Tengoku by Rae D. Magdon

goodreads

Aozora Kaede is on the run. Forced to flee from home after a violent disagreement with her aunt and cousin, she is a wanderer with a spirit wolf as her only companion. Homura Imari lives in the lap of luxury. As the daughter of a daimyo, her duties are stay home and learn how to rule the province she will inherit. But when fate brings the two of them together, Imari notices Kaede’s connection to the spirits and decides to ask for a favor. She needs someone to guide her to Hongshan, a faraway mountain where a magical blacksmith is rumored to live—a blacksmith who can hopefully replace her missing left hand. Together, they must travel across the treacherous Jade Sea, protect themselves from Kaede’s vengeful family, and perhaps even save the Empire from destruction.

Mod opinion: I haven't heard of this fantasy book yet, but it sounds interesting.

I know I'm searching for bigfoot here but I have a request:

Does anyone who sees this post know of any novels, any genre, that are about trans people but don't heavily feature trans pain? Particularly novels about transfeminine people and especially particularly about trans wlw. Please give me your recs if you do know one!

I can't think of any, I desperately search for stories about people like me but they are all just so full of pain and hurt and like... Yeah I know being trans hurts sometimes. That's just my life. I'd like to read stories that give me hope instead, where that pain gets its catharsis.

I post this after just reading the sample on Amazon for Gretchen Felker-Martin's excellent Manhunt. Great book seriously, I'll probably buy it at some point. It's about two trans women, and according to the blurb a trans man they join op with along the way, trying to survive in a zombie apocalypse where a virus has spread that reacts with testosterone in people's bodies and turns anyone with a male level of testosterone into zombies. Incredible premise, lots of Gender happening. Love it. Wonderful horror-comedy writing too. But it's just so full of pain. The dysphoria, the grim and hopeless outlook on life, even hatred from TERFs features heavily. It's rough and raw and all jagged edges and that's great, but like I said I already live that. I'm not at risk of turning into a zombie if I miss my hormones, but I do still get that bleak "what's the point of this transition" feeling somewhat often. I do still have to worry about hatred from "feminists" who should by all rights be my allies.

And I just can't think of any hopeful, joyous book about transfem people. It's always about the pain. When I was transitioning 5 years ago the thing to read was Nevada by Imogen Binnie and I couldn't get very far because it was just full of so much pain and cynicism about living a life like mine that I couldn't do it. It hurt.

So does anyone out there know happy books about people like me? Where being trans is presented as the complex and messy thing that it is, but the overall tone is about the hope and joy we can share?

My latest cover work for The Blood Bride, working with @raedmagdon was an absolute dream as per usual. I'll upload some WIPs and process shots for another post so this one doesn't get too big :D

The Blood Bride! Coming soon this Summer, written by Rae D Magdon - You'll be able to buy it via Desert Palm Press (And also Amazon) But direct is always better!

I'm just gonna dive headfirst into the points I'd written down about this book while reading it, because I am still not good at writing reviews. I do, however, want to share my opinion on this book so here we go

