novellas & collections

Stories To Sing In The Dark
Four Seasons
Between The Lines

sHORT FICTION

2019

"The Concubine's Heart" / originally published 2018 in Steampunk Universe, edited by Sarah Hans (Alliteration Ink); reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine, 2019
A steampunk tale with lesbians, automata and cannibalism. What more could you ask for, really?

2018

"The Brightest Stars in the Demi-Monde" / Wild Thymes on the 22, edited by Stewart Sheargold (Obverse Books)
The inimitable Iris Wildthyme meets Victorian drag queens Fanny and Stella and takes them on a whistle-stop tour of the queerest corners of the galaxy.
"An Uncommonly Beautiful Specimen of Manhood" / Relics, edited by Scott Claringbold (Red Ted Books)
A semi-sequel to Golden Hair, Red Lips. There's an awful lot of ghosts waiting for Dorian Gray...

2017

"The Library of Lost Things" / Tor.com
A cosmic library, a sinister librarian, and a boy with a secret. Oh, and talking rats.
"Tom cannot completely hide who he is, though, or the mission that brought him to the Library. And his mission is heartbreaking, wrenching. It challenges the Librarian not violently, for Tom really is rather passive, though by no means weak. Instead, he opts to fight his battles without fists or fire, choosing instead kindness, and language, and words that he’s not supposed to say, passion he’s not supposed to act on. It’s a lovely, moving story about loss and about fighting back against the forces of erasure. About confidence and about compassion, and it’s amazing, and you should read it. Go on!"
​Quick Sip Reviews (Read the full review)
"In Search of Stars" / GlitterShip Podcast
A magic realist tale of queer repression, flight and dark endings set in mid-20th-century Hollywood.
Collected in Glittership: Year Two (Tiptree Honours List 2019)
​Listen here:
"...a story of longing and shame with a dark edge as a man makes his problems literally float away."
A.C. Wise (Read the Favourite Short Fiction of 2017 post)
"Antonia and Cleopatra" / Clockwork Cairo, edited by, uh, me (Twopenny Books)
Tomb raiders, harlots, mummies, soldiers, gangsters, moustaches and clockwork camels. Uproarious steampunk buffoonery featuring Cleopatra Bonny, a character from my novel-in-progress Carfax and Company​.
"Iris and the Dame" / A Clockwork Iris, edited by Stuart Douglas, Paul Magrs and George Mann (Obverse Books)
Iris Wildthyme meets the world of steam and clockwork. In 'Iris and the Dame', Iris and Panda gum up the gears of the Number 22 with gin and end up in a world of clockwork carnivals, dirigible dragons and other assorted weirdness.
"The Ragged School" / A Treasury of Brenda and Effie, edited by Paul Magrs (Obverse Books)
The continuing adventures of Paul Magrs' Brenda and Effie characters. In 'The Ragged School', Brenda finds old memories resurfacing when she visits the sinister Ragged School on the moors, whilst back at home in her Whitby B&B there's scratching in the walls, and some body parts on the loose.

2016

​"By Chance, In The Dark"
A queer retelling of A Christmas Carol featuring ghostly drag queens, phantom starlets, and valuable life lessons.
"Eyebrows and Fish" / A Target For Tommy (Obverse Books)
A Doctor Who charity fanthology. The Twelfth Doctor meets the Silence in 1920s Melbourne, alongside a lady detective by the name of Miss Fish(er!). Unfortunately this highly limited edition book can no longer be bought, but you can read the story right here!
"Director's Cut" / Harlot Magazine
A twisty, queer metafictional tale set between the reels of early cinema.
This story was serialised. Read all three parts here:
"It mixes the tragic elements, the pressure to be tragic, and makes it into something triumphant, something a little trippy but lots of fun...It's sensual and it's lonely and yet by the end there's an undeniable joy that's infectious and amazing." Quick Sip Reviews. (Read the full review.)
"What A Coincidence!" / Men In Love, ed. by Jerry L. Wheeler
This is what happens when I decide to write a straight-out romance story: a meetcute with maybe-time-travel. (Not a spoiler.)
"The Last Drag Show On Earth" / Revolutions, ed. by Manchester Speculative Fiction Group
A future-sf drag noir set on Manchester's Canal Street. With an apocalypse bearing down, the last true drag queen steps out, and the ghosts of the city's queer past rise up to come watch.
"Time To Dance" / Threesome: Him, Him and Me, ed. by Matthew Bright
My shot at a David Levithan-esque YA romance, featuring a triad relationship and unabashedly thieving from my own autobiography.
”A very sweet coming of age story…Loved this one a lot.”
Rainbow Gold Reviews

”I loved this story so much…Somehow the author managed to write a story that was both innocent and erotic at the same time, which left me totally impressed and in a very happy place.” Love Bytes Reviews
"Burning on the Edge of the World" / The Biggest Lover, ed. by R. Jackson
An erotica tale featuring the larger male. Sweet but filthy.

2015

"Golden Hair, Red Lips" / Queers Destroy Horror (Nightmare Magazine), ed. by Wendy N. Wagner
Horror piece that supposes Dorian Gray lived, and places him in the Castro in the middle of the AIDs epidemic.
”A very sweet coming of age story…Loved this one a lot.”
Rainbow Gold Reviews

”I loved this story so much…Somehow the author managed to write a story that was both innocent and erotic at the same time, which left me totally impressed and in a very happy place.” Love Bytes Reviews
 
"Nothing To Worry About" / Queen Mob's Tea House
Domestic horror, though you won't realise it at first.
"Pushkin" / Glitterwolf Halloween II
Lesbian medieval gothic.