Hate Me Later. Read First.
Most of my jokes are only alive when you’re alone. It’s intentional.
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Explore the World of Mariel Hixenbaugh
Hi, I’m Mariel.
My website looks like a sticker book.
My fiction feels like it was smuggled out of an emotional warzone by a sarcastic librarian with PTSD.
I write weird things.
Memoir. Fiction. Speculative.
All of it trying to break your heart while pretending not to care.
Bright prose, dark blood. If mental illness or swearing put you off, best to turn back here.
Excerpts from the Speculative Fiction Mess,
That’s Almost Not a Mess.
Send Vibes.
"Zephyra, smite me. Strike me down. Right here. I’ll lay flat, I won’t even dodge. You want blood? I’ll give you a fucking vein."
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-EVE LAURENT
"She had the posture of something irreplaceable, and the courtesy not to pretend otherwise."
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-SERET LANNOVAR
"She's not calm. She's locked."
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-ALARIC HALLOW
"Don't play chicken with someone whose eyebrows have a higher kill count than you."
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-TAVIO MARSTEN
"He didn't trust her. Not because she lied. Because she didn't need to."
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-KAI KROSTLIK
"Eve Laurent wasn't a puzzle to figure out. She was a mess with sharp edges, and trying to pick her up just meant you were gonna bleed for it."
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-GREGOR HARREN
"She didn't want to be here. She wasn't meant for inside voices and history that felt like blood."
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-EIRA WYNNE
"Half the people in the room were shaped like weapons. Some were just decorative."
-CORIN VALEN
What Readers Say
Apparently my work is “uncomfortable,” “i love this,” and “hard to follow.” Perfect.
""Well, that was incredibly uncomfortable."
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— Friend since fourth grade, who's recently been hard to get ahold of.
“i love this. :)”
— Elizabeth Ellen, Hobart
Its narration was very edgy, which I think may be intentional, but it is hard for me to follow.
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— My Aunt
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Consensus is mixed. The newsletter will be worse.