Category: writing

An Unfound Door, Chapter 12

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

Fhiad and Agnes enter the abandoned west wing of Faloren Castle via a covered bridge that crumbles into the lake below as they cross. As they explore the empty corridors, Fhiad admits that he wasn’t particularly well-suited to being a diplomat. All he wanted was to leave for the university in Cretia, as his talent at magic was the only thing that set him apart from his sisters. After entering the ruins of the academy housed in the west wing, Fhiad and Agnes experiment with the magical tools left behind in a lecture hall, gleefully not caring about the wreckage they create.

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Chapter 12 is at the core of the “fun and games” section of the novel, which mainly involves Agnes and Fhiad exploring an impossibly giant castle. The currently occupied east wing is sad and empty but still livable, while the abandoned west wing is a crumbling ruin barely held together by magic. I did my best not to write too many scenes of characters walking down hallways, but I enjoyed describing the decrepitude of the environment.

This is the chapter in which Fhiad and Agnes begin to flirt with one another. As the culmination of their flirtation in the chapter’s final scene, they experiment with magical tools left behind by dead mages, and they behave a bit like Link smashing pots in a dungeon just because he can. Personally speaking, this is 100% what I’d do if magic were real. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone, of course. I just think it would be neat to make junk cars explode.

I spent my teenage years in a rural area in the Deep South near where Stranger Things was filmed. I worked a number of garbage part-time jobs with other local kids; and, when we got off our shifts in the evening, we would drive around the country roads and look for abandoned houses where we could sit and smoke weed to chill out for a bit before going home.

A lot of these abandoned houses were filled with literal piles of junk, and there was a certain pleasure in lining up ancient Coke bottles along rotten wooden porch railings and throwing rocks to smash them. The glass made a lovely sound when it shattered, and the broken shards were beautiful in the moonlight.

Fhiad and Agnes aren’t teenagers, and neither of them is the sort of person who would work in a gas station convenience store. Still, I think this is an aspect of human nature that transcends time and place and social class. If the world is already filled with ruins, why not smash some glass? It’s a minor and ultimately meaningless act of rebellion against a system that failed long before you were born, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying.

The illustration accompanying this chapter preview was created by the magical SashaArts, who draws radiant fantasy portraits that you can find on Instagram (here), on Twitter (here), and on Bluesky (here).

An Unfound Door, Chapter 11

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

The errant knight Caelif rides to Faloren Castle from the south. Through Caelif’s eyes, the reader sees the castle city, which was once grand but has fallen into decline. Caelif enters the castle and is greeted by Agnes’s cousin Galien, with whom he shares a professional and romantic partnership.

After they indulge in an intimate moment, Caelif reflects on his first acquaintance with Galien in Cretia. He tells Galien that he believes Fhiad to be the demon that Agnes was sacrificed to resurrect, and Galien reveals that he suspected as much. Galien assures Caelif that Fhiad is no danger to Agnes, and he confesses that he’s far more concerned with who may have abducted her in the first place.

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At the beginning of An Unfound Door, Agnes leads a demon through the woods. To stave off exhaustion, she’s started talking to the demon, complaining that she’s not cut out to be a princess. Agnes argues that her cousin Galien, who is a duke in his own right, would be perfect in her position. He’s a born politician, and he would make a good king.

Agnes has previously shared several conversations with Galien, but this is the first chapter in which he takes the spotlight. He does so through the viewpoint perspective of his partner Caelif, the knight who rescued Agnes immediately before the novel opens.

Caelif serves as Galien’s messenger and fixer, as he’s willing and able to travel freely. A bit later in the story, Agnes explains to Fhiad that Caelif works for her as well, as she’s been asking him to sell the heirlooms of the royal family outside the kingdom, a last-resort fundraising strategy facilitated by Galien.

In another story, Galien would be the villain, but he and Agnes get along well and care for each other a great deal. Agnes had intended to renounce her royal status so Galien would be next in line for the throne, but her plans were complicated by her father’s ill health and her own abduction.

All of the chapters so far have been focused on Agnes and Fhiad, and this is where the story introduces a broader perspective. What I’d like to achieve with Caelif’s chapters (of which this is the first) is to give the reader a sense of the story being set on the edge of a much larger world.

Also, some of the oddness at the beginning of the novel is hopefully starting to make more practical sense. What I’d like to do with the narrative progression of this story is to take the broad archetypes of the initial scenario – a princess walking through the woods with a demon boar, who turns out to be a cursed prince – and gradually add more layers until the reader finally understands exactly how and why these characters arrived in that situation. In other words, the story is something like a mystery that the reader solves along with the characters.

