wearing shorts with a hoodie is such a gay and dumbass move. like are you hot or cold bitch???

its cute

This was a gift commission from @guardians-of-las-vyxen for my birthday. The character is Zercey from Illthdar: Guardians of Las, and the artist is Qure on Instagram

Link to the artist page is below. Please share the love for this great work.

As a reminder, the fundraiser for Gendered Intelligence is still on and ends at midnight on the last day of August 2020.

Gendered Intelligence works to improve the conditions of trans people in the UK through direct youth work, education, training and effecting meaningful change.

In response to JK Rowling's transphobic comments, all profits from the sale of Guardians of Las will be donated to Gendered Intelligence. Because there's no excuse for what she said and she's absolutely wrong - trans women are women!

The fundraiser sale is finished, and I want to take a moment to thank the folks who purchased copies of Illthdar: Guardians of Las from June until the end of August, 2020. Though I didn't promote it, because I wasn't sure how much I could contribute in addition, I have opted to match 100% the proceeds. With your help, a total of £32.00 is being donated to Gendered Intelligence from book sales.

At the moment, I am waiting to hear back from Gendered Intelligence to confirm if any donations were made directly to them for the Illthdar campaign via their website. Once this is confirmed, if there were any, I will give another update.

For a first time author, selling a new series during a pandemic, while some may argue this isn't a lot - but small steps by one person can mark the beginning of great actions. I fully intend to have more fundraising events in the future. The worst kind of world to be stuck on should always be Illthdar, and I hope that everyone will join me in doing what we can to make Earth a better place for all.

yeah sure say fuck you to jk rowling but dont forget to like. actually support trans women.

Yes! And, also, from the 12th of June until the end of August, 2020, all profits from the sale of my book, Illthdar: Guardians of Las, will be donated to Gendered Intelligence!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/illthdar/rachel-e-garcia/9781839451508

So…JK Rowling is now deliberately linking her sexual assault and domestic abuse with trans women (utterly abhorrent) and saying that “any man” can get a gender recognition certificate and use this to enter women only spaces (blatantly untrue).

If you can’t see the blatant TERF dogwhistles in this I cannot help you. She has clearly been radicalised because this what TERFs do. They prey on women’s traumas and use this to brainwash them into supporting their cause. They prey on the fears of the vulnerable and twist them for their own bigoted and vile agenda.

JK Rowling will not listen to us now. We can only hope at some point she breaks away and starts to truly listen and educate herself.

The best we can do is support trans youth *especially* trans women and trans women of colour even more so; who are more likely than any minority to experience abuse, mental illness, bullying, homelessness, sexual assault/rape and murder.

A person with such a high platform as JK is going to do serious damage to the trans cause we must combat this!

Not just with petty posts of how much she sucks but with action. Donate to trans charities, educate those around you, write to your government, those of you who follow me in the UK write to your MP about the revision of the Gender Recognition Act Review. This has been underway since 2018 and would allow trans people to change their gender without waiting years for appointments at gender clinics and jumping through nonsensical hoops.

Do not allow transmisogyny and transphobia to go on unchallenged.

We must make sure the world is a place where trans women are loved and supported and leave people like JK in the past where they are choosing to stay.

Donate here:

Agreed, and I for one am ready to throw down.

So, from now until the end of August, 2020, all profits from the sale of my book, Illthdar: Guardians of Las, will be donated to Gendered Intelligence.

This is a UK based not-for-profit that specifically works with lgbtqai+ people of colour.

You can buy my book online at Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Amazon and Feedaread. HOWEVER, the overhead costs for the others are higher than Feedaread, so if you want more of that money to go to the charity, I recommend buying directly through them.

buy my trans david shirt and help me raise money for my top surgery!

my surgery is on august 4th and i need to make the full payment two weeks before. i’m so close to my goal! less than a hundred shirts and i’m there! also: it’s pride month, baby!!!

@illthdar xe/xem pronouns!!

Thank you so much!

Idk i just really like these pronouns!

Underrated & Under-reviewed LGBT+ Book Recommendations

To read for Pride all year long.

I see a lot of LGBT+ book rec pots going around because of pride but they rarely feature any of the obscure books that actually need to be found and read and supported to help new LGBT+ manuscripts break into the literary world.

So, without further ado, here is a list with books which have (approximately) less than 5k ratings or less than 1k reviews on goodreads. (Books with fewer than 1k ratings are bolded!)

Disclaimer: I haven’t read all these books personally, but they have been read by people whose opinions I trust. I tried to get as much content information as I could, but I might have missed some things so please let me know if I should adjust any of the content info!

Fantasy/Sci-fi

Thornfruit by Felicia Davin

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.

The Fever King by Victoria Lee.

More Than Enough by Elizabeth Wambheim

Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones;

Contemporary 

Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton.

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole.

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn.

Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates; 

Running with Lions by Julian Winters

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann 

Bonus Recommendations

Dragonsong a wlw fantasy short story by Audrey Rose B

Knit One, Girl Two a fluffy wlw contemporary short story by Shira Glassman

The Songbird’s Refrain a wlw fantasy by Jillian Maria, coming FALL 2019.

Please reblog with your own favorite underrated, under-reviewed LGBT+ books!

You can also add the Illthdar series to your list as it has characters that are bisexual and non-binary in the main cast.

pssst i wanna follow some writeblrs pls like this or rb to ur writeblr if:

Part of my job is processing all the new incoming books and putting our property stamp on them and barcodes, so I get to also see all the adorable new kid's books too with wonderful gorgeous art in them but ANYWAYS THIS NEW ONE CAME IN AND

"It Feels Good To Be Yourself. A book about gender identity" written by Theresa Thorn and illustrated by Noah Grigni. The cover shows the four main characters, one is a transgender girl, two are nonbinary in different ways, and one is a cis boy who is the little brother to the trans girl.

