Cameron Darrow - Sapphic Fantasy and Mystery Author

@cdarrowwrites.bsky.social

237 Followers 94 Following

Author of the Alumita Fantasy Lesbian Romance Anthology, the 'From the Ashes of Victory' sapphic historical fantasy series and the Dizzy Dixon historical paranormal mysteries. 'Beneath the Shell' out now! https://amazon.com/author/camerondarrow

cover of the novel 'Remember, November' by Cameron Darrow with the text: "Millie's face burned red in humiliation and she cursed the fact she lacked a way to escape it, such as a high window or a particularly deep lake. The wood in the fire crackled invitingly. Then there was laughter like the pealing of bells. Exquisitely-made French bells from a shop in Paris that had a name with too many extraneous letters in it. It was the most beautiful thing Millie had ever heard. "Joyeux Noel, Millie," said Elise. Millie looked up to see not the satisfied smile of one who knew better than she, but the charmed smile of one who was touched by the fact that she'd tried.  Her heart was in her mouth again. "Aye," she managed. "That."

Cover of the novel 'Death Has Golden Eyes' by Cameron Darrow. Beneath it is the white text: “Yes, I do believe. In you.”
She let her eyes drift to the scars patterning Azalea’s thighs. They were horrific, marking her as the property of a sadist, but they were as much a part of her as her eyes or her smile—a record of her past, the consequences of failure and disappointment from someone who would never truly understand either. Not for the first time, or the first subject, Dizzy swore to never let anything like it happen again. “I also believe in things like forgiveness. And allowing people to grow and learn from their mistakes.”

Across the bottom is the white text: #lesficfri for forgive

I Heart Sapphic 2026 reading challenge #24, Washington and England promotional image

Text reading I heart sapphic 2026 reading challenge week #21, new mexico and fantasy on a rainbow background.

Cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow. Below it is the text:

"You taught yourself to speak Draconic for fun!”
“Modified Draconic. It has less sibilance and more phlegm than the real thing, since mage faces are several feet too short and aren’t full of knives.”
“Whatever! Don’t talk down about yourself. You’re here because of who you are, not what.” Sunny gave Raen’s arm a little tug of emphasis. “I know Givida messed you up, but she was just a mistake, like the others. You didn’t know better. They did. Now you do, too.”
Which was the real reason Raen was still so upset. She should have known better. But no, it had taken Givida outright saying to Raen’s face with that fucking smile of hers that she’d only slept with Raen to say that she had. The last of four who’d taken advantage of the naive foreign girl to scratch the same fetish itch. But hey, free sex with no strings! Raen should be grateful, right?
Right?"

Below it is the text "#lesficfri for mistake"

Cover of the novel Remember, November above the text:
This was her chance. A chance that was quickly scared off by the sudden appearance of a large black dog in the doorway. It crept up silently behind Elise and stared at the back of her head with baleful green eyes. Its fur best answered to 'shaggy' and when pressed about the breed, the best answer most people got was 'a big one.' It padded to within a few inches of Elise's leg before announcing its presence by thumping its great posterior on the floor and looking up at her expectantly.  Elise turned towards the sound. "Mm? Ah! Joyeux Noel to you too, Hekabe!" she said, bending down to ruffle her fur and plant a kiss on her massive forehead. Hekabe's tongue lolled out in satisfaction. The wave of jealousy that surged through Millie just then went unacknowledged, because being jealous of a dog first thing on Christmas morning was something she would prefer to continue believing she'd never experienced.

below it is the text #lesficfri for prefer

Cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow. Below it is the text: “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
Closing the door with a thump, two thwaps and a clunk, Raen was forced to do her own assessment of the last month: “I didn’t do anything.”
“Exactly. It’s comforting to come home to the familiar.” The smile that had deftly weaved past Raen’s every attempt to resist it drooped slightly, and Sunny suddenly didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. “How are you, Flour Power?”
Acknowledging the raw affection in that nickname meant having to answer truthfully, so Raen ignored it."

