Erin Luken
LightNews LightNews
banner
esluken.bsky.social
Erin Luken
@esluken.bsky.social
660 followers 260 following 250 posts
THIS DARK PARADISE (Bloomsbury, out now!) | YA and adult fantasy author rep’d by @sarahnfisk.bsky.social | 🏳‍🌈 she/her | writing for all who think evil women are hot | website: esluken.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
esluken.bsky.social
🌟 Sacramento area folks 🌟

Want to come hear me chat writing/publishing in person? I'll be at A Seat at the Table Books as part of their Writing Demystified series on Feb 6th (a week from today!) to talk about my 10+ years (8 in the query trenches) seeking publication.

(boosts v much appreciated!)
At the top, text says "Writing Demystified." Text below says, "Join Jason Denzel and Erin Luken for a discussion on all things writing, marketing, editing, and publishing!" Below is a small image of a chair and table with the text A Seat at the Table beside it. At the bottom, the date of the event is given, Thurs Feb 6 5:30-7:30pm and location 9257 Laguna Springs Dr #130. The authors' photos are on either side of the text, plus the cover images of the books MYSTIC by Jason Denzel and THIS DARK PARADISE by Erin Luken.
January 30, 2025 at 11:27 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Teen Kitten says he is thinking of being a model when he grows up. Would you hire? Yes or yes?

(Also, yes, his ear is tipped. He was originally a feral baby.)
A seven month old flamepoint kitten sits on top of a cat tree. He is leaning on one paw and gazing pensively out the window.
November 27, 2024 at 6:33 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Seen some people sharing this insta trend over here, so I wanted to hop on board!

Yes, I wrote an entire book after OSM—it did truly awful in the query trenches, so I don’t know when or if I’m going to pull it out of the trunk.

HEIRS and WBW are still waiting for a final decision on their fates…..
Image titled My Manuscripts 1. FLAME — horror, 2004, trunked 2. IT’S ALWAYS DARKEST- fantasy 2006-2008, trunked 3. GUARDIAN OF THE PRINCE - YA fantasy 2009-2014 **first queried**, trunked 4. THE FIRST LAW OF LOYALTY - YA fantasy 2015, trunked 5. VENDETTA OF MONSTERS - YA fantasy 2016, **Pitch Wars mentee**, trunked 6. OUR SHATTERED MASKS - YA fantasy drafted 2017, **signed 2022, sold 2023, releasing 2024** 7. LAST LIGHTS OF THE LOST - YA fantasy 2018, trunked 8. HEIRS TO ANNIHILATION - adult fantasy 2020-2023 9. WHAT BLOOMS WITHIN - adult horror/fantasy 2022
October 26, 2023 at 6:26 PM
esluken.bsky.social
I do like this book I do like this book I do like this book I SWEAR but no I do not like the spreadsheets I repeatedly create to make sure that none of the scenes are out of order and the pacing isn't wildly off

shoutout to people who actually write epic fantasy I would probably die
Text of the heading of a google sheets file titled "motherfucking multi POV mess in HEIRS Fall 2023"
October 11, 2023 at 12:41 AM
esluken.bsky.social
Today on #finishurbookfall is favorite line day!

I've shared this particular snippet from OUR SHATTERED MASKS eleventy billion times on Twitter now, but not here!!!
An image of a girl in a ballgown in a forest looking up at the trees with text over it. Text content: "We all wear our masks. Some of us wear them better than others." Calista spins me away, leaving those words to echo in my ears. And you? I want to ask. How well do you wear yours?
October 4, 2023 at 6:01 PM
esluken.bsky.social
An image that perfectly, though tragically, sums up the current state of the OSM revisions that are DEFINITELY NOT DUE TOMORROW 😱😱😱😭 😭
An image of text. Text content: Luken/OUR SHATTERED MASKS/308 CHAPTER SOMETHING As we trudge up through the town, only the final hill remaining between us and the
September 30, 2023 at 10:02 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Also, good morning, #saturdark!

