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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 20/08/2026

THE CELESTIAL BLADE by @ashleygao.bsky.social is out now in ebook & paperback on Ko-fi, itch, Kobo (Plus), Amazon, Lulu and bookshop.org! Need some short romance and/or erotic wuxia adventure? 🥰 We gotcha! Links here: www.thepinkhydra.com/books/celest...

The Celestial Blade by Ashley Y. Gao. Cover art features a woman with a handprint on her back and a glowing magical sword in a bamboo forest

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The Pink Hydra publishes one short story + novella every month (and sometimes longer works). Find them on itch, Ko-fi, or paperback from Lulu: thepinkhydra.itch.io ko-fi.com/thepinkhydra www.lulu.com/spotlight/pi...

Cover of The Celestial Blade by Ashley Y. Gao featuring a red and black sword blade hovering over a woman's bare back

Cover of Runaway by Emmylou Kotzé featuring a woman's hand emitting smoke surrounded by an axe, sword, snake and a crown

Cover of Catching Fish by Emmylou Kotzé for our July zine featuring a drawing of red-and-gold fish swimming in a natural pool

Cover of You Might Save Lives by S. R. Hallow for our August zine featuring the gold lettered title over a photograph of a rainy city street

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

We're delighted to announce that THE CELESTIAL BLADE, a queer xianxia novella by @ashleygao.bsky.social, is now on pre-order at Kobo, itch and Amazon! www.kobo.com/ebook/the-ce... thepinkhydra.itch.io/the-celestia... www.amazon.com/dp/B0HD5GXS3P Release day (ebook & paperback): 14 August 2026

Cover of The Celestial Blade, a novella by Ashley Y. Gao. Graphic design (by Emmylou Kotzé) features a red and black sword hovering over the bare back of a woman with a dark red handprint on her shoulder. This all appears to be taking place in a bamboo forest with spider lilies hiding between the bamboo shoots.

Line print (from a stock photo) of a traditionally dressed Asian woman with a sword. There is a prominent bisexual flag placed to the right. Text reads:

The Celestial Blade
A queer xianxia romance
by Ashley Y. Gao

Erotic wuxia/xianxia 🐲
Bi female protagonist x both m&f personas of a gender-shifting sword spirit ⚔️
Immortal romance with a twist 💔
Rough, naughty, loving smut 🌶️ 🌶️
Angst and hurt/comfort 🔥

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The Pink Hydra kicks off our new monthly publishing schedule with CATCHING FISH, a literary fantasy short story by Emmylou Kotzé. $2 on ko-fi and itch (free for our Ko-fi Members 😉): thepinkhydra.itch.io/catching-fish ko-fi.com/s/39d8caec4f

Cover image for Catching Fish by Emmylou Kotzé: Colourful pencil & chalk drawing of red and gold fish swimming in a natural pool and someone is trying to catch them by hand

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

All of The Pink Hydra's published books are on bookshop.org! Just search by the title 🥰

Forest of the Morning by Emmylou Kotzé, a fantasy novel featuring white lineart on the cover on a background of green forest foliage and purple morning glories

The Artistry of Magic by Helen De Cruz, a cozy fantasy novella with a painting by the author on the cover, a young man drawing animated magical fish in an old-fashioned town square

The Sea by Madeline Konrad, a sapphic romantasy novella, featuring cover art by Stella LaRoh of two women's hands not quite meeting over a ball of shattered glass

What Happens in Camp by Emmylou Kotzé, a short work of taboo erotic featuring a young man on the cover with a bloody dagger at his throat

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 22/06/2026

These pretty paperbacks are, btw, discounted on Lulu until the end of June. 🏳️‍🌈 www.lulu.com/shop/emmylou... www.lulu.com/shop/emmylou... www.lulu.com/shop/emmylou...

lulu.com

Forest of the Morning

The first instalment of the Forest of the Morning trilogy. An epic fantasy featuring five POV characters and two very different romantic relationships (m/m and m/f). Nineteen years ago, the world was...

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The Pink Hydra is currently having a 25% off sale on PAPERBACKS for the remainder of June! 🥰 All these books are under 10 dollars at the moment! Buy direct from us, support a small press, and save 💝 www.lulu.com/spotlight/pi...

The Artistry of Magic by Helen De Cruz

Cover features artwork by the author, a young man paints animated fish in an old-fashioned town square

Mjölnir, Gungnir & Gjallarhorn by Matias Travieso-Diaz

Cover features graphic design of a pile of arms and a Thor's hammer in the background

What Happens in Camp by Emmylou Kotzé

Cover features a black-and-white photo of a young man with a bloody dagger at his throat

The Sea by Madeline Konrad

Cover features art by Stella LaRoh of two women's hands not quite meeting over a ball of shattered crystal

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 18/06/2026

pov: you're hiking in the woods and come across the lair of an ancient forest spirit who really really wants you to read my queer fantasy books Stranger things have happened 😉 🏳️‍🌈🌲🌿🌶️ thepinkhydra.com/books/fotm

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 05/06/2026

With just 2 MORE WEEKS of @ddmarket.online ticket sales to go, here's the second of 3 mini projects exclusive to marketgoers: SURRENDER CONTROL, a collection of kinky encounters between my fave pairing, the mercenaries Nico & Fish. Basically the AO3 epub with a pretty cover. 🥰 2026.ddmarket.online

Cover of Surrender Control: A Nico & Fish Kinktober vignette novella by Emmylou Kotzé. Features black-and-white photography of two men with their hands intertwined.

