week, Crowley joins the local pub's karaoke night to sing an ABBA song. Aziraphale doesn't know about this. This is the story of Aziraphale finding out. Also, there's a bunch of students who might or might not be involved.

How You Thrill Me by ingafterdark (E)

There were three things Crowley would remember about this movie. The deception-driven chaos, the blastedly delightful musical numbers, and the idle weight of Aziraphale’s hand on Crowley’s thigh, which grew ever-more insistent from about the half-hour mark. Or: The night in the South Downs when a certain Angel debauched a certain Demon as Mamma Mia! played in the background.

I Believe In Angels by Raphaela Crowley (T)

Crowley and Aziraphale travel to a Greek island under false pretenses. Aziraphale's a bit worried about the morality of the situation, while Crowley just wants that blasted ABBA song to not be stuck in his head any more. Sophie S. wonders if the father she's never known is Sam Carmichael or just some guy in sunglasses named Anthony Cowwley.

One Look And You're Hypnotized by quiltedspacemittens (T)

“What are you doing in Greece?” Aziraphale asks, with distanced politeness, as the silence between them stretches a moment too long. Crowley ambles, one step behind him. “’M here on business. Supposed to tempt some poor woman to engineer a decades-long inheritance and property tax evasion scheme. Something about her ex-boyfriends.” “I see. And she’s on Kalokairi?” Kalokairi, Greece, 1977. One moustachioed demon on business, one clean-shaven principality on holiday, and one island in need of a little divine intervention. A Mamma Mia!-themed Tony fic written for Stayin' Julive aka Tony Month. Hypothetically updates every Wednesday in July. Title from "Angeleyes" by ABBA.

dancing queen (guaranteed to blow your mind) by Quilly (T)

Warlock has a secret, and it's that he invited three former staff members from his estranged parents' household to his wedding in the hopes that one of them is the one Nanny is still in love with. Crowley is just wondering what entity he pissed off to make three of his old flames show up the day before his adopted kid's wedding.

Do You Like ABBA? by Matcha_Tea_and_Other_Delights (T)

“I heard there’s going to be a meteor shower tonight.” The boy tells Aunt Lilith. “Oh?” She says in response, still a little unfamiliar with some of the earthly phrases and customs. “Yeah, stars falling from the sky and you get to make a wish, it’s great. Might stay up in my room watching them for a while.” Aunt Lilith looks up at the sky too, this time with an odd sense of woe coloring her features. “Falling stars, huh?” Or: Seven years after the events of Not-mageddon, things start to gear up for the Second Coming: Supreme Archangel Raphael would sound the alarms, a flight is boarded, as a swarm of locusts envelope the Earth. Everything is destroyed, with nothing left standing. The End. …yeah that’s not gonna happen. For starters, Satan is missing. Or or: Like the ones before them, it’s up to an angel and a demon to try and stop the world from ending. Third time’s the charm isn’t it? (Basically, what if Good Omens 3 went like this?)

- Mod D

[fictional-orphan-smackdown]

Look man I'm tired, I can't keep coming up with these catchy similarity based showdown titles

All propaganda and what each competitor is from under the cut

Anthony Lockwood (Lockwood and Co)

Lockwood (he's known by his surname mostly) is the mysterious, daredevil and charming founder of Lockwood and Co., a detective agency specialised in protecting people from angry -and sometimes sort of hungry- ghosts in a world where they're rampant. His agency is starting small despite Lockwood bragging it's the best in London but get more and more recognition as the series progress and the agents composing them meet success (when they're not on the verge of dying). Lockwood has open manners but hid his painful past from his coworkers to protect himself. He and George, the first teenager he recruited, are quite stunned by Lucy, a country girl who fled to London after disaster striked in her hometown. Thanks to her talent, she quickly becomes known as one of the best ghost fighter in London and finds her place in the small team despite having the same determination to hide her past than Lockwood, which draws him close to her, making George jealous, but Lockwood's manifest good skills in leadership and the three of them become fast friends while unravelling secret truths and risking their lives repeatedly

He has a lot of trauma and a lot of pain but he always smiles and always has a warm and polite attitude; he’s so protective of the ones he loves that it overrides his suicidal tendencies; at the end of the series he starts to heal from his past; he’s hot but has only two braincells.

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog franchise)

Shadow was created to help cure Robotnik's daughter, Maria, who suffers from the in-universe equivalent of AIDS. However, the us military catches wind of this and wants to use Shadow as a weapon. They storm the facility, kill Robotnik, KILL MARIA, but not before she ejects Shadow in a stasis pod that freezes him for 50 years. He has a black and red palette and owns a gun

I've come to make an announcement: Shadow the Hedgehog's a bitch-ass motherfucker. He pissed on my fucking wife. That's right. He took his hedgehog fuckin' quilly dick out and he pissed on my FUCKING wife, and he said his dick was THIS BIG, and I said that's disgusting. So I'm making a callout post on my Twitter.com. Shadow the Hedgehog, you got a small dick. It's the size of this walnut except WAY smaller. And guess what? Here's what my dong looks like. That's right, baby. Tall points, no quills, no pillows, look at that, it looks like two balls and a bong. He fucked my wife, so guess what, I'm gonna fuck the earth. That's right, this is what you get! My SUPER LASER PISS! Except I'm not gonna piss on the earth. I'm gonna go higher. I'm pissing on the MOOOON! How do you like that, OBAMA? I PISSED ON THE MOON, YOU IDIOT! You have twenty-three hours before the piss DROPLETS hit the fucking earth, now get out of my fucking sight before I piss on you too!

[quillyfied]

Hellaverse Theories: Hazbin Hotel S1E3

Welcome to Quilly’s Hellaverse Theories, where I overthink the entire Hellaverse! It’s been a little bit; life got busy, I have a semi-major medical procedure at the end of next week, and my reverse seasonal depression is hitting real hard this year, so let’s jump into the madness.

Starting tonight with s1e3!

Short diversion to say: Lucifer sending Charlie out into the world with Razzle and Dazzle (who can turn into dragons) and KeeKee (who appears to be a powerful tool of creation that Lucifer uses, though all the theories I’ve seen people swapping around say it’s something more integral to the hotel itself rather than to Lucifer, but just based on what’s in the show…sure looks like Lucifer gave away a heckin powerful magical artifact to his daughter) is sensible but also warms my heart so much. And I would love so much to know if that was Lucifer’s doing at all, or Lilith’s, or a joint venture from the both of them. I am so ready to learn more about their relationship without the Charlie Blinders on.

Y’know. There is a very strong trend I’m noticing about my own fiction preferences right now wherein a bubbly blond of privileged status undertakes an impossible task to make a difference in the places they choose to be, meet a colorful cast of queer characters, and continually fail while also somehow succeeding at the bigger and more important task of creating a space where a bunch of traumatized folks with a lot of baggage can feel safe to work through those issues and bond with each other and form wonderful found families. Charlie and Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death would have a DELIGHTFUL afternoon tea of swapping lesson plans, is what I’m saying.

(And Angel and Lucius would probably have a field day swapping stories but anyway)

Charlie and Vaggie’s relatively harsh sex-negative attitudes strike me as unusual for the show, which IMO itself has a pretty sex-neutral to sex-positive stance, depending on the angle. It begins to make more sense with a later episode and I’m sure I’ll talk more about this then, but in case I forget: they both appear to be operating off of what they THINK is the standard for getting into Heaven, which…is baloney because NOBODY knows how a soul gets into Heaven (and once they’re there they still bone with frequency and impunity, or at least Adam does). But if you’re going off the basic Christian-centric idea of sin, I can see where Charlie and Vaggie are coming from. Though Vaggie should know a little better what the Heavenly culture is like around those kinds of things, but tbh until we get more information, my assumption is that Vaggie hung around Exorcists pretty exclusively and they seem like a separate class entirely from other angels, if their jobs are a secret from the rest of Heaven and they purposely go into battle fully helmed. They’re two sheltered girls without a clue.

(The way Charlie turned out does make me heavily question what Lilith was actually like and how she expected Charlie to act. I want to KNOW dangit.)

Zestialllllll. I adore him. And I adore that he is, outside of Lucifer, most likely the most ancient being in Hell that we see. Certainly he’s the oldest sinner, and given that there are at least three methods of regular mortal turnover in Hell, that makes his very existence highly impressive. He’s survived hundreds of years of Overlord politics, turf wars, and Exterminations (assuming they’ve been going on for a while, GIVE ME A NUMBER VIVIENNE I NEED TO KNOW), and is so well known that people SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE to get away from him and Alastor walking together down the street. And Alastor gives him something much closer to actual deference, as opposed to what he gives the literal ruler of Hell next episode (a high-charged rivalry anthem on par with Loathing from Wicked, how have I not seen anyone do an edit or a comic of that one yet).

“Some have spun tales of you falling to holy arms.” Followed by Alastor pulling a major bluff, complete with shifty eyes. So Zestial’s information isn’t entirely inaccurate. Which still means just about anyone could be holding the other end of Alastor’s leash, but the major theories of it being Lilith (my personal favorite but also too easy and coincidental, feels like a red herring) or Eve (bound up somehow with Roo, I can just feel it) still feel most plausible to me. This could be foreshadowing and Zestial is wrong, since Alastor does nearly die due to holy arms in the finale, but…those shifty eyes. Zestial is definitely close, guessing a little too near the mark for Alastor’s comfort. What the HECKIE happened that put the Radio Demon and the Queen of Hell down for the count for the same amount of time? It is MADDENING. The incidents are obviously related, but how did that end with Alastor showing back up in Hell and Lilith up in Heaven?

(My cracked fanfic writer brain just went “Lilith decided she was done and passed her Queen duties to the deer man, Lucifer just found out he’s essentially married in power to Alastor, now discuss” but that is getting stuffed to the back of the mental closet where I will only ponder it late at night when I need a good giggle. Especially because it’s far more plausible that if Alastor and Lilith have any kind of deal whatsoever, it has to do with guiding and helping Charlie.)

(…could it be possible that Lilith’s deal with Adam involved trading Alastor somehow? Unlikely, since Adam had no idea who Alastor was, but Alastor being used as a pawn instead of being a major player would be such a delicious burden for his arrogant ass to bear and I kinda want to see it.)

Anyway.

Seeing an Overlord meeting is so fascinating, because watching Velvette come in and immediately challenge Carmilla and Zestial very much establishes something of a generation gap; the oldest Overlords in the room versus the youngest. But before I get ahead of myself and how BRILLIANTLY MANIPULATIVE Velvette is, a little stage-setting: no Overlords appear to have the same business dealings as the Vees, though there is genuine friendship between some of them (Carmilla and Zestial, Alastor and Rosie). No Overlords are locking horns at this meeting before Velvette shows up, no hint of political undercurrents or rivalries. The Overlords in the room are also high-rollers, it seems, the more powerful of the bunch, if only SIX of them own MILLIONS of souls. However, there are some hints after Velvette’s musical number to further shed some light on what Hellish politics are like, but before she comes in, all seems fine. Alastor gets his pride wounded (much to my personal amusement), but overall it’s perfectly civil.

Enter that hashtag bitch.

Her entire performance from top to bottom is a calculated strategy. Step one, show up late, ruffle some feathers with her lack of decorum, make it very clear up front that she’s showing up despite having better things to do. Put Carmilla on the back foot right away. But Carmilla is a professional; she’s a ballerina, used to dancing around her opponents. Step two, pull out the angel’s head and keep a close eye on Carmilla’s reaction, and start to push when Velvette meets immediate resistance to her “full assault plan” (I will eat my hat if they had such a thing at all; the three of them are safe in their fancy tower and they know it, and Velvette attending this meeting was never about the Vees working together with other Overlords at all). Step three: annihilate the meeting, push Carmilla into either admitting what she did and starting an uproar across all of Hell or shutting down the discussion before it can come to light, and the result is: the Overlords don’t actually sit down and make a plan about what to do about this accelerated Extermination. The Vees’ power remains unchallenged as the other Overlords scramble to keep theirs. Velvette planned this from the beginning.

The lyrics in the finale number confirm it, too “After the battle, masterless cattle, Overlords hanging by a thread…nature abhors a power vacuum, it leaves room for you and me. The future of Hell belongs to the Vees.” What better way to secure power than making sure your enemies can’t organize, even if it isn’t against you at first? The Vees are formidable, practically untouchable, because they work together. They can’t have other Overlords doing the same thing, because uniting against one seemingly impossible threat and succeeding has ripple effects. It becomes easier to unite against other threats. And if every other Overlord in Hell decided to band together to take down the Vees, the Vees wouldn’t win that encounter. Much easier to let Overlords’ natural distrust of each other continue to keep them alone and vulnerable while the Vees work in the background to take advantage of that vulnerability.

The Vees are a union-busting corporate tech giant monopoly, is what I’m saying.

Annnnyway.

Side note about character design: Velvette and Carmilla and Carmilla’s daughters all having very similar, if not the same, eye design is fascinating, but I’m not sure if it denotes a connection between them, since they also have the same eye design as hellhounds (seen more in Helluva Boss but there are a few in the background of Hazbin Hotel), and I’m not sure what to make of that tbh. Though Velvette being a doll and the Carmines being ballet-themed, possibly music box ballerina themed, does strike me as interesting too.

Okay, Zestial’s response: “Mightn’t they purge all of Hell for daring an uprising?” He’s the oldest guy in the room. He’s the most cautious, the most cunning, and one of the most powerful Overlords in that room, so probably in all of Hell. And what he just said is EXACTLY why the Exterminations are happening in the first place. Which begs the question: do the sinners know why Exterminations happen? Charlie knows, or at least knows a version of the story; Zestial being so ancient and also throwing out this incredibly obvious possibility that is already currently happening…I’m not sure if this is a writing continuity error or a hint that Exterminations have been happening for longer than Zestial has been around, so long that the original reason for it is lost to time for those who weren’t old enough to be there. The cautious way that Zestial and Carmilla are determined to stop Hell from trying to go to open war against Heaven makes me think that even if they don’t know the reason for the Exterminations, they’re smart enough to guess, and to want to keep their heads down and their people as safe as they can possibly be during a yearly bloodbath.

Also it continues to beg the question of why Lucifer “granted a pardon” to the Hellborn in the first place, if it was so long ago that Charlie probably didn’t exist yet, because a Hellborn sanction wouldn’t protect Lilith. She isn’t Hellborn. Technically neither is Lucifer, but I assume they figured that as an angel, even a fallen one, he wasn’t going to be in any danger anyway (since it apparently took ten thousand years for them to figure out on a wider scale that angelic steel kills angels too) (though it wouldn’t surprise me if the Seraphim all knew and just didn’t say anything). I’m rambling now but hOW LONG, VIV. HOW LONG HAVE THE EXTERMINATIONS BEEN GOING. I’M GOING TO START SCRAWLING ON THE WALLS.

“That was a productive meeting!” Okay, that’s my indication that expecting anything actually useful from this was probably a high bar to reach, but Velvette throwing an angelic bomb in the mix and then working Carmilla up to a bloody froth didn’t help, either. Overlords don’t collaborate, they don’t band together, they don’t share power. Even the Vees’ brand is held together with a lot of mutual self-interest and each one of them thinking that they’re the top of the operation. Though, personally, with this one scene, my money is on Velvette for being the top of that particular dogpile. Since. Y’know. She just single-handedly destroyed any chance of the Overlords working together to try and protect Hell.

(Also please tell me there’s at least one fanfic out there where the Hotel crew actually gives BDSM a shot. I don’t need to read it; I just need to know it exists. With a more nuanced and fair view of what professional BDSM is that isn’t just “weird deviant sex.”)

I can also see why a lot of people think Carmilla is a fallen angel when she’s placed so very obviously in narrative parallel with Vaggie. Part of me thinks this is merely foreshadowing to Carmilla becoming Vaggie’s mentor, because Carmilla being an Overlord and having daughters both seem like things that angels don’t do (and Carmilla’s daughters sharing physical similarities with her indicates to me that they might not be adopted daughters, but perhaps her actual daughters from life, since Sinners can’t reproduce). But there are plenty of little tidbits that would lend themselves to Carmilla being a fallen angel as well, such as the winged shape of her face markings and her general coloration being similar to Exorcists. Not to mention her deep knowledge of how to beat them, but that could very well be the decades or even centuries of observance Carmilla would have gotten in as one of the few demons willingly out during an Extermination Day. I lean towards Not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was, either. (How Carmilla and Vaggie both speak Spanish if they were both once angels is another question I want answered, tbh, but that could be something as simple as Heaven/Hell being multicultural by design and maybe they just sort of picked it up. But that doesn’t feel right tbh.)

“I just thought this would all be easier.” OH HELLO MAJOR THEME OF THE SHOW. Charlie’s naivete can be so charming sometimes, but so deeply saddening other times. Watching her grow up and start to shed some of that is a satisfying and subtle character arc and I can’t wait to keep watching her go.

Pentious having minions that have nothing to do with his power makes me more inclined to think that the little creatures that Alastor summons are souls he owns, but again, there’s literally no way to tell just by watching the show right now. Sigh.

Okay, only took two hours to get through this episode, so let’s take another two for the next one! It’ll be fine!

[thefineprintblog]

Ten full-length novels, ten heroines at the right hand of destiny…

Whether you’re slaying vampires or holding your own alongside superheroes, one of the best things about heroines is that they show us how strong, cunning, and magical they can be.

This box set contains TEN complete novels, all gripping and intriguing stories with women rocking rebellions, handing out justice, battling shadow gods, and bending the wills of kings.

Contributing authors include: Seattle Times bestselling author Raven Oak, Amazon bestselling authors Alesha Escobar, Devorah Fox, Christa Yelich-Koth, NIEA finalist HM Jones, the fantastic sci-fi/fantasy mavens HM Clarke, Sara C. Roethle, HB Lyne, JC Cassels, and Kylie Qullinan.

These science fiction and fantasy tales will take you on a thrilling journey.

House of Diviners (The Diviners #1)

Kelsey Jackson Diviner is a shaman–a walker between worlds, a healer and protector.

But when she witnesses a gruesome attack on one of her own, she must become a hunter and track down the monster responsible for disturbing the delicate balance between the human and spirit worlds.

In trying to navigate her day job as a therapist and help pain-in-the-ass ghosts cross over by night, Kelsey draws the attention of a clandestine paranormal society and a mysterious man who calls himself the black dagger god.

Set in modern-day Los Angeles, this urban fantasy unleashes a blend of magic and thrills.

Bitter Ashes

Madeline knew her life was strange, and not just because she could sense the emotions of others. Having people die by your hand on two separate occasions can make a girl question her very existence. Still, she never thought she’d wake up in a world straight out of Norse myth. A world where corpses reanimate all on their own . . . and she’s supposed to be their executioner.

The Redoubt

Voted one of 50 Self-Published Books Worth Reading 2016. Having bested beast, man, and even his own failings, King Bewilliam has restored his embattled kingdom, yet finds his life lacking. When a crippling famine threatens the Chalklands’ very survival, his vassals propose to seek aid from a distant monarch, unaware that the plan will reunite their king with a woman from his past: the Empress Alexandra, a formidable ruler in her own right. The expedition proves perilous and the king calls on his sole female knight, Dame Deidre, to face off against a murderous mob rabid with hunger. As treacherous as the journey is, the greater challenge comes when the king confronts a powerful woman whose love he spurned.

Muse (Tales of Silver Downs #1)

Brigit is supposed to become a wise woman but she longs for something more exciting. Diarmuid is a bard who accidentally brings his imaginary muse to life, only to discover that she isn’t the woman he thought she would be. Together they need to find a way to destroy the muse — if they survive the journey to find her.

Amaskan’s Blood (Book I of the Boahim Trilogy)

Adelei, one of the feared Amaskans, is sent into the hands of the Order’s worst enemy—her father. She tumbles dagger-first into the Boahim Senate’s political schemes and finds that magic is very much alive and well in the Little Dozen Kingdoms. They say the truth depends on which side of the sword one stands, but they never said what to do when all the swords are pointing at you.

