Patreon announcement: I'll be resuming Old Hollywood research posts next week! Tiers have changed going into 2026. All the content is still the same across tiers. The options are for people to decide which fits their budget best. There is a $1 tier, $5 tier, and $10 tier (all USD prices) now.

I risk sounding like a big sappy fool, but one thing I'm thankful for in 2025 is you all. This has been a tough year (redundant statement is redundant) and my offline life hasn't always been smooth sailing, so I've really appreciated the bonhomie here, and the support. I hope your 2026 is splendid!

It's the end of 2025, which means it's time for the 6th Annual Smut Report Superlatives, where we talk about the funniest, sexiest, weirdest, and most infuriating books we read this year.

I watched the first two episodes of "Dare You To Death" on Netflix last night, not realizing they were all that'd aired so far, and now I am feeling furiously impatient 😠

btw, if you're a book reviewer and you enjoy queer romance, I'd love to send you a copy of 'Bodies of Water' It's a m/m age-gap romance about a 38yo guy who thought he'd found The One, reeling after that collapses, and learning how to love (& lust) again. (more details/sample in the link below) 💙📚

Confused and delighted by Nathan Ballingrud's "Crypt of the Moon Spider" (not, as you might have guessed, a novella for the arachnophobe) (One of those books that I have no idea how I found, or anything about the author, it was just... there in my library 🤷‍♂️)

Every time I release a new romance, I get myself all worked up that the people who read me for my erotica will be mortally disappointed. Every time I release new erotica, I get to experience the reverse. My brain is like a big, gay pendulum 😵‍💫

Anyone else still daydreaming about what they'd have done with that huge lotto jackpot recently? Today's mental noodling is "build beautiful little chalets in a stunning landscape and sponsor writers to do retreats there."

Would you like a queer urban fantasy novel featuring useless bisexual disasters and gay yearning? My free gift to you for the holidays: ebook / audio for zero pennies! shop.ravenswordpress.com/products/jac...

Hey, indie authors, Margaret's reviews are always thoughtful and entertaining... 👀

Forever begging authors to tell me what their books are about! Try a one sentence pitch about your book. No comps or aesthetics. Talk about a protagonist, what they want, and what's stopping them. (Speaking to the genre writers here)

Oh, hey new gay romance up for preorder! "Bodies of Water" coming January 9th, 2026 Tate's HEA fizzled out; now he's drowning his fears of the future at the bottom of a wine glass. Med student Kai offers an unexpected distraction, but can their fling survive summer's end? [m/m age gap romance] 💙📚

I promised myself I wouldn't do another book preorder, and yet...

No connection (beyond my being a paid user) but having read @buttondown.com's 2025 wrap (and ambitions for 2026) I continue to be happy to recommend them if you're looking for a mailing list service. buttondown.com/blog/2025

Will 2026 be the year I remember - with sufficient lead time - to enlist the help of arc readers who can hopefully post day-of-release reviews? I'm going to say, based on past performance, "no"

Someone told me, once, that I would regret not having separate pen names for erotica and romance. I think about that whenever I'm preparing to release something new. Of course there's no way to A/B test the "truth" of it, so maybe I should just stop wondering.

First draft done! MC2 even has a name! 😂 This is actually my first (finished) attempt at a dual POV romance. It may be garbage, but I'm still happy I got to the end of it.

I am making Christmas cookies, which are in fact just chocolate chip cookies, but because of their festive name I can eat three times as many of them with no guilt and scream "ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN THE HOLIDAYS?!" in the face of anyone who challenges me on that.

This is all worth reading, but the nuance I wish more people reflected on is when 'Nathan talks about "a majority defining what is 'good' to write about a minority" (my paraphrasing).

If you've been watching Heated Rivalry and thinking "holy CRAP 🥵 I need more shows about dudes loving and boning" well HAVE I GOT GREAT NEWS FOR YOU because there are some incredible Thai/Chinese/Japanese/Korean queer shows out there

In a feverish state last night and early this morning, I finally wrote the sex scene I'd been procrastinating on. I think it's pretty hot! But I'm biased.

The universe clearly heard me getting excited about a small sales spike this month, and decided a faulty furnace was ample reward 🫠

Just so I’ve been 100% clear on this recently, and not just through reposting people saying things better than I think I’d be able to: the attack on trans rights—especially on trans healthcare—is hate. It’s not science. It’s not "protecting" kids. It’s 100% fucking hate, and it’s wrong.

I feel like I spend half my time wishing I had clever, or insightful, or reassuring things to say about incredibly shitty news. I'm so tired of bigots.

A pregnant queen surrounded by threats and caged by expectations. Two loyal bodyguards who'd die for her but want to live for her too. My X-Files-inspired MMF romantasy novella is live on Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords so far. Get Frostburn for $2.99! books2read.com/u/47aYWq

Speaking of QTBIPOC men to support in M/M romance? How about you pick up a Cole McCade book today? Seriously, X (as he prefers to be called) both personally and professionally is one of my favorite Black trans authors.

