so if there’s one single trope i’m always down to fight it’s the animal bride (folklore motif 402??) which a lot of you are probably familiar with as the selkie - the fisherman either falls in love, steals her skin to trap her on land/gain power over her, or they fall in love and THEN he steals her skin to keep her from leaving, and either way she spends a lot of time gazing sadly out to sea and then she or her child finds the skin and never returns again. and that’s awful on a whole lot of levels - it’s not love, it’s control.

BUT. but the thing is. you how selkies/seal women was a pretty common variation of this? another really popular one was swans.

i just want you to think about that for a moment. swans. like…I get it, they’re pretty, graceful birds, certainly it’s easy to imagine them magically becoming pretty graceful ladies? but have you ever fought a swan. swans are awful. swans are the devil’s geese. imagine seeing a pretty magic lady and being absolutely enchanted by her, and stealing her magic feather cloak, and then you go up and say ‘hey i’m in love with you, let me make you my queen, it will be great, we’ll be so happy’ and she just looks at you for a moment and…

you know i was going to say maybe she just shouts for her sisters and suddenly you’re realizing you’ve made a terrible terrible mistake bc you’re surrounded by big fucking birds who are all hissing. but honestly if this swan lady is as aggressively down to brawl as any other generally unhappy swan, then she’d straight up fuck you up on her own. she’d just deck you roundhouse, honestly. you don’t fuck with swans. why does this trope exist

okay but consider this: a woman walks to the park every day and feeds the swans and watches them paddle gracefully around the lake, sighing to see how beautifully they swim. 

finally one day, a swan comes up to her and says ‘why don’t you come and swim with us? you always sigh so wistfully to see us on the water, and you would be most welcome to join our company, for you have always been a true friend to our kind’

and the woman says, ‘i can’t swim’

and the swan says, ‘we’ll teach you’

and the woman says, ‘literally i can’t swim, my husband stole my sealskin and should i venture into deep water i would surely drown’ 

and the swan says ‘your husband fucking WHAT’

the next morning the woman’s front yard looks like this. 

and neither the woman nor her husband are ever heard from again, though for very different reasons. 

@elodieunderglass

tagged for imaginary swans doing the lord’s work

A++, two thumbs up.

It may also interest someone to know that swans can projectile poop.

I know a real-world mama swan who got shot in the wing and walked four miles overland to get back to her babies and dad swan, with her broken wing bleeding and dragging the whole way. She just kept going. Don’t mess with lady swans. 

Also? Swans don’t have a lot of obvious physical markings that divide the males from females. So some idiot might be like, “damn, that’s a sexy bird, I wanna marry her” and then like. It’s a dude swan. You just transformed thirty pounds of angry aggressive bird into 200+ pounds of angry aggressive adult man, who will totally kick your butt. (Also I’m pretty sure that if you turned a lady swan into a human, you would not get a willowy little 5′0″ girl. You’d probably have a 6-foot amazon with biceps the size of your head. Swans are heavy birds and it takes a LOT of muscle to get them into the air. They are among the baddest bitches in the bird kingdom)

And when a swan decides to beat you up, it is not with fancy martial arts. Swans are brawlers. They have bone clubs built into their wing joints specifically for beating people up. A human swan is gonna come at you screaming and spitting and just keep punching you in the face until you regret every decision you have made ever in your life and also some of the ones your parents made too. 

Never quite got why a selkie woman would look like my tiny bird-boned granny (in her youth) either.

Seals are carnivores. They swim after fish & have a ton of blubber for warmth. A selkie woman should be stocky, strong, and fat, because that’s what seals are. (She should also probably like lying in the sun, possibly in the classic ‘banana’ pose, but I can’t draw so you’ll have to imagine that. Beach yoga?)

If you want a tiny little nothing, maybe you’re looking for deer woman–though deer aren’t to be underestimated either–or a much, much smaller bird than a swan. Perhaps a sheep.

But frankly I don’t know of any other vertebrate species where the females are as passive & ostensibly helpless as human women are expected to be (until it’s time to do all the child-rearing, at least), so maybe don’t go looking for a wife among the wild folk if what you want is someone to bend to your every whim.

In fact if that’s what you want, do us all a favor & join a monastery.

