@layahimalaya is my “main” but I’m not very active there
storygraph (won't accept friend req's of people I don't know usually)
DATABASES & OTHER BOOKISH STUFF
my aro & ace book database / tinyurl.com/aspecbooks / tumblr post
> find specific aspec book list posts at: #aspec books / masterpost
> no-romance book database / tinyurl.com/norombooks
book character description database / tinyurl.com/bookdesc / tag
I co-run @diversebookfanart, where we collect art for bipoc/queer/disability books!
archivist wasp: tweetbot (rip), discord server!
COSPLAY
general tag  (does not have everything, just highlights!) / instagram
archivist wasp / artemisia / lirael / blue / red / tihylttw
READING TAGS đź“š
 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 ['23 faves], 2024 ['24 faves], 2025 ['25 faves], 2026
 monthly wrapups
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another story about Cleric Chih & Almost Brilliant (the hoopoe spirit) traveling the world and collecting stories - but this time from early on in their career
they arrive in a town celebrating the start of the rainy season, while also receiving a large amount of refugees, and chih has to grapple with the complexity of so many stories, and the violence and xenophobia toward the refugees
I have all my highlighted character descriptions in my database. not very organised (other than by character) but if it's useful for anyone else..
the book being the way it is, there's definitely descriptions that are ambigious or that i just missed because of everything going on. but there's also things i changed here because of artistic coherency and I want to note those down
On stage is Demetrius and Ludovico at the end of The Lilies Wretched, the opera Elspeth invites Mallory to (The second relevant one)
Ludovico is described as being covered in gems and gold which I. didn't quite do. in my defense theyre so small and half covered by the text and I didn't have a vision of how that'd look in context of the vibe of the opera narrative etc
On the balconies is left: Sorav, and vaguely Florian? Though there isn't much description of him other than clean shaven, tall, white uniform. I think I imagine him with dark hair, but it's light here for behind-text-contrast reasons.
on the right: Elspeth and the Chancellor (who I didn't think too hard about designing, he's very generic man here lmao).
The two faceless people on the lowest points are just random, to fill the gap.
(oh, and we all know who is at the very top. self explanatory)
Middle:
Mallory's suit is lavender, I just could not get purple to work with the colour palette. So it's more pink. I also combined the tophat/feather boutonniere situation with this, even though those are separate outfits.
(Same with Ostlerfell Blue - I wanted to include this in the upper section, but it didn't work with the palette. So the closest we have is Elspeth's teal-ish dress.)
Bottom:
The Contriver Worm is more black and hairy, and I'm pretty sure larger (I'm pretty sure one section 'could shield a horse'?), but again. compositional/colour palette reasons.
When Guy first encounters it he's dangling mid air and it grabs him, no time to react let alone get out his pesticide gun thing
I pretty much decided to do the alt art on the back purely so I could draw Three, hence why she has her helmet up to show her face. She wouldn't have her wooden arm outside of her suit either, but I wanted to show that also.
The exterminator outfits - I went slightly more steampunk fantasy than is probably canon. But it looks cool?
I can't remember if there's like, solid description of what the suits are like beyond 'threaded with iron vine and plated with woody alloys', boots, overcoat, buckled collar, plates on shoulders, 'wraps his iron-vine arms around his waist', I remember tetrapod chestplates being mentioned though that might have been post-BGS ? Anyway, obviously took bits and pieces but it's not entirely accurate to this.
I assume the glass visors are flat, but I wanted to make them bug eye shaped. The little bumps on the top are meant to be reminiscent of antennae, though I decided actually adding long antennae would be impractical even if fun. I also double checked and i think it's amber glass - green glass was the tender guardsman helmets, i just absorbed that wrong.
There's simple harnesses on the suits - though they would probably have chest harnesses & descenders & more gear for prusiking but I simply couldn't be bothered drawing all that or figuring it out with the armour.
Remembered to add their swords last minute so that isn't on the mockup versions lol
Overall:
If I had the time/refererence/was being paid for this I'd pay more attention to having some distinct differences between pre and post Revival architecture and fashion. My historical architecture/fashion knowledge is not that in depth so it's kinda vibes based. But also the book is intentionally a mashup of influences, so.
