SPARK AND TETHER

queer adult science fiction romance

It might cost him everything he loves, but Sacheri’s never been able to turn away from someone in need, and there’s a voice in the void calling for aid…

Audiobook release announcement. Summer 2024. Spark and Tether narrated by Josiah Sweetnam. Text bio of narrator. Includes new audiobook cover.

  • $25 includes media mail shipping in the US, pretty wrapping, signed bookplate, bookmark, and sticker. Buying directly from me is the best way to support future work.

  • $3.99. Buying directly from me is the best way to support future work! Ebooks are delivered by Bookfunnel through a Payhip storefront.

  • queer adult science fiction romance

    Working odd jobs across the Outer Ring gets a little lonely sometimes—not everyone loves having a synchronist with supraliminal perception around. But all Sacheri wants, he tells himself, is to wander the stars.

    Then he takes a salvage run to an abandoned moon where he meets the wry, reserved, strictly-by-the-rules archivist Jin. Mesmerized by their confidence and charm, Sacheri can’t resist showing off his abilities–and instead of the damaged ai he was tracking, he stumbles onto a signal left by a synchronist who went missing decades earlier.

    Sacheri knows from previous experience that pursuing the truth—never mind justice—could destroy everything he loves. He would defy his employers, the institution responsible for the myconeural networks that make him a synchronist, and the leadership of several worlds.

    And it would complicate his new, passionate, and impossibly sweet relationship with Jin. They might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but they work for the very entities that ended Sacheri’s last investigation.

    He knows better than to risk it.

    But he’s never been able to turn away from someone in need, and there’s a voice in the void calling for aid…

  • This book is intended for adult readers and includes sexual references and behavior.

    Spark and Tether contains some themes and events that may be difficult for some readers. I’ve listed them here; if you’d like more information before reading, you are welcome to contact me.

    Abandonment

    Betrayal

    Death (off page)

    Depression

    Discrimination, Prejudice, and Oppression of enhanced humans and human-made life forms

    Intoxicating Substance Consumption as Negative Coping Mechanism

    Life-changing injury and recovery

    PTSD

    Trauma

    Use of intoxicating substances (recreational and forced/weaponized)

  • developmental editing by Stephenie Magister

    sensitivity reading by Ruthie Bowles

    copy editing and proofreading by J.S. Elliot

    cover art by Lucas @newmoonnero

    front cover design by Damonza Studios

    character portraits by Xander Phanes @mxphanes

    couple portrait art by Anna Fritsche @polar_pookie (twitter)

    Images used in promotion are from @unsplash

    all other design by Lilian Zenzi

  • Links to major review sites are on my vista page.

  • Listen to Spark and Tether’s prologue, narrated by Josiah Sweetnam.

Works in Progress

  • Stories by subscription

    Want more in the Synchronists universe right now? There’s a novella about how Sacheri and Paradis became Sacheri and Paradis, cut scenes from Jin’s POV, and musings on worldbuilding.

    Curious about what’s next? Interested in an annotated version of Spark and Tether or want to talk about the book with other readers? Check out the subscriber-only section of my site.

    Subscriber Site

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    The Wanting (only for subscribers)
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    Metamorphosis in Gold and Green

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    Phinnie serves as gardener and healer in a quiet area of the Slip, the place between worlds where travelers and objects sometimes land when doors and portals and wormholes fail. She is content in the rhythms and cycles of her life…until her grown daughter and her former mentor come to visit, bringing with them a handsome stranger who may or may not have foolish designs on Phinnie’s home—and her heart.

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Lilian Zenzi (she/her/hers) writes science fiction and fantasy, sometimes with romance and usually in queer normative worlds.

Genre agnostic as a writer and a reader, she likes to keep space for comfort, hope, and joy along with the kissing, conflict, and big ideas. She resents having to write a bio and would rather be in the garden or making art.

Her stories are for readers who like when the genre rules get a bit blurry. Most of her storytelling universes are queer normative and optimistic, and most characters are LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse, lovable, relatable—and complicated. She aims for intricate, immersive worlds that build on the idea that we are all connected and in this together, whether we like it or not.