Rec'ing Stories

*CRACKS MY QUEER TRANS KNUCKLES*

ALRIGHT STRAP IN, FOLKS.

My BIG THREE authors where basically everything they write is literal chef kiss are:

1. K.J. Motherfucking Charles

2. Jordan L. Motherfucking Hawk @jordanlhawk

3. Cat Motherfucking Sebastian

The tl;dr: Think of England or Band Sinister (or any of her series it’s all fucking great) by KJ Charles, the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk, and the Captive Prince series by C.S. Pacat even though I technically don’t consider that one a true romance, just a series with romance elements. For trans specific, Peter Darling by Austin Chant. The sex isn’t really explicit in that one, so if you, like me, want to see your trans body being loved and appreciated in a sexy sexy way, The Burnt Toast B&B by Heidi Belleau.

There are more than what I’ve listed here, but those authors are my mains. If you want me to go in-depth about any of their books, just lemme know and I’ll be happy to do so.

MORE BENEATH THE CUT!

You can get it now at Amazon!

Three omegas are home for the holidays with the Niemi pack, and every old tradition is new again with these omegas in the mix! Ethan is getting his first taste of living with an outsider werewolf pack and celebrating the Winter Solstice. He’s still finding his place among them–and with himself–and that would be challenge enough, but another surprise is waiting for him at the party… Casey is introducing his brand new mate (and soon-to-be co-parent!) to the Christmas traditions of the Niemi pack. It’s a time for family, but Casey and Adam are still figuring out just what family means when it comes to the two of them… Rory is looking forward to the first full moon of Winter because it’s a night he’ll definitely get to spend with his mate, Beau. But this full moon in particular is bringing something they’ve both been waiting for: Rory’s finally going into heat for the first time since they met, and he’s going to have a very long winter’s night to spend with his mate… Omega Wintertide is a collection of three connected holiday stories, meant to be read after Omega Required and Omega Defiant!

Omega Wintertide is just 99 cents on Amazon!

Buy now in ebook!

Or in paperback!

An omega who wants nothing to do with alphas… An alpha who wants to save omegas, but never meant to fall for one… And a thousand-mile roadtrip that will change their lives… if they don’t kill each other first. Omega werewolf Casey Niemi has grown up in the safety of his adopted pack. He can’t remember what took him from his original family–and he doesn’t want to, even if it might explain why getting too close to an alpha makes him panic. He’s moving on with his life and totally has it under control–until a new alpha shows up and throws Casey’s world completely off kilter. Alpha werewolf Adam Vinick wants to improve the lives of omegas through the power of rigorous scientific research. After the death of his omega dad, he left his father’s pack and has never looked back. But he’s been having a hard time finding omegas for his study, and his life’s work may be cancelled if he can’t show results soon. When he turns to the Niemis for help, he’s not expecting an omega like Casey. Adam and Casey have instant chemistry–the kind that explodes on contact. When the Niemis send Casey to assist Adam on his research trip, enemies become reluctant allies and it doesn’t take long for them to argue their way into each other’s beds. But can their long road lead them to each other’s hearts?

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 119,000

Additional Tags: Omegaverse, Werewolves Are Known, Mating Cycles/Heat, Knotting, A Dash of Mpreg, Enemies to Lovers, But like the soft-ish version, I tried you guys I’m not good at writing enemies, Definitely a lot of arguing though, Including arguing about whether to have sex, Ahem, What Else, Road Trip, Drug Use, Wolfsbane Is Literally Anything I Want It to Be, Separatist Werewolf Cult, Tragic Backstories, Dead Parents, Past Violence, Past Suicide, Childhood Trauma, Awkward Hurt/Comfort, A Bit of Peril, Brief Graphic Violence, Werewolf Science, Worldbuilding, Werewolf Culture, Dessa steals stuff from her own Teen Wolf fanfic, Look I’m just firmly convinced that that’s the Werewolf Mythology now, Omega Genetics, Omega Gender Stuff, Omegas Are Intersex, Omegas dealing with stuff that’s kind of like intersex & trans identity in real life, Except with a fictional anatomical situation and within a fictional culture where that anatomical situation is considered normal, Omegas dealing with imposed/enforced female identity, but that is a problem getting solved, Happily Ever After

Buy now in ebook!

I’ve been playing way too much of this game recently, and this silliness was the result. Two interlocking short stories (5k and 6k respectively), rated for General audiences. 

No-powers modern AU, Billy/Teddy meet-cute, no warnings apply. 

Also written before Gen 4 dropped, so there’s no mention of that in here. >.> 

Like No-one Ever Was (Teddy)

I Choose You (Billy)

Free books including a copy of OMEGA REQUIRED, plus six more paranormal m/m romances, including an advance copy of NJ Lysk’s upcoming new book, NOT DESTINY?

I’m not a huge fan of this.

Do I like receiving comments? Yes. God yes. Love it. Enter into a black funk if I don’t get at least 25 within the first week of posting, at least 15 within the first day, at least 5 in the first hour, and at least one right away right in the very first second. I refresh obsessesively in those first seconds. I want all the attention on me and my work. I feel like I need it.

But it is not owed to me. Not the way my job owes me payment for my labor. Not the way I earn currency. I’m not contracting with fanfic readers for comments. I’m posting something and letting the internet have at it, which is a different thing entirely.

I think sometimes about how comments-as-currency interact with BNF culture. If you’re taking in the idea “this is a fic by a very important person whose opinion on the canon is sacrosanct and special” and also “by reading this free internet story, you now owe it to the creator to make them feel good about it and themselves,” that’s a particular magic elixir. And I guess a part of me is still scarred from the Cassie Clare days, and really does not agree with assigning special primacy to fandom creators because of the ways that can go drastically wrong.

Though, actually, never mind the Cassie Clare days. In the here and now, there are fic authors who feel they should get special praise from fellow fans for “originating” specific ship fandoms (why, because you showed up first?). In the here and now, there are BNFs with hundreds of bookmarks and thousands of comments who routinely threaten to flounce because the attention they get is just not enough for them.

the longer I am in fandom, the less I care for that shit. I think fandom is often made worse when we treat it like a transaction made for social approval, when we normalize this idea that participation in fandom is by its nature a contract by which you can demand the reactive energy of others.

I think a lot about two times I didn’t “comment.” One is Terry Pratchett. I love Terry Pratchett. Ever since I picked up a copy of Mort in Heathrow airport at age 12, I told myself, every year, that I would write him a letter telling him how funny he was and how much I loved his work. I told myself that when an essay on Mort won me a scholarship to high school. I told myself that when an essay on Death in Discworld won me a scholarship to college, and then helped send me to professional school. I told myself I would write Terry Pratchett a letter every year for over ten years, and then he died and I never sent him a letter and I regret never sending him a letter.

I also think about shinigami.org. Shinigami.org was a Gundam Wing fansite way back in the early 00s, run by a fan named Kumiko. Kumiko was the first fanfic writer I ever idolized. I don’t remember the quality of her work or the characterization or the writing style or the pairings, but I remember the way her work made me feel. I loved this one Hitchcock AU in particular. I checked shinigami.org every single day during computer time in 8th grade, desperate to see if she had posted a sequel to that fic. Then Kumiko announced she was shutting the site down. Agonized, I then checked every single day to see if she would reverse her decision. She never did, but before she took the site down she posted a note saying she was thankful for all the people who had messaged her with kind words and praise. And then I felt embarrassed and bad, because it hadn’t occurred to me to tell Kumiko how much I idolized her (and I did) and how great I found her Hitchcock AU (and I really, really did).

These are not the only times I haven’t commented. They happen to be the only times I have felt BAD about not commenting. Why? Not because I was stiffing Kumiko or PTerry — I wasn’t. I paid for my copy of Mort and every subsequent Discworld book I bought, so I wasn’t denying Terry Pratchett anything he was lawfully owed. And Kumiko had made the choice to establish a Gundam Wing website for free and post stories on it for free and (unlike some of her contemporaries, say, PL Nunn, who charged for a lot of her work) was not asking fans to enter into some kind of contractual arrangement where they owed her currency for stories rendered. So I wasn’t backing out on a deal with either her or Terry Pratchett, and I didn’t feel bad for that reason. I felt bad because I missed a chance to express what Terry Pratchett’s work meant to me and what Kumiko’s work meant to me. I felt bad because their brought me intense happiness and I had the words in me to reflect on that happiness and just why it had such a pull on me and made me rethink the way I looked at the world. But I did not use those words, which was a missed chance for me to know more about me.

Don’t comment because comments are fandom currency. Comment when you feel like you have something to say. Don’t feel bad about not commenting because you “owe” a comment. You don’t owe comments. But if you have a feeling you can capture, something a work brings out of you, and you don’t take the time to sit with yourself for a few minutes and capture that feeling, then sometimes that can be a shame.

That’s how I feel about comments. And no, I don’t comment on everything. And honestly, you shouldn’t have to either. If you feel like it helps to create a welcoming fandom space, if it makes you more the person you want to be, then comment away, but even that, I think, should be more about how commenting helps you create something you value than how commenting is something you owe. I don’t think that, because I have written fic for free, I am thus owed the reactions of every single person who stumbles on that fic and happens to have a positive reaction. I do think, because I read fic for fun, that sometimes there’s added joy in taking the time to express myself to the original creator. Those are two very different approaches.

I haven’t seen much signal boosting about Yuletide this year, so here’s a brief reminder that nomination of eligible fandoms closes on Friday, September 21, 2018 at 9AM UTC (that’s 5AM ET)! (or see the countdown)

Basic facts and links:

Yuletide is a rare fandoms fic exchange. Most small fandoms are eligible if they have less than 1000 stories combined from AO3 and FF.net; if you’re close to the line or not sure, or your fandom is a weird subset of a larger fandom and it’s confusing, the in-depth rules are here and the FAQ is here. The rules can seem intimidating because there are a lot of contingencies built up from years of people fighting over what counts as ‘rare’, but mods are always happy to answer questions.

Nominations can be made (with an AO3 account) here. It’s generally considered best and polite to nominate fandoms you plan to actually write or request this year, and not just stuff you want to read, but you don’t have to participate in order to nominate.

If you have more fandoms/characters you want to nominate than slots in the form, check this spreadsheet of submitted noms - it’s not a complete list by any means, since I think most people don’t remember that someone makes one every year, but it can help you prioritize. Or if you have extra space, you can put in something from one of the wishlists. Please remember to submit your own list after nominating to help others!

Know where to get updates when signups start on October 10th:

@yuletidetreasure​ aka yuletide_admin on LJ/DW is the official YT account with notices and clarifications from the mods

Spite is a really motivating emotion. Sometime last summer I was telling my friend Laura about how I wanted to start a story-rec blog based on things other than genre or pairing. That was probably a year after I started thinking about doing so. But it took a full year after for me to do anything about it. And the key catalyst was how wrong another rec list on tumblr was.

See, in this post an asker was asking for recommendations similar to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. And the answerer had nothing similar to recommend. There were no other m/m, YA, Georgian historical books. That might technically be true. I don’t remember what they rec’d instead.

But I read The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian and The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue back-to-back. The reading order was a total coincidence. They are incredibly similar books. And so, YA readers, let me introduce you to romance novels.

Let’s start with the initial book, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. The tags I gave it were: YA Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Bi Character, Character of Color, Asshole gets Redeemed, Terrible Father, Awesome Sister, Adventure, Best Friends to Lovers, The Question of Inheritance, and an Epileptic Character.

My first similar recommendation is The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian. It’s got: Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Bi Character, Asshole gets Redeemed, Terrible Father, Awesome Sister. On top of that, things that are close but note quite are that one of the main characters has an illness he collapses from, and the awesome sister has a non-white husband. There is no traveling in this book, but both characters have traveled and lived outside of England in their past. It goes without saying that I liked this book.

Also, check out Brothers Sinister Series by Courtney Milan. These books are primarily M/F, Olde Time Historical England romance novels. The Countess Conspiracy has Best Friends to Lovers and Asshole gets Redeemed. And The Suffragette Scandal has an F/F B-plot. But the one I think will tick the most similar boxes TGGTVAV is The Heiress Effect. It’s got Kidnapping & Rescue, an Awesome Sister, an Epileptic Character, and a Character of Color love-interest. It’s my favorite of the series, because while the main couple are off dealing with marriage-plot and kidnapping shenanigans, the awesome little sister saves herself.

The hardest tag to match from TGGTVAV is “Adventure.” Most of the similar romance novels take place in London with some jaunts to country estates. They don’t tend span cities. But while I wouldn’t necessarily tag these books “Adventure,” there are plenty of romance novels with high-stakes, tension filled plots. And there’s one undisputed queen of historical M/M romance: K.J. Charles.

The Charm of Magpie Series by K.J. Charles Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Surprise, Magic Exists!, Terrible Father, The Question of Inheritance

TGGTVAV doesn’t really have magic, per se, but the cure-all that everyone’s on the hunt for veers towards it. And in the Magpie books adventure takes the form of Stephen, a sort of magic police, saving the world, or at least Lord Crane, from evil warlocks. It should go without saying that they fall in love, and it is delightful.

