❝ 𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒 ❞

They had to get out of the sticky, briny tavern his instant because Shane needed to run his fingers over Ilya as soon as possible. He slammed the coins onto the table and stood up with the conviction of a newly invigorated man. “Would you like to keep speaking, or would you like to give me that tour now?”

Prince Shane Hollander of Montreal had always been under the control of everyone but himself. He is to hide everything: from the people he loves, to the powers he holds, out of fear of persecution from the wicked Empire. For one night that he grants himself, he is beholden to none other than the gorgeous stranger he meets in a tavern during his year-long exploration of the lands he is one day to rule. He allowed himself simply one night, to explore pleasures he had no idea existed with a man he is never to meet again.

Three years later, the Empire's most wanted pirate is chained before Shane, awaiting his execution in Montreal's dungeons, and Shane discovers that his indulgence was far more difficult to forget than he assumed.

in today's isfd crumbs while i work on chapter 2 (technically ch3 with the prologue), my amazing beta @hollanovgirldads81's comments on the outline that made me laugh so hard in the middle of the night

also, a poll for my more fanfic inclined people... should i start a hollanov sideblog for isfd posting but also general hollanov posting and my other fanfic work (like my other fic that im working on right now?)

as a palette cleanser from IN SOME FROZEN DEVOTION, my fantasy hollanov fic, because i can't write one more word of fancy english without bursting, i've been thinking about writing a oneshot about a vacation, a roselana wedding, and EITHER a second chance romance or enemies to lovers. i also don't know whether to make them mlh hockey players like in canon or regular people/college students. poll below to help me decide!

SO EXCITED for y'all to read this!!! 9k words of hot pirate ilya ik you guys like that. did i reinvent prince ben x harry hook?? maybe i did but you know what who is going to stop me?? not myself lol

my amazing beta @hollanovgirldads81 read through the first ~6000 words of "chapter 1" (technically 2 but prologue doesn't count) and gave such amazing feedback!! its tuesday somewhere so hopefully the chapter gets published today...? i have about 1500 more words to write in order to hit my outline so take that as you will.

BUT if you haven't yet, you can check out the smutty/worldbuildish prologue of isfd and glaze me in the comments 😘

has anyone noticed the real false dichotomy when dealing with shane as a character?? either grievances about his treatment are cast aside by "he's a fictional character" or he's treated as a wooby that is constantly a victim of his surroundings and is some sort of damsel.

this has really, to me, been intensified by the recent discourse regarding the way rachel "treats" shane as a character. first of all, i believe that authors ARE allowed to have favorite characters, and as someone who does a bit of writing myself, its natural to gravitate characters that are more fun to write, and that changes based on each person's interests. now, does that remove the fact that rachel seems slightly dismissive of shane as a character, especially in interviews, constantly denying his having any trauma despite being a closeted poc athlete in a homogenous group of people, which can be a very traumatic experience? no, of course not, but i think the reason that a lot of poc, neurodivergent, or queer fans gravitate specifically towards shane is because their own trauma about their part in these communities is similar, and we are also dismissed as not having "trauma" if we haven't grown up in situations similar to ilyas. people are projecting their own experiences onto shane (not a bad thing, literally what media is for) and that dismissal harms the fans that are doing so. is that rachel's fault? not really, but i don't think she understands what it means to write a poc + queer + neurodivergent character yet, especially one with a pretty evident ed that she keeps denying, and the fact that she never meant to write him as autistic--its like she's running away from the depth she's giving him, almost as if its happening on accident??

Steve was rereading his note cards, muttering worriedly under his breath. “WMD. IED. Internet. Clint, I'm not sure I agree with how the government's been involving itself in the Middle East. Can I say that?”

i just wanted to let you know not to take it to heart--there was a time a few mutuals of mine, back in my bsd anime days, were attacked repeatedly by a blog that hated one character, chuuya, even going as far as to stalk blogs and tags and get nasty and rude in the reblogs, replies, and even asks. there were many attempts made to reason with this person and to ask them to stop, but instead it only heightened their efforts and this person even went and made different blogs/url changes to harass these people.

im not saying that these two blogs are the same (even though, taking a look through hungrilyviciousthorn shows a lot of very similar anti-chuuya reblogs....weird that it happened twice but not all that unreasonable....and hungrilyviciousthorn claims to be brown whereas the bsd fandom harasser was very much white) but the behaviors were the same. any attempts to engage probably wont go over well.

sorry they were rude to you :(

thank you for the support! it was sad to get that kind of a response on what i thought was a genuine and well thought out critique, and im sorry about your experience!