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?
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 Catfisher, 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 pushed for information by one of the show’s host, 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 for help 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 from the Knotted Road Press store and your favorite retailers.
In Too Deep
New magic. Check. New life. Check. New Friends? Maybe. But more than anything else, Sam needs new family.
Sam’s dyslexia prevents her from being trained as a witch. So she does manual labor as a carpenter instead, and enjoys her status as the black sheep of her rich, powerful family.
However, everything changes when she abruptly inherits her grandmother’s magical power.
It begins with being able to see that one of her coworkers in the shop is a creature from the netherworlds—a creature who now wants to kill her for her power.
And this beast is only the first…
IN TOO DEEP is the first novel in “The Portal Keeper’s Trilogy,” a new action-packed urban fantasy from master craftsman Leah R. Cutter. Delve into the lives and trials of the portal keepers, and follow Sam as she discovers family beyond her blood relations.
Available at the KRP shop and your favorite retailers!
The Ice Elf & The Snow Cone
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 from KRP or your favorite retailers.
The Water Witch Mysteries
The Water Witch mystery series features AJ, a woman in her forties whose life has completely fallen apart. She finds herself in the small town of Milltown, as well as learns that she has magic. The Water Witch Mysteries are a continuing series, but each book can be read on its own. No cliff hangers!
Let the water—and the magic—flow.
Available at the KRP store and other 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!
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!
Starter Library
Welcome to the marvelous worlds of Leah R Cutter’s imagination!
Included in this one volume you’ll find books from many worlds and genres, including urban fantasy, mystery, science fiction, epic fantasy, as well as a collection of short stories.
Included in this starter library:
Poisoned Pearls – the first of the urban fantasy, Kickass Cassie novels
The Witch is Inn – the first of the Water Witch Mysteries
Project Nemesis – the first of the science fiction series, The Long Run series
The Glass Magician – the first of the epic fantasy novels 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?
Custom Dwarven Chocolates
Chocolates and Truffles and Bon Bons, O My!
Shar Opalbender hates her life.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit strong. Emo, even.
Despite her Dwarven heritage, and her family’s expectations, Shar finds no joy in faceting, setting, or polishing gemstones.
Her true passion?
Chocolate.
What better way to prove herself to her family (and herself) than to enter, and win, the Realms’ renowned contest, Chocolates Galore!
And maybe, just maybe, with some magic, luck, and a little help from her friends, Shar also can discover the true meaning of life.
If there is one beyond chocolate.
Seems unlikely at best.
Come enjoy this lovely cozy fantasy with low stakes, delicious chocolates, lots of breaking of the fourth wall, and utter silliness.
Available May 2025. Pre-order from the KRP shop or your favorite retailers!
The Ice Elf & The Fire Elemental
A cozy fantasy tale about ice, fire, love, and snow cones!
When El the Ice Elf asks Mara the fire elemental to marry her, she expects an immediate YES!
However, a distinct maybe hangs between them.
Not due to a lack of love, but a lack of tradition.
The Elves have oodles of ceremonies to choose from.
As a fire elemental, Mara is singular. She doesn’t know any other fire elementals. She has no true kin. She does want to get married…but the ceremony has to have meaning for both of them.
El vows to go with Mara to the ends of the world to find rites for Mara to call her own.
Follow this unlikely couple as they defined themselves, their rituals, and their love in the cozy fantasy sequel to The Ice Elf & The Snow Cone.
Available via preorder from the KRP store and your favorite retailers.