Society of Gentlemen Series by K.J. Charles Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Politics Specific books in the series also contain: BDSM, Awesome Sister (in Law)

Society of Gentleman goes the opposite direction of Charm of Magpies. The high-stakes here are shockingly real. These characters are falling in love and making lives for themselves in a world where they are all expected to get married and produce heirs, and being caught with each other could be a hanging offense. That is to say nothing of publishing seditious pamphlets and plotting murder. The stakes in two of the three books here are life-or-death and the machinations required to give everyone their happy ending are amazing.

Think of England by K.J. Charles Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England

A spy and injured war hero solve a mystery while guests at a country estate.

Sins of the Cities Series by K.J. Charles Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time England, Character of Color, Terrible Father

These books are ‘The Question of Inheritance’ brought to a several attempted murders extreme. There’s still one more book coming out in October before this trilogy is complete, so I don’t want to or know enough to say too much. But I loved the second on in the series.

And lastly for something slightly different:

The Whyborne and Griffin Series by Jordan L. Hawke Romance Novel, M/M, Historical, Olde Time America, Surprise! Magic Exists, Terrible Father, Low Fantasy, Detective, The Question of Inheritance, Kidnapping & Rescue Specific books in the series also contain Awesome Sister, F/F B-Plot, M/F B-plot, Character of Color, Monsters

These books take place in America, rather than England, in a later time (the very first electric lights come to town!). But they have the travel missing in all my other recs. Home for Whyborne and Griffin is a creepy Massachusetts town, but when they get wind of suspicious magical disasters around the world, they travel to them. These books are delightfully formulaic: Let’s split up to cover more ground! Oh no, my partner has been kidnapped! Time to mount a rescue mission! And my favorite is when they live this out around the world in Kansas and Alaska and Egypt.

also Cat Sebastian is starting a new series (Seducing the Sedgwicks heyoooo) and i need MORE?

ALSO! my girl Joanna Chambers has a trilogy (+ a few others set in the same universe)  The Enlightenment Series

and a sweet little one-off of A Gathering Storm.

ALSO My Girl Courtney Milan is starting a new series and i think It May Have Some Gay Soon. ( The Worth Saga - still WIP but 2 books out already, with a tiny reference to the prequel The Pursuit Of… ) it HAS already had a main bisexual character so that’s GR8!!! GO COURTNEY. YOU CAN DO IT I BELIEVE IN U!!!

anyway.

can you tell i have nothing else to read now and am DESPERATELY awaiting more books????

still MAD!!! that Think of England is a one off and there hasn’t been any more since Spectred Isle even thought it says book one (*wail*)

I suspect the second Green Man book has been delayed due to extensive re-writes, because the original teaser description from the back of Spectred Isle is QUITE DIFFERENT than the one KJ Charles sent out a few months ago to the mailing list:

If you’re really jonesing for KJ Charles content, have you read all the little free epilogues and stuff she’s got up on her site?

I don’t have any more historical gay romance recs under my belt, but there’s Peter Darling by Austin Chant, if you’re interested in trans Peter Pan/Captain Hook? I don’t always rec it because I DID spend the first section of the book wanting to punch Peter for being a dumbass, but there’s a reason for that and the writing is excellent. I bought but haven’t read Caroline’s Heart, which looks intriguing.

One that was decent but not great: The Gentleman and the Rogue by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon. Read like fanfic, basically, and I enjoyed myself. (TW for torture?) I tried some of the authors’ other work but was disappointed - too overwhelmingly sweet and not enough plot for my taste.

I don’t remember why I didn’t rec The Soldier’s Scoundrel and The Lawrence Browne Affair when I first wrote this post. Possibly I hadn’t read them yet. Possibly I just thought The Ruin of a Rake had a more similar feel to TGGTVAV to it, which I stand by, although the other two are great in their own right.

Funny story about The Enlightenment Series is that I read the three original books back to back on a 13 hour flight and by the end I had been awake for roughly 24 hours. I know I read them because I dutifully recorded them in GoodReads. But I have little to no recollection of what happened in them. I got an automated email when the fourth one came out and I didn’t recognize a single character name.

I also loved Caroline’s Heart, but I don’t know that is’t similar to TGGTVAV. To me that feels more like a rec for people who loved Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle.