fantasy – fairy tale / folklore

Word Count: Click here to reveal17000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: In this second instalment of the Damien the Devil series, we see Damien has found a new, more permanent home outside the foster system with Pat, Damien’s Renfield and caseworker, and his twin brother Matt. He‘s also enjoying a budding romantic relationship with Brian, another boy from the foster home. But after the two of them are caught kissing, Damien is kicked out on the streets in the middle of the night—only to find himself in a very dangerous situation with a vampire. Brian, feeling guilty about the whole situation, goes looking for Damien the next evening, only to fall victim to the vampire’s trap himself. Damien and Pat save Brian, but he’s unable to remember what happened that night—until he starts to be plagued with nightmares. Meanwhile, Damien is too afraid to reveal to Brian that he is a vampeal: a half-vampire and half-human. Will they both be able to handle the truth of what each other is hiding?

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealAromantic, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Three all-ages fairy tales of kindness and acceptance, beautifully illustrated and presented in English and Romanian. Alia Terra: Basme din Tărâmul Dragonilor conține trei povești diverse pentru toate vârstele. Alia Terra: Stories from the Dragon Realm draws from personal experiences, Romanian folklore with Dacian roots, and our fundamental need—to believe in ourselves. Richly illustrated by Michigan artist Matthew Spencer in shades of color and gender, the words of Ava Kelly assure that we all belong. “Ava Kelly’s book of bilingual Romanian/English fairytales is both necessary and a delight. While queer writing is being suppressed in many countries of Eastern Europe, this volume offers comfort and consolation with queer-normative stories that reach back to the familiar themes of childhood, and provide renewed hope. Mages, princesses, and above all, dragons populate the world of Alia Terra, richly illustrated by Matthew Spencer. Characters go against expectations, and learn to live true to themselves: curses turn into blessings, flying creatures find a new beginning underwater, and even love acquires new meaning. From aromanticism to nonbinary gender, LGBTQIA+ themes in Alia Terra are always portrayed with a gentle kindness that we need in our lives, and an eager, resilient confidence. Read the stories and share them with your loved ones!” —Bogi Takács, Hugo and Lambda Award-winning author

Word Count: Click here to reveal150000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King - a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal’s hands. Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he’s inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can’t help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart. As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory - Oak King or Holly King.

Word Count: Click here to reveal44000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealLesbian, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Stepping out in borrowed shoes has never been so dangerous. Stripped of her inheritance as a child by a greedy stepmother, Alla’s future hovers between drudgery and slavery. Having spent years toiling in the mansion that was once her happy home, tending to her stepmother’s every whim, she has long since put aside any thoughts of a better future. When a chance encounter in the marketplace leaves her with an invitation to the upcoming ball, her only opportunity to play out an old dream of seeing inside the palace walls is by being someone she’s not. A farce that could see her executed or sold. But will she be able to maintain the illusion once she meets Princess Viktoriya?

Word Count: Click here to reveal36000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Aromantic, Bisexual, Demigender, Demisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Intersex, Lesbian, Non Binary, Questioning, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Straight, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: INK (NOUN) Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) A colored fluid used for writing 2) The action of signing a deal 3) A black liquid ejected by squid 4) Publicity in the written media 5) A slang word for tattoos Ink features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Word Count: Click here to reveal102700 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Lesbian, Questioning, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: I never wanted to be queen. But I won’t let just anyone take my place. Or my men. To defeat the Unseelie, our allies need their long-lost magic, and that means someone has to become queen. I had to leave both of my lovers behind in the human realm, and I can’t return to them until I find someone worthy of the throne. Of course, nothing is ever easy, and I embark on a desperate plan to save the Fae by helping my fellow heir. Along the way, I’m drawn to another potential lover, even though we both know he should be off-limits. To become queen, Una needs one final consort, and she chooses one of my handsome, powerful guards. Suddenly, I’m not willing to surrender him. But who am I to stand in the way of our future queen? Note: 18+ only. In the six-book Our Fae Queen series, Glori will find limitless love with multiple Fae. Steamy group scenes in later books involve MFM, FMM, and MMFMMM. All intimate encounters are consensual. Mayhem. Magic. Romance. Expect unusual shapeshifters, new love and friendships, surprising betrayal, and two uncertain heirs finding their way in Bound to the Queen, the exciting third book of this new adult Why Choose romance and a turning point for Glori.

Word Count: Click here to reveal105080 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Lesbian, Questioning, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: Yes, to learning to use my new Fae magic. No, to being used.  The Fae need my help to regain their long-lost magic. Sure, my powerful guards are all supernaturally hot, but their weird Tree of Life ceremony would turn me into nothing more than their sex slave. Not happening. Plus, as long as I possess the queen’s magic, the Unseelie won’t stop hunting me… or my friends. To protect us all, I’ll gladly give up the throne. But surrendering the queen’s magic won’t be easy. And until I do, it’ll keep summoning potential consorts to my side. So when these gorgeous men tell me they want me, I can’t trust their intentions. Is it me they crave? Or my power? For readers who believe in love without limits and HEA! Note: 18+ only. In the six-book Our Fae Queen series, Glori will find limitless love with multiple Fae. Steamy group scenes in later books involve MFM, FMM, and MMFMMM. All intimate encounters are consensual. In Consorts for the Queen, you’ll find a simmering, slow-burn romance and an uncertain heroine finding her way with help from the men she comes to love. If you enjoy a steamy story with substance, you’ll love Traci Lovelot’s RH series, Our Fae Queen.

Word Count: Click here to reveal18000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: First love has never been so dangerous. War is in love with Denver, but he discovers his boyfriend is more than he seems when he turns into a supernatural creature made of fire. Denver has grown up on his Aunt’s made-up stories of demons and sin, but he never wanted to believe her until he turns into a firebird. He has to give up everything, including his boyfriend, War. This new ability threatens to tear their love apart. #shifterromance #firstlove #virginromance

Word Count: Click here to reveal8000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When worlds collide a shifter joins a warrior’s mission; anything might happen—even love. *Valentine’s Day short story, a shifter and a warrior *A magical romantic comedy (including a hungry dragon) *Undeniable attraction and sweet romance *Laugh out loud humor *A Lou Sylvre happy ending   On Valentine’s Day, a lonely shifter flies over the Okanogan Wilderness looking for adventure, knowing romance is the one thing he’s least likely to find out there. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself blasted from the sky only to land on a strong, handsome, and oddly calm man dressed something like a gladiator. The renowned warrior Li did not plan to spend his day trying to free his wizard employer from the clutches of a sorceress. Spells collide, and a big black bird falls on his head and turns into a fine and scantily dressed man, but he’s not sure how much help that will be. Guthrie is fond of saying, “Anything can happen.” He’s convinced that doesn’t mean romance, but is it possible he’s more right than he ever guessed?

Word Count: Click here to reveal40020 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A Frost spirit who runs a coffee shop. A Cupid who works as a divorce lawyer. And magic in the air ... Raine’s never been a conventional Cupid. He likes organization, his job as a successful lawyer, and plain black coffee, and he dislikes messiness, physical and emotional. He tries hard not to use his powers, and he’s not planning to fall in love -- after all, he wouldn’t trust it if someone fell in love with him. But the owner of Raine’s favorite coffee shop just might challenge Raine’s resolutions. Don enjoys his life. Even though he’s a Frost, he finds comfort in giving people warmth: good coffee, a cozy refuge from the rain, holiday decorations, and overall cheer. But one gorgeous Cupid seems immune to Don’s cheerfulness -- and he keeps coming back, day after day. Fortunately, Don’s always liked a challenge...

