The sequel to That Distant Dream is tentatively titled That Slow Awakening, and I am anticipating a 2023 release!
That Distant Dream
17 years ago, Melin Grezzij ended a war.
She didn’t get to enjoy the peace.
After her escape pod is found drifting through debris nearly two decades after the end of the Redelki Wars, Melin is woken from cryosleep to find a galaxy where she no longer belongs. The galaxy has moved on from the horrors she experienced, the experiences that transformed her into a hero while she slept, but she hasn’t.
Alone, broken in mind and body, Melin is slowly pulled to the planet of her ancestors. She just wants a fresh start. A chance to end the dreams plaguing her sleep. A chance for answers. For new beginnings. For a life lived in oblivion, where no one knows her name or what she did.
But Satura is a planet at war.
And there are no fresh starts for heroes.
That Slow Awakening
After a small yet memorable explosion that got him expelled from his academic studies and kicked straight to the Black Hells Army, Quernadenta Khelek was prepared for a quiet exile in the middle of the Dragonback Mountains. The worst he’d face were a few magical flare-ups, a bunch of blizzards, and his taciturn new partner.
He never expected to see one of the offworlder invaders—not so far north.
Until an offworlder flying contraption slammed into one of the mountains, and Khelek and his partner were sent to investigate with strict orders to ensure there were no survivors.
Khelek never meant to disobey, but that was before his entire world unraveled by what he found in the ice.
That Slow Awakening releases April 11th, 2023 from NineStar Press.
It will be available as an ebook from NineStar or Amazon, and available as a print copy on Amazon. Amazon pre-orders will go live soon!
Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians
As an assistant editor at the prestigious Hanhat Publishers, Evie Southiel is entrusted with fine-tuning the manuscripts of the company’s most important authors. Her skills as a book witch allow her to manipulate the stories she reviews and bring them to life.
Then her girlfriend steals the secret manuscript of Hanhat’s best-selling author and leaks it to the press, and Evie is exiled to become a journey carrier with the Pack Horse Librarians in the eastern mountains.
Timid city mouse Evie doesn’t know the first thing about surviving in the wilderness, riding a horse, or dealing with the rugged mountain folk and coal miners surrounding the town of Hevis. She does know books, though, and she’s determined to do the best job she can. But that goal is jeopardized when her horse gets spooked on her first solo run, sending her tumbling out of the saddle and into a mysterious mother’s life.
Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians was previously published from Less Than Three Press as The Book Woman
Short Stories
- “Recipe for a Love Spell.” Moonlight: A Queer Werewolf Anthology. (July 2020).
- “Love and War Aboard the Peregrine Zircon.” Luna Station Quarterly Issue 046. (June 2021).
- “To Steal a Prince of the Moon.” Black Cat Magazine, Issue 1. (June 2021).
- “Terrible Tilly Hunts the Cadborosaurus.” All Worlds Wayfarer, Issue X. (September 2021).
- “You Are About to Begin a Great Adventure.” Intrinsick Magazine. (September 2021).
- “Tell the Crows I’m Home.”
- Metaphorosis Magazine. (October 2021).
- Metaphorosis: Best of 2021 (January 2022).
- “Jack, the Medbot and the Giant in the Sky.” Titanic Terastructures. (November 2021).
- “Team Wolf Anxiety.”Gaia Awakens. (November 2021).
- “The Hidden Language of Flowers.”
- Misspelled: Magic Gone Awry. (October 2021).
- We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction of 2021. (October 2022).
- “Vasilisa and the Night Witches.” Mirror, Mirror: A Compendium of Fractured Fairy Tales. (December 2021).
- “Mommy’s Little Helper.” Strange Libations: An Anthology of Dark Cocktails. Apex Magazine. (March 2023).
- “The Museum of Perpetual Service.” Museum Piece An Unusual Collection. (May/June 2023).
- “Water, Wolves and Salt.” Nature Erupts. (June 2023).
The Suspected Bibliophile 