Welcome, human!
I’m glad you found your way to my website, where, hopefully, you will find new and interesting information about me, my writing, my schedule, and whatever else I may be into these days — including my opinions on toenail polish, snow, pine tar soap, stinky coonhounds, wildflowers, and any number of other musings that cross my brain.
What led you here?
A book or short story? You might want to check out the my other literary offerings.
Met me at a conference? Over popcorn or wine or Scotch? You might be interested in joining my newsletter list to see where I’ll be next.
Did my mother send you? She’s been known to do that. She’s my mama after all.
Now that you’ve arrived…
Regardless of how you found me, I hope you enjoy the website. Feel free to find me on social media, or drop me a line here if you have questions, comments, or recommendations for books, wine, or de-stinking coonhounds.
Many thanks to Rob, Allie, & Jesse for having me on the fabulous Glitchy Pancakes podcast. In this episode we discuss responsibility in fandom, gatekeeper, pencils, and the fact that my middle initial is “L”.
A splendid debut from a talent to watch. Opens with a mature, somewhat beat up hero presented with defending a caravan under threatening circumstances. The setting and the writing and the characters are deftly realized, and the prose, sharp and straight to the point. Alternating flashback chapters slowly reveal the background, with a heroine given equal billing and plenty of ‘mind of her own’ contrary complexity. She does not exist just to put a shine on the protagonist – anything but, which is refreshing. Unlike most ‘split time’ novels, this one kept me riveted through both timelines. As the backstory converges with the present, the suspense tightens down beautifully. I found this book tough to put down, unique enough to be unforgettable, and left me raving crazy to get my hands on the sequel. For readers who love character AND plot driven books, give this quick little read a try.
If you’re sick of the same old grimdark fantasy, which offers nothing new, then you’re going to love Draigon Weather, which takes the tired old dragonslayer and damsel in distress tropes and turns them on their head. It’s a well paced tale of two young people struggling against the roles they’re expected to adopt in a backward-thinking society. Refreshingly feminist, Christie’s novel is an uplifting homage to the ties of sisterhood and the power of stories. Both Leiel and Cleod are hugely sympathetic characters and their painfully parallel journeys are told through a series of short alternating chapters which span their whole childhoods. While the end of the book is satisfying, there’s still so much more to explore and many questions I want answering. I can’t wait for Book Two.
This was a fantastic read! Fast-paced with many layers of insights and incredible weaving of myth and archetypes – I couldn’t put the book down. Can’t wait for the 2nd book to find out what happens next. This is a book to treasure and re-read many times. Give it to your friends and teens – both genders- it’s a really important disruption of stereotypes and human empowerment. And who doesn’t love dragons?!!!
Christie uses the stories to give depth and colour to her world, but is never scared to use them to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes and mislead them. It’s the work of a virtuoso storyteller, revealing layers one at a time, always leaving hints that there’s more to come.