Hi there!
Welcome to my web site. Glad you could make it.
I write fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and horror, as well as regular essays and the occasional poem.
I write both short and long fiction. It’s all available on Amazon or from other stores. You can also buy direct from me at my publishing site, Knotted Road Press!
The Official Bio
Leah Cutter writes page-turning, wildly imaginative fiction set in exotic locations such as a magical New Orleans, the ancient Orient, Hungary, the Oregon coast, rural Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, and many others.
She writes fantasy, mystery, science fiction, literary, and horror fiction. Her short fiction has been published in magazines like Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Talebones, anthologies like Fiction River, and on the web. Her long fiction has been published both by New York publishers as well as small presses.
Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com
Follow her travels at www.Patreon.com/leahcutter
What’s New?
Grilled Sand and Witches
The Milltown Chamber of Commerce throws their first annual barbeque competition. One of AJ’s old friends even believes she has a chance of winning.
Until one of the competition organizers drops dead.
Poisoned.
Murdered.
And all the clues point at AJ’s friend.
Can AJ clear her friend’s name? So many other things keep drawing her attention away. Including AJ’s mother, who arrives in town without warning.
AJ, quite frankly, would rather deal with a killer than her scheming mother.
However, she might have to face down both…
Grilled Sand and Witches—a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—continues the adventures of AJ, the quirky characters of the charming Pacific Northwest burg of Milltown, and will leave you hungry for more.
Let the water—and the magic—flow.
Available from the KRP shop and your favorite retailers.
Witches and Waterways
Valentine’s Day draws near, and someone continues to send anonymous cards to AJ.
Daily.
And her latest vision contains just an image—an old-fashioned radio that gets struck by lightning and drowns in the ocean.
Where do the cards come from? And what does a radio mean? Are they the same person?
With just the image, and not an actual dead person, AJ might still be able to save them.
If they’ll listen to a witch…
Witches and Waterways—a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—continues the adventures of AJ, the quirky characters of the charming small town of Milltown, and some lessons in learning to rely on others.
The third of the water witch mysteries.
Let the water—and the magic—flow.
Available from the KRP shop and your favorite retailers.
To Scratch a Witch
The next vision of a dead person comes to AJ while she’s researching the death of the ghost who haunts the inn.
Now, she has not one, but two mysteries to solve. And they appear to be intertwined. While starting up her own psychic business. Plus, all the craziness that Halloween brings to a small town.
If that wasn’t enough, she’s still dealing with midlife female issues.
And the charming, smart, cute town historian might be interested in her.
He might also be the killer…
To Scratch a Witch—a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—continues the adventures of AJ, the quirky characters of the charming small town of Milltown, and the ghost from the inn who’s shredding every stray piece of paper she can find.
The second of the water witch mysteries.
Let the water–and the magic–flow
Available from the KRP shop or your favorite retailers.
The Witch is Inn
A vision comes to AJ just before she leaves her old life, showing her an unknown dead man.
Great. On top of breaking up with her ex, leaving her job, starting perimenopause, and going to spend the summer with her bratty younger sister, AJ worries that the stress has made her crazy.
Crazier. Something.
She determinedly goes forward to Milltown anyway, taking a job as a manager at an old inn, while trying to figure out who the dead man is and why pools of water keep glowing when she stares at them.
Seriously. Crazier.
The Witch is Inn—a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—introduces a woman coming into her powers, the quirky characters of the charming small town of Milltown, as well as a ghost who regularly knocks things over when she wants attention, like a particularly annoying cat.
The first of the Water Witch Mysteries.
Let the water—and the magic—flow.
Available at the KRP store and at your favorite retailers!
A Dragon’s Guide to Killing Gods (And Other Lies…)
The perfect cozy mix of dragons, myths, gods, magic, and found family.
An evil wizard tries to transform the great champion Killian into a common garter snake.
The spell misfires (or the fates intervene) and Killian instead becomes a dragon.
Swell. Now what?
Killian can’t wield his sword and lead his men into battle. Can’t speak. Can’t even shoot a majestic gout of fire but only spits a measly dribble of acid. (Which honestly? Kinda gross.)
Thus begins the tale of the dragon named Talon, and his eventual fight with a God.
Well, maybe just a demi-god.
Okay, all right. Perhaps the person in question doesn’t have any divinity at all.
He will have you know that he is Someone Important, though.
Plus all the other lies…
Welcome to this lovely cozy fantasy filled with humor, found family, and plenty of breaking of the fourth wall. Prepare to be swept away into this somewhat silly world full of wit and heart, with adventures you’ll love reading about again and again.
For fans of T Kingfisher, Casey Blair, and Lindsay Buroker.
Available on the KRP site as well as at your favorite retailers.
The Fallen Elves
Completed series! All books now available!
Join Tanelith the Elf as she quests for answers in a world of fallen gods and ancient mysteries, finding adventure, betrayal, allies, enemies, and eventually, redemption.