Word Count: Click here to reveal35300 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Being invisible makes it really hard to get laid. When half-human Kai Schiffer steps into the Interstices—the post-creation gaps between realms—his supernatural half kicks in and he literally disappears unless…well, don’t ask. But in a stroke (heh) of good fortune, Kai finally has a chance to show his face (and other parts, stars willing) to his long-time crush Jovan Kos—Interstitial Law Enforcement agent, wolf warrior, occasional berserker, and best man at their mutual best friends’ Imbolc wedding. Jovan, who’s half in love with Kai already, is grateful his best man duties are light enough that he can focus all his attention on Kai. After all, with Enchanted Occasions Event Planning handling the Olesson-Pakulski wedding, what could possibly go wrong?

Word Count: Click here to reveal7600 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealPansexual (Click here to hide)

Summary: Do not seek the Goblin Market. Do not barter with those you find there. And above all, do not taste of the goblin’s seed… To save his childhood sweetheart, Conn dares the dangers of the Goblin Market only to fall under the spell of the goblin himself. Will love save everything or destroy all their lives?

Word Count: Click here to reveal47053 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: It’s the last straw when three prudish pigs play a nasty trick on the set. So where else would Wolf go to plan the perfect payback, but Harry’s Behind the Scenes Bar, Baths & Grill? Soaking wet when he arrives at the back door, Harry’s dragon-magick fireplace soon gets Wolf’s fur mostly dry. Shifting to his human, silver-hair-to-his-bare-butt self, he’s almost done when the door opens again. And what to his wondering eyes does appear but a trio of boorish boar brothers—without a single reindeer!—all in a row from short to not-very-tall: Guy, Gresham and Grant Graham. Wolf’s idea is so brilliant, it’s definitely dawn coming up like thunder, “outer China ‘crost the Bay.” (Wolf really likes Kipling). A maybe mean, surely sneaky, snake-in-Eden idea. Payback is a dish best served hot...and hard. Join the fun as payback plays out. There’s help from Tom Thumb, fine food, expensive bottles of Harry’s Dragon’s Own Special Reserve wine (the only thing which gets a shifter drunk), Death by Chocolate, Lady Flame, a private tour of the baths. Plus rooms of straw and sticks and bricks, and an Easter Egg, which might be hiding in Manhattan. Fair warning: there’s a lot of huffing and puffing as part of the plan. Just not at doors. 47,053 words in the story

Word Count: Click here to reveal22400 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When King Lucius is imprisoned in a magic mirror by an evil wizard, he is forced to watch as his life is destroyed and his kingdom brought to the brink of ruin.  Trapped in his own reflection, he only has the freedom to move and talk when the wizard sleeps. With his subjects under the dark spell of the wizard, Lucius is forced to rely on the most unlikely of heroes if he hopes to get his life back. Harry comes from a long line of assassins and prides himself on being one of the best in the kingdom, but when he is hired to kill King Lucius he discovers that all is not as it seems in the Kingdom of Cinders. Harry agrees to help Lucius in return for a full pardon for his crimes, but to complete his quest he may have to give up everything, including his freedom and the king he has come to love.

Word Count: Click here to reveal62000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Colin Everroad should be dead, but after his lobster boat founders during a violent storm off the Maine coast, he wakes up on a beach. He’s cold, but unscathed… with strange memories of a face he can’t conjure and a voice he doesn’t recognize. No one can explain it, but a friend suggests Colin was saved by one of the mer. Except the mer don’t exist. Do they? But… that face. That voice. Someone was in the water with him. Someone saved him. If not a mer, then who? And whoever it was, Colin wants to see his face. Lir broke protocol by rescuing a land person, but he couldn’t just let the man drown. When he disobediently resurfaces to see his beautiful land man, he knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s forbidden to leave the depths again. One clandestine visit turns into more. Soon, Colin and Lir are meeting at the shore as often as possible, and the connection between them deepens. The only problem is that neither can live in the other’s world. Or can they? Then Lir finds a way for them to be together, but only for a little while… and at a cost. As time grows short, they have to choose: does Lir return to the sea and never see Colin again, or stay forever with the man he loves in a world that will never love them? Ripples & Waves is a modern, queer retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

Word Count: Click here to reveal35000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Also written by Karen Blakely, Jenniffer Lee, RA Gates, and Cheryl Mahoney You think you know the story – prince gets cursed, girl meets Beast, they fall in love and live happily ever after. If only it was that simple. But dating is tough even in the best of circumstances. Ever since the fateful day when we let that horrible Good Fairy into the castle, our lives have been on hold. When she turned our bad-tempered prince into a Beast, she lumped us, his loyal servants, into the curse too, just because she assumed his rude behavior was our fault. Theodore the butler should never have let her in, and the rest of us should have helped bar the door. Now Theodore is an armchair, and we’re all trying to carry on our duties as a piano, a coat rack, a bookcase and the like. At least we have Robert to clean up the pink sparkles piling in the corners from the Good Fairy’s curse, since he’s a mop now. We know we just need the Beast to fall in love to break the spell. We’re all doing whatever we can to help him find True Love, one visitor at a time, hoping the right person finally comes along–but will the Beast ever learn to love?

Word Count: Click here to reveal26900 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary:

Lord Marcus is on a quest to slay the dragon, rescue the princess, and live happily ever after. Falling for the dragon was never part of the plan.

When Lord Marcus set out on his quest, it seemed a simple enough task to accomplish. Slay the dragon and rescue the princess, securing his father's approval and earning his happily ever after--only the princess is a witch and the dragon is nowhere to be seen. Instead he finds a young man who has a very big secret and is in far greater need of rescuing. Marcus's well planned quest might have taken an unexpected turn, but his happy ending could still be within his grasp, if he can earn the trust of a dragon who has been betrayed and hurt by everyone he has ever known.

Word Count: Click here to reveal24000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary:

When Prince Aiden sets out to rescue a princess, the last thing he expects to find is a cross-dressing artist named Robert. Can he set aside his fears and find the fairy tale ending he longs for?

In a world where fairy stories are historical fact, Prince Aiden is on a quest to find a princess to rescue and bring home as his bride. Deep in the Enchanted Forest, he finds Robert, a cross-dressing artist who lives alone in his tower. Mistaking him for a woman, Prince Aiden is determined to have Robert as his bride.

When the prince of his dreams shows up at Robert’s tower he is far from happy, especially when the handsome prince refuses to believe he is a man. Can he convince Prince Aiden to love him as the man he is, or is their happily ever after doomed from the start?

Word Count: Click here to reveal23000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When John the woodcutter realises he is about to lose the love of his life, he seeks out the wicked witch of the Enchanted Forest, hoping to buy a love potion to win his lover back. The witch refusing to help is only the start of his problems, for—on the stroke of midnight—the witch’s cottage vanishes from the Enchanted Forest with him in it. Mathias is the grandson of a wicked witch and, like his mother and grandmother, he is cursed to be trapped in the cottage in a desolate wasteland for the rest of his life. He and the cottage only return to the Enchanted Forest on Midsummer Day each year. The last thing he needs is an unexpected house guest. Thrown together for a year, the spark between the two men soon ignites into passion, but can John live the rest of his life in a prison and would Mat even ask him to?

Word Count: Click here to reveal42,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Ankit has lived many lifetimes. Once, long ago, he was made of stone, and marked with symbols and sigils meant to safeguard him and allow him to protect and serve others. He’s a living gargoyle now, cursed to live as a human; always watching, at all times aware, and constantly searching for his fated one. While walking home from his job as a librarian, Ethan Lewis is beaten and robbed. Ankit stumbles upon him, and instantly recognizes him as the man he’s fated to. He helps him back to his apartment, and after tending his injuries, watches over him. Fate has woven their lives together for centuries, but in every lifetime, they could never live freely, or love each other as Ankit has often dreamed of. To change their destiny, they’ll fight together with other gargoyles, and a young watcher, who is unaware of the tremendous power she possesses. This will be the last battle against their creator, and they’ll either die fighting for their freedom, or survive to live the life they’ve always yearned for.