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keychild.bsky.social
Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
@keychild.bsky.social
650 followers 790 following 160 posts
(she/her)

I design things. I write things. I photograph things. I panic about things. Mostly that last one.

edits: @crowkeys.bsky.social

http://eloucarroll.com • http://crowcrosskeys.com
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keychild.bsky.social
Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂 @keychild.bsky.social · 3d
What's this? New fiction? You betcha. :)
havenspec.bsky.social Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 3d
Our ✨January 2026 issue✨ is ready at last!

Subscribers will get it January 26th, and everyone else can read it February 2nd!

It's taken a long time to get the issue ready, but take a look at that 😍TOC😍! The wait was well worth it!

Subscribe through Patreon:
www.patreon.com/c/HavenSpecM...
Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-One, January 2026. Cover and table of contents. The issue will be available to subscribers on January 26th, and its contents are as follows: Cover Art by Aimee Cozza. Fiction: Magical Girl: Corporate Failure by Lia Lao. Demon In Repose by J.A.W. McCarthy. A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons by Cynthia Zhang. Bootcut by Allison Pottern. Branches by Matt Tighe. And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must by Elou Carroll. A Tree is not a Home by Diana Dima. Poetry: A Party, A Party! by Faith Allington Queercoded Villanelle by anaum sajanlal last psalm by P. H. Low Rainmaker by Olumide Manuel Nonfiction: Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro. Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
You fall asleep, but not before clicking the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...
An excerpt from prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background. The excerpt reads: The girl falls asleep and dreams of her grandmother, wrinkled hand kneading pillow dough. The grandmother falls asleep and dreams of her husband, clutching a mushroom bouquet in the dirt.
January 21, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We've got some words in the oven in the tower. We didn't follow a recipe, so we're not sure how they'll turn out. For a poem that has been baked to perfection, however...

"The Baker" by Elena Zhang

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...
A muted greyscale banner for prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background.
January 21, 2026 at 6:11 PM
keychild.bsky.social
What's this? New fiction? You betcha. :)
havenspec.bsky.social Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 3d
Our ✨January 2026 issue✨ is ready at last!

Subscribers will get it January 26th, and everyone else can read it February 2nd!

It's taken a long time to get the issue ready, but take a look at that 😍TOC😍! The wait was well worth it!

Subscribe through Patreon:
www.patreon.com/c/HavenSpecM...
Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-One, January 2026. Cover and table of contents. The issue will be available to subscribers on January 26th, and its contents are as follows: Cover Art by Aimee Cozza. Fiction: Magical Girl: Corporate Failure by Lia Lao. Demon In Repose by J.A.W. McCarthy. A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons by Cynthia Zhang. Bootcut by Allison Pottern. Branches by Matt Tighe. And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must by Elou Carroll. A Tree is not a Home by Diana Dima. Poetry: A Party, A Party! by Faith Allington Queercoded Villanelle by anaum sajanlal last psalm by P. H. Low Rainmaker by Olumide Manuel Nonfiction: Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro. Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.
January 19, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
You click the link. We wait.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...
An excerpt from short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed. The excerpt reads: Baby steps over to the cutlery drawer. She’s wearing a lemon-yellow skirt she borrowed from me. It looks better on her. She drops the forks, all in a naked, unprotected pile, into their place. I wait. Baby returns to her seat. She notices my look, at last.
January 17, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
The tower has a husband somewhere. It doesn't mention them often, but we believe they are a mountain or at least, they used to be. We do, however, celebrate the towerwife's anniversary. For other types of wives...

"Housewives" by Eilish Alexander

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed.
January 17, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
What approached on your feed was the link. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/14/b...
An excerpt from short story, Birch by E. F. Vollmer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring pale silver birch trees with knots that look like eyes. The excerpt reads: What approached through the trees was a spindly thing, nearer a birch sapling come to life than anything remotely human. Delicate vines and greenery loosed themselves from its limbs as it proceeded forward—a quiet, ponderous walk, gently focused on Eli. Different serfdoms called the things different names. Ghosts. Reapers. Chillbones. All cold, quiet, dead, unrelenting.
January 14, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Trees cannot be trusted. We will not be elaborating on this statement. Instead, we invite you to read today's short story...

"Birch" by E. F. Vollmer

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/14/b...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Birch by E. F. Vollmer published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring pale silver birch trees with knots that look like eyes.
January 14, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
you click the link; it's not a memory, it's happening right now.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/10/l...
An excerpt from poem, lucky in the sky by Miranda Michalowski published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring pressed flowers on an open book. The excerpt reads: your love pressed into me like a flower pressed in a book is a memory like my belly on your belly is a fantasy like our knees are four things running.
January 10, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We're surrounded by mirrors, but we're reflected differently in each one. We don't remember what we look like anymore. Instead of fretting about our faces, we're reading excellent poetry.

"lucky in the sky" by Miranda Michalowski

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/10/l...
A muted greyscale banner for poem, lucky in the sky by Miranda Michalowski published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring pressed flowers on an open book.
January 10, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
One thing you mustn't forget: to click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/07/h...
An excerpt from short story, Hands and Feet by EC Dorgan published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a deck of playing cards on a dark background. The excerpt reads: One thing she hasn’t forgotten. The habit that’s paying for her degree. Her roommates wait tables and sell gadgets in flower shops. She puts on a top hat and plays cards. They play on a hill. Or in a hill. When she was a child, she read a book about changelings. How they were born in the hollows of hills. She has a feeling she belongs to a whole different folk tradition. Or no folk tradition. Does she belong anywhere?
January 7, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
The tower remembers when it was just a small rock. It remembers growing stone by stone. It tries to forget that awkward adolescent stage when it was little more than a hovel by reading stories, just like this one...

