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LOCAL HEAVENS
by K. M. Fajardo

LOCAL HEAVENS by K. M. Fajardo

The Great Gatsby meets Sea of Tranquility in LOCAL HEAVENS, a queer, cyberpunk reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic, in which technology and capitalism threaten the bonds of humanity in New York City in the year 2075.

About LOCAL HEAVENS: A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.

New York City, 2075. Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring, new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love or truth? Heart or soul?

About the author: K. M. Fajardo is a second-generation Filipino-Canadian writer from the Toronto suburbs. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Global Business and Digital Arts before working in the tech industry. After a childhood spent roaming bookstores, she now lives and writes in the city with her rescue cat, Clementine. Local Heavens is her debut novel. www.kmfajardo.com

About the tastemaker: Kathryn Budig is an internationally celebrated yoga teacher, author, and founder of the online community Haus of Phoenix and The Inky Phoenix book club, with nearly half a million followers on Instagram and Facebook. She’s known for curating magical realism, historical fiction, and dark fantasy with a focus on LGBTQ+ and BIPOC themes and authors. In 2023, she founded Inky Phoenix Press in partnership with Bindery Books, where she has a thriving membership community. Budig is the co-host of the Webby Award-nominated podcast Free Cookies, was the yoga editor to Women’s Health magazine for five years, and author of both The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga, and the bestselling Aim True. She lives in Charleston, SC with her wife, Kate Fagan, and their dog, Ragnar.