Unpublished manuscript, currently searching for traditional publishing.
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During a thunderstorm, a bolt strikes a dying tree. This act starts a wildfire that fails to grow, battered by the rain. But this little flame is special. She is a p’atma, an element, a piece of the world, able to think and remember and reason. This struggling flame goes on to be rescued by a woman, introduced to the wider world, and receives the name Nina.

This serial novel recounts Nina’s exploration, meeting ambitious rulers, supernatural oddities, common people, and fellow p’atmas. Her first, and eager, solution to most problems is arson. After being talked down, or basking in the ashes, she considers the peaceful solution. Whether her actions and speech harm or help the world depends on her. Or, she can learn that the nature of fire is unfixed. She can rage across the horizon, or dwell in the hearth, little but life-saving. Or both. Nina can win much, if she chooses; trust, fame, power, fear, land, love, and even perhaps a home.