New Book Spotlight

Every Dark Cloud

Tell us about your new book?

Every Dark Cloud is a cli-fi novella coming out in March 2025 from Ghost Orchid Press. Living in a post-climate disaster world protected by a layer of artificial cloud, Mallory knows every shade of darkness, their world lit sparingly by bioluminescence. But when Rein stumbles across their path—radioactive light bleeding from their teeth, their skin twisted and burned—Mallory’s worldview implodes, and the true cost of their survival becomes all too clear. A thrilling eco-horror race against time, Every Dark Cloud combines a dystopian setting and class-conscious narrative with a glimmer of hope for our shared humanity.

What aspect of the book was the most fun to write?

Much of the novella takes place in near or total darkness. I loved writing this setting, picking out other senses for description–touch, smell, sound–and playing with sunless biology. Bioluminescent bacteria and fungi, dead and rotting trees…there’s so much otherworldliness in the species hiding just on the other edge of sight. Even in the face of climate destruction, beauty shines through.

If there is one emotion or theme that you would hope that the reader connects with, what would that be?

While this is certainly a novella concerned with urgency, I hope readers also feel the desire to slow down and connect with the resilient species that endure even as humans struggle to cope with the mess we made. Climate disaster is only relevant to us because it threatens our survival. Yet we are not a species divorced from the earth–though we sometimes forget just how connected we are.