"Hands and Feet" by EC Dorgan

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/07/h...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Hands and Feet by EC Dorgan published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a deck of playing cards on a dark background.
January 7, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
amadolaila.bsky.social
Some stories take longer to find a home. "Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth" was like that, but it was all worth it in the end because it was picked up by the best possible magazine, @crowkeys.bsky.social 🙏

Here it is: crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/16/o...
Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth—Laila Amado
On the first day of the sowing, Nena wakes up before dawn, tense with the half-remembered uneasiness of her dream. In the weak light, her husband’s face is a cragged outline with deep grooves, like…
crowcrosskeys.com
December 31, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
The link exists. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/03/t...
An excerpt from flash fiction, The Psychopomps are Dead by Jenna Grieve published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring overlaid images of lined paper, peaches and hibiscus. The excerpt reads: The psychopomps are dead, or they are hidden and watching, or they never existed at all. We crave: hibiscus, lined paper, tea leaves, paint, caramel, socks, peaches. We forget to crave larger concepts: sunlight, water, a place to sleep. We are lost in time.
January 3, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
It is a new year and we are alive. We're not 100% certain what manner of 'alive' we are yet, but we'll work it out eventually. For now, we're enjoying our first flash fiction of 2026.

"The Psychopomps are Dead" by Jenna Grieve

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/03/t...
A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, The Psychopomps are Dead by Jenna Grieve published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring overlaid images of lined paper, peaches and hibiscus.
January 3, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
ramccafferty.bsky.social
Little 2025 publication thread, with thanks to @crowkeys.bsky.social and @templeinacity.bsky.social and @bendinggenres.bsky.social: (And send me your lists!)
December 31, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Send 2025 off the icy cliff. Click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/31/a...
An excerpt from poem, A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring an abstract image with light trails. The excerpt reads: From the lines in a sudden palm a slope of unbundling years slips curves heavenward before a grasping sends everything off the icy cliff.
December 31, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
And just like that, we've reached our last post of 2025. It's a beauty, folks. Join us as we in the tower bid goodbye to 2025 with one final poem.

"A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/31/a...
A muted greyscale banner for poem, A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring an abstract image with light trails.
December 31, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
chellechampagne.bsky.social
Thrilled to see this flash online again! Thank you @crowkeys.bsky.social for the opportunity to reprint this long defunct story!
crowkeys.bsky.social Crow & Cross Keys || SUBS CLOSED @crowkeys.bsky.social · Dec 13
We remember every haunting. Not just our own. The tower has a whole wing dedicated to the recording of haunted happenings. It comes and goes as it pleases. For a different breed of ghost...

"Hauntings" by @chellechampagne.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/13/h...
A muted greyscale banner for reprinted flash fiction, Hauntings by Michelle Champagne, featuring shadowy figures viewed, perhaps, from behind a textured window.
December 13, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
neilwillcox.bsky.social
1. Opus Hades by Kimberley White in @crowkeys.bsky.social a poem in seven parts about death, Hades, Persephone and love. crowcrosskeys.com/2025/08/27/o...
Opus Hades—Kimberly White
He breathes in the depth before the air is formed primeval dust of inner earth Continue reading…
crowcrosskeys.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
neilwillcox.bsky.social
6. The Skill Of The Sculptor by Joyce Bingham in @crowkeys.bsky.social where the sculptor is commissioned to make a very particular bronze crowcrosskeys.com/2025/07/12/t...
The Skill of the Sculptor—Joyce Bingham
Below my window the harbour master of Mathurn was busy preparing for the storm due to arrive in the next few hours. Fishing boats were being lashed together and the hum of activity reached even my …
crowcrosskeys.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
avadevries.bsky.social
“Only Carrion,” a gothic flash piece originally published in print by The Ghastling, appeared online in @crowkeys.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/05/28/o...
December 17, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
femalehysteria.bsky.social
🌳
crowkeys.bsky.social Crow & Cross Keys || SUBS CLOSED @crowkeys.bsky.social · Dec 17
We've had our fair share of strange visitations from beings who want to make bargains. We never accept them. We know better. Bargaining is dangerous. On bargains...

"Black Walnut" by @femalehysteria.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/17/b...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Black Walnut by Annie Russo published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a glass sphere on concrete.
December 17, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Remember to click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/20/t...
An excerpt from prose poem, The Mother of Ghosts by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a moon above water. The excerpt reads: The Mother of Ghosts sang prayers in an unknown language. The Mother of Ghosts slept in the river and woke up on the moon. The Mother of Ghosts could not remember their faces. The Mother of Ghosts could not remember their names.
December 20, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
There is a ghost in the tower. It doesn't do much. Just lingers, and watches. It has seen many things. It has even seen you. It has also seen this poem.

"The Mother of Ghosts" by @ezhang77.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/20/t...
A muted greyscale banner for prose poem, The Mother of Ghosts by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a moon above water.
December 20, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
neilwillcox.bsky.social
I read A Swarm Unto Herself by Barlow Adams in @crowkeys.bsky.social a bee-related story nightofthehats.blogspot.com/2025/12/i-re...
I Read Stories: A Swarm Unto Herself by Barlow Adams
A Swarm Unto Herself by Barlow Adams in Crow And Cross Keys Our narrator sits near the woman with a beehive for a head, bigger than y...
nightofthehats.blogspot.com
December 27, 2025 at 8:17 AM