Blog

A New Start  Jan 1, 2023

Well, after eight years with another website host, they were bought last year and everything changed. So here I am in a place where I have some control (I think. . . for now. . .) and rather than reconstruct my old blog, I've decided to  just start fresh.

A lot has changed in eight years: My first book was published, then my second, and my third. I went from winning an international short story contest for non-professional authors to having more than two dozen original stories published, many in pro markets. I was a 2020 finalist for the SFWA Small Press Award for a short story in DreamForge, and two of my books won the Colorado Book Award for best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I haven't arrived. In fact, I don't even know where there is that I'm headed. But I'm on my way to somewhere and it's sometimes hard and often rewarding, and I probably couldn't stop this train now if I wanted to.

So here we all are at the start of 2023 and more new things. I wish you a happy, healthy year filled with pleasant surprises and great plot twists!

Sept 19, 2024

June 16, 2024





I'm very flattered to have been included in The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, v4 with my short story "The Deaths of All We Are" first published in HFQ's May, 2017 issue. The story is a retelling of The Lady of the Fountain, an Arthurian story of Owain and the Black Knight and the Lady, only here it's told from the pov of the lady's servant, Luned. If you enjoy sword and sorcery fantasy, you can find the anthology on Amazon here: 

 The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly IV

Mar 28, 2024

Woo Hoo! The brand new First in SciFi and First in Fantasy Podcasts are offering first chapters - and The Halfblood War is live today! Want to preview more than the first five minutes of a scifi or fantasy audiobook before deciding? Check out their podcasts.  Want to hear Ch 1 of my stand-alone epic fantasy? You can have a listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-halfblood-war-by-l-deni-colter--58991056

Apr 24, 2023

The pre-order is up as of today for the inaugural issue of the ZNB Presents anthology! Twenty-four short sci-fi and fantasy stories, including my my near-future, dystopian story of an uplifted Fennec fox and a young idealist who’s  begun to question whether people can really be saved from themselves.


Available at:

Kindle

B&N

and the ZNB website store 


Print issue to follow. 

"Monsters" out today at Fantasy Magazine  Jan 2, 2023

Jan 2, 2023






My new flash fiction story "Monsters" is live today in Fantasy Magazine.


Its an uncomfortable little story, but ultimately one about healing and transformation. Fantasy Magazine has been a dream goal of mine for many years, ever since I was a subscriber in the early years of the publication. I couldn't be more delighted that this story has found a home here under the hands of editors Arley Sorg and Christie Yant.