Happy spooky season, friends! I’m back to work after taking almost two weeks in September to travel Ireland. It was absolutely gorgeous, of course, and we even lucked out with mostly beautiful weather. Highlights were dancing a traditional céilí in pouring rain, visiting Grainne O’Malley’s castle (Wikipedia link because this woman was an absolute badass and everyone should know about her), and seeing the town my family is from. (Most of my extended family is Irish. My branch is “the American cousins”.)

Both the geologist and the history nerd in me are very happy. (My immune system is less happy—I came down with a particularly nasty cold halfway through the trip, and it’s taking me forever to get over it.)

My biggest news this month is that my novella is officially out today! The link is further down in this issue!

For US readers, advance copies of The Bookbinder & the Thief are available to request on Netgalley! And apparently there are physical arcs making their way out too, though I have no idea how one gets ahold of them.

Separately, I’ll be announcing full details for the preorder campaign for The Bookbinder & the Thief later this month on social media and my website. I’ll put the information about how to get the incentives in my next newsletter, too, so you don’t need to worry about missing it. As another sneak peek, here’s the second piece of art included in the campaign, drawn by Iris H.:

(Another teaser: Iris has also drawn some absolutely beautiful character cards for This Treacherous Night! I’ll be revealing those closer to publication day.)

I finished my first revision of This Ruthless Day with my editor’s notes in mid September! This book has fought me all the way through, but I’m really excited by how it’s shaping up. I booked character art as a reward for finishing! (I also procrastinated so much by researching artists…)

I turned the draft in right before my trip and then did not think about it at all while traveling, which was a great move because I really needed a break. I’m solidly back to work this month—I have the next round of edits to tackle as well as more notes incoming on my adult book 3.

I had an excerpt from It Depends featured on the Jane Friedman blog! It’s all about working with bookstores on a preorder campaign, and you can read it for free here.

The replay of my HearthCon panel on cozy fantasy road trips is also up—you can watch it for free on YouTube here. It was a very fun conversation!

A Grave Revelation is here! I’m so excited to share this novella with you!

This little book has been such a joy for me to work on. A bit about how it came to be:

After feeling creatively drained for months, I randomly woke up during the night sometime last fall with a few clear and highly specific story pieces in my head, grabbed my phone, and groggily typed them in my notes app. Shockingly, in the morning they actually made sense—and not only that, but when I started researching for the book, the historical pieces lined up so neatly I was almost afraid I had dreamed someone else’s already published story. (I even googled to make sure I hadn’t.) I worked on research and outlining while editing contracted books, and once I had a break from deadlines, I drafted the whole story in about two weeks.

Shall we call it a lucky strike? Anyway, it’s been super fun to work on, and I hope it’s fun for you to read! (Side note: it can definitely be read as a standalone—no cliffhangers, promise!—but I may be plotting a sequel or two…)

You can download your free copy here! And if you enjoy it, I’d be grateful if you leave a review on Goodreads or Storygraph.

This month’s book recommendation is The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri. It took me far longer than it should have to get around to this one, mostly because I knew it was long (I have limited stamina for chonky books). It was a great airplane read, and wow, I loved it so much! It’s the fraternal twin of The Everlasting, which I also loved, but I loved this one even more. Read it for a classical mythological feel, stories about stories, and of course, the sapphics.

To see all my newsletter recommendations, visit the full list here!

Looking for the newsletter exclusives? Find them here!