The Lasting Lands #
I’ve had this novel in progress since 2014, when I first got serious about writing fiction. It’s part portal fantasy like Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories, part Tolkienesque epic fantasy, and part trippy SF along the lines of Philip K. Dick.
The Lasting Lands is a story about stories: how they shape our understanding of the world and how that can be used against us. In the novel, we follow ten-year-old Adelaide Batiste—as well as her “sister” Ada, who lives inside her head—down a rabbit hole into an ancient Martian civilization. The plot starts off strongly reminiscent of both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but over the course of three distinct sections, its point of view fractures into multiple threads, and we find ourselves in a collection of connected tales spanning multiple centuries and layers of reality. Through it all, Adelaide struggles to find peace and reunite with her family while Ada’s true identity and eerie abilities call everything into question.
Look for The Lasting Lands in summer 2027 from Frolic Press.