Writing silly porn is good for you, actually. It's healing.

Here I am again to remind you, that my book Scene is free today. #polyromance with some kink. In German and English, so grab a copy if you're looking for some sweet, funny and kinky #mmromance www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0DV... #freebook

Watched "When Fall Is Coming" tonight (oops-I-poisoned-my-daughter-with-mushrooms-by-accident-or-was-it? is super appropriate for Valentine's, right?) and it was both very good and also left me with far too many questions.

It's my birthday, hurrah! For my birthday I'd really love as many shares on this post as we can make happen! Hi, I'm AK, and I write exceedingly queer books! Feel free to ask me about them! ravenswordpress.com

I am clearly a terrible romance writer as I don't have a single Valentine's Day themed story, but I do have books about secretly falling in love with your brother's best friend, or your best friend's brother, and I bet St. Valentine would've thought that was all pretty hot too.

Since Harlequin is cancelling it's Historic Romance line, let's talk about my indie faves in the genre. #booksky #booktube #indiebooks

Fresh in my inbox, & I want to shout out @skyekilaen.bsky.social's newsletter. Not just a great list of new queer romance, but a really thoughtful explanation of how she dealt with some authors using AI. Writing (& maintaining!) book recs is a lot of work, and I really appreciate her approach to it.

We're now at episode 8 (of 10) of "Dare You To Death" and tbh I'm now mainly sunk-cost watching. Chemistry between the leads is marginal at best; when they were kissing, I found myself contemplating how difficult it would be to re-varnish a bookcase.

Since Substack seems to be the a topic of discussion again this week, I've been using this labeler (which adds a badge to posts with Substack links) and it's been useful.

I'm choosing to find this chart heartening, because while improving my covers means either dramatically improving my own graphics skills (lol) or finding budget for a professional artist (also lol), obsessively polishing the blurb is something I can do myself.

a) This is marvelous, and b) I think it's about time we rebooted the 'throbbing member'

In a month where everything is romantic, @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social recommends an alternative. Here's 5 excellent backlist books featuring asexual characters!

I really want someone to write something longform and thoughtful on the heavy lifting sex scenes can do (even sex scenes in books that are primarily erotica/'smut'!) We saw the roots of that in some of the better 'Heated Rivalry' pieces, but I think there's so much more headroom still to explore.

Long live erotica.

I don't use Instagram any more, and I never had a writing account anyway, so I completely missed that apparently one of my stories has been proving divisive among Gay-Smut-Consuming Bookstagram 😂

This is a good article, and it also has a link to @protopasta.bsky.social's new option to donate filament to the Whistle Crew (a great Amazon alternative!) which I hadn't seen before:

Bad Bunny's performance was marvelous, but I think I'm loving the stories of Puerto Ricans so excited about seeing joy-filled representation even more. It feels GOOD to see yourself.

Shamefully late to reading "A Gentleman's Gentleman" by @tjalexandernyc.bsky.social but feasted upon it today. Love, found family, and some top-notch yearning.

Cleverer people have said cleverer things than I could about AI. Personally, I see it as entitlement - "I *want* to be able to do this, so I *should* be able to" - but also self-doubt. AI promises instant gratification, without the risk of discovering you're not good at something.

Queer bookstores died in 2010. We had a funeral and everything! Except... a ton of people decided to roll up their sleeves and start *new* queer bookshops, all over the place. In cities. In tiny towns. My latest newsletter is about the rebirth of the LGBTQ bookshop: buttondown.com/charliejane/...

Thinking about movies you wish you could see again for the first time. There are plenty on my list, but 'Beau Travail' stands out this Friday afternoon.

I am still watching "Dare You To Death" (we are up to ep7 of 10 now) and it is still entertaining but also pretty silly and I'm not sure I'm buying the romance (both actors look like they're about to burst out laughing whenever they start getting intimate).

People get prickly about these requests bc they see them as individual critiques but they're really efforts to set norms and build culture around sharing information, which feels very meaningful and worthwhile to me in this moment.

I can haz @mostlybree.kitrocha.com whistles 🤩 (You can haz whistles too: www.etsy.com/listing/4449...)

Want to read more LGBTQIA+ mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels? Click the link to find loads of them! This promo runs Jan 25 - February 28 books.bookfunnel.com/lgbtqiasuspe... Find books to read! Share this link to anyone interested! #BookSky #MysteryBooks #QueerBooks #LGBTQ 🌈 📚 💙

While most of my books aren't eligible for Bookshop.org, my most recent release "Bodies of Water" is on sale there now 👀 It's a queer age-gap romance about coming to terms with the breakdown of the HEA you thought you'd found, and rediscovering yourself (with the assistance of a cute med student).

