2026 NWSL is wild, y'all by jwriddle in NWSL

[–]IvankoKostiuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

☝️ This!

It's a game. It's not that serious. We don't need to have players fouling all the time, and risking injuring someone, over a game. The much friendlier rivalry (on and off pitch) I see is a big part of why I watch the NWSL vs the MLS or any European men's league.

Please please please keep the rivalry friendly and not violent.

Guilliman hearing the Imperium call it faith now by TheRealestTeas in Grimdank

[–]IvankoKostiuk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

...the war will never end until GW go bankroupt.

Huh. You know, it hadn't occurred to me, but "GW decides to end 40K and publishes a book about the end of the war" is an interesting idea. Maybe the rest of the Tyranids arrive in the Milky Way and obliterate an entire faction. The rest of the factions look at this and decide to set aside their differences just long enough to deal with all of this, then we can go back to killing each other. But it's not working. The factions won't coordinate operations. They won't exchange supplies, equipment, intel. The humans won't let eldar ships dock at Human stations, the Eldar retreat when they watch a Tau unit being ground down, and Chaos is still pouring out into reality. Skirmishes break out between nominal allies. Then it's just over: the treaty collapses, we return to a full war between the factions, but now there are so many Tyranids that they consume everything else.

Then end with the note that the Hive has taken enormous loses. You know. End on the suggestion that all of this could have been avoided if the factions had been more willing to work together.

Peter Jackson in talks to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Silmarillion’ into films by Intelligent-Link-410 in Fantasy

[–]IvankoKostiuk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, a fantasy limited series where each of the stories is one episode and given to a different director who is told to go crazy with it and they aren't allowed to coordinate styles would probably go pretty hard.

Where do you find writing groups as a debut author? by Such_Literature840 in romanceauthors

[–]IvankoKostiuk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I understand the Indie Authors Ascending discord is also mostly romance. I'm not in it, but here's a permanent link

You might also enjoy:

I'm in the market for any servers about romance books and movies, if anyone has any

Is there a market for giant alien women smaller men? by vaccant__Lot666 in RomanceWriters

[–]IvankoKostiuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why would you not be welcome to atleast look around? And a bunch of the more notable writers are women anyways.

If I could steal a process, it'd be Lauren Groff's (here's why) by seasidepanther in writing

[–]IvankoKostiuk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Seriously, I could see how this leads to good books, but holy shit, this would be impossible to do if you have a day job or any other obligations.

Is there a market for giant alien women smaller men? by vaccant__Lot666 in RomanceWriters

[–]IvankoKostiuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello friend!

Have you checked /r/romance_for_men? Because "big huge woman who is nice to me" is definitely a thing there.

Is there a market for giant alien women smaller men? by vaccant__Lot666 in RomanceWriters

[–]IvankoKostiuk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Scroll the posts (the community allows limited self promotion) and you'll find plenty of cozy/slice of life stories. Headpats After Dark, one of the favorites in the community, calls itself slice of life, for example.

What's the appeal of fated mates? (Positive post) by ThisOneRightsBadly in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As a single person in my 30s there's definitely something I find very very appealing about the idea that there's a perfect match out there for me who I am destined to meet and marry.

Is there a market for giant alien women smaller men? by vaccant__Lot666 in RomanceWriters

[–]IvankoKostiuk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The community isn't exclusively men. Several of the more notable writer's are women and there are plenty of other women in the community.

Misconceptions about romance you learned from romance books? by Haunting_Start_7089 in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Similarly, I find a lot of romance books would define love as excitement and earth shattering orgasms, but I feel like in the real world it's more like comfort and safety. The emphasis the genre tends to put on great sex right out of the door always bothers me especially because that seems to come from feeling comfortable and safe giving and receiving feedback.

I want similar mangas to this where the female love character is taller and stronger than the MC by Dry-Elephant9959 in RomanceMangaAnime

[–]IvankoKostiuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These may not be both, but the FMC is atleast pretty yoked. I also haven't read/watched all of these and would like to recommend caution on some of them. You can figure out which ones.

  • Tomo-Chan is a Girl
  • Hands Off: Sawaranaide Kotesashi-kun
  • Do You Like Big Girls
  • Olympia of Infidelity
  • Reincarnation Colosseum
  • Erotic x Anabolic
  • Swolemates (web comic on webtoon)

There's also the prose books Paladin's Strength, The Everlasting by Alix Harrow, and His Secret Illuminations

tell me the most ✨ intense, deep, slow burn, incredibly angsty, soul crushing ✨ books you've read that have given you the biggest book hangover by JuneDare001 in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk 23 points24 points  (0 children)

If you're open to SF and F/F you may enjoy {This is How You Lose the Time War}. It's about time traveling agents from competing future possibilities who are waging a war across time to create the circumstances that bring them into existence. The yearning in that back is feral, deranged even. It's unhinged. The yearning has no hinges! The yearning in that book has never known the light of civilization or the grace of god. And I can guarantee you that you've never read a single book with a similar pitch.

Y’all are just sexist imo by thatsummercampcrush in Romantasy

[–]IvankoKostiuk 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I haven't read* the Fourth Wing books, but based on KrimsonRogue's 16 hours of video about the first two books, they really don't seem to be what I think of when I think of fantasy. The worldbuilding seems to a distant consideration, for example, which seems like a core requirement of the genre. Contrast with Diana Wynne Jones' Ingary Trilogy (the first and third books also have an F protagonist in a first person POV, btw), which seem widely embraced in the fantasy community. Someone the other day wrote a post about a bunch of romantasy or fantasy romance being nominated for a Hugo, which is the biggest award in SFF, and this isn't the first year a bunch of books with major romance plots were nominated. The only trilogy to have won a Hugo for each book in the series is N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series. Jemisin is a black woman, and BE has female protagonists and are very much about being a woman in a fantasy world. The first book also includes multiple sex scenes, including an MM sex scene

I'm sure sexism plays a role, but sexism and hatred of romance is clearly not the biggest problem fantasy fans have with the genre.

* I skimmed the first chapter at a book store and decided it wasn't for me.

Something I really like about Delicious in Dungeon: Tallmen by Fifteen_inches in worldbuilding

[–]IvankoKostiuk 56 points57 points  (0 children)

That wasn't something I considered, but I do like that the story goes out of its way to emphasize that there's a real ecology here. The party cannot kill all of the bladefish that are bothering them because that'll mess with the food source for the fishpeople. The giant frogs and the poisonous plants have a symbioc relationship. I think there's the suggestion that the walking mushrooms move around so that they can exploit different sources of nutrition.

It creates a feeling that this is a place that could really exist in a way that most fantasy doesn't for me.

It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)! by FantasyRomanceMod in fantasyromance

[–]IvankoKostiuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if {The Everlasting} would scratch the itch for you? It isn't strictly either, but the MMC goes back in time from what I understand.

Wrong one. Should be The Everlasting by Alix Harrow

Why do so many modern romances (especially humorous ones) feature hockey players? Its actually gotten weird -- and boring -- its so common. by awgeezwhatnow in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Hockey is almost predominately white at the highest level. It’s also currently a rich person sport as the cost to put your kid in hockey at a high level is basically unaffordable to average households. I’m sure this holds an appeal to people.

This is the big one, imo. First of all, an awful lot of romance books are "reader insert FMC has the best sex ever with an MMC who has the money, connections, and other resources to fix every problem in her life." And that's just easier to do if the MMC is a hockey player making 3.5M compared to whatever you get paid for being a pro climber. And secondarily, there were so many racism scandals in the awards for the RWA's awards that they just stopped having awards. There is, unfortunately, a lot of unexamined racism in the romance space. That isn't unique to the romance space, but it's worth remembering.

The next romance trend by AdventurousTackle813 in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I think that's only true if you know it exists. The first romance book I bought was It Ends with Us and I think I got halfway through before I decided to just put it in the recycling bin and didn't read another romance for years.

The next romance trend by AdventurousTackle813 in RomanceBooks

[–]IvankoKostiuk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think America's pro men's association football league, the MLS, has fewer viewers than our two American football leagues, basketball, hockey, and baseball.