Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

I like to say the only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope

you will too.

I love introducing you to your next favorite author on this podcast and today I'm returning

to the work of one of my recently discovered favorite authors.

I read Rebecca Roenhorse's story Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM for

you in season three and Rebecca's work, both short fiction and long form, has won a pile

of awards in the last few years and she recently knocked it out of the park with her book,

Trail of Lightning, which I loved, but she's not one to rest on her laurels.

So she's publishing a new novel, Black Sun, which is out October 13th, Lucky Us and more on that later.

Today's story is wherein Abigail Fields recalls her first death and subsequently her best life.

Its historical fiction mixed in with the speculative.

The story was previously published in a Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell.

It's now out in e-book, hardcover and audio book formats.

Rebecca's story is set in the late 19th century in New Mexico, in an all black settlement,

and we open on the eponymous Abigail Fields.

She is a 16-year-old girl who's just been shot and decides to make a trade in exchange for her life.

Please check out the written content advisory if you are so inclined and if you're ready.

Let's take a deep breath.

And begin.

wherein Abigail Fields recalls her first death and subsequently her best life by Rebecca Rohnhorz.

...