Luke had always struggled with a sense of himself, fighting to reconcile feelings that threatened his relationships and his identity. After years of pushing those feelings deep down inside, and after losing his wife in a tragic accident, those feelings he thought consigned to the past begin to reemerge. When a night turns terrifying and traumatic, he is saved by the statuesque Helen, who recognises his struggle and supports Luke on a spiritual journey in search of his true self. But his search for meaning in the bittersweet emotions that are blossoming within threaten to destroy his friendships, his home life and his resolve to become the person he had always known himself to be. Or, rather, who she knew herself to be. A sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heart-lifting, sometimes harrowing and sometimes touching tale about accepting who you truly are. 🏵Wattys 2023 Shortlist🏵 🏵Featured by FreeTheLGBT - Diverse Literature - July 2023🏵 🏵Featured by Stories Undiscovered - Jan 2023🏵 🏵Featured by @WackyWriters - Undiscovered Gems Under 1k - Feb 2023🏵 🥉3rd Place - General Fiction Category -Pretty In Punk 'Punk Rock Awards' Apr 2023🥉 Cover created in Canva, using an AI generated picture.

🏆 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATTYS 2025 🏆 In Bizanth, holiness is enforced with fire, and peace is treated as heresy. The Empire is rotting from within: crushed beneath endless war, religious fanaticism, and the weight of its own contradictions. After the death of the Red Emperor, the throne passes to a young Empress who dares to speak of peace - while priests, nobles, and generals sharpen their knives behind her back. To negotiate a truce with the Arya - mountain warriors the Empire has failed to conquer for decades - they send the worst possible person. Lyn is the Archon of This World: a living religious symbol, a washed-up preacher, a former brothel accountant, and an alcoholic barely holding himself together. Cynical, exhausted, and haunted by secrets he cannot escape, he is far more useful as a scapegoat than a diplomat. But the deeper Lyn is drawn into enemy territory, political conspiracies, and the machinery of holy war, the more dangerous everything becomes - especially his growing connection with one of the very people he was taught to hate. Because in Bizanth, love can be more heretical than violence. A Bone From a Bird's Wing is a dark historical fantasy about war, faith, power, trauma, and the slow collapse of empires - perfect for readers who enjoy political fantasy, queer slow burns, morally complicated characters, and anti-war stories steeped in religious intrigue. *** The author had no intention of offending any existing religions or cultures. Bizanth can, with some effort, be loosely associated with Byzantium around the 6th-7th centuries, and Arya (with even more difficulty) with one of the pre-Islamic Iranian peoples, but for the most part, their culture and beliefs are fictional. This text has little to do with history; it contains elements of postmodernism and irony.