I typically don't read the kids books even when they are super cute but this one I HAD to read. So I start reading. And I just--

Here's a few pages: (short image description below)

Quick image description: Above are 5 pictures I took of pages that I really liked and made me extra happy. The first two are back to back pages of the book's introduction of JJ, who is a wheelchair user and is "neither a girl or a boy" and uses they/them pronouns. This is the text from the next two back to back pages depicting the four friends playing outside and coloring on the sidewalk: "Some kids don't feel exactly like a girl or a boy -- they feel like neither. Some kids feel like their gender identity isn't always the same -- it's often changing." [Next page] "And even with all these possible ways to be, some kids don't feel like any of the words they know fit them exactly right. There are a never-ending number of ways to be yourself in the world." The last page shows Ruthie after she came out to her parents as transgender. Her whole family (mom, dad, little brother, her, and a dog on the side) are hugging. The text reads "Oops! Ruthie was a girl all along -- they just didn't know it at first." End ID.

SO OBVIOUSLY IM ALMOST SOBBING AT WORK NOW OMG

This book is absolutely beautiful and so sweet and I encourage everyone to go see if they can borrow it at their library. It's a quick 2-3 min read, maybe 15 if you start getting emotional like my queer little heart did. I'm assuming there's a regular print version more widely available, and maybe a LT version too, and if my Hawaii library has a copy of the braille version I'm guessing others already have it too.

OH AND HERE'S THE BACK COVER I DIDNT NOTICE UNTIL AFTER I PROCESSED IT AND THIS PART REALLY GOT ME OKAY (text written below)

"No matter what your gender identity is, you are okay exactly the way you are. And you are loved."

So I just finished the Captive Prince, all 3 books (in one night, trying my best to stay awake at work today), and I Have Thoughts:

1) SO GOOD. The sex. The sexual tension. The politics (at least as twisty and people-focused as Vorkosigan Saga). The characters. Every time I thought I knew where things were going, I was wrong, and it wasn’t just trope subversion - it was avoiding the cheap drama of having the characters make stupid decisions, and having them make the smart decisions instead (mostly). One of the things I hate most in a narrative is when a lot of the plot obstacles could have been solved in 5 minutes if anyone involved had ised their brain and/or their words. This... was not that. This was amazing.

2) I was genuinely shocked that it was actually. Like That. I had read some fanfic of it, but I assumed things like “the courtiers have skimpily-dressed ‘pets’ that have literal public orgies” was uh, a fandom exaggeration, where you take a subtext thing and bring it forward and make it sexier. NOPE. Wow. WOW. In a good way, the best possible way. They Went There. And their publisher let them do it! And I’m so happy about it.

2) Of course this was originally a “fan work.” I know it was always original fiction, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that goes on AO3 anyway because there’s no way you could get it professionally published with those themes, in that tone, with that rating. I didn’t know that before I bought them, but I am in no way surprised.

3) But it DID get published!! It’s selling for money! People are buying it! I’m guessing the online popularity convinced the publisher it could be worth it. Knowing it was an m/m romance, I purposely bought my copies from Amazon, because they frequently blacklist adult m/m from various navigation tools, and I want as much evidence as possible that that’s losing them money.

4) On a more specific note, Laurent had major shades of Miles Vorkosigan, if we replace some of the tools in his toolbox (minus hyperactivity, plus seduction) and give him a terrible home life. I definitely enjoyed this version of ridiculous “forward momentum” gambits that still, ludicrously and with exasperation for his fellow travelers, actually work.

5) Also, the trilogy as a whole reminded me of Queen’s Thief, except it was way better. I know a lot of people really like Queen’s Thief, but when I read them... I liked the story, and the characters were very good, but the books felt like sketches, somehow. They felt... too spare, not fully colored-in. Not unfinished, just, not enough detail to make them really come alive, I guess? Like the editor took out all the “extraneous” description and left just the action verbs. This series though, this had a similar “play shell games with neighboring kingdoms” vibe to the plot, but instead of a sketch it was an entire high-thread-count tapestry of detailed illustration. It was a lot of things I wanted from Queen’s Thief but felt were missing. A+, would read succession war/intrigue drama like this again.

hey lgbt friends

pls reblog this post if ud be interested in a discord server for LGBT writers to get together and provide feedback and participate in writing challenges and also have friends!! im thinkin abt making 1

Just a supporter, myself, but very happy to signal booster for all you lovelies.

My writeblr’s still hecking naked, so--

I joined writeblr a few days ago and, though it’s been fun [believe me, it has been], I sorta feel like I haven’t delved far enough into it.

Looking for writeblrs to follow, so if you write any of the following [or know anyone does], just reblog / tag them! Thank you so much.

Oh, in case you wanted to see my writeblr intro! :’D Oh, and my wip intro too!

And if you have any other killer concepts, lemme know! Can’t wait to sink my teeth [and eyes, obvi] into your wip! <3 buh bye

my current original wip focuses on animals but has POC leads eventually and also LGBT rep all over the place

@quilloftheclouds wip One Siren’s Song( I’m 99% sure that’s the title, but I’m having a migraine day and I’m kinda foggy on deets, I’m sorry Quill!) has pirates, LGBT+ rep, POC Leads, and like everything, so if you’re not already following them do so!! 10/10 wip, blog and person, do reccomend.

In later books of the Illthdar series, will bring in all the courtly intrigue and misfortune of from the island of Woodralan to the things the diverse main cast (which does include multiple PoCs, levels of physical ability and lgbtqai representation) to deal with.