Writing – C. J. Lavigne

SHORT FICTION

“And in the Silence After.” Heartlines Spec #1. March 2023. Nothing terrible happens in this; the worst is already past. There is a horse. Free to read.

“Bees in Winter.” Corvid Queen. December 2022. A woman finds a bee in her apartment; it all escalates from there. Finalist, 2023 Alberta Literary Awards. Free to read.

“‘Til Death.” PodCastle, June 2022. A newly-fledged vampire writes letters to her childhood best friend. You don’t ditch your real relationships just because you married an undead lord of the night. Free in both text and audio.

“Choose Your Own.” Daily Science Fiction, April 2022. You need to get to the market, but there are dragons waiting. Read it here.

“Cenotaph.” Augur Magazine 4.2, December 2021. A statue walks into a coffee shop. Somehow this is a story about grief, and the collateral damage of lost relationships. Finalist, 2022 Alberta Literary Awards. A brief preview is available online, with subscriptions available from Augur.

“Wednesday’s Child,” Fusion Fragment #7, July 2021. A former insurgent tries to deal with an alien invasion in another way. Available in PDF, epub, or print; electronic versions are pay-what-you-want, including free.

“Side Effects May Include,” On Spec #28 no. 4, 2018. A woman who is running out of credits and options tries to find a job. Her holographic assistant helps. Reprinted in State of the Ark: Canadian Futurefiction (Pottersfield Press, 2023).

THE DROWNED MAN’S DAUGHTER

Naia never wanted to be a goddess. But the legend of her as the miracle child of the ocean and a drowned man who washed up on the shore has overtaken her life, forcing her to lie to survive. Desperate to escape from the stalwart adoration of the people she loves, Naia longs to leave the island. But the ocean, filled with deadly mer, and the mainland, filled with noxious moss that drives anyone it touches to madness, block her way on either side.

There’s nowhere for Naia to go. She can’t keep pretending, and soon she is going to be found out…

Praise for The Drowned Man’s Daughter

“The Drowned Man’s Daughter is a novella as evocative and storied as sea-polished glass picked up from the beach, with more than one sharp edge. It left me thinking about how we hold on to the hope of a future, even–especially–when our beliefs and our communities are threatened. C.J Lavigne is a great talent.”
~ Kate Heartfield, author of The Embroidered Book and The Tapestry of Time

“With prose as deftly woven as tapestry, C.J. Lavigne not only warns us of the dangers of climate change, but also the promises of false gods. The Drowned Man’s Daughter is a cautionary tale that is far flung, but so close to home. This book is incredible, with discussions of family—both found and desired—and to be careful what we wish for, as it could destroy us.”
~ Jordan Kurella, author of The Death of Mountains

“In The Drowned Man’s Daughter, Lavigne unflinchingly sails us dead ahead into the wreckage of humanity. A visceral, haunting journey that will leave you shattered and gasping upon the shore, scrubbing salt from your eyes.”
~ Kristin Osani, author of The Extravaganza Eternia

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IN VERITAS

Verity Richards has been trapped all her life by her inability to articulate a world where she is surrounded by the waxen scent of bird song, the sound of crisp sunlight, and the salted tang of falling leaves. She has always seen the dragons, ragged and thin, clinging to the power lines and nesting in the trees. She has learned to keep quiet. She lives with her boyfriend Jacob in an old townhouse in Ottawa, doing whatever jobs catch his fancy. She keeps her head down, and the city is a maelstrom in her ears and ice on her tongue.

Everything changes the day she walks past a street magician in the Byward Market, watches him turn a dog into a snake, and realizes his magic is real. As Verity struggles to balance impossible truths, she learns about people who should not exist—people whose very survival is threatened by science and natural law—who have taken refuge inside the walls of an old theatre, seeking succour at the hands of a dying angel.

In the fissured recesses of the city dwell the magician, his shadow-snake, a feathered martyr, and a knife-edged woman who is more than half ghost. On the streets, a strange girl stalks, centuries of anger in her smile. A time of reckoning is coming, and it’s up to Verity to decide whether the people who’ve fallen between should fight back for what they’ve lost, or abandon the world… maybe destroying it in the process.

Praise for In Veritas

A 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Speculative Fiction finalist
A 2021 Crawford Award finalist
Winner of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta Speculative Fiction Book of the Year, 2021
Winner of Airdrie Reads 2021
One of Tor.com’s Best Books of 2020

“Like all the best fantasy novels, In Veritas shows us our own world in a way we had never quite considered but somehow have always known. Reading this was like looking through my glasses right after I’ve cleaned them. I’ll never look at my city in quite the same way again.”
~ Kate Heartfield, author of Armed in Her Fashion

“The perfect mix of incandescent writing and enthralling storytelling. C.J. Lavigne has given us something we can believe in. Learn to see the dragons.”
~ Tanya Huff, author of The Enchantment Emporium

“Verity is a richly-realised protagonist whose strength and strange vision unites a complicated community, with the very fabric of reality at stake. In Veritas is a surprising and rewarding novel from a talented author.”
~ Candas Jane Dorsey, author of Ice & Other Stories

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