If you’re curious, Caelif’s name comes from Caelifera, the scientific name for the suborder of insects that includes grasshoppers. Meanwhile, the concept art I used for this chapter’s graphic is from Bloodborne. I love how the city of Yharnam feels magnificently grand yet oppressively empty, and I aim to convey the same atmosphere of ruined grandeur in An Unfound Door.

An Unfound Door, Chapter 10

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

After returning from the library in the east tower, Agnes and Fhiad immediately head to the door in the graveyard via a set of underground access tunnels for the castle staff. They enter the tunnel system through the ground floor library. Along the way, Agnes remarks on how all of the underground areas of the castle have been abandoned for decades. In the courtyard, Fhiad tries to open the door with magic but fails.

The next day, Agnes talks with her father, who is recovering from a lingering illness. He suggests that she should visit the castle’s west wing, which once hosted a world-renowned magic academy but has fallen to ruin after the war with Erdbhein. As she prepares to present herself at court that evening, Agnes reflects on the magic of the lost Soreiya’s Tear and thinks that her own wish would be to see Faloren before its decline.

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Following two successive library explorations, this chapter is significantly more mundane. Agnes and Fhiad manage to locate the “unfound door” of the novel’s title, but Fhiad can’t open it. Agnes then talks to her father, the king, but he doesn’t know anything either.

The king points Agnes in a potential direction, but his advice is little more than his own wishful thinking. Much later on in the story, it will be revealed that Agnes’s father and mother spent a fair bit of time exploring the castle themselves. Although it may seem like Agnes’s father is an antagonist, he had dreams and ambitions once, and he loves his daughter in his own way.

An Unfound Door isn’t YA fiction – everyone in this story is an adult – but one of the staple elements of the genre of YA fiction that has always bothered me is how anyone over the age of twenty is automatically cast as a villain. I understand why it can be useful to set up “adults” as antagonists from a narrative perspective, but the idea that any given adult would have any actual power in real life is laughable.

Speaking personally, I feel like there are more limitations placed on me with every year I get older, and that’s the theme I want to express through Agnes’s father. Precisely because he’s a king, there are many things he can’t do. Still, when Agnes obliquely mentions that she’s taking up the quest he secretly began when he was younger, he can’t help but get excited. Agnes’s father isn’t a bad person; he’s just the hero of an entirely different story.

Also, although I love novels like those in the Redwall and Harry Potter series, I want to use the setbacks and mundanity of this chapter to challenge the fantasy genre convention that Agnes will be embarking on a fun adventure in a magical castle. I am not made of stone, and I’ve definitely enjoyed writing the adventure segments! Still, the point of this story is for Agnes to realize that her quest to save her kingdom isn’t what she should be doing with her life. Not everyone is meant to be a hero, and that’s okay.

The illustration in this chapter’s graphic was created by the magical Allison McKenzie, a Final Fantasy fan artist who draws colorful and expressive female characters who are always full of life. As you can probably guess from Agnes’s visual design, her character is partially based on Garnet from Final Fantasy IX, so I’m thrilled that Allison drew this illustration for me. You can check out her art on Twitter (here), on Instagram (here), and on Tumblr (here).

An Unfound Door, Chapter Nine

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

Agnes and Fhiad visit the magic library in the abandoned tower of the east wing of the castle, where Fhiad demonstrates the concept of magical “cost” to Agnes. Fhiad then locates a book about the castle’s architecture left in the library by Agatha, the princess of his era. He explains that Agatha was searching for a secret entrance to the castle’s deeper subterranean levels, where she believed Soreiya’s Tear was hidden. Fhiad shows Agnes an illustration of a door, and she immediately recognizes it as the entrance to a vault in the graveyard adjoining the north courtyard garden.

Fhiad is frustrated that Agnes was able to solve the problem so quickly, while Agnes is jealous of Fhiad’s relationship with Agatha. She snaps at him; and, in retaliation, he creates an entirely new staircase to the main hallway in a grand display of magic. Agnes is impressed, and Fhiad is pleased by her praise. They agree to visit the door in the graveyard immediately in order to see it for themselves.

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There’s a tidy bit of plot setup in the chapter. This is where the reader learns about the weirdness going on between Fhiad and the princess of his era, and this is also where I introduce the eponymous “unfound door” of the novel’s title.  

This is the second chapter narrated from Fhiad’s perspective. When he sets part of the tower library on fire in order to adjust the castle architecture, he doesn’t remark on the fact that he’s doing anything unusual, but this is where it should become clear to the reader how exceptionally skilled he is. Agnes had a similar scene in Chapter Five, when it’s strongly implied that she’s keeping the bureaucracy of the royal household running almost single-handedly.

