A princess flees her betrothed in search of a witch willing to entrap her within a tower. Rowan yearns to be out and proud as an aromantic, but other people's misapprehensions—and his own anxiety—hamper his quest. A woman expresses her wish for unfettered sexual intimacy, despite her mother's desperate romantic expectations. For another pansexual, the route to freedom from amatonormativity lies in accepting monstrosity's fur and fangs. Suki finds aromantic freedom inside the priesthood's cloisters, but even a rebellious life leaves her at a loss when ministering to her own. And the words "allosexual aromantic" offer a struggling magician hope of a new road—but one not without its dangers.
Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold collects twenty fantasy and contemporary stories celebrating the many ways aromanticism need not always pair with asexuality.
Contains: Allosexual aros; aros without reference to sexual attraction identities; transgender and non-binary aros; queer aros; autistic aros; neurodiverse aros; loveless aros; aro magicians; and an aro great-aunt who won't let death stop her from dispensing needed advice.
Length: 86, 000+ words / 281 PDF pages.
This free story collection encompasses much of the last three years of my participating in and writing for the aromantic community. I can't imagine what it must be like to discover myself as aromantic and find extant representation, so I hope this collection contributes to a world where aros more easily find our lives and experiences depicted on the page.
While I have included a couple of stories with narrating protagonists who don't specify their attraction identities as anything but "aromantic", the majority of stories focus on allosexual aromantic protagonists, characters and experiences. Most stories will not be suitable for readers repulsed by casual/non-explicit sex references, depictions of sexual attraction or descriptions of physical intimacy.
Stories include:
- Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold
- Monstrous
- The Vampire Conundrum
- The Pride Conspiracy
- Abrasive
- The Complexity of Human Decency
- If Absurd Works
- Leaving
- When Quiver Meets Quill
- The Sorcerous Compendium of Postmortem Query
- The Mundane Progression of Premortem Colloquy
- Friendship
- Attraction
- What if It Isn't
- What Makes Us Human
- Those With More
- Lucky
- Ringbound
- Absence of Language
- Witch
Folks in need of individual story blurbs and story-specific content advisories can find this information on the Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold master page.
Lastly, I want to thank my Patreon supporters and every follower on my @aroworlds Tumblr who has reblogged my writing or followed me because of my writing. This collection exists because of your encouragement!