Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

The relationship between this man and his ex-gf's cat in this cocaine-fueled-Hunger-Games-in-fascist-outer-space is what keeps me going.

Cover of Dungeon Crawl Carl: The Butchers Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

November 21, 2025 at 8:01 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

Starting to make some holiday cards! 😋

Card with gingerbread house, candy cane, and a flower cut corner.

Card with a flower. Has plaid petals and is decorated with various green, red, and ice blue paper.

Card with snowmen, stars, and a person skiing down a blue spotted hill.

November 18, 2025 at 11:49 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

I promise I'm alive, I've just been kind of bedridden for 3 months 😅. Anyway, here is what I'm reading right now.

November 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

HEIDI'S HOUSE OF RESCUED FAMILIARS

🐊Louisiana setting
🏳️‍🌈Trans and ace rep
👁️‍🗨️Multiple POVs
👨‍👧‍👧Found family
🐈a n i m a l s
🚜Redneck wizards
🌷Healing is the hardest part
📚Community politics
🐅Tiger King inspired villain
🪄 m a g i c
🐸Toad hoarders
🦎Reptile conventions

#Q #A #F #S #Questpit

Moodboard with the following images:
- Swamp at night
- Window looking out at barn
- Trailer park
- Herb book
- Girl holding a coyote
- A field with a church
- A black cat on a chair
- A rearview mirror
- A dirt road by a field
- A crow about to land on a woman in black
- A hand in swamp water
- Spanish moss hanging from a tree
- Bloodied hands
- Candles on an altar

In the decaying community of Lombar County, Louisiana, most witches and wizards (the Folk) live in trailers, RVs, or rundown motels. They party in New Orleans, worship evil gods, get addicted to love potions, and make memes about fire spells gone wrong. However, there are little places that try to do some good, like Heidi’s House.

Told from the point of view of three staff members in a nonprofit familiar rescue.

Southern Gothic themes meets Urban Fantasy: Decay, community, and classism.

Asexual and transgender representation.

August 6, 2025 at 9:09 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

I love sharing my moodboards for "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." They usually end up warm but ominous.

Moodboard that says HEIDI'S HOUSE OF RESCUED FAMILIARS.

Images include:
- Herb book
- Window with lace curtain looking out to a barn
- A blurry church in a field
- A girl surrounded by cows
- A girl in black in fog
- A lamb with its feet tied
- An herb hanger
- Laundry hanging between trailers
- A candlelit pentagram
- Moon phases
- A bird in a cage
- A fence and a field
- A dirt road by a field with a truck
- A girl holding a bird
- Cigarette smoke in a truck

August 4, 2025 at 7:41 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#Booksky

I'm OBSESSED with this book. New fav or all time.

BOOK OVERVIEW of "Fifty Beasts to Break your Heart and other Stories."

Genre: magical realism, fantasy, contemporary, short stories.

Themes: heartbreak, obsession/hunger/yearning, monsters, grief

Content warnings: death, murder, body horror, toxic relationships.

Favorite short stories: The Plums at the End of the Wolf, 50 Beasts to Break Your Heart, A Haunted Calendar, The Eternal Staircase, The War of Fog

Setting: All over the place.

Form: Short Story collection, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd POVs.

QUOTE: “Oliver had always known that a time might come when perhaps, the world might need devouring. When the world would grow old and sad and sick, and too full of the wrong sorts of hungers. This was his art, after all. He was a master at knowing the moment when death stopped being a tragedy and became, instead, a gift. And if that time came for the whole of the world—he would be ready.”

August 4, 2025 at 7:20 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

I had fun with the social media aspect in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." Witches can make accounts for their familiars like people do with their pets. There are tarot, potion, and summoner influencers. Wizard trolls embed curses in their status and video uploads.

"I’ve seen teleportation magic trending again on Abra Cablahbra.” Abra Cablahbra was the most popular social media site for Folk. Piper once made an account for Heidi, even though Heidi hardly ever used it on her own. On rainy days in the summer, they’d scroll through Abra Cablahbra to judge selfies of rich Folk who could travel the world and attend ancient rituals in Scotland and Norway.

August 3, 2025 at 9:57 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

Swamp time.

Bullfrogs jumped from logs to swamp water as Heidi and Mangar trudged through mud and puddles in their rainboots. Mangar used his solar staff as a walking stick while Heidi extended her arms for balance. Over the calls of spring peepers, Folk laughed in the distance.

July 29, 2025 at 4:51 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

This is a quote from Oberon Hexwalker in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." This highlights the classism among the Folk. Oberon wants Heidi's rescue to deal with only poor witches and wizards. He doesn't want her to touch his private zoo.

"I value your rescue for its work with poor and uneducated Folk handling power they can’t control. I value your rescue for keeping stray familiars off the streets. I value you dealing with trailer trash like Zathar. But don’t come knocking on the wrong doors.”

July 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

In "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars," Folk use bones for decoration, spellwork, and Elder God worship. It is rude and to ask Folk where get their bones from because there is a class divide on that process. (Can go from harvesting roadkill to black market payments.)

