FIA OF THE HONEYSUCKLE
Fia Toku is a criminal on two counts: she deserted the despotic army she once unquestioningly served, and she mercy-killed the love of her life. In the eyes of the army, the former is punishable by death—but it’s the memory of the latter that keeps Fia up at night.
On the run from her crimes, Fia hides in a witch’s inn, determined to drink herself to death to escape her self-loathing. At the inn, an eccentric old man named Ifer hires her as his personal bodyguard, offering Fia one last chance to atone for her cruel past. Even at her lowest, Fia isn’t stupid enough to pass up an opportunity like that—but when Ifer’s job turns out to be a mad quest to smuggle deserters like Fia out of hiding and across the border to safety, her life devolves further into chaos.
The army uncovers their plot, and as Fia fights to protect herself and her newfound friends, she finds herself slipping back into the violent ways she once relished as a soldier. Her ability to differentiate good from evil slips further from her grasp, and she is forced to face the one question she has never wanted to ask herself: Will she ever be able to unlearn the cruelty the army taught her? She’s starting to believe she has committed too many wrongs to even deserve the chance to make things right.
FIA OF THE HONEYSUCKLE is a 100,000-word adult fantasy novel. Read the first chapter here.
THE GRIMOIRE OF A FRAUDULENT WITCH
Minneapolis, 1910. Reflections are gateways into another world: the mirror image of reality, but filled with the characters of folklore from Minnesota’s immigrant cultures. This world, the Reflectere, is not meant to be reachable from reality, but Miri Lillis has a witch’s mirror that allows her to cross between worlds. Each evening, Miri steps through the mirror and into the Reflectere, where she peddles her services as a witch to the folkloric residents—except she isn’t a witch. She just knows how to fix damaged plumbing and electrical wiring, and for the creatures of ancient mythology living in a 20th century city, such a skill is invaluable. It’s not Miri’s fault that they believe modern conveniences to be magic, or that they are willing to pay exorbitant prices for her services.
On one of her trips to the Reflectere, Miri’s mirror is stolen, leaving her stranded there. To hunt the mirror down, she strikes a deal with Wen, a woman who has been trapped in the Reflectere for twenty years. In exchange for Wen’s help in finding the mirror, Miri agrees to let Wen return with her to reality—but when they find the mirror, Miri does not uphold her end of the bargain, shattering the looking glass as she dives back into reality. Now, racked with guilt in hindsight, she must find a way back to the Reflectere to make things right, or else live with the fact that she has destroyed Wen’s only hope of ever reuniting with her family.
THE GRIMOIRE OF A FRAUDULENT WITCH is a 100,000-word historical fantasy novel. Read the first chapter here.