Leo Di Lux

Leo Di Lux still didn’t intend to become a writer. After Nightmare Lens escaped legal review and into readers’ hands, Leo returned—briefly—to “special projects,” which Hollywood executives describe as post-production and Leo’s lawyer describes as inadmissible. Tasks included locating scenes that filmed themselves, translating call sheets written in Enochian, and negotiating with contracts that continued to bleed after shredding. Phantom Cut grew from the second stack of “incidents” Leo was asked not to keep. Names have been altered, timelines have been politely threatened, and sufficient tentacles have been added to maintain plausible deniability. The lawyers were—again—very specific about that last part. Before the film industry, Leo studied folklore and mythology, which turned out to be ideal training for meetings where the shadows arrive early and stay late. They hold degrees their counsel prefers not to enumerate and have signed NDAs in twelve languages, three of which do not employ human alphabets. Leo currently lives in an undisclosed location with excellent Wi-Fi, no mirrors larger than six inches, a cat named Schrödinger who remains suspiciously omnipresent, and a locked drawer of contracts that resist ordinary fire. When not writing, Leo favors coffee strong enough to wake the dead (permission pending), hikes only where reception is good, and attends screenings where the audience is probably human. Remember: it’s all fiction. The lawyers insist. Again.