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physalian · 25 days

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What No One Tells You About Writing #4 (100 Follower Special!)

Have you got any that deserve to be on these lists? Don’t be shy! Send ‘em over.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

*This list contains mentions of assault, #4

1. Zero cursing is better than censored cursing

I made the mistake in the early days of writing a self-censoring character, and every “curse” she said just took the teeth out of the rest of the statement. I’m talking gosh, darn, dang, etc, not world-specific idioms a la “scruffy nerf herder” or “dunderhead” instead of “dumbass”.

Look to any American TV show that so, so badly wants to use f*ck or sh*t but has to appease the sensitive conservatives who still somehow believe strong language is worse than graphic violence and horrifying psychological damage. For shame! Your characters can be angry without expletives, so rework your sentences to include equally damning insults that don’t resort to potty mouths if you’re concerned about ratings.

Or go full-throttle into the idioms of the world or the time period like Pirates of the Caribbean. Or just… don’t. There’s zero modern cursing in the Lord of the Rings adaptation and not a single sentence that censors itself. The dialogue is above vulgarity and feels more *fantastical* that way anyway.

2. “Yeah, you aren’t the target audience.”

It’s kind of hilarious seeing the range of reader reactions to two characters I intend to have a romantic relationship. Some will go “I ship it!” after the first page of them together… and another will go “wait, I thought they were just friends” up until they kiss. Sometimes you might be too subtle, other times it might be better to just accept that you can’t rewrite your entire book to please one naysayer.

When I’m pitched a fantasy adventure book that turns out to be a by-the-numbers romance where no one is allowed to be a peasant and every important character is royalty in some way, with a way cooler fantasy backdrop, I get severely disappointed. That doesn’t mean the book is bad, it just means I’m not the target audience.

3. There is no greater character sin than making them boring

Unless you live in the wacky world we find ourselves in where any flaws whatsoever are apparently harmful depictions of so-and-so and not at all written with things like ~nuance~. I will gush over your heinous villain committing atrocities because he’s *interesting*. I will not remember Bland Love Interest who’s a generic everyman with zero compelling or intriguing traits or flaws.

There’s another tumblr post out there that I cannot find that says something like this, and I believe the post goes “his crimes are fiction, my annoyance is real”. Swap annoyance for boredom and you get what I mean. So, I don’t care what your character does so long as they’re memorable. I will either root for their victory or their doom, but I do need *something* to root for.

4. The line between “gratuitous” and “respectful” is actually very thick

Less what no one tells *you* about writing and more what no one tells screenwriters. Y’all do realize you can write a character who experiences assault without actually writing the assault, right? Fade to black, have them mention it in their backstory, or have the horrific aftermath as they come to terms with it. An abrupt cut to this devastated character when it’s all over and they’re alone with themselves can be incredibly poignant and powerful. This goes with anything sensitive, especially if it’s not coming from experience.

If you want to write it or film it respectfully, romanticizing assault, for instance, is when it’s framed as if either character has earned or “deserves” it. If the narrative in any way argues that it's justified. The victim might have "earned" it for any of the BS reasons we use in the real world, or the perpetrator might've "earned" it because of temptation, desire, pressure to assert dominance, etc. Representation is important, but are you “representing” to shed light on a misunderstood and maligned topic, or are you doing it to satisfy a fetish or bias in yourself?

5. Don’t let your eyes get bigger than your stomach

Fantasy has no limitations, which means you can dig way deeper into the well of your worldbuilding than you realize, until you look up and realize you’re stuck down there. I have never seen a more obvious inevitable disaster looming than the pilot of GoT season 5. Why? Nobody has any plans. They’re all just led around by whatever side quest the writers throw them on, twiddling their thumbs until the writers deign to pull the trigger on the White Walkers.

To the point that what should be a major character can skip an entire season because his arc is meaningless. Everything in the last half of that show was one big “eventually” while the story toiled around in an ever-expanding cast of characters and set pieces (seriously, it’s hilarious how jarring the extended version of the theme music became compared to the pilot episode to fit all these locations).

When you have too many directionless characters, too many plot elements, too many ideas you want to fully mature and get their due spotlight and then somehow combine them all together for a common foe in the end, writing can get tedious and frustrating very quickly. Why, I imagine, the book series remains unfinished. Fantasy is great for being able to create such complex worlds, but don’t be the snake that eats its own tail trying too hard.

6. No one cares about your agenda if you insult them to push it

This deserves its own post but here we go. Peddling an agenda is a paradox: those who agree with you won’t need to be preached to, and those who you want to persuade will instead reject you further because they feel belittle and disrespected. This is why so many recent “strong female characters” fail on both sides of the aisle. Feminists see an annoying caricature of the movement they’re passionate about. Antifeminists see an insufferable, shallow, liberal mouthpiece when they just want to be entertained. You have failed both sides, congrats.

The answer? Write a strong, nuanced, well-developed character. Then make them a woman. I know this has been said before but this BS keeps happening so clearly the screenwriters aren’t listening. Entertain me first. Entertain me so well I don’t even realize I’m learning.

7. Today’s audiences won’t react the same way as tomorrow’s

Sometimes genres or tropes get oversaturated and need a few years to cool off before audiences are receptive to them again—teen dystopia, anyone?—that doesn’t mean your story is inherently bad because it’s unpopular (nor does it mean it’s amazing because it is popular).

You should always write the book you want to read, not the book that chases trends. I can pick up a well-written teen dystopia I’ve never read before and enjoy it. I can continue to ignore Divergent because it has nothing to say. Write the book you want to read, but then accept that you might make no money because no one else wants to read it, not because they think it’s bad. And, who knows? You might get a boom of chatter months or years down the line when readers stumble upon an uncut gem.

8. Your characters don’t age with you

Depending on how long you’ve been working on your world and what age you were when you started, the characters, concepts, morals, and story you set out to tell might no longer reflect who you want to be as an author when all is said and done. Writing can take years, some of which can be incredibly turbulent and life changing. I wrote the first draft of my first original novel in my freshman year of college. Those characters and that draft are now unrecognizable and has left a world I’ve poured my heart and soul into in limbo.