There are so many tiny bugs in the details of this, not that you can see most of them probably. I thought about putting more effort into designing some of the various vermin that are mentioned, but I didn't want to make them big enough that they'd be extra compositional elements.
my very first sketch when I had this idea just after I read it last year. The general concept was having an hourglass/infinity shape - I guess similar to the ouroboros on the cover, but with two sections for the two parts of the story....
I also didn't plan for it to be a cover design immediately, but for once I realised that was a good idea while I was making the art and designed it accordingly.
I took inspiration for the stage from a lot of vintage paper/puppet show stages. I hadn't even figured out which opera scene would be going on the stage, I had to reread it to find one lmao. thankfully my vague memory of a dramatic stabbing was correct
once I got to a certain stage I also stopped to figure out character designs a bit more! And yes I will finish those at some point...... not immediately though. I will make some changes from where they are there, but it was enough to figure out what I needed for the cover illustration.
ALSO: no promises I'll get around to working on these, but since I started a redesign, why not do some speculative other elements of a special edition......these are my thoughts for endpapers & case (VERY rough)
since the cover is so detailed I'm thinking simpler concepts. detailed viseral bug illustration on the endpapers. 'embroidered' case in the style of mallory's embroidery - maybe with the ouroboros centipede and planty/mycelium grows (and of course little red stringy bugs) on the cover, and mallory's embroidered map on the back? not sure if it'd be on brown or dark green. mayyybe hints of silver foil liquid splattered across it somewhere.
I also have an idea for sprayed edges (also simpler) and maybe some internal vignettes. again idk if i'll get to that
uhhh what else, I've posted a few works / in / progress / on tiktok
YA romcom with a demiromantic MC. She already identifies as such at the start of the book. It's hate-to-love, she doesn't like him at all initially, and takes a while to catch up to the fact that she is romantically attracted to him - though the time period of the book is pretty short. "Unfortunately, being demiromantic doesn’t make me immune to thinking some people are absurdly hot."
Hallowed Be Thy Name
gay ace MC. subplot when he's a teenager of being upset and jealous when his friend gets a girlfriend and has less time for their friendship and is bullied for being gay even though he doesn't think he is; then later when he meets his love interest in uni he talks about his feelings and the love interest says he's probably asexual. Good in concept, didn't love the book.
Elseship
nonfic/memoir centred on the authors' experience of falling in love with a friend who doesn't reciprocate, and their relationship deepening because of this. She talks about being acespec a little, and how that affects how she approaches love and relationships. It's nonlinear and sectioned into the ancient greek categories of love, in the latter end especially there's a lot of discussion of challenging various forms of amatonormativity, and of relationships and feelings that defy categorisation.
Princeweaver
high fantasy mm romance, start of a series. a mage enters an arranged marriage with a prince. They're both demi-aroace - one has never really had any interest, one had a previous sexual relationship but couldn't return the romantic feelings. It's more focused on the aromanticism, which I enjoyed. I'd say they still fall for each other relatively quickly, I'd have loved for it to take longer than a book, but I do understand why it is this way for plot reasons. Hopefully explored more in book 2. Really enjoyed this
The Library of Amorlin
high fantasy, start of a series. The MC is demisexual, only very lightly touched upon. Presumably will later in the series. The romance develops slower and less heated than general, I guess.
"Relationships had always been different for her than most people, which was to say she had never really had one" "she retreated into a place so deep inside herself her body no longer felt her own ... one that needed connection before intimacy." a little too generic fantasy + m/f romance for me, but it's fine
It's Kind of a Funny Story
contemporary romance webtoon, about a guy at a low point moving back to his home city & sleeping on his friend's couch, and a guy who moved across the country after a breakup. One tries to kiss the other after they meet & hang out a bit - the latter is taken aback but does like him & explains that he & his ex were friends for years before he was interested, and they shift into becoming friends (while feelings slowly grow). While he hasn't figured it out yet, there's Q&A chapters talking about him being demiromantic (his little sister is also aroace apparently, tho she's like 12 rn). I like that the other MC also has an arc of being comfortable with being single in the meantime, before they eventually get in a relationship. (which they aren't yet, but maybe on the cusp. it's on hiatus.)