Let's start with the positives: First of all, this is the first fantasy book I've ever read with a transgender main character. And since, being Trans myself, I have been searching for such a book in like forever, this made me really happy. I think this book is great trans representation. Firstly, because they openly talked about being trans, and Kaede's transition and all the characters were really great about it. Sometimes I wished they would actually have used the term transgender, but the terms they used in the book (lady of autumn, gentleman of spring) were also clear enough and they fit into the whole of the story really well, so I don't really mind. Secondly, because Kaede's transness wasn't such a big deal. It wasn't all she was. She was not only trans, but also a samurai, good with spirits, a runaway etc. She was a character, not a stereotype. The second thing I liked about the story, is that the main romance in this book is a gay romance between two women, which, again, yay representation! And talking about representation, there was also one other canon gay couple in the end (though only mentioned briefly) and there was an androgynous character who was referred to with they/them pronouns and it wasn't a big deal at all. I really appreciated that. (Also, spoiler, they were a literal dragon. How awesome is that) I also liked how Imari's disability wasn't "fixed" in the end. A lot of stories seem to just "fix" their characters disability and I am really started to dislike that trope, so I'm glad they didn't do that. The characters were also great. Most of them actually developed throughout the story and they all had a heart and were just really likable, even the harsh and serious ones. Well, except for the villain, be we're not supposed to like her xD But yeah, the characters were great and I really liked the friendly yet badass talking wolves. The final thing I really liked about this book is the part where the "real villain" is revealed. I thought this was really cool because I really didn't see it coming, and the way she took control of people was truly terrifying. Suddenly a dark layer was added to the story and I really loved that part. Especially when Imari ended up falling victim to the villain, seeing and doing horrible things, and then actually being traumatised afterwards felt really realistic. I wished they had touched upon that trauma a bit more after this sequence. It seemed to dissappear a little bit to fast when this was my favourite part of the story So that was it for the positive parts, let's start getting critical then. I have three main points of critique: Sometimes the writing was a bit confusing. In some passage in the book, it was, for example, unclear who exactly was doing what, who was saying a certain line, etc. For example, at one point, Gin said something, then Gin replied to herself? This doesn't seem like it was the authors intention. and at some points it really seemed like the pov switched for a sentence or two and then it switched back again, which was really confusing. Another thing that felt a little off about this book was the pacing. First of all, there were a lot of random time jumps in this book, where they just casually mentioned several weeks had passed even though it didn't really feel like they actually had. I didn't really think there was a smooth transition there. The story kinda felt devided. There was a clear separation between the first half of the book and the second half, which made it feel a little like the first half didn't really pay off and the second half just kinda came out of nowhere. Suddenly there was this new, really powerfull villain that was near impossible to beat, with a giant plan to destroy the whole empire, yet they go after this villain, with just a few people and no plan, sneak into the fortress and literally find said villain in the first room they enter and defeat her within a few pages. Yes, there was a big fight but it didn't really feel like a big fight. It just felt kinda rushed and a huge part of this big plot against the empire was just dealt with in two lines. There wasn't a satisfying payoff to the story for me. And the final thing that probably bugged me the most, is the (NSFW-alert) random sex scenes? They just felt way off to me. I mean, their relationship itsself felt a little awkward to me too at first but when they got together I actually really started to enjoy reading about them being together. So, here I was, reading this nice fantasy book with two gay girls in love, thinking "Oh okay, things are getting heated, they're probably gonna cut to the next scene now after this clear implication that they're going to have sex, that's cool, I can deal with that" That was not what happened. Instead, I got a 5 page long sex scene that read like it was straight out of a smut fanfiction. The terms used and the length the scene was really off putting for me to the point where I had to skip the scene. It just took me out of the story and I didn't feel like it added anything to the story. It didn't help that there were three of those either. At one point one of the main characters was dealing with trauma and I was getting really into the story and then suddenly there was this sex scene and that whole feeling of angst and stress was gone after that. HOWEVER, I don't think this was a bad book at all. It was fun to read, and though sometimes the execution was a bit weird, the idea, the setting and the characters were great, and this book offers great lgbtq+ representation. Favourite Characters: Rin, Hayate

[Book review] Lucky 7 by Rae D. Magdon - fun, queer, F/F sci-fi heist

Lucky 7 by  Rae D. Magdon​, Book 1 of the Lucky Breaks series

My rating: I loved it!

Summary

This had everything I wanted in a heist story--it was fun, fast and filled with diverse characters.

Lucky 7 is a sci-fi heist novel with queer characters, found family, and an enemies-to-lovers stud/femme relationship.

This is book 1 of a (3?) part series; book 2 is already out although I haven't read it yet. A large focus of this book is the 'putting together the team' trope but there's also plenty of fun, found-family/slightly dysfunctional group dynamics going on once the team does get assembled. The heist team has a real RPG/videogame vibe to their roles, with a leader (MC), tech specialist (MC), tank, medic, bard/shifter and explosives expert. The shifter's a non-binary Palestinian and the explosives expert is a South American transwoman. I think the medic and tank are white/cis from memory but if that's wrong, I'm sorry. But that's only six characters, you might think! Well, to say more would be a spoiler.

