YOOOO!!! So I was looking to see if there’s a cure for Medusa’s sight for a story (it’s about necromancers and I need to make sure a character is dead for good) and apparently if the gorgon cries tears of sorrow she can use those years to cure the petrification, so that means Medusa doesn’t HAVE to live alone the rest of her life! If she fell in love with someone or found a real friend and accidentally turned them to stone she could bring them back! Now go forth fic writers! Go forth and creative cute fluff!!!

So, my grandpa lived his whole life on a farm, and he didn’t have any siblings or cousins or anything, and apparently when he and Grandma had their first kid he was astounded to see that her eyes were open… he’d only ever been around animal babies, not human babies… he thought her eyes would be closed for the first few weeks like a cat or a dog…

I swear to God he is the dumbest smart person I know.

When I was in middle school we had a fire drill in the middle of winter and had to drudge our asses out to the field in two fucking feet of snow. We weren’t allowed to have our coats in class, and as everyone knows, you can’t get yo shit in a fire drill. So naturally we weren’t very happy, it was close to Christmas break, and I was the dumbass to started up singing, “Joy to the world, the school burnt down,” and quickly had the whole school singing along. Then the fire engines showed up and we realized it wasn’t a drill.

Ever notice that even the most cliche, over done, predictable as hell story becomes instantly more interesting if the main character is gay?

Like, horse movie, but the troubled teen is gay, the reason the perfect, hot as hell ranch hand is still single is because he’s gay and hasn’t found anyone in the small town or on the ranch, until troubled teen comes along. Or maybe troubled teen is a lesbian, and the tension between them and snobby horse racing rich girl is just disaster lesbian energy.

Goofy smart guy that knows everything is sent on a mission only he can do for some fucking reason to get the artifact with a hot chick who is comically out of his league but everyone knows they’ll end up together. What if goofy guy is actually gay, and agreed to go on the mission because he has the hots for the guy who sent them?

What if the eye candy sex object villain hench woman with the seduction to steal important thing and ends up going to the good side because hot people can’t be evil is a lesbian with the hots for generic action hero’s love interest and goes to the good side because she’s tired of being treated like a sex object and wants to be treated like an equal. Then the end of movie scene is love interest and hench woman living on a quiet farm together, or being total badasses together on missions.

Hero must save the damsel in distress? Make that hero a chick and you’ve got yourself a story. Bonus points for some sort of, “No man can ever save her!” Line. Or have the princess not be useless and fight her way out to where her girlfriend is casually waiting outside the tower to give her a ride home. Or make the damsel a prince who is being held for ransom and the king sends some knights to rescue him, and the captain of the guard falls in love with the prince.

There are billions of hetro stories out there, they’re everywhere, but take any cliche trope and toy with the roles and it gets infinitely better. Take a story where everyone knows what’s going to happen, and then subvert their expectations.

So, I was talking over my decision to make a character trans with my sister, and she actually said she thought I was going a little overboard with the representation, and asked if I actually had any straight characters. Honest answer? Of course I do! They’re just not as relevant to the plot. Although, after I thought about it I do have a straight love interest for a demisexual character, but she’s a total badass and that particular couple flips gender norms on the head, so I’ll probs just leave it.

For literal years my Grandma wouldn’t start her car before checking in the back because at one point my brother snuck into the back of her Blazer and waited until they were almost back to her house and popped up with a “Hi Grandma!” and she almost drove into the canal.

Guys I just had the best idea for the end of my book. I wanted it to end with my favorite ship getting married (two ladies, Marcella and Jessica) and the idea of a theme came to me. Pride. That’s the theme. Every invitation says for gusts to wear their pride colors, if it’s safe for them to do so, they’ve got every different pride flag they could get their hands on to decorate the place. The wedding is in June, I got a guy wearing an aromantic toga with a pansexual cape, it’s got all the feels and I’m even putting in a handful of heterosexuals because everyone should feel comfortable in their sexuality, gender identity, and romantic orientation no matter what it is.

So, Victoria was born in Germany right in the height of the witch hunts and abandoned as a baby. A miller took her in and taught her not to hate those who act out of fear. He was also a witch sympathizer and she learned how to use her powers from the many men and women he helped hide. Then one day she was out and when she came back and wirch hunters had set fire to the mill and killed him. She was, like, twelve.

Well, she ran and this village in buttf*ck nowhere collectively took her in and she used her powers to help them and they helped her build a little cottage in the woods where she could safely practice her magic and people could go to her for help, then the village as a whole wouldn’t get hurt if she made a mistake.

Kid was fifteen when word got out and three witches found her. Witches who were sick of being hunted and running away. They wanted her to join them in enslaving/killing humanity and she refused. She wasn’t the first witch they propositioned, but she was the first to say no. So they cursed her to slowly become a monster and lose ability to control her own body so she had to watch as limbs that were both hers and not hers killed people, taste their blood, feel herself rip out their throats, and hear their screams.

At any rate that’s when she ran from the village so she didn’t hurt them and she met James, he was chopping wood and found her crying. He was sixteen and offered to help. She taught him magic and they started hunting down the witches (the only way to break a curse like that without the witches doing it willingly is to kill them) They managed to kill one beforr she was completely gone and James met Charlotte, who has her own tragic backstory. James and Charlotte manage to find and kill all three witches and break the curse. Then the three of them keep hunting down monsters and witches who were hurting innocent people.

Well by then Victoria had, understandably, gone off the deep end, she starts manipulating Charlotte and James and starts her quest to become more powerful, (In this if you kill a witch you absorb their powers) the main story is her hunting down these nine kids so she can take their power. She wants to be powerful enough that noone or thing can ever hurt her again.

So, opinions? I’m showing her as this innocent chick throughout the story, James is my red herring, and I want to know if this is a decent backstory and motivation for her, does it make sense? Are there plot holes? Etc. Thanks!

Before reviewing this story I feel the need to get a few disclaimers out of the way. First up, spoiler warning. I’ll try not to explicitly spoil anything, but some of the things I mention may lead you to get ahead of the twists before they’re revealed. Second, gore. I’m really not the best person to rate gore as (not to blow my own horn) I’ve got a pretty high tolerance for gore, but this story does revolve around a mad scientist, so if you don’t like hearing about experiments and the like I’d steer clear of this one. Third, there are a few places that may warrant a trigger warning, specifically for domestic abuse, and sexual assault, though these aren’t terribly big or often. (Maybe a little often on emotional abuse)

Still here? Great, let’s begin!

The Madman’s Daughter, by Megan Shepherd

One thing I’d like to get out of the way is the love triangle. I’m not one to hide my disdain for love triangles, and I think that the world is growing more and more aware of how absolutely terrible they are. More specifically the Twilight TM kind, where there are two gorgeous and amazing guys fighting over a really blah chick. I’m happy to say that the only damsel moments that I noticed were when she actually couldn’t do anything, more specifically times that involve swimming, but that is reasonable considering the day and age this is set, 1 it makes sense for her not to be able to swim because she was raised a lady, 2 she’s a girl, she’s in dresses and corsets, I’m pretty sure Olympic swimmers wouldn’t be terribly eager to jump into the ocean in one of those monstrosities. But, I digress, and to make things easier the three characters in le’ love triangle are named Juliet, Edward (har har), and Montgomery. Now, another big problem with love triangles is that it’s usually very obvious who the chick is going to pick. Let’s be real, it’s usually the one introduced as a love interest first. But, in this story I actually found myself bouncing back and forth on who I thought she’d end up with. As the story progresses there are some very interesting developments in the love interests that give genuine cause to revaluate who is the better man.

Next thing I’d like to talk about is her father. I find that estranged fathers often fall into two categories, either the child detests actually likable guys, or the child adores and defends literal scum. This story falls into neither category as Juliet doesn’t try to defend his awful actions, and is often the one who hates him the most. But, one thing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before with terrible parents is the horror one can feel realizing that you share traits with them. Juliet often has to take a step back, realizing that she also shows some of the traits that made her label him as ‘mad’ and in this, the audience can do the same thing. With stories involving experimentation the audience may be horrified by what they learn, but let’s be real, who among us would read something like this and not want to find out everything. It’s morbid curiosity that’s told in a way that would make anyone consider their own labeling of this 'mad’ scientist.

Again, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, this is a mystery story, and as everyone knows mysteries aren’t any fun when you know the ending. Learning about all of the things going on on the island, the Doctor’s experiments, his surgeries, why he needs all of the things he sent Montgomery to London for in the first place, it unravels at a delicious pace, little seeds for the story planted early on and carefully nurtured, then, as with most gore stories it’s descriptions that cinch it. The time when this takes place lends to the difficulty that Juliet had describing some things, giving an uneasy feeling of knowing some things simply defy description. Juliet tries her best to make sense of things but is limited by her time. As far as the medical terms go she is fairly well versed in terminology there, but it can be difficult to balance proper terminology for things with terms that the average reader will actually know. This story does a good job of it. Unfortunately, there are few of the experiments and procedures described that suspend disbelief a little too far, but they’re easy to put aside while focussing on the action.

Finally, the climax. Good god, the climax. Another spoiler warning here, because I’m telling you now, it takes a lot to bring me to tears. This ending had me literally sobbing. It cranks up the adrenaline, holds your interest in revealing the mystery, and tying up so many loose ends. It is beautifully catastrophic in a way that lends itself to the revealing twist. It keeps your attention on an exceedingly worrying decision, one that completely consumes Juliet’s every thought as it reaches the end then rips the rug out from under you in an equally heart-shattering ending that I for one did not see coming. This story literally left me sobbing for a good five minutes straight as it wound to a close, and I absolutely recommend it for anyone who enjoys mystery, horror, and suspense.