BLBL NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 2021
Welcome all to the August 2021 edition of the BLBL Newsletter \(≧▽≦)/
The contents of this newsletter are as follows: (click on the titles to jump to that section!)
- Boys' Love Autumn Short Story Anthology
- Newly completed BL novels on Scribble Hub (July)
- BL author news
- Who are the chibis?
- OG BL novel recommendations
- General BL News
- Fun corner
- Housekeeping for BL Palace
- Acknowledgements
1. Boys' Love Autumn Short Story Anthology
The BL Autumn Anthology is currently accepting entries! All the details can be found here, including the rules. Here is some quick information:
- The themes are Cozy Autumn / Macabre Fall
- For inspiration, authors can view the Cozy Autumn Pinterest Moodboard and the Macabre Fall Pinterest Moodboard
- The due date is September 15th 2021
- The word count must be between 1000 and 5,500 words.
You can connect with other writers on the BL Palace Discord Server, where you can join Team Cozy or Team Macabre ✿
2. Newly completed BL novels on Scribble Hub (July)
All the following include the 'Boys Love' Genre. In sequential order:
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Dragon’s Pearl by Cynical Strawberry6.3 k | 6 ch | Fantasy, Romance, School Life, Slice of Life Every dragon needs its pearl and every pearl needs its dragon. Yet, what happens when a dragon and its pearl are separated? I won't say more because this story is short and meant to be a bit of a mystery but lets just say if you like mystery, cute stories, and modern fantasy BLs, this is for you. The story is inspired by the folktale of the Dragon's Pearl and I used this source: |
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The Himbo Diaries by felixryder7.7 k | 4 ch | Adult, Fantasy, Mature, Smut, Supernatural A trans man makes a deal with a demon for the body he desires. |
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Despapa69xChicken by HandsomeChicken0.8 k | 1 ch | Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fanfiction, Psychological, Romance, Slice of Life, Tragedy A short one shot bromance fanfic of Despapa69 and a certain Handsome Chicken. |
3. BL author news
Help these authors by checking out their work 😊😊
OkuraTsukiko would like to promote oofcat's novel World Symphony Mediator, and Ruelin wants to promote oofcat. Promoting!
CynicalStrawberry has just completed a short 6 chapter novel "Dragon's Pearl" on SH. Check it out!
Heart has been hiatus since the end of June. Heart probably will come back next month, September.
Soul-Realm Cards by Luxican is now out of hiatus!
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Have you heard of The Second Tempest Contest? Details here, and novels in the contest can be found here. There are currently four BL novels in the contest, consider checking them out to support them!!
A Single Card by Gedd
Summoned Young Master Doesn't Want to Cooperate by CynicalStrawberry
My Love by messyhair
Sweet Vanilla by PrettyAngela
4. Who are the chibis?
Who are the chibis? What are the chibis? And where do they come from? Such a mystery~ (●´ω`●)ゞ
In every BLBL Newsletter, we dedicate a corner to showcase our staff's incredible artistic talent and give a shout-out to a handful of beautiful BL couples from novels featured on our very own Scribblehub! σ(≧ε≦o)
This month's chibis are courtesy of these lovely and hardworking talents: oofcat, Killokii, tiaf, and HansTrondheim!!
Are you a dedicated enough BL reader to guess which books these lovey-dovey chibis are from? There's no punishment for guessing wrong! But if you guessed correctly before the big reveal you might just receive a cookie! (♥ω♥ ) ~♪
So drumroll please~
Jinde and Leng Jin Yu from Oh. My. Fate?! by yansusustories
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Noah and Levi from Soul Shard Captor by LucyPanDora
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Kay, Januar and Constantin from Soul-Realm Cards by Luxican
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Eryk and Francis from Reborn on a Systemless Earth... With a System by Thedude3445
5. OG BL novel recommendations
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World Symphony Mediator by oofcatIn progress | 88 k | 57 ch | Adventure, Fantasy, Isekai, LitRPG Review by Heart: This is a story about an unfavored game class called Mediator as it has unfavorable combat stats. However, a boy, Ai took on the challenge of becoming one as he discovered that there may be more to this class than it appeared on the surface. He gained a pet and a companion of similar vibe to himself. Together they will discover the meaning of friendship; maybe more [smirk]. I love this story because it showed a new way to play games and violence isn't always the answer! The journey they go through might not seem much but there is always moral values to be learnt. Understanding that everything meets more than the eyes can see. Lovers of litrpg can hop on and read this as the pace and flow is smooth and easy to read~ Summary:
Spoiler
[World Symphony] "Does this path interest you?" A fantasy virtual reality game themed story in which a single player slowly unlocks the secret of a seemingly useless class that every player hates. [collapse]
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Our Sweet Days by FantasyDeathIn progress | 19 k | 19 ch | Romance, Sci-fi, Slice of Life Review by CynicalStrawberry: Generally, I'm not the biggest fan of omegaverse because the "alpha" and "omega" stereotypes and differences are so overdramatized. However, I do enjoy calmer fluffy stories and I found just that in "Our Sweet Days". Furthermore, there's an element of secrecy and mystery in the main character that keeps you hooked to the story: why did the MC give up his family and life to his younger brother? This and the periodic doses of fluff in the relationship between the ML and MC makes this story a very pleasant and enjoyable read. It's very easy to get boring with calm fluffy stories like this but for now I'm really enjoying this one. If you like this author's style of writing, they also have several other stories including a completed one that contain the same amount of calm fluff. However, of the few I've read I personally like this plot the most. Summary:
Spoiler
With his fiancé having been stolen by his (supposedly) kind-hearted and merciful younger brother, Sun Fang decides to take the high road. (To the surprise of everyone who's ever known him.) Instead of fighting to get his cheating fiancé back, Sun Fang sets out to fully enjoy the wealth of his family. After all, he's no longer the heir (his younger brother took that too) which means that he has no responsibilities. Ah, the life of a worry-free rich young master is really the best!
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6. General BL News
There are a lot of goodies this month! First, we have some BL visual novels!
Sui Yue: There's a new BL Xianxia danmei out in the market now for free! Do give it a spin. It features a young man who's forced to work as an assassin, but the ending is cute and fluffy! ML is handsome too! - hat tip to LinXueLian
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Visual Danmei: Douya and the Golden Scroll: Introducing visual OEL danmei, a type of danmei originally written in English presented with sounds, pictures, animations and music! Set in a brightly-colored Wuxia world with beautiful music, fun battles and amusing love interests, Douya and the Golden Scroll is a not-so-family-friendly BL visual novel that's guaranteed to make you laugh. Or cringe, depending on your mileage. Also submitted to Yaoi Jam 2021.
(For ages 16 and up. Contains thirsty characters.) - hat tip to LinXueLian
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MyLadyQueen (Vanessa Nicole) has a BL webcomic up, called Orbit!
Summary:
Octavius Ezra Severna, the mute 4th prince of Saule Lec, never saw a purpose to life besides serving the kingdom and being mute and especially with his sexuality he knew best then to speak but his loyal friend Antero went out of his way to stop the poor prince from dying of misery and found him someone very flamboyant to keep him company online until they mutually decided on meeting in real life and Omari Valentine couldn't believe who his boyfriend was.
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News! Many Korean authors are mad at Mangago right now, especially the author of Painter of the Night. Unfortunately, Mangago haven't taken down the series from their website yet - hat tip to Ruelin
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LinXueLian recently made a survey for readers who enjoy original English language cultivation-based BL novels! The results for the survey can be found here. Here's a snapshot of some results:
7. Fun corner
Try this quiz to find out if you're a top or a bottom >wo - hat tip to OkuraTsukiko
- hat tip to Heart
8. Housekeeping for BL Palace
BL Palace Book Club!
Fill out this form https://forms.gle/SMqTgJ2wpavzE31A6 with your interest or disinterest for a book club by August 15th! The Book Club would involve reading out-loud sessions followed by discussion, helping to support and generate interest around original English language BL!
Please directly DM the account or message bafflinghaze in order to get something posted or retweeted on the BL Palace twitter account. This includes:
- promotions of any original BL novel, either yours or a recommendation
- fan or official artwork of any original BL novel, either yours or a recommendation
- Any tweets about more general (asian-related/inspired) BL news that you think should also be retweeted
Discord Server
Any readers and writers of BL are welcome, as always, to come join our BL Palace discord server. We have weekly writing sprints and writing help, and much more besides!
Email Subscription
You can now sign up to receive emails to notify of any new newsletters, interviews, etc. here on the Boys Love Newsletter!
BLBL's September Newsletter
Help us out for the September Newsletter by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/bUpnaYiFs3cobcD58
9. Acknowledgements
This Newsletter was brought to you by the following people: bafflinghaze and tiaf.
Please give another round of applause to the lovely artists who made this month's BLBL Newsletter chibi banner: oofcat, Killokii, tiaf, andHansTrondheim!!
And finally, thank you to all those who submitted news, links, and novel recommendations for the newsletter!
And with that, we are done! Hope to see you on the next chapter of the newsletter~
And as always—
my review is there hehe. GATHER AROUND LOVERS OF LITRPG! Unite!!
and of course, I am the loving PUPPY SEME!!!
I have collected all the couples in BLP discord result too Some results are sus but all in the good name of fun
Thanks for the review!!!
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thanks for the art~~~~
Thank you so much for choosing my characters for the chibi banner!
Somehow I got puckish bottom... didn't expect that but not complaining lmao
You're welcome!!!!
thanks for contributing!!
i read the newsletter. i was bamboozled by a lovely review (both reviews are lovely, i need to get better at writing them, too). i am now trying to figure out a way to not descend into a blubbering mess. excuse me while i go sell my soul to a demon to force myself to stop smiling—it's probably bad to smile too much, right?
Thank you for reading the newsletter!!! I'm glad you liked the review that CynicalStrawberry submitted!!