NIMBY Universe Collection
In the 1960s the fairies, brownies, and pixies (FBP) came out of hiding and demanded equal treatment. After the All Races riots in the 1970s, humanity and the fae came to an agreement. Or several.
The stories in this collection take place many years afterward, when humans and the fae are integrated.
Mostly.
Friction occurs even in the smoothest of arrangements. These stories explore some of those arrangements, while staying on the lighter side.
Available at your favorite retailers!
The Year of Mystery
Every month for the year of 2021, Leah Cutter published a mystery short story. Now, they’re all collected into a single volume!
What types of mysteries do you prefer?
Cozies? Hard-Boiled? With romantic suspense elements? Historic? Or perhaps a little harder to describe?
This collection of mysteries from Leah R. Cutter has it all! They all share that same love of Voice that she has for mystery, plus some very interesting characters who you’re sure to fall in love with, like the fast-talking Frankie (who knows everyone) or Rabbit, from the Tang Dynasty China era, with a passion for land law.
Here are twelve tales sure to amuse and delight you, lead you down mysterious paths and make you wonder, “What if?”
Available at your favorite retailers!
Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem!
I started a quarterly mystery magazine. We’ve been going strong for three years now! It’s called MCM – standing for Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem.
It’s been much more successful than I’d imagined.
The story The Blood-Red Leaves of Autumn by Annie Reed has been selected to be included in the 2022 edition of the Best American Mystery Stories! You’ll find this story (with many other amazing works) in Issue 9 of MCM, Always With Us.
The Promise by Annie Reed AND Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Joslyn Chase have BOTH been chosen for inclusion in the 2022 Year’s Best Mystery Stories! You’ll find both of these excellent stories (along with many others) in Issue 12 of MCM, Cold Cases.
PLUS – Little City Blues by Annie Reed, from Issue 7 of MCM (Long Ago) has been chosen for inclusion in the 2021 Year’s Best Mystery Stories!
Be sure to pick up all the issues and catch up with some of the best mystery fiction currently available.
MCM – So Criminal, It’s Good.
Both issues and subscriptions are available on the MCM site.
Issues are also available at your favorite retailers!
Epic Fantasy Collection
Special Kickstarter collection of Leah R Cutter’s epic fantasy novels!
Contains the following novels:
Ruins of the Gods – Book one of the The Fallen Elves
The Glass Magician – Book one of the Tanesh Empire Trilogy
A Wind-Blown Torment – Book one of Forgotten Gods Trilogy
Houses Divided – Book one of Houses of the Damned Trilogy
When the Moon Over Kualina Mountain Comes – Stand alone epic fantasy
Come someplace new, enjoy different worlds as only Leah Cutter could imagine them.
Available for sale only on Knotted Road Press.
Starter Library
Welcome to the marvelous worlds of Leah R Cutter’s imagination!
You’ll find FOUR first novels from various series, as well as a collection of short stories.
Included in this starter library:
Poisoned Pearls – the first of the Kickass Cassie novels
The Raven and the Dancing Tiger – the first of the Shadow Wars trilogy
The Changeling Troll – the first of the Seattle Trolls series
The Glass Magician – the first of the Tanesh Empire trilogy
Past All Horizons – a collection of ten of Leah R Cutter’s stories
Available at your favorite retailers!
What’s Coming?
Ice & Berries
A cozy fantasy tale of friendship, work, and going out into the world. Oh, and snow cones!
When the Ice Elf Elbriarien Itamar—or just El, for short—fails to get her Mage Mark after her apprenticeship, she decides to leave the frozen north and head south.
Someplace where snow doesn’t stay piled up in corners during the heat of summer. Maybe walk barefoot in the sand next to the ocean. Perhaps even chuck out all her learning and take work in a bar. (A fate worse than death, at least according to her parents.)
However, without her Mage Mark, El cannot legally practice spells or do complicated magic. Just little things, cantrips native to her Ice Elf heritage.
Join her as she makes her way in a new life and a new city, finding friends, business opportunities, a love of snow cones, and perhaps, if she’s lucky, a sapphic love as well.
Available for pre-order from KRP.
Witch Mirror?
AJ’s latest vision starts with a dozen people being yanked out of sight by a noose around their neck. It ends with just a single body, hanging from a beam in an open loft.
What the heck? Did she just witness the work of a serial killer? Or a cult?
The victim turns out to be more nefarious: a catfish, that is, someone who impersonates other people on the internet for attention and possibly money.
The reality TV show that exposes catfish turns their attention to AJ. As a successful psychic, she must be a fraud. Right?
Between being hunted by producers for interviews, the machinations of her mother on the Milltown chamber of commerce, and trying to keep her relationship with Roland moving along, AJ has her hands full.
Particularly when a second, only somewhat reformed catfish comes to her after being threatened…
Witch Mirror?— a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—continues the adventures of AJ, the quirky characters of the charming Pacific Northwest burg of Milltown, and leaves AJ with questions about magical powers and her path forward, with her family, friends, and lover.
Let the water—and the magic—flow.
Available come March, 2025.