swim through the fires to stay in this world

This post had made me DESPERATELY craving some good arranged marriage books/fanfic.

AND SPEAKING OF TRASHY ROMANCE, I just sneakily snagged a free book today. The SOLD moment came when it said something about the heroine being into her brother (who was raised apart from her) and there's something about a cosmetics company and being forced to work together? Further bulletins as events warrant.

In other smutty news, I just banged out 1,000 words of Knave/Alice. It was a madcap race to get through the plot threads I had to snip to facilitate the banging.

plural_entity asked me a couple of questions for December 19th:

1. What was the very first ship you ever shipped (even if you didn't know what shipping was at the time)?

First, a little context. I have always loved romance but back when I was 8-10 (which is when I first started consuming media in, basically, a very similar way to how I consume media now) I was a lot more willing to follow the author to whatever relationship they wanted. For example, with Tamora Pierce, I was happy to just follow the narrative and see who the heroines ended up with.

And then there was The Darkangel Trilogy. (I'd like to pause for a moment and mention that I liked vampires both before they were cool AND back when they were beautifully monstrous, monstrously beautiful creatures.) So, three books happened, including things like the heroine giving the hero her heart, if I remember correctly? And it became clear to me that the hero was falling deeper and deeper into love with the heroine after treating her badly in the beginning, but she didn't see it, even though she was in love with him, and then in the final bookthey don't get together. They FUCKING FINALLY consummate their marriage (I think? again, it's been over a decade) and he's like, 'let's be married for reals!' And she says no, because of duty or magic or some bullshit like that.
And okay, the heroine does go off to spend eternity (I think) with her female bff which in retrospect... I feel like I should be more okay with? But at the time, I was just furious that after three books of tragedy and longing and beautiful prose,( spoiler )

I really need to do a reread, see how my memories of my feelings match up with what I see as an adult.

2. You're stuck on an island LOST style with 3 fandom characters. Which ones would you choose?

Katniss Everdeen, Slade Wilson (arrow version), and Tony Stark.

I WOULD FUCKING LIVE TO GET OFF THAT ISLAND, AND IN A REASONABLE TIME FRAME TO BOOT.

3. What character death (of any fandom) affected you the most?

I can't think of a good example? I mean, there have been fridgings I've been super pissed about (Abigail, Shado), deaths I thought were really badly done (Sirius Black), and things that made me sad but I really understood and were okay with them happening (Derek Reese), so I'm having trouble thinking of a really good example to go here.

BONUS QUESTION FROM qualapec:

You Rule 63 the entire cast of one Shakespeare play you have read/seen. Which one would it be?

Much Ado About Nothing. I think it would gender-swap really well, Hero's plot, while still undeniable fucked up, would at least be DIFFERENT if it was a male character's purity being questioned, and I would LOVE to see a male!Beatrice requesting that female!Benedict kill Claudio.

(It was hard picking which ~provocative~ icon to use for this post, let me tell you.)

The combination of a conversation I was having with fairest1 and reading the first Psy-Changling book (Slave to Sensation, which I’d heard raves about and is not living up to the hype) reminded me that a lot of fandom and the larger cultural context (especially with romance novels) seems to think it’s just so. damn. sexy. to have a virgin heroine. And I am just 100% not on board with this trope. Just… no. It’s almost 2014, can we please, please, please stop with this.

I’m not even going to go into how virginity is a bullshit patriarchal and heteronormative construction (but it totally is, and the more you learn about how and why it was constructed and the very real consequences of that, the more horrifying it is), I am going to stick with the fact that I JUST DON’T FIND VIRGINITY SEXY.

I come to fandom and romance novels for entertaining, titillating fiction, and do you know what I find sexy? People who know what the fuck to do in bed. People who have previous sexual experiences (good and bad) that inform how they interact and what they feel about their current partner.

I am so not down with the whole virgin protag that I don’t even like the male subversion where he’s the virgin and she’s more experienced (those two Steve/Darcy fics, excluded, you know the ones what I’m talking about).

So - I don't know if I've mentioned this - but my rent was raised ridiculously, so I had to find a new place to live (which I have, for an excellent deal). The downside is that I will have less storage space, and I'm going to be living with a roommate (again).

I know I'm going to be donating my CDs (I haven't touched them in two years, clearly they no longer need to be talking up an entire shelf) and tossing my old mixed tapes, but I'm on the fence about the Harry Dresden series, which I'm thinking of selling. On the one hand, they take up a fuckton of room and I'm so annoyed about the latest books that I highly doubt I'll ever want to reread (plus they're easy to get from the library). On the other, they represent A LOT of gift card dollars, you know?

If they make a Curse Worker's movie trilogy (which they totally should), some brilliant vidder needs to make a Cassel/Lila vid to this song:

For Darkness Shows The Stars is a sci-fi YA retelling of Persuasion, and in one sense it’s really good – I finished it in about two days – the characters are likable and the reasons why they made the choices they did are very understandable, as is their estrangement.

HOWEVER, there is this really uncomfortable pro-slavery subtext that I found pretty disturbing. Basically, the world-building sets up different castes of people, one caste of which is mentally disabled and used as the labor force, and one which is in power. Basically, the author legitimized a lot of the lies told about black people during slavery (dumber than white people, unable to be trusted to care for their children, that they like/feel loyalty to their masters) and made them literally true.

I think the author would be appalled to hear this, since a lot of the story is about breaking down this abusive power structure, but, basically, the basic world-building made me really, really uncomfortable.

But this novel did make me pick up the original Persuasion, so I'm reading that.

In other news, I'm in the middle of The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud (children fighting ghosts!) and I have a good feeling about that.

Also, reading Wednesday needs to be Reading 'Some Other Day' because I can never actually manage to post a reading update on Wednesday.

Dear Yuletide Author,

First of all, let me sincerely say that I requested fandoms and characters I absolutely love, so please do not feel at all wedded to my insane optional details. Ignore them all entirely, pick and choose what works for you, optional details are optional.

If you're looking for more insight into general tropes that I like, check out my tag of bulletproof kinks. (Short list: banter, sex against walls, competency, characters respecting each other, tragic backstories, biting/love marks.)

Things I do not like: noncon, ladies needed to be saved, ladies being treated disrespectfully by the narrative, bleak and hopeless endings.

The Dark Knight Legacy: John Blake, Stephanie Brown

( Read more... )
Batgirl: Stephanie Brown, Nick Gage, Damian Wayne

( Read more... )

Rose Under Fire: Maddie Brodatt, Jamie Beaufort-Stuart

( Read more... )

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Lizzie Bennet, William Darcy, Gigi Darcy, Caroline Lee

( Read more... )

The Kate Daniels series, Derek Gaunt, Julie Olsen

( Read more... )

for errant_shadows, Top Five Buddy (non-romantic/non-family) pairings.

( Read more... )


for errant_shadows (and ladymercury_10, who just asked me this a couple days ago) Top Five Female Villains:

( Read more... )

for errant_shadows, Top Five What-the-F#!@-were-the-writers-thinking moments that ruined a fandom for you:

( Read more... )

for ladymercury_10, Top five superheroes:

( Read more... )

for 12_12_12, top 5 fight scenes:

( Read more... )

for qualapec, Top 5 Sex Scenes In Books

( Read more... )

I was thinking about Marceline/Princess Bubble Gum and realized that it really reminds me of the (good) parts of Ivy Tamwood/Rachel Marianna Morgan, which was arguably my first femmeslash pairing. …and which the author totally ruined. Bitter over ships until the end of time, booyah*!

*that was a sarcastic booyah, fyi.

Finally, a fannish age divide I am on the YOUNG side of:



Although, admittedly, it was explained to me back in 2007 when the first book came out.