Coming soon! HOST CLUB ON THE PLEASURE PLANET!
Or, Why Respectability Won’t Save You I think we can all agree we’ve entered a rather conservative era. It’s been a while coming, the first rumblings of it emerging fifteen years ago now. It gained momentum after the 2016 US election and snowballed from there. The pandemic threw fuel on the fire, and, well, here we are. Neo-fascists and alt-right parties are gaining support across the globe. We...
Scary … or sexy? (Lisa from Pexels / Pexels.com) Monsters—or otherworldly beings—have almost always been popular subjects for fiction. We can trace vampire romances back at least to the nineteenth century, when we see Carmilla and Dracula both emerge. Neither is truly a romance, but both of them feature some relatively seductive monsters. Horror and romance have always walked a fine line...
If you’re a writer or hang around writer communities much, you may have heard a lot of different lingo. We’re working on our WIPs, we all have a copy of something called Save the Cat or Romancing the Beat, and so on and so forth. (Ron Lach / Pexels.com) Some of that terminology revolves around how writers go about writing their books. In general, there are assumed to be three different “types” of...
Omegaverse fiction, also known as a/b/o dynamics or a/b/o fiction, is having a moment. The trope really got its start in fanfic circles over a decade ago now. It’s only been in recent years that it’s made waves in the realm of indie publishing. Now, it seems, omegaverse is everywhere you look. At first blush, omegaverse is confusing. I’ve written a primer on this worldbuilding trope and how it...
(Caio / Pexels.com) It’s a truth, universally acknowledged, that an author with a new book coming out must be in want of some ARC readers. Except this author. Fuck that noise. Over the last year or so, I came to the conclusion that I’m not going to do ARCs anymore. Here’s why. What Are ARCs? First off, what is an ARC? It stands for “advance reading copy.” It’s a super traditional thing in...
Not that kind of troll (Ellie Burgin / Pexels.com) I am having a week over here, my goodness. First it was bad reviews once again trashing my books. Next it was the shadow of piracy. Then it was someone bitching about woke pronouns. And then there was the troll. We all know GoodReads is a cesspool. It has been for quite some time, and there’s not a lot anyone can do about it, aside from leave...
In certain circles, beta readers are almost considered some sort of holy grail. They’ve gone from a relatively obscure fanfic concept to becoming hyper-mainstream. Tons of indie authors (and even some trad authors) now employ them in their process. There are even people who claim to be “professional” beta readers and charge for their services. I, personally, don’t work with beta readers in my...
(paul otero garcia / Pexels.com) All right, here’s a topic I’ve wanted to look at before: the self-styled monsterfuckers and the fiction they love. The terms have recently come to prominence, entering not-quite-mainstream parlance, and there is a host of media catering to them. What’s with the sudden popularity? What’s with the appeal? Let’s take a look at what’s driving this trend in romance...
I recently saw someone shorten “omegaverse” to “OV,” which I think means the trope has made it. Also known as alpha/beta/omega dynamics or a/b/o, omegaverse has become an incredibly popular and ever-more mainstream worldbuilding trope in romance. (Anne-Marie Gionet-Lavoie / Pexels.com) What is omegaverse fiction, and why bother writing it? I can’t give you insights for anyone else, but I can tell...
I’m back on social media enough that I’m seeing bad takes, and whew, do y’all have some bad takes. I want to leave aside the general state of everything—lots of bad takes to be had there—and focus on more bookish things. Specifically, I want to take to task a bad take I saw the other day. Let’s start by saying people are allowed to enjoy what they enjoy and dislike what they dislike. That’s fine...
Coming January 28! Get set for more intergalactic hijinks when a monk inherits a HOST CLUB ON THE PLEASURE PLANET!