Selkies should be built like draft horses and fat enough to fend off the winter.

The banging continued, echoing from Theo's front door, joined by a voice. "Theo? Theo, are you in?" The doorknob rattled.

"Coming!" Theo set his weaving aside and rushed to the door. I hopped quickly to the most shadowed corner, a space half-hidden behind a cross beam, where I was unlikely to be spotted. Theo opened the door, ushering in a big lantern-jawed human woman in a fur—no, a selkie with her mottled skin draped over her like a raincoat.

"There's been another," she said without preamble, sweeping the hood of her skin back.

"No." Theo's head and tail drooped. "Who was it?"

"James Murphy." The selkie shook her head sharply. "Damn fool just had to go check on his boat in the storm. Little bits of him were spread all the way down the dock to shore, like chum."

"Third humans in three days." Theo covered his mouth with one hand. "How bad is it out there?"

"Well, it's not good, I'll tell you that," the selkie said. "Those McConnell boys were out drumming up fear, until the weather drove them home, and that's before they found Ol' Murphy. This plays right into their hands."

"I should be out there," Theo's voice was quiet but intense. "I should be helping."

"Weren't you going to be hunting tonight?" the selkie asked, chin jutting out combatively. "I didn't expect to find you in."

"I was." Theo growled faintly. "The Spring-heeled Jacks have taken it into their fool heads that I'm involved. They've got me pinned down."

"You!?" The selkie seemed positively affronted. "I'd give those bouncy bastards a piece of my mind!" She tugged her fur back over her head. "Well, I'm off. Someone's got to spread the warning."

"Be safe," Theo said.

The selkie barked a rough laugh, flashing a disconcertingly wide mouthful of pointy teeth, and was gone.

-- Excerpt from 'Spring-heeled Jack and the Wolfman', by me, a novella for whom I can find no publisher.

for the want of a jewel (86,043 words) by FormlessVoidbeast Chapters: 27/27 Fandom: Original Work Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Conquering Warlord/His Right-Hand Warlock/Prince of Conquered Land, Prince & his loyal manservant Characters: it’s OC’s all the way down Additional Tags: sword and sorcery, Threesome m/m/m, Fish out of Water, Inspired by The Accidental Warlord and His Pack Series - inexplicifics, traded away to the Terrible Barbarians!, but it turns out the barbarians are ok actually?, credible fear of sexual assault, fear of execution, (neither happens), Vanity, Large Age Gap Relationship, Age Difference, Size Difference, Fealty, way too much talking, Astronomy, Friendship, accidentally catching feelings, domesticated reptiles, tea culture, Poetry, Slow Burn, Cultural Differences, Culture Shock, warrior culture vs strong pacifism, Additional Warnings in Chapter Notes, virginity as a concept makes no sense, Polyamory, Asexual Character, Explicit Consent, Oral Sex, Intercrural Sex, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Prophesies, Visions, Happy Ending, Complete

I haven't been publishing much, recently, but I did post a whole damn tropetaculous original novel for free on AO3 so... knock yourselves out I guess.

Submission opp for transfeminine people writing cyberpunk short stories!

Call for Submissions: Erato II

Send us your most seductive flash fiction and prose poetry*!

We’re seeking super short erotica in any subgenre, featuring characters of any and every orientation and gender, so long as they’re 18+ and express their consent to all erotic activities. Whether they find pleasure through BDSM, fetish, or vanilla encounters; in long-term romances or one-night stands; with one person, a roomful of people, or just themselves, it’s all good.

Vivid writing, clever and original plots, and stylistic or structural experimentation are particularly welcome. We want stories that are sex positive, body positive, and inclusive. Usually at least half the stories in our anthologies feature characters who are LGBTQIA+, including the ace spectrum.

Writers of color, trans and nonbinary writers, disabled writers, working-class writers, and writers of other marginalized and underrepresented identities are warmly encouraged to submit. We’re thrilled to work with writers from around the world at any stage of their careers, including those who have never been published before.

*Please note, prose poetry, not verse poetry. We share some inspiring verse poetry on our blog, but don’t publish it—yet.

Payment & Length:

We’ll pay $25 for the first 500 words and 2 cents per word thereafter, up to $45 for 1,500 words.

We’re willing to look at slightly longer stories (e.g., if you’re at 1,575 words and can’t find more to trim) but payment is capped at $45.

Stories and prose poetry shorter than 500 words will receive $25.

All contributors will also receive an ebook copy of the anthology and a discount on paperback copies.

For a taste of our tastes, check out our first flash anthology, Erato – but we love to be surprised by new concepts, and we actively want to expand the range of identities and perspectives we publish with each book.

More details below the cut:

Keep reading

Hey y’all! Remember when I got my very first novella published, but then my publisher went out of business? Well, now Sand Raiders is back online!

Currently just on Smashwords, but it should go out to all other major retailers within the next few days.

[clicky this link if you’re in the mood for fantasy, queer polyamory, and an ace femdom] 

<3

TS

Hey remember that time I wrote a book, and it won the Bi Book Award for erotica, but then my publisher went out of business while I was in the process of moving across the country?

Well, I managed to self-publish it, and it’s been available for a while! but I was very distracted with the whole moving thing and never made a post here. On my writing blog. Where I post about my writing and stuff.

So to rectify that, here’s where you can buy your very own copy of Rescues and the Rhyssa:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/989769

Once upon a time, I got this story published in a LT3 Press anthology of queer fairy tales. I’m so excited to finally bring it back into the world, and with a gorgeous cover by @hattedhedgehog, no less!

Please enjoy some sapphic sweetness,

<3

TS

i think i want a glass packer, it would give me an edge and add a lot of danger to my mundane life

dance too hard in the club and my dick flies out of my pant and shatters all over the floor

Cinderella

The first two hours of the Royal Drag Ball were, unfortunately, an absolute drag.

Princess Violetta (who went by Prince Frederic most days) had honestly expected better. You'd think, for the chance to marry royalty, they'd have gotten more into the spirit of the event? Though, everyone knew this was the final ball, where the choice of royal spouse had to be made if Violetta wanted to avoid an arranged marriage. Maybe they didn't think they had to try. That was a depressing thought.

After two hours of dancing with awkward girls in pushup bras and suits that were either entirely unfitted, or tailored to be as high femme as possible--and who still expected Violetta to take the lead--her heart just wasn't in it anymore. Let everyone else have their fun.

At least most of the boys (the majority of whom hadn't even made half a nod at crossdressing!) seemed to be enjoying the girls in suits. even better, some of the girls in suits were very clearly enjoying each other. Even if Violetta wasn't finding her King tonight, at least a few romances seemed to be kicking off.

Fine. Whatever. At least Violetta knew she looked damn good in her corset. The clock was striking ten, and Violetta was slugging back a flute of champagne with inadvisable swiftness (oh how their royal majesties would complain if she abandoned her own ball. again) when a sudden hush descended on the far side of the ballroom.

Violetta turned and oh.

There he was, striding down the stairs with a gold topped cane in his hand.

weep, then, for the injustice

shed tears for what you cannot have

what you so desperately need

what you will never be allowed

let the sorrow weigh

like lead in your lungs

mourn your fill

then climb out from your blankets

wipe your eyes, stand up

and carry on

you are given no other choice

I wrote this poem back in ‘18, when I’d been laying in bed crying about being unable to access trans-affirming healthcare (like you do). Now in ‘22 I’m about two years in on hormones, and finally getting the very surgery I had been needing. I’m getting the thing I’ve been waiting over twenty years for.

And, just... Gods-damn am I glad that I wiped my eyes, stood up, and carried on. Because it’s not for forever. It’s just long enough to get there. <3

Mentally combining the "bees are unionized and will leave if they don't like their working conditions" post with the various "humans stow away on alien spaceships and do the jobs that are too dangerous for more fragile species" posts

Interstellar guidelines state that while approaching humans carelessly or aggressively can result in serious injury, and while you absolutely should not try to trap a swarm of humans on your ship, if you build a human-friendly habitat with enough food within grazing distance and safe places to sleep, you just might entice a colony to move in

The Captain had a plan.

Many wished for a villaging of humans to take residence upon their vessels. Few succeeded. She, however, had an advantage that her seniors lacked, and was determined to make no mistakes now that she finally had a ship of her own. She was, after all, of the first generation to be born on a vessel containing humans.

In the Captain’s youth--when she was yet small enough to be carried about in a human’s hand--she had spent as much of her time as she could in the human habitat. She had observed the villaging, and in turn been observed and even befriended. She had even been gifted a human name, Riki, and carried it close and treasured.

Captain Riki outfitted her ship very carefully. The dedicated human habitat was lavishly appointed, with optimal lighting and temperature fluctuations and a multitude of private individual nooks for familial units, as well as expansive shared spaces which could be decorated in any number of ways. The nooks were supplied with plentiful clean water and human-crafted ‘basic amenities’ that the humans could very easily change out for things they liked better on their own.

This, of course, was not much different from what trail and error had discovered to be good ways to entice humans to both take up residence and choose to remain in residence. (To try and keep a villaging of humans who wished instead to leave was to tempt fate. In the best case, they were astonishingly adept at escape. In the worst... well. It was learned that the most terrifying words in the human tongue were ‘you’re going down with me’.)

No, the human habitat was only the first step of Captain Riki’s plan. The second step was to outfit her ship with long mesh tubes traveling through all the major thoroughfares and into all the areas of the ship--creating safe passageways for the humans to explore all of it, and set with doors that they might easily open and close on their own. They were fantastically curious creatures, humans, and she wanted to offer them security as they inevitably explored. If they felt that they were a part of the ship, true members of the crew and welcome everywhere, the villaging was more likely to remain loyal.

Captain Riki set the stage, and made her preparations. The final part was the riskiest. Hers was a long-haul cargo vessel, and as she transported goods from sector to sector, she kept a channel tuned for emergency broadcasts. It was not so long, compared to how long she had taken to put her plan together, until she heard a call for help that she was close enough to answer. Captain Riki logged her change of flight plan, informed her buyers that she would be delayed, and contacted the source of the call to volunteer her vessel.

Her ship landed on the surface of a planet that was wrecked--pitted and pockmarked, smoke in the air. By far the most expensive custom alteration to her ship were shield-generators capable of withstanding even orbital bombardment, and Captain Riki raised them in a glowing arc above her ship and extending out to the damaged building she’d been told to land at. Over the external speakers she projected her message in synthesized voice that was made to sound warm and welcoming to their ears:

“This is Captain Riki of the cargo ship Obsidian-Gold 779, offering refugee transport to the Azuli system, Helios X, and Viridian Central Station.”

Even as she spoke, the humans were organizing an exodus to her ship. The great bay doors were thrown wide to welcome them, and Captain Riki flowed down the largest artery of the ship and then also in an arc over the ceiling of the landing bay. As the tiny humans scurried in below her--in their family or friend groups, with their injured carried in and tended by their medics--Captain Riki flexed her chromatophors to send slow waves of iridescent gold and inky black flowing down her body. A few of the little ones, the children, stopped and stared, pointed, smiled or laughed with faces that had only just before been frightened and grim.

Captain Riki painted new patterns across herself, flowers and starbursts and wiggles, to delight them. She could even make a simple approximation of a smiley face, and make it wink one eye. It had been a favorite of the friends of her youth, and these new children were no less entertained.

“Be welcome aboard my ship,” she said, in her synthesized voice. “Please let me know if there is anything more I can supply for your comfort.”

Soon, Captain Riki had a habitat full of humans, and returned to the black and her cargo run. They were not permanent, these humans, or at least, not all of them were. Most would be disembarking along the way, but she had set their habitat and her ship up so carefully that she hoped a few of them would remain on. A few here, and a few there, and over the course of perhaps a few dozen refugee transport missions, she hoped to have gathered enough of them to have a stable villaging of humans for her ship.

The Captain had a plan. It was not a quick or an easy plan, but she was certain of her eventual success.

Challenging Fatphobic Language in Writing: Some Alternative Vocabularies

So I’m currently working on a short story for an explicitly fat-positive anthology, and it’s making me realize just how little language I have readily at hand for describing large bodies in positive terms! 

Putting aside for a moment the whole debate over HAES and fat positivity and everything else – and if you clown on this post, I’m simply going to block you, that’s not what we’re here for – sometimes you just want to write a story with a fat person in it and you need some adjectives/descriptive language that isn’t overtly gross and/or fetishistic. 

Well, I’ve got you, fam. I have compiled this handy list of descriptive terms and phrases for describing big bodies with positive connotations.

Why am I doing this? 

Because this:

And this: 

And frankly, we all deserve better. So let’s go. 

Positive (and Neutral) Adjectives for Fatness

Movement Verbs Evoking Fatness

Some Points to Keep In Mind

A big part of challenging fatphobia in writing is inverting or subverting stereotypes. Here are a few lazy/played-out tropes and things to think about: 

Obviously dismantling fatphobia is a whole big (ha, ha) topic all on its own, and there’s a ton more to think about. But this is at least something to get you started! 

Context matters a whole lot in description – words can be positive or negative based on how they’re utilized! But these are at least some terms intended to be a bit less loaded with negative baggage than those often used in less flattering descriptions. 

Have you read a book with a fat character who had a great or interesting description? Please reblog, I’d love to see how other authors have handled it! 

I am very far from perfect, but I always try to make my writing a body-positive zone. I’m fairly proud of the character introductions in the Cat Murder Mystery that is such a mess it will never see the light of day. It’s got a wide array of human and supernatural characters. Might as well share a couple of my favorites!

Recently I've been having a fun time thinking about a group of adventurers going up against some sort of kingdom-threatening bad guy that nobody can stop (as one does), only when they finally reach him the bad guy starts monologuing! Yes, he is protected by a Prophecy that No Man of Woman Borne can kill him! (macbeth is a classic for a reason and if jirt can steal the line so can I. no regrets.)

Cue the party huddling up to plan like 'ok, is this man-as-in-male meaning the ladies can go Éowyn on his ass? or is it Man as in mankind as in human? Do we go get some attack dogs somewhere? An attack cow? What? Cows are way more dangerous than sharks, there's statistics about it! Whatever, we don't have time to go get an attack animal! What if it's about identifying as human? Quick, is anyone in the party a furry? C'mon, don't be shy, the kingdom is at stake!'

Meanwhile the quiet one (it's always the quiet ones) sort of hanging in the background of this panicky planning sesh goes 'huh', and then he just walks straight up to the still-chortling big bad and slays him dead.

Stunned silence.

Then of course there is a lot to do in the aftermath and everybody's busy, but later the rest of the party is like 'ok, really, how did he do that'. They are trying to figure out what's up with their bro. Let's call him Brian. Brian the Baneslayer, that's got a ring to it.

So the party's trying to figure out what's up with Brian and how he managed to kill the big bad despite the prophecy. They're like 'is Brian a trans woman, have we been misgendering Brian this whole time!? Is Brian somehow secretly not human? We definitely need to ask Brian. What, no! You can't ask directly, Brian is like the most private person ever! We've just got to make sure Brian knows we're cool and accepting no matter what so Brian can tell us how the flip the prophecy was eluded.'

Mission: We Affirm All Identities is go! Various party members, with various levels of awkwardness, 'casually' bring up stories of their own queer identities, or that of their beloved friends and family and... Brian smiles and nods and makes quietly supportive noises and that's it, no sharing of stories. They have semi-staged arguments concluding that 'people are definitely people and deserving of all support even if they were somehow not a human people' and Brian just sort of nods along and still nothing.

(the quiet ones, man, their secrets are too powerful)

Anyway, this goes on for several weeks before one of the more straighforward of the party members breaks down like 'Brian, Brian, we all love you so much no matter what your whole deal is and how you got around the prophecy. we just love you, ok?' (yes, alcohol was involved)

And Brian cracks up, as he finally puts together what the team's been trying to do. "Oh my gods, you nerds. I forgot you didn't know. I'm not trans or anything, my parents are. I wasn't borne by a woman. My dad had me!"

Brian's parents were semi famous loophole-exploiting trans adventurers back in the day. They're very proud that he's carrying on the family tradition.

Literally everyone where he grew up knew his parents and their famed exploits. Brian just kinda forgot that having set out to make his own name in the world, separate from his parents, people aren't automatically going to know about his family situation if he doesn't tell them.