We’re clearly in a hyper-conservative backlash against what has been billed progressive politics. In the US, we’ve seen attacks against trans people and queer people more broadly, against mixed-race couples, against women’s rights—and it’s getting worse. We’re seeing people pushing to get rid of not only abortion but access to birth control. We’re seeing the curtailing of internet access to not...
A lot has happened since this blog was last regularly active. I had a baby. My father passed away. The United States of America voted in the Republican candidate for a second term. Plenty of people are legitimately concerned for a wide variety of reasons. (Kaboompics .com / Pexels.com) As a queer person, a queer writer, and a romance novelist, I can see there’s a lot to be worried about. Even...
By now, almost everyone and their mother has heard about the omegaverse. If you didn’t discover “wolf-kink porn” through the copyright debacle a few years ago, you might have heard of it when AIs seemed to devolve into writing a/b/o fics. That loaned support to the idea that AI had been trained on stolen fanfic—among other stories. (Ron Lach / Pexels.com) Whether you’re brand new to omegaverse or...
I’ve argued before that omegaverse tends to play fast and loose with our notions of gender. Mpreg, generally, does the same thing. One of the curiousities of the genre is that characters who can get pregnant maintain a cisgender identity. Because sex and gender is always so very clear cut. That can cause some consternation when it comes to terminology—particularly when Baby arrives. Should we...
These candy hearts, oddly enough, include both “romantic” messages and platonic ones (Jill Wellington / Pexels.com) It’s February once more, which means the subject of love and romance is on everyone’s minds. One big topic that’s come up in more recent years is the debate about platonic vs romantic relationships. What’s the difference between them? Can you actually tell them apart...
A lot of romance novels don't seem to realize when they're veering into horror territory. What's the line between horror and romance?
The age gap romance gets more play than anyone gives it credit for. What does it look like when we put supernatural creatures into play too?
When everyone demands authenticity in fiction, we fall all over ourselves to "prove" our identities. Maybe we're asking the wrong questions.
Is polyamory really queer? I think we should probably consider it to be queer praxis, at least in some sense.
Nora Roberts is apparently too spicy for people -- and we need to be worried about that. Book bans are coming for romance novels -- even clean ones.
Coming January 28! Get set for more intergalactic hijinks when a monk inherits a HOST CLUB ON THE PLEASURE PLANET!