Tag: LGBTQIA

Winner of Reviewers’ Choice Award

Excited to share that my novel The Warmth of Ashes is one of the winners in the Fantasy category of the 2024 Nerdection Reviewers’ Choice Awards! 

The reviewer, Georgia, wrote a lovely blurb:

The Warmth of Ashes sees multiple characters experiencing similar dilemmas. The raw emotionality of characters doing the best that they can, believing that they are making the best decisions that they can, either for the masses and strangers, or for themselves and the ones they love, builds an incredible suspense.

 

Read the full review

Get the book on Amazon

Double Feature! Two Short Stories in Whisk(e)y Tit

Very excited to announce that Whisk(e)y Tit Press has published not one but TWO of my short stories in Issue 11 of the Whisk(ey) Tit Journal! WT is a fiesty independent press that publishes some truly — and I use this word lovingly — weird books, so it’s an honor to be recognized by them.

I have to give a huge thank you specifically to Philip Shelley, the Journal‘s co-editor, who had to resort to commenting on one of my Instagram posts to get my attention when for some reason his emails weren’t reaching my inbox (and I never check Insta DMs from people I don’t know lol). Thanks to his tenacity, I was able to accept WT’s publishing offer at the absolute last moment possible before the issue went to print.

The two stories chosen for publication seemed like distinct entities in my mind. I wrote Studiers of Stone back in 2020 and I finished Antenatal just three months ago, so I didn’t realize until just now that both explore similar themes: societal expectations of the female body as well as how a person’s identity is reflected (or not reflected) in their physical form. I’m not too surprised. All writers are haunted by a few tropes that they’ll never write out of their system, and for me, that’s the tension between society and identity, in particular how a person can feel simultaneously loved yet isolated.

These two stories had different journeys though. Studiers of Stone began as a mash-up of several unrelated scribbles. I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to be for a long time. It went through multiple drafts and workshops with editors, and then I tossed away all that work to do a near-total rewrite because I finally decided I wanted the ending to be hopeful instead of bleak.

Meanwhile, Antenatal came to me almost fully formed. I knew exactly what the story would be but it sat as an unfinished draft in my phone’s notes for a while. After I wrote it out and cleaned it up, the only person who reviewed it was my spouse, since I wanted a trans person to critique whether my trans character’s narrative rang true. 

I’m so grateful that Whisk(ey) Tit has given these two stories a chance to reach people. As always, I hope that my writing helps someone feel less alone and less unseen, and also helps someone else see the world in a new light.

The Warmth of Ashes

My science-fantasy novel The Warmth of Ashes is available on Amazon!

The Warmth of Ashes is a science-fantasy family drama and coming-of-age story that will appeal to fans of Kamilah Cole’s So Let Them Burn and Caroline O’Donoghue’s All Our Hidden Gifts.

Maka Garrett has no hope of getting accepted to the Royal Institute. What would the prestigious academy for Ensom’s most powerful citizens need with a blind 17-year-old aura reader? She’s as ordinary as extraordinary gets, much to the disappointment of her mother Helen, who was banned from the Institute years ago despite her godlike ability to control the wind.

And yet, it’s Helen who insists that Maka apply.

Professor Soren Harkonen is furious that Maka even shows up to the interview, though she appears unaware that her mother is plotting revenge against him. He ruined Helen’s life to save his boyfriend and he’d do it again without hesitation. Despite Soren’s best efforts, Maka is accepted to the Institute when it’s discovered that her ability to read and extract the auras of books can be used to manipulate people.

Maka is as reluctant to learn to wield this power as Soren is to teach her, but neither have a choice — the Queen demands a well-trained arsenal. Because discontent has been brewing since the volcano at the heart of Ensom erupted ten years ago. An extremist group is claiming that the island only survived due to a deal the monarchy made with the devil. And the people, still poisoned by the ashes, are starting to listen.

When Maka’s ability suddenly evolves into something far more dangerous, she not only becomes the most terrifying student in school but a crucial pawn in the clash between the Queen and the extremists — as well as the key to Soren and his boyfriend’s freedom.

That is, if Helen doesn’t convince Maka to destroy them first.

As Maka unravels the horrifying truth about what happened when the volcano erupted, she learns that no one is innocent. And in the end, she will be forced to make a harrowing choice: save her mother or save the island.