Come Join in the Wonder!
Writing stories that keep a light shining in the darkenss
Novels: (For more info see individual series pages)
The Books of Unexpected Enlightenment
Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts – A magic school like no other!
Nestled amidst the beauty of New York’s Hudson Highlands and hidden from the eyes of the Unwary, Roanoke Academy is a place of magic and wonder. It offers everything a young sorceress could desire—enchantments, flying brooms, and the promise of new friendships.
On her first day of school, Rachel Griffin discovers her perfect memory gives her an unexpected advantage. With it, she can see through the spell sorcerers use to hide their secrets. Very soon, she discovers that there is a far-vaster secret world hiding from the Wise, precisely the same way that the magical folk hide from the mundane folk.
When someone tries to kill a fellow student, she investigates. Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel bravely faces wraiths, embarrassing magical pranks, mysterious older boys, a Raven that brings the doom of worlds, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.
Described by fans as: "Lovecraft meets Narnia at Hogwarts", The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin is a tale of wonder and danger, romance and heartbreak, and, most of all, of magic and of a girl who refuses to be daunted.
Curiosity may kill a cat, but nothing stops Rachel Griffin!
"Lamplighter introduces many imaginative elements in her world that will delight…" VOYAThere is a book trailer, The Students of Roanoke Academy, with a song written by poet Ben Zwycky and sung by the lovely and incomparable Sarah Koolbeck.
The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (2013)
The Raven, The Elf, and Rachel (2014)
Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland (2016)
The Awful Truth About Forgetting (2017)
Read the first four chapters of Book One
Prospero's Children Series
(Formerly Prospero's Daughter)
The Prospero's Children trilogy has been reissued from Wordfire Press with beautiful new covers by Dan Lawlis. For five hundred years, since the end of the events chronicled in Shakespeare's Tempest, the dread magician Prospero and his children have guarded mankind from the ravages of the supernatural world. Now Prospero has gone missing, and it is up to Miranda to gather her siblings and save him–if she can just get them to believe that someone as powerful as their father could really be in trouble.
Prospero Lost — 2009 (Tor), 2016 (Wordfire)
Prospero In Hell — 2010 (Tor) 2017 (Wordfire)
Prospero Regained — 2011 (Tor) 2017 (Wordfire)
Read the first chapter of Prospero Lost
Short Stories: (For more info see Other Works)
Anthologies with stories in the Prospero's Children background
In The Lamplight — anthology of my short stories
Enter the Fantastic Worlds of L. Jagi Lamplighter…
Sixteen tales of wit and wonder, of mischief and magic, where simple folk and extraordinary individuals wrestle down their own fears to find the courage, cleverness and, occasionally, faith to face life’s dangers and enchantments:A young man trapped in dreams finds an unexpected way into the waking world.
A technician on a zero-g space station discovers there is more to him than meets the eye. Time cops must unwind crimes that might not have been committed yet. A brilliant young psychiatrist tests his theories on an unearthly patient by a moonlit pond. For a young girl, Anne Bolyn’s poppet is the stuff of nightmares only she can banish.
Also, enjoy these and more, including three stories in the author’s Prospero’s Children universe: Mephisto goes to the mountain—dragging Erasmus and Mab along—and chaos ensues. Mab joins forces with a former MD to rescue her autistic son’s favorite toy, and end up facing down a faerie slave ring. And Miranda herself stands up to the past—and a vampire—to end the threat of a deadly delicacy.
Come! Enjoy the wonder!
Planetary: Venus — "Honeymoon in Fairyland"
Contains a tale about Miranda Prospero and her honeymoon.
Venus, the second planet from the sun, a world of sulfurous gas and tremendous temperatures where the landscape features—mountains and valleys—are all named for love goddesses. Venus herself is the goddess most known for allure and romance.
Here are twenty stories featuring Venus, the planet, the goddess, or just plain love—both romantic and otherwise. Planetary Fiction explores the themes associated with these heavenly bodies as well as their astronomical, mythological, and in some cases even alchemical significance.
Planetary:Mercury — "The Element of Transformation"
A Prospero'S Children tale that answers the question: How did Miranda's brother Erasmus become on a first name basis with the Swift God?
