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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr)

@sbdrag.bsky.social

2K followers 970 following 370 posts

Aroace nonbinary author of queer fantasy romcoms. Peer-reviewed autistic. In college for Animation Game Design. Draws sometimes. Minors DNI, I engage with and repost NSFW.

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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · Jul 19

Realized I never actually made a post for my most recent published story, The Grand Duke's Masseur! 🌈📚

Find it on most retailers: books2read.com/u/b5Pr1A
And Itchio: sbdrag.itch.io/the-grand-du...

#queerromantasy #mmromance #transmc #historicalromantasy #spicyromance #queerromance

An inforgraphic featuring an illustrated cover title "The Grand Duke's Masseur" in the center. It features a large, four-armed, horned dog-man with curly pink fur wearing a dress shirt half-off gently holding a smaller white human man with straight black hair wearing loose, comfortable clothing. They are staring at each other with soft intensity.

Text around the edges reads, in counter-clockwise: Marriage of convenience; autistic LI & MC; trans man MC; sex-positive, non-monogamous, queernormative society; aspec LI & MC; Regency inspired; and polyamorous endgame.

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Reposted by Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr)

May Barros 🇧🇷🏳️‍⚧️ 📚💙 @ Commissions open! @maybarros.com.br · 13d

I also need to promo the bundles I'm in this week, so hey! For #AceWeek we have bundles over on itch! With several authors! I'm one of them!

Mega Bundle: riyati.ink/acepride2025
Bundle 1: riyati.ink/ace2025-1 (has all the books from the mega bundle not on bundle 2)
Bundle 2: riyati.ink/ace2025-2

Ace Pride Week
itch.io mega bundle
Oct 19 - 25 | 50+ books for $50!
Book covers for the following books are listed top left to bottom right:
Non-player Character - Veo Corva
A Dragon’s Treasure - Elis Madsen
The Blood Divide - Zan Lowell
The Grand Duke’s Masseur
Child of the Forest - Audrey Simmons
Wherever the Stars Call - S. Jean
How Six Saved the Grogs - Blaine D. Arden
City of Strike - Claudie Arseneault
In Spite of the Inevitable - Morgan Biscup
Structural Integrity - Tabitha O’Connell
Of Spells and Love - Odessa Silver
Inarora’s Excursion - Astrid E. Abell
Puppetry - Nina Waters
Sidetracked - S. K. Kelley
Lost Blades - Liz Sauco
Claimed by the Undead - C. L. Carhart
The Star-Crossed Empire - Maya Darjani
Triple Strike Threads of Fate - G. M. Grey
Curse of Souls - Niranjan
Courtly Love - T. D. Cloud
Song of the Wolf - T. C. Smith
Blood - D. C. Hart
Chai and Cat-tales - Lynn Strong
The Thirteenth Key - Cara Nox
The Dragon Next Door - Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Walking the Knife’s Edge - Elise Carlson
Yours Celestically - Al Hess
Pet - H. S. Kallinger
The One He Brought Home - Skye Kilaen
Junk Junction - Sara Codair
Secondhand Origin Storie - Lee Brontido
Riyati Rebirth - Kai Zeal
Bridges of Smoke - Julie March
The Whisperer in White - Y. R. Liu
In the Eye of the Beholder - Beverly Anne Michel
Peace in the Sky - Caye Marsh
A Spark in Space - Janina Franck
Journey Home - May Barros
Doce Drosera - Anita
The Audacity - Carmen Loup
Bloody Space - Brittany M. Willows
Enemies to Enemies - Ash Kreider
Devil’s Deal - Tessa Hastjarjanto
Merchants of Knowledge and Magic - Erika McCorkle
A Life in Too Many Margins - S. E. Thomson
Where We Converge - A. E. Bross
Lantern - Burgundy Athena Pendragon
A Designer Magick - Fox N. Locke
The Harmony of Falling Snow - Andora Brohaw
The Thread That Binds - Cedar McCloud
Towers of Nine - Alyssa Louttit

All books by ace authors and/or ft. ace characters across a variety of genres!
riyati.ink/acepride2025

Ace Pride Week
itch.io bundle 2
Oct 19 - 25 | 26 books for $26!

