Now that Alain’s Season 4 is out in its entirety, I can finally talk about how thrilled I was to write it! I’d missed my sweet, tragic, plant-loving boy!
This has been my favorite season of Alain so far. The previous three seasons have been romantic and exciting, but there’s always been a power imbalance between Alain and MC. This season, they finally got to address it!
They’re growing together, just like any two people who’ve known each other forever have to in order to take care of themselves and one another. Alain and MC have had a rocky road to happiness. Navigating that takes time and hard work, and very few people get it right on the first try. But MC and Alain want each other’s happiness above all, and they’re willing to do what it takes to be together. Exploring their journey has been such a rich experience. Alain is a character that I love as much as any of my OC’s, and all I want is the best for him.
Season 5 is going to be buckwild, so get psyched! And as always, thank you so much for reading. I love seeing everyone’s responses to the episodes as they come out; each season takes so many hours to write, and knowing that people are enjoying it makes it all worth it.
If you’re not playing Love & Legends yet, now’s a good time to start! The series is wrapping up, which means that you have hours of content to play through with very few “oh crap when does the next season come out?!” cliffhangers to worry about. You can download the Lovestruck app for FREE on iOS, Android, and Amazon!
My dad’s side of the fam holds two Thanksgivings, and I picked the one that isn’t full of shitty people for obvious reasons. But I just found out that my dad’s toxic bitch of a girlfriend is going to be there, too.
Okay that cut from Captain Marvel to Wonder Woman to Valkyrie–I have needed that my whole life.
Now that Alain’s Season 4 is out in its entirety, I can finally talk about how thrilled I was to write it! I’d missed my sweet, tragic, plant-loving boy!
This has been my favorite season of Alain so far. The previous three seasons have been romantic and exciting, but there’s always been a power imbalance between Alain and MC. This season, they finally got to address it!
They’re growing together, just like any two people who’ve known each other forever have to in order to take care of themselves and one another. Alain and MC have had a rocky road to happiness. Navigating that takes time and hard work, and very few people get it right on the first try. But MC and Alain want each other’s happiness above all, and they’re willing to do what it takes to be together. Exploring their journey has been such a rich experience. Alain is a character that I love as much as any of my OC’s, and all I want is the best for him.
Season 5 is going to be buckwild, so get psyched! And as always, thank you so much for reading. I love seeing everyone’s responses to the episodes as they come out; each season takes so many hours to write, and knowing that people are enjoying it makes it all worth it.
If you’re not playing Love & Legends yet, now’s a good time to start! The series is wrapping up, which means that you have hours of content to play through with very few “oh crap when does the next season come out?!” cliffhangers to worry about. You can download the Lovestruck app for FREE on iOS, Android, and Amazon!
An excellent article in the Sydney Morning Herald today about #MeToo and why romance authors need to pay attention. Sadly, I missed it, but many attendees at the RWAus conference this year told me Kate Cuthbert’s keynote speech was INCREDIBLE.
“But Cuthbert is talking about more than just entertainment. In her
speech she nails the powerful element of romance writing that has made
it such a huge and perennial phenomenon: the hope it offers for women’s
lives to be well-lived.”
*air punch*
Incidentally, for those who might not know who Kate Cuthbert is, she’s FUCKING AWESOME. She’s the managing editor at Escape Publishing, a digital-first imprint owned by Harlequin/Mills and Boon here in Australia. Escape give a LOT of people rejected from the main HQN lines a place to publish. I pitched to her last year at the RWAus conference (my first ever pitch!) and she was SO NICE. That book is currently on submission to a main HQN line but if it doesn’t get in, Kate is my next port of call.
She has her finger absolutely on the pulse of what readers want and enjoy, possibly more so than any other mainstream romance publisher at any given moment because Escape are much faster to publishing than most trads. Kate KNOWS. Listen to her, people.
“It won’t be easy, Cuthbert adds. ‘But the alternative is to continue
normalising coercion and domination and disrespect and powerlessness in
our romantic relationships.’
She’s right about it not being easy.
The alpha male of traditional romantic fiction teeters right on the
brink of toxicity: it’s a short step from gorgeous bad boy to
domineering brute, and much of the appeal lies in flirting with danger.”
One good reason for writers to give particularly careful consideration to what type of heroine is partnered with an alpha hero.Almost invariably, the answer seems to be a heroine who is herself alpha. She won’t be browbeaten, she is decisive, knows how to take care of herself, and takes the lead and goes for what she wants without apologies.If you want the adrenaline rush of “flirting with danger”, then make the heroinea proactive, capable protagonist, not a subject.
i just cant get over the lobster scene. like his friends are actively begging him, do not get into the lobster tank. please eddie. tom hardy you were in mad max fury road dont do this. and tom hardy looks at his friend like “i know i shouldnt do this. i shouldnt be getting into this lobster tank but i’m going to anyway. i’m already mostly inside. cant stop now. i’m sorry i dont want to be doing this either there’s just no other choice for me.” and then he takes a bg bite out of a live lobster that’s still in the shell and everything.
tom hardy doesn’t actually know he’s being possessed by an alien yet in the story. he’s just resigned himself to whatever fucking meltdown he seems to be having. he doesn’t even seem particularly surprised that things have gone this way for him. like ten minutes later he finds out his heart stopped working and hes just like “you asshole” and he throws his alien parasite against the wall like a water balloon. and then he just leaves and is immediately kidnapped. what a fucking wild ride tom hardy is on.
tom hardy’s actual superpower is being the exact same level of dysfunctional no matter what is happening in his life. so when everything’s going ok for him he self-destructs spectacularly, but when literally everything that can happen to a human being happens to him, he does, like, unrealistically well. climbing into a lobster tank and eating a live animal with large claws just like… “well, this is what’s happening to me today. i’m so sorry you have to watch this, man. anyway here goes, i’m going to bite into a living creature with my human mouth and then LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS”
this movie’s fucking killing me from the inside.
IT WASNT EVEN IN THE SCRIPT TOM HARDY IS JUST A FUCKING GENUINE MADMAN
Honestly here’s some information that I think will help antis understand problematic ships a whole lot better. Most people don’t ship for aspirational reasons.
The vast majority of shippers I’ve encountered don’t consider fictional ships to be “relationship goals” or something to emulate in real life. Yes, even the healthy ones. Most shippers are just interested in telling stories or think the individual characters are attractive or want to explore new dynamics that aren’t present in canon for whatever reason.
I’ve seen a lot of antis respond to problematic ships with confusion and I think from an aspirational view of fiction that reaction makes a lot of sense. If you consider fictional relationships to be something fans like because they want to emulate, it would be pretty scary and baffling to see fans latch onto problematic ships. The problem is, most people don’t choose ships based on what they want in an actual relationship. They choose them based on what makes an interesting story or which characters they’re attracted to or even what would cause the most problems for the characters involved.
I hope this helps people understand each other better and I apologize for crosstagging, but I really think this information might help make the discourse more productive.
the fact that lights don’t start flickering ominously and short-circuiting whenever i’m upset is maximally unsexy and not at all excellent if you ask me
queerlybeloveds 