Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
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keychild.bsky.social
Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
@keychild.bsky.social
640 followers 790 following 160 posts
(she/her)

I design things. I write things. I photograph things. I panic about things. Mostly that last one.

edits: @crowkeys.bsky.social

http://eloucarroll.com • http://crowcrosskeys.com
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keychild.bsky.social
Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂 @keychild.bsky.social · Jul 8
I will be writing a blog entry about this one tomorrow, but for now, you can catch my flash, "Shattered Moon, Hungry Sea", on the Flame Tree Myth & Fiction podcast!

It's one of my favourites.

open.spotify.com/episode/6VKw...
Under the Same Moon
Flame Tree Myth & Fiction · Episode
open.spotify.com
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
klm-writes.bsky.social
This is her story!
crowcrosskeys.com/2021/09/18/a...
An Occurrence at Nantasket—L. Reed Walton
Due to their publication schedule, neither the Sunrise nor the Weekly Explorer had yet printed photos of the giant, pale, unmoving woman who had washed up on Nantasket Beach. Disappointed, Red cons…
crowcrosskeys.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
klm-writes.bsky.social
Super excited about placing two of my Salem poems with the fabulous @crowkeys.bsky.social and even more tickled that the wife was previously published with them!
December 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
braegrosz.com
Good news today! I've just learned that an old flash fic of mine has been accepted by @crowkeys.bsky.social 🎉

This will be my second publication with Crow & Cross Keys. You can check out my first here: crowcrosskeys.com/2024/09/07/i...
Inconsequent—B. Rae Grosz
The house Mare Symonds lived in was at the end of a long dirt lane, not too far past the bridge on Pine Gap Road. You’ll find the door to the house open. You’ll find a mug on the kitchen table. Som…
crowcrosskeys.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
rosa174.bsky.social
Your post got me to snoop around and found this very interesting post that may interest you. Perhaps you already read it.✌️
bsky.app/profile/crow...
crowkeys.bsky.social Crow & Cross Keys || SUBS CLOSED @crowkeys.bsky.social · May 28
You have been gathering around the link again. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/05/28/o...
An excerpt from flash fiction, Only Carrion by Ava DeVries published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring the profile of a vulture, leering. The excerpt reads: The vultures have been gathering around my house again. Only three or four, for now. But more will be here soon. They will perch on my picket fence and roost on my roof until it creaks with the weight of them.
December 5, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Because you'll ask, yes, you should click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/06/s...
An excerpt from short story, Sheep's Clothing by Beatrix Zwolfer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a close-up wolf face with fierce-looking eyes. The excerpt reads: Not far from the edge of the woods, I ran into the wolf. “Hello,” said the wolf. “Hello,” I said. Teeth cracked like split eggshell. The tongue: a ruptured blood vessel in yolk. “Because you’ll ask,” said the wolf, “I didn’t eat her.”
December 6, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We run into the odd beast from time to time. They like to loiter in the tower's corridors. We don't meet their eyes lest they eat us. For a tale about one beast in particular, today' short story...

"Sheep's Clothing" by Beatrix Zwolfer

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/06/s...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Sheep's Clothing by Beatrix Zwolfer published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a close-up wolf face with fierce-looking eyes.
December 6, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Click the link, love.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/29/t...
An excerpt from Wallpaper Bleeds, part of poetic duo The Five Walled Hell by Hannah Rae published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring passionflowers overlaid with stormclouds. The excerpt reads: My house, it watches me through the grasses, illuminated like a half-sunken ship. Come back home, love.
November 29, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We were nigh hopelessly lost on our way home this evening. The tower was calling us, but its voice was swallowed up. We're consoling ourselves with today's poetic duo. We love a titled poetic duo. Oh, yes, we do.

"The Five Walled Hell" by Hannah Rae

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/29/t...
A muted greyscale banner for poetic duo, The Five Walled Hell by Hannah Rae published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring passionflowers overlaid with stormclouds.
November 29, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Long before we posted it, you knew there would be a link...

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/26/r...
An excerpt from short story, Runaway by K.S. Shay published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring an abstract image of an ethereal-looking fish tail in motion. The excerpt reads: Long before the first semi-truck disappeared, we knew Ms. Green was a witch. None of us could say where we’d heard it; it was something known, not learned. The mountains rose out of the sea, water boiled into limescale, and Ms. Green was a witch. The adults would never admit it, of course, but they knew, too: it was plain in how they avoided her at the Dollar General or glared at her little white house when hail got bad or fevers refused to let. The symbols painted at the base of the runaway truck ramp didn’t help.
November 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
There's an unfortunate curse on the tower today. Whenever someone steps through the door, they vanish. We can't say where they end up or if they will return. For other inexplicable disappearances...

"Runaway" by @ksshaywrites.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/26/r...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Runaway by K.S. Shay published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring an abstract image of an ethereal-looking fish tail in motion.
November 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Click the link. It's for the best.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/22/l...
An excerpt from flash fiction, Like Mother, Like Son by Riel Rosehill published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a bittern in water with its mouth open wide. The excerpt reads: It was for the best, Mum said. Decent men don’t go on making a child when they find a crying woman alone. Hide now. Stay still. Over the years, I must’ve spent days on my stomach down in the reeds, watching the bittern’s brown-streaked body almost invisible among the golden stems, observing the purple flowers of the reed turning bristly brown, and counting the new goslings while the river flowed in silence.
November 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
All day, there has been a low keening throughout the tower. We're not sure where it's coming from, the tower is resistant to any sense of direction. You get used to it. For other concerning noises...

