Fiction

I write aromantic and non-romantic flash fiction, short fiction and novelettes. Most stories feature trans and multisexual allo-aro or non-asexual narrating protagonists in contemporary, fantasy and fairy-tale settings.

Aromantic Short Story Collections

These volumes collect various short stories and novelettes by theme: allo-aro flash fiction, aromantic-centred fiction, stories with non-asexual aro protagonists and stories that don’t focus on partnership.

Cover image for Hallo, Aro: Allosexual Aromantic Flash Fiction by K. A. Cook. Cover features black handwritten type on a mottled light green background. Cartoon images of arrows--in four different styles--sit in diagonal rows across the cover, the fletching and shafts coloured in the stripes of the green/light green/white/yellow/gold allosexual aromantic pride flag.
Cover image for When Quiver Meets Quill: Collected Aromantic Fiction by K. A. Cook. Cover features black handwritten type on a mottled mustard background. Cartoon images of arrows--in four different styles--sit in diagonal rows across the cover, the fletching and shafts coloured in the stripes of the green/light green/white/grey/black aromantic pride flag.
Cover image for Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold: Non-Asexual Aromantic Stories by K. A. Cook. Cover features black handwritten type on a mottled light blue background. Cartoon images of arrows--in four different styles--sit in diagonal rows across the cover, the fletching and shafts coloured in the stripes of the green/light green/white/yellow/gold allosexual aromantic pride flag.
Cover image for Spirits Most Singular: Stories For Non-Partnering Aros by K. A. Cook. Cover features black handwritten type on a mottled light purple/lilac background. Cartoon images of arrows--in four different styles--sit in diagonal rows across the cover, the fletching and shafts coloured in the stripes of the green/light green/white/grey/black aromantic pride flag.

Nine Laws: Allosexual Aromantic Fairy Tales

In Blackvale, all know that witches lure princesses into towers, force maidens into servitude and turn enemies into crows. Everywhere, all know that while a witch’s magic has its uses, their queer ideas challenge the rule of kings, mothers and sorcerers alike. But what if a coven offers the only safety for a sorcerer running from the Citadel? What if the princess seeks the witch’s aid in escaping her handsome consort? What if a baker can only find understanding from someone deemed dangerous and predatory? What if only witches defend against the parading heroes insistent on romantic rituals and heirs conceived in marriage?

The Girl and Her Unicorn: a Nine Laws Short Story cover by K. A. Cook. Cover features scenery of a dense forest of green and gold leafed trees surrounding a pond. A white unicorn stands on the edge of the pond, its hooves surrounded by mist. Faint rays of light shine down from a night sky onto the pond. Text is set in a white, slightly-curving serif type; white curlicues matching the text, set in each corner, form a broken frame around the text.
Luck of the Ball: A Nine Laws Novelette cover by K. A. Cook. Cover features scenery of trees at night against a grey stone wall, candlelit lanterns hanging from the branches. Grass and vines grow in the foreground. Text is set in a white, slightly-curving serif type; white curlicues matching the text, set in each corner, form a broken frame around the text.
Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold: A Nine Laws Short Story cover by K. A. Cook. Cover features scenery of a dense forest of green and orange leafed/autumnal trees, the ground underneath covered by branches and thick patches of green ivy. Text is set in a white, slightly-curving serif type; white curlicues matching the text, set in each corner, form a broken frame around the text.
Witches of Fruit and Forest: Nine Laws Short Stories cover by K. A. Cook. Cover features scenery of a dense forest of green and gold leafed trees, the ground underneath covered by thick clusters of grass and yellow-flowering shrubs. Background shows pink flowers peeking through the foreground shrubbery. Text is set in a white, slightly-curving serif type; white curlicues matching the text, set in each corner, form a broken frame around the text.

Mara and Esher Hill: A Marchverse Series

A lithromantic witch who non-romantically loves a schoolmarm … and should have been told about aromanticism before she sold her soul. An aromantic drover and swordsman who non-romantically loves the people who drove him away … but doesn’t know if he can ever find comfort at home. An aromantic priest who doesn’t love anyone … and shouldn’t endure the questioning of their work and their worth.

The Mara and Esher Hill stories focus on transgender, aromantic characters trying to navigate relationships, work, family and illness in a world that’s got a long way to go in demonstrating its acceptance of aromanticism.

