Project Teaser:
Light-Roasted Spider-Fems is a speculative novel about a disabled woman caught in a gas explosion at a Seattle garage sale who is thrown into an apocalyptic world inside a coffee mug. There, she finds a 19-year-old from suburban Iowa who fell into the mug a thousand years before her, escaped for six years, and was dragged back by her entry. Together, they must brave hostile lands crawling with giant humanoid spiders and colonies of sorcerous ants on a journey towards Sea Green Mountain. An ancient dragon is rumored to live there with the power to bring them home, if only they can meet her price.
Pateron Purpose:
I am sharing my speculative novel on Patreon, one chapter per month, starting with Chapter 1 in April 2026 and concluding after 19 chapters with an epilogue in November 2027. This is a behind-the-scenes look at my draft, and the story may change after I share it here if I pursue traditional or self-publishing. The chapters I share will be complete drafts, but I may continue to make small edits along the way.
Project History:
Light-Roasted Spider Fems is a re-imagining and expansion of a fantasy novella I wrote and published on a limited-run of approximately 100 copies more than ten years ago about a boy who falls into a coffee mug. I wrote the novella while living in Ghana in 2014 learning about disability activism.
Rereading it in 2025, I expected to be embarrassed by the quality of my writing and the ways it lacked the greater nuance and sensitivity that I now bring to social justice and disability issues (and I was to a certain extent). But I was also confronted with a raw, stream of consciousness snapshot of my 20-year-old self processing my disabled, neurodivergent, and queer identities while grappling with trauma related to the Boston Marathon bombings. I also found myself exploring my emerging awareness of the intersections between ableism, capitalism, and social injustice.
Approaching this project with fresh curiosity, I decided it would be interesting to revisit this world with a new story that explores internalized ableism, disabled identity development, learning and unlearning, and the emotional aftermath of an explosion. In doing so, I hope to honor the story's original intent in a reflexive and thoughtful way by (a) writing disabled characters and (b) using proceeds I receive from my writing to advance causes aligned with disability justice in Ghana and other settings in the Global South.
Redistribution of Proceeds:
I am redistributing proceeds I receive from subscriptions to this Patreon to global disability / anti-ableism related causes. These donations will occur via the Lyra McMahon Social Justice & Political Solidarity Fund. Over the course of the Patreon, I plan to share further updates about the redistribution efforts. You can also learn more at: fund.lyramcmahonart.com.
