~*Here live the writings of Heidi C. Vlach*~
Hello, internet traveller. Please pardon the dust while this site is evolving. You'll find Heidi C. Vlach's fantasy and sci-fi stories here — quiet, queer-themed stories with lots of anthropomorphic characters. If you're into that, then welcome.
All of the fictional stories on this website belong to the author. They were published between 2011 and 2016, mostly self-published as ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks. Most of those listings aren't available anymore. But as I write this in 2023, cozy fantasy is finally starting to find its footing as a genre. I believe now more than ever that our chaotic, stressful real world needs soft stories added to it, to soothe and inspire us. We need glimpses of what healing might look like across a spectrum of lived experience. So I'm just going to share my old work for free, in the hope that fans of cozy fantasy will find it a nourishing meal. That's all I ever wanted my stories to be.
Site updated: August 16th, 2023. Added Chapters 3 and 4 of Remedy (A story of Aligare).
Usage permissions for the fiction on this website:
- Saving a copy for personal/offline use: OK. But please direct new readers to this website instead of sharing your copy.
- Fanart, fanfiction, and other transformative works: Mostly OK. Exploring other people's worlds and characters is a great way to enjoy the very human art of storytelling. But I do not condone fanwork that adds war, murder, sexual assault, or other cruelties to the Aligare world. I also do not condone fanworks where the writer sucker-punches their reader with an undisclosed, unpredictable swerve of dark content, even if a "Choose Not To Warn" tag or similar is used. No plot twist is so clever that it's worth triggering people.
- AI training: Hell no. Don't do that. Do NOT feed my writing into any sort of AI system. (Note to would-be data scrapers: I found these stories nearly impossible to market to mainstream readers. They are highly niche. If your goal is to make money by selling artificially generated """content""", then stealing my hard work would only poison your well.)
With that out of the way, these are the stories I'll (eventually) be posting:
Stories of Aligare series:
-Remedy. Peregrine, a disabled dragon-man, must face his fears when a pandemic threatens neighbouring towns.
-Render. Rue, a practical young insectoid woman, tries to support her superstitious village through famine and unprecidented wolf attacks.
-Repast. A forest forager seeks meaning through stories of the gods.
-Reason. Linden, the keeper of a dying shrine tree, sees a new perspective through the small weasel person she just rescued from drowning.
Serpents of Sky, a short story collection featuring many types of dragons.
Tinder Stricken. Esha, a troubled farmwoman who is gradually transforming into a goat, stumbles into the affairs of phoenixes and subterranean water dragons.
About the author: Heidi is a queer, chronically ill white person (she/her), in existence since the 1980's. She lives in Canada and loves cats. She's written around half a million words of fan fiction, mostly about video games, and has no formal writing credentials other than a few short story sales to anthologies.
Questions and content warning suggestions can be sent to h.c.vlach @ gmail . com (remove the spaces).