Cover image for The Sorcerous Compendium of Postmortem Query: A Marchverse Short Story by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a cemetery at night, with various tombstones in the foreground, surrounded by grassy rises and green bushes, with a tumbledown stone fence and trees in the background. A lit candle sits on the ground at the front of the cover, showing a glow of orange light illuminating grass and part of a tree branch. Cover and author credit are written in a white, fantasy-style text, the type bright against the dark sky and shadowed leaves.
Cover image for The Mundane Progression of Premortem Colloquy: A Marchverse Short Story by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a cemetery in daylight with various tombstones in the foreground, surrounded by grassy rises and green bushes, with a tumbledown stone fence and trees in the background. A picnic basket sits on the grass at the front, filled with bottles, vegetables and a purple flower. Cover and author credit are written in a white, fantasy-style text.
Cover image for What Makes Us Human: A Marchverse Short Story by K. A. Cook. Cover shows an archway set into a stone wall, the wall covered by a dull green creeper. A small peach sphere of light glows underneath part of the creeper at the top of the archway. Inside the archway is another stone wall behind a courtyard comprised of a few rocks, two spindly trees and a striped purple cushion. Title and author credit are written in a white, fantasy-style text, the type bright against the grey background.
Cover image for Those With More (and Other Suki Stories) by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a garden growing against a grey stone wall, with trees and blue sky visible behind it. Garden includes several layers of beds filled with palms, ferns and yellow and red orchids. The foreground shows a green lawn with a moss-covered tree-trunk and two translucent blue mushrooms. Title and author credit are written in a white, fantasy-style text.
Cover of Love is the Reckoning: A Marchverse Novelette by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a cartoony-styled indoors tavern scene with a lot of different brown wood textures: wood panelling on the walls, wood floor, a square wood window frame, a crooked wooden table in the centre of the image and a wooden stool and a wooden barrel sitting in front of it. A candle stub sits on the window frame, looking out to dark green trees against a star-lit sky. The table bears beer glasses, a green wine bottle, a brown bottle of spirits, orange liquid in a glass, a plate of biscuits and a plate bearing a wedge of yellow cheese with red rind. A wooden log rests against one side of the window frame, an unsheathed longsword against the other, and a sack sits against the wall underneath the table. A cage bearing a twisted, vine-style plant sits in the top right-hand corner, above the table. Text is written in a white, handdrawn, fantasy-style type.

Kit and Amelia March: A Marchverse Series

She encloses her grimoires in sanitary spells, keeps monsters in the cellar and hates being interrupted when she’s nose-deep in a romance novel. The universe gave her the grave misfortune of being related to Kit March, a magician with a loose relationship to honesty, and so Amelia’s life was never going to be easy before she tried to be a doctor and settled on working as the village witch. She’s grumpy, blunt and baffled by the people around her, and her stories are quirky, slightly-comedic slice-of-fantasy-life pieces about demiromanticism, relationships, Kit, autism and narrative.

Cover image for Ringbound by K. A. Cook. Cover shows an eight-pane window set into a cream brick wall above a stone and wood table or bench, with various items sitting on the table--candles in vases, bottles, a large shell, a white vase filled with flowers, two gold rings propped against the vase. The text is written in brown fantasy-style handdrawn type. Through the window, scrubby green trees and a blue-green sky is visible. The subtitle "a kit march short story" is written in white handdrawn type.
Cover image for Absence of Language by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a red brick wall behind a wooden step, a red curtain covering half the wall, with a small wooden bench sitting on step. A chair, a hat and a squarish bag sit in the foreground of the image and a fabric banner hangs on the wall in the background. An assortment of coins and buttons litter the floor, and two yellow roses are shown floating inside clear bubbles. The scene looks like a magician's performance area or stage. The subtitle "a kit march short story" is written in white handdrawn type.
Cover image for K. A. Cook's "Old Fashioned: an Amelia March Story". Cover has a vector image cartoony style picture of a bedroom with rough-made furniture--bed, stool, chest of drawers, a shelf. Magical items like bone amulets, glowing mushrooms and spell bottles are hanging from or sitting on the shelf. The title and author credit are written in red and white handwritten type.
Cover image for K. A. Cook's "Conception: An Amelia March Story". Cover has a vector image cartoony style picture of a lounge room with rough-made furniture--mantel, rocking chair, stool, table--in front of a stone fireplace. Magical and household items like bone amulets, glowing mushrooms, spell bottles and a glowing capsicum sit on the mantel, books and flowers sit on the table and a loaf of bread sits on the stool. A round brown rug covers the stone floor, and laundry hangs from the roof. The title and author credit are written in a red and white handdrawn type.