I’ve slowly creeped up my characters’ ages. My writing has matured dramatically. The themes I wanted to explore in the height of the 2016 election are just demoralizing now. That book was my therapeutic outlet and, as consequence, my characters sometimes reflect some awful moods and mindsets that I was in when writing them. But nothing in that world grows without me tending to it. It’s not alive. Despite all the work I’ve done, there’s still more to be done, maybe even restarting the plot from the ground up. When I think of what no one told me about writing, staring at characters designed by someone I’m not anymore is the hardest reality to accept.

—

If you think I missed something, check out parts 1-3 or toss your own hat into the ring. Give me romance tropes. Mystery, thriller, historical fiction, bildungsromans, memoires, children’s books, whatever you want! Give me stuff you wish you’d known before editing, publishing, marketing, and more.

Also, don’t forget to vote in the dialogue poll!

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #fantasy #sci fi #character design

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jaybear1701 · 1 year

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The thing I love most about Willow is that it’s a fun, light-hearted show that’s an homage to the original movie and others 80s fantasy films like the Princess Bride and Labyrinth -- but also subverts well-worn tropes and celebrates diversity to create something unique in a mainstream series. Like:

The quest launches to save a prince, not a princess.

Elora, initially in love with kidnapped Prince Airk, meets Graydon, another prince who is a POC and, based on what we’ve seen, everything Airk is not. I don’t really het ship, but the show seems to be leaning toward a Graylora “end game” and, if so, I’d love that for them.

The representation in this show is fantastic. Heroic roles traditionally reserved for men -- most typically white men -- are played by an actor with dwarfism, a British-Indian actor, an American-Guatemalan actor, and two mixed-race women. Not a stretch to say this is why some out there (we all know who) decry the show as “too woke.” But to me it’s one of the show’s many strengths.

We’ve had many a narrative about a “chosen one.” But how often is the chosen one: 1) a woman and 2) whose “protector” is another woman, let alone a gay one. Amazing.

On that note, how refreshing is it to see such a layered relationship between Elora and Kit. There’s the push and pull of destiny and duty, and resentment and jealousy from family dynamics. But in the end it evolves into grudging respect and sisterhood. It’s the kind of dynamic normally reserved for two men in these types of genre shows.

And Jade. My precious Jade. A woman knight of color protecting her princess is everything I’ve ever wanted in life. Tanthamore is Lancelot and Guinevere level romance -- but with lesbians. Come on. I cannot say enough about them.

I’m sure there are more examples, but this is just off the top of my head.

#willow #tanthamore #elora danan #kit tanthalos #jade claymore #thraxus boorman #graydon hastur

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sadquickchristmassnowman · 4 months

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Hiiii I have a community question I wanted to ask!!

Abed mentions all sorts of movies and tv shows through out Community, but I just wanted to know if maybe you have like a list of which ones are real and which ones he seemed to like more than others.

I can only think of the dark knight because of the dvd Annie broke, and the Star Wars movies (except he apparently hates the prequels) and cougar town!

great question! sorry for the delay on a response.

so, he mentions/references an insane number of movies and tv shows throughout the series, and I unfortunately do not have a list of every single one. although, I am (VERY slowly) working on an in-depth episode-by-episode analysis of the entire series, and listing every pop culture reference is a subsection in that. but that's not helpful right now. moving on

I don't have the picture, but there's this questionnaire abed filled out (outside of the show, it must have been uploaded to a website as promotional material for the show). he says his favorite movie is a tie between:

ghostbusters (1984, comedy/horror)

an american werewolf in london (1981, horror)

back to the future (1985, sci-fi/comedy)

blade runner (1982, sci-fi/action)

stand by me (1986, adventure/comedy)

stripes (1981, comedy/war)

star wars (1977, sci-fi/fantasy, also called "a new hope")

star wars: the empire strikes back (1980, sci-fi/fantasy)

star wars: the return of the jedi (1983, sci-fi/fantasy)

ferris bueller's day off (1986, comedy/drama)

jaws (1975, thriller/adventure)

raising arizona (1987, comedy/crime)

jurassic park (1993, adventure/sci-fi)

seven (1995, crime/mystery)

the matrix (1999, action/sci-fi)

the goonies (1985, adventure/comedy)

the breakfast club (1985, comedy/romance)

real genius (1985, comedy/sci-fi)

better off dead (1985, comedy/romance)

the fog of war (2003, documentary/war)

pulp fiction (1994, crime/thriller)

(btw if anyone knows what I’m talking about and has the screenshot please rb with it! I cannot for the life of me find it lmao)

I believe this is a list he apparently made in 2009, either in the first few weeks of school or right before the school year started. so it's possible he would answer differently as the series progressed. also, I do take some of these extra-canon things with a grain of salt, as on the same form he said his favorite place on campus was study room D or something, when obviously they definitely meant to write study room F. so, the credibility of my source for this information isn't exactly rock-solid. although, he does mention a lot of these movies on screen, and expresses love for many of them (the most notable ones probably being star wars episodes IV-VI, the breakfast club, and pulp fiction)

as you can see from the list, abed particularly loves american movies from the 80's. just a trend I thought I’d point out.

here's a few others he mentions loving, or just pretty notably references:

the dark night (2008, action/crime, as you mentioned)

