Welcome to Nine Lives. My name is Karawynn Long, and I’ve been writing things online since 1993.

I’ve also written some things offline: I’m an award-winning author of speculative short fiction, and I’m now writing an epic science fantasy novel.

The comma in the sentence above elides a lot of life: a corporate career, eleven years of stepparenting, a move to a foreign country, and so much more.

I ran away from home as a teenager. I spent a year as a sex worker. I had multiple romantic relationships, usually in parallel. I learned to accept my intrinsic asexuality … and then had to figure out what that meant for my marriage. I became a radical anticapitalist. I developed a painful autoimmune disease that paralyzed both my arms. I went through menopause. I discovered I’m autistic. I taught my cat to use the human toilet and my dog to talk in pidgin English.

Not strictly in that order, mind you.

I’ve lost track of which of my nine lives I’m on now, but I have some stories to tell, is what I’m saying. I also love having deep conversations with other people, I read widely across multiple disciplines, and I’m always chasing those electric, goosebump moments when a connection arcs between separate points with eye-watering brilliance.

I hope you’ll come light things up with me.