Kyle Wakefield has the spirit of an 18th-century romanticist not in the Poet-Laureate-to-the-King way but in the coughing-blood-into-a-handkerchief way. He disappeared into the Scottish wilderness alone one winter and came back with two scars on his chest which he claims are from top surgery, but are secretly entry points for the grapefruit-sized alien octopus controlling him parasitically. (It went in on the left-hand side first, but there weren't any brains there, so it had to try again.)Below, you can find introductions to my two corporeal novels: THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH, which is out now, and CONJOINED ANGELS, which is coming in 2025 or 2026. - Signed, the octopus.

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THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH

"Your voice is now God's. Will you speak when I speak?"
"Make it a man's voice, and I will speak just to hear myself."

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Sole De Gasinis drowns his grief in wine and buries his hatred of his body in twisted sculptures. When, one drunken night on the beach, God orders him to rebuild his village's church, he knows he wasn't chosen for his piety.Instead, he and God make a deal. If Sole rebuilds the church, God will give him the body of a man.As Sole works in a frenzy for salvation, lifelong friendships decay, a village united to tear down its church fractures into pariahs and zealots, and power and grief reshape the prophet into a tyrant. Grief for a boy he fell in love with ten years ago, who claimed to be a virgin birth, who died in agony in the church crypt when the God inside him wanted out--and whose monstrous remnant Sole must commune with for every piece of his prize.

CONJOINED ANGELS

How much swallowing does it take to line your entire body with the body of another?
How much stubborness, to keep swallowing after you start to choke?

Jamie Fugate is a physician taught by his ruthless father. Amon Jessop is a veterinary radiologist too merciful for his own good. To the creature which crash-lands in a field between their villages during a storm—twelve wings wrapped around a senseless knot of human body parts—they’re the only science for miles.Jamie and Amon agree that they’re examining God, but they agree on nothing else. Amon sees God in the wings, which they tie to the ceiling of the village’s storm cave. Jamie sees God in the body—or, as they learn when Amon’s fluoroscope reveals two skeletons entwined in a bone-deep embrace, the bodies. Extracting one head to soothe the other head is their first cut. Soon, they don’t know where aiding the creature ends and vivisecting it begins.The veterinarian is hiding a shame which made him flee the city he trained in, and the physician is hiding a bloodlust his bone saw can’t reach. When the power which wove the monster together seeps into them, and their thirst for knowledge turns into a thirst for each other, a new monster is born, more volatile by far than the one on their table.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Surprises are only fun if you consent to them. If these content warnings weren't here for you to ignore, that wouldn’t be consent.THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH contains the following sensitive content:Graphic body horror including decay and infestation of live bodies
Graphic gore
Graphic sickness and injury detail including vomiting
Graphic bloody violence including cannibalism
Slow death
Imagery reminiscent of self-harm
Imagery reminiscent of a miscarriage
Healing a lifelong disability against the disabled person’s will
Corrupting and codependent romance
Explicit sexual content including unsafe sadomasochism
Descent of a Catholicism-based religion into cultism
Physical abuse of a child by a parent
Injury of a baby
Death of a parent
Grief
Alcohol abuse
Suicidal ideation
Gender dysphoria
Misgendering and deadnaming
Internalised misogyny from a trans man
Consumption of rocks, clay, dirt and other non-food items
Natural disaster including imagery of people trapped under rubble
Mercy killing of an animal
Mentioned death of a child
Mentioned suicide attempt by a child
Mentioned traumatic childbirth
Mentioned eating disorderThis page will be updated with content warnings for CONJOINED ANGELS before it becomes available to beta readers.