An Unfound Door isn’t a power fantasy, however. This is a story about the fall of empires and the gentle beauty of decay, and it ultimately doesn’t matter how talented the characters are. Both Agnes and Fhiad want to restore their kingdoms, but this isn’t possible, not even with their incredible skills. This isn’t a story about being strong and overcoming obstacles. That sort of narrative makes me tired.

I originally wrote this chapter in October 2023 before taking a long hiatus from the project. I returned to the novel this past April, and I’m pleased to say that the first draft is finished. Now that I’ve returned to the earlier chapters, it feels strange to see Fhiad and Agnes at this stage of their relationship. Even though I wrote this story myself, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to watching them gradually warm up to one another.

The illustration of Fhiad in this chapter’s preview graphic was created by the marvelous Emily Cheeseman, whose website is (here). You can follow her work on Instagram (here), and I recommend checking out her postcard club on Patreon (here). The general atmospheric vibe of An Unfound Door was partially inspired by Em’s graphic novella adaptation of Gawain and the Green Knight (here), so it was an incredible honor to have her draw one of my story’s main characters!

A Legend of Shadows

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

When calamity besets his home in the desert, the young prince Ganondorf is forced to journey abroad to seek answers in Hyrule’s ancient sanctuaries. Lost within the shadows of a temple deep in the forest, Ganondorf struggles with a burden he does not yet have the power to bear.

I wrote “A Legend of Shadows” for Hyrule Apocrypha, an illustrated storybook fanzine exploring the myths and lore of the Legend of Zelda series. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been be able to create a story illustration with Peregyr, whose green and magical art can be found on Twitter (here) and on DeviantArt (here). We had a great time imagining Ganondorf’s backstory as a failed hero. This is how the story opens…

What would you do if you weren’t the hero? What if the chosen one were someone else entirely? Would you curse the gods and lament your fate? Would you turn tail and go home? Would you try your luck elsewhere, in a distant land where no one knew your name? Or would you simply lay down your sword and give up? Ganondorf was beginning to suspect that he was no hero, but he was nothing if not stubborn. Giving up was not a choice he was willing to make.

You can read the full story on AO3 (here), and you can check out more of the work featured in the zine on Twitter (here) and on Tumblr (here). Leftover sales, which include some lovely Zelda-themed merch, are now open (here).

Ms. Weaver’s Halloween Candy

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I’m proud to see my story “Ms. Weaver’s Halloween Candy” in the newest issue of Suburban Witchcraft.

“Ms. Weaver’s Halloween Candy” is a magical realist suburban gothic fantasy about love, creativity, and the (human) sacrifices necessary to survive as an outsider in academia. The piece begins as a Stephen King style story about a kid on a bike investigating a local legend in a small college town, but it gradually unravels into a veiled reworking of the Ariadne myth as the protagonist learns that the ambitions of her mother extend far beyond the confines of her family.

Suburban Witchcraft Magazine is a gorgeous digital repository of weird writing with a literary bent, and each issue is free to read online. You can check out the issue with my story here:

📚 https://suburbanwitchcraft.com/issue6

Residents of the Wild Fanzine

~ Kathryn

I’m honored to have a story about the adventures of the Gerudo archaeologist Rotana appearing in Residents of the Wild, a digital Legend of Zelda fanzine celebrating the NPCs of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. All proceeds from the zine will be donated to this year’s Zeldathon charity event. The zine is scheduled to be delivered on August 1, and preorders are open until July 28.

📚 rotwzine.carrd.co
📚 residents-of-the-wild-zine.square.site

Strange Things Happen in Philadelphia

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Strange Things Happen in Philadelphia collects six short pieces of weird fiction about the past, present, and near future of a city where anything can happen. Philadelphia is simultaneously filled with decaying ruins and vibrant cultures, and I see the stories in this zine as a celebration of those of us surviving and thriving during the slow collapse of the American empire. Nothing in these stories is real, of course, but I’ve drawn them from a deep well of local folklore and hearsay.

To tell the truth, I don’t actually know that many people in Philadelphia. I lived here for most of grad school but then moved away to chase various academic jobs. I returned during the pandemic, which wasn’t a great time to meet new people or reconnect with old friends. I’ve tried to apply to local writing groups and workshops but haven’t gotten anywhere (yet).

Don’t get me wrong – I’m fortunate to enjoy the support of various writing communities online. Still, my personal experience of Philadelphia has been mediated by long solitary walks through parts of the city that have a lot of abandoned buildings, many of which have fallen to ruin.

One of these areas is my own neighborhood of Point Breeze, which is a lovely place to live but also filled with decrepit warehouses and other abandoned properties. I myself live next door to a derelict funeral home, and I’m constantly reading threads on various Philadelphia reddit boards about the struggles of homeowners whose townhouses adjoin similarly abandoned buildings.

