Very grateful to Gavagai for featuring “Station-Keeping”. This is a story for my fellow nerds, and anyone who has ever felt that the orbit of their life has gone off course.
24.02.2026 22:09
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Very grateful to Gavagai for featuring “Station-Keeping”. This is a story for my fellow nerds, and anyone who has ever felt that the orbit of their life has gone off course.
Small presses and self-published authors are still writing queer books. Support indies, because publishing sure isn't.
Preorder link is in my pinned post — Lucent Dreaming will be publishing The Restorative Artist in the UK in Sept 2026!
Just getting started here on Bluesky. I would love to connect with readers & other writers - so please say hi.
Seeking a US publisher & agent, querying next book!
“A reader’s guide to The Restorative Artist”” is written against a background featuring an anatomical illustration.
The cover of the book with synopsis: Embalmer Graham Creer has spent his life helping others face loss, but when he's struck down by a corpse-carried illness, he is forced to confront his own mortality. Trapped convalescing inside his funeral home and plagued by fevered visions of his recently deceased lover, Graham attempts to escape the pain of grief. But who is he without the dead?
An anatomical diagram of a heart with identifications based on elements of the novel: contemporary gothic, grief & memory, trans main character, funeral home setting, split timeline, haunting & body horror, growth & recovery
Comp titles with cover images: for fans of intertwining grief and horror (like This Thing Between Us); queer contemporary gothic (like Summer Sons); funeral home drama (like Six Feet Under); exploring trauma and recovery (like A Little Life)
Haunted by the loss of his first love, an accomplished mortician pulls apart his relationships and his funeral home to escape the pain of grief — but who is he without the dead?
👻 #GhostPit #A #G #LF #LGBT #IP
An accomplished mortician haunted by the death of his first love pulls apart his relationships and funeral home in an attempt to escape the pain of loss.
‘The Restorative Artist’ a debut novel by @cecilfenn.bsky.social is available for preorder on Amazon!
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916632246/
‘A dissection of memory and mortality…’ 🥀
We are excited to announce the publication of our third novel, ‘The Restorative Artist’, a stunning debut by @cecilfenn.bsky.social coming to you September 17th 2026.
Available to preorder on our website now!
lucentdreaming.com/product/the-...
The Restorative Artist - my debut novel - is coming September 2026.
An accomplished mortician haunted by the death of his first love pulls apart his relationships and funeral home in an attempt to escape the pain of loss.
Preorder here: shorturl.at/x7oWg
My doppelgänger horror story “House & Helvete” appeared in issue 3.3 of The Dread Machine. Pick up a copy of the issue here:
thedreadmachine.com/product/issu...
“Sideshow” —my technoir novelette—appeared in
Palisatrium’s Short Story Substack. Queer, near-future cyberpunk navigating the ragged edges of health inequality and the death-throes of freedom under capitalism.
shortstory.substack.com/p/sideshow
“Holy Land” is online at Scrawl Place after originally appearing in Canthius and being shortlisted for the Aurora Prize for Fiction. A young funeral director follows his artist crush to an abandoned religious theme park. It’s free to read here: scrawlplace.com/2024/06/04/h...
Short(er) fiction from the past year:
If you like pen & pencil games, A SACRIFICE is a minimalist dark fantasy TTRPG for two, with world building shared between the players. At its heart, it’s a story about trust and dependency. Free or PWYW to download.
cecilfenn.itch.io/a-sacrifice
Moodboard inspired by THE RESTORATIVE ARTIST. Romantic and gothic funeral home imagery in cool colours, shot through with red anatomical imagery.
This year, I’m looking to home THE RESTORATIVE ARTIST, my queer literary novel with a dash of body horror. An embalmer haunted by the death of his lover pulls apart his relationship & his funeral home to escape the pain of grief. Think 6 FEET UNDER x A LITTLE LIFE. #amquerying #writingcommunity
A collage of images from my website: gothic text, Polaroid photos, a fallen cross, a reccord cover with a screaming mouth. They are all heavily stylised in black, white and reds.
You can always find more about my work on my website cecilfenn.com
A photo of me—a white, lean man with chin length wavy hair, wearing black, a scalpel earring, and a silver necklace. The photo is heavily red filtered except for a black and white streak over my eyes.
I’m Cecil: writer and cross-media designer. Recovered funeral professional turned creative. Follow me for goth academia aesthetics and queer stories—plus a dash of death and just a pinch of body anxiety. Here’s what I’m working on. A 🧵:
