| | Indefinite Hiatus | |
I hope to return to this project someday, but it isn't feasible with my current health issues and life circumstances. I have to cut things from my workload so I can breathe. However, I still intend to complete my current li...
Series: The Magnus Opus (book one) Source: Discord Genre: Literary fiction Secondary/subgenre(s): Erotica, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream Mature: Y LGBTQIAPK+: Y Status: Complete Note: Read the serialized version and skipped the explicit sections. Will then reread the entire printed book from cover to cover and reevaluate. First impressions (Serialized Edition): 34/40 Digging deeper (Serialized Edition): 87/100 First impressions (Paperback): pending Digging deeper (Paperback): pending Final thoughts: pending
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Foreword
It may surprise people to see me reading and reviewing Ancilla. I'm a conservative Christian, and when I first joined Wattpad and began judging and reviewing, I avoided explicit and LGBTQIAPK+ content. But an inexplicable thing happened. I'd seen Sera in indie awards, and we began talking in the comments, and we wound up becoming friends. We're still two very different people with different religious beliefs, lifestyles, writing styles, and so on, but that's the beauty of friendship. If you don't have any friends who challenge you or who think differently from you, then you're missing out.
That being said, I shocked Sera when I started reading their work. They never expected that. But I believe in supporting my friends, and when I saw a short story by them had been featured in an anthology on Wattpad, I decided to read it. And then another short story of theirs was featured, and I read that one, too. I'd (unwillingly) ended up reading a lot of smut when I was judging and reviewing, but I'd also read a handful of stories where sex had been handled very tastefully, and I appreciate that. And Sera does that. It's all consensual, and maybe I still don't understand the appeal of BDSM, but they aren't writing about people beating the heck out of each other just because they enjoy seeing their partner suffer. The sex is about the relationship and the emotional connection, not the physical pleasure.
As for the LGBTQIAPK+ side of things, I'd also discovered a handful of stories during judging and reviewing where LGBTQIAPK+ relationships and lifestyles were handled very well. For someone who isn't familiar with the alphabet soup, I think there needs to be a special emphasis on good characterization to create understanding and allow engagement, and reading stories that accomplished this made me feel more comfortable reading Sera's work. I still don't think there's any call to accuse someone of homophobia just because they aren't comfortable reading LGBTQIAPK+ content, because you can't know all the circumstances behind the computer screen—and I've actually encountered one reviewer who is part of the alphabet soup and states in their rules that they're uncomfortable with heterosexual romance—but for me, I've decided I'm critiquing writing technique, not content, and that means I'll allow (non-smutty) LGBTQIAPK+ content in the future.
