#support native authors

[laikacore]

Now available for free, Laika Wallace’s second novella, LOVE LIKE THIS

Link in first reblog to website where you can read it for free as a downloadable PDF or in browser

cover by laika wallace

She had never known a love like this...

After Morgan, Laurie, and Cherry make the brave-- and maybe a little crazy-- jump to move out of their family homes as teenagers, they are quickly faced with the struggles of living together for the first time. In this heartwarming novella, picking up where the story left off at the end of Whisper in the Woods, the three girls come into their own while navigating each other's family dynamics and learning how to be young adults. Away from the abuse in their pasts, they find support and care in each other, forge new relationships, build themselves a true family, discover their new world, and finally know the depths of love.

Trigger warnings for this story include: abusive families, dysphoria, financial hardships, divorce, homophobia, alcohol, underage drinking.

It is now available on the Internet Archive for FREE!

It is also available for $1.99 on many ebook stores like Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Clickable links in first reblog.

[laikacore]

OUT NOW for FREE, Laika Wallace’s second novel, Lured to the Lake

cover art by @snommie​

Learning how to love your family, love yourself, and love the people right in front of you…

The second installment in the Shimmering Lake Summer Camp series, Lured to the Lake follows Ava and Sid as they attend the second session of camp, one year after Ronnie and Morgan did. 

Ava and her siblings, Gwen and Henry, have lived a long life of hardship. Even now that they’re living happily with their adoptive family, they struggle to handle the way life has treated them. Ava feels she will never be free of the shadow of their father, with Henry mirroring him more and more every day. When even the camp proves to not be a safe escape for her, it takes a lot, from love to magic, for her to feel safe again. But at the end of the summer, she discovers she is more than a scared little girl. 

Meanwhile, Sid finds himself caught in this strange world. He thinks he's falling in love with a fellow camper, Hafsa, who can turn into a lion. He's trying to wrangle Gwen as she creeps around in the swamp on cryptic missions. He's not even able to sleep through the night with the mourning wailing of a kelpie-- not just any kelpie, but his glittering white stallion-- floating through his head like a magical song. He's not sure why, but he might be falling in love with him, too.

But they’re not the only thing lurking in the waters of Shimmering Lake, and a love triangle is the least of Sid’s problems…

Trigger warnings for this book include: physical assault (on screen), child abuse, parent death, grandparent death, animal death (on screen), animal sickness (on screen), bullying (on screen), racism, transphobia, homophobia, animal attack (on screen), near drowning (on screen), mental health struggles

It is now available on the Internet Archive for FREE!

It is also available for $1.99 on many ebook stores like Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Clickable links in first reblog.

[laikacore]

Now available for FREE, Laika Wallace’s first novel... WHISPER IN THE WOODS

Cover art by @bijillion​

A boy who thinks he’s the only strange thing in the world, and a girl who knows that she isn’t…

The first installment in the Shimmering Lake Summer camp series, Whisper in the Woods follows Ronnie and Morgan, two teenagers with turbulent home lives, as they attend the first session of a summer camp focused on helping troubled youth connect to each other, themselves, and the world around them.

Ronnie has just been through a traumatizing event that he can't understand, and is being left in the dark about it by his own mother. Meanwhile, he struggles to piece together why he's been raised to believe he and his mother are the only vampires in the world.

Like most things in Morgan’s life, going to camp was sprung on her without her consent, but it gets her away from her painful home life and offers a glimpse into the world of Silent Woods, where she, a werewolf, might find more belonging than the suburbs of Ottawa.

But there’s more to the camp than what anyone is telling them, and a long standing conflict bubbling up in the lake…

It is now available on the Internet Archive for FREE!

It is also available for $1.99 on many ebook stores like Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Clickable links in first reblog.

Trigger warnings for this story include: abusive parents (verbal), parent death, physical assault and flashbacks, mental health struggles, animal death on screen, transphobia

[laikacore]

Town Ghosts by Laika Wallace: now available to read FOR FREE!

cover by @scummetski​

Two towns, two halves of one story, two ghosts, two halves of one life…

When Marnie moved with her parents from her home in busy downtown Ottawa to tiny Pryeville-- a town barely on the map-- she didn't have high hopes for any part of their new life. She'd left behind all her friends in Ottawa, just to start middle school in a building so small, both grades were taught in the same room. But meeting Sophia changed everything, sending her life spiraling along to the beat of the ethereal hooves that seemed to follow her...

For Edgar, too, life seemed like it couldn't get worse. Stuck with his cruel, uncaring father, all he wanted to do was build himself a computer and maybe figure out what his new friend, Donald, really made him feel. But with this new girl living in the town over from him, from where he lived in Sowridge, spelling trouble of a different kind, a kind he comes face to face with himself one night...

It is suddenly up to four middle schoolers to solve the mystery of the two towns and their ghosts, whatever it takes, no matter how much their lives will change in the process…

Read it on the Internet Archive ( laikacore.neocities.org ) for FREE!

Or purchase as an ebook for $1.99 on many storefronts like Smashwords, Kobo, and Apple!

Clickable links on pinned post & in first reblog.

Tips optional but appreciated; see pinned post <3

Trigger warnings for this story include: homophobia, child abuse, eating disorder triggering content, illness, and off screen animal death.

[laikacore]

First Peoples Shared Stories: orders open now!

Laika Wallace’s short story, Snow Blindness, has been published in First Peoples Shared Stories by Flame Tree Publishing!

Taken from the publisher’s website: Following the success of Black Sci-Fi Short Stories comes a powerful new addition to the Flame Tree short story collections: the first peoples in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, the first migration, the first exploration, the discovery of land and landscape without the footprint of humankind. Stories of injustice sit with memories of hope and wonder, dreamtime tales of creation and joy highlight the enduring spirit of humanity. These stories, selected from submissions by new writers and cast alongside ancient stories and oral traditions from around the world bring new perspectives to the legacy of First Nations, of First Peoples.

His addition to the anthology follows a Mi’kmaw trans lesbian and hir daughter searching for a planet for their family to call home after being adrift in space for many generations, and finding something they could never have predicted, for better or for worse…

Orders are open now at the link in the first reblog. Reblogs are very appreciated, as are requests for the book at bookstores and libraries. Thank you for supporting indigenous authors!