Writer of dark fiction inspired by dreams & nightmares.
PTSD, Autistic, Queer, Polyam, Aspec (she/they)
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My Lord
A queer, slow-burn erotic gothic horror novel about rediscovering yourself after trauma—with kinky, blood-drinking immortals and polyamory.
Free signed bookplates for paperbacks.
New Release ~ 28 Jan, 2024
~ Features Shimaira's short story "Reset"
🌟 New
23Mar'24: THE WHITE WOMAN: a paranormal short story feat. Dutch folklore
21Feb'24: CONCH: an eldritch horror short story
14Feb'24: VISUAL SNOW: a dreampunk short story
✨ Featured Works
Mirrormaze
A dreampunk anthology
~ Features Shimaira's short story "Visual Snow"
We find ourselves in a very strange place.Technology is embedded so deeply in our lives that it no longer feels separate. It's taken for granted, like breathing. Whatever can be imagined can be experienced, if not in the "real" world then somewhere else. Somewhere better. This is our new reality. We live inside our heads, in our dreams.
Come navigate a labyrinth of visions, illusions, nightmares, and fantasies. Explore the nascent genre of dreampunk with 22 of its finest authors as they examine and transform the dreamscapes that we call our lives. Get lost among the twists and turns, ascending to the upper limits of both wonder and dread.Do you dare enter the Mirrormaze?
📖 Free-to-Read
📚 Novels & Anthologies
My Lord
✸ A transcended story
A queer, slow-burn erotic gothic horror novel about rediscovering yourself after trauma—with kinky, blood-drinking immortals and polyamory.Lord Deminas is known to be cruel. Yet, he's rather protective of Meya, his new chambermaid, and punishes anyone who dares hurt her. Servants regularly vanish, and with the Lord now drinking her blood, Meya and her paramour need to avoid the same happening to either of them.
Content warning: Abduction, off-page and non-graphic sexual abuse (rape is condemned and sexual abusers are killed), explicit sexual content (consent is emphasised), kink (wax play, knife and blood play, primal play, bondage, and mention of spanking and breath play), graphic violence, gore, death, vampirism, cannibalism, and illness (pneumonia).
Somniscope
A dreampunk convergence
~ Features Shimaira's short story "Reset"
Somniscope: a device used to facilitate the exploration and study of dreams.Dreampunk: a progressive genre of speculative fiction centered on dreams and dreamlike states of consciousness.Convergence: the point at which multiple distinct entities come together to form a unified whole.
The visionary minds behind Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology are back in force with a book that defies categorization. Is it a collection of short fiction? Sure. A multi-author novel? That too.Turn on, tune in, and blast off into a dream like no other! But fair warning: Once you enter the world of Somniscope, you may never again feel at home in your waking life.
Mirrormaze
A dreampunk anthology
~ Features Shimaira's short story "Visual Snow"
We find ourselves in a very strange place.Technology is embedded so deeply in our lives that it no longer feels separate. It's taken for granted, like breathing. Whatever can be imagined can be experienced, if not in the "real" world then somewhere else. Somewhere better. This is our new reality. We live inside our heads, in our dreams.
Come navigate a labyrinth of visions, illusions, nightmares, and fantasies. Explore the nascent genre of dreampunk with 22 of its finest authors as they examine and transform the dreamscapes that we call our lives. Get lost among the twists and turns, ascending to the upper limits of both wonder and dread.Do you dare enter the Mirrormaze?
Bad Neighborhood
An extreme horror anthology
~ Features Shimaira's short story "Insanity"
In this chilling horror collection, 29 writers and poets have come together to share tales of the grotesque, the supernatural, and more. Their words will pluck you from your comfort zone and leave you for dead, or worse. Have you ever considered where evil bides its time when it’s not outside your door? What disturbing locale could make it feel safe? We've all heard that home is where the heart is, but alas, that heart is sometimes racing…We hope you live in a good neighborhood.
They call him Lucius
✸ A transcended story
~ Features characters from MY LORD
A contemporary horror novel
~ Queer, PTSD & anxiety rep.A decade of torture at the hands of the cannibal Lucius has left Amy traumatised. Yet, she remains resilient and is determined to find a way out of his grasp. She will reclaim her freedom one way or another—even if that means becoming someone or something else entirely.
Content warning: abduction, (non-sexual) graphic violence and abuse, torture, gaslighting, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide, emesis, ritualistic human sacrifice, gore, and cannibalism. There is mention of (scientific) experimentation on children and adults.
✸ Expected release: 2025 ✸
📖 Free-to-Read Works
📰 Articles
📃 Short Stories
A story from the universe of "Millennium"
Dark fantasy. Tragic romance.Two demons banned from being together due to their opposing factions, Th'Erzagar refuses to let Agni's soul be withered as punishment for his love of her. She'll save him—or die trying.
Horror/thriller.He wanted to kill me, but I lived. Now he just wants me.After almost getting murdered, Evalyn finds her would-be killer now stalks her instead. He manages to keep eluding the police, and home security doesn't offer much protection either. As her life slowly falls apart, Evalyn can only hope her murderous stalker doesn't get what he wants.
Horror. Gory.Something isn't right... Where's the girl? What happened to her bed?
Philosophical. Experimental.
Existential dread.Every night, when we fall asleep, we die.
Horror/thriller. Gory.A screaming young man with a troubling history. Will the past repeat itself?
Horror. Lovecraftian. Poetic.When I sleep, I dream. In my dreams, I can't drown.
Horror.I've been replaced.
