I'm working on some new stickers for my Redbubble shop. Hopefully they'll be up soon. In the meantime though, you can always check out what I already have: Redbubble
So in my Sunday DnD game, my cleric managed to use Divine Intervention to move some problematic mushroom people off a ship. Her bestie (*cough*crush*cough) may have run over and swung her up in the air while calling her the best cleric ever. So I had to draw that moment.
The best part was as I was rolling, the other players were talking about how unlikely it was that I would pull this off and get Hermes to intervene for us as well as how they'd never seen someone pull off a successful divine intervention. (Yes, I am worshipping Hermes in game and irl.) Then the roll popped up. So we screenshotted that shit.
I've been kinda hopping around in the creation of this one to the parts I have ideas for. But I do have some secrets hidden in here already. 1) we get a reference to who has Adelyte's sense of direction. 2) we get to see that yes, Hermes tricked her with a "magic flower" that is a crocus, and had her eat saffron to "awaken" her magic. 3) You get a glimpse of her future (aka, current campaign stuff) for a brief moment.
Want to commission me? I do character designs as well as DnD character sheets over on Deviant art: https://www.deviantart.com/ringo-ichigo/commission/DnD-Character-Design-with-Sheet-1733851
I've been on a sticker designing kick of late. You can purchase these (and soon more) over on Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Ringo-Ichigo/shop?asc=u
Reminder: the idea of "some people have exceptions to their sexuality" is a thinly veiled excuse for bi/homophobia and used to justify harassment to everyone, but especially ace, lesbians, bi+, and other non-straight sexualities. When you hear someone say this, call it out. People frequently use this to hide their own sexuality when they're not willing to accept it (which if you think it's that, be kind in your "hey, don't say that. It is really harmful."), or when they're trying to excuse their harassment of people who are not interested. I've known a straight girl who told a lesbian no and was then harassed with more advances with the excuse of "everyone has an exception." I've known lesbians harassed by straight men with this. I know ace people harassed with "I'll be the one exception." It's a toxic take that has more to do with that person having issues than it being reality.
Is sexuality complex? Yes. But the take "people have exceptions to their sexuality" is not the way to express that some people aren't as perfectly straight as they appear. Because the way it shakes out beyond harassment is this idea gets people subjected to "corrective" assaults (because the assaulter will magically be the "one exception" who makes the assaulted a "normal" sexuality) or denied asylum (because "maybe this relationship is an exception so you could plausibly hide your sexuality in your homophobic country of origin"). This idea does real harm. Just go "sexuality is complex" and leave it at that.
And reminder: you will only form deeper connections with about 150 people in your lifetime. 1 in 150 is pretty good odds of there being another person somewhere that you could be attracted to when there are 8.3 billion people alive. So maybe don't act like it's impossible that someone out there that you may never know would tick all your boxes. And even if I limit it to the people you will meet: 150 out of 80000 isn't too bad either. Your exceptions exist in a greater quantity than you want to acknowledge on a planet with 6.2 billion adults. Grow up and accept that maybe you're not straight and just picky.
Look, I'm not going to say this is a happy historical thing. It's not. But I do think it needs to be kept as it is as a reminder of the horrific capabilities of humanity. Not remade in order to destroy our environment more.
Since it has been a hot minute since I wrote my sapphic book reccs, I thought I would update with the ones I've read since.
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields: I enjoyed this one for its take on magic and the story. We have a bi lead and a lesbian love interest. (Yay!!!) That said, the pacing was a bit rocky as it has a very slow start and the ending is kinda fast.
Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee: I loved this one. Regency period? Hell yes. Two bi leads? OH hell yes! There are some pacing problems, but overall, I enjoyed this a ton. I want more sapphic crossdressing actresses in period pieces.
Like in Love with You by Emma R. Alban: another Regency one. I liked how this one built the romantic chemistry early on. Two lesbian leads that go from rivals to lovers. But hands down, my favorite part is a line from the ending. I don't want to share it solely because it does relate to a spoiler, but it is such a beautiful line about love.
The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur: I didn't love this one as much as some of her other books. It does have some fun with the fantasy part and time loops (sorta?) which I did find interesting. Best part was honestly when the wishes were going sideways.