Pairing

The book opens in Elena's first person pov. She's a Mexican femme jacker (metaverse tech specialist/mage equivalent from the perspective of heist group dynamics). Her love interest is Sacha, a Black US-born, Russian-raised stud and the leader of the heist group (generalist role). The second half of the book is in Sacha's first person pov.

They have a delicious enemies to lovers vibe. I found the progression in their relationship so satisfying and charming.

Setting

The sci-fi setting and the visual elements of the metaverse in this book (its shared virtual world) gave parts of it an MMO (massively multiplayer online videogame) vibe. I enjoyed that, but part of me kind of wanted the virtual battling to look more like two nerds plugged into an interface, which I realise is much less fun and less dramatic but idk the thought of it was kind of amusing to me (have you ever watched someone play with a VR headset, just the flailing and the random body movements?? that. I wanted that, lol. I doubt anyone else wanted that, though).

The ending

Because it's an action story, there wasn't a huge amount of time at the ending to process some heavy revelations/complicated emotional baggage that came up during the endgame mission. I'm hoping the next book will pick up those dangling threads because Everyone Needs a Therapist and also there's some massive baggage I'm dying for Elena to unpack.  

This book ends with a HEA (happily ever after) and no cliffhangers.

My rating

I loved it, and I plan to read the rest of the series.

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White authors will make mistakes even if you do everything “right.”

This October, I had the pleasure of attending the Left Coast Lesbian Literary Conference in Palm Springs, California. LCLC, affectionately known as “lick-lick” for those of us with dirty minds, is a wonderful convention where writers of lesbian fiction from around the United States gather to promote their work. Immediately upon arriving, however, I noticed something odd about my fellow con attendees: with a few exceptions, they were all white.

In conversation with my fellow white women, the subject of diversity in lesfic came up. The question I received most about writing books with nonwhite characters was “Aren’t you afraid to write about nonwhite characters?”

They believed they were asking, “Aren’t you worried your books won’t sell?” This is a fallacious argument. Many works about nonwhite characters perform enormously well when they are given the chance to succeed instead of being prevented from doing so by institutional barriers. What I thought these women were asking, though, was this: “Aren’t you afraid you’ll get it wrong?”

Because it is so damn easy to get it wrong. I should know, because I have done it wrong plenty of times myself, and I’m sure I will do it wrong all over again despite my best efforts. Here are a few tips I have gleaned from my own experience as a full-time writer of lesbian fiction.

Read more from Rae Magdon on Queership!

Tengoku Chapter 18

So what's the message in Tengoku? "is good that bad things happen"? "You should be grateful for your suffering". If something bad happens to you and it leave sequels, you should accept them instead of try to compensate them? If I become deaf, should I deny a hearing device and comunicate only with signs? Like wtf!? Why would someone want to make their life more difficult when there is a solution available? And honestly, the reader at this point is as dissapoited and frustrated as Imari: There is no room for arousal here. I don't want to read about sex right now! I want her to have her damn hand! I skipped like 20 pages because I wasn't in the mood to read smut. I bet it was good. But it was not the time.

Death Wears Yellow Garters by Rae D. Magdon

A chonk Melog upon @phoenix-paladin ‘s request for the always amazing @raedmagdon .

Read here for more Melog cuteness: Rae D. Magdon- Amongst the stars

Summary: The past month has gone well for Catra. Her relationship with Adora has never been better, and staying with her new friends in Brightmoon is surprisingly enjoyable. But when Adora, Glimmer, and Entrapta devise a plan to use Melog to find Angella, who might still be alive between dimensions, things get more dangerous and complicated than Catra bargained for.