It’s worth emphasizing that Philadelphia is densely populated. In fact, one of the reasons I love living here is that there are always people on the street at all times of the day and night. In a lot of ways, Philadelphia reminds me of Tokyo. It’s an affordable city with a lot of history, culture, and potential…

…but that’s not really what these stories are about. As I edited this zine, I realized that it’s pervaded by a sense of loneliness. Not an unpleasant loneliness, but rather the unique perspective afforded to a stranger. When you’re alone, you end up seeing things that perhaps other people might miss, and that sense of strangeness is what I wanted to capture in this collection.

I was fortunate to be able to work with Kaylee Rowena, an architectural wizard of the highest order, to create the art for the zine cover. The zine also features a spooky illustration of Mothman by an artist of the odd and surreal who goes by Gravemud on Tumblr, as well as a gorgeously aesthetic illustration of two elegant monsters by the brilliant and stylish Critter Crafter Ally. I’ve also included a half dozen of my own illustrations.

Unlike my previous short fiction zines, Strange Things Happen in Philadelphia is printed in full color, and I’d like to think it’s an attractive little book. If you’re interested, you can download a free digital copy from Itch.io or order a physical copy from Etsy.  

🌇 https://digitalterrarium.itch.io/strange-philly-zine
🌇 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1761448527/strange-philadelphia-fiction-zine

When the Moon Didn’t Fall

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

All the clocks in Clock Town have stopped working, and letters have stopped arriving from the Gerudo in the Great Bay. Both the clock master’s daughter and the swamp witches’ son sense that something is amiss. Slowly they come to understand one another while their world gradually winds itself apart.

When the Moon Didn’t Fall is a short novella that imagines what Zelda and Ganon would look like in the world of Majora’s Mask. According to the Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, Termina only exists as a dream inside Link’s mind, and it’s interesting to analyze how the events and characters of Majora’s Mask reflect the trauma that Link experienced in Ocarina of Time. I therefore wanted to use Termina as a stage to explore the trauma of Zelda and Ganon, specifically within the context of a dream that’s rapidly fading.

I think it’s fair to admit that I was strongly inspired by Stephen King’s 1990 novella “The Langoliers,” which is a disturbing bit of speculation concerning what happens to the world of the past after the present has already moved on. I tried to capture a similar sense of time (literally) running out, a theme that felt appropriate to the anxiety-inducing atmosphere of Majora’s Mask. Like “The Langoliers,” When the Moon Didn’t Fall has elements of uncanniness and horror, but it’s also about forgiveness, healing, and hope for the future.

I originally wrote this story back in 2018, but it still holds a special place in my heart. I completed a substantial set of edits so that I could include one of the early chapters in my portfolio of writing samples for The Whispers of Hyrule, an upcoming Legend of Zelda fanzine celebrating Hyrule’s forests. I love the swamp forest bordering the open plains of Majora’s Mask, and I enjoyed revisiting the strange green spaces of Termina through this fic.  

You can read the full story on AO3 here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14093202/

The story illustration was created by the dangerously talented Thali, whose cool and creepy video game art can be found on Twitter (here), on Instagram (here), and on Tumblr (here).

An Elegy of Earth and Sky

~ Kathryn ~ 2 Comments

An Elegy of Earth and Sky
https://archiveofourown.org/works/55003288

Long ago, in a time now lost to the ages, Hyrule was a formless void roiling with primal darkness. Seeing potential in this untapped energy, three goddesses descended from the source of light to shape Hyrule according to their will. They bestowed three sacred virtues upon their daughter before leaving her in the land they created, where the god of the earth waited to grant her a gift of his own.

I’ve been intrigued by the mythology of the Legend of Zelda games since I first read the fantastically illustrated story of Hyrule’s creation in the game manual for A Link to the Past, and I’ve enjoyed how games like Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword have expanded on the divine cosmology of the series. I was frustrated by the lack of any foundational mythology in Tears of the Kingdom, so I decided to write my own version of Hyrule’s origin story. The first half is based on Hesiod’s Theogony, while the second half borrows from one of the stories about Izanami and Izanagi in the Kojiki. Hopefully this short story reflects the poetry of its inspirations!

The illustration that accompanies this story was created by Hylias_Disgrace, a purveyor of the strange and divine whose gorgeous character art and intriguing comics can be found on Instagram (here). It was the artist’s decision to use the famous Gustav Klimt painting The Kiss as a way to bring out the parallels between Hyrule’s deities and the myth of Hades and Persephone, and I love how this dynamic illustration celebrates the cycles of the natural world.