[Webtoon Wednesday] Love So Pure

Title: Love So Pure

Author/Artist: Plan B (a team!)

Rating: Adult

Genre: slice of life, drama, found family, contemporary, queer themes, trauma, crime/punishment, gangs

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

It’s easy to get laid when you’re a pretty, sassy bartender working at a popular gay bar. This lifestyle suits Jihyun just fine since he loves casual hookups without any intimacy… That is until he meets Yohan—his big, scary-looking classmate who’s actually a pure-hearted sweetie. Can Yohan’s simple love help commitment-phobic Jihyun heal from the traumas of his past?

Read More »

Manga Monday: Love Me For Who I Am

Title: Love Me For Who I Am/Fukakai na Boku no Subete o

Creator: Kata Konayama/Tozaki Ei

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: LGBTQ+, romance, high school, drama, found family, comedy, slice of life

Status: Fully Translated/Completed

Published By: Seven Seas

LINK

Official Summary:

An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café!

Mogumo is a cute but lonely high school student who just wants a few loving friends. Fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at his family’s café for “cross-dressing boys,” but he makes an incorrect assumption: Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl. However, Mogumo soon finds out that the café is run by LGBT+ folks of all stripes, all with their own reasons for congregating there. This touching manga explores gender, gender presentation, and sexuality from many different angles, including the ways people are pushed to conform in a world that doesn’t understand them…until the world begins to learn, one person at a time.

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Steel Under Silk

Title: Steel Under Silk

Author/Artist: snob

Rating: Adult (and later chapters are uncensored)

Genre: Historical, Drama, Erotica, Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Dark

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Yeonjo used to have it all: a highly respected family, a kind brother, and a comfortable life. Now, with his father executed for high treason, his last kin dead, and damned to a lifetime of slavery, Yeonjo has nothing to lose. All that is left is vengeance, and his chance comes when the new governor assigned to the region is none other than Kwon Hee-ryang, the man who destroyed everything Yeonjo loved. Now, Yeonjo will do everything to get his revenge…even if it means getting in bed with his greatest enemy. Hiding a blade behind his beautiful smile, like silk hiding steel, Yeonjo waits for his moment to strike. But things are not going to be so easy…

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Betrayal of Dignity

Title: Betrayal of Dignity

Author: Kimpa (novel)

Adaptation/Artist: Manta’s Production Team (It’s literally a paragraph)

Rating: Mature with low spice

Genre: Historical, Palace Intrigue, Romance, Marriage of (In)Convenience, Drama, Angst

Hosted On: Manta Comics

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Would you sacrifice your honor to marry a Duke?

In order to save her family from ruin, Chloe Verdier must find a groom for her sister, Alice. She soon runs into the handsome but arrogant Duke Tisse who makes a proposal that could save them. When Alice flees with a mysterious man, Chloe must seek out the Duke in the biggest gamble of her life.

Read More »

Updates On Updates

First, I’ve spent about two weeks knowing I was sick and several days before that telling myself that I wasn’t.

So I’m once again behind Despite My Best Efforts.

I have to figure out how to get to the clinic that takes my – not actually crappy – insurance so I can do a follow up, but I’m probably fine for now. I’m working my way through my emails and getting in touch with people about things I missed because I was sick and trying to catch up so… I’ll be in your inboxes, apologizing profusely.

Second, hey, I’m in a fun little Pride bundle over on itch.io with some cool queer cats. You can get my cozy supernatural short story The Carnival That Comes After and tons of other amazing works for $30 HERE! Profits from the bundle go to the queer creators in the bundle and it’ll absolutely help us all with our future goals as creators and people!!

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp

Title: Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp

Author/Story: Yuin

Artist: Mini

Rating: Teen

Genre: reincarnation, historical fantasy, medical drama, romance, villainess, war

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English, Korean

Official Summary:

Jihyun is a master surgeon at the peak of her medical prowess. She’s made it her life’s mission to save lives in order to atone for the sins of her past life, but her dreams are cut short when her plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific. When Jihyun wakes up, she finds herself back in her first life as Elise de Clarence – the haughty nightmare of a girl who brought on her own tragic end. The new Elise, however, still has time to set things straight – with her newfound medical knowledge, the reformed Elise sets out to right the wrongs of her tragic first life!

My Thoughts:

Please do not ask me how much time I’ve spent on Doctor Elise in its run between TappyToon (where it was hosted at one point) and Lezhin. But trust me… it was all worth it.

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Surge Towards You

Title: Surge Towards You

Author/Artist: Cheongyeon

Rating: Adult

Genre: romance, drama, sports, omegaverse

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Cheong-ho is a national swim team member who has been struggling with poor records. As an alpha, his physical condition could be improved greatly through sex with an omega, but he has a fear of omega pheromones. His hopes of being a top swimmer seem to be sinking, but that all changes when he meets Yi-rim, an omega whose pheromones don’t give off any scent. Yi-rim is only too happy to help Cheong-ho out, and thus the two of them start a purely physical relationship. It’s almost like they’re a match made in heaven. But…why is it so hard for them to close the distance between each other?

Read More »

I’m Supporting #EndOTWRacism

#End OTW Racism in bold colors to the side. Text: End Racism in the OTW: A fan protest against the lack of action from the OTW on addressing issues of harassment and racism on AO3 and within the organization. 

Three years ago, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) - the parent organization for AO3 - committed to acting on harassment and racist abuse that can currently happen through the site.

Join us in holding the OTW to their commitment and demanding change that will help keep us all safer! Read more in our Call to Action, where you will find detailed information on the problem, what we're demanding from the OTW, and how you can signal boost and get involved.

We are taking action May 17th to 31st.

In 2020, the Organization for Transformative Works and Archive of Our Own set the stage to do something about racism on its platform. They pledged to hire a diversity consultant to advise them on how to essentially make the AO3/OTW “anti racist”. It’s been three years since then and the most they’ve done is tap a volunteer to research researching a guy, I think. They have failed to be transparent about their plans, what the attempt has looked like, and the most we’ve gotten for an estimated trajectory three years in? That maybe in five years they will have hired someone.

That’s unacceptable.

Read More »

Stitch Reads Smolder (Anita Blake #29) – Chapters 4-7

Chapter 4 begins with Anita complaining about the stress of her life in the upcoming wedding. it also includes one of the worst sentences I’ve ever read. after Anita talks about walking into the bridal gallery making her feel bad she talks about what had briefly made it okay:

Edward trying on clothes had made it fun again, and seeing Peter be a better adult than some of the immortals I knew, and Asher trying, and Kane getting his ass kicked by Peter. Everything fun was associated with the people, none of it with the bridal shop and clothes.

This is not a good sentence and I don’t want to pretend that it is. 

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Mad Dog

Title: Mad Dog

Author/Artist: Haribo

Rating: Adult

Genre: BL, gangster/crime, enemies-to-lovers

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Some people thirst for power while others want nothing more than to live low. Hamin has always been resentful of the label that comes with being his father’s son—he didn’t ask to be born into a mob family! After much trial and error, Hamin finally breaks ties with his family and begins to live the life he’s dreamed about. That is, until he gets kidnapped and finds himself under the protection of a certain Kwon Sehyuk. All Hamin wants is his “normal” life back, but Sehyuk is as far from normal as a person can get…

My Thoughts:

I love a good gangster series, but it takes me a while to settle into them. This is maybe my first Korean organized crime series and I honestly picked it up because I enjoyed the unhinged energy of the “top” in the series, Sehyuk from the cover! I’m actually obsessed with Sehyuk.

Read More »

Update~

Webtoon Wednesday will return next week and I’m working on doing other posts in some capacity.

But in exciting news, you can check out my appearance on Fansplaining which is both hilarious and horrifying! Even in transcript form it’s a laugh until it’s not lol

Reimagining (Aspects of) The Omegaverse: Reproductive Healthcare

How It Looks/Works

For the most part, “suppressants” do double duty in the omegaverse. They’re both a way to minimize a character’s omega traits like scent or slick and a form of birth control. Sometimes, alphas have their own suppressants but since the omegaverse is omega-oriented at most points, there are less stories that focus on that. What alphas have for sure are knot-safe condoms that have to be strong enough to deal with an alpha’s knot and a mid-to-excellent pullout game. They just… never want to use them. Art mimicking real life, I guess.

Read More »

The Struggle Remains Real

I’m at this point where I sit frozen in front of an article I needed to have done months ago or a pitch for something that matters and I simply cannot write. It’s not so much writer’s block as writer’s fear. The words are in me and they do want to come out, I know the value of my own work beyond what I get paid for it.

Increasingly, however, I’m hit with this fear of what comes next.

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Your Ultimate Love Rival

Title: Your Ultimate Love Rival

Author/Story: Sol Leesu (Original Story), SaJeog (Adaptation)

Artist: Matte

Rating: (Older Teen)

Genre: transmigration, romance, drama, fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas (ENG)

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Naturally charming, Irene attracts women like a magnet, even when she doesn’t mean to. Enter her best friend, Claudia, who refuses to marry any of her three suitors because of her affection for Irene. As a result, these powerful and mentally unstable men declare Irene as their rival in love and threaten her life. She knows none of them deserve to be with Claudia, but she doesn’t want to die! To save both her friend and herself, Irene must prove she’s their ultimate rival, but will she succeed?

My Thoughts:

First of all, this isn’t a Girls Love series. I need y’all to know that because I’d actually assumed it had been a GL series at the start and when the female lead started linking up with the OG!FL’s brother… I got so pissed. Do not end up like me. This is not a series that’s for the gays… unless you suspend disbelief and bank your own rage.

Read More »