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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland

@nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden: fantasy & science fiction 📚 Nicole Leland: fantasy romance 💜 Lover of plants. 🌿 Drinker of tea. ☕ (she/her) https://linktr.ee/nicolelsopergorden

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · Aug 21

Interested in reading a sweet romance story set in a dark fantasy world? ARC reader sign-ups for Hearts of Bark and Scale are open now! Check the linktree in my profile or comment "I'm in" and I'll provide the link.

#BookSky #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #ARCread #ReadingCommunity

The world is blood and pain, but still there’s love.

All Kvisti has ever wanted is to protect her desert village in a way that would make the Mother Tree proud. Unfortunately, an old injury has left her once-potent dryad powers broken, and she can’t even stop the ruthless magic poachers that invade her village for the scraps of magic she still holds.

Snake shifter Iason is bound to a criminal snake den for the sake of his rare healing magic. But the magic poachers want his magic, too. When the poachers throw Kvisti in the same magic-proof cell as Iason, the two are inexorably drawn together, bonding over past traumas. In their isolation, they begin to heal each other, finding a connection deeper than they imagined possible.

But when disaster strikes the poachers, Kvisti and Iason are abandoned in their cell with no hope for freedom.

In a world that thrives on cruelty and despair, love may be their only salvation. Can Kvisti and Iason break free of their prison and the pasts that haunt them before their connection is torn apart? Will the delicate new feelings taking root in their hearts bloom, or will the desert bury them? When blood and pain are a constant, love is a fragile thing—but one worth fighting for.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 7h

Sibling relationships, right?

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 14h

Tennyson is trying to be nicer to Poe, he's just not very good at it...

From Poe's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

“Oh, hey Poe,” Emmanuel said. He was always so nice to Tennyson’s brothers; it warmed Tennyson’s heart, even when he wanted nothing more than to snipe at them himself. “Enjoying the party?”
“Poe doesn’t like parties,” Tennyson muttered, digging through the bags to look for springform pans. He glanced at Poe, still standing hesitantly by the coffee maker. He didn’t like parties, and yet here he was. How could Tennyson ask if Poe was ok without directly asking him? “I’m surprised you came up from the dungeon. Everyone knows you don’t like people.” He watched Poe for some sign of increased discomfort, some kind of wary glance, but he was already so twitchy and stiff it was hard to tell. “Shouldn’t you be hiding out somewhere with nothing but your lonely math for company?”
That made Poe flinch, and Tennyson almost kicked himself. It was so easy for him to turn anything he said to his brother into an insult, even when he didn’t intend to. Even if it was true. But if he was only flinching at Tennyson’s normal prodding, that probably meant he was ok otherwise – right?

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 15h

New weekly #WritingPrompt is ready! A little silly, maybe, but still ripe for all kinds of interesting stories. What kind of story would you write with this prompt?

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting #WritingInspo

Decorative leaf wreath with writing prompt text: Dez learned not to blindly trust GPS directions when she headed out for Poughkeepsie and ended up on Mars. @NicoleLSoperGorden

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 1d

The perfect encapsulation of the relationship between Kip and Byron 😂

From Poe's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

“You can let go of the rope,” Kip called down. “I’m going to untie it from up here so we don’t leave it on the roof.”
“I didn’t approve that!” Byron called back up. “Come down the safe way, Kip!”
But the rope fell from above to coil at Poe’s feet then.
“Oops, sorry!” Kip said with a completely unrepentant grin. “Guess I’ll have to come down my way after all. Can everyone get inside? Don’t want anyone in the way.”
“Never listens to a word I say,” Byron grumbled.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 This is not a drill! 🚨

This week is your last chance to sign up as an ARC reader for Hearts of Bark and Scale. Final eARC copies will be sent out over the weekend! Blurb in alt text. Linktree in my bio, or ask me to DM you a link.

#BookSky #WriteSky #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity #ARCreader

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 2d

🌟 Calling all North Carolinian readers! 🌟

Fantasy romance author Cassie Swindon and other bookish vendors have several in-person book fairs coming up over the next month. Check Oak & Ink Bookish Boutiques mini book fairs to support local authors and find your next favorite read! 📚📚📚

#BookSky

Oak & Ink Bookish Boutiques Mini Book Fairs Schedule!
October 19 - Cotton House Craft Brewers, 307 S. Academy, Cary, NC.
October 24 - South Line Brewing Company, 2141 E. Williams St., Apex, NC.
Novebmer 7 0 R&D Brewing, 1323 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 2d

Tennyson has a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease 🤭

From Poe's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

“I’ve seen you on the court often enough, hotshot.”
“Fuck you. You never come to my games.”
Poe flinched, then frowned. “I go to a completely different school, Tennyson. But you know they stream your games online, right? I didn’t miss a single one of your games last year.” Then Poe turned away, stretching his stride to catch up with Jocie and leave Tennyson behind.
“Well fuck me,” Tennyson muttered under his breath. “Is he telling the truth?”
“Yup,” Byron said. “He actually called me when your first game of the season coincided with an exam, asking for advice about still watching you play. I pointed him to the streaming page.”
“Aw,” Cora said. “That’s awfully sweet.”
“Ouch,” Kip said, patting Tennyson’s shoulder. “Does it hurt to have your foot that far in your mouth?”
“Shut up,” Tennyson grumbled. “I’m still not a hotshot.”

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 3d

It doesn't work for everyone, but I find it motivating, personally! 😊 If you try it, start small - just a few words a day. You can work up to larger counts later, but even on really busy days when you only write a word or two, that still counts! My lowest word count day was only 2 words 😂

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 3d

Somehow I've managed to write at least a few words every day for 500 days in a row, and that seems worth celebrating. 🎉🎉🎉

What's the longest you've done something on a streak?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #BookSky #AmWriting

Image of someone writing in a notebook with a pen. Text reads: 500 day writing streak! 412,946 words. Average 826 words/day. Range 2 to 3712 words/day.

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 3d

Instance #2,845,673,975 of a "where's Kip?" moment 😂😂😂

From Poe's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

By the time they managed to escape the chatty man, Tennyson was ready to be done with shopping for the whole day. Too bad they still have at least four more stores to go to.
The automatic doors slid shut behind them as they left the pharmacy. Tennyson stared, blinking dumbly at the empty bench.
“Holy fucking hell, we lost Kip,” he said, looking around for his brother. “Byron is going to murder me.”
“He was just out here,” Emmanuel said, casting his gaze around. “He can’t have gotten too far.”
“Clearly you don’t know Kip that well,” Tennyson muttered.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 3d

Little excerpt of Talos hearing Maelle sing for the first time in Against an Alpine Sky 💜

Sweet fantasy romance between a human woman and a lithander (stone man). Available now!

#BookSky #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Excerpt #Romance #FantasyRomance

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 4d

😏

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 4d

Out-of-context quote for this prompt, to avoid spoilers:

“Show Byron your scavenger hunt taser camera!”

From Tennyson's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

✨#WIPSnips✨ A Daily Writing Share Tag @wipsnips.bsky.social · 4d

The #WIPSnips word for October 4th is "hunt"

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

#WIPSnips a bluesky writing community tag
October 4 - hunt
Share a line from your WIP with the daily word for inspiration
Use #WIPSnips. Don't forget Alt Text for graphics
Synonyms, variation and vibes are fine.
Support others on the #WIPSnips tag!
Hosted by rosie-j-potter.bsky.social

The image behind the text is a border that is black with stars with a light blue rectangle highlighted by a fuchsia line. An illustrated caticorn holding a pencil and writing in a book with a rose behind one ear is in the lower right corner

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Reposted by Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland

Shimaira ⛥ @shimaira.com · 6d

Only this weekend (Oct 3-5): grab @jheijndermans.bsky.social & my book in these special bundles 😁

- Bloodlovers (2📚) itch.io/b/3278/blood...
- Beautiful Beasts (3📚) itch.io/s/159482/spi...
- All 4 📚 itch.io/b/3279/spicy...

& for just MY LORD itch.io/s/160164/spi...

~
🖤📚😱🌈📚💙📢📚🌍🌶️📚🩸🌈💜 #DiscountBooks

My Lord by L. B. Shimaira (standalone, sapphic, kinky lord, blood drinking, cannibalism, overcoming trauma, kill your abusers, polyam F/F/M, hurt/comfort)

$The nightstalker's mark by Joachim Heijndermans (vampire smut, friends to lovers, disability \& blindness, vampire violence, emotional abuse, LGBTQ romance, shape changing, mind control, blood drinking)$ $Return the rose by Joachim Heijndermans (romance in the rain, beauty \& the beast, preferring the beast, romantic scars, broken beds, magical genitalia, predator role play, sapphic experiment, prisoner to lover)$ Cover of the fisherman's wife by Joachim Heijndermans (consensual tentacles, literal foxy lady, slightly benevolent monster, secret sex worker, protective surrogate mother, evil ronin, brutal revenge, octopus yokai, sengoku jidai-era Japan)

Cover of the fisherman's wife by Joachim Heijndermans (consensual tentacles, literal foxy lady, slightly benevolent monster, secret sex worker, protective surrogate mother, evil ronin, brutal revenge, octopus yokai, sengoku jidai-era Japan)

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 4d

Still think I'm picking illusion ✨

Reposted by Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland

Alex the Headless Wordsman @authoralexharvey.bsky.social · 5d

HEY YOU! Do you like free paperbacks? Do you like chronically ill baddies? Do you like magic schools that weren't invented by a TERF? I'm hosting a giveaway for my sapphic fantasy dark academia novel RIGHT NOW!

2 winners announced October 10th!

A celebratory image featuring balloons, candy confetti, and a cupcake. Over top is "Rules" followed by a list reading as follows:

-Must be a US resident
-Follow this account
-Comment which school of magic you would choose to study at Voterique (see next slide)
-Bonus entry: share to stories or tag a friend!

A celebratory image featuring balloons, candy confetti, and a cupcake. Over top is "Schools of magic" followed by a list reading as follows:

-Abjuration
-Conjugation
-Corpomation
-Divination
-Enchantment
-Evocation
-Illusion
-Transmutation

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 5d

Going for hibernate ✨vibes✨ today - moody Tennyson tends to retreat into near hibernation under stressful conditions.

From Byron's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

Forget hypothetical aliens. By the fifth day into their time in the alien towers dimension, as Byron started calling it in his head, he had his hands full just trying to manage his brothers.
Tennyson was getting moodier and moodier, sometimes refusing to get out of his sleeping bag in the morning and not doing anything during the day except sitting outside to stare at the clouds and listen to the thunder. No matter how many times Byron asked Tennyson to do something, trying to keep his mind off things, Tennyson ignored him and sank into apathy instead. He only seemed to emerge from his funks to snipe at Poe about how long it was taking to fix the END. Byron was pretty sure he was just scared and not willing to admit it, but his mean comments and listlessness were getting solidly on his nerves.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you! 🥰 I just can't stop staring at it 😅

Reposted by Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland

Issy Waldrom @iwaldrom.bsky.social · 5d

#lesficfri and the theme is TEMPT. Riley may indeed be a little tempted ^^
(Who wouldn't be, after all)

[Heart's Claim, a #sapphic shifter romance]

books2read.com/u/4AABOo

Cover of Heart's Claim, with the following excerpt:
The packaging all screamed out at her, making all sorts of promises as to the euphoria that lay within, alluring, tempting her, a form of magic in itself, but she’d been in shops like these enough times to ignore it. Mostly.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you! I'm totally in love with it, myself 🥰

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 6d

Ahem. Let's just say it's the first time they've had alone together since they officially started dating SEVERAL WEEKS AGO. Whatever they did with their alone time was well-deserved 😂😂😂

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 6d

I KNOW I CAN'T STOP STARING AT IT!!! 💜💜💜
(Thanks for sharing, too 😘)

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 6d

I honestly forgot about this scene until I looked for the word of the day 😂 One of Tennyson's skills is that he's a great cook 😉

From Tennyson's arc of The Atlas Brothers Break the Multiverse

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmWriting

By the time Byron and Cora wandered back downstairs, both looking slightly rumpled and extremely pleased, Tennyson was setting out his prepared lunch: salmon cakes with a garlic and dill aioli, a cold bean salad with peppers, capers, and corn, and flatbreads hot from the cast iron skillet.
“Is this lunch?” Byron asked, clearly surprised by the spread.
“Sure,” Tennyson said, taking the last flatbread from the pan and brushing it with olive oil, then sprinkling the steaming top with sea salt, sesame seeds, and fennel.
Cora let out a low whistle of appreciation. “I could get used to staying with Manny just for the sake of Tennyson’s cooking,” she said, snagging a piece of one of the flatbreads and sharing it with Byron.

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Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 6d

👀

Alex the Headless Wordsman @authoralexharvey.bsky.social · 6d

#DVparty Day 1! Moodboards! I made this a while ago for THE DISTANCE BETWEEN STARS AND SALT, my tragic sapphic seafaring fantasy novel.

WIND WAKER x THE TIGER'S DAUGHTER

#F #A #LGBT

An advertisement flier featuring various sea-based images.

"The Distance Between Stars and Salt | A Sapphic Maltese-Inspired Seafaring Fantasy Novel" is listed at the top, followed by two circular images. The first depicts an aurora borealis in the night sky, while the second depicts an overhead view of ocean waves. Beside this is an image of luzzu boats in a harbor. Below this is an image of rocky outcrops within an ocean. Beside this is "There was and there was not, in the oldness of time, a star-born woman and her hapless wife who ventured on an arduous quest...". Below this is an overhead view of a rocky shore. Beside this is a four-panel color palette.

Nicole L. Soper Gorden / Nicole Leland @nicolelsopergorden.bsky.social · 6d

Sounds like a lot of fun (and just my color palate too 😂)

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