The village of strong branches

The Village of Strong Branches is a hieropoeic ghost story, interweaving family and professional duty. Keð, a member of the international military peacekeepers, has hidden her mental health breakdown after the death of a close comrade, Wiren, from her family. On her first voluntary leave after her recovery, she visits her family, intent on restoring peace with her sister, Tantas. But Keð’s troubles are far from over when Wiren’s ghost starts haunting her, threatening her stability and challenging everything she has taken for granted and all she has hidden from others as she is drawn into a world of the restless dead and the Goddess of the Mountains. 

This poignant tale of liminality, grief, change, and resilience will be an enjoyable read for anyone who loves phantoms lurking in the dark. Readers who love conlangs and non-Earth settings may also enjoy this story.

Ebook: Most ebook stores

Print book: Anywhere that sells print books! Just ask them to carry ISBN 9781735740645. This is also on Amazon, Bookshop, and other online sites.

 

Book cover for Village of Strong Branches. A woman stands in a paddy on a terraced slope as a ghost comes out of the ground.

 

Acts of Speech

Acts of Speech is a volume of religious poetry that explores performative, public, and private religious speech and how they construct identity and difference. It blends praise poetry primarily in honor of various Hellenic Gods, including Apollon, the Mousai, Hermes, and Mnemosyne, with more private poems in a tense dance of parasociality and intimacy. Above all, it is a time capsule of experiences frozen in syllable, verse, and image.

Ebook: Gumroad (mobi, pdf, epub) or  most ebook stores. Please use Gumroad’s mobi if you plan to read on an Amazon device.

Print book: Anywhere that sells print books! Just ask them to carry ISBN 9781735740614. Bookshop.org (USA) and Amazon (many countries) will sell this book, too. Here’s a Google search for the ISBN that can help you.

 

Acts of Speech book cover

poems

 

FICTION

Self-Published

  • Epiphany  is my first podcast novel project. It explores loss, grief, and identity. Epiphany is an epistolary political thriller about stopping an assassination attempt. (Note: The link is currently down because it was an old WordPress that failed; I’m planning to edit the content for an ePub/PDF and put it online for you in a donate-what-you-want model ($0-to-whatever).
  • The Waterfall Commune” is a short story in which five twentysomethings conspire to move to a more exciting city in a society where coliving with non-relatives is just not done.
  • Longing for Water” is a short story about a swim competitor trying to woo a ritual officiant at a sacred festival.
  • Gates of Ivory, Gates of Horn” is an own-voices fiction piece about growing up Neopagan, religious violence, and moving beyond trauma.

 

TraditionallY-

Published

  • Ash Shades” in The Society of Misfit Stories Presents … (February 2019)