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femnet · 6 years

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Hello! For my first post on the Lovely femnet, I thought I would share 3 of my favorite, young adult reads so far in 2018! Also, in honor of Pride Month (happy queer, here!), All of the books feature an lgbtq+ character! Let’s get reading!

1. Autoboyograhpy by Christina Lauren

This was, hands down, one of the best books I’ve ever read - not just in 2018. Autoboyography is all about acceptance from both yourself and others, specifically with the intersection of religion and sexuality. The main character, Tanner, has all the love and acceptance from his family and friends that any lgbtq+ kid could want whereas Sebastian, Tanner’s love interest, has none of that. For Sebastian, he not only has to grapple with understanding and accepting that he is gay, but he also has to face the judgmental nature of his deeply religious parents and family that would, without a doubt, disown him for being gay. Where Tanner is sure of himself in his bisexuality, Sebastian is both confused and insecure in his sexuality as well as how that sexuality fits into his love for God. It’s a long book, but it’s one that also doesn’t feel long enough. I cried a few times reading this because both Tanner and Sebastian are such real, tangible characters because they could be any one of us. The romance between the two boys was so real in its portrayal; it had the awkward moments when you first delve into same-sex feelings, the insecurities when ~getting physical~, the awkward meet-the-parents moments, and the “i just want to be with you all the time in private” feelings that every teen has.

Personally I could relate so closely with Sebastian because of my own family’s religious background, and seeing that experience broadcasted onto the page made my own struggles and sexuality journey feel that much more validated. I also think a lot of people, boys and girls, can also relate to this story whether or not religion is as big of an obstacle for them as it is for those in the story.

There’s also a good focus on the hypocrisy of, centrally, the Mormon church and how it deals with homosexuality and other aspects of society. So while this is largely a book that sees the journey of a mlm relationship, it also touches on so many issues that lgbtq+ teens and young adults face like how parents can sometimes overly support their lgbtq+ teen. There’s also an interesting level of maturity in Tanner when he confronts his parents as well as a very healthy, but still imperfect, relationship between them. It’s really awesome, especially for a YA book.

For the full synopsis and list of reader reviews, check it out, here, on goodreads.

2. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu and The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

Can you say girl power? Both of these books deal with the same issue: sexual assault and harassment by young boys in a town where that behavior is overlooked. It shows the strength, tenacity and fight that lives in all women (whether or not you have the body bits) that only needs to be encouraged and shaken awake to be recognized.

Moxie follows a young girl, Vivian, in a small Texas town trying to bring attention to the sexual harassment the girls in the school face both physically and verbally through her own, created feminist zine “Moxie Girls”. It’s an amazing story about how girls come together to not only destroy the sexism that plagues school dress codes, but also the misogyny and sexism that is woven so deeply into each other. This story shows how it’s not just the boys that have a hard time respecting girls and their choices, but also how girls are so quick to be judgmental with other girls’ choices. It’s such an amazing story of triumph, disappointment and growth and I could not put it down. This book was also awesome because it showed how Vivian dealt with her boyfriend who was supportive of her efforts, but also had some problematic moments with his support. It was really great to see that kind of strength from a YA female lead in how she handled relationship issues.

The Nowhere Girls was similar to Moxie in that it dealt with sexual assault and harassment, but this book went even deeper. It also has a queer MC and an autistic MC! This story follows the perspectives of three different girls in a small town as they try to bring justice to a rape case that ended up running the victim out of town because no one believed her. There’s Grace; the new girl who lives in the rape victim’s old house, Rosina; the queer Mexican punk girl who has big dreams that push her out of her town, and Erin; the autistic girl who bluntly says what everyone is thinking but also has a secret that she continues to run form. Each girl has her own struggle that is followed in such great attention alongside the combined goal of getting the boys who gang raped Lucy Moynihan to get caught the way they should have in the first place. The story has so much representation with POC, learning disabilities, lgbtq+ romance, a trans character, and a bit of how religion plays into everything as well.

This story also has the incompetent and sexist adult power structure where a female principle is even roped into the misogyny of the small town in order to keep her job (she also threatens Rosina in the cruelest way just to get information). The girls, like in Moxie, have an anonymous leader that starts a group that brings all (or most) of the girls together in order to bring justice to Lucy, but it also has the secondary accomplishment of revealing just how misogynistic the girls are amongst and against themselves. There’s a girl who is the “school slut” that has an interesting arc within the group and the story itself, and a discussion about virginity and how girls who are virgins are seen and ridiculed in society. The story is just so deep and intricate and so sad you just root for them the whole time in so many different ways. It’s one of the best girl power inducing books I’ve ever read.

