Roxane Llanque

Exciting news: my first novelette has been published in the wonderful collection Five Raging Hearts: Splatterpunk for the Soul by Koj Books. This book has also become somewhat of a reunion of artists from my very first book publication, Demons & Death Drops: the wonderful Craig Brownlie is both publisher and author of one of our novelettes, and the book cover has been painted by none other than Chris from Little Ghost Books.

Didn’t he do an amazing job? I love the retro horror vibe he created – which brings me to the book’s theme.

The Horrors of 2025

When Donald Trump got reelected, Craig contacted me with the wish to channel the shock and anger that invoked especially in people belonging to minorities. He proposed a collection of 5 “angry” novelettes and one year later the result is Five Raging Hearts.

But “angry” alone doesn’t do our novelettes justice. They are Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious-Basterds-angry; stories that paint pictures of what if people that have been made to systemically suffer rose up to fight back?

In our turbulent times, this is a question many people asks themselves and both in reality and in fiction this also rises complicated questions of ethics. What is allowed in fighting back? How quickly can the oppressed become a sort of unjust aggressor, too?

Our novelettes deal with these questions with both serious reflection and some good old Tarantinoesque fun. They are meant to both make you ponder, to laugh, cry, and to provide some catharsis in these difficult times.

My contribution: A Shift of Lightning

Synopsis: In a weather station up in the New Mexico Mountains a young meteorologist is forced to judge a witches’ contest of bringing post-truth culprits to a bolt end, discovering a whole new force of nature within her.

I find that nothing in nature represents power struggles as well as lightning. Thunderstorms regulate the electrical balance between the atmosphere and the planet. A transfer of electrons in the form of lightning moves so quickly that it breaks the sound barrier – which produces our mystical thunder.

My protagonist Valeria is a native New Mexican Latina, who has a deep connection to both the science and the spirituality found in the nature of lightning. Leading a complacent and obedient life, in one violent night she is confronted with the consequences of that, as well as her own power. Writing this took me well beyond my comfort zone, but I believe the result is a strong and fun meditation on power and consequence. It is also my love letter to the both cleansing and dangerous beauty of storms and dedicated to my friend Selina, a meteorologist who introduced me to the magic of weather stations.

The other novelettes of Five Raging Hearts take their own highly original spins on this topic. My favorite is Craig’s Night’s Near With Much Undone. Did you know that both the original and present-day Nazis really like to misuse Darwin’s famous survival of the fittest thesis to justify their racism? Well, you’re in for a treat, because in Craig’s novelette, the ghost of Darwin fights back!

If you are looking for some fun catharsis against the ever-present doom scroll, Five Raging Hearts is your book. Now available on Amazon, Ingram, and of course your local bookstore.

Last but not least, I created a silver bronze pendant, inspired by our book: if you purchase it, you will get a discount for the ebook! Click the image below for the link.

There will be readings of Five Raging Hearts soon, so stay tuned!