Allison Stalberg

@stalbergwrites.bsky.social

345 Followers 530 Following

Repped by Nina Richner✒️ SFF Writer 📖 Gamer 🎮 Asexual 💜 🖤 🤍 Anxious Creature 🦄 Unitarian Universalist 🕯

Shows photo of young white girl on a fancy seat with a fake crown on her head. Words say "Now represented by Nina Richner" and "Howard Morhaim Literary."
Art of a fat green bird.
BATTLE ROYALE book by Koushun Takami
A cat scratch house that looks like an Aldi.
Framed art of a bat flying over trees.
Tuxedo cat in a baby chair.
Two pins. One is heart underwear that says "You will not break me." The other has a jackalope with the words "Hello, I'm thinking about fictional characters."
A PARADE OF HORRIBLES by Matt Dinniman
Screenshot of 8 Final Fantasy 14 characters doing a victory pose.
Large TV playing Netlflix' LORD OF THE FLIES.
Yellow holographic card of anime woman holding an anime baby. The attacks are Maternal Instinct and Master Mama.
Cover of THIS INEVITABLE RUIN by Matt Dinniman.
1st Trimester books: - Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester - Fifty Beasts to Break your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott - Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman - Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones - The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman
Cover of YOU WERENT MEANT TO BE HUMAN by Andrew Joseph White.
KILL CREATURES by Rory Power. Book cover shows a close up of a woman's face with a bloody nose and dripping water.
Viera and miq'ote from Final Fantasy 14 with rave lights.
Teen Clementine from Telltales Walking Dead.
Venn diagram shows "having friends", "found family", and "oh no this is a cult" which Axel, Xion, and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts in the middle.
She sat down with her own cereal, which she sniffed before eating, just in case. Wolf could have spiked the milk, but she knew what truth potions smelled like. They had a subtle hazelnut odor.
"It didn’t hurt that much but that never mattered. In her body, something felt foreign and unwelcome like a parasite. At the mercy of magic, her logic folded and everything seemed like a monster, like this house. This house always hungered for her blood, used to clean its rugs and fortify its ceiling. "
Book titled THE EYE OF YHE BEDLAM BRIDE by Matt Dinniman.
“There was once a red prince who sat on a red throne. He had a red crown made of rubies and a red castle made of stone. The prince had a love for all things red, ‘it’s the only true color,’ the prince often said. He could not stand the sight of a canary or a crow. He could not stand the white of a swan in the snow. And he never looked up for fear of the view, he had heard that the sky was not a red hue. He didn’t see the birds or the changing of the leaves and he never saw the sights of life’s many symphonies. He couldn’t see beyond the red shade he was aware. He never caught a glimpse of the world we had to share. But one day the prince saw something new, and if you look closely, you might see it too. The skies parted, and the clouds withdrew. The prince had a new favorite color, the color blue...”
Moodboard that says HEIDI'S HOUSE OF RESCUED FAMILIARS. Images include a crow landing on a woman in black's shoulder, a black cat on a rococo chair, a window with a view of a barn, a trailer park, rearview mirror, a hand in swamp water, bloodied hands, tied lamb feet, a girl holding a coyote, a swamp at night, an herb book, and moss dangling down from a tree.
Moodboard that says HEIDI'S HOUSE OF RESCUED FAMILIARS with images of a tied lamb, a girl surrounded by cows, cigarette smoke in a truck, an herb book, a window to a barn, a girl in black on a bridge, herbs hanging from a ceiling, a pentagram, a bird in a cage, a fence, a church across a field, laundry hanging between trailers, and a gallery wall of insects with candles.
A tunnel made of colorful lanterns.
Cover of What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher. Red book with a decomposing horse on the cover.
Collage of 40 books read this year. Most are horror, fantasy, and LGBT+.
Stack of white and red books on a brown couch. Stack includes: - The Empathy Exams - Aftershocks - Cool for America - Hell Followed With Us - Wicked - Cemetery Boys - Ironside - The Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook
Tuxedo cat between a Christmas tree and Lego box of a Lego Tuxedo cat.
50 word story by Allison Stalberg called "Sandcastles in Rain." It reads "You change like how Sandcastles turn to mounds in rain. Towers dull in the weight of water before they crumble and I'm left with no umbrella large enough to protect your snail shell gates. You show me that ghosts were once bucket-made and dug up before they became too heavy." The bio reads "Allison Stalberg is a speculative fiction writer that lives in Chapel Hill, NC, among her husband and cats. allisonstalberg.com
Cover of bookk, THISTLEFOOT, by GennaRose Nethercott. Shows image of two figures by a house on chicken legs.
Tortoiseshell cat sleeping on a lap.
Cover of Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.
Discord chat that shows a jiggilypuff plastic toy upside down under a phone flashlight. Chat says: What has she done Rescue her
Cover of Dungeon Crawl Carl: The Butchers Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
Card with gingerbread house, candy cane, and a flower cut corner.
Hazelthorn by CG Drews
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
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
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
"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.
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.
"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.”
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.
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.
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.
Book overview for BREATHE AND COUNT BACK TO TEN. Genre: Contemporary YA Themes: Theme park mermaids, following your dreams, disability, 1st gen immigrant pressures.
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.
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.
Davrin from Dragon Age Veilguard as Taurus Sun
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.
Cover of ACCIDENTAL DEMONS by Clare Edge. Book shows young girl in a red hoodie holding a cat while surrounded by demons.
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.
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.