Still looking ✌️

December 14th for the last ten years has meant a queer story or retelling inspired by a holiday story or song. Here’s this year’s offering: "A Winter’s Hourglass," inspired by "Let it Snow" and offering two revisits to tales that came before. I hope it reminds us of a truth: we’ve always been here.

Passed 1,000 Smashwords downloads of this free gay erotica story, yesterday, and the reviews (I know, I know, I shouldn't read them; but look, I DID okay) have been really positive 🤩 I'm very happy that people are enjoying it! www.smashwords.com/books/view/1...

This series is astonishing, fascinating, infuriating, and fiendishly complex, and one of my favorite SFF reads. It's also $2.99 on Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon, and other ebook stores today.

We're rewatching "The Golden Girls" and I always forget how much the pilot achieves. Four clear, unique characters with their own stories; genuine laugh-out-loud jokes; and bittersweet moments that say this is more than just a sitcom, all in 24 minutes! It's a goddamn masterclass.

52k words and he still doesn't have a name, but we're at the "okay we're at the good bit can you pull this off???" moment of writing 😵‍💫

I skimmed and saved this - Jenny's excellent breakdown obviously includes spoilers; I haven't read the book or watched the show yet - but even without all the details, this is excellent.

The Smashwords End of Year Sale is on, and the dauntingly long list can be hard to wade through (especially with all the gen AI these days). I’ve curated a list of books I recommend or am interested in, all AI free to the best of my ability, and all under $3! 🌈📚 kilagreene.dreamwidth.org/7990.html

Thanks to the person who bought the Eon Quest ebook. You've officially kept this promotion from generating zero sales just one day before it ends. 😂

The Smashwords holiday sale is going on right now, and I see a lot of my indie author friends have some awesome discounts 👀 I wrote this guide to putting non-Amazon ebooks onto your Kindle ereader back when itchio was the hot new thing, but it should apply to Smashwords ePub files too!

45k words in, and at some point I'm going to have to decide what this character's name is. It's either that or release the book with him called "XXXX"

Not sure if Smashwords is promoting it somewhere, but there's a fun spike this weekend in downloads of "Riley's Basement" 🤔🤷‍♂️ If you like your gay smut to be high-heat, bro-and-banter filled, and ✨free✨ then you might enjoy it! www.smashwords.com/books/1906378

Okay, I'm going to order 80 hats + 80 mittens/gloves for a total of ~$350, which I am currently hitting up my family and friends for, since that's a bit outside my budget. If you know me and want to contribute, send a DM. 😊

Being a writer is fascinating, because you have to convince yourself "My books are worth money, even during a cost-of-living crisis!" while simultaneously haunted by "These words are the worst ever written, and I deserve to be beaten half to death with my own pelvis and left to rot in the gutter."

To have a Yes, And The idea that pornography in an of itself cannot be artistic expression is, put shortly, some bullshit. I *genuinely* do not care if it's "what're you doing stepbro" porn or whatever. Someone had to do makeup, lights, and shoot the fucking (ha) thing. That alone is art.

Look, as someone who has written two VERY filthy books about wrestling, I'm not saying all this attention on kissing hockey boys is misguided, but... 😜 (obviously I support all yums, this is in jest, etc. etc.)

That feeling when one of your characters says something - it really does seem like it came from them, not your own brain - and you realize this is going to dovetail so wonderfully into the book's conclusion 🥹

I will never pass up a chance to plug this one: #bookblog #booksky

A lot of indie authors are (justifiably) raising their prices due to increased fees, but I actually just DROPPED the price of Forget Me Knot for (*mumble mumble reasons*) The paperback is just $11.99 now! If you like mythology-inspired queer fantasy romance rife with pining, humor, & healing👇🏽🌈📚

I read this last night and have been thinking about it ever since, because even as someone who eagerly writes on a spectrum from queer romance to unadulterated filth (and loves - and is proud of! - it all) I've still found myself feeling obliged to 'justify' the explicitness in my romance stories.

Ten years ago on December 14th I posted "Dolph," after a conversation among some queer friends and fellow authors about "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and it started a tradition of re-telling holiday stories through a queer lens that’s been going for a decade now.

Also, I've been struggling to compile this, so if you work at an indie bookstore that will take books direct from authors/any distributor that isn't Ingram or the Big 5, can you please let me know below? I have a small list but would love more!

Today is the LAST DAY to grab ALL of my self-pubbed fantasy and horror books for 50% off on Itch, individually or as a bundle - that's $8 for all three! itch.io/s/169272/bla... #IndieBooks #BookSky

Apparently Smashwords royalties are changing as of January 1, 2026. Books under $2.99 will get 40% list; books $2.99 or over get 75%. (Amazon KDP, for context, is generally 35% and 70% respectively) Draft2Digital owns Smashwords, so if you publish via D2D it's easy to add ebooks there. 💙📚