For more on the synopsis for Moxie, check here and for The Nowhere Girls check here.

3. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Another bisexual mlm romance! This book was so cute, funny and heartbreaking that I could not put it down despite its intimidating size (about 513 pages). TW for racism and abuse. This story follows a young lord, Henry, as he, his sister Felicity, and his best friend/love interest, Percy, embark on their “Grand Tour of Europe” before Henry begins his university studies. Henry is, at times, very selfish and ignorant to the world around him and how it works; he doesn’t understand his sister’s deep want and yearn for learning and studying nor why she complains at finally being sent to “school,” even when it’s only a “girls’ finishing school,” and he is also so out of touch with how to adequately stand up for Percy, who is of mixed race, in a very racist upper class culture. He is also promiscuous and a flirt to a dangerous point (as you will see), but also to a point where it hurts those around him. He has been abused by his father his entire life for not being the upstanding son his father wanted (ie, not straight and not studious), and it has caused Henry to be emotionally closed off and hesitant to act on or even fully acknowledge his romantic feelings for Percy.

The book focuses solely on Henry and how he navigates his way through Europe to not only preserve his friendship (and possible romance) and his relationship with his sister (as well as his declining relationship with his father), but he also must use this journey as an opportunity to grow and mature. He is faced with many obstacles that test his selfishness and ~playboy behavior that, at many points, mean the difference between life and death for all the teens. Henry also has to grapple with the reality that he really doesn’t have any “skills” that would allow him to survive on his own, and that reluctant dependence he has on his father and his father’s money is also a struggle he must deal with to either keep or break.

Out of all of the books, this one is not as relatable with the overall plot and story, but it’s so fun and interesting all the same. It’s long, but it’s also a lighthearted read that has angst, action, drama and growth that is really awesome to see. The bisexual romance and the interracial aspects of the relationship are also dealt with so well; the representation on that front is really stellar. This book also sets up the focus of the second in the series: Felicity and her quest for knowledge/schooling. It handles misogyny within that time frame really well and it’s another “root for the girl” side moment because Felicity can be a badass.

For more info on the story, check here on goodreads.

Also good Pride Month reads: Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat both by Becky Albertalli.

I hope you decide to check these out and, if you do, that you enjoy them just as much as I did! Happy reading!

#books #young adult #summer reads #by madi #june 2018 #media

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subtletyislost · 7 years

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1. Tell us about your WIP!Currently I’m working on a lesbian romance novel about two girls in college,one is a double majoring in business and english education, the other doublemajors in computer science and astrophysics (the college she goes to doesn’t do“rocket science” or aeronautical engineering, so this is probably as close asshe’s going to get for programing rockets and theoretical space flightpaths/devices). The other major part of the story is that the MC (the rocketscientist) is searching for her missing brother at the same time.

3. What is your favorite/least favorite part aboutwriting?My favorite part about writing is that moment hen someone tells me eitherthat they like my writing or gives me some kind of critique/encouragement (yes,I actually like receiving constructive criticism). My least favorite part aboutwriting is trying find people to give that critique/trying to stay focusedenough to actually finish a story.

5. Top five formative books?I don’t know what this means but the books I read as a child that made mewant to write were: 1. The Magic Treehouse Series 2. Molly Moon’s IncredibleBook of Hypnotism 3. Bloody Jack 4. The Tale-Tell Heart (and other Edgar AllenPoe things) 5. The Little Princebooks that shaped my writing style/preferences though were 1. Molly Moon’sIncredible Book of Hypnotism 2. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witchof the West 3. Welcome to Night Vale: The Novel 4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide tothe Galaxy 5. Martin the Warrior

6. Favorite character you’ve written?Fandom: Sera, Leliana, Josephine, Cole (Dragon Age), Jack, Liara, Peebee (MassEffect), Pharah (overwatch), Raven (Teen Titans), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)Original: Cassandra Tesla (the MC of the wip from question 1), Scion, Xia,Sage, Ruka, and Nvros

8. Do you have anywriting buddies or critique partners? yes! @wardenpharah @snowstorm-thirteen @uswhovianswillholdasiton and acouple others who I mostly talk to on discord

