Madeleine E. Robins
Madeleine Robins may have invented the Regency Noir detective story, and likes to play with history, reality, and the odd sword.
Subscribe
Subscribe to Madeleine to support her work and read subscriber-only content.
Writing gives Madeleine Robins the chance to focus on many fascinations: with cities, history, swordplay, the history of disease, and the future of mankind–with a side order of historical costuming and urban infrastructure. Robins has had a checkered career that includes being a nanny, an editor, and a stage-combatant, as well as the author of a dozen books. She holds a degree in Theatre Studies from Connecticut College, and attended the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop in 1981. She is a founding member of the BookViewCafe, and now blogs bi-weekly at Treehousewriters.com. A lifelong and passionate fan of all things urban, Robins now lives in San Francisco, where her day job is at the American Bookbinders Museum.
Fiction · Posts · Books
Free
Fiction
The Boarder
Published Apr 6, 2020 · 4,745 words (18 minutes) · 2 likes · 1279 views
Science Fiction friendship Alien elderly
About a little old lady, an alien, and the faceless bureaucracy that brings them together.
Free
Free
Fiction
Papa's Gone a-Hunting
Published Mar 15, 2020 · 6,265 words (23 minutes) · 384 views
About grief and longing, and the tricks the mind can play to ease the heart of a woman waiting for her astronaut to return to her.
Free
Free
Fiction
Bedlam Inn
Published Mar 15, 2020 · 5,974 words (22 minutes) · 501 views
Fantasy Historical Romance regency romance Christmas Story
In the countryside of Regency England on Christmas Eve, no room at the inn: two strangers are forced to take shelter in the stable.
Free
Free
Fiction
Nimuë's Tale
Published Aug 11, 2019 · 7,020 words (26 minutes) · 1 like · 620 views
Fantasy Arthuriana The Lady of the Lake magic Merlin
Nimuë killed the old enchanter and fled from Camelot, love and loss behind her. Then a stranger came to her home bringing love--and the prospect of loss. Somewhere, Merlin was laughing.
Free
Free
Fiction
Abelard's Kiss
Published Jun 17, 2019 · 6,406 words (24 minutes) · 1 like · 705 views
Science Fiction sex toys genetic engineering
I got the opening line of this story--"Beatrice's lover was made of lip"-- when I was 17. It took me twenty years to figure out where to go from there. The result: a story about a sex toy genetically coded to its owner, a notion I still find deeply disturbing.
Free
Free
Fiction
La Vie en Ronde
Published May 3, 2019 · 6,244 words (23 minutes) · 1 like · 5 views
Science Fiction vertigo Family inner worlds
Vivey comes unstuck from reality, rolling away from the life she knows into a world she never dreamed existed.
Free
Free
Fiction
Willie
Published Apr 5, 2019 · 3,269 words (12 minutes) · 2 likes · 12 views
Fantasy parenting Frankenstein Mad science
Mary Shelley--a young mother dragged all over Europe in the wake of her poet husband--created a monster: Victor Frankenstein, who creates life and abandons it. But what if he'd stayed? How do you raise a very unusual child? It turns out: one day at a time.
Free
Free
Fiction
Somewhere In Dreamland Tonight
Published Mar 28, 2019 · 4,931 words (18 minutes) · 1 like · 5 views
Romance Fantasy Historical vampire Coney Island 1900
He traced the bow of her upper lip with one long finger, a gesture which shocked Ruth and moved her in a way she could not understand. When she closed her eyes she could feel his breath on her ear again. Inside her something like Aunt Min’s voice told her to run for her life.
Free
Free
Fiction
The Boy Who Played Air Guitar
Published Mar 5, 2019 · 6,104 words (23 minutes) · 3 likes · 10 views
Sometimes music is playing right in front of us. What does it take to hear it?
Free