Efe and Darius: A Marchverse Series

He wards himself to dampen his sense of smell, struggles to speak when overwhelmed, corrects other people’s grammar and spends his life in the company of an infuriating eldritch entity. Darius Liviu isn’t quite suited for the adventurous life in an allistic world, but the universe pushes him onto the road of heroes.

Cover image of “Certain Eldritch Artefacts” by K. A. Cook. Cover image shows a cartoony, stylised vector image scene of a market scene with hanging peppers and fabric above the text and rows of corked potion bottles sitting on a wooden counter display surrounded by vegetables and sacks. Title and author name are written in a dark brown handdrawn type.
Cover image for Love in the House of the Ravens by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a wooden bed set against a stone wall, with filmy curtains draped over the wall and bed. A translucent room divider is set off to the side, with a chest and boxes visible through it. The subtitle "a marchverse short story" is written in white handdrawn type. Title and author text is written in brown handdrawn type.
Cover of One Strange Man: A Marchverse Short Story by K. A. Cook. Cover shows a wooden door, bolted shut, set into a stone wall, with dangling ivy and climbing roses obscuring the wall and part of the door. The ground in front of the door is brown earth and has a thin-bladed green bush growing in front of it. A glowing white marble sits on the earth by the base of one of the roses on the bottom left-hand side of cover. Text is written in a white, handdrawn, fantasy-style type.
Cover image for The Adventurer King by K. A. Cook. Cover features a red leather-bound journal sitting on a wood panel background, like that of a tabletop or floor, with the text sitting on top of the book image in a gold fantasy-style handdrawn type. Objects sit on top of the book cover: a blue pen with a gold nib dripping ink, a screwed-up piece of white paper, a cream scroll with a green seal, a cream and silver compass, and a piece of rope. A grey single-edged sword blade sits underneath the book, and black handdrawn type atop the blade reads "an efe and darius story". The images have a cartoony, vectory feel.

The Eagle Court: A Marchverse Series

Einas ein Iteme, youngest son of the Iteme monarchy, only thought to announce to the world his true identity—that he isn’t a princess. When his declaration results in his father’s murder and a civil war fought between his necromancer mother and his elder brother Paide, the city-state of Ihrne edges further towards chaos. Peace between his surviving relatives, restitution paid to neighbouring Arsh and the support of the Convocation should go some way to restoring equilibrium. It doesn’t reckon on the politics of the court and the civilians of Ihrne when it comes to accepting an undead regent, an autistic heir and a foreign general. When the bones of civil war have been too-soon laid to rest and words go unheard, how does one survive the world for long enough to change it?

Cover image of "Their Courts of Crows: A Tale of the Eagle Court" by K. A. Cook. Cover has a waterstained paper background with grey line drawings of a crow sitting on a branch, a tree, three falling dandelion seeds, a feather and an arrow, with the title written in alternating serif and handdrawn type. The effect is something like a sketch in an antique journal.
Cover image of Maybe When the Bones Crumble by K. A. Cook. Cover has a waterstained paper background with grey line drawings of a textured feather, a dandelion head, a spilled ink bottle, a broken pen and an arrow, with the title written in alternating serif and handdrawn type. The effect is something like a sketch in an antique journal.
"A Prince of the Dead: A Tale of the Eagle Court" by K. A. Cook. Cover has a waterstained paper background with grey line drawings of a sparrow sitting on a branch, a knife, a falling dandelion seed, two leaves and an arrow, with the title written in alternating serif and handdrawn type. The effect is something like a sketch in an antique journal.
Cover image of The King of Gears and Bone by K. A. Cook. Cover has a waterstained paper background with grey line drawings of the bones of a human hand and wrist, a head of wheat, an acorn, a small dandelion head, a long-legged wire-haired dog and an arrow, with the title written in alternating serif and handdrawn type. The effect is something like a sketch in an antique journal.

All book files are available to download in PDF or reflowable EPUB and MOBI formats.

Stories are also available collected by theme: aromantic-centred, allosexual aromantic, aromantic and transgender, aromantic and autistic or loveless-aro friendly.

K. A. Cook is an abrosexual, aromantic, agender autistic who experiences chronic pain and mental illness. Ze writes creative non-fiction, personal essays and fiction about the above on the philosophy that if the universe is going to make life interesting, ze may as well make interesting art. You can find hir blogging at Aro Worlds and running the Tumblr accounts @aroworlds and @alloaroworlds.

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