9. Favorite/leastfavorite tropes? Favorite: I don’t know trope names, but there’s trope that I didn’t know was atrope until I came across it in a few fics and a podcast where basicallysomeone is separated from their spouse and when they meet back up with themthey’re like “I missed you so much! Btw I kind of accidentally adopted thiskid/[wayward character]”; that trope “remove your weapons” *pulls a ridiculousamount of weapons out of nowhere* “ALL of them” *reluctantly hands over one ortwo more*; “will this work?” “I have no idea” *thing explodes* “was it supposedto do that?” “I don’t know but it was awesome!”Least favorite: that trope where they destroy the MCs hometown/house/familyjust so the MC has nothing tying them back to where they began and then proceedto do absolutely nothing with that plotwise and it affects nothing but gettingthe MC to actually leave their town

10. Pick an author(or writing friend) to co-write a book with@snowstorm-thirteen or @wardenpharah or one of my new friends from discordwhose tumblr I’ve forgotten

12. Which story ofyours do you like best? why? Original Works: either Light in the Dark or The Forgotten Realm of Dreams orThe Invisibles, because they’re all really really gay and really really nerdyFanfic: Is This Home Yet is without a doubt my best work ever. I’m consideringrewriting it as a novel. Wouldn’t be hard because the only thing making it afanfic and not an original work is that I used the two mcs to basically justget more attention.

13. Describe yourwriting processIt tends to be: sit down, open a notebook/grab paper/open scrivener/word/googledocs, stare at the page, start writing, erase things, write different things,listen to music, check tumblr, write more, somehow things get done or they don’tget done.

15. How do you dealwith self-doubt when writing? look at paper, say “I hate this”, cry, complain to anyone who will listen,stop writing for however long that takes, go back to writing, say “this is bad”,complain more, talk shit out, then it branches: if feel better, keep writing! Ifnot, stop writing and play video games then come back to writing two or threedays later!

16. Cover love/dreamcovers? I love me some good book covers, but professional ones are expensive orrequire talent that I do not have. Light in the Dark would be good with eithera mysterious cover, cover with a bunch of letters and envelopes, a soft gaycover with two girls that fit Cass and Ruka’s descriptions, or a cover that’s likethe soft gay cover but with space and video games/a computer incorporated intoit.

17. What things(scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing? scenes: anything not smut or fightingtopics: I’m comfortable writing about anything except incest/ddlg|mmlb/anythingthat falls in the realm of ‘not my thing to talk about’ (ie. I will write transcharacters, but not specifically about trans issues—nonbinary/agender issuesthough I will; I’ll write mlm characters but not specifically about theirissues; I’ll write poc or religious characters but I won’t write specificallyabout the issues that they face-without a lot of research and talking to peopleand such—because it’s just not my place. To explain a bit, I mean that I’llwrite characters that are not like me, and will do research to make sure I don’taccidentally do that in an offensive manner, but I won’t tell their stories forthem because I am not them. I hope this makes sense.)character types: women or nonbinary individuals, rebels, nerds, autistics,abuse victims/survivors, lesbians, ace people, the secretly nerdy femme, thesecretly nerdy butch, the secretly nerdy anyone,the tough girl who likes soft things, the soft girl who will kick your ass, thereptile person (person who likes reptiles), pirate, scientist, explorer, ectthere’s a lot of character types I love to write

25. What’s yourworldbuilding process like? this deserves its own post

21. What aspect ofyour writing are you most proud of? characterization

22. Tell us about thebooks on your “to write” listmost of them are in some way all part of the same series, but not necessarilyconnected, and not necessarily linearly or direct successors. Some/most can be stand-alonethat just happen to take place in the same universe as the others

27. Every writer’sleast favorite question - where does your inspiration come from? Do you docertain things to make yourself more inspired? Is it easy for you to come upwith story ideas?Dreams. Most if not all my story inspiration and ideas come from dreams, therest come from songs or random thoughts that just get stuck in my head. To getmore inspired I play games, bounce ideas off my friends, listen to music, orsleep. It’s fairly easy for me to come up with ideas, almost as easy as comingup with characters *shoves my like 300 ocs into the closet*

28. How do you stayfocused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison?I don’t focus, that’s the problem that’s why there’s so much unfinished shit onmy ao3. Tbh I’m usually the one doing the comparing and I deal with it bylearning from the work I’m comparing mine to and improving.

30. Do you like toread books similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick tonon-fiction/un-similar works?I don’t read. I can’t focus long enough to read. Instead I play video games inthe same genre or daydream or occasionally relisten to the Welcome To NightVale novel audiobook. I’m starting to branch out and try to find otheraudiobooks to listen to, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a pretty goodone on Audio.

33. What’s yourrevision/rewriting process like?draft one on one side of the screen, draft two on the other side of thescreen and literally rewriting draft one in draft 2. Sometimes I’ll rewrite onthe same document using markups like strikethrough instead of deleting thingsand other colors for the new additions, also lots and lots of sleeping andcrying, and soda (I don’t drink coffee).

