#xan west

[transbookoftheday]

Books To Read For Genderfluid Visibility Week

Happy Genderfluid Visibility Week! Here are some books with genderfluid main characters you should read and/or preorder:

Book titles:

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall

Salt the Water by Candice Iloh

Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore

Valerin the Fair by Rien Gray

Nine of Swords, Reversed by Xan West

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

The Manor House Governess by C.A. Castle (comes out November 7, 2023)

A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford (comes out December 5, 2023)

[renthony]

🏳️‍🌈

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

It's not currently the season for it, but I'm gonna recommend a holiday-themed erotica anyway. Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West z”l is a Chanukah-themed f/f BDSM romance between a 51-year-old gray ace femme submissive named Leah, and a newly-divorced 49-year-old stone butch dom named Jordan.

Here's the official plot summary:

Sometimes the perfect Chanukah gift can change everything. Newly divorced stone butch Jordan moves into her friend Leah’s spare room, ready, at 49, to take on a new job and finally explore kink and polyamory. But moving to NYC during the holidays sends grief crashing through her, and Jordan realizes that when she isn’t solely focused on caring for others, her own feelings are unavoidable. Including her feelings for Leah. 51 year old queer femme Leah, an experienced submissive kink educator who owns a sex shop, has recently come to terms with being gray ace and is trying to rework her life and relationships to honor that. Leah has a brainstorm to help them both: she offers Jordan eight kink lessons, one for each night of Chanukah, to help Jordan find her feet as a novice dominant, and to create a structured space where Leah can work on more deeply honoring her own consent, now that she knows she’s gray ace. She’d planned to keep it casual, but instead the experience opens cracks in the armor Leah’s been using to keep people at a distance and keep herself safe. Now she needs to grapple with the trauma that’s been impacting her life for years. Can these two autistic queers find ways to cope with the changes they are making in their lives and support each other, as they build something new they hadn’t thought was possible? This kinky polyamorous Chanukah f/f romance includes a friends to lovers, roommates to lovers, kink lessons, seasoned romance and getting your groove back tropes, and polyamorous, gray ace, pansexual, Jewish, fat, autistic, disabled, arthritis, PTSD and depression representation.

I adore this book. I was actually a sensitivity reader for this one, helping give feedback on the aspec representation. I'm mentioned in the acknowledgments and am so, so happy to have gotten my hands on a paperback copy. I miss Xan dearly. Their Twitter account is forever marked as "on hiatus," and when we lost them, we lost the best damn kink-positive writer I've ever met. May their memory be a blessing, and may their writing find its way to everyone who needs it. <3

Ask For a Rec | Other Media Recommendations | Support Links

[lgbtqreads]

Do you know any books with autism and bdsm/kink or asexuality and bdsm/kink? Sorry if you don’t want this kind of adult content on your blog feel free to ignore me

We talk content for all ages here! And I will also take any opportunity to talk about Xan West, may their memory be a blessing, who wrote exactly this and was such a fantastic advocate for all things. I did cover reveals for two of their books that are perfect fits:

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West!

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

They very sadly passed in 2020, but their blog is still around, and can probably lead you to more work of interest: https://xanwest.wordpress.com/about/

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[luvly-dreams]

The negative images of stoneness impact how we are treated in our communities and our intimate relationships, as well as how we see ourselves. Stone folks and our partners are often treated badly for being stone. People sometimes partner with us hoping to melt our stone or “cure” us of being stone. We often internalize the idea that our stoneness is a problem, needs a cure, means something is deeply wrong with us. We sometimes start thinking of our sexual boundaries as illegitimate or hurtful to others. In my classes on stone sexuality, I concentrate on the idea of stone as a sexual orientation where pleasure/desire is centered on another person’s body and experience.

- Xan West

[girljpg]

somebody for real is talking about metamours in the class forum this week. of course they do not explain what this is

[queerliblib]

Any book recs featuring characters with chronic pain and/or hypermobility? Thanks for all your hard work!

absolutely <3

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner (chronic pain)

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl (fibromyalgia)

Nine of Swords, Reversed by Xan West (arthritis pain)

Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield (chronic pain)

okay and this one is a bit outside the box (it’s also just in our wishlist, we haven’t been able to purchase yet) but Contingent Figure: Chronic pain and queer embodiment by Michael D. Snediker if you want some theory to go with that fiction. Also Hurting Like Hell, Living With Gusto is a memoir by a queer author Victoria Stopp.