"Like Mother, Like Son" by Riel Rosehill

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/22/l...
A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Like Mother, Like Son by Riel Rosehill published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a bittern in water with its mouth open wide.
November 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
There's a great link in this post. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/19/t...
An excerpt from the poem Huldra by Faye Wikner, published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a close-up of train tracks in the rain. The excerpt reads: There is a great field of wheat by the train tracks; this is where I dance and hold the morning and shrug modern aches off my shoulders. I bring my wet palms to my red cheeks and greet the scavenger bird, we split the words over burrowing hares. She speaks all the languages of the bodies she has eaten.
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We're chilly in the tower this November evening. Nothing warms like words, and it's a fine night for poetry. Such a fine night that we have not one but two poems to keep you warm. By Faye Wikner, we present...

"Huldra"
&
"Sappho's Fourth Body"

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/19/t...
A muted greyscale banner for duo of poems by Faye Wikner, Huldra and Sappho's Fourth Body published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a close-up of train tracks in the rain.
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
All you can think about is the link. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/16/o...
An excerpt from short story, Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth by Laila Amado published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a field of plowed soil. The excerpt reads: Nena climbs back under the blanket, but sleep doesn’t come. Lying alone in the cold bed, she feels stiff like a corpse laid out for the wake, and all she can think of is the Dark Mother Earth, barren and waiting for the seeds.
November 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we're a day late, but we promise it's worth the wait. (Our seers are in the tower dungeon as we type. Their foretellings cannot be trusted.) This short story, however...

"Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth" by @amadolaila.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/16/o...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth by Laila Amado published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a field of plowed soil.
November 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
You waste no time clicking the link. You've clicked it already.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/12/e...
An excerpt from flash fiction, Evening at the County Fair by Laura M Puhl published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring hands palms up holding berries. The excerpt reads: We spend the most tickets at the flower stall, buying strings of carnations to chain ourselves together, then weaving the strands into headbands in a giggling coronation. The florist is kind but her eyes are sad; she slips something into our palms and we thank her, shrugging at the gift, dropping it into our pockets for later.
November 12, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We're thinking of carousels and candyfloss this evening. Oh, to be at a fair. Oh, to get tempted by the lights, the noise, the food, only to forget your name and living there forever. Bliss. For another fair...

"Evening at the County Fair" by Laura M Puhl

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/12/e...
A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Evening at the County Fair by Laura M Puhl published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring hands palms up holding berries.
November 12, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
You're watching. We know you've seen the link. You should click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/08/t...
An excerpt from narrative poem, The Salt in My Bloodline by Rowan Tate published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a flock of seagulls flying against a light background. The excerpt reads: The gulls are watching. They’ve grown fat on grief, the tiny bones of our hope. They scream like midwives, circle each birth with an appetite. What we have to make a life from was never ours: driftwood, flint, rope braided by other hands, hunger, salt-bitter lullabies, the shape of our faces and our daughter’s faces. The sea giveth and the sea taketh away.
November 8, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Sometimes the tower ends up standing beside the sea. Usually when the tower craves salt. One mustn't ignore the cravings of uncanny architecture. On the sea and salt and daughters, today's narrative poem...

"The Salt in My Bloodline" by Rowan Tate

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/08/t...
A muted greyscale banner for narrative poem, The Salt in My Bloodline by Rowan Tate published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a flock of seagulls flying against a light background.
November 8, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
You never believed in the link. But now? Click it. Find out if it's real.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/05/t...
An excerpt from short story, The Witch's Daughter by Alexandra Wingo published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a well in the countryside. The excerpt reads: As a child, I never believed in witchcraft. Then the well water turned to blood. Before that, the misfortunes that visited our village had been easy enough to wave away. The Perne’s cow stopped giving milk. George Brown’s wheat crop was struck with blight. Hard rains swelled the river until it ripped the wheel from the mill like a straw doll from a child’s hands. All attributable to bad weather. Bad luck. Bad choice of location for our humble settlement.
November 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
Don't use the taps in the tower. Something is living in the plumbing and we can never quite predict what will pour out; this morning, it was pennies. This evening, it's today's short story—word by word.

"The Witch's Daughter" by Alexandra Wingo

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/05/t...
A muted greyscale banner for short story, The Witch's Daughter by Alexandra Wingo published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a well in the countryside.
November 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
The link knows you're going to click it before you do.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/01/n...
An excerpt from flash fiction, Names Set in Stone by Jennifer Oliver published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a cropped image of letters carved into stone. The excerpt reads: The stone knows the names before the chisels ever touch it. This is the first lesson Oren learns when he arrives at the gravestone quarry. He hears it in the workers’ silences, in the way their voices soften when they approach the stone, the way their eyes linger just a moment too long before lifting the chisel. As if waiting for permission. As if the stone might speak first.
November 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
There are messages all over the walls of the tower. We're not certain who put them there or what they mean or who they're for. It's better to pretend they don't exist. Why not read today's flash instead?

"Names Set in Stone" by @jenoliverwriter.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/01/n...
A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Names Set in Stone by Jennifer Oliver published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a cropped image of letters carved into stone.
November 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Elou Carroll 🍂 is querying 🍂
crowkeys.bsky.social
We showed you the link, click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/10/29/a...
An excerpt from poem, After the before, we take care of the wounds by SK Grout published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring an axe embedded into a branch in soft focus. The excerpt reads: Your shoulders are broad enough to lead. You’ve been splitting deceased trees, for the last few days, turning them to firewood, layering muscle into consequence, and I’ve been watching. You showed me, keep them dry.
October 29, 2025 at 6:13 PM