Sigils in Snow Is Out in Street Magic IV! – Taylen Carver

I have a new story out!

“Sigils in Snow” is now available in Street Magic IV: An Urban Fantasy Anthology, edited by Lyn Worthen.

Magic in My Own Backyard

I’ve set fantasy stories in Istanbul and Naples, and in all sorts of places where it seems perfectly natural that something strange and magical might be hiding just out of sight.

But Edmonton? That was surprisingly difficult.

I live here. I know these streets. Edmonton is familiar and practical and ordinary to me. When I first started thinking about “Sigils in Snow,” I actually wondered whether I could convince myself that magic happened here, never mind convince a reader.

Then I realized that was exactly what made the idea interesting. Magic in an exotic or unfamiliar place is one more extraordinary thing about the setting. But magic in your own neighbourhood?

Magic among townhouse complexes and community halls, bus routes and shopping centres? Magic scribbled onto walls where nobody pays attention to the graffiti? Magic woven into the thousand tiny things ordinary people do every day to help one another survive?

That stands out.

And at the same time, it can hide in plain sight because everyone knows perfectly well that nothing magical ever happens here. Right?

Sigils in Snow

Geeta Roman grew up in Mill Woods, and she worked very hard to escape it. Now she’s a highly successful real estate agent who spends her time among Edmonton’s wealthy. She’s polished away her working-class origins, changed the name she uses, and built the sort of life she once believed would guarantee she would never again be cold, hungry or unsafe.

Then a billionaire property owner sends her back to Mill Woods. He owns a townhouse complex where something peculiar is happening. Energy costs are down. Maintenance calls have plummeted. Tenants don’t leave. Vacancies have disappeared. Even late payments are becoming rare.

The numbers don’t make sense. Either the tenants have found a clever way to game the system, or something else is going on. Geeta’s job is to find out what.

Instead, she discovers that the Mill Woods she remembers has changed. The people there have learned to work together. And somewhere along the way, all those tiny acts of cooperation have become something more. Something that looks suspiciously like magic.

Unfortunately, Geeta hasn’t returned home simply to admire it. And the more she understands what the people of Mill Woods have built, the harder it becomes to do the job she was sent there to do.

Street Magic IV

“Sigils in Snow” is one of fifteen stories in Street Magic IV.

I’m delighted to be back in the series for a third time, especially with a story that ended up being so close to home—literally. And I discovered something while writing it. Edmonton doesn’t need to become exotic before I can put magic here. Give me hoar frost, a brilliant blue winter sky, a neighbourhood full of ordinary people, and a few sigils hidden where nobody thinks to look. That’s more than enough.

Street Magic IV is out now in ebook and paperback.