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (1964, musical/animated, is the whole basis of 2x11 abed's uncontrollable christmas)

the shawshank redemption (1994, horror/crime, is the basis for his plot with troy, annie, and shirley in 4x05 cooperative escapism in familial relations)

freaky friday (I believe it's the original one from 1976 specifically, but it's been remade a bunch. comedy/fantasy. it's the basis of abed and troy's story in 4x11 basic human anatomy)

rambo/first blood (series starting in 1982, action/thriller. abed talks about how messy the progressive series titles are in 3x14 pillows and blankets)

ocean's eleven (2001, crime/thriller, the basis for the heist scene from 3x21 the first chang dynasty)

hearts of darkness (1991, documentary/war, abed mentions it while pointedly filming dean pelton's production of his greendale commercial rather than helping with the commercial itself. similarly, hearts of darkness filmed the making of apocalypse now)

apocalypse now (1979, war/action, see the above explanation)

die hard (series starting in 1988, action/thriller, abed mentions wanting to do a die hard homage for christmas multiple times throughout season 4)

good will hunting (1997, thriller/romance, troy and abed's story in 1x24 english as a second language is filled with references to this movie. abed is doing homages on purpose, troy is not)

my dinner with andre (1981, comedy/drama, abed does a very elaborate homage at jeff's accidental expense in 2x19 critical film studies)

indiana jones (raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, and the last cruscade only. he mentions loving the first three indiana jones movies in 1x04 social psychology)

aliens (1986, action/adventure/sci-fi, he and troy dress up as an alien and ripley in 2x06 epidemiology) (side note, I believe they're specifically referencing aliens, which is a sequel to alien. could be wrong though)

blade (1998, horror/action, they watch it over the course of 3x15 origins of vampire mythology after troy and abed assert multiple times that it is an amazing movie)

I think he generally talks about movies more than he talks about tv shows, but he does mention quite a few of them. some notable mentions are:

friends (1994, sitcom, mentions at least twice)

m*a*s*h (1972, sitcom, mentions in passing in 1x05 advanced criminal law, and references throughout 1x13 investigative journalism)

the cape (2011, action, mentions throughout 4x13 advanced introduction to finality)

who's the boss (1984, sitcom, is the premise of his whole storyline in 2x20 competitive wine tasting)

LOST (2004, sci-fi, mentions at least twice)

obviously there are a LOT more, but I just tried to list some of the most important ones, plot-wise and for understanding of his character. hopefully I’ll be able to get back to everyone with a super long list of every tv show and movie he ever mentions lmao, but that'll take a while. (there are lists online that say they list every movie and tv show abed has ever mentioned, but ngl I don't 100% trust those, so I’ll make my own lmao. but I put the link to one of them if you're curious. here's another one too)

at this point anyone who has seen community knows there are some really really big ones that I haven’t mentioned yet. pieces of media that are INTEGRAL to abed as a character. I was saving them for last lmfao. they are:

kickpuncher

inspector spacetime

cougar town

if I had to pick a holy trinity of media for abed, it would be these three things. these are EASILY the things he talks about the most, which is interesting, as both the kickpuncher movie franchise and the inspector spacetime series are completely fictional, and only exist in the community universe. (this is probably so they can show abed actually watching some of the shows/movies he talks about, without the obvious copyright issues that come with playing clips from an already existing movie/tv show on your screen. they kind of do that with blade in 3x15, but they only play vague fighting sounds, and never show their tv on our screen. anyway. not relevant.) to answer one of your questions from the ask, I believe those two are the ONLY fictional pieces of media abed talks about. as far as I know, everything else he mentions is real, including cougar town.

kickpuncher is obviously reminiscent of sci-fi/action films from the 80's, like robocop. like I said earlier, taking their place so that they could have a more substantial role in abed's on-screen life without any copywrite worries. it's a whole franchise, so there are multiple movies: kickpuncher, kickpuncher 2: codename: punchkicker, kickpuncher 3: the final kickening, kickpuncher: detroit, kickpuncher: miami (?), and kicksplasher (?). kicksplasher is apparently shown as a poster on abed's wall, and I’m assuming it's from the same franchise, although that could be wrong. the point is there's a very elaborate universe for kickpuncher, and it's a big part of abed's, and later troy's, film taste. the first time they mention it is in 1x15 romantic expressionism, when abed, troy, shirley, pierce, and chang all get together in abed's dorm room to make fun of stupid movies together. it's funny that it was introduced as a stupid movie to watch ironically, then troy and abed both end up genuinely loving it lmao. classic

inspector spacetime is obviously reminiscent of doctor who. they're both british sci-fi series that have been running for decades. doctor who uses a police box to travel the multiverse, while doctor who uses a telephone box. doctor who has malicious daleks who chant "exterminate," while inspector spacetime has blorgons who shout "eradicate." the concepts of the shows are obviously the same, with the actor for the doctor changing every season, etc etc. they're essentially the same exact show, but, like I said before, changed slightly so they can world-build without getting copywrited. there is something a little bit silly about this, though. it's definitely a continuity error and it's up to everyone whether they want to accept it as canon or not, I guess, but there's an episode where abed is actually wearing a doctor who t-shirt. (it also references bill and ted, but the doctor who part is what's relevant.) here's some pictures:

awesome shirt tbh, but it is a little bit funny that is essentially makes it true that doctor who and inspector spacetime both exist in the community universe. and, these pictures are from the cold open of 4x11 basic human anatomy, which is way after inspector spacetime is introduced to the show (3x01 biology 101). so, is inspector spacetime just a rip-off of doctor who? is abed a fan of both shows? if he is, clearly he likes inspector spacetime better. anyway. I would guess that this wasn't intentional. but that is definitely a tardis on that shirt. maybe it's just a classic season 4 continuity mistake. oh well. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles. anyway.

cougar town time! yes, it's a real show. I didn't think it was but it is. what's not real is cougarton abbey, the short-lived british remake that britta gets abed into in 3x01 biology 101. but yeah. it has 6 seasons and is streaming on hulu, if you're interested. I’ve heard it's not good but who knows for sure. something cool about cougar town is that abed is actually in an episode. let me be clear: not danny pudi. ABED. it's similar to the story abed tells about being invited to the cougar town set and shitting his pants while having an existential crisis about the layers of reality. here is a youtube clip of the scene. I found out about it while stalking danny pudi's wikipedia page months ago, you know, a typical sunday afternoon activity, and I saw a cougar town credit on there. I didn't even know it was a real show at that point so you can imagine my surprise lmao. anyway. idk if you knew that already but it's one of my favorite community easter eggs. so funny.

okay! I hope this is enough information to suit your needs, and I am once again opening the floor to anyone who wants to add anything 💯 this was fun, thanks for the ask, and stay fresh everyone ✌️

