Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens

Orchid Lovell is a young Romani woman haunted by a fear of being found out. Her family has been chased out of town before. After settling in a seemingly idyllic northern mining town that she soon understands as rife with unseen violence, Orchid finds solace in a lush orchid fen where she doesn’t fear the town’s judgment. Amid the green beauty of the fen, Orchid meets her beloved Jack, and marries him in a secret blackfly-infested ceremony.

But the fen doesn’t only harbor life. Here, dead girls take revenge on the men who murdered them, luring them into murky waters. Despite the dead’s relentlessness, one man evades the panni raklies. After a devastating attack linked to the expansion of the mine, Orchid’s fate is entwined with the panni raklies’ ruthless justice.

Written in over 100 dreamy mini-chapters, this novella explores the tenuous reality of the Romani diaspora living in troubled times on troubled lands.