Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂

I Read Stories: The Gravedigger's Godling by Sophia Alapati The Gravedigger’s Godling by Sophia Alapati in Crow And Cross Keys Iona talks to the God of Abysses unknowing and becomes pregnant wi...

I read The Gravedigger's Godling by Sophia Alapati in @crowkeys.bsky.social a story of bringing up a god's child. nightofthehats.blogspot.com/2026/02/i-re...

An excerpt from poem, peachpit cantrip by Kristen Reece published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring two peaches, one cut and the other whole, on a dark background. The excerpt reads: when i bite, nip through velvety flesh the sticky nectar runs down my chin so messy i am eating your ripe heart over the kitchen sink and the pit the best part

The link isn't the best part. The best part is what you find when you click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/21/p...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, peachpit cantrip by Kristen Reece published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring two peaches, one cut and the other whole, on a dark background.

The fruit that grows in the tower garden has gained the ability to speak. They speak in riddles. We're not certain whether they're safe to eat. For now, we tend them & wait. We consume poetry instead, just like this...

"peachpit cantrip" by Kristen Reece

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/21/p...

An excerpt from short story, A Velvet Chair Anywhere but Home by Brianna Alers published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a forest scene with a velvet chair sitting in a small clearing. The excerpt reads: The world ended five days ago, and you’ve been running ever since. Your feet catch the roots of trees exploding from asphalt. Vines hang from streetlamps and stop signs, and they kiss your shoulders with their waving tendrils as you pass. An eruption of plant life covers every surface. You have to peel back the layers to see the remains of this building. The home you lived in for the first twenty years of your life. You’re thirsty. You’re weary. You’re upset with yourself for taking a seat in that damn chair.

The world hasn't ended yet, so you can still click the link. There's time.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/18/a...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, A Velvet Chair Anywhere but Home by Brianna Alers published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a forest scene with a velvet chair sitting in a small clearing.

We try not to engage with human items found in non-human places. That stove you found in a remote cave? Don't light it. The writing desk on the beach? Leave it alone. You never know what might happen...

"A Velvet Chair Anywhere but Home" by Brianna Alers

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/18/a...

An excerpt from flash fiction, Crawl by Rachel Savage published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a cemetery angel against a background of skeletal branches. The excerpt reads: After school, we’d cut through the graveyard. “Listen,” you said, fingers warm against mine, “ghosts are chattering.” I count headstones by starlight, passing wingless angels and crumbling crosses. There I find you—a splotch of turned-up clay wet as creek mud.

After you see it, you click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/14/c...

A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Crawl by Rachel Savage published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a cemetery angel against a background of skeletal branches.

It is Valentine's day and we can hear hearts thrumming in the walls. How lovely. Our hearts are filled with flash fiction; specifically, this flash ficiton:

"Crawl" by Rachel Savage

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/14/c...

An excerpt from poem, Ode to An Abdomen And Pelvis With Contrast Of Beauty by Jasmin Leigh reprinted on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a faded image of an abdomen overlaid with x-ray-like light. The excerpt reads: LUNG BASES: vague images of lung tissues like coconut crabs expiring a sigh of relief, gargling air against the cold metal of the CT machine. LIVER: ghost lesions floating about in springy nothingness.

IN THIS POST: a link. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/11/o...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, Ode to An Abdomen And Pelvis With Contrast Of Beauty by Jasmin Leigh reprinted on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a faded image of an abdomen overlaid with x-ray-like light.

If you cut us open, you won't find organs. You might find ghosts, though, or spells or wishes or every trinket you have ever lost. It all depends on where you slice. On insides...

"Ode to An Abdomen And Pelvis With Contrast Of Beauty" by Jasmin Leigh

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/11/o...

And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must, Haven Spec Magazine "And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must" by Elou Carroll

👀January 2026 Fiction👀

ICYMI, "And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must" is a short story by @keychild.bsky.social about being forced to outsource your anger. Read this one for its refusal of the patriarchy and its embracing of all the right kinds of wicked.

havenspec.com/fiction/and-...

"Elou Carroll’s short story about wickedness explores what happens when we look away from the darkest parts of ourselves. It offers a lovely take on the concept of changelings. Each vignette unfolds, revealing a new layer that..."

Read @keychild.bsky.social's story, plus mini editor reviews too.

An excerpt from short story, Blood Like Honey by Madison Ahn-Lee published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a tangle of thread on a dark background. The excerpt reads: She pulled, guiding, what was that? A string? A red string unraveled out of her mouth, its frayed end clutched between two fingernails. She pulled, looping the slimy line between her two fingers. The string’s body slithered up her throat, a long tongue pouring out of her open mouth.

What was that? A link? Yes. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/07/b...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Blood Like Honey by Madison Ahn-Lee published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a tangle of thread on a dark background.

