Today on the site, we’re revealing the cover for A Feast for Flies by Leigh Harlen, a sci-fi space noir releasing from Dancing Star Press on November 14, 2023! Here’s the story:
Zira once had a life. A girlfriend. A favorite bar. A hairstyle. And a secret. But when her father sells her out as a Reader, she has to leave every part of that old life behind. Now she’s forced to work for law enforcement, reading and erasing memories of those who violate the Golden Nova’s few and corruptly enforced laws. She’s hated and feared by everyone who would prefer to keep their memories private and intact. The only thing making her new life bearable is her working partner, Bea, her service dog who has the ability to shut out all the thoughts of the people around her.
When Zira makes the decision to omit a memory from a report to protect a stranger, it arouses suspicion. Suddenly she’s in trouble at work, and a vindictive casino boss and the queen of a massive drug empire are vying to get her under their control. Caught between three corrupt factions and the vacuum of space, can Zira keep her loved ones safe, and be able to live with herself in the end?
And here’s the badass cover, illustrated by Vitalii Ostaschenko!
Buy it: Dancing Star Press
Leigh Harlen is a queer, trans non-binary writer of horror and other dark speculative fiction who lives and works in Seattle. Their debut novella, Queens of Noise (Neon Hemlock Press), and their short fiction collection, Blood Like Garnets (TKO Studios), are available everywhere books are sold.
You can find links to their work at leighharlen.com and follow them on Twitter @LeighHarlen for updates on future publications.
Avi Silver is a speculative fiction author, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Augur Magazine, and poet. Pluralities, their trans slipstream-meets-space-opera novella, will be published with Atthis Arts in October 2023. In 2018, he co-founded The Shale Project, an award-winning indie arts collective through which he published the ongoing Sãoni Cycle (Two Dark Moons, Three Seeking Stars). Find his short fiction in Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology and Nothing Without Us Too. Their poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Uncanny Magazine, and received an honorable mention in the 2022 Rhysling Awards. They are currently working on their first full-length book of poetry, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. 
Minnesota native Chloe Spencer is an award winning writer, indie gamedev, and filmmaker. She enjoys writing sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and romance. In her spare time she enjoys playing video games, trying her best at Pilates, and cuddling with her cat. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Film and Television from SCAD Atlanta.
K.M. Watts is a debut novelist who first dreamed of becoming an author when she won her school’s Young Author Award at the age of five. She enjoys reading and writing YA fantasy and sci-fi, though she also dabbles with YA romantic thrillers. In her free time, she enjoys canyon hiking in her home state of Arizona.
