#tlgs

@natalieironside 's post apocalyptic transbian romance adventure!! ive been waiting for this arrive for so long and it's finally here!!!

Traditional publishing never publishes queer books by authors of color Cinderella is Dead, Elatsoe, The Black Tides of Heaven, Black Water Sister, She Who Became the Sun, In the Vanisher's Palace, Black Sun, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Empress of Salt and Fortune, The Ivory Key, A Master of Djinn, The Bruising of Qilwa, She of the Mountains, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Iron Widow, The Four Profound Weaves

Well, Ms. Ironside has gone and done it again, in the form of her new anthology “Lead and Roses”, a collection of short stories exploring the characters and world of TLGS. It’s available right now for preorder (links below) and yours truly managed to get her grubby little anarchist hands on a copy to review!

I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll just say a sentence or two about each piece in the Anthology.

Stories: Two women love each other very, very much. An exploration of the different kinds of leadership needed to create something wonderful.

The Last American: Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a strong right hook.

The White Goddess: Young love and a double-bit felling axe can overcome any obstacle.

Werewolf: A young man experiences regret. From a write-craft standpoint, probably the best depiction of the mental experience of near-starvation I’ve ever seen in a work of fiction.

That’s A Christmas To Me: One young woman’s journey to find the true meaning of Christmas. (This one is a longer piece, featuring the principal characters of TLGS)

You don’t have to have read TLGS to read “Lead and Roses”, although again I cannot recommend TLGS strongly enough. Set either far before or in the years immediately following the events of the first book, the stories in “Lead and Roses” are perfect for existing fans wanting more and for new readers who want to sample Ms. Ironside’s wasteland world before deciding whether to pick up TLGS (you should).

A word of caution, though. Ms. Ironside’s work deals with some real heavy shit at times. That’s why both TLGS and “Lead and Roses” come with thorough content warnings in the author’s notes at the beginning. Read the warnings, heed the warnings, abide by the warnings, and you shouldn’t have any trouble enjoying these books as much as I have.

If you want to take a look for yourself, “Lead and Roses” e-books are available for a $3 preorder through either Amazon or Gumroad. Help out a new author and get yourself a damn fine read in the process. 

Pre-order on Amazon

Pre-order on Gumroad

Paperback release is July 1

Yours, humbly

I just finished @natalieironside 's The Last Girl Scout, and I loved it!!

PSA: There is mention of SA, but this book does have a disclaimer/trigger warning. Read it, believe it. If the R word is upsetting to you, this may not be your cup of tea.

Moving on

This book is a meal of a concept. I love the world building effort put into it, the character depth, the surprises found along the way. I loved Mags, and Jules, and the beautiful place they lived. Seriously, the parts devoted to their home areas and describing the utopia of people working together for the betterment of their communities absolutely made me cry. I love miz Ironside's vision, and I hope beyond hope the world could be peaceful and lovely like that someday.

I'm obsessed with Magnolia and Julia; I'm cisgender, but reading about their pasts and their feelings gave me a deeper understanding of the experience that many transgender people face and have faced. Not only that but they're genuinely very funny and heart melting people, and I love them. I've only had Mags and Jules for a day, but if anything happened to them I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.

[Image description: a photo of a mug of coffee with the words “Your Changing Body” and artwork of a boy transforming into a werewolf on it. The artwork resembles an old school textbook. Next to the mug is a Kindle e-reader displaying a list of titles. The two titles you can see are “The Last Girl Scout” by Natalie Ironside and “Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites” by Joy Demorra. The mug and the Kindle are on a wooden table with a recliner barely visible in the background.]