Akiva Lee, zine fiend

Sir Gawain Fucks the Green Knight Here’s a tale ripe for telling. Can’t say where I heard it first—in pretty French or Dutch. Perhaps as a young lady walking ‘longside the Rijn. I’ll spin it for you in an English tongue, fine as frost on lace, sweet as malmsey wine. So it goes that young Gawain, strength kissed into his limbs, fresh as the bright dawn, comes trembling down to the Green Chapel. You’ve heard this tale, I know. His breath makes peach fuzz in the air, fear into him like worm to apple. Christmas Morn is too soon, time is short. You have your own life to save, he says, picking through thorn and bough to an ivy-clad cave. The creature is the Jack O’ the Glen / forest prince / the wood’s own laughter. Beard of lichen and eyes like dark elder. I need not repeat their exchange—my boy’s flinching heart—a songbird in a rattled cage. It is after the blows are dealt, he asks, what god is worshipped in these green trees? Boy, the Knight replies, boy, were you not just down on your knees? The Knight is the tang of sap / bark rough and petal soft / everywhere leaves scatter / easily crushed / Gawain clings / hardly knows what he clings to / he is the forest and the flower / a turmoil of roots / where god and tree meet and melt / the birch the oak the fern the deer / mushroom maggot crow / here Gawain is branch and bud / blow returned for blow

This is a sheer indulgence on my part, but it turns out I never actually shared the poem here, so:

🍃

cropped work in progress illustration. A large hand is touching fingertips to the backs of a smaller hand's fingers. They are illuminated dramatically and reaching upward.

wip 🫴

Lolllll

Last night I got very very close to finishing the fist draft of my novella!! I just need to come up with a punchy, non-trite last few lines.

Black and white drawing of two people, from waist down, wearing leather, denim and harnesses and grinding on one another. #peteart

🖤

My end goal is to raise $5,000! This will give our family a much needed cushion until my stepdad's Army pension kicks in.

Thank you so much to people who have already donated! ❤️ if you haven't yet please consider donating and if you can't share this!

Work stress building. Thank god it's Thursday and I have a writing meetup.

Respite Cover

Seems bluesky is shitting itself right now, good time to go read my gay trans nsfw comic with hairy bears over on ComicFury:)
respite.thecomicseries.com

An illustration with flowers and sparkles, and the text “WE SUPPORT SLUTS AND WHORES ON THIS PAGE” overlayed on top of it.

your bi-monthly reminder that this page supports sluts and whores and your page should too

I lied. There are four blood-drinking scenes.

80’s sleaze AU

Sometimes I do get jealous of the folks who medically transition and start to love their bodies. That has not really been my journey.

Something they don't tell you about gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia is that gender dysphoria can be treated through medical care, but body dysmorphia is much harder to get rid of. 😔

There are three blood-drinking scenes and another scene where blood is being served as a beverage at an event. And several discussions of drinking blood. No one is going to read this and say "I wish there was more blood drinking in it," I imagine.

Word frequency chart: the word blood has a count of 47.

Apparently I use the word "blood" 47 times in my vampire romance novella manuscript 😅🩸

A scene from Heated Rivalry where two characters are shown chest to chest, shirtless, waist up. Two large sheets of paper are taped to the television, with drawings of horse bodies. The characters are lined up with the horse bodies so as to make them look like centaurs.

The Heated Rivalry drinking game is whenever centaurs happen.

I know that lube & prep as a trope is so old hat and we’re all tired of it but you have GOT to think about lube & prep as top enrichment. Stimmy time. They love that hole let them play with it. Stop writing it like a chore before the fun part and start writing it like the fun part

Here’s a cover I illustrated for the upcoming D&D book, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. It was such a joy to paint Strahd again 🦇
Art director: AJ Hanneld

I support the right of sex workers to work in safety.

I support the right of sex workers to work free from stigma and shame.

I support the right of sex workers to know what is best for sex workers and for the rest of us to shut the hell up.

#SexWorkerRightsDay

A long list of stories featuring trans women and femmes on Itchio.

The "Trans Women in Sexy Situations" collection just reached over 400 entries today!

Don't try to let folks tell you people aren't writing Trans women! The stories are out there, but it's up to US to give them love!

Consider this your starting point for #transreadathon!
itch.io/c/5067133/tr...

An ad for the upcoming Trans/Queer Jam

As the Transhet Jam is wrapping up, I went ahead and put up a page for the Trans/Queer Jam!

This jam will take place May 1st to July 13th and will accept any comic, game, novel, etc that contains at least one trans character in a queer/homosexual romance or erotica story!

itch.io/jam/transque...

cover art, 20-something Eoghan hugging a armored leg

one comic page, balloon says "with me, then", features a lady knight and Eoghan entering a tent

🏳️‍⚧️ NEW COMIC, FREE ON ITCH! 🏳️‍⚧️

12 pages, 18+ : a young Eoghan, still just a captain, serving his sworn liege, Ser Lianne, in more than one way... (aka: 20-something Eoghan being a submissive bisexual disaster of the best kind) - made for the #transhet jam!

lucenorthstar.itch.io/my-liege

A drawing of a sleeping Angel with brown speckled wings and top surgery scars and moles. There are gold borders with a cloudy night sky and orange poppies and red phases of the moon

A sleepy angel 💜✨

#transart #trans #lgbtartist #artsky

TV and movies had a good run. Back to the only incorruptible medium: photocopied pornographic zines

Promotional graphic for Bleed With You. It features a piece of paper with tape on the edges, and in handwriting font, it reads: "Micah is looking for a casual fuck with a vampire. Julian isn’t looking for anything at all. But they both might get more than they thought possible." The subtitle reads: "A vampire romance novella by Akiva Lee. Coming 2026."

I am thrilled to announce the title of my upcoming vampire romance novella, BLEED WITH YOU, coming this year!

BWY follows Julian, a weary, traumatized vampire just getting by—and the young trans man, Micah, who turns his world upside down.

#WritingCommunity #Romancelandia

This is literally just me

Thank you!!!

BWY is for readers who like:
🩸 Tender romance
🩸 Sensitive depictions of PTSD
🩸 Blood drinking
🩸 Gender-affirming depictions of trans characters
🩸 A dash of spice!

💙 NO PEEKING is out! 💙

When Malady breaks his promise to his new traveling companion, Lapis, to not watch him bath in the lake, Malady must suffer the consequences.

11 comic pages of voyeurism, banter, and people being thrown into lakes.

ramlightly.itch.io/no-peeking

Promotional graphic for Bleed With You. It features a piece of paper with tape on the edges, and in handwriting font, it reads: "Micah is looking for a casual fuck with a vampire. Julian isn’t looking for anything at all. But they both might get more than they thought possible." The subtitle reads: "A vampire romance novella by Akiva Lee. Coming 2026."

I am thrilled to announce the title of my upcoming vampire romance novella, BLEED WITH YOU, coming this year!

BWY follows Julian, a weary, traumatized vampire just getting by—and the young trans man, Micah, who turns his world upside down.

#WritingCommunity #Romancelandia