Horror.Sleeping in a hospital sucks. Waking up to a nightmare is even worse.
Paranormal.An unexpected end to a fun night out with a friend.
Horror.Not everyone tends to have fun in the same way.
Horror/paranormal.Don't underestimate the power of words.
Horror."Let's go to the lagoon," they said. "It will be fun," they said.
Or: When a night-time swim turns into a nightmare.
Science fiction.We've all heard of Schrödinger's cat. Dead and alive simultaneously, until someone looks. The power of observance. What if there was a species that had the power to decide if something exists or not, simply by looking at it?
Paranormal. Creepy.When I was little I used to play this amazing game, most often when I was home alone. I'd go into the bathroom and carefully lift the circular mirror from its pin on the wall. My mother didn't like me taking it as she was afraid I might drop and break it, though I found out later that breaking a mirror and getting a few years of bad luck isn't what you're supposed to be afraid of...
Horror. Gory.A baby monitor suddenly starts broadcasting static, but through the noise a dark voice uttering weird words is audible.
Horror.I have to believe this was just an incident... I have to believe there are no others out there like this one... I need to believe... Or I will go insane.
Horror.What would you do when you wake up in the middle of the night, only to find a mannequin standing in the hallway downstairs?
Horror/paranormal.A mother dies in a war, but does not give up looking after her little girl. She gave her life protecting her, but will she be able to do the same now that she is dead?
Paranormal.A girl wanders around an old decrepit mansion, seemingly abandoned, until...
Horror.Working a night-shift in the laboratory; what can go wrong?
Science Fiction.
~ A novella written as part of a contest: The Herculean Challenge. Runner-up 🏆This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, or a nuclear war, or a plague, or even Yellowstone erupting. No, it ends with the Earth's inner sun burping massive amounts of radiation into our atmosphere. So where does that leave the few of us who are still alive?
Fractal PoetryCome, and take a glimpse into my mind...A collection of all the fractals I've made and the accompanying poetry I've written through the years.
📺 Interviews, Podcasts & More
Guest on "What the Book" (Podcast)
Interview by Eldritch Girl (Podcast)
🌸 About L.B. Shimaira ⛥
TL;DR:
L.B. Shimaira (she/they) writes dark fiction.
The majority of her works are inspired by her own dreams and nightmares, giving them a vivid sense of realism. She's autistic, struggled with depression as a teen, and received therapy for PTSD in 2019.
Polyamory tends to sneak into her works, even if just a notion, and LGBTQ+ characters are always present in her novels.
She herself is queer, polyamorous, pan grey-asexual and idemromantic.
L.B. Shimaira is a witch from the Netherlands, born in 1989, married and a mother. She has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree and currently works as a research technician, where she helps develop vaccines.She considers herself a horror addict, having been into the genre since she was a little kid. As she often finds horror too predictable, she enjoys trying to make her works full of surprises.The majority of her works are inspired by her own dreams and nightmares, giving them a vivid sense of realism. She's autistic, struggled with depression as a teen, and received therapy for PTSD in 2019.She is polyamorous and currently identifies as pan grey-asexual idemromantic. She uses both she/her and they/them pronouns. Thinking about her own gender too much can give her quite the headache—especially since feelings fluctuate—so the term quoigender fits her best, though she's fine calling herself female. As there are a lot of labels, it's often easier to simply say she's queer.
Polyamory tends to sneak into her works, even if just a notion, and LGBTQ+ characters are always present in her novels.On Wattpad, she shares some of her work. The first part of her horror novel They call him Lucius was featured by Wattpad itself for 3 years (2014-2017), and a paranormal thriller she co-wrote with the user Godhand under the name G.S. Lucent was featured for Halloween of 2019. She has won several user-run awards on the platform.
In May 2020, she joined the Wattpad Stars and remained a star until it disbanded at the end of 2022. She continued her Wattpad journey as a Wattpad Creator.Gurt Dog Press welcomed her as a proofreader at the start of 2021, and she helped them out until they closed at the end of January, 2023. She will also proofread for friends when spoons permit.
Occasionally, she models for Picturesque.
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📖 Short story EPUBs
Paranormal. Dutch folklore.Cycling home late at night can be dangerous, let alone in a thick fog. Fear what you can't see, but fear what you can even more.
Body horror. Eldritch.Some things found on the beach are better left alone—especially when they seem like an offering on a strange altar.
Dreampunk.An elderly woman needs to save the world as she is the last person capable of altering reality through dreams.
Dreampunk. Weird scifi.Reality and self-induced hallucinations blur together as the static of visual snow comes alive.
17 May'23:
Queer, slow-burn erotic gothic horror novel.
1 Feb'23:
Short story
Paranormal horror.
31 Oct'22:
Short story
Body horror. Eldritch.
Paranormal horror.Cycling home late at night can be dangerous, let alone in a thick fog. Fear what you can't see, but fear what you can even more.
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A contemporary story featuring Dutch folklore.
In Sickness & in Hell
A co-written dreampunk thriller (novel)
~ Sapphic, asexual, disability & PTSD rep.
He haunts them every night, but these two kill men in their sleep.Devon and Tamesis must find a way to escape a sadistic stalker who has invaded their dreamworld without it costing them their relationship.When you've shared your heart, dreams, and life with someone, it doesn't matter what reality you're in together: you fight for each other.
Content warning: violence, abuse, gaslighting, corruption, drug use, selfharm, intentional triggering of seizures, cancer, and death. One of the main characters is a camgirl, but there is no sexual content.
*Art by Tori*
