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Fantasy Author AK Ikezoe

@starmistwrites

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🐀ADHD or unreliable narrator?
🌸 Marigolds and Murder OUT NOW
💜 Indie | Thriller | Fantasy | Sapphic 🌈
📍Chicago

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Marigolds and Memes 🌸 🔍

Kat is a soft boiled detective and uses her prophecy magic to solve her cases. Her assistant just thinks she has uncanny intuition.

Get the first four chapters of the ebook for free when you sign up for my newsletter! Or you can get the full book everywhere books are sold.

Art by @odettelocke and @katkraehenauthor A girl who is a noir detective man, and a guy who is a femme fatale by @starmistwrites

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21 days ago

✨MARIGOLDS AND MURDER OUT NOW✨

Marigolds and Murder is available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and all digital platforms!

Thank you so much to everyone who has hyped up the release with me. Thank you to my ARC readers and everyone that has featured and reviewed my book already. It’s been such an honor to have this much support from the lovely book community.

Marigolds and Murder is on Goodreads, Storygraph, and Fable to review!

Cover art done by @hollydunndesign
Character art done by @odettelocke
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#fantasythriller #sapphicfantasy #indieauthor #sapphicthriller #murdermystery #fantasydetective #queerauthors #queerfantasy #fantasyauthors #newreleasebooks #MarigoldsAndMurder #TheExalted Sapphic Fantasy Murder Mystery | Marigolds and Murder | Out Now by @starmistwrites

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a year ago

It’s a ✨Femininomenon✨

🩷Happy Sapphic Visibility Day🧡

Banter? Check! Grump X Sunshine? Check!! Romance? No, your honor. Kat looked at Emrah and said “There he is! That’s my favorite white boy!”

💜 Official artwork for the historical fantasy mystery Marigolds and Murďer

@odettelocke has perfrctly captured this scene from the book! She is now accepting commissions so if you’d love to see your own OCs in her gorgeous art style, fill out the form in her b¡o!

Marigolds and Murďer is set in 1950 Philadelphia where magic influenced WWII. Kat is a private detective who uses prophecy magic to solve her cases. Emrah is her sketchy but loyal assistant helping her investigate the passing of their client’s wife. However Kat’s magic reveals her ďeath was no accident. And since magic isn’t evidence, she needs proof to catch the k¡iller. But dread creeps in when Kat realizes she’s being followed. Is someone trying to thwart her investigation or does the government still not trust her?

Either way, Kat can’t let her client down. And if what her magic tells her is real, then solving the save might not be enough… not if she’s going to be able to live with herself when it’s done.

If you want to see more of these character dynamics or get this artwork as a free print, sign up for an ARC of Marigolds and Murďer in @starmistwrites b¡o
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#slowburnromance #queerauthors #queerfantasy #queerromance #romantasy #fantasyauthors #booktropes #booktok #sappicbookstagram #sapphicbooks #wlwbooks #adhdbooks by @starmistwrites

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2 years ago

I said purple and she said GOT IT

A sapphic historical fantasy mystery series indie books

@odettelocke is THE purple girly artist so if you have your book characters you want illustrated and you are a Purple Is My Favorite Color person, then this is your artist by @starmistwrites

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17 hours ago

Somehow not enough art?

My lovely character artists who put up with all my book commission requests @odettelocke and @katkraehenauthor

Sapphic historical fantasy mystery series where the private detective uses secret prophecy magic to solve her cases by @starmistwrites

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2 days ago

…and her old boss’s daughter…

Nobody knows private detective Katsumi Okazaki uses prophecy magic to solve her cases. While helping her client look for a missing person, Kat runs into her ex colleagues (and her ex girlfriend). Black Lilies and Lovers is book 2 in The Exalted series.

Once again @odettelocke has CRUSHED IT with this commission and I am blown away (like Kat’s umbrella) I am so happy to reveal the first art for the sequel!! by @starmistwrites

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3 days ago

Marigolds and Murder memes!

I’m back from my work retreat so returning to business as usual. I have new art to post of Kat in the sequel Black Lilies and Lovers soon!

Historical fantasy murder mystery featuring private detectives with prophecy magic

Art done by @odettelocke and @katkraehenauthor by @starmistwrites

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7 days ago

⭐️✨October Goals ✨⭐️

Summer blurred by painfully. The passage of time really hit me when I realized I hadn’t written goals since June. This was a routine I established for myself several years ago and I would just post a few of them that were writing related.

The last few months were ambiguous with holding myself accountable for deadlines. I know I accomplished a lot but I did it without a list. And as someone with ADHD, executive dysfunction, and a real special kind of anxiety based on arbitrary existential overwhelm, lists are what hold down the fort in the mind palace.

I got a lot of things done even though it doesn’t feel like it. I know I did. The problem is as soon as I finish a task or goal, I forget I did that work. Maybe if I have tangible lists again that I can reference as what I accomplished, it will be easier.

Usually I would make quarterly goals but a lesson I learned against my will this year taught me you can’t predict what will happen in 3 months. (Sometimes not even a week). So while I have a few that are written down in private, I don’t trust life to go as planned enough to post those. Anthology Submission Review Submissions have closed so the editors of Alien Baby and I will be reviewing everyone's lovely submissions and start the revision process! I haven't seen any of the submissions yet and I'm so curious to see what lovely work you all have done! by @starmistwrites

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14 days ago

‼️🚫SUBMISSIONS CLOSED 🚫‼

Thank you to everyone that participated! We are so excited to start reviewing everyone’s stories and artwork! Keep an eye on your emails later this month as we reach out to everyone.

We’re very excited for this upcoming release and can’t wait for everyone to see it! Knights and princesses anthology shield swords crown pink post submissions closed review in progress publishing press and literary magazine by @starmistwrites

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15 days ago

🎉 ✨LAST DAY FOR SUBMISSIONS✨🎉

Submissions close after today for our Knights & Princesses anthology! We are so excited to see what all the lovely stories and artworks made over the summer.

We’ll begin the the review and editing process in October and prepare for the release coming in spring 2027

Send in your submissions to alienbabymag@gmail.com Stories and art should focus on two characters, one who is on the precipice of inheriting great power and responsibility, the other who is sworn to protect them (also Knights and Princesses is used gender neutrally 👀 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ by @starmistwrites

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16 days ago

The highly anticipated Alien Baby/Starmist Press collaboration Knights and Princesses Anthology will be closing its submission box in ONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cleveland wants to thank everyone for the likes and comments, and promises to continue his modeling career after a long nap in the sunshine.

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🎨Writers and artists, please submit your work!

We are accepting stories of all genres and art of all media that concern the subject of knights and princesses.

In this context, we are defining a 👑princess 👑 as someone (of any gender) poised to inherit great power and responsibility, and a ⚔️knight⚔️ as their sworn protector and guardian.

Send your submissions to alienbabymag@gmail.com! by @starmistwrites

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16 days ago

The highly anticipated Alien Baby/Starmist Press collaboration Knights and Princesses Anthology will be closing its submission box in THREE DAYS!

To help us spread the word, Cleveland has agreed to pose as well-known princesses. Keep an eye on this feed over the coming days to see all his outfits!

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🎨Writers and artists, please submit your work!

We are accepting stories of all genres and art of all media that concern the subject of knights and princesses.

In this context, we are defining a 👑princess 👑 as someone (of any gender) poised to inherit great power and responsibility, and a ⚔️knight⚔️ as their sworn protector and guardian.

Send your submissions to alienbabymag@gmail.com! by @starmistwrites

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18 days ago