Book covers pictured are:
Non-Player Character by Veo Corva
Journey Home by May Barros
Triple Strike: Threads of Fate by G.M. Gray
Wherever the Stars Call by S. Jean
Yours Celestially by Al Hess
The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani
The Audacity 1 by Carmen Loup
The Thirteenth Key by Cara Nox
In the Eye of the Beholder by Beverly Anne Michel
A Designer Magick by Stefanie Carter
Bloody Spade by Brittany M. Willows
Structural Integrity by Tabitha O'Connell
Curse of Souls by Niranjan
The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud
Of Spells and Love by Odessa Silver
Courtly Love by T.D. Cloud
Song of the Wolf T.C. Smith
The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode
The Grand Duke's Masseur by sbdrag
Blood by D.C. Hart
Lantern by Burgundy Athena Pendragon
Inarora's Excursion by Astrid E. Abell
The Blood Divide by Zan Lowell
The Towers of Nine by Alyssa Louttit
Walking the Knife's Edge by Elise Carlson
Junk Junction by William C. Tracy

All books by ace authors and/or ft. ace characters across a variety of genres!
riyati.ink/ace2025-2

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Reposted by Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr)

Ronove (aka S. Jean) @earlronove.bsky.social · 12d

Middle of the week, have you checked out the Ace Pride Week itchio bundle yet? 50+ books featuring ace authors and/or ace major characters!! There's so many good books, so you should do yourself a favor and check it out!

(WHEREVER THE STARS CALL & Laurel are included!)

💜 riyati.ink/acepride2025

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Reposted by Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr)

Ness 🎃🇨🇦 @vriccithode.bsky.social · 14d

oh heck! it's #AcePrideWeek and here's a fantastic bundle deal of ace books! 51 books for only $50! 🌈📚
riyati.ink/acepride2025

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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 16d

I've done art of a lot of the plants, too! And these of Petal ha ha - crushferns are based on the Rose of Jericho, but if it was big and deadly and moved like Theo Jansen's beach sculptures lol

An image of a mass of fern tendrils holding up a sign that reads "emotional support", with the word "animal" covered in red paint scribbles. The plant os also holding a paint brush with red paint on it. Text below reads: "Petal can support youre emotions, not your spelling."

An illustration of three large fuzzy balls with flowering, antler-like branches growing out of them chasing after a small ball of fern tendrils in a field of purple grass

An illustration of a ball of fern tendrils tugging on the ends of stronger vines playfully.

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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 16d

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it; Ive had a lot of fun making the Demonae language and thinking up new ways for plants to eat people, ha ha. 💜

Whirl 📚(can't donate) @whirloglyphics.bsky.social · 16d

Rating: 4.75/5 ☆
Genre: Cozy Fantasy, LGBT, Romance
Pages: 411

Long Form Review and photos in 🧵
Of this lovely edition from @rainbowcrate.bsky.social and @sbdrag.bsky.social of The Demon King's Gardener
#booksky💙📚 #diversebooksky #readersky #queersky #recs #rainbowcrate #review

A photo collage featuring a man with long hair and a beard. A large demon. An eye with black scleras and a red iris. Carnivorous plants. And a beautiful castle garden.

For Demon King's Gardener

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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Well, that's all I have really. Not sure how many other authors have had this experience, but I'm sure there are at least some afraid to write an original story a specific way because of people who will equate it to fanfic. I hope this helps you be weird and write the thing anyway.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

If a work you enjoyed reminds you of fanfic, but it doesn't lessen your enjoyment of the work, you have no other issues with the work, and you cannot pin point a specific aspect that makes the work feel low quality other than it reminding you of fanfiction... why is it bad?

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Fanfic isn't the only target of this. Plenty of original fiction tropes and conventions are called inherently bad writing - first person POV is one that comes to mind. This isn't new, and it certainly isn't going to die out completely.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Anyway.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

And no, this does not include AI. Fuck AI. AI doesn't know how tropes work, or what makes them work. It doesn't know why a convention is a convention or how to make purposeful choices to subvert or fulfill expectations around conventions and tropes. And when you use it, you aren't learning either.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Any writing tool - tropes, conventions, etc - can be used poorly. They often get used poorly in fanfic because, as stated, many writers are young and learning or just having fun and not worried about craft. But using tropes or conventions isn't inherently poor writing - it's about how you use them.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

People like my writing and it reminds them of fanfic, and I think that's rad because it's a reflection of the work and process that made me the author I am today.

And I just really want people to stop conflating tools and conventions used in fanfic with poor writing.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

But I do appear to be good at writing funny romances with a focus on character studies - which is what I wrote as fanfiction. The stuff I write now would not exist if I didn't write fanfiction because romance writers are devalued as writers and as an ace I find a lot of trad romance unrelatable

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

But the space where I felt more able to just DO stuff was fanfic. Because I wasn't trying to be good. I was just having fun. My original work then was trying to write a fantasy epic, because I primarily read and enjoyed fantasy epics. Spoilers: I am not very good at writing fantasy epics.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

My fanfic from when I was a teenager? Sucks. Cringe. Of course it is - my original fiction from the same time was equally sucky and cringe. I named a character Rooster. Guess what nickname everyone called him? (No, I didn't know then.)

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

I was lucky that I had supportive writing mentors in real life growing up - but I've heard the horror stories of academic figures and programs that openly mock genre fiction and forbid the slightest hint of a dragon even if it's a complex metaphor wrapped in the purpliest prose imaginable.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

The key to growing as an artist of any kind is experimentation and the only community space many writers can find that welcomes rampant experimentation is fanfic. Where you can just be weird and self-indulgent and find people who are like "yeah, you go, little rockstar".

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

But I am tired of "reminds me of fanfic" being used as a shorthand for "bad".

My writing skills are a direct result of being able to play and experiment with form while writing fanfic. Yes, also from reading books and consuming media, but also from writing in a space with less strict expectations.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Now, I don't think DKG is "high art" or anything. It's a self-indulgent silly queer love story that helps me stay sane by imagining a world where kindness wins more often than not. It doesn't need to be more than that for me. And I'm so amazed by how many other people love my boys as much as I do 💜

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Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

It's an extension of so many things. Academic elitism over what qualifies as "artistic merit" in literature (which is better now than it has been, but still often excludes all genre fic). The way commercialization tries to quantify an emotional experience, so ppl feel a need to justify enjoyment.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

As an aspiring game dev, this is the same logic as "video games can't be art because they're games", but replace art with literature.

Fanfic is, by design, a space to have fun. As I said before, it's play. Since it's play, it can't be literature. Literature is serious, and takes itself seriously.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Caveat - if you think my writing is poor quality? Just say that. That's fine. Don't use "reads like fanfic" as a shorthand for "I think this is poor quality".

If the only thing you think is "bad" about my writing is that it reminds you of fanfic and nothing else, then it's about how you see fanfic

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

I get real reviews that are "I really liked this story, but it reminded me of fanfic".

Why is it a but? What part of it reminding you of fanfic lessened your enjoyment? Did it lessen your enjoyment, or do you just exclusively associate fanfiction with bad writing?

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

Which is probably another thing that makes my writing read as fanfic, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here.

The point I'm trying to make is that I need a lot of people to really look at the way they view fiction as inherently less valuable if it reminds them of fanfic.

Rori Thornton (xe/xem/xyr) @sbdrag.bsky.social · 22d

The rise of epithets in fanfic is directly from writers getting pushed the advice to not overuse character names, but not being able to use only pronouns because both (or more) characters use the same pronouns, which makes things less clear instead of more. So epithets are used to break up name use.