& a few more fiction we don’t have (yet):

Even if We Break by Marieke Nijkamp (chronic pain)

Fight + Flight by Jules Machias (okay this one is middle grade HOWEVER it does have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos rep)

Take All of Us by Natalie Leif (chronic migranes)

Anatomical Venus by Courtney Bates-Hardy (chronic pain)

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

🩷💛💙 PAN PRIDE DAY 💙💛🩷

QOTD: What’s a book you’ve enjoyed with a pan main character?

Happy Pansexual Pride Day to all my pan pals!

I still feel pansexuality is severely under represented in fiction (and when it’s there it’s often alluded to through wording rather than specifically differentiated from bisexual), but I’ve definitely come across way more (some intentionally and some by pure happy accident) since making my first ever pan post with only 5 books in it, some of the rep in that first post not even being main characters.

So here are some recs and some still on my tbr for you to add to yours if you’re looking for some pan rep to brighten your shelves!

[instagram]

Fantasy

- Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love by Rita A Rubin

- A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson

- The Sound of Storms by Anya Keeler

- Evergreen by Devin Greenlee

- A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shittleworth

- Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Romance

- How to Bang a Billionaire by Alexis Hall

- Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan

- Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

- Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

- Get it Right by Skye Kilaen

- Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

Other

- Who Could Love You, Astor Price? by Amy Jane Lehan

- The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

- We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis

TBR

- We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchison

- We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

- In the Ravenous Dark by AM Strickland

- Summer at the Scottish Castle by Rachel Bowdler

- Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

- For Never & Always by Helena Greer

- Once & Future by AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy

- Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey

- A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

[read-alert]

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month! Full titles under the cut!

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Just Shy of Ordinary by AJ Sass

Teacher of the Year by MA Wardell

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Ring of Solomon by Adrian Polydoros

Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen

Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

[duckprintspress]

9 Queer Reads We Love for the Holidays!

The holiday season is upon us! No matter what you celebrate at this time (if anything at all), what better way is there to spend those long, cold evenings—or hot, summer afternoons—than curled up with a great book? That’s why we compiled a list of 9 of our favorite queer, holiday-themed books, including works about the Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Hanukkah, and some with just general winter vibes (our reccers didn’t know any Kwanzaa books, sorry!). Grab a cup of tea and enjoy! The contributors to this list are: Nina Waters, polls, Shannon, Rhosyn Goodfellow, E. C., Mikki Madison and an anonymous contributor.

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.

The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.

-

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

-

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.

Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her month-long paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.

It could be going better.

But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.

Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?

-

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

Newly divorced stone butch Jordan moves into her friend Leah’s spare room, ready, at 49, to take on a new job and finally explore kink and polyamory. But moving to NYC during the holidays sends grief crashing through her, and Jordan realizes that when she isn’t solely focused on caring for others, her own feelings are unavoidable. Including her feelings for Leah.

-

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch

Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night. But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.

Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.

-

Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

Kiskeya Burgos left the tropical beaches of the Dominican Republic with a lot to prove. As a pastry chef on the come up, when she arrives in Scotland, she has one goal in mind: win the Holiday Baking Challenge. Winning is her opportunity to prove to her family, her former boss, and most importantly herself, she can make it in the culinary world. Kiskeya will stop at nothing to win , that is, if she can keep her eyes on the prize and off her infuriating teammate’s perfect lips.

Sully Morales, home cooking hustler, and self-proclaimed baking brujita lands in Scotland on a quest to find her purpose after spending years as her family’s caregiver. But now, with her home life back on track, it’s time for Sully to get reacquainted with her greatest love, baking. Winning the Holiday Baking Challenge is a no brainer if she can convince her grumpy AF baking partner that they make a great team both in and out of the kitchen before an unexpected betrayal ends their chance to attain culinary competition glory.

