Many of my stories are inspired or informed by music or art. Many of them also deal with relationships between people, and the underlying deeper societal and/or cultural issues that can emerge in such relationships, or inform them.

This project contains a cross-section of my short fiction. All of these pieces have been published in literary journals, as noted in the individual files. While my initial focus as a writer was on literary fiction, I've become increasingly interested in blending fantasy into my work, while still writing character-driven stories.

More information about my short fiction can be found on my website: https://krisfaatz.com/stories. 

Fourteen Stones is my second novel, published in 2022 by The Patchwork Raven, Wellington, NZ. (www.patchworkraven.com)

The tribal people called the Pala Vaia, "First and Lost Ones," have lived in Lassar since ancient times and coexisted with the Lasska people, but they have always been wanderers, seemingly out of place wherever they are. Now Lassar's fanatical new ruler, Impera Shurik, wants to destroy the tribes.

Sixteen -year-old Khari is a Vaia Lamp-Carrier. Her dreams provide guidance for her tribe, if she can interpret the messages they send. Now she must use all her skill, and trust instincts she has only begun to have, in order to save her people from extermination. Her dreams lead her and a small group of Vaia out of their native country and into neighboring Namora, where they must find allies, in particular a Namoran priest with an extraordinary mental gift of his own. The Vaia's search for a safe homeland will change the lives of all the people it touches, as well as the futures of two nations.

Fourteen Stones was my first foray into fantasy. Blending magic with character-driven storytelling proved freeing for my writing, and has changed my professional focus. The novel was first drafted in 2015. After the publication of my first novel, To Love A Stranger, in 2017, I revisited my early draft of Fourteen Stones and created a new version in 2018. Revising this second interation kept me sane during the early months of Covid.

My publisher, Jax Goss at The Patchwork Raven, has championed this book through multiple drafts, and has done an amazing job of bringing it to life. It's been a privilege to work with her and her innovative indie press.

Line Magic is my third novel, currently in progress. It began as a short story written in the summer of 2021. The main character, visual artist Nicky True, fascinated me, and I decided to learn more about him. 

The main story is set in Philadelphia in 1945. Nicky narrates it from the vantage point of some seventy years later (roughly the present day). As an artist, he had an unusual ability that allowed him to change his subjects by drawing them. The story focuses on what he did with this gift, particularly to create change in his community and bring people together during a time of great civil and interracial tension.

Researching this story has sent me down many fascinating rabbit holes. It's also taught me many lessons, as for the first time I'm experimenting with sustained first-person narration. Nicky's voice as a narrator is different from my own voice as a storyteller, so it's taken discipline and creativity to develop his voice and use it consistently.

The attached file contains the prologue and first chapter of the novel. I'm now on my third draft of the book, and it's very much a work in progress, but it's been a delight to play with.

My first novel, To Love A Stranger, was written, edited, and re-written over a period of ten years. During this time, my career shifted from focusing on music to writing and teaching fiction professionally. The novel draws on my own experiences of the backstage world of classical music; I wanted both to translate the "heard" experience of music to the page, and to engage with issues of social and societal justice relevant to that community and the wider world. 

Praise for To Love A Stranger: 

"How well do we know the people we love? This question is at the heart of Kris Faatz's beautifully written first novel. With Sam and Jeannette, Faatz has created two sympathetic, deeply flawed characters, driven by loneliness and a desire to belong. Set in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, their story unfolds with tragic inevitability. Compassionate and emotionally engaging, To Love A Stranger is a page-turner, a story that will resonate with the reader for a long time to come." - Geeta Kothari, author of I Brake For Moose and Other Stories

"Readers are safe in this author's thoughtful hands, amidst these gorgeous words, in this world rich with the heady sounds of darkness, honesty, forgiveness. To Love A Stranger is written with the harmony of humanity in mind. To Love A Stranger is a song." - Leesa Cross-Smith, author of Whiskey and Ribbons

"Artfully plotted, elegant and sharply observed, the book has the effect of holding you in proximity to two deeply flawed characters as they advance grudgingly and by degrees toward acceptance of who they are and where they come from. The novel has the grace to allow its characters to come to terms with what they're trying to escape, and it accomplishes this without sentimentality." - Tom Andes, interviewer, JMWW Magazine