Below that is the text #lesficfri for name

Cover of the novel Death Has Golden Eyes with the white text: “I’d be dead or living in a gutter if she hadn’t taken me in. I would do anything for her.”
“I hope you’re prepared to follow through on that,” Dizzy said. “Whether or not I can prove murder, bringing a blackmailer to justice risks painful exposure.”
Molly ground her toe into the soil. “Can’t Miss Azalea just twist his head off?”
“Yes, can’t Miss Azalea just twist his head off?” said Miss Azalea."

#lesficfri for risk

The cover of the novel Remember, November above black text reading: "The bowl gone, November was left with her hands in her lap, facing up at her with their hidden, unpredictable power. Would Smythe be so kindly toward her if they told their story? If they slipped from her wrists and confessed their sins, she wondered what they would do to her. If she hanged, she wondered if she would be sorry for what she'd done. If she burned down the police station with her mind, would they shoot her? She laughed softly to herself, as she was probably the only person in history to have to wonder if the bullets would even reach her if they did."

Below is is text reading: #lesficfri for wonder

The cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow accompanied by an excerpt in black text that reads: "Sunny took her time scrubbing Raeny’s back, sluicing white foam over white skin and losing track of which was which. She returned the favor of doing her arms, too. They always felt so delicate, like she really was the rose-tinted porcelain she appeared. Her fingers were doubly so, like crystal sculptures wrapped in velvet. Raeny watched Sunny work with a kind of fascination, her lips upturned ever so slightly.
“You’re being very thorough,” she said.
“I figured they’re probably tired from all that Transcription magic burning through them,” Sunny said so close to Raeny’s ear the cool tip grazed her cheek, cutting an arc that made her shiver all over and the bottom fall out of her stomach."

Following that is the text #lesficfri for delicate

Cover of the novel Without Words on a background of a blurred-out version of the same cover. Below it is the black text: "Maybe?" Skathi roared, the sound echoing into the infinity behind them.
"I'm sorry. Zifa bad talking. Magic." She pointed at the wall.
Skathi struggled to manage her breathing. She was one more shock from screaming. "Is Voca alive or not?" she asked through her teeth.
Continuing to stare straight ahead, Zifa's lips began to quiver. Then her hair, her shoulders. Her fingers twitched, scratching against her leggings. "Yes."
"That's not an answer! Get out of my way." Skathi bulled past the trembling Eluterii and began tearing away rocks, tossing them away without care what they hit. Or who."

Below that is the black text #lesficfri for tremble

Cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow over aw white background. Beneath it is the text: "For having eyebrows the same color as her skin, Raeny’s face could be remarkably expressive. But expressive of what, Sunny had no idea, even as those incredible eyes regarded her an extra moment. The longer it went on the warmer Sunny became, and she had no idea why—or so she told herself. The further apart they were, the closer Sunny wanted to be. She had missed Raeny in ways—and parts of herself— she’d always told herself not to. What had changed?"

Below it is the text: #lesficfri for change

Cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow centered on a white background. Surrounded by a word cloud of:
Friends-to-lovers
Found Family
It's funny, too!
Lore nerd!
Gryphons?
HEA
Bathtime!
Body Positivity
Magic School
New Adult

Cover of the novel Beneath the Shell by Cameron Darrow over a white background. Beneath it is the excerpt in black text: "It's been a few days since I checked on you, I wanted to make sure you hadn't gotten distracted. Or died, since you don't seem to have brought any provisions."
"I go outside to eat and drink!" Raen blurted. The only thing that would get her in more trouble with Mivindra was an open flame. "I use the toilets upstairs, too! Go ahead and check the wastebaskets if you don't believe me!"
"That's the minimum I expect." Mivindra swept a hand over Raen's table. "I know the rules against food and drink, I wrote them. But… please bring some water down with you next time you go up to the surface world. You look parched."
Raen's tongue peeled tackily from the roof of her mouth."

Below that is the black text: #lesficfri for trouble

cover of the novel midnight magic by cameron darrow over white. below it is the black text: "How such a trifling little thing could prove such a vexing pain in the arse was a mystery that only time and most likely several more explosions was going to solve, if she was lucky. If she was unlucky, it would stay a mystery. If she was spectacularly unlucky, she would be further pondering why amidst the charred remains of what was left of her home. Should she find herself in the space that lay beyond bad luck in the realm of 'curse of some description', she would find her head on a spike for trying to shove magic into metal."

followed by #lesficfri for lucky

Cover of the novel death has golden eyes by cameron darrow over a background of a blurred-out version of the same cover.

centered is the white text:

“Are you decent?” Azalea asked after a quick rap. “No,” Dizzy said. “Good.”  The candles could barely fight through enough steam to reach Dizzy, leaving the rest of the room one large shadow for Azalea to emerge from. She did so wearing a robe-ish suggestion as insubstantial as the vapor rising from the bathwater. Without a word, she perched herself on the rim of the tub at Dizzy’s feet in another effortless display of preternatural balance. And confidence. Doing her best to match it, Dizzy didn’t even raise her head to ask, “What makes you think you can just walk in here uninvited like that?” Eyes that could see as easily in the dark as in the light did both. “You’re smiling.”

below that is more white text #lesficfri for walk

cute little ghost with some books over a plaid background. text is "sapphic spooky spectacular sale October 16-18

Background of the blurred cover of the novel Hall of Mirrors by Cameron Darrow. Centered on top is the full cover. Below it is the black text excerpt:

"If you threaten my sister again, I will burn you alive and compose music to your screams." "You fear truth," Sveta said to the new witch. "You have lived on lies for so long, you fear it will kill you." The stranger flicked her eyes between the two Russians, Katya's flames clearly visible in the depths of the witch's pupils. "She's never been threatened by a witch before today, and doesn't know if you're lying," Sveta supplied. A fireball shot forward to within inches of the stranger, making her jump backwards.  "She's welcome to find out," Katya said.

Below that is white text: #lesficfri for jump

Cover of the novel 'Remember, November' supermposed over a blurred-out version as a background. Below it is the black text:

"Now that the immediate danger of a crazy person with a gun had passed, she was left with another danger: herself. As much as she struggled to remember them, the details remained stubbornly fuzzy. It seemed like everything had happened extremely slowly, but it was still hard to recall exactly what it was that had happened. It wasn't amnesia this time, either. The bullet stopped. The bullet stopped. Impossible. It was physically impossible. Bullets didn't stop for anything, especially not because someone simply wanted it to. If that was all it took, wars would not be the affairs they had grown to be."

Followed by the white text: "#lesficfri for remember"

Cover of the novel 'Remember, November' superimposed over a blurred-out background of the same cover. Below it is the black text: "Why was it so hard to remember? It had been there! Just out of her grasp. She'd felt the tantalising edges of it brush her fingers when she'd strained for it, down in that hole in her mind. That inky, impenetrable, awful place had been this close to giving up its secrets. But like a frightened spider, it had retreated with shocking quickness to an even greater depth and barricaded itself in layers of despair that she didn't know she had the strength to push through. November. 11. November 23rd. Pain from all three. A single set of clothing; the only clues from which to reassemble an entire life."

Below it is the white text #lesficfri for secret

Cover of the novel 'Midnight Magic' over a background of snow with red flower petals. Below it is the black text: Aurelai gasped, both of her magelights winking out as Vimika's mouth closed on the hollow of her neck and worked gently upward to find her ear. Vimika took her time sliding the length of it along her cheek until she came to the pointed tip, taking it softly between her teeth. When she touched the tip of her tongue to the tip of Aurelai's ear, there was a snapping sound of magic arcing between them, faint but unmistakable.
"I... didn't know... that could happen," Aurelai managed between breaths.
"Wizard secret."

Cover of the novel 'Midnight Magic' by Cameron Darrow set on a background of a blurred version of the same cover. Below it is black text that reads: "The bright clink of metal, bare footsteps, the hiss of heat being applied to whatever was making the delicious smells wafting in the open door, and above it all, singing.
Vimika's blood surged, the sound of that dusky voice raised in song filling her with memories of what it had been raised in the night before, and she curled in on herself involuntarily this time, her face suddenly as warm in open air as the rest of her was under the blankets. She stilled herself so she could listen.
Aurelai sang like her birds, albeit ones that had only ever heard people sing in a tavern, leaving it gloriously off-key and belted with the raw enthusiasm of someone who didn't know any better.
The same way she does certain other things, Vimika thought."

Below that is another line of black text that says: "lesficfri for smell

The cover of the novel 'Death Has Golden Eyes' by Cameron Darrow, overlaid in the center over a blurred-out version in the background. Blow the cover image is the white text: "“We know where to start asking, don’t we? And end. I told you what I would do to that place. Let me. Please.”
“Let you what? I believe you used the word ‘abattoir’.”
A brilliant white scythe emerged from Azalea’s dark lips, eager to reap what they had sown.
“God knows I want to,” Dizzy said."

below that is the white text "#lesficfri for lips"

background of a desert with blue sky on the horizon. on top of that is the cover for the novel Without Words. Below it is the black text: "The planks that filled Skathi's vision now were spotless with nary a nick; bright with youth, and just like a young person, smelling quite a lot stronger than their older counterparts. If such ostentation was supposed to make an impression, it had succeeded, just perhaps not the one the planners had intended. The idea that the Eluterii had fashioned what was by Cantari standards an entire palace just for today made her want to spit as much as cry.
They had so much wood it made them afraid of fire, while the Cantari had so little they couldn't afford to burn it, forcing both tribes to derive their heat and light from magic. Decadence and privation had led to the same result.
How?"

at the bottom is white text reading #lesficfri for SMELL

Brown background with mulitcolor stripes across the middle horizontally. on the left is a paperback copy of the novel 'Without Words'. On the right of that is a white text box with five gold stars across the box. below the stars is the text "This book wasn't just a fun read, it helped parts of me heal." - Amazon review

a rainbow background with books and flowers arrayed along the bottom. In the center is the text "WEEK #22 Found Family". to the right is the cover of the novel Without Words.

Below all of it is the text "I Heart Sapphic 2025 Reading Challenge"

rainbow background with a red pin stuck in a yellow note that says

"Sapphic book bingo 2025" in red, followed by "wearing the other character's clothes" in black

Cover of the novel 'remember, november' laid over a background of a larger, blurred-out version. below it is the black text:

"November stumbled forward on legs that no longer wanted anything to do with her. Betrayed by her own mind, a past she couldn't remember and abilities she couldn't control or explain, she staggered forward to land her treacherous hand on the doorknob, which was as cold as the December air outside. "Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Jones. I'm sorry about the floor." Unlike that bullet, the knob twisted, and November spilled into the darkness. When the door behind her clicked shut and didn't open again, she was alone, surrounded only by the night and the dead."

below that is the white text "#lesficfri for alone"

background of a desert with blue sky. at the top is the cover of the novel 'without words'. below the cover is the text:

Zifa's head was heavy on Skathi's shoulder, so she gave her a gentle bounce as she turned them to face east. "Zifa, look."
The sky was aglow with blues and purples shot with white as a dense, cloud-like band of light slowly emerged from the impenetrably dark horizon.
The Great Curtain was rising.
Zifa gasped, fingers twitching against Skathi's shoulders as she raised her chin to take in the awesome display unfurling before them. The scale of it made it seem close, like a morning mist or steam rising from a hot spring, except every droplet in the celestial fog was a star.
"Zifa... no words."
Skathi smiled. "There aren't any."

followed by #lesficfri for gasp

Text over a purple background set over a pride flag that says:

April 24-25, 2025
Lesbian Visibility Day
Sale
250+ books at 99c each!
I Heart Sapphic

The cover of the novel 'Remember, November' above a larger, blurred-out version. Below it is the excerpt: "The rippling surface of the water in the pan teased her with the promise of a reflection, but she wasn't at all sure that was something she was ready to see just yet. Would looking down into her reflection only to see a stranger's face really help? What if she didn't like who ended up looking back at her? There were no memories attached to that face. What if she created a whole new fiction based on that face, only to find out everything she'd made up about herself was wrong when her memory returned? She already knew it was lacking, she didn't need it confirmed for her by spiralling down into an existential nightmare. For the moment, she was content to limit her identity crisis to the mere lack of one."

