I write dark fantasy about paperwork.
More precisely: about records, permission, and who gets to decide what's true. My novel What the Ledger Keeps is set in Virehold, a city where magic is free, legal, taught in schools, and stamped in blue ink - and where the founding document all of it rests on doesn't survive being read carefully.
I post standalone stories from the same city here. You don't need the novel to read them, and they won't spoil it. They tend to be about people several floors below the plot: clerks, cutters, couriers. The ones who fill in the box.
What the Ledger Keeps is on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJTG5TY4
- JoinedSeptember 16, 2026
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Stories by DKVenture
- 3 Published Stories
UNMARKED (A story from Virehold)...
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Nell Carrow has cut registration paper for thirty years. Every sheet in Virehold carries a batch mark in the...
THE DOWN RUN (A story from Vireho...
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Gil Weller has run the same courier route for nine years. Carbons up to the Records Office, forms back down t...
REFERRED UPWARD (A story from Vire...
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In Virehold, magic is free, legal, and written down.
Ada Merrow has registered four thousand children at the...