As they used to say before most people on the internet were even alive, this page is under construction. I’m building out the framework so that it can go up more quickly when the book is live. However you got here, congratulations I guess, but there’s not much to see yet.
When home betrays you, build a new one
Two former classmates, faithless priest Placida and traumatized shrine guard Lunden, are tasked with reopening an abandoned shrine far out in farm country. They didn’t know one another well at the Academy, and don’t intend to start now. They just have to figure out how to run a shrine on their own, so the townsfolk don’t send them home.
Between summer bonfires and winter rains, Placida and Lunden find that they’ll have to work together to make the shrine thrive — and that they both hide painful secrets.
The Strangers’ Sanctuary is a small-scale fantasy novel about healing from dysfunctional origins, finding your place in the world, potlucks, book clubs, and true friends. It’s set in the same queernorm, low-magic world as the Healers series, but can be read without it.
Content note: Contains detailed depictions of verbal and emotional abuse, low self-esteem and other character struggles, and fictional religions. Full Content Notes
Last warning: This book is not cozy. It contains food porn, friendly gatherings, small towns, and community, but the characters have problems and less than perfect feelings. It’s small-scale, and has no world-level stakes but high personal stakes.
Sample (PDF)
All purchasing and borrowing availability may vary by location. Some storefronts may apply DRM; I do not opt into that if I have a choice to.
Purchasing Options
Ebook
Barnes & Noble (online) | Kobo | Apple Books | Amazon (US / UK / AU / others available)
Everand | Thalia | Smashwords
Barnes & Noble (online) | Amazon (US / UK / AU / others available)
Available through IngramSpark for bookstore orders
Borrowing Options
Hoopla (library card needed)
Available on OverDrive for library requests, must be approved by your library first (be nice)
The Books2Read mostly-universal book link includes more purchasing and borrowing options.
Published ___ 2025
Extras
- Author Notes
- Character List
- Sign up for the mailing list to get an exclusive story spun off this book, “___title___”, a prequel/”meanwhile” story from Ivo’s point of view. __k words, free to subscribers.
Credits
Developmental editing assessment: Dahlhouse Editing
Cover design: Miblart
Tools Used
- Microsoft Word (writing and editing)
- Atticus (formatting software; ebook and print formatting)
- ProWritingAid plugin for Microsoft Word (line editing) – no generative AI / text suggestion or text generation features were used, but “frequently used words” searches were used. All corrections and edits were made by a human, namely me. If this is outside your comfort level, that’s fine; do not purchase or read this book.
- Kindle Create (epub formatter; formatting temporary drafts during editing)
- Moon+ Reader Pro (epub reader; reading temporary drafts during editing)
- Google Drive (notes and spreadsheets)
- Affinity Photo (Photoshop alternative; promotional images)
- Publisher Rocket (keyword research)
Any stock photos used in promotional images are sourced from DepositPhotos under a commercial license. I have made every effort to avoid AI-based images from that source (although they do not make it easy).
I do not have access to the programs and tools used by the cover designers, but required that genAI not be used in the creation of the cover.