There are strings criss-crossed about the tower. If you follow one, it might lead to good fortune, or to certain death. There's no way of knowing until you try. To be safe, we're reading a story instead. This story:

"Blood Like Honey" by Madison Ahn-Lee

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/07/b...

An excerpt from reprinted flash fiction, Tightrope to the Moon by Carella Keil published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a feminine face with layers of flowers overlaid. The excerpt reads: My first life I was a mountain. I thought I would never die. I stared down at the clouds and up at the sky. One day a hiker tossed a rock off the edge, and I fell with it.

One day, you clicked the link. We click it with you.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/04/t...

A muted greyscale banner for reprinted flash fiction, Tightrope to the Moon by Carella Keil published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a feminine face with layers of flowers overlaid.

We have lived many lives, but we're not counting. Instead, we're assigning each life a colour. This one is mauve. On the subject of past lives, today's reprint...

"Tightrope to the Moon" by Carella Keil

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/04/t...

We will be reopening for submissions on 5th February. We look forward to seeing your work!

An excerpt from poem, Cassandra by R S Kendle published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a close up of a woman's eye with a white iris and no pupil. The excerpt reads: carve out these eyes. orbs of milk quartz clouded from peering through veiled apertures.

click this link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/31/c...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, Cassandra by R S Kendle published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a close up of a woman's eye with a white iris and no pupil.

We've seen the future, but we won't tell you what happens. You wouldn't believe us if we did. Instead, we offer this poem...

"Cassandra" by R S Kendle

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/31/c...

An excerpt from short story, Crickets by E.B. Sommer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a cricket sitting on a rock in shallow depth of field. The excerpt reads: She tends to her little cricket farm daily, making sure the shallow tin of water is filled and that they get their morning and evening meals of whatever is left over from her scraps. A processing plant a few blocks away grinds them every few weeks for her. She drops off her insects, and a few days later she picks up the bags of processed flour. She makes pancakes and sourdough bread, though the maple trees died out a decade ago and there are no cows for butter anymore.

We tend to the link. You click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/28/c...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Crickets by E.B. Sommer published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a cricket sitting on a rock in shallow depth of field.

The trees around the tower contain elixirs instead of sap. We're not sure what happens if you drink them, though. We don't risk it, but we are Concerned™. For more relatable environmental concerns, today's short story...

"Crickets" by @ebsommer.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/28/c...

An excerpt from flash fiction, Still Life in Blue by Erin Pringle published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a toad in shallow depth of field. The excerpt reads: Toads from a far off place now making their way through the flowers, emerging one by one into the dirt where there’s never shade. They hop. They wait. They hop.

You click. We wait.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/24/s...

A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Still Life in Blue by Erin Pringle published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a toad in shallow depth of field.

Our heart is shaped like a beehive. Each bee that floats in and out is a story, or a poem, or piece of flash fiction. The latest to emerge is today's flash...

"Still Life in Blue" by Erin Pringle

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/24/s...

Thrilled to have another piece in @crowkeys.bsky.social!!

And if you must read stories, you must. This one in particular.

New story by yours truly, coming very soon from @havenspec.bsky.social.

An excerpt from prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background. The excerpt reads: The girl falls asleep and dreams of her grandmother, wrinkled hand kneading pillow dough. The grandmother falls asleep and dreams of her husband, clutching a mushroom bouquet in the dirt.

You fall asleep, but not before clicking the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...

A muted greyscale banner for prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background.

We've got some words in the oven in the tower. We didn't follow a recipe, so we're not sure how they'll turn out. For a poem that has been baked to perfection, however...

"The Baker" by Elena Zhang

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...

What's this? New fiction? You betcha. :)

An excerpt from short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed. The excerpt reads: Baby steps over to the cutlery drawer. She’s wearing a lemon-yellow skirt she borrowed from me. It looks better on her. She drops the forks, all in a naked, unprotected pile, into their place. I wait. Baby returns to her seat. She notices my look, at last.

You click the link. We wait.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed.

The tower has a husband somewhere. It doesn't mention them often, but we believe they are a mountain or at least, they used to be. We do, however, celebrate the towerwife's anniversary. For other types of wives...

"Housewives" by Eilish Alexander

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...

An excerpt from short story, Birch by E. F. Vollmer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring pale silver birch trees with knots that look like eyes. The excerpt reads: What approached through the trees was a spindly thing, nearer a birch sapling come to life than anything remotely human. Delicate vines and greenery loosed themselves from its limbs as it proceeded forward—a quiet, ponderous walk, gently focused on Eli. Different serfdoms called the things different names. Ghosts. Reapers. Chillbones. All cold, quiet, dead, unrelenting.

What approached on your feed was the link. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/14/b...