In which I tell you many things but not what you want to know the most
Howdy, everyone!
It’s been a few months and so I’m here with a few updates!
The Faithless
First: as of the writing of this newsletter, I don’t have a confirmed definite release date for 2 Unbroken 2 Break, aka The Faithless. (Nor have I seen cover stuff. We are waiting patiently.)
I have a vague idea, