Published Fiction

Short Stories

Forthcoming, May 2021: “To Rise, Blown Open” (short story) • Anathema: Spec from the Margins 

April 2021: “Bandit, Reaper, Yours” (flash) • Baffling Magazine

Reaper Retwa visits Haroux’s House of Celestial Fashions, ready to confront her lover for committing high crimes against the empire. After all, trading imperial kill-cards on the black market is quite the offense.

But dressmaker Y’andi has other ideas, and you know what they say about the best laid plans…

Reviews: Quick Sip

October 2020: “Conjurer’s Rites” (flash) • Breathe FIYAH, Tor.com

Upon coming home, Sidney Graves attempts the Graves-Byrne-Williams’s oldest magical rite–and, in so doing, demonstrates the power of calling on history.

Reviews: Locus “Recommended Story,” February 2021 • Quick Sip

When a breeze shook the reed curtains in mama’s salon, I thought it might be another dragon gliding low, stopping to drink from Lake Mritil. ‘Course, mama and I weren’t afraid; we loved watching them soar overhead, wings gusting hard enough to free cotton fibers and coffee cherries across Gyrixëan farms, so that croppers only had to scoop them up. So, you can imagine my disappointment when it wasn’t a dragon aloft, but a lanky huntress pushing into mama’s parlor. She burst through our straw door, letting in the noon sound of Gyrixëans haggling over pouches in the nearby spice house; testing winter tunics in the adjacent tailor’s gallery — but this wasn’t any old villager, like the rest of them. Her wolf-pelt cloak, engraved walking staff, and curved daggers marked her as a traveler. And instead of looking journey-weary, her umber skin practically glowed beneath the gauzy afternoon light.
July 2020: “While Dragons Claim the Sky” (novelette; reprint) •  PodCastle, episodes #635 &  #636
Reviews: Fantasy Literature

FIYAH_Issue10_Cover

April 2019: “While Dragons Claim the Sky” (novelette) • FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, issue 10.

Omani, a coif mage who can weave magics into hair, dreams of leaving her family’s shop behind and becoming an imperial mage. When Myra, a poor but talented knightess-to-be, stumbles into Omani’s shop, both of their lives will be irrevocably changed.

Reviews:
The Book Smugglers • B&N SFF Roundup, April 2019 • Quick Sip
Lists:
Locus 2019 Recommended Reading List • Maria Haskins Best of 2019
Awards:
2020 “Best Novelette” finalist, Ignyte Award
2019 “Big Sip” for “Excellent Action in Short SFF”