The Enclave (The Verge: Book 1)

Katherine Kirk lived only for vengeance. Vengeance against the man who destroyed her home, her family and her life. Sent on a babysitting mission to Junter 3, RAN officer Katherine Kirk, finds herself quickly embroiled in the politics between the New Holland Government and the Val Myran refugees claiming asylum. After an Alliance attack, Kirk and her team hunt the enemy down and discover that they have finally found the lair of the man they have been searching for…

And the captive who has been waiting patiently for rescue.

“What would you do to the man who destroyed every important person in your life?”

Sovran’s Pawn (The Black Wing Chronicles Book 1)

Convicted traitor Bo Barron will do whatever it takes to purchase her father’s freedom from his kidnappers, even assume the guise of a Kiara Joy Babe at a high-stakes gambling tournament. When a handsome stranger steals a kiss, everything Bo thought she knew about her assignment turns upside down. If she wants to save her father and keep herself alive, she’s going to have to figure out how to survive the game she didn’t realize she was playing.

Ghosts of Winter (Echoes of the Past series)

Deep within the city of Caerton, shape shifters hide in the guise of humans, secretly fighting to protect them from the unimaginable demons that threaten their world.

Caerton’s newest shifter, Stalker, faces an uncertain future; as her pack struggles to cope with their devastating loss, dark forces begin to mass in the shadows. Tensions with the Witches continue to threaten the north, while the young shifters desperately strive to determine which of the city’s elders they can trust.

As an ancient and deadly evil emerges from beneath the city, Stalker and her new pack face a frantic race against the changing face of the moon. Can their demonic enemy be defeated? Heroes will rise in this, the second thrilling instalment of the Echoes of the Past series, where creatures from our darkest nightmares stalk our world…

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Universal Link : https://books2read.com/destinynovels

Alesha Escobar

House of Diviners (The Diviners #1)

Alesha Escobar writes fantasy to support her chocolate habit. She enjoys reading everything from Tolkien and Dante, to the Dresden Files and Hellblazer comics.

She resides in California with her partner-in-crime, Luis Escobar, a 20-year art veteran on The Simpsons television show. Alesha is the author of the bestselling Gray Tower Trilogy, an action-packed supernatural spy thriller set in an alternate 1940’s. The Tower’s Alchemist, the first book of the trilogy, is now being adapted to screenplay.

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2eRNqmt

Get free stories and books from Alesha: http://bit.ly/FMMReads

Sara C Roethle

Bitter Ashes

Sara C Roethle is an author and part-time unicorn. She resides in the Land of Enchantment, as far from humans as possible. Sara is the author of the Bitter Ashes Series, the Xoe Meyers Series, the Tree of Ages Series, and the Thief’s Apprentice Series.

http://saracroethle.com/

Devorah Fox

The Redoubt

“What if?” Those two words all too easily send Devorah Fox spinning into flights of fancy. Best-selling author of The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam epic historical fantasy series including “The Redoubt,” voted one of 50 Self-Published Books Worth Reading 2016, and ”The Lost King,” awarded the All Authors Certificate of Excellence. She also wrote the historical thriller “Detour,” co-authored the contemporary thriller, “Naked Came the Sharks,” with Jed Donellie, contributed to “Masters of Time: a SciFi/Fantasy Time Travel Anthology,” and “Magic Unveiled: An Anthology,” and has several Mystery Mini Short Reads to her name. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she now lives in The Barefoot Palace on the Texas Gulf Coast with rescued tabby cats … and a dragon named Inky. Visit the “Dee-Scoveries” blog at http://devorahfox.com.

blog: http://devorahfox.com/

amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Devorah-Fox/…

Kylie Quillinan

Muse (Tales of Silver Downs #1)

Kylie lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her pack of one husband, two dogs, and a cat. She spent most of her childhood wandering in fictional worlds but it was many years before she made the connection between her own made-up worlds and the written word. She will read almost anything but prefers a fantastical element, including magic, time travel and monsters.

She is the author of the Tales of Silver Downs historical fantasy series and her 2017 releases include the paranormal fantasy, Speak To Me, and a fantasy series set in ancient Egypt. Her other interests include canine nutrition, playing the piano badly, zombies and organic gardening. She blames the disheveled state of her house on her dogs but she really just hates to clean.

Sign up for her mailing list at kyliequillinan.com to receive alerts for new releases, advanced reader copies, and other goodies. SWAN — the epilogue to the Tales of Silver Downs series — will be available exclusively to her mailing list subscribers.

Website: http://kyliequillinan.com/

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Kylie-Quilli…

Raven Oak

Amaskan’s Blood (Book I of the Boahim Trilogy)

Bestselling science fiction & fantasy author Raven Oak is best known for Amaskan’s Blood (Epic Awards 2016 Finalist), Class-M Exile, and the collection Joy to the Worlds: Mysterious Speculative Fiction for the Holidays (Foreword Reviews 2016 Book of the Year Finalist). She spent most of her K-12 education doodling stories and 500 page monstrosities that are forever locked away in a filing cabinet.

When she’s not writing, she’s getting her game on with tabletop games, indulging in cartography, or staring at the ocean. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband, and their three kitties who enjoy lounging across the keyboard when writing deadlines approach.

Website: http://www.ravenoak.net/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Oak/e/…

H.M. Clarke

The Enclave (The Verge: Book 1)

In the past, H M Clarke has been a Console Operator, an ICT Project Manager, Public Servant, Paper Shuffler and an Accountant (the last being the most exciting.) She attended Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, where she studied for a Bachelor of Science (Chem), and also picked up a Diploma in Project Management while working for the South Australian Department of Justice. In her spare time, she likes to lay on the couch and watch TV, garden, draw, read, and tell ALL her family what wonderful human beings they are. She keeps threatening to go out and get a real job (Cheesecake Test Taster sounds good) and intends to retire somewhere warm and dry – like the middle of the Simpson Desert. For the time being however, she lives in Ohio and dreams about being warm…

Author Site: http://www.hmclarkeauthor.com/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/H.M.-Clarke/…

JC Cassels

Sovran’s Pawn (The Black Wing Chronicles Book 1)

In an alternate universe JC Cassels is a space pirate. In this reality, she quenches her thirst for swashbuckling adventure by writing space opera. When not writing in her haunted hospital, JC lives with her husband, three children, five dogs, twenty chickens and a horse in a century-old house in a tiny rural community, and enjoys spending her free time sewing, camping, and heckling theoretical physicists on the Science Channel.

Author Site: http://jccassels.com/

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2dQMU2S

H. B. Lyne

Ghosts of Winter (Echoes of the Past series)

H.B. Lyne lives in Yorkshire with her two children and two cats. When not juggling family commitments, she writes dark urban fantasy novels, purging her imagination of its demons. Inspired by the King of Horror himself, Holly aspires to be at least half as prolific and successful and promises to limit herself to only one tome of The Stand-like proportions in her career. Other idols include J.K. Rowling, Joss Whedon and Robert Kirkman, and she will often be spotted wearing Harry Potter, Firefly or The Walking Dead apparel.

Author Site: http://hblyne.com/

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00NVQC…

Alesha Escobar

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2eRNqmt

Get free stories and books from Alesha: http://bit.ly/FMMReads

Sara C. Roethle

http://saracroethle.com/

Devorah Fox

blog: http://devorahfox.com/

amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Devorah-Fox/…

Kylie Quillinan

Website: http://kyliequillinan.com/

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Kylie-Quilli…

Raven Oak

Website: http://www.ravenoak.net/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Oak/e/…

HM Clarke

Author Site: http://www.hclarkeauthor.com/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/H.M.-Clarke/…

JC Cassels

Author Site: http://jccassels.com/

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2dQMU2S

HB Lyne

Author Site: http://hblyne.com/

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00NVQC…

Daughters of Destiny Release Blitz Ten full-length novels, ten heroines at the right hand of destiny… Whether you're slaying vampires or holding your own alongside superheroes, one of the best things about heroines is that they show us how strong, cunning, and magical they can be.

[quillyfied]

To the anon I blocked and maybe other people with strong feelings that I, as a white woman, “should shut my mayo mouth”:

I do. For the most part.

I don’t participate in discussions about racial issues in fandom or otherwise, with very few exceptions, but I do read. I try to pay attention and stay aware. I have massive oversights in that arena, big ole blind spots I’m not even aware of, because: white! It is not hard to dig up receipts of me being (unintentionally, but intent doesn’t mean much, I’ve been told) racist. It happened just last year. I can find the posts for you. And there are more, going back over a decade now, and that’s JUST on tumblr. I haven’t deleted them. I haven’t made excuses for myself. I’ve just absorbed criticism when given, and quietly gone on my way. Donated to causes when I can. Tried to magnify other voices when moved. I’m not apologizing or making excuses for myself, exactly, it just is what it is.

Few months ago I read a post from a fandom wondering why, in all the good meta about racial politics in said fandom, there weren’t more white fans examining the white characters’ whiteness and deconstructing it. My first impression was that I personally felt incredibly unqualified; in many ways, I’m blissfully unobservant of whiteness and how deep it goes, and surely if anyone is going to critique whiteness, it should be those who have actual, tangible things to say, shouldn’t it? I learned my lesson that my value as a white person trying to be an ally is to shut up, or uplift other voices when given the opportunity. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about a response to that post that went along the lines of “because white people won’t see whiteness, it’s too uncomfortable and threatens their cushy lives”, the more my own logic started to sound like a cop-out to me.

I’m not saying that I’m going to be jumping in or initiating more discussions like the one I did today. I’m glad I did, because the perspectives have been amazing, but yes, anon, my mayo mouth is going to remain shut on social platforms except where I feel I have something valuable to say or contribute. Just because that’s the kind of person I am. But I’m not going to let my own anxiety keep me back from personal growth and reaching out for help in deconstructing my own perceptions based on whiteness, either. Have a nice day.

[quillyfied]

I’m gonna try to be brief but I’ve been doing that thing where I have an ongoing uncomfortable emotional crisis and I study it, and I have an observation to share:

When you grow up as part of a greater monoculture (in my case, white southern able-bodied neurotypical cishet American Protestant Christian), it is often absolutely terrifying to realize the scope of human experience outside of that monolith you grew up in. Because everyone you know and interact with from the time you’re a small child reinforces the majority view of the world, and unless you’re lucky enough to have someone Different in your life young, you have to sort of create your own paths to exploring life and experiences outside of that norm that has been imposed on you. And whatever you believe in help you if you yourself know you’re Different in some way but can’t really verbalize or quantify how, because you’ve never been exposed to Different before even though you can feel how Different you are.

A common reaction to learning something about the world outside of your monoculture, especially something that has proven hurts and scars from your monoculture’s influence: anger, disbelief, defensiveness. This is a constant knee-jerk reaction to learning new information that challenges your worldview and especially lays the blame at the feet of your monoculture. The reaction is natural, but to stop at that reaction and believe you are justified in your anger and being attacked is irresponsible at best. Life is a constant stream of input, output, and changes based on how the two interact. If you never step outside of where you grew up, if you never confront that feeling of discomfort and study it and learn more about what is making you uncomfortable, you are never going to grow into the better versions of yourself. Sameness is stagnation. Stagnation is where the bitterness lives, and where there is bitterness, there is anger. Anger can be so useful, but it can also be blinding, a blunt instrument to lash out with.

Maybe I’ll give more personal examples later on, but the point is: reacting to new (to you) information with anger and defensiveness isn’t unnatural or uncommon, but the question that comes first should always be: “Is this true, and how do I learn more?” Not digging in your heels and becoming convinced that people with widely different experiences with aspects of your culture are all liars and pot-stirrers. If you truly want to be a better, kinder, more inclusive person—something that NOBODY is perfectly all the time forever, mind, and must always be cultivated rather than left to rest—the first step is to listen. Not give in to your immediate defensive discomfort.

[quillyfied]

For a lot of conservatives in my acquaintance, I have to think it’s less about the rich wanting to protect their wealth and more about either the hereditary middle class who doesn’t want their status to change (read as: go lower), or people who clawed their way up from the bottom who don’t want the status quo to change and tip them back into economic turmoil.

Being raised in that environment and just missing the social awareness to call myself conservative for years, I know what I’ve been taught about things like socialism and communism; for a long time I didn’t realize there was a difference between them, or really comprehend that they were anything other than Evil and Morally Bankrupt. Good on paper, bad in practice. Sure glad we’re in America, the land of infinite opportunity, where the government doesn’t tell you what to do or what you can own. Isn’t it great that we punched out the Nazis and hate Russia and China? Just imagine if their communist-socialist agendas made it over here to us regular folk, how bad would that be? Just imagine going back on food stamps but this time the government tells you how much you can eat and it’s never enough. You know how your family has never been to Disney world and how every time you ask to go on some of the more fun expensive school field trips your parents get that look on their faces like their budget has been wrecked and it’s your fault? It’s that but all the time just existing! That’s what socialism will do to all of us!

A lot of conservatives are genuinely thoughtless and entitled people. A whole lot more are scared of any and all boat rocking whatsoever because they fought so hard for what they have and they fear that any economic change means they’ll be crashing back into poverty or headed there for the first time. It’s a brainwashing thing, almost: all change is bad, there’s opportunity in this country if you just work hard and aren’t lazy, being poor is a moral failing and so is socialism and don’t you forget it.

A great antidote to fear is education but there is a point of commingled complacency and sheer gut wriggling terror that makes anything but spouting conservative rhetoric impossible. There’s comfort in sameness. There’s safety in routine. There’s ritual to the stubborn assertion that the fictional America touted since World War II is how it is and nothing has changed since then. The rich are heroes and if we can just work hard enough we can be rich too and defeat the dread enemies Communism-Socialism and Poverty.

(You revile the poor and homeless as being both dangerous and lazy, you point out unions and labor laws and anti trust laws as senseless and wanting outlandish things, you normalize working long and obscene hours in dangerous conditions, you keep hammering home the point that being poor is a personal failing and make it impossible to get any sort of meaningful aid, you tout the rich as shining white knights of capitalism and proof that the system works for us and it can work for you, too, to defeat enemies to America, and you make sure that the people you are targeting are always too tired and complacent to resist, and is it any WONDER that a lot of people raised conservative find it so difficult to escape that mindset, if not impossible?)

[quillyfied]

In their most well-meaning basic iterations, American conservatism seeks to help people by bolstering economical structures. American liberalism seeks to help people by bolstering social structures. Both are good impulses and both are necessary; in a perfect world, they would meet in the middle and we would have a strong economy and robust social nets and safeties.

What we are seeing from conservative politicians now is that taken to the extreme—where it’s all about the economy and people are fuel for the machine, and they’re leading the whole conservative movement by the nose in that direction. You can’t meet in the middle with that; they have to pull it back from the far reaches first. Conservatism and liberalism both, as far as I can tell, have two meeting points: the true equilibrium, and the extremist wastes that all inevitably turns to fascism and authoritarianism and looks the same again (see Animal Farm by George Orwell). We can’t reach equilibrium if one side is so entrenched in its march towards extremism it refuses to play the game and reach back.

“You reach first,” American conservatives say.

“We are, it’s your turn,” American liberals say.

And it is. If the run of the mill Joe Shmoe conservative doesn’t see themself as racist and homophobic but rather a champion of the working class, they need to look around them and step up for ALL working class. They need to chase the hatred back to the extremist wastes from whence it comes and be what they say they are and what they want to be. They need to do as Jesus said and love and care for everyone, even he that hates you and would despitefully use you, and especially those you are taught to hate and despitefully use. Because the wolf is in your bed, conservatives, and if you don’t get rid of him, he will swallow you, if he hasn’t already, and it is a long impossible climb out of that digestive tract.

The ultimate goal is to care for the people. You can’t do that if you put the economy first. And social purity ideas have no place in that goal either.

[quillyfied]

To people who have someone they love, trust, rely on, and maybe even are financially dependent on vote for Former President 45: I’m sorry and it is perfectly reasonable to have conflicted feelings about that. Context for why they voted the way they did matters to you and it matters to them. Maybe they did it because they felt the economic good he did outweighed the social dumpster fire. Maybe they feared Biden and Harris more than they disliked him. Maybe they’re party loyal and didn’t feel like they had a choice. Talk to them about it. Understand them. “Reach across the aisle” means understanding why someone you love and respect makes the choices they make, and being brave enough to have a discussion about it. It doesn’t mean you go out and find the most rabid extremist you can and make nice with them (though if you love someone like that I am sorry and good luck with that), it means talking to your loved ones and reaching a mutual understanding. Some people aren’t in a place where they feel they can safely do that; maybe the relationship is good but the life situation is precarious. Maybe you love them but are afraid they won’t love you if you start to question them (that is still a valid fear, and you can have a loving relationship despite that anxiety, because anxiety lies and misconstrues). Only you know the shape and shade of your relationships and situations, and I am saying to you that your negative feelings caused by voting for 45 clashing with the positive feelings that person evokes is a struggle you are allowed to feel. You don’t have to cut anyone out you don’t want to, you don’t have to have a knock-down-drag-out about it, you don’t have to never forgive them ever. If you want to and you feel it’s justified, go for it, and good on you for doing what is best for you. If you don’t, that is normal and healthy and justified and you are also important in this situation. It is normal to want to protect loved ones who voted like that from the ire of those who don’t know the whole situation and don’t care. It’s normal. It’s normal. It’s normal.

But HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT IT. Don’t let it go, don’t forget it. You don’t have to immediately jump them and hound them and insult them if they don’t change their minds instantly. But you should, if you are able, have hard conversations. You should bring sources. You should be prepared to argue, and be prepared to stop arguing once it becomes counterproductive. You don’t change minds just by showing people their perceived way doesn’t work and being harsh, though it certainly does work. You also change minds through true kindness. Through love. Through being willing to show these things even to people who you don’t think deserve them. You don’t have to be nice or polite about it. But you know best how to reach your loved ones and how to have delicate, difficult conversations. And if you don’t, it’s time to begin.

This does not apply to people who have family members or community circle members whom they dislike or fear and are ready to wash their hands of. This is just for people who feel betrayed and hurt and conflicted because someone they love voted for a person who appeals to groups that cause explicit harm and who caused explicit harm himself. They don’t require the forgiveness and kindness of strangers. But they just might from you. And only you can tell them how to do that in a way they understand and will hear.

[quillyfied]

Gentle reminder that while an incredible tool, social media can also be extremely polarizing and insular. Do your research, look up sources from all political walks of life, form opinions based on ALL the facts and not just somebody else’s hot takes. Be critical, especially of your own biases.

[quillyfied]

I am in fact a math imbecile but let me see if I’ve got the corner of an idea here

Say America takes a turn and taxes a man with $1 billion 90%

That leaves him with 10% of his income

10% of 1 billion is 100 million

So you could tax a billionaire 90% and he would still have more money than the average American can truly visualize

...seems a bit unfair for one person to have so much when so many have so little

[quillyfied]

trans folks are the gender they say they are

asexuals are part of the lgbtq community

neither gender nor sexuality is a binary choice even by scientific standards

straight culture has done more to harm the “sanctity of marriage and the family” than any queer person ever

[quillyfied]

The disabled community deserves all the help and accommodation the abled community can give them all the time, not just when it’s convenient for the abled community to do so

[quillyfied]

Homelessness should never be a problem for a country with more empty housing units than individual homeless people

[quillyfied]

One last April Truth for the day:

Being kind is the most powerful thing you can do. Be kind to others, be kind to animals, be kind to kids, be kind to YOURSELF. Be kind to those who don’t experience much kindness. Be kind to those who don’t deserve it and especially to those who do. Be tenderly, relentlessly kind.

[quillyfied]

universal healthcare is a right that the government should provide by raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires, because the point of a society is to take care of its people, especially those who can’t care for themselves