#aaw2019

October 23 to October 29 is Asexual Awareness Week! Happy Ace Week to any ace-spec authors, and happy Ace Week to any ace-spec characters!

From now until the end of October, I am accepting requests for character aesthetics for ace-spec OCs and personal aesthetics for ace-spec writers. I did this once before in 2019, but haven't had the chance to do it again since.

[Requests close at midnight on October 31st, eastern time. I will likely be filling these into November, so please be patient once you’ve submitted!]

To request an aesthetic:

1) Go to my askbox. 2) Submit the info listed below the cut depending on whether you're submitting an OC request or a personal request. 3) Let me know if you have any colors in mind. (If you have no color preference, you don't need to say anything.) 4) Let me know if you specifically do or do not want your or your OC's flag(s) used in the aesthetic. (If you have no preference either way, you don't need to say anything.)

Please limit requests to no more than 3 per person. If you are submitting multiple requests, please submit them in separate asks.

You do not need to be following me to request an aesthetic, however, I will be releasing some discussions on the ace-spec characters from my current WIP throughout the week, if you're interested.

Request info below the cut.

Find sample aesthetics in the #aaw2019 tag, but note that I don't tend to stick to exclusively to even 3x3s anymore so expect more variation there.

Signal boosts allowed and appreciated! <3

*unlike previous lists, I will be comparing to how much I related to and felt connected to the ace experience of the ace characters in the books, and rather celebrating ace rep I’ve been lucky enough to read 

(inspired by @anassarhenisch​ who requested this about a year ago lol)

Quicksilver by RJ Anderson- This was the first book I read with an ace protagonist. I admired Tori’s conviction in that she was ace (and there are times where I have the same assurance in my orientation) and also how unfit she felt with her peers, like she had a mask. Her uncertainty in wanting a romantic relationship resonated with me more than other protags, as she and I exist in the same fuzzy area between romantic and aromantic. Her speech about friendship made me tear up, and I wish for a friendship as special as the one she has. 

9/10  

We Awaken by Calista Lynn- The best parts of this book were about Victoria’s asexuality. Her freak out about being ace was so on point, you have no idea. Only misstep was how short it was, but that has more to do with timing in a book than anything. Also, the fact that someone else brought up the term to her and she didn’t discover it herself was exactly how my experience went. And as much as I love that she gets a romantic love interest who is also ace (whoot whoot), they move awfully fast, which I could never do. 

8/10

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann- This book is a bit more dicey with me. Alice is much more adventurous than I am or will be. She also doesn’t trust herself. Many ace people have had sex to either, get it out of the way and see if they like it, or to please their partner. I liked seeing that part of the community represented but as someone who is sex repulsed, my experience is very different than a sex neutral ace. I’m also so glad she was biromantic, I still haven’t figured out romantic attraction but I’m super into aesthetic attraction of all genders. Alice also has some of my favorite quotes about being ace and her analogy about jogging is the best. 

8/10

How to Be a Normal Person by TJ Klune- I waited on this book because I knew I would love it, and I did!!! This was the romcom of aces I needed. I was as grumpy and lost as Gus, but as confident and loud as Casey. They believed each other and trusted each other and it was just beautiful. I liked that Gus never used a label and I liked how important Casey’s label was to his sense of the world and how neither were invalidated. 

9/10

Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee- Felicity is so apathetic, it’s hysterical. She’s like, this is me, deal with it. Her aceness is tied to her aroness, which is the case for many people, but the distance of the time period and class made it hard to relate to her. I actually would have liked her ace identity to play a larger part in the book, and not be so easily dismissed by Sim.

7/10 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seannn McGuire- Nancy literally not fitting into the world and also being ace was a wonderful metaphor. While there wasn’t much content on her being ace, I enjoyed how sure of herself she was and how she interacted with other people from the queer community, although not so much as queer allies, just generally supportive. 

8/10 

Immortal Code by Lilllian Clark- I picked up this book with no idea there was an ace character, but there was Reese!!! She referred to herself as acearo, which was new to me, but hey, language constantly changes, right? Her love story of her friends is lovely and meaningful. 

7/10

Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee- I hope everyone gets a Tash book. Tash just fit with me. I adored her, and all her flaws lined up so well with mine. Her flawed mindset, her doubt, her emotions.. . .her experiences very much mirror my own. She deals with aphobia more, she has wants for a romantic relationship, but also completely lost on how to have one. She found the ace community online and connected to them there, as well as vocalizing how aces are part of the queer community. While she used words like “sexual” instead of “allosexual” and didn’t have other ace friends, found out in high school instead of college, her story all but felt like mine. 

10/10

I highly recommend these books and have linked my in depth reviews for most of them for more details on my thoughts on the novels. 

[image description: a photoset of seven images showing a Sylvanian Families village on a shelf, comprised of a bakery, a toy shop, a florist and a two-story house with a blue roof. The village is crowded with small animal figurines set up to be either marching in a parade or waving the parade on from the sidelines, with many figures carrying handdrawn aro, akoi/lith, greyro, demiro, fray, cupio and quoi pride flags. Coloured pompoms in dark green, light green and white decorate railings and doorways, coloured bows in aro-pride colours decorate roofs and railings, and a banner comprised of pompoms and bows stretches from the corner of the house to the corner of the bakery, across the small village square. Animal figures include hedgehogs, rabbits, koalas, deer, cats, squirrels, mice, dogs, beavers, bears and a frog.]

All of Sylvania has turned out for the village’s first-ever aro-spec pride march! Aurora showed off her favourite dress for the camera, everybody made handmade flags and the village tried their hardest to decorate ... except nobody had black and grey wool for pompoms. The first-ever aro-spec pride march was always going to be a little bit shaky, but no mind: next year will be even better. The important thing is that all the aro-specs in the village feel supported, celebrated and loved, and Aurora and her friends think they did that pretty well!

(Or: I had a spur-of-the-moment idea to combine miniatures and aromanticism, and I didn’t have half the things I needed to make decorations, but next year.)

I’m not sure how a village comprised of a house, a bakery, a toy shop and a florist survives, but they’ll do their best to throw a real aro-spec party anyway.

There’s a shelf in my wardrobe that displays this village in a slightly-different arrangement (usually sans decorations, fewer figurines). To give you a sense of how difficult this is to photograph due to lack of maneuvering space (not to mention my horrible camera which cannot function without flash) here’s a photo showing part of the shelf above it:

(The original wall paint of my bedroom is green. I was born to be aro.)

happy ace week y’all!!! i don’t often talk ab my ace identity (hello i am asexual) but the aro/ace community was a huge comfort to me while i was questioning and continues to be such a wholesome place. much love to all my aro, ace and a-spec pals this week and always :o)

also hi to all my fellow ace lesbians out there y’all are amazing and i luv u all

Happy Arospec Awareness Week, folks!

My lithromantic identity and how I interact with romance, both positively and negatively, is very important to me. I saw that @aroworlds was looking for arospec content so I put together a playlist to celebrate the occasion.

Listen here: