top of page

    About

    Authror Iris Tom

    Iris Tom's Biography

    Iris Tom is a 17-year-old author from Illinois who has a dog named Comet, a mediocre skill for violin, and a stunning lack of physical copies of her favorite books.
     

    She can often be found writing about couture gowns and characters with too-sharp teeth on the Chromebook administered by her school. Luck of the Draw is her novel-length work and first published one.

    Luck of the Draw sample

    Once upon a time, a goddess and her husband gathered their children to settle a debt. It was the only reason she could get them to step away from the prayers of their people. For to claim a debt from a god was to claim two precious things: stories and time. Vitalv tried to tell herself that she would savor both.

    ​

    It helped a little that the her seeing room had dressed itself up for the occasion. The clouds outside sparkled with boughs of silver ether, the walls thrummed with lovelier music than usual, and the marble floor shone like an endless mirror. Even the flaky branches of birch arcing out of the walls appeared steeped in glitter.

    ​

    Lenari, the goddess of wisdom, kept glancing towards the tremendous quartz doors at the end of the hall like she expected a person to come knocking. Vitalv was less concerned by this prospect. Not only did she have her husband, the god of death, but the chances of any human surviving the rarefied airs of Enseght's highest mountain were slim to none. And even if they did beat those odds, the dense ether would fill their lungs faster than water.

    ​

    Ether lived above the clouds, but a soft mist of it graced the land so citizens could manipulate it into fire or water ormetal. Whatever pleased them. When they did this, humans left traces of their own power behind, so that Vitalv could see brushes of color on the silver whenever she looked down.

    ​

    Avangale's wind eddied around the room, causing Luminosque's phoenix to cough tiny curls of flame. Casting her brother a baleful look, Luminosque pat her phoenix on the head. The Exalted Palace's ethereal music hummed in steady, comforting beats. Still, the poor animal continued to cough.

    ​

    Only a few minutes into the meeting and it was already a disaster.

    ​

    Ebast hissed. Lenari rolled her eyes. Dame Fortune cleared her throat pointedly. The Reaper shifted their weight. Brillon sighed with his whole body. Only Ilrai stayed perfectly motionless.

    ​

    Vitalv hated seeing her children like this, teeth bared, walls up, rings glinting around their fingers. Her marriage to Mortev had weakened her. Time had weakened her. The rights, though. They had weakened her most of all. But Mortev would have it no other way.

    ​

    Vitalv cleared her throat. "You will present your stories in birth order, youngest to eldest."

    ​

    This was how her children would repay their debts: with stories of the one thing a god could not have. Love. It sounded trite, but a god who could connect to humans as humans did with each other was no god at all.

    ​

    "Then I will begin," Dame Fortune, the goddess of luck, affirmed. She was the youngest because the first humans in this region had discovered gambling long after they'd discovered knowledge, water, fire, light, animals, storms, or harvest.

    ​

    Vitalv and Mortev had appeared first when new people settled on this land. Life and death, the simple constants of humanity. They guided their people well, establishing royal lineages that went uninterrupted by war. And now, their children, like so many human royals, were ready to take the mantle.

    ​

    Though she was almost a century younger than her siblings, Dame Fortune evoked the same primal reverence as the rest. She achieved this through lush colors and high contrasts: black hair, crimson lips, gilded cheekbones, shimmering eyelids. A face painted by lovers, as the poets said. Fitting, as the only Exalted god to ever take lovers, purely for the fun of it. Her full green skirt was embroidered with clubs, spades, four-leaf clovers, and horseshoes.

    ​

    When Dame Fortune tucked a stray hair behind her ear, her pewter ring caught on a ribbon of ether. In a low, captivating voice, she said, "I was able to choose between two love stories that transpired within my castle. This is the second of those."

    ​

    She grinned and nodded to the pool of shimmering water before them, the one that gave the hall its name. The water began to ripple in color. "Allow me to introduce you to Prince Hollis D'Fortune of Blessed Village and Kaden Erantis of Mischance."

    bottom of page