No Charm Done
witchy YA sapphic romance. One of the MCs is ace (or acespec). She'd never been attracted to anyone (and is fine with this), but as an overachiever feels like she has to fit into the 'norm' and get a boyfriend; she vaguely attempts this but her heart isn't in it as much as it is with her academic rival who she has to work with, then eventually realises she has some kind of attraction to. She's still in the beginnings of figuring this out, isn't sure if she's ace or demi (or if it's just girls or potentially bi). I thought it was done well enough. Tbh some of it read as arospec too, but I know a) authors often conflate that unintentionally and/or for teenagers especially it can be pretty intertwined when figuring it out. I did like that the boy is just...barely relevant because she's simply not actually interested in him (rather than some annoying forcing-herself-to-date-him-not-love-triangle-situation)
Shapes of Love
YA contemporary. an aroace singer recently propelled to fame is forced into a PR relationship by her team, with her high school ex-boyfriend (who she broke up with after figuring out she's aroace. Very much about being aroace, about the loneliness of the rest of the world prioritising romance. She's happy and proud to be aroace, but deals with shame because of the aphobia/amatonormativity she faces (which is definitely a narrative I want more of!), and it explores the depths and complexities of her various friendships. There's a side character who figures out he's demiromantic. The only minor critisicm I have is that there's no way a chronically online 19yo who's been aroace for years wouldn't have heard of queerplatonic relationships. I also find it odd that the blurb says she's aroace-spec when she's explicitly aroace, no attraction/interest at all. But: really enjoyed this
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Pride Reads 2026, Day 7: She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat
One of my very favorite series! I love the cooking, of course, but what makes this series special to me is the way it addresses so many things but never in a heavy handed way. Gender stereotypes (especially towards women), family dysfunction, eating disorders, sexuality, romance, living on your own, loneliness, adulting, even online friendships! It's all done in a thoughtful way and I always find myself thinking, "yes! this!!" and then wanting to rec the series to everyone. The romance is definitely a slow burn. I liked that in this volume two new characters are introduced, and one of them is an asexual lesbian.
my masterpost is not letting me save after editing 90% of the time for some reason except it did ONCE so now it has 'hello can i please edit this' written in frustration at the bottom which i can't delete afkdjk
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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a man with a werewolf curse is convinced by his cousin to swear an oath to the new young king to reclaim his father's lands
through he plans to stay away in case he turns while at court, he and the king are drawn to each other, and he’s drawn to the knighthood & feeling of belonging & the comforts of marriage and a normal life
but eventually the wolf overtakes him, and the king’s longing turns to grief, and turns to vengeance against the beast he assumes killed him
a boy raised in an abusive household & told that there’s a devil bound to him starts to see it, after a failed exorcism results in his mothers’ disappearance
he struggles through school, keeping no friends other than his younger brother, until he goes to uni to study psychology and cults, and has to work on a project with an academic rival - and they decide to look into the cult that his mother belonged to, forcing him to confront his past
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
âś“ Live Streamingâś“ Interactive Chatâś“ Private Showsâś“ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
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Since it's pride month I'm only gonna be talking about doomed yuri and yaoi. Everybody go read Metal From Heaven right now it's the best doomed yuri book ever. Also Firebreak if you're into doomed QPRs.
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH with Mallory vant Passand from The Works of Vermin !
(by Hiron Ennes (wanna read a queer book ? Read THIS please please please)
I bet he's everyone's favorite character (every interaction he has with Maximian and Em, i'm....god. never change mallory, you're funny. Also, the door joke, and the "if you insist" agh marry me already)
It's a few studies from stuff I saw on pinterest, but make it Mallory !
I truly don't know if that's what they're supposed to look like ? But that's what I SAW
I love the idea that he gets longer hair after getting comfortable being a man ! The bun is hot.
(The Passand... IT'S A D NOT A T. I'll fix it, one day))
Asteritha is on the left and it's Elspeth on the bottom. idk not censoring the cute nipples ? it's artistic nudity, is it alright ?