Blow that is the text '#lesficfri for help'

A snowy-white background with falling rose petals. Overlaid is the cover for the book MIdnight Magic. Below it is the text:
"Ah, how do you do?" asked a woman's voice that was decidedly not Vimika's.
It was a voice she'd never heard before, one of dusk shaded in twilight velvet, with diction so crisp it could snap if used on a cold enough day.
"Ahem. How do you do?"
Such insistent politeness made Vimika brave cracking an eye open.
Standing over her less than an arm's length away was absolutely not Vimika.
Long, pointed ears protruded from hair as black as midnight, of such length to vanish out of Vimika's peripheral vision. The woman peered down with eyes nearly as dark, almost enough to hide the slits, but more than dark enough to reflect Vimika'a own gawping, fish-like face back at her.
"Vimika, isn't it? Oh, this is awkward. I'd rather hoped you would be sensible when you awoke."
Below that is the text: #lesficfri for eyes

cover for the book 'death has golden eyes' over a background of a larger, blurred-out version. below it is the text “Azalea?” Dizzy prompted.
Strong fingers tightened around Dizzy’s thigh, and Azalea pulled herself closer, hugging against it. Her touch was frigid, yet Dizzy began to sweat. “You’re so warm. Alive. Blood pulsing strong. Soft, decadent flesh… do you know what I did to the last person who let me touch them like this?”
Eyes entirely black, teeth serrated and gleaming; Azalea had become a shark, and a familiar shame seized Dizzy when she wondered—not for the first time—if letting herself be bitten would be so bad.
Sharks, vampires, one bite and it would all be over…
“Nothing… nothing pleasant, I imagine.”
“Oh, it was very pleasant. For both of us. Especially me, because I’m alive to remember it.” followed by #lesficfri for touch

Rainbow background with assorted books along the bottom, along with the text 'I heart sapphic 2025 reading challenge. Above it is the text 'week #9 fish out of water' accompanied by the cover of the book 'Death Has Golden Eyes' by Cameron Darrow.

The cover of the novel Midnight Magic with the quote "The woods could be scary, of course, it's why scary stories were set in them. But as Vimika stood in the snow, for the first time taking comfort in being near blinded by it, there was a sort of extra darkness to the trees that couldn't be accounted for by simple lack of light. Shadows had color, the darkness amidst the boughs above was just black. Little detail was visible to her naked eye, but through Sight, it was intensely green with mana, which wasn't surprising given its likely age and the fact it had achieved said age completely unmolested by people.
It was alive and thriving, just dark and ominous, not unlike what she imagined the inside of a snake looked like to an unwary mouse before its eyes were digested." overlaid on a snowy background with red rose petals blowing by. Underneath is written '#lesficfri for surprise'

Image of the cover of the novel Remember, November, overlaid with the quote from the book, "Millie turned to find Elise standing just inside the doorway, poised and radiant in a way that had nothing to do with magic. Maybe something to do with being French, Millie couldn't say, but the effect was all the same: her heart leapt into her mouth and prevented words from coming out." At the bottom is written #lesficfri for heart.

cover of the book Midnight Magic with the text:

"Are you another illusion? I'm pretty sure you have to tell me if you are. Look, just… dissipate, or turn into something else. If I'm still in the forest, just let me get on with things. If not, then this is a dream, so kindly let me wake up and I'll be on my way. No reward money is worth any of this."
Aurelai looked about long enough for Vimika to notice how slowly the stranger blinked, as though everything that came to her was a surprise. "You're not in the forest anymore, and I'm... mostly confident this isn't a dream."
"Oh, good. Then I'm dead. That explains quite a bit."

lesficfri for blink