-

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love — and the inevitable heartbreak — is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy: a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone like Elle. When Darcy’s brother — and Elle’s new business partner — expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because… awkward.

Darcy begs Elle to play along and she reluctantly agrees to pretend they’re dating. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays, and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

-

Make the Yuletide Gay by Ivy L. James

Junior editor Grace Taylor is doubling as the temporary assistant to senior editor Nicola Valentine…and harboring a secret crush on her. Grace is devastated when a work conference forces her to miss her big family Christmas. However, she gets a gift she doesn’t expect when a snowstorm strands her and Nicola at a small B&B.

Nicola has no idea how to handle sharing a room with her gorgeous, vibrant assistant. As she learns to share her heart as well, her fear threatens the blossoming relationship. Can she let Grace in, or will Nicola’s past sabotage her chance at happiness?

-

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other. And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. 

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

What are YOUR favorite queer holiday books? Maybe you know a Kwanzaa one we could check out?

See something you’d love to buy? Check out our queer book lists on Bookshop.org and pick your new favorite book through the Duck Prints Press affiliate shop!

You can also access this list as a shelf on Goodreads.

Come chat with us about your favorite holiday books in our public Book Lover’s Discord server!

[transbookoftheday]

♾️🌈 Trans Books To Read For Neurodivergent Pride Day 🌈♾️

("The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" isn't out yet, but you can preorder it or request an ARC on NetGalley.)

[lgbtqreads]

I’m interested in if you have any recs for books with kinky characters that aren’t necessarily straightforward erotica — stories where kinky people get to have full lives where kink is just a part of them. I’d love to see characters talking about how kink affects their lives and relationships, how they realized they were kinky, etc. Bonus points if it’s not about BDSM, because I feel like I see that much more commonly represented than other kink communities.

R.O. Kwon's a great place to start - check out her most recent novel, Exhibit, and the anthology she coedited with Garth Greenwell, Kink. Also check out Xan West's Eight Kinky Nights, and Reese Morrison has a whole Romance series on Daddies. And if you're interested in nonfic, check out Tina Horn's Why Are People Into That?

(Also, not queer, but a Romance I always think is great for this is Hold Me Down by Sara Taylor Woods.)

[qbdatabase]

Hiii, do you know of any books with chronically physically disabled main characters? And books with housebound disabled characters?

For the previous ask, I would prefer if the disabled characters were also bi but it's fine if there aren't any books like that. I'm fine with queer in general too

--

I'm not sure what you personally would consider *chronically* disabled (arthritis? amputee? deaf? HIV+?) but the QBDatabase actually has 411 books with disabled Main Characters or Love Interests! To try to narrow it down, I filtered for either chronic pain or chronic illness + bisexual (or pan / queer)

Full Disclosure by Garrett, Camryn: HIV+ black bisexual female

Sick Kids in Love by Moskowitz, Hannah: female MC with arthritis x bisexual male LI with Gaucher disease

Architects of Memory by Osborne, Karen: terminally ill bisexual female MC

Two Rogues Make a Right by Sebasian Cat: chronically ill demisexual male x bisexual male

Sorrowland by Solomon, Rivers: black albino bisexual intersex MC who is partially blind and has chronic pain

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Sebastian, Cat: mga disabled male with chronic pain who uses a cane x gay male

City of Shattered Light by Winn, Claire: chronically ill bisexual female MC

Tripping Arcadia by Mayquist, Kit: chronically ill bisexual male prominent SC

Fight + Flight by Machias, Jules: pansexual female MC with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

The Unbroken by Clark, C. L.: bisexual female MC who uses a cane and has chronic pain in her legs

Cruel Seduction by Robert, Katee: polyamorous bisexual male MC with chronic pain from a knee injury (FFMM bi4bi poly-pairing)

Eight Kinky Nights by West, Xan: FF pairing, pansexual x greysexual, one has arthritis but I don't know which one

The Friendship Study by Barrett, Ruby: bisexual male MC with chronic pain who uses a cane

If there's any other type of disability you're looking for, you can filter by 20 physical disabilities while also filtering for mga (bi, pan, omni, etc) identities!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in July 2024 🌈

🌈 Good morning, my bookish bats, and happy July! Pride Month may be over, but remember: Read Queer ALL Year. Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Earth to Alis - Lex Carlow 🧡 Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts - Adam Sass 💛 The Sky on Fire - Jenn Lyons 💚 The Meaning of Liberty - Sage Donnell 💙 Making It - Laura Kay 💜 The Black Bird of Chernobyl - Ann McMan ❤️ A Map of My Want - Faylita Hicks 🧡 The Devil You Know - Ali Vali 💛 The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power - Various 💙 The Second Son - Adrienne Tooley 💜 Cursed Under London - Gabby Hutchinson Crouch 🌈 Forbidden Girl - Kristen Zimmer

❤️ Rise - Freya Finch 🧡 Undercurrent - Patricia Evans 💛 Online Rebellion - Blue Matt Jeff 💚 Wolf Gift - T.J. Nichols 💙 Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream - Tehlor Kay Mejia 💜 Miller: Origin - Starr Z. Davies ❤️ The Shadows Beyond - T.J. Rose 🧡 The Ones Who Come Back Hungry - Amelinda Bérubé 💛 Their Viscountess - Jess Michaels 💙 Fast Holiday - Kerry Lockhart 💜 The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky - Josh Galarza 🌈 The West Passage - Jared Pechaček

❤️ The Hades Calculus - Maria Ying 🧡 Misrecognition - Madison Newbound 💛 One Last Summer - Kristin Keppler 💚 Waypoint Seven - Xan van Rooyen 💙 Hiding Him - Adam Hattan 💜 Thousand Autumns - Meng Xi Shi, Me.Mimo ❤️ The Adventure Zone, Vol. 6: The Suffering Game - Various 🧡 Rowan & Aldred - Lucie Fleury 💛 Yoke of Stars - R.B. Lemberg 💙 Casting Vows - Ariella Talix 💜 Count Felford's Vessel - S. Rodman

❤️ The Actor and His Secret - Ben Alderson, Laura R. Samotin 🧡 How To Die Famous - Benjamin Dean 💛 So Witches We Became - Jill Baguchinsky 💚 The Amazing Alpha Tau Romeo and Juliet Project - Lisa Henry, Sarah Honey 💙 The Noble’s Merman - S.S. Genesee 💜 The Loudest Silence - Sydney Langford ❤️ Life is Strange - Brittney Morris 🧡 Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle 💛 I Will Never Leave You - Kara A. Kennedy 💙 The Blonde Dies First - Joelle Wellington 💜 Under the Lupine Moon - A. Knightley

❤️ Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf - Deke Moulton 🧡 Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher - Katie Siegel 💛 The Ghostkeeper - Johanna Taylor 💚 Trespass Against Us - Leon Kemp 💙 Exes & Foes - Amanda Woody 💜 The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl - Bart Yates ❤️ Unbound - J.A. Vodvarka 🧡 StreamLine - Lauren Melissa Ellzey 💛 Time and Time Again - Chatham Greenfield 💙 No Road Home - John Fram 💜 Queen B - Juno Dawson 🌈 A Darker Mischief - Derek Milman

❤️ Beautiful & Terrible Things - S.M. Stevens 🧡 Benvolio & Mercutio Turn Back Time - Elle Beaumont, Lou Wilham 💛 About Last Night - Laura Henry 💚 You Had Me at Happy Hour - Timothy Janovsky 💙 Moonbane - Jamie Jennings 💜 Between Fate & Failure - Amber D. Lewis ❤️ Blessed by the Cupid Distribution System - Robin Jo Margaret 🧡 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💛 Twisted Magic - Barbara J. Webb 💙 Rare Birds - L.B. Hazelthorn 💜 At the End of the River Styx - Michelle Kulwicki 🌈 Origin Story - Jendi Reiter

❤️ Eras of Us - Shannon O'Connor 🧡 Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema - Willow Maclay, Caden Gardner 💛 A Wolf in Stone - Jane Fletcher 💚 Toward Eternity - Anton Hur 💙 Portrait of a Shadow - Meriam Metoui 💜 Anyone's Ghost - August Thompson ❤️ Home Ice Advantage - Ari Baran 🧡 Unbelievable You - Chelsea M. Cameron 💛 Incorrect Eyes - Andromeda Ruins

[thatone-galaxi3]

Someone really should take my au toys away from me, I have far too many. 

07/18 2024

07/19 2024

I also decided to have some more ThoughtsTm  about this so massive ramble warning under the cut

3Way Stop&Shop ;

So this whole idea started out with a love for Jazz and Dani, and my massive Ghostlights hyper fixation at the time. The original idea for the story was gonna be the three kids each having their own story merging into one big one. I feel the basics for Jazz and Dani can be sused out pretty easily by their designs but I had a lot of haphazard ideas I still kinda wanna get into. 

Let's start with Danny cuz poor boi didn't get a design here. 

Danny Fenton / Phantom / White Rabbit 

Danny is sent to his 'Aunty Anna' place (Zatanna) while his parents un-ghost proof the hose to make it actually livable for Danny. In this au Zatanna is a close cousin of Jacks and after learning about Danny's most recent life (or unlife) events she gets the Fenton Parents to see a different side of ghosts and fully accept Danny as he is.

While Danny is living with Zatanna he learns some astrology type magic thing bc of a star/space core idk and helps her on missions. To avoid drama with necromancers he goes by the name White Rabbit and tries to stay out of his ghost form as much as possible.

So, originally this was gonna be a Ghostlights story,, and still might be if I ever make it because I them so much <3  But Duke and Danny's part of the story was going to be some type of horror romance plot where Duke is desperate to get the job done while Danny is mostly dicking around in the bg giving tips that range from wildly unhelpful to surprisingly useful.

There was gonna be a whole plot line of Danny working with Catwoman for a bit to get some cursed artifact and Signal would show up every time to stop him, a sort of cat and mouse chase to mirror Batman and Catwoman.

Tho in this Selina was gonna pull a 180 and start fucking Zatanna soooooo

Danny was in Gotham to help Zatanna with something about Xanthe Zhou and run away spirits, but I was always conflicted because I just didn't know if I understood Xan well enough to do them justice. 

Danielle Fenton-Allen / Eldridge / Argo

Dani gets adopted by the Speedsters! YAYYY!! 

She has a wondering / lighting core which makes her seem a lot like one of the Speedsters. This, of course, is enough for her to be adopted almost instantly. She lives with Wally West and Linda Park as a sort of trial kid before they end up fully committing to having Jai and Irey. 

As a Speedster she was going to take the mantle of Argo, not yet feeling fully confident in taking the name Kid Flash, still too used to being burned by other families. 

Her ghost // 'villain' name was Eldridge, and she was going to be the "'arch-nemesis"' to Damian and Jon... This was going to be a DanixDamixJon au. I'm not so sold on the idea anymore, like it's a cute ship, Dani just already got a lot going on for her and if Danny is already in Gotham their stories would cross too soon. I feel I can keep her as friends to Damian and Jon as Argo to keep her closer to the found family idea I was going for. Honestly now that I'm thinking about it it could be very cute and a step closer to their own Holy Trio that each generation seems to have lol. Maybe even age up Lizzie (? I think is her name, I probs should double check that it's been a minute) and give them their own Core Four.

Anyways, I thought the name Eldridge was cute and very her own, and while I think I could make it work it's also very sweet to still have her sharing Danny's title (+ it can be used for spirit summoning shenanigans if need be ;})

I think I had the strongest idea about what I wanted to do with Dani, it was just a bit too much, a bit too everywhere. I already like the idea of Jon, Dami, and Dani just being mission friends more, and it makes more sense then trying to find a buncha excuses as to why Damian or Jon are always in each other's cities. 

Jasmine 'Jazz' Fenton / Dazzle

Jazz, the design, the wild card, the ✨Vibes✨

Jazz is the one who came to me the easiest,,, which was the problem. I had so many ideas for her I was just throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck. 

I had characters that were just hero friends (Kyle Rayner & K'tten), just college friends (Jules Jourdain -at least until The Reveal- & Raquel Ervin), and a bunch of rando villains (Essence, Rendll, Marque). As much fun as a storyline with each of these guys can be,, maybe all at once isn't the best idea. 

The main concept for Jazz was her trying to handle the stress of work/school and coming to terms with the fact that she can't plan out her whole entire existence in highschool expecting it to work out perfectly. I would still love to keep that, having her switch quickly from neurosurgeon, to therapy, to finally letting go and choosing someone like childhood development maybe as she realizes she has to make compromises to truly help people. 

That's also the reason I made her a Star Sapphire. I feel a lot of people lump every Sapphire together (which tbf a lotta DC writers do that to) but they aren't all driven by romantic/sexual love. There are many types of love out there. For Jazz it was her love for her family and need to help people. She saw how much her family was putting themselves at risk, how her siblings have already died or never even got the chance to fully live, and she wanted to do something about that. This was that something. 

I think instead of giving Jazz all these people to lean back on, she'd kinda isolate herself and for a long while it's just Kyle as a Green Lantern helping her out with Earth. He's a big support, but he's also just one guy so for a long time Jazz is determined to figure everything out one her own. It definitely makes things easier on me, I was reaching for some of those guys lol. 

Also whoever came up with the ring as a hairtie idea fucks severely and I desperately wish I had written who it was down somewhere. Anyways, who ever you are you're a real one✊

Those were the basics of the au, very rough, very much just a bunch of notes lol. I think this could actually be a pretty good idea once brushed up quite a bit but it does have some good foundations. I just need to figure out which ones are unnecessary. 

Like most of the other fics I think of this was going to be written, but I'm working on a comic for another DC crossover and I'm quite liking the process. I think a lot can be improved by cutting the scale of this whole thing and one good way to do that is to make it a comic lol. 

I'll let this keep turning in my mind to see if anything comes of it. People are more than welcome to use any of these ideas if they so please,, it was already a Frankenstein of ideas I don't really have a claim on anyways lmao. 

[hearthown]

The Middle Names

In this post, I explore why TTH gave the brothers their specific middle names. (Yes, I know it was for the game but there were 4 to choose from and as we know, there's a reason behind everything he does)

[These are my own interpretations!]

Davenport

Davenport was given to Grayson. In the game, the Davenport was a desk. Desks are all about seriousness because we use them to study and work. Everyone knows that seriousness is one of the prominent traits that Gray has and not only that, the Davenport desk has a secret larger compartment. Maybe TTH thought that Gray should have Davenport as his middle name bc he associated it with studiousness, seriousness, and bc he knew that Gray would always have to keep his deepest emotions, thoughts and weaknesses to himself (thus circling back to the secret compartment).

Winchester

Winchester was given to Jameson. In the game, the clue was found on a Winchester rifle. I personally associate rifles (and anything involving gunfire) with risks, adrenaline, spontaneity and thrill (sound familiar?). Jameson is all about taking risks and going out there and being adventurous. Also, TTH was a weapons collector (rifles, guns) and that can be considered as a favourite activity. It was mentioned several times that Jamie was his favourite grandson as he reminded him of Toby. Also, the whole family grew up shooting and something tells me that Jamie was one hell of a shot just like TTH.

Westbrook

Westbrook was Nash's. In the game, his middle name literally means west of a brook. Eventually, brooks flow out into oceans and oceans are vast and open. Nash is a free spirit with his nomadic lifestyle and his "don't care" attitude. I think TTH chose this one for him to represent the fact that you can never hold Nash back if he wants to be free. If Nash wants to go, nothing can stop him, but at the end of the day, he'll always return. (Like how seawater eventually becomes drinking water iygwim)

Blackwood

And finally, Xander's. In the game, his middle name represents The Black Wood which is the forest on the north side of the estate. Forests are filled with trees and where there are trees, there is knowledge. Xander is arguably the most intelligent Hawthorne (what with his ability to just CREATE contraptions, the number of patents he has and just XANDER in general). So as a summary, TTH chose Blackwood for Xander bc he might've heavily related it to knowledge and even growth. As a kid, Xan never really showed interest in the games but maybe TTH knew he would grow to love a good game and to love winning just like his brothers.