Fallow Till We Bloom

TWIN PEAKS meets STARDEW VALLEY in this stunning T4T farmyard romance.

Two closeted trans farmers and their two friends establish a queer co-op on a burnt-down farm, despite being haunted by the local shadow cryptids lurking on the foggy foothills.

Never talk about the Dark Watchers...

The dead farmer's closeted granddaughter. The wealthy vintner's closeted son. A burnt farm haunted by dark spirits only they can see. 

On winter solstice, the old farmer Bob Fields, was struck dead on a mountain road. 

After trying to come out as a trans woman in Florida, Robyn Fields lost everything. She fled across the country to the mountains of coastal California to help on her grandfather's farm. But she arrived a day too late. The farm had burned down and her grandfather had left the entire farm to her.

The unexpected inheritance is the second chance she needs: she immediately dives back into the closet, with half a mind to drown out all of her gendery thoughts by working herself to the brink of exhaustion to try rebuilding the farm. 

But she soon attracts the attention of the dark watchers. These strange, humanoid cryptid shadows lurk on the foggy mountaintops, only visible to a select unlucky few. Townsfolk whisper that the watchers are responsible for many local disappearances and suspicious deaths, including that of Robyn's grandfather. Acknowledging them is always dangerous, and you're not even supposed to talk about them.

Local vineyard heir Ash Grantor has seen them for decades without incident. Unrelatedly, Ash has also privately known he was a trans man for about as long, but bottling himself up worked out just fine—at least, until he got disinherited. Before he can do anything drastic like flee the country with embezzled funds, the new local invites Ash and his two trans friends, Kitt and Dawny, to move onto the farm.

The four of them make a great team. But while Robyn and Ash begin to grow into something closer than farmmates, long-repressed feelings bubble up to the surface, and the dark watchers draw ever nearer. To save the farm and avoid the old farmer's strange and haunting fate, Ash and Robyn must cast secrets aside and bloom together...

Reviews / Testimonials

"Fallow Till We Bloom takes cozy smalltown romance and turns it on its head in the best way. We need more books like this." — TJ Alexander, USA Today bestselling author of A Gentleman's Gentleman

Format

Buying the book on itch.io gets you a DRM-free, generic .epub file. Add to your reader of choice and enjoy!

Physical Copies

If eBook isn't your thing, the book will be available to order on paperback on September 22, 2026, at most major online bookshops. I'll put the links up when they're up. 

The print edition features that absolutely GORGEOUS cover drawn by the incredibly talented Mart Lett! 

The Author

Nikki Null (she/her) is a trans author of genre-defying trans fiction. She is a cult cinema fanatic, a wife, and a mom of two kiddos and one claw creature. Be sure to check out her previous novel, Our Simulated Selves.