Immediately, Mansa opened the dark door. She matched the home in a dark hijab and black dress with lace accents. She wordlessly let them inside. The home was as maximalist as most Folk with an abundance of rocks, bones, books, and plants. The air smelled like sweet tea and lemons.

July 28, 2025 at 5:17 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

I like getting into money struggles in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." Capitalism is a system that works in favor of the story's villain, Oberon Hexwalker, who runs a private familiar zoo, while Heidi's rescue struggles to make ends meet.

Heidi tried not to think about how overwhelmed they were. Their rescue struggled while Oberon’s zoo thrived. He likely poached animal loving volunteers and professionals away from the rescue, towards his enterprise. Heidi couldn’t afford to pay her volunteers. Oberon was rich enough to pay.

July 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

In "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars," Zathar's home is not for the faint-hearted. Like animal hoarding, familiar hoarding is a real issue among the Folk. In Zathar's case, he has too many toads for his little trailer.

He let her inside. The smell of peanut butter mixed with skunk hit her. In a corner, moss grew on sticks under UV light. A garland of dry herbs hung over a quilt-cloaked couch. Glass bottles, pumice rocks, and sponges covered the coffee table. Crystals and mini cacti crowded the windowsills. Tanks of toads cluttered the room, from the top of the television to the side tables.

July 24, 2025 at 5:49 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

I loved the docuseries, "MerPeople," and this book got into that same territory from the mechanics of performance to the history of it in Florida. This is an especially good read for folks that want to see more immigrant and disability representation!

Thank you @nataliasylv.bsky.social for writing!

Book overview for BREATHE AND COUNT BACK TO TEN.

Genre: Contemporary YA
Themes: Theme park mermaids, following your dreams, disability, 1st gen immigrant pressures.

Content warnings: Ableism, Body shaming, Sexual Harrassment, Misogyny, Medical content.

Representation: Peruvian-American protag, Protag has hip dysplasia

Setting: Florida

Form: First person single POV

Quote:

“And it’s weird, because even though I know she’s talking about mermaids and air and the magic of making them seem real, the way she said crutch makes me feel like needing one is a bad thing. Like maybe the “magic” isn’t just about believing in mermaids; it’s about believing people like me don’t exist. Like maybe admitting I’ve needed crutches dispels the myths we want to believe about people. That we’re not perfect. That our bodies have needs. That this doesn’t make us any less real. Any less human.”

July 22, 2025 at 8:43 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

Needles are one of many items Blair, the veterinarian in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars," keeps on hand. Working on familiars requires may more than your average clinic.

Blair’s leather toolkit laid out tweezers, antibiotic ointments, herbs, crystals, bandages, potions, needles, thread, and cutting implements. Her staff leaned on the back wall, made of driftwood and wrapped in fossilized eucalyptus. Rather than a stone at the top, Blair’s staff used a lit candle.

July 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPSnips

I love writing the social media parts in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." It's fun to think of what witches and wizards would post about. Are there summoner celebrities? Potion influencers? Are there downloads that can spread curses?

Here it's about Piper's staff ceremony.

In the morning, Heidi stayed in bed while scrolling on her phone. Piper’s friends already posted pictures of the staff ceremony on Abra Cablahbra. They took a selfie together with Piper in the middle, beaming with her staff. Another photo showed Red giving Caboose a belly rub. Cordelia uploaded scenery pics, the sunset cut by powerlines, the swirls of algae in water, and the moon tucked by cirrus.

July 18, 2025 at 9:01 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

I think they'd all get along great, wow. #dragonage

Davrin from Dragon Age Veilguard as Taurus Sun

Merrill from Dragon Age 2 as Pisces Rising

Alistair from Dragon Age Origins as Pisces Moon

July 17, 2025 at 2:32 AM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#WIPsnips

The past is a haunted thing in "Heidi's House of Rescued Familiars." A common abuse from Folk to their familiars, especially human ones, is memory erasure. This has long term affects on Heidi and her relationship with Piper and Mangar.

She used to be Agnes’ familiar. She went through more abuses than she could track, from memory wipes to being commanded to not sleep for days. Piper and Mangar both saw how Agnes treated Heidi. It hung over them. Those dark memories hung over the whole farm.

July 16, 2025 at 8:57 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

Thank you @clarewonders.bsky.social for a wonderful interview!

kneebracepress.com/an-interview...

Folks should check out her middle grade book about a witch with diabetes, ACCIDENTAL DEMONS. Learn more from our interview, where we talk writing, representation, and self care.

#booksky

Cover of ACCIDENTAL DEMONS by Clare Edge. Book shows young girl in a red hoodie holding a cat while surrounded by demons.

July 15, 2025 at 9:25 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#BluePit #LGBT #Q #F #A

Heidi built her familiar rescue from the ashes of her old life as a cruel witch’s familiar. After three years of rescuing familiar pets, she discovers Leto, a mysterious human familiar like herself that works for an evil wizard. She vows to save him, no matter the cost.

