#queerfantasy

there’s this new magazine called Lavender Rising and they’re literally paying queer writers & artists real money for being chaotic little gremlins with feelings.

✨ a contest every month (with four categories: short stories, poems, essays, artwork)

✨ top 5-10 in each get published

✨ first-place art goes on the cover (!!)

✨ one Grand Prize Winner walks away with $200 and bragging rights for eternity

submissions are due the 15th of every month, which means I have approximately 14 days to stare at my google doc, scream into the void, and then finally submit at 11:59 PM like the responsible writer I am.

if you’re queer and make words or art: do it. send your stuff. let’s take over this magazine together like a pack of glittery raccoons in a lavender field.

https://onceuponaqueer.com/contest

Check out our latest update:

We're posting regular focus posts on each of the upcoming stories in our 2025-2026 publications.

Latest - Underneath The Unblemished Mask by @cinnamaldeide

Ancient shrines. Immortal vampires. A love that bridges eternity and human time. 🌙

My latest book review dives into The Jinja of Blood, a dark urban fantasy set in modern Japan, where yokai lurk and longing never fades.🏯

@viviavalon

Monster girls are easy. Desire is dangerous.

As Query, a half-succubus wizard, begins her freshman year at Dalton Academy for Monsters, she’s got more problems than credits to earn. Between fending off demonic invasions, managing her homesickness for Hell, and suppressing the pulse of her succubus aura that leaves everyone at Dalton dangerously attracted to her, she’s learning that control is the hardest magic of all.

All she wants is a spell powerful enough to fix her body—but the girls around her make it hard to focus. There’s a vampire who likes control, a divine cleric who can’t commit, and classmates who blur the line between friendship and temptation. At Dalton, desire is its own kind of spell, and some lessons can only be learned the hard way.

Even with an adventuring party at her side, the school’s wards are failing, monsters are going missing, and the faculty would rather see students starve than thrive.

Quests & Queries is the first novel in Spells & Sundry, a dark, queer fantasy series set in a world where love, hunger, and power are never cleanly separated. Perfect for readers of A Dowry of Blood, The Scholomance Trilogy, and An Education in Malice or anyone who wishes Buffy the Vampire Slayer happened in college with more queer characters, The Name of the Wind traded its brooding bard for a succubus in Washington, DC., or The L Word: Generation Q crossed over with D&D.

🦇✨ IT’S HERE! ✨🦇

The King of Dust Audiobook Kickstarter is LIVE!! Get your exclusive copy and rewards before it’s gone!

(all the art of the four main characters is by me, by the way! It's in progress for my art degree.)

If you love:

Disgraced vampire kings

Dungeons & Dragons-inspired chaos

Found family with a queer twist

Magick, redemption arcs, and just the right amount of disaster energy

Audiobooks with accents, emotion, and DRAMA (narrated by me, the author!)

…then you are 1000% going to love this.

The audiobook is already fully recorded, so this campaign is your one shot to preorder AND grab limited edition rewards like:

🎧 Audibook via Audible 🍵 Custom King of Dust tea blend 📖 Exclusive short story (early access!) 🎙️ Behind-the-scenes audio commentary 💀 Stickers, stretch goals, and more!

This story has meant the world to me as a trans, neurodivergent author—and now I finally get to share it in the format I always imagined: spoken out loud, with all the chaos, heart, and humor intact.