#classic sadquickchristmassnowman blunder of writing an entire goddamn essay to answer a simple fucking question #also just to be clear george lucas went back and fucked with the original star wars trilogy #so unless you really put some work in to find the original versions of the original trilogy #you won’t be watching the versions that abed loves the most #sorry my indoctrinated me into his elitist star wars opinions #but I’m keeping it in the tags as to not clutter up the information with more of my senseless yapping #anyway #community #nbc community #community nbc #abed nadir #media analysis #community encyclopedia

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aperiodofhistory · 8 months

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Books to read in autumn

Historical novels

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: England in the 1520s

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: Building the most splendid Gothic cathedral the world has ever known

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: A back-in-time Scottish romance

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland: A novel of the plague in the year 1348

The underground railroad by Colson Whitehead: Enslavement of African Americans through escape and flight

The God of small things by Arundhati Roy: A family drama in the 60s located in India

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: A powerful reminder of the horrors of world war II

Fantasy

A Game of thrones by George R. R. Martin: A Fantasy epic run by politics, strong families, dragons

Red rising by Pierce Brown: A dystopian science fiction novel set in a future colony on Mars

Babel by R.F. Kuang: Student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: A fresh take on fantasy staring an orc and a mercenary

Jade City by Fonda Lee: A gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: A tale of hope and magic, with brave maidens and scary monsters

The Atlas six by Olivie Blake: A dark academic sensation following six magicians

Mysteries & Horror

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by various authors: Short stories perfect for the Halloween mood

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon: The story of Vern, a pregnant teenager who escapes the cult Cainland

The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher: A noted cultural critic unearths the weird, the eerie, and the horrific in 20th-century culture through a wide range of literature, film, and music

Holly by Stephen King: Disappearances in a midwestern town

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas: Supernatural western

The good house by Tananarive Due: A classic New England tale that lays bare the secrets of one little town

Nonfiction

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey: The trail of America's ghosts

What moves the dead by T. Kingfisher: A gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry: A journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

All the living and the dead by Hayley Campbell: An exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more

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themousefromfantasyland · 3 months

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A Fairy Tale Rabbit Hole

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the movie that it started it all for Disney Animation and it's the most influential fairy tale movie ever. Its tropes and its tone still inspires fairy tale media to this day, either as parodies, or homages.

But what less people know is that Walt Disney was inspired to make this movie because of a peculiar silent movie that he watched when he was a teenager.

That movie was Snow White from 1916. Its writer, Winthrop Ames, adapted it from his own Broadway play. An example of American fairy tale theater.

This kept me thinking.

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most iconic fantasy films of all time, and it was made in direct response to Snow White. What people don't know is that the scene where Glinda saves the gang from the deadly poppies with a snowstorm came straight from a fairy tale musical from 1902. It came from The Wizard of Oz, a fairy tale musical "extravaganza", with direct input from L. Frank Baum, only two years after the original novel.

Actually, stage musicals seem to take a slight part in the creation of Oz. The Marvellous Land of Oz, the sequel, seems to be inspired by this stage culture. General Jinjur and her army dresses like chorus girls, Ozma/Tip may be inspired by the crossdressing in children roles, and this was the book's dedication:

"To those excellent good fellows and comedians David C. Montgomery and Frank A. Stone whose clever personations of the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow have delighted thousands of children throughout the land, this book is gratefully dedicated by THE AUTHOR"

These were actors of the 1902 stage show.

Two years later, on 1904 Peter and Wendy premiered. This play is also one of the most famous children stories ever. Walt Disney himself acted as Peter in a local production of it and Tinkerbell quickly became a mascot for the studio.

This all led me to think more about fairy tale theater specifically.

Since the ending of the 18th century and through the 19th century, a genre of stage show developed through Europe. It was mostly comedic and light-hearted, mainly inspired by fairy tales, and it was geared towards children and families. It involved lavish fantasy spectacles told through operas, ballets, and what we today would call "musical theater".

It had many different names and variations depending on the country.

On England, it evolved through the pantomimes and it became a Christmas tradition.

In Russian, it was mainly through ballet, called the ballet-féerie, often considered a lower-class, more commercialized entertainment than traditional ballet. Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker are among some of them. Sleeping Beauty would later inspire Disney's telling of the story.

In France they were called Féerie, and it was a mix of music, dancing, pantomime, acrobatics, and stage effects. It influenced the development of burlesque, musical comedy and film.

From Wikipedia:

With his 1899 film version of Cinderella, Georges Méliès brought the féerie into the newly developing world of motion pictures. The féerie quickly became one of film's most popular and lavishly mounted genres in the early years of the twentieth century, with such pioneers as Edwin S. Porter, Cecil Hepworth, Ferdinand Zecca, and Albert Capellani contributing fairy-tale adaptations in the féerie style or filming versions of popular stage féeries like Le Pied de mouton, Les Sept Châteaux du diable, and La Biche au bois. The leader in the genre, however, remained Méliès,[37] who designed many of his major films as féeries and whose work as a whole is intensely suffused with the genre's influence.[38]

Once you realize a huge chunk of fairy tale media has roots in family friendly stage shows from 19th century, a lot of it started making sense.

The focus on romance, the focus on damsels in distress, prevalence of lighter tones, the everlasting connection to music and dance.

They may be the main reason why some fairy tales are more famous than others. Some became source material for a continuous stream of operas, operettas, musical extravaganzas, ballets, plays, and others simply not.

And besides the Victorian Era storybooks that bowdlerized fairy tales for children, I think this whole genre of the theater was responsible to firmly establish fairy tales as a child friendly media, decades before Disney ever released Snow White to cash in that nostalgia.

If you have something to add or if I just got something wrong, feel free to correct me.

@ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @adarkrainbow @the-blue-fairie @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @natache @tamisdava2 @thealmightyemprex

#fairy tales #stage shows #ballet #opera #pantomime #19th century

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nothwell · 4 months

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FIORENZO is a queer fantasy-of-manners romance featuring hurt/comfort, swordplay, and a happily-ever-after. And it’s finally out in paperback! Shown here with some of the books that inspired it.

The World of the Castrati by Patrick Barbier Not just a thorough examination of individual castrati lives but also the operatic world that created them. Highly recommended, even (or especially) if you know nothing of opera.

Nicoletto Giganti’s The School of the Sword A swordfighting guide by a fencing master of Renaissance Venice. This book, combined with As You Wish (see below) and Vico Ortiz’s Fencing 101 class proved absolutely essential to making the fight scenes in Fiorenzo possible.

M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb Come for the art history lesson about a queer Renaissance painter, stay for the tennis court castration duel.

Art and Life in Renaissance Venice and Private Lives in Renaissance Venice by Patricia Fortini Brown While the general history of Venice was necessary (see below), the more specific focus of Brown’s books provided absolutely invaluable insight into the the day-to-day habits of Venice’s historical citizens.

John Singer Sargent: Venetian Figures and Landscapes, 1898-1913 Sargent’s mind-blowing skill with oil portraits is well known, but his watercolour sketches of cityscapes and Venice architecture are truly astounding in their mastery of light and form. Seeing the city through his eyes over a hundred years ago was wildly inspiring.

Sargent, Whistler & Venetian Glass This was an incredible traveling exhibit of Venetian glassware, lace, and other amazing examples of skilled craft alongside paintings by American artists who drew inspiration from Venice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I had the good fortune to catch it as it came through Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. It also included an actual Venetian gondola (dry-docked, no felze) which gave me an invaluable sense of just how absolutely huge those things are.

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden Invaluable insight into the training, choreography, and filming process for one of the greatest swordfighting scenes in cinematic history.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman It’s a swordfighting romance. Enough said.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner It’s a queer swordfighting romance. Enough said. (Although I have said far more.)

Ruskin’s Venice: The Stones Revisited by Sarah Quill Venice through the eyes of a Victorian.

Venice: A New History by Thomas F. Madden A general history of Venice was essential in creating Halcyon.

FIORENZO is a queer fantasy-of-manners romance featuring hurt/comfort, swordplay, and a happily-ever-after. Available now wherever fine books are found!

Amazon • Apple Books • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop.org • Kobo • Smashwords

#fantasy of manners #john singer sargent #caravaggio #venice #fiorenzo #mannerpunk #swordspoint #the princess bride #queer romance #mm romance #gay romance #historical romance #historical fantasy #romantasy #sebastian nothwell

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nightlylaments · 4 months

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— nightlylaments. a writeblr reintroduction.

heyy, writeblr! it's been a while since I joined the community, and i've been pretty inactive, so I thought I should reintroduce myself. also, since I have more than one wip now, I thought it was time for me to make a master list even though three of them don't have any posts yet. all of my works will contain black mc's, other poc characters, and mentions of mental health. i mainly write fantasy, but i want to get into mysteries and poetry. i am also tag and ask friendly. i love talking about my wips so pls don't hesitate to ask questions. carrd | pintrest | spotify

about me.

my name is Tee, she/her, 22, and I am an African American from tx.

I'm a recent college graduate with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice

I enjoy writing fantasy, magical realism, and mysteries

in my free time, I like to read, cook, and paint. I also enjoy playing games, photography ( I have two film cameras), and listening/finding new music

my wips.

she who owns tragedy | a na dark fantasy.

a girl made of destructive magic and a boy made of shadows. their fates are tied together by prophecy, and they can either save or end the world. [ introduction ] . [ tag ] send an ask to be +/-

midnights in ebondvalley | na fantasy romance with a hint of mystery and horror.

twilight meets nacy drew in louisiana with southern gothic vibes.

the anatomy of a heart | magical realism.

romeo and juliet retelling that follows a girl from a family whose women are cursed to lose pieces of their hearts after heartbreak. chronicles the boys and men who have stolen pieces of her.

untitled | horror and magical realism.

think Jennifer's body and ginger snaps, but the mc is the token black girl, and it explores black feminine rage.

ungodly hours | gothic romance tinged horror and murder mystery.

a girl is raked with grief when her best friend is found dead, his brother wants nothing but vengeance. when the police refuse to help, he takes the case into his own hands, forcing him to make a deal he's not sure he can keep. [ introduction ] . [ tag ] send an ask to be +/-

✧ will be updated as i post/update wips ✧

#writeblr reintro #black writblr #wtwcommunity #writblr intro #looking for mutuals #writeblr friends #writeblr community #tag games #took me a month to make this.#im gonna be active this time.

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benwvatt · 2 months

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scavengers reign

[Image ID: A drawing of a lush, green forest on an alien planet in the TV show Scavengers Reign. On the left is a large, thick, white stone column covered with large, green, round globules of moss. The center contains large, white circular stepping stones on the ground, much larger than any living being in the image. A grey, deer-shaped alien with a slightly lighter grey underbelly and round, grey protrusions coming from its face sits curled up on one of the stones. On another stone, further back, sits a grey robot made up of a three large metal ovals next to each other. It tends to a small lily with four large, white petals growing from the stone.

In the center of the image, two thick, brown columns that could be stone or tree trunks rest behind the alien and the robot. One is diagonal and points to the upper right. The other is nearly upright and is tilted slightly to the left. The right side of the image contains three tall yellow broomstick-shaped stalks of what look like hay, and there are three jellyfish-shaped creatures with very short dark grey legs, small round red eyes, and dark grey bodies. One of the creatures looks sadly at the deer alien and the robot. The other two are walking away, out of the frame. End ID.]

Title: Scavengers Reign (2023-?)

Channel: HBO Max.

Origin: U.S. American.

Genres: 2D animation, science fiction, science fantasy, adventure, and horror.

Runtime: As of March 2024, there is 1 season with 12 episodes. Each episode is ~25 minutes. The show’s executive producers have mapped out future seasons and are excited to do more, but with HBO’s penchant for cancelling animated/sci-fi TV shows and removing them from streaming, I’m not sure if it’ll get renewed for more.

This show feels: Enthralling, wondrous, hypnotic, and horrifying.

Premise: Scavengers Reign is a science fiction show about the marooned survivors of a damaged cargo ship in outer space. They explore their mysterious, lush, and hostile new planet with caution, and, due to the crash, they have been isolated in three groups who must eventually make their way back to each other. Most of the cast are human, but one main character is a robot. The new planet contains fantasy-transformed plants, animals, and aliens. Does danger lurk around the next corner?

Themes explored by the show: Social isolation, mental health crises, survival in the wilderness, the ability to trust, human-alien interactions, grief, death, community, psychological horror/trauma, and the poisonous control that nostalgia holds over humans.

Representation & marginalized voices: Scavengers Reign has several nonwhite main characters, and about the half the cast are female while the other half are male. The nonwhite characters are also voiced by people of color, and there are many female voice actors in the cast. I appreciate that romance isn’t a core part of the show, as the story explores themes like survival and mistrust instead.

Notes:

Scavengers Reign is well-received by the public. It has a 100% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 8.7/10.

Scavengers Reign originally aired as an 8-minute, dialogue-free animated short film in 2016 on the Adult Swim channel. It is available to watch here on Vimeo.

Most U.S. American shows created by major streaming services or TV networks are available to pirate. Sites like FMovies or LookMovies should have it.

#scavengers reign #tv shows #tv recommendations #science fiction #science fantasy #adventure #2d animation #animation #look i'm just Very Very Enthusiastic #lol can you tell i've never seen it but i routinely absorb tv news through my skin the way that frogs breathe in water?#and i NEED HBO TO PAY CREDENCE TO THEIR ANIMATORS!!!!#welcome to my blog. let's hope my ao3 subscribers don't hate me for posting tv recs to ao3 of all sites #benwvatt #benwvatt alltt

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k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9 · 10 months

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Edward Scissorhands (1990) directed by Tim Burton

#edward scissorhands #edward #winona ryder #kim #90s film #90s #90's #American fantasy romance film #fantasy romance film

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booktomoviebrawl · 8 months

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We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising:

Painfully generic-dumbed-down-fantasy-action trying to channel better film franchises instead of the atmospheric, mythopoetic and lyrical children’s book it is technically based on. Bonus points for the open contempt people involved had for the source material, both in how they treated it and what they said about it.

BAD. Bad bad bad!! They completely changed Will's character. In the books he does get frustrated sometimes, but is mostly kind and patient and really makes you believe that he is both an ancient being and an 11 year old boy and in the movie they changed it so he's like really mad and angsty and just the total opposite of his actual character!! Absolute butchery. And they cut the Wild Hunt! And changed a bunch of other plot stuff and it overall just sucked.

where do I even begin. they made the main character American for no reason (this is perhaps the most egregious change), aged him up to 14, and added a straight romance subplot. they were so indecisive during production that they CUT AN ENTIRE MAIN CHARACTER in the time between the trailer and the actual film release. they completely fucked up all of Will’s family stuff. in pursuit of “relatability” they got rid of everything that makes the book good and put in THE most generic, poorly written, poorly acted (except Christopher Eccleston, who did okay), and poorly produced garbage. it was in theaters for like…less than a week; we were supposed to see it for my birthday but it was already gone. it doesn’t even have, like, half-decent special effects. it is an insult.

The Princess Diaries:

Haphazard approach to the plot

Look. They're good movies, but they're just not good adaptations of the books.

ik everyone loves the movie but, sorry, it's an awful adaptation of the book! mia in the book isn't a curly-haired glasses wearer whose "transformation" hinges on changing those two things about her! mia's close friend tina hakim baba (as well as their pals shameeka and ling su) were left out of the film which i think was blatant racism. changing the setting of the story from new york to san francisco is a travesty. killing off mia's dad is a terrible choice. mia and her mother's loud, open feminism is not present at all in the film. there are so many things wrong with this movie i can't even begin to explain it.

#tournament poll #the princess diaries #the seeker #the dark is rising

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wewebaggit · 9 months

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"El never had romantic feelings for Mike"ers 🤝 "Mike had romantic feelings for El"ers

Y'all think y'all are arm wrestling bt it's actually called a handshake in most parts of the world.

Both come from some weird desire for romantic miIeven to have meant nothing/something for both.

Cuz everything has to be just right and fair and neatly tied in a bow. God forbid the gay boy have struggles with his sexuality or the straight girl get her heart broken in the process. Evil evil things. To have your feelings unrequited. Unless it's Will. Cuz he's single and has to stay single and pure and loyal and what not, and it's only temporary. Soon in a few years after the time skip at the end of the series he'll be rewarded for being reduced to a pathetic little sap with no social life beyond Jonathan, Mike and the horrors of having spidey sense for 2 seasons.

And yeah there will be cirque du soleil levels of acrobatics being performed to show why this story and narrative makes sense. And I'm not opposed to it for being that but just that on show that prides itself for show don't tell it neither shows nor tells and then there's outside the show telling by cast cuz inside the show showing was less subtle and more in the realm of not there at all.

MiIeven is NOT a "plot device" for Byler any more than Mike being revealed gay is a plot device for independent El. They're both self contained arcs for the respective characters. MiIeven thoroughly exploited the BSY dynamic with how their interactions were framed and played and okayed and filmed. It's incredibly condescending to fault the GA for buying into the self insert fantasy of nerdy boy gets supergirl when the show didn't shy away from profiting off of it. Regardless of Mike's impending sexuality. Especially because of the super ambiguity of Mike's sexuality it cannot be classified as anything but trope exploitation. Subversion where? Leaving some visuals here.

El initiating the kiss in S1E6

And I'd love it if anyone explains them to me that's not the tired af "El's idea of romantic love comes from her watching soap operas" cuz she was shown watching it once. She was stuck in a cabin with a TV so she watched TV most of the time and daytime is soaps. You know what she (also) watched regularly? Westerns. Miami Vice.

Also El did make the first move in s1e7 to kiss Mike. Before Mike ever kissed her in s1e8. And before the soap operas n all other things. Point being. The BSY has always been BSYing.

Poor babies being forced by Lucas, Nancy and daytime TV into making out and enjoying it. Tsk tsk. (S3E1)

A forced to be flustered and blushing El after talking to her boyfriend.

Time to make out some more. It hits different at 4:20. - Mike & El probably. Dunno it's on mute.

Naive but powerful fawn rebelling against father for nerdy boyfriend. Ya. White American thing cuz Mike would be pissing his pants if he were anywhere else or maybe anyone else. (Can you imagine Lumax this way?)

For God's sake your platonic soulmate and so called lesbian awakening's brother is dying there.

Don't even understand the point of this shot. Since Mike never looked Billy's way. Or comforted Max. A glance at El that, idk what it meant, no mike crow expressions to guide me.

Scenes from a Marriage (1973) dir. Ingmar Bergman

Scenes from a Marriage (2021) dir. Hagai Levi

There's an intentional way in which the MiIeven scenes (not just the kisses 🤮) are filmed in a more "adult" way as opposed to the "cute teenaged romance" way that some people purport it is in contrast to Lumax and Duzie. (I guess they didn't go through puberty.🤷‍♀️) Heck even Jancy, Stancy never looked this weird even though sex was shown/ implied. (Because they were played by actors born in the 20th century and even then they weren't 13 🤷‍♀️.)

MiIeven is not a plot device for Byler. It is fan service. The adults shipping them and comparing them to various other adult couples isn't outta nowhere. Please compute. Which is why it was stretched for 4 seasons.

As of NOW Mike's sexuality is still plausible deniability and the breakup too is neither here nor there. It's NOT straightbaiting. Lmao. Not at all. It's fan service. Leaving the OBVIOUS BSY aside, the point neither party were forced into anything nor were they doing it to keep appearances cuz canonically NOBODY cared. Not Dustin, not Lucas, definitely not Will and I'm sure neither did Max.

El was a willing participant and initiator and Mike was also not opposed to it until puberty monster/feelings caught up with him. El has shown her attraction to guys and it is okay. There's no need to take that away from her cuz that is also an experience of girlhood. She barely has any experiences anyway. Let her have that.

It's the same for Mike. He's not some evil monster for being gay. Not anymore than Joyce was for being with Bob out of convenience and the fact that she liked him n didn't hate him. Mike does love El and cares about her deeply as all of S4 shows.

So to sum it up. Yes I smooshed 2 posts cuz I couldn't be arsed talking about these 2 AGAIN. But Mike and El were independent agents when they decided to embark on their disastrous romantic journey and Born Sexy Yesterday is REAL.

P.S. If you find this shit cute and y'all roll your eyes over byler kissing n what not (even in fics goddamnit). Hit your head against a spiked wall till you can't no more. Piss and love. 💙💛

P.P.S. Mike's the clingy one. NOT Will.

#i need an award for taking these screenshots #i avoided the kisses cuz 🤮 but they only add to the evidence #byler #stranger things #anti mileven #i guess #wewe's opinionions #any mistakes are all yours #i ain't reading that shit again

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bellasbookclub · 8 months

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Bella's Book Club FAQ 🍎🌲📚

What is Bella's Book Club?

Bella's Book Club, (sometimes abbreviated to "BBC"), is an interactive virtual book club created by the Three Books One Plot podcast. Each month, participants read a selected book from the list of Bella Swan’s (really Stephenie Meyer’s) favorite books and authors as it appears in Chapter 13 of Midnight Sun, then come together to discuss it on Discord and other social media.

Where can I find Bella's Book Club?

We post most of our important information here on our Tumblr, as well as in the #announcements channel of our Discord. You can also follow along on our Goodreads and Storygraph (mainly used to keep track of past and present books we’ve read/are reading.)

Who can join Bella's Book Club?

BBC is open to anyone! You do not have to have participated in previous discussions, or even be a listener of the 3B1P podcast (though we’d love that, of course.) All we ask is that you be prepared to encounter mature themes and situations in some of our books (and discussions.)

How do I participate in Bella's Book Club?

BBC is designed to let you choose the level of participation you’re comfortable with. Most of the action (and fun) happens over on our Discord, during our monthly real-time discussions, but you're also welcome to share your thoughts or fanworks on a book by tagging us on tumblr or sending an ask/submission. We also sometimes post challenges, ask/tag games, and “scavenger hunts” to go along with our book of the month, and encourage each other to get creative. Past BBCers have made moodboards, fanbinds, playlists, shitposts, written fic and parodies, done scientific research, and even recreated recipes from the books we’ve read! The pressure is totally off, though—you’re welcome to read along and lurk from the cozy corner of your choice.

Who runs Bella's Book Club?

BBC is run primarily by bookworm nerds M (@gashousegables) and G (@volturialice) with occasional help from Shannon (@flowerslut).

M (she/they) is an Australian book nerd with librarian aspirations. From Animorphs to a Smeyer-adjacent Dragon girl phase, she's also the weeaboo in residence for the book club. When not feverishly promoting their Virtual Best Friend known as the Libby App they are swallowing pulpy Romances and mandatory sociological theory.

Favorite books: Imagica, the Locked Tomb series, Friday's Child, Picnic at Hanging Rock

G (she/her) is an American book nerd who grew up devouring like 3 high fantasy doorstoppers a week and considered the Scholastic Book Fair a national holiday. She enjoys reading gory Jacobean/Elizabethan tragedies for fun and has worked in Shakespeare education when she’s not stanning her local library.

Favorite books: Annihilation, The Bloody Chamber, the Locked Tomb series, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Shannon (she/her) is an American jock who read oodles of fic but thought books were mainly good for propping up wobbly tables until she had her own Reading Renaissance in 2022. Now she's on a quest to discover new favorites by seeking out recs and devouring every book in sight!

Favorite books: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the Locked Tomb series, The Vanishing Half

When is Bella's Book Club?

This year, Bella's Book Club runs September 2023 through June 2024, followed by a break for our summer reading challenge. Books are announced one month in advance, and discussions take place once a month on Monday nights at 8 PM EST (Tuesday mornings at 11 AM AEST) during 3B1P’s off weeks. In the event of a postponement, we announce it on Tumblr and Discord.

The current discussion dates for 2023-4 are:

October 2nd

October 30th

November 27th

December 26th (Tuesday!)

January 22nd

February 19th

March 18th

April 15th

May 13th

June 10th

Nominations/recs for the 2024 Summer Reading Challenge will open May 20th.

Do you do movie nights?

Yes! We sometimes take a break from reading to host Bella's Movie Club. Many of the books we read have been adapted for film and TV (and when no adaptation is available, we often watch a thematically similar movie.) We host movie nights on our Discord, scheduled according to demand and availability. We usually announce movie nights on Tumblr and Discord a week or so in advance, and schedule them on weekend nights (US)/weekend or Monday mornings (Australia) to accommodate the max number of time zones. If you’ve never watched a movie on Discord before, it’s super easy—anyone who wants to watch joins in via our voice channel, mutes themself (if you don’t know how to do this, the mods can do it for you), and then chats (mostly jokes) in real time via the #movie-discussion channel. It’s a rollicking time.

What books have you read in the past?

For our Season 1 (Twilight) lineup we read Jane Eyre, The Princess Bride, Sense and Sensibility, Tooth and Claw, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Little Women, and Northanger Abbey.

What’s the BBC Summer Reading Challenge?

The Bella's Book Club Summer Reading Challenge is our yearly summer break activity, designed to coincide with 3B1P’s hiatuses. Phase 1 of the challenge involves recommending up to 5 books through a Google form. In Phase 2, everyone’s recs are compiled into a list. Readers then choose 5 books from the list to read (and, optionally, review) during the summer months! You can find last year’s list here (and reccer spotlights here.)

Why are the books on your list Like That?

The list we’re pulling from was made by a white Mormon woman for her Not Like Other Girls YA protagonist. (We’ve found that Stephenie Meyer’s taste in books varies from “a quality classic but uninspired as a rec” to “this is actually a pretty cool deep cut.”) But don’t let that put you off too hard—we love reading through a more intersectional lens and Queering The Narrative, for example! We also take summers off to read each other’s book recommendations, which can be of any genre and include more diverse characters and authors. Even when choosing our lineup of monthly books, we try to schedule so that we end up with diversity of genre, era, style, and subject matter if nothing else.

***

got more questions? send us an ask!

happy reading! (we'll see you at book club)

#faq #book club #booklr #online book club #twilight #bella swan #bella's book club #official™ announcements

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sapphicbookclub · 5 months

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Author Spotlight: Jenna Jarvis

Although club members got to read it a little earlier, Jenna Jarvis's Ride With Me is now available for everyone! To celebrate the release, check out Jenna's essay on writing about road-trips and the outlaw below.

Ride with Me is a queer romance about a pair of disaster bisexual sisters-in-law who take a long drive west across the United States together. One is trying to run from her marriage, the other trying to have her great American road-trip. It’s my first non-fantasy book, but in many ways it felt very familiar for me to write, since Digging for Heaven was also, in its way, about travelling with someone. I love nothing more than a good road-trip story. In fantasy, all my favourite sections of the Song of Ice and Fire and The Lord of the Rings or more recently N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series were the ones trapping two or more unlikely characters together for the duration of a journey. I loved reading about how they deal with the mundanity of putting up with another person for an extended length of time. Comedies like A Goofy Movie, Little Miss Sunshine and Are We There Yet? delighted me as a kid and gave me a love for stories about people only talking about their problems after reaching boiling point. It can be easier to talk seriously when in motion, and these films hinge on that. The famous Ladybird scene of our titular character throwing herself from her mom’s car to avoid further conversation with her is often on my mind when writing car dialogue.

There’s a lot of things that have mythologised the United States for me. It's inescapable, omnipresent as a cultural hegemony with a history and mythos invented in full performative view of the world. Their road-trip stories are inextricable from the aesthetics of the western, and the long and loaded history of going west to reinvent yourself: enmeshed with the colonial legacy of manifest destiny. To celebrate the legacy of the solo gunslinger canonised by the movies is to ignore the black and brown bodily reality of the cowboy, and the question of who becomes memorialised or pitied when living beyond the grip of “society”. With his camp imagery and post Brokeback cinema impression the cowboy has become a popular queer hero. But as with most things in American history whiteness is still critical to that image, and that extends to the movies playing with the image of the outlaw going west.

Thelma and Louise’s Thelma spend much of the end of the film in a t-shirt emblazoned with the confederate flag. The Devil’s Rejects has Otis quote white supremacist Charles Manson. In To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, a dream of a queer comedy about three drag queens in an impractical car, race is an absolutely cutting and often jarring wedge between the characters and to a lesser but key extent between the film and a modern audience. The Blues Brothers both uplifts and pushes from the centre its black characters, the plot pointless and voiceless without them and yet never very interested in them. Supernatural ran for fifteen seasons from the Bush administration, its characters driving around their country unchecked executing those more outside of society than themselves. Throughout the series they are regularly assumed to be white supremacists. None of this theming, to me, reads as incidental, even if it wasn’t intentional on the part of the various creators.

But road-trips always feel hopeful too, at least while they’re still moving. They’re romantic, in a sense of riding off into the sunset with a Just Married sign (Just Married being another hugely influential movie to me, I’m sorry to say) – but also to leave alone, as to an extent both of my characters feel they’re doing at the beginning. The act of driving at all is empowering: the act is proof you’re of age, and deemed trustworthy by society, and bold enough to control a dangerous vehicle (can you tell I can’t drive). It’s the fantasy of getting away from it all, of maybe never returning to where you came from. It’s the opening/ending of Showgirls, it’s the high midpoint of Barbie, it’s the hysterically cutting twist of Gone Girl, it’s a cross-genre favourite focus for an endless number of songs.

I’m probably going to keep writing road trip stories forever, because they’re some of my favourite ways to make characters interact with each other. But as with any genre or structure I approach, it helps to keep in mind what’s come before, in both an inspirational and damning sense. So many of the images that sing to me that I wanted to write about here are also coming from a symbology of American capitalism and individualism – the highway and car, or in this case, van - over lands forcibly emptied of their indigenous people. That haunts most stories tackling them, and remembering those ghosts felt critical even when writing a light-hearted rom-com.

For more on the complicated queer history on the cowboy check out Kaz Rowe’s video on it which I was trying really hard not to completely plagiarise here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AOwdODmMA

#wlw books #booklr #lgbt books #contemporary #book recs #sapphic books #diverse books #guest post

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