#romance

See tagged statuses in the local Rambling Readers community

New piece in our articles section! Not so much an article, more a cranky old school text generator... and specifically the EXILIAN ROMANTASY BLURB GENERATOR, which can create hundreds of possible Romantasy plots and characters for you to be amused by or ponder genre tropes over!

If you'd like to hit a button and get your very own, very tropey, romantasy plot without needing an AI model to burn through a bunch of trees to do it, this model has you covered! Check it out and let us know your favourites that it comes up with :)

Link here:
https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?msg=161044

Boosts welcome!

Beware of Men Bearing Flowers

“There is a band of (usually) male critical admirers who deny the significance of her love life as if they are gallantly upholding her honour. But they are brushing against the grain of Spark’s own passions and experience of love.”

—Prof Willy Maley asks: what does Muriel Spark have to say to us about love & romance?

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/muriel-spark-on-love

For -- how about the myth of the Cygnus?

The story goes that when Phaethon, the son of Helios, drove his father's chariot he lost control & Zeus/Jupiter had to kill him.

In the aftermath, Phaethon's lover, Cygnus, collected his bones to give him a proper funeral. The gods were so moved by this devotion, they put him in the night sky as a swan (who famously mate for life).

📷 :https://pixabay.com/photos/birds-swan-ornithology-species-7148194/

Just finished reading Thoroughly Disenchanted by Alexandra Almond after a recommendation by @wendypalmer

Had a really good time with it too. A strong first book from the Australian author. Cosy rural Australia setting fantasy romance.

For some reason (and they aren't the same _at all_ but vibes I guess?) they immediately put me in mind of and made me go and re-read the Scholamance trilogy by Naomi Novik.