Moodboard that says HEIDI'S HOUSE OF RESCUED FAMILIARS. Images include:

- A bird in a cage.
-A woman holding a bird to her chest.
- An open herb book.
- A window looking out to a barn.
- A white house in a field.
- A girl surrounded by cows.
- A girl in black on a bridge.
- Laundry hanging between trailers.
- Herbs hanging from the ceiling.
- A pentagram with handles.
- A tied up lamb.
- A fenced in field.
- Moon phases.
- A tree by a dirt road.
- Candles under maximalist witch decor.
- Cigarette smoke in a car.

Themes and tropes:

Found Family
Classism
Small town decay
Healing is the hardest part
Eldritch Gods
Blood magic
None of us are free until all of us are free

Romantic subplot between asexual, autistic nerd and a white-haired broody boy.

Meet the three POVS:

Heidi: Rescue Founder, ex-familiar, shy but brave
Piper: Social media coordinator, trans witch, stubborn and protective
Mangar: Groundskeeper, buff redneck wizard, the father figure

July 13, 2025 at 6:04 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#BluePit #Q #A #LGBT #F

Toad hoarders, teleporting cat colonies, and exotic reptile conventions are just a Tuesday in "Heidi's house of Rescued Familiars," but when Heidi vows to rescue a familiar from the richest wizard in Louisiana, her little nonprofit is in for a rescue unlike any other.

Moodboard that says "Heidi's House for Rescued Familiars" in the center.

Images include:
- A moonlit swamp.
- A window overlooking a barn.
- An herb book.
- A young woman holding a coyote.
- A white house in a field.
- A trailer park.
- A tree by a dirt road.
- A rearview mirror.
- A black cat on a vintage chair.
- A girl in black with a crow about to land on her.
- Tied lamb feet.
- A hand in swamp water.
- A bunch of candles under maximalist witch decor.
- Bloody hands.
- Sunlight through spanish moss.

FIRST LINES:

At 3 A.M. on a summer night in rural Louisiana, a witch died. When her final breaths left her lips, her farmhouse sighed as magic left its weary walls. The bedroom ceiling creaked. Her bathtub cracked. Dark damask wallpaper peeled. The familiars felt her absence like a hole in the heart, their bodies fallen in the pastures. Her summons left. Clothes in her closet fell to ash. The walls emptied of her imaginings. Portraits gone. Landscapes dust. The rabbit statues on her Elder God altar shook. Electricity, plumbing, and HVAC broke. On the gray tiled roof, her owl and raven screamed. Chimney stone hit meadow grass and floorboards splintered.
Master is gone.
Master is gone.
Master is gone.

("Master is gone" is repeated in Theban).

July 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

It's #caturday. Look at my children.

Tuxedo cat staring out of a hole in a door.

Woman holding a grey cat to make it look like she's playing bananagrams.

Woman sitting on floor, holding grey car.

July 12, 2025 at 1:46 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

#BluePitHype

Character moodboards, scrapbook themed and with snippets!

Major characters in "Heidi's House of Familiars" are Heidi, Piper, Mangar, and Leto.

Text reads: “’This is Piper Wick. If this is about familiars, call between 9 A.M. and 2 P.M. on business days, or send us an email at heidishouse@folkmail.wiz. Otherwise leave a message after the,’” Piper took a deep, audible inhale, “’BEEEEEEEP.’"

Images include a girl, in a black dress with long black hair with her back to the audience, she is staring out into a field. There are moonphasees, a cozy steaming mug on a table, an herb book, and hanging herbs. Scrapbook details include cat washi tap, balloons with faces, a blue pressed flower, a purple heart, a moon, a hand reaching towards scribbles, and some purple triangles.

Text says: Mangar said the thing he always said when someone was sad and he didn’t know how to handle or process it.
“Want to go out for ice cream?”

Images includes a forested road, a fenced field, cigarette smoke in a car, blue jeans with leather shoes, and a cowboy hat and leather jacket. Scrape book details include ice cream, yellow pressed flower, shapes of yellow and orange paper, and a smear of what looks like wet cement.

Text says: Leto’s elbow touched hers and no one flinched. This close, the world seemed kinder, but delicate. Leto felt like a flame to protect, but today there was no wind to make him waver.

Images include railroad tracks, a black pentagram with candles, a pier going towards water, and a moonlight swamp. Scrap book details include cut up parts of a map in the shape of a dog and heart, a plant, and a dark space of scribbles.

Text says: “Heidi liked to imagine a life without hiding, where hearts could be like gentle meadows without shade or shadow.”

Images include a dirt road with a lone tree, tied up lamb feet, a young woman holding a coyote, a young woman surrounded by cows in a barn, and a hand reaching into a dark wolf's mouth.

Scrapbook details include pressed flowers, a paper star, and bunny. A halo is drawn over the barn girl's head.

July 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

Currently reading this because I'm a sicko that loved Tender is the Flesh.

#booksky

Cover of THE UNWORTHY by Agustina Bazterrica. Cover is black with a white and red nun raising her arms.

July 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM

Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

Lost power last night but we are otherwise okay from the storm in Chapel Hill, NC. Eastgate, one of the shopping centers near us, is pretty messed up though.

There are a lot of places here that weren't built to withstand floods.