I'm 48 today! You don't have to buy 48 of my books but one or two would be nice! #romancelandia Tikka Chance on Me books2read.com/u/mKKrNv Kick at the Darkness books2read.com/u/4Xrqqv Frostburn books2read.com/u/47aYWq Spoiled Brit books2read.com/u/3LBQjw Nobody's Bargain books2read.com/u/bxD0no

Can anyone remind me of the fun idea for a mm romance I had in the final moments before falling asleep last night? 🫠

Oh hey @bookshop.org on @draft2digital.bsky.social 👀

If you’re into MM Romance, I encourage you to learn about and read who I consider to be the Godfather of MM Romance - E. Lynn Harris. He wrote 10+ NYT bestsellers in the 1990s & 2000s featuring Black Queer characters. lambdaliteraryreview.org/2013/08/e-ly... #ELynnHarris #MMRomance #Romancelandia

I strongly believe in Giving The People What They Want, and it appears what (some) of them want is absolute queer sexual mayhem for the grand price of ✨Free✨ But don't just take my word for it! Trust the readers! Links to download 'Riley's Basement' on my site, www.AlexPendragon.com 😁

In 2020 @totallydonna.kitrocha.com & I started a trilogy about 3 book nerds (w/ superpowers) who just want to build a library for their community but shitty tech bros suck so they have to keep doing crimes. Tor was kind enough to put book one on sale for $5.99! www.kitrocha.com/book/deal-wi...

This is so accurate, and yet such a tough truth to learn. I see so many people excited about their first release, and then dismayed and disheartened when it doesn't find the audience they hoped for. You just have to keep plugging away! And one day, a fan will be ecstatic to discover your backlist.

NEW POST! 📢 10 Must-Read Black Authors for Black History Month - Loud In The Margins loudinthemargins.com/books/10-mus... #blackbooksky #booksky #blackhistorymonth

What I liked about this piece was the focus on closeted people being unreliable narrators of their own situation (often unknowingly), and how that impacts them and the people they're being intimate with. It's a theme I always enjoy in queer fiction.

AND it's Photoshop compatible so you can still open all your old psd files and work in them.

$4.67 is not, on the face of it, a royalty payment to get giddy about. But this is my first book in Overdrive, and the thought of someone borrowing it with their library card and reading it makes me so, so happy.

Y'know when you read something, and you already know you're going to repost it, and you're trying to keep track of the phrase you'll snip out to illustrate in your repost how well written it is? Well, Olivia has too damn many of them, so I can't choose. (I do love "The dick is the point" though 🤣)

Heard back from @draft2digital.bsky.social support, and they had no idea of the issue with D2D authors' books not being able to be purchased on Kobo. If you're a D2D author, try to quick buy your book on Kobo. If the cart says empty, you're affected too. Contact D2D support and let them know.

If (like me) you have a newsletter, and you're always wondering if your reluctance to overwhelm subscribers' inboxes means you're actually shooting yourself in the foot by sending too infrequently, @buttondown.com has a really interesting blog about it. (spoiler - yes, you might be)

If there's a book you've been eyeing up, from an indie author, today is a fantastic day to treat yourself. The first day of the month, when sales stats reset, can feel super-disheartening. That first sale feels like a high-five! 💙📚

Look I KNOW I'm not meant to read the reviews but I am mortal and flawed. Some people have been writing really thoughtful, generous things, and it is so heartening.

Okay, talk about an instantly-grab-you premise 👀

You want a whistle called "Chaos Bisexual" right?

FUCK.

For my underrated gem of the month, I'm still looking for books that have less than 100 reviews/ratings on goodreads and/or amazon. It must be queer; it does not have to be romance. I prefer MM, MMM, or MMF.  Please rec me some stuff :)  #bookrecs

I did my book dirty back when it came out by not marketing the hell out of it, and it shows. Let's see if I can interest someone in this sweet #mmromance about a pianist and a punk rock lover. #bisexuality #collegeromance #gayromance www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0FG...

There is so much shit going on right now - really, really horrible, heart-breaking, soul-destroying shit - that it is hard not to feel overwhelmed. Doom-posting about it would do nobody any favors, but talking about anything else feels like I'm trying to ignore it. There is no right answer, I know.

We've been improving the metadata on fatedmates.net, which should make search more useful. Every FM episode has its own page with extra info and all the books we discussed, so you should be able to search for a book or author you love and find lots more like it. 👉 fatedmates.net/searchfm

I strongly believe in Giving The People What They Want, and it appears what (some) of them want is absolute queer sexual mayhem for the grand price of ✨Free✨ But don't just take my word for it! Trust the readers! Links to download 'Riley's Basement' on my site, www.AlexPendragon.com 😁