Tags: Long Form, Hurt/Comfort, Trauma, Fluff, post-s5, Vanilla, Fingering, Oral, Mild BDSM, Adventure, mild PTSD, Happy, Minor Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Minor Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), First Time, Slow-ish Burn?, does it count if they're in a relationship but have to work up to sex gradually?

Have a nice day, all of you :)

I believe fandom should be a self-policing community. I think "call-out culture" as executed by attacking people for ideological purity points without allowing room for growth is reductive and unhelpful, but I also think much of the criticism around call-out culture is a poorly disguised derailment by people who don't want to be held accountable for the shit they do/like/support.

I don't believe in doxxing, I don't believe in threats and harassment but I do believe in accountability. I believe that harmful tropes in fandom spaces need to be starved of oxygen, like a fire. They need to be starved in the dark.

I believe it's the responsibility of fandom as a community to listen to our most marginalized members, to find the things that hurt them, to look at the creators of these works and say "no, not here, this place is not for you, we don't want you."

No reviews, no kudos, no bookmarks, no rec lists, no views for toxic violent fetishism.

I grew up in fandom in the early 00s when adult/minor pairings were incredibly popular and rarely criticized. I'm aware it's still an issue in fandom but there's been a hard push back against pedophilic works in fandom over the years, it's nowhere near as popular as it once was, it's reviled widely by the majority of most fandoms.

In F/F fandoms, we're at that moment again right now with harmful, fetishistic transmisogynist tropes becoming increasingly prevalent and normalized in our spaces. A/b/o and g!p fics that appropriate fetishized version of trans women's bodies to get cis and afab people off. An undeniable majority of these stories paint trans women as sexually aggressive, dominating and often abusers, playing into tropes that actively and regularly harm members of our most vulnerable community.

I'm sick and tired of my fellow cis lesbian and bi women passively and uncritically consuming this shit. I'm tired of something that hurts our trans sisters being allowed to flourish in our fandom spaces, making them unsafe and hostile.

One of the worst perpetrators of these tropes was announced as a panel member at Clexacon this year. She already has a massive following an an extremely successful patreon - she gets PAID for this.

It's time for an accounting as a community. You can't reblog generic "fuck terfs" posts and support this shit. You can't meme about all the respect trans women juice you're drinking while participating in something that's harming them.

We've gotta get our house in order. We've gotta be accountable. We've gotta put our money where our mouth is. We've got to say no this shit.

(I'm a cis lesbian so if trans women think I need to shut the fuck up and stay in my lane, I'll happily do so)

'Sometimes,' I said, 'you have to cry before you can smile again.'

Rae D. Magdon, The Second Sister

I have a p@treon now! I'm collabing w author Rae D Magdon to bring you art & fiction! It is strictly 🔞+ though as there's quite SPICY content in there. 👀 Here I'm sharing a book cover process!

GRYFFINDOR: "Don’t freak out, don’t rush. You will figure yourself out, and no matter where you land on the gender spectrum, you’ll find a community of people like you!" –Rae D. Magdon

not an official review

While I’m still steamed about this other book, I have to point you to a better one.  If you’re into cyberpunk and games like Shadowrun, I have to recommend @raedmagdon‘s book, Lucky 7.  Just from a basic writing perspective, this book is high quality.  From the start, you’re literally put into the main character’s shoes, and the sexual tension combined with actual plot tension is dialed to 11.  It’s like biting into a crisp apple after munching on like one hundred different mealy ones.  There’s no wait to get into the action, really, because each sentence packs its own punch, and there’s no wasted space.  You’re immediately placed inside Elena’s head.

I usually hate first person, but this is good and it totally works because it gets you right into the headspace action.  That good character anxiety and adrenaline-filled-brain action.

Even without the diverse cast, the delivery is so good, it tops some of the best sellers I’ve found on Barnes and Noble shelves.  I’m coming straight out of badly written, exposition-filled hell, so this book feels like a balm on a steaming wound, I tell you what

I’ll do a real review later, I just had to share this because i’m nearly in tears with how much better this is