Status: In Progress
Genre: LGBTQ+ dark romance, fantasy, alternative history
In this pulpy blend of Gideon the Ninth and Cabaret, THE EMPTY ARCHIVE brings the stodgy Professor Pendragon together with his lively-yet-dead ex-wife, the notorious necromancer Lady Grey — his true femme fatale. They need to work together if they have any chance at stopping Illyria’s fascist government from completely taking over.
Ten years ago, Lady Grey invented necromancy, and since then, the world has been in chaos. One generation featured aristocratic litches sweeping over the land with massive hoards of thralls. The next swung the pendulum much too far in the opposite direction: a ban on all magic, everywhere. This has led to a national crisis of book burnings, required registries, closed borders, masked men scooping people out of their homes, and undesirables being sent via trains to a place people seem to keep forgetting about.
Certain that she’ll be the only one who can fix this mess, Lady Grey convinces her dear husband to resurrect her back into the mortal world. But that act comes with a cost, as now for the first time Pendragon will experience the power cravings that originally drove his love mad.
With the help of a rag-tag band of students, a shady rebel base, and one extremely experienced elderly witch, Pen and Lady Grey need to smash the walls, expose the fascists’ secret project, give everyone still living a chance to survive, save magic itself, and maybe even mend their relationship.
THE EMPTY ARCHIVE is an LGTBQ+ fantasy and alternative history for adults at 120,000 words, representing a romance between a trans male character and a female love interest.
Stephanie Nolan 