The anthology description: Innermost of worlds, blasted by the sun by day and frozen by night, Mercury remains an enigma. Mythical Mercury was also the messenger and trickster, and known for blazing speed and wit. Here are thirteen tales of science-fiction and the fantastic featuring Mercury.
Throughout history, the planets of our solar system have meant many things to many people; Planetary Fiction explores the themes associated with these heavenly bodies as well as their astronomical, mythological, and in some cases even alchemical significance.
Mythic Orbits 2016 — "HMS Mangled Treasure"
This anthology is a showcase for the best stories submitted in the general field of speculative fiction by Christian authors for this project. It represents a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal. There is no common theme to these tales, though the subject of empathy or lack thereof does come up in them repeatedly. This is most definitely not an anthology about orbits which are somehow mythical.
The main goal of this anthology was to demonstrate that Christian authors can write speculative fiction well. Stories with a wide range of appeal are included here, mostly serious, some with humor, some with “happy endings” and others clearly not so happy. All of them worth reading.
Anthologies with stories set in Siderea
(greater Unexpected Enlightenment background)
FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS — "Test of the Prophet"
You are not supposed to read this book.
You are not supposed to think about reading this book.
In fact, just plain thinking at all is unacceptable.
You have been warned….
From hilarious to horrifying to dangerously insightful, a selection of stories that must not be told, for they slaughter the sacred cows of our age. Do you dare read them?
My story in this anthology is one of the most beautiful I have written. It takes place in the greater Siderea universe, but not on the earth of Roanoke Academy.
God, Robot — "The Ring of Sounding Brass"
It is the year 6080 AD. Detective Theseus Hollywell has at last discovered the hiding place of William Locke, a notorious fugitive from justice who has been hunted for decades after committing unspeakable crimes.
But Locke has a trick up his sleeve, one that the detective couldn't expect: He has a story to tell.
This is the tale of the theobots, the robotic beings created to love God and neighbor with a perfection no human could achieve. In ten stories by eight different award-winning authors, Locke recounts the role of the theobots throughout history, from the purposes for which they were originally created to their ultimate role in deciding the fate of Man, the galaxy, and one lost and tortured soul.
Story includes the pre-Roanoke origin of several of the characters in the Books of Unexpected Enlightenment. And yes, it is the same Locke.
Tales of the Once and Future King –"Camelot's Understudies"
It is said that King Arthur will return in Britain's hour of greatest need.
That time is coming.
Four travelers, searching for the Pendragon, are quickly embroiled in a plot to rescue the beloved of a banished forest lord. And while they concoct their desperate plan a Bard, the new Taliesin, regales them with stories: Tales of Knights, yes, but also tales of robots and vampires, music and monsters, airships and armies – tales to inspire heroism and hope. And when all seems lost, perhaps these tales will be their salvation.
This book is an anthology. This book is a novel.This book is a romance. This book is science fiction. This bopk is a fantasy. This is "Tales of the Once and Future King"
Includes tale of a character who will one day join Rachel Griffin.
Victorian Venus — "Gaslight Jungle"
In a future one thousand years from now, an echo of the Victorian past thrives. A future terraformed Venus sees our era of high technology as one of innumerable dangers. Dominated by the most advanced technological society on the planet, New Berlin, the nation and city-states of Venus deliberately imitate both the technology and culture of the Victorian Era. As nations chafe under the yoke of New Berlin, war breaks out–driving this culture so much like our past into a future entirely unlike our own. This short-story anthology explores the regions and cultures of Victorian Venus, from the metropolis of New Berlin, to the tropics, to the Arctic Circle. The war between New Berlin and two rebelling nations forms the backdrop of most of the tales.
Includes backstory of Laura Griffin's friend, Charlie Fairweather
Other Anthologies
Lyonesse — "Four Funerals and a Wedding"
Psychics, time travel, gods, and sci-fi battle angels.
A woman with the power to raise the dead. A man stranded on another world, fighting all alone for a lost cause. Zombies invading New York. Alien artifacts. Sci-Fi battle angels. Samurais fighting demons. Interplanetary detectives and lost unicorns.
Read all these and more in this amazing first volume, collecting works from the paradigm shifting short fiction service Lyonesse.
Featuring Dragon Award nominees Declan Finn, Kai Wai Cheah, and L. Jagi Lamplighter. Contains 16 stories.
Includes a story set in my yet to be written Against the Dying of the Light background
Don't Open This Book — "Never Again the Same"
Published in 1997, Don't Open This Book is an anthology of horror stories, edited by Marvin Kaye. It was originally available exclusively through the Science Fiction Book Club.
Contains: "Never Again the Same," the anthology's only anti-gothic.
Best of Dreams of Decedance — "Feeding the Mouth that Bites Us"
Published in 2003, Best of Dreams of Decadence is an anthology of stories from Dreams of Decadence magazine, edited by Angela Kessler.
Contains: "Feeding the Mouth That Bites Us," a humorous vampire story.
No Longer Dreams — "The Poppet"
Published in 2005 by Light Circle Books, No Longer Dreams is an anthology of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Lee Hillman, and Jeff Lyman. Cover: Art by Theo Black, Design by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Contains: The Poppet, a ghost story set in England just after the death of Anne Boleyn.
H.M.S. Mangled Treasure: The Rescue of Mr. Spaghetti
A mother, a lost toy, Mab Boreal, and car-stealing fairy pirates! — Prospero's Children background
The Last Flight of Odin's Hundred
What happens when the World Tree falls?
(Siderea story–backstory of two minor secondary characters.)
Bad Ass Faeries Series*
Best of Bad Ass Faeries — Not So Silent Night
“Have you heard about this book, Bad-Ass Faeries? I have to get a copy because faeries are not all goodness and light.” —Brian Froud, Faeriecon 2007
Ten years ago, four editors joined forces to bring the dark and dangerous root of the faerie legend into the modern day. And that's how Bad-Ass Faeries was born. We brought you bikers and cowboys, mobsters and assassins, luchadores and just about everything else you can think of that is bad-ass, all wreathed in the magic of the fae.
After a decade, love for this award-winning series is still going strong. In celebration, we give you: The Best of Bad-Ass Faeries, with stories by Brian Koscienski & Chris Pisano, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Adam P. Knave, Jesse Harris, James Chambers, CJ Henderson, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, John Passarella, Jeffrey Lyman, Bernie Mojzes, L. Jagi Lamplighter, John L. French, James Daniel Ross, Robert E. Waters, Kelly A. Harmon, DL Thurston, Patrick Thomas, Jody Lynn Nye, Lee C. Hillman, and NR Brown…
Do you believe in Bad-Ass Faeries? Then clap your hands…NOW!
Includes a stand along story about a a young woman in England during WWII who happens to be flying a plane the night the Nazi take on a certain red and white gentleman who makes his rounds that evening.
Stories in the earlier BA Faerie volues:
On Oberon's Throne– Bad Ass Faeries, 2007
Of Plunder and Souls: The Rescue of Mr. Spaghetti–Bad Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, 2008
(This story also appears in In the Lamplight, Sci Phi Journal 5, and Mythic Orbits 2016)
Not So Silent Night–Bad Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory, 2010
On Rocky Ground — Bad Ass Faeries 4: It's Elemental
Other:
Never Again The Same—Don't Open This Book, an Science Fiction Book Club Anthology released by Doubleday Direct Inc. in January of 1998.
Feeding the Hand That Bites Us— Best of Dreams of Decadence, also DREAMS OF DECADENCE, Summer 1998
"The Poppet"–No Longer Dreams, 2005
“Equinox” appeared in THE LEADING EDGE, June 1993.
Dating the Monsters–Ardeur: Essays on Anita Blake, based on Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Series, published by Benbella in 2010. (Essay was picked as one of Benbella's top 6 essays by a Benbella editor.)
How Can I Have A Life And Still Wright: An Honest Look At The Real World of A Writer– A Complete Guide To Writing Fantasy Volume Three: The Author's Grimoire, published by Dragon Moon in 2007
A series of articles on Anime between 1998 and 2000. See one here.
Writing Tips — a series of writing articles that appeared as part of the blog column Wright's Writing Corner.
China Posts — A series of posts written from China, during my daughter and my visit there for Chinese New Yera 2012.
* Assistant editor on the Bad Ass Faeries Anthology Series along with Lee Hillman, and Jeff Lyman. Head editor: Danielle Ackley-McPhail.