34. Unpopular writingthoughts/opinions? Ernest Hemmingway sucks. He’s a terrible writer and you should not aspire towrite like him nor should you look up to him. Said is a perfectly valid word.The Oxford Comma is required not optional. Adverbs are not bad, use them if youwant. First person is a valid form to write in. Parenthetical asides (likethis) are just as valid as hyphenated asides—like this—and should be used if itfits the story/narration style. If your pov character doesn’t understand theforeign language the other character is speaking, putting the words in theother language in the text with a footnote translation is just as valid as “hesaid something in [language] but MC didn’t understand it.” Stalking is notromantic. Unhappy endings do not belong in the romance genre. Your charactercan be gay without complaining about it or it making their life hard. You canhave more than one minority character! You characters never going to thebathroom is unrealistic. Mosquitoes are a thing and if your character isoutside in the summer they had better damn well be protecting themselvesagainst them or slapping at at least one. A romance story with a character whowon’t take no for an answer, who isn’tthe antagonist/big (or little) bad, is not romantic. A romance story where thecharacters kiss or have sex when one of them clearly doesn’t want to, is notromantic. BOTH characters in your romance story need to change by the end ofthe story, that’s just good characterization. You can have polyamorouscharacters, but we are not a kink/fetish, if you don’t actually support actualpolyamorous people in real life don’t write about us in your fiction it’sdisrespectful and you’re probably going to do it wrong. Cheating is notromantic. Asexuals exist, Aromantics exist, Bisexuals exist. Romance doesn’tneed sex. … I’ll stop now, I have a lot of things I could say here.

35. Post the lastsentence you wroteShe blinked them back, willing herself not to cry.

36. Post a snippetCassandra had never been one for plans, if she had she might have actuallytalked with her roommate before move-inday. Even so, despite not planning things much, she did have goals. Her goal onmove-in day was simple: move in, preferably alone. She’d been under theimpression that she was the first one to arrive and that her roommate wouldn’tbe coming until later in the day. So, it was a shock to her when she arrived ather dorm room and found it was already open. She tapped her foot against the doorto get the attention of whoever was inside the room. She couldn’t quite see whomight be in there through the boxes that she was carrying.

“I hope you don’t mind,” a soft voice from inside the roomsaid, “it’s just that it was easier to leave the door open than to have to keepunlocking it.”

Cassandra tilted her head as she walked into the room,lowering the boxes just enough to see over them as she did so. “It’s notrouble,” she replied. “Who are you?”

The girl she was addressing, that she assumed was herroommate, was probably the most delicate looking girl she’d ever seen—wearing alight blue sundress with a ribbon around her waist and matching Mary Janes. Inher mind, the girl gave the impression of the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast; almost more likean idea than a person. She had long dark blonde—or was it light brown—hair withfaint, but still visible, red and dark brown streaks running through it, asthough it contained a fire within its French braid. Her smile was soft, barelyeven visible, and she looked like she might have played a sport in highschool—probably archery or fencing. Her brown eyes sparkled in the light fromthe window, like a stone of topaz against a blanket of snow. Never in her life,had Cassandra ever seen a girl that made her wonder if she was staring, but shehad now.

37. Do you ever writelong handed or do you prefer to type everything?100% depends on the story, and the day, and whether or not my eyes hurt.Sometimes ideas flow better on paper, sometimes typed, sometimes they flowbetter when I talk them out those days are bad for writing but good for gettingideas.

42. How many draftsdo you usually write before you feel satisfied? 100% depends on if it’s original work or fanfiction. Original works I’m usuallynot satisfied even after 6, 7, or even 10 drafts. Fanfiction, sometimes I justpost up the first draft without caring, sometimes I’m more satisfied with a seconddraft. It usually doesn’t go beyond that.

48. Do you prefer towrite skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut itback?I just write. Usually my second draft is longer and more detailed than thefirst, and by the 5th or 6th everything has changedbecause of added or removed details.

51. Are you asecretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books?I don’t shut up about my writing, not with my friends.

52. Who do you writefor? Myself., or anyone who pays me.

54. Favorite firstline/opening you’ve written? Absolutely nothing could go wrong, she thought just exactly as everythingwent wrong.

50. Do you share yourrough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?I share them, if I waited until they were polished no one would ever get toread them

55. How do you manageyour time/make time for writing? (do you set aside time to write every day ordo you only write when you have a lot of free time?) I have no job and no life. 0/10 do not recommend my method of having writingtime

#writing #shut up amaranth #my writing #ask meme #anonymous

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