This morning we've got a first look at the magic system of OUR SHATTERED MASKS, and as you might expect by now, it's very normal, not at all strange, and Lucia is having a Great Time. ☺️
Text over a dark forest. Text content: Appearance is easiest to change, of all the senses, even if it also causes the most lasting damage. I can see as I work, the thin outline of my new creation like it's overlaying the original. And the price is naturally stolen from me. My skin that touches it flakes off, seemingly vanishing into the air. Oddly enough, it doesn't hurt, despite the strange wounds it leaves behind that leave even stranger scars.
September 30, 2023 at 4:23 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Today is main character day on #finishurbookfall which means I GET TO SHARE ART YAYYYY

Lucia, the illusionist, con artist extraordinaire and soon-to-be thief of magic mc, is in front here along with the other two major girls of OUR SHATTERED MASKS.

Art here by @/alilyushka (Twitter)
Image of three girls in a dark forest. The girl in front has medium brown hair, white skin, brown eyes, and wears a white blouse, a red corset over it, and green flounce skirt. She holds a mask in hand and smiles slyly. Behind her to the left is a girl with medium copper skin, black hair in an elaborate updo, and wearing a gold bustle dress. The third girl in the back is mostly hidden, turned away from the others, and holds a mask with flames on its side to partially obscure her face. She has white skin and black hair in an elaborate updo and wears a blue dress.
September 27, 2023 at 7:21 PM
esluken.bsky.social
I missed actual #BiVisibilityDay with this 😅 but it's still Bi Visibility Month, so here's the internet's reminder that Lucia, the mc of OUR SHATTERED MASKS, is canonically bisexual!🌈📚
Text over the image of a woman in a ballgown in a forest, holding a bouquet behind her back. Text content: Antony blinks a few times quickly. His throat bobs as he swallows, and I know what thoughts must race through his mind. Who is it? Because it obviously isn't him. "Like?" he asks quietly. "Like a friend?" "No. I mean romantically." I wonder if he suspects at all it's Calista—if he's realized, like I have now, that I can be attracted to both men and women. He must have some idea because there's a limited number of people it could otherwise be.
September 24, 2023 at 10:40 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Yayyayyay first of my arc spree requests was approved!! 🎉🎉
Text of an email header: Your approved request to view Merciless Waters from Brigids Gate Press
September 22, 2023 at 4:42 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Today’s prompt for #finishurbookfall was aesthetics, so here’s what I’ve got for OUR SHATTERED MASKS, a book of creepy forests, creepy falls, creepy masks, and also girls in ball gowns.

Did I mention it‘a a little creepy???
An aesthetic featuring photos of: Top left, a waterfall. Bottom left, a girl in a ball gown in a forest, looking up at the trees, holding a bouquet behind her. Middle top: a figure in a black cloak and plain white mask, the background of a tree behind them Middle bottom: a skull on a forest floor Top right: a dark forest Bottom right: a ruined/abandoned church
September 20, 2023 at 7:15 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Can't let #saturdark come and go without an OSM snippet!

Especially when this week's theme is "death" and ... well, I didn't have to search hard for quotes lol.
Text over an image of a dark forest. Text content: I flail my free arm into the darkness. "Oriana!" But only cool wind slides over my outstretched arm, running over it and around it, thousands of hands of death touching me all at once. "I want to speak to you," a voice—very much not Oriana’s—hisses.
September 16, 2023 at 7:32 PM
esluken.bsky.social
The classic of cat-in-box
A cat in a box. Only his eyes and nose are visible.
September 5, 2023 at 4:16 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Most of the “readers also enjoyed” tab on the GR page for Our Shattered Masks is other 2024 debuts…except T Kingfisher mysteriously shows up 🥹

OSM is YA, so I’m not sure it really belongs in a pairing with What Moves the Dead, but I since *I* love that novella I’m amused all the same.
Screenshot of goodreads “readers also enjoyed” containing on left One on One by Jamie Harrow, in the middle What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher and on the right At the End of the River Styx by Michelle Kulwicki
August 28, 2023 at 5:08 PM
esluken.bsky.social
As usual, in this snippet for today's #saturdark prompt "animal", Lucia is having a Great Time and feeling perfectly safe.
Text over a background of a dark forest. Text content: The path beneath us is gravel, and for a while, the only sound is its crunch beneath our feet. It's eerie— even more when I realize: if there were other animals out there, they should’ve been making some kind of noise. There might be nothing alive in this forest but us.
August 26, 2023 at 6:23 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Everyone who follows me elsewhere already knows my fave trash is my spear-wielding lesbian Evsenia from the big gay grimdark lol.

Older daughter of an infamous warrior, cunning, crass, and a massive pain in the ass to…pretty much everyone

@/alilyushka (Twitter) captured her PERFECTLY in this comm!
Art of two women in a swirling snowstorm. The woman on the left (Leanna) has long light brown hair and wears a long brown dress with a fur hood. She has her arms folded and is scowling at the other woman beside her. The woman on the right (Evsenia) has black hair cropped just past her ears and wears a black military coat, gloves, and shoulder armor. She holds a spear in one hand and is faintly smirking at Leanna.
August 25, 2023 at 10:14 PM
esluken.bsky.social
The site’s grown since I posted my first intro, so hi again! I’m an author of fantasy novels with strong horror elements.

My debut, a YA fantasy that’s the cunning mc of LITTLE THIEVES+magical world of CARAVAL+the queer girls vs island horror of SAWKILL GIRLS combined, comes out next fall!
A publisher’s marketplace deal report announcement: Erin Luken’s debut OUR SHATTERED MASKS, a YA fantasy about a magical thief who cons her way onto an exclusive enchanted island for her biggest heist yet: stealing the source of all magic; but something sinister is happening behind the island’s enchantments—and Lucia might not survive the magic long enough to steal it, to Camille Kellogg at Bloomsbury Children’s, for publication in fall 2024, by Sarah Fisk at The Tobias Literary Agency (world).
August 23, 2023 at 3:57 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Hiiiiya #saturdark!

This week's prompt pulled up the moment in OSM where Very Bad Shit Starts. TW gore.

Some of this imagery *also* might just be slated to appear on the cover... 👀
Text over a dark forest background. Text content: I rush forward, catching her outstretched hand. She looks up at me, and her lips part. They're black as her veins, and my heart races because I don't want to hear what she'll say. I don't get to hear it anyway. Darkness pools in her eyes and drowns her green irises. Then her eyes burst, black-red liquid pours from the sockets like bloody tears, and she collapses in front of me.
August 12, 2023 at 7:59 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Shoutout to the tweet I just deleted comparing the f-bombs dropped in my YA vs adult books because I think it really highlights (one of the many) differences between them.

YA: dropped once, pg 155

Adult: dropped idek how many times, first time on pg 3
Text content: “Will that help us find my mother?” Oriana asks. “I’m not interested in going on without her. I don’t fucking care about this tour.” Text content: They danced on a knife’s edge every time they fucked with her father and his men, one slip risking slice from ass to brain.
August 8, 2023 at 11:56 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Excited to feel like I can post snippets again safely for #saturdark here!!

This one's got the vibes of why I nicknamed OUR SHATTERED MASKS "Murder Island YA" for a while.
Text over the image of a bright blue, ghostly stream in a forest. Text content: I step out of the litter, avoiding his hand, and promptly stumble on the first step and fall to my knees. Above us, dark clouds swirl. They're a strange color, a deep blue instead of gray, and small flashes of light dart between them. The air is chilly, raising ice along my skin, while it tastes like burning sulfur. Whatever this storm is, I don't think it's natural. I'm not supposed to leave the island yet, and it's going to make sure I don't.
July 29, 2023 at 5:43 PM
esluken.bsky.social
Stopped briefly at this tweet during my purge to laugh because, yes, this book existed—and then, 5 years later I redid it, and it’s now 10x darker and more violent than the original and I just think this says a lot about my work so
An image of a quote tweet. Original tweet says: “Do people die in your books?” Quoted response by esluken (me) says “One of my favorite set of notes I ever got included an entire subsection on the book’s major deaths that started with ‘a LOT of people die in this.’”
July 26, 2023 at 9:55 PM