cecelia's blues music can raise the dead. literally.

The summer she turned twelve and her parents split up, Cecelia’s grandpa taught her everything he knew about slide guitar and necromancy. The summer she turned thirteen, Grandpa John was gone forever. And thanks to her out-of-control magic, she couldn’t even go to his funeral.

As the Slumber family’s last living mage, Cecelia joins a team of paleontologists to tie up her grandpa’s unfinished business—resurrecting Texan dinosaurs in the name of science.

With each new fossil comes another chance to lose a finger. Or maybe a whole arm. But it isn’t until Cecelia breaks her family’s most serious magic rule that she realizes just how dangerous her power can be.

latest chapters

Chapter 31
“Anybody worth bringing back is already in a better place.” I knelt in the grass growing...
Chapter 30
I woke up sprawled on my back, feeling like a crumpled soda can—drained dry and stomped flat. Something...
Chapter 29
Acrocanthosaurus plowed out of the Hemming’s front lawn. It shook green layers of sod off its humpback...
Chapter 28
Nuke swooped out of the purple morning sky and landed by the truck, galloping to a stop in front of me....
Chapter 27
I hid my face in my hands, holding in a scream behind clammy palms. Blood roared in my ears like Niagra...

growing story

Cecelia and the Living Fossils is an ongoing story. 

A new chapter comes out every Sunday. It can be read here or on Wattpad. 

Sign up for emails to get the latest chapter in your inbox.

Read on Wattpad

real dinosaurs

Cecelia and the Living Fossils features prehistoric animals from early Cretaceous Texas. Each one is described based on what science currently tells us about how these animals looked and behaved.

Sometimes, I have to describe things about an animal that paleontologists may not know yet. In that case, I try to make creative but believable decisions rooted in what we do know.

Each month, I release Cecelia: Unearthed, a family-friendly science article about each dinosaur in the serial.

Sign up for emails to get the latest Cecelia: Unearthed and hear about how I reconstruct each dinosaur.

evolving discoveries

Every year, paleontologists uncover new information that changes how we think about dinosaurs, their lives, and their world. I want Cecelia and the Living Fossils to keep up with that research.

Publishing this story online means that I can make changes, so occasionally, I’ll release a new version of the story with updated dinosaurs. These could be small changes to a few words in a description, or big changes that alter how the chapter plays out. It all depends on what we learn in the future!

Sign up for emails to get pinged when a new version drops.

subscribe

Sign up to get the latest chapter delivered to your inbox every week, plus monthly bonus content.