Written Things

Find a comprehensive list of L’s published works below.

Fiction

Dizzy in the Weeds | Short Story

A piece from my San Guin universe, this Dizzy Carter story is part of Neon Hemlock’s “Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness” collection. If you’d like to queer up your various ballots, you can do so from this single, hefty volume.

6967 words, October 2021

(Unfettered Hexes would be eligible for Best Anthology/Collected Works and wherever one might celebrate the gay things)

WHERE TO READ

Buy Unfettered Hexes

The Colorman himself was a dapper telephone pole of a man, almost impossibly tall and attractively dark with impeccable taste in tailoring. He was most often seen publicly in the form of massive technicolor graffiti murals styled by devoted disciples known casually as Krylon Kids. The murals served as gateways throughout San Guin, staged in places where he needed eyes or where the kids needed either access or an escape route.

From Witch to Queen and God | Short Story

A vignette for her character in my current novel project, this is an origin story for Ursla, the witch who steps into the seas to fill the void the old gods left behind.

4869 words/January 2021

REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES

Nebula Recommended Reading List
Tor.com Must-Read SFF Short Fiction

WHERE TO READ IT

Mermaids Monthly #1

Far be it from her to give a damn, but if she wanted to become more than a witch, more than the sea queen, she needed the reverence of Men. Becoming a deity was a question of politics. So she would see them freed and they would have her and no other god to thank for it.

The Currant Dumas | Short Story

F/F crushes, magic, and adventure on a train after the end of the world.

REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES

WHERE TO READ IT

Part of the Glitter + Ashes anthology from Neon Hemlock

Samson Arrita Duchamp stands at the coffee hutch at the edge of the blustery marketplace, watching the industrious little ballet of volunteers swapping the goods in their trailers and truck beds for the crates onboard the candy painted cars of the Carlyle Limited No. 4.

young Death is in love | Poem

WHERE TO READ IT

Strange Horizons 20 April 2020

SIGNAL | short story

Eldritch monsters, children in mech suits, and why you don’t devalue the youth if you plan to have a future.

2112 words

REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES

WHERE TO READ IT

July 2019. Fireside Quarterly July ’19 | Fireside (online)

MOSES | short story

Moses has a terrible power and, with it, has done terrible things. Is there a way back? Or will she allow her vices to consume her if it means never having to live with her memories?

CONTENT WARNING // substance abuse, allusions to human trafficking

REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES

Quick Sip Review | Tor.com Must Reads May 2019 | B&N SFF Round-up May 2019 | A.C. Wise Favorite Short Fiction 2019 | Maria Haskins Best of 2019 | Quick Sip Recommended Reading List 2019 | Reprinted at Lightspeed Magazine

2019 Locus Recommended Reading List

WHERE TO READ IT

April 2019. Anathema Magazine #7

THE DEAD WITHHELD | Serial on Patreon

"welcome to san guin: the city the dead never left" neon signage on postcard

Dizzy Carter is a deadwalker witch six years into the hunt for her wife’s murderer. A former blues-singer in San Guin, Dizzy’s lost her music and has shifted to work as a private investigator for the resources it allows her in tracking the apparent serial killer who took Lonnie from her. The first clue in years connects to a growing infestation of enterprising demons in the city. Aided by her violent nature, the madame of a succubus bordello, and dolls animated by captive souls she owes to the vengeful dead, Dizzy will take on anything to see Lonnie’s ghost freed.

Read Chapter 1 for free on Patreon

TAKE THE MIC: FICTIONAL STORIES OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE | short story- The Helpers (October 2019, Scholastic/A.A. Levine)

On a Saturday night during an unprecedented summer heatwave, Allie Carmichael, 16, is waiting for her sister Sasha’s EMT shift at the firehouse to end when the city’s power goes out. Twenty-four minutes later, an explosion rocks a commercial section of downtown. She wonders if it has anything to do with the street protests that have ruled the summer, or the new war that’s on, or a transformer blowing, or whatever counts as terrorism these days. Allie and Sasha find each other in the dark and get to work helping whomever they can find in and around the rubble. The embattled community only has each other until the cavalry arrives at dawn as long as the power is out. The how’s and why’s of what happened are less significant than the lives that need saving. THE HELPERS is a short story inspired by Fred Rogers‘s idea of looking for “the helpers in times of crisis”, and finding one’s place in effecting change where it is needed.

October 2019. Indiebound

A RUIN OF SHADOWS | novella

A RUIN OF SHADOWS book cover — ISBN13: 9781732141803
Published by Dancing Star Press
Artwork by Emily Cheeseman

General Daynja Édo is a legend: head of the celebrated Boorhian Empire’s military and possessor of a mask of untold power. She has raised her Shadow Army of seven assassins from childhood. But mounting disillusionment over a life of brutality, a petulant emperor, and prodding from The Artful Djinni force her to defy orders for the first time in her thirty year career. When the empire decides they no longer need Édo if they can get the mask, she must face the monsters of her own making and the legacy they’ve turned against her.

REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES

Goodreads | Review in Strange Horizons SEUSA Issue

WHERE TO READ IT

Paperback and ebook available at: Dancing Star Press | Amazon [paperback] [kindle] | Barnes + Noble | Kobo

April 2018. Dancing Star Press $3.99 – $9.99

CHESIRAH | novelette

A fenox cannot help but burn anymore than they can help the cage they emerge into when they return from ash. Even a gilded cage is still a prison. Chesirah has decided to fight for her freedom, and she’ll torch anyone who stands in her way.