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod: this one is essentially fanfiction. Nothing bad, but if you don't like that in your fiction, flee. But if you are like me and upon your umpteenth reading of Pride and Prejudice realized that Mary Bennet comes across very queer, know that you are not alone. While I enjoyed the fact it is based on Pride and Prejudice, I think I would have enjoyed it more if we simply had just... made them new characters. It would have worked equally well if not better as you wouldn't be remembering the originals and going "I don't think these personalities quite align here." Still, it wasn't bad.
A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee: another middle of the pack one. Set in Victorian England, it tackles some interesting dynamics and the idea of lavender marriages. That said, there were some things in the medical aspect that were just... a bit off. Anachronistic is the best way to describe it but that's not quite right either. I like the vibes of the couple overall, as I am a sucker for the uptight and the reckless type.
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette De Bodard: this is a novella technically, but I care not. However, fair warning, this book deals with intimate partner violence and abuse. It is one of the main themes of this book. While it has a happy ending, I do caution against reading this if you're not in a good headspace and have experienced abuse in your past. Overall though, I really loved the setting chosen and the way it approached the topic. (I just personally had a bad time reading this because ironically, I picked this up to give me a break from our dishonorable mention below and its intimate partner issues. So... I was not in a good space.)
Honorable Mentions!
Cinder House by Freya Marske: this novella is a retelling of Cinderella. It makes the very interesting choice to make Cinderella a ghost. My one disappointment is that technically this ends with a polyamorous situation where our bisexual Cinderella gets to be with a guy and a girl at the same time... but the sapphic side didn't get built up enough. We established the bisexuality early on, but the sapphic partner basically is referenced obliquely early on and we're told they fell in love via letter writing. That we didn't get to see... It just felt a bit forced. But I cannot hate on it that much because oh my god, I didn't realize I needed a poly bi Cinderella in my life until I read this.
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell: I struggle with whether this counts as a sapphic novel because our love interest is trans. But I'm going to count it solely because I'm not sure how else I would categorize this since our female lead isn't exactly straight but it's not stated what her sexuality really is beyond "I like the trans masc lead regardless of their gender". So it's more like just an LGBT+ novel, but it does explore queer female sexuality a lot so it feels more sapphic than it likely is. But I am just overthinking the category now. So let's focus on the actual book. Come away with me to the Victorian era and the debut of the bicycle. We'll bike around the shore, painting seaweed, confronting misogyny, and getting into some sexy hijinks... Okay, full disclosure, this has one of my favorite sex scenes of any book I've read. I don't want to spoil too much, but I at least appreciated this book a lot.
And finally: Dishonorable Mention
North is the Night by Emily Rath: I hate this book. I hate it so much. Do you want to explore lesser known mythologies, death gods and mortal wives, and one hopeless lesbian? Yes? Too bad! You will get butchered mythologies, toeing the dubcon line for the straights, and a girl so desperate for her bff that she's fine with being only loved when the man is out of the line of vision. I wish I were joking on the last one. But seriously, the one girl ended up loving whomever she was currently looking at and we didn't earn a poly ending. Oh, and as a cherry on top to this shitty read, we get indigenous populations being as one of the main villains and there being some serious tone issues there. And you know, I could have maybe tolerated this book being bad on its own. But the heterosexual pairing for this book was so awful when it came to consent and control that I started to need hourly breaks because it would just become too triggering and/or too frustrating. When you actively cross into that kind of territory for me, I spit on your grave.
My favorite thing: reading a wonderful sapphic romance, going to the reviews, and seeing someone argue that you can't call it sapphic because the leads are bisexual women.
Yes. Please do continue to erase us from our spaces. It's so enjoyable to watch you argue that the people who helped coin that word don't deserve to be called it.
Does anyone else find it annoying when a book makes a point to point out how heteronormative romance is as a genre... and then pull out some of the most heteronormative bullshit? I'm reading a book that spoke about this... and then an actual plot point is the male lead has chosen to be celibate until he's in love. Which he brings up AFTER HE HAS GIVEN THE FEMALE LEAD ORAL IN HIS CAR. Sir, you are not celibate anymore. Just because the p isn't in the v doesn't mean you haven't broken that. Claiming that you are being celibate because you haven't put the p in (and yes the author clarifies that this is why his vow is still valid in both leads' minds) is so heteronormative and invalidating to LGBT+ people in particular by claiming the ways they have sex doesn't count because it usually doesn't involve p in v.
Authors, don't brag about your non-heteronormative stuff when you have this shit in there. It's gross and it's a lie.
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