I’ve argued before that omegaverse tends to play fast and loose with our notions of gender. Mpreg, generally, does the same thing. One of the curiousities of the genre is that characters who can get pregnant maintain a cisgender identity. Because sex and gender is always so very clear cut. That can cause some consternation when it comes to terminology—particularly when Baby arrives. Should we...
These candy hearts, oddly enough, include both “romantic” messages and platonic ones (Jill Wellington / Pexels.com) It’s February once more, which means the subject of love and romance is on everyone’s minds. One big topic that’s come up in more recent years is the debate about platonic vs romantic relationships. What’s the difference between them? Can you actually tell them apart...
A lot of romance novels don't seem to realize when they're veering into horror territory. What's the line between horror and romance?
The age gap romance gets more play than anyone gives it credit for. What does it look like when we put supernatural creatures into play too?
When everyone demands authenticity in fiction, we fall all over ourselves to "prove" our identities. Maybe we're asking the wrong questions.
Is polyamory really queer? I think we should probably consider it to be queer praxis, at least in some sense.
Nora Roberts is apparently too spicy for people -- and we need to be worried about that. Book bans are coming for romance novels -- even clean ones.
Art is always political, which means even tropes like omegaverse take on political bents. We should be wary of bioessentialism in omegaverse.
Does an HEA always have to mean marriage and kids? Probably not, which is just one of the reasons the level-up romance is a problem.
Some people say they have a hard time believing queer or BIPOC characters could get to the HEA required in historical romance. That's silly.