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 03/06/2026

The Power of Pride bundle 🌈 is only in its 3rd day and already we're close to breaking $10k for queer artists across the globe!! 🤯 Two of my books are part of this promo, and funds will be going towards The Pink Hydra's publishing costs 💚 itch.io/b/3682/the-power-of-pride-bundle-2026-60-edition

A colourful wallpaper of a queer girl and her cat alongside graphic for the Power of Pride itch.io Bundle, on sale June 1 - July 6. 396 projects by queer creators for $60, with Wallpaper Bonus Pack or $10 + PWYC.

Below are the books covers for my two books that are part of the bundle, The Broken Knight and Forest of the Morning.

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 01/06/2026

The Pride Book Fair bundles are live! Get my epic fantasy Forest of the Morning along with 36 other queer books for just $40 in PRIDE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE. 🏳️‍🌈 itch.io/b/3676/pride...

Pride Book Fair 2026 Bundle #2: Pride Hard with a Vengeance; a black graphic with over thirty-five covers of various LGBTQIA+ fiction books available on itch.io.

Fear the Wood Jeremy Rayne; The White Ribband Mason Hawthorne; The Cruel Gods The Thirteenth Hour Trudie Skies; Zimanges M C Burnell; A Study on Magic and Crystal May Barros; Awry With Dandelions J S Fields; Candy Apples Aleksander E Petit; Colors of Magic Liz Sauco; Imposter J M Rose; Common Accord K N Brindle; Consciousness Soup Girlie machine; Crown of Ivy Victoria Audley; Eating At Chain Restaraunts in the Future Cayce Kolodny; Echo Sight Cian Verati; Event Horizon Dan Bispo; Fools Rush In Sarah Clowder; Forest of the Morning Emmylou Kotze; Forgotten Gods Alina Lee; Goblin Girl K A Mielke; Her Majesty Alex Zandra Van Chestein; Hooked Sidney Quinn; I Knew Him Abigail de Niverville; Jane and the Sea Wight E M Anderson; Lantern Burgundy Athena Pendragon; Lifes a Zoo Snow Lupinwood; Many Drops Make a Stream Adrian Harley; Pane Bailey Elizabeth; Rainbow Islands Devin Harnois; Second Glance A E Bennett; The Killing Song Felix Graves; The Mycelium Palace S M Reiher; The Rising Dark Celia Thorn; The Stars Will Guide Us Back Rue Sparks; The Wolf And His Witch Elis Madsen; The Wonders of Mundus Talia Elliott Besler; When I Had Fears Holly Penrose; Wish Lists Lead to This Kay Claire

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Small reminder that we have a monthly newsletter and we'd love to send you a freebie! 👀 Be the first to know about new projects, open submission periods, and cool bundles & sales we're part of: mailchi.mp/ca07f2621b64/thepinkhydra

mailchi.mp

thepinkhydra

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Reposted by The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news

EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra 🔞 @thepinkhydra.com · 29/04/2026

I have a tiny itch bundle for y'all in the month of May. 👀 Featuring six fantasy novels for $6, "Grey Aces" is all about asexual-spectrum characters behaving badly. 😈 🖤🤍💜⛓️⚔️ itch.io/b/3654/grey-aces-morally-grey-ace-characters

Grey Aces:
Morally grey asexual characters in fantasy
May 1 - 31
itch.io bundle - 6 books for $6 - riyati.ink/greyaces

Six book covers are shown, top left to bottom right, as follows:
City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault
Merchants of Knowledge and Magic by Erika McCorkle
Forest of the Morning by Emmylou Kotzé
Sidetracked Part 1 by S. K. Kelley
Riyati Rivals by Kai Zeal
Lantern by Burgundy Athena Pendragon

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The Pink Hydra 🐙 Releases & news @pinkhydramonthly.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

The Pink Hydra is celebrating the relaunch of Helen De Cruz's cozy romantasy novella, THE ARTISTRY OF MAGIC. Find it on Kobo, Amazon, as a paperback wherever, or buy direct from us on Ko-fi or itch: thepinkhydra.itch.io/artistry ko-fi.com/thepinkhydra

Cover of The Artistry of Magic by Helen De Cruz, featuring art of a young man drawing magical animated fish in an old-fashioned town square.

Reviews:
“Maarten and Johanna are characters you will take into your heart and treasure.”
—Eric Kaplan, television writer and producer
(Big Bang Theory, Futurama)
“A charming romantasy that doesn't shy away from giving its characters complexity and depth.”
“The weaving of magic into a deeply realistic moment of historical time is extremely effective.”

Tropes and notes:
magical realism
coffeeshop vibes
light academia
low stakes fantasy
2 hour read
older woman/younger guy romance
not spicy
NB + BIPOC author
African indie press

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