Wordy Thursday: Platonic Friendships are Important

The Ornery Old Lady is not a fan of WordPress.

Wordpress' overly aggressive Spam filter is the bane of my existence on many occasions. I attempted to leave the following comment on this post about the best fictional couples. The comment may have gone to a moderation queue, but I suspect it was eaten as Spam. 

Here is my comment.

My most recently published work is a buddy story rather than a romance, but I guess one could say there's a lot of bromance in this book. 

There's a fun pairing between a human ghost and a Lovecraftian creature who meet up with a couple of ghouls who are longtime friends. This odd bunch form a quartet on a quest to save the Universe from itself. 

The older I get, the more I prefer to write about platonic bonds rather than romantic ones. Romance seems so often to contain a toxic and possessive undertone. Admissibly, I may just be old and bitter. I never was any good at romance in real life.

Here are some further thoughts, and a bit of shameless self-promotion.

The Dreamlands Bro Squad consists of:

Ketil Nagel, the spirit of a Swedish underground metal vocalist who sacrificed himself to the vampire goddess Mormo on 6 June 1991, when he was 25 years old.

Robin Roberts, a ghoul who was a petty thief during his lifetime. Robin perished in London during the influenza pandemic of 1918. He morphed into a ghoul due to dabbling in the wrong magic for the right reasons.

John Tamboli, a ghoul who in life made what money he could by doing a variety of odd jobs. He wasn't particular about the legality of the jobs he was hired for. John also perished in London during the influenza pandemic and morphed into a ghoul for similar reasons to Robin's.

"Yitzy," a member of the Great Race of Yith. Yithians in their best-known form are long-lived asexual creatures who reproduce infrequently by means of spores. Yitzy is not in any way bothered by being perceived as masculine and would not be bothered by being perceived as feminine. 

There is not one sliver, scad, or iota of romantic interaction in this novella. But there is bromance aplenty. 

I find that platonic friendships tend to take a backseat to romantic ties. I feel that this is a shame. Bromance, sisterly love, and opposite-sex platonic friendships are just as important as romantic bonds. 

~Cie the Ornery Old Lady~

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Notes:

The Great Race of Yith were created by H.P. Lovecraft.

The ghouls referenced in this post are Lovecraftian ghouls.

Come As You Are Party + MFRW Blog Challenge: Catch-up: Week 1: Vacay or Staycay

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I am playing catch-up with this prompt. I missed the first two weeks. If you are interested in joining in, visit this blog.

The question is, vacay or staycay.

Well...

I don't have enough money to consider vacay-ing, and even if I did, my disabilities limit what I can do. So, that's a big Staycay. Which at this stage of my life is probably what I'd prefer anyway. 

Road trips really aren't fun anymore. There are too many aggressive drivers and the speed limits are ridiculously high. The speed limit on I-80 heading to Cheyenne is 80 MPH. Personally, I think that's courting disaster. Whenever I have to drive to Cheyenne, I take the frontage road. 

Road trips aren't fun, and the airport sucks big hairy donkey balls.

Yeah, I'm staying home.

~Cie the Ornery Old Lady~

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Wordy Thursday: Ornery Reviews: Ashes of Raging Water

Genre: Modern Fantasy/Science Fiction

Rating: Five out of Five Stars on Amazon and Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a promotional copy of this book. This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission from Amazon if the book is purchased through the preview link. This review is a duplicate of my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

An intricate and cerebral novel about a garrison of phoenix guardians known as a Shield operating in Atlanta. There is one phoenix for each element, plus a Shieldheart. The main protagonist is Aquaylae (Quayla), a youthful and impetuous water phoenix whose Shieldheart, Vitae, dislikes her and finds reasons to punish her.

The Fae in Ashes of Raging Water are not friendly pixies and fairies happy to grant human wishes because it's the kind thing to do. For a human to accept assistance from a Fae is akin to selling one's soul. Many of the Fae are badly behaved. The story opens with Quayla attempting to defend helpless pets waiting for adoption at an animal shelter against unscrupulous Fae hellbent on taking the animals for their own nefarious ends.

The reader learns more about the strange world of the phoenix and the fae as they read through this intricately woven tale. Humans should be careful what they wish for, because the fairies may be willing to grant wishes, but the price will be high.

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Welcome!

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Welcome! This blog was born to give a dedicated home to the book and movie reviews written by The Ornery Old Lady (that's me!) 

These reviews are also published at my Horror Harridans Writing Sisterhood blog and sometimes at the Good Stuff From Grover and Aunt Cie's Attic blogs as well. However, they are mixed in with other posts in those locations, such as my own writing or affiliate marketing.

This is the place where you can find reviews and nothing but! 

Take your time and have a look around. The blog will be Under Construction for a while while I incorporate some of my older posts. I hope you will find something you like here! 

If you are looking for beta reading, book reviews, editing, or proofreading, please click the Ornery Literary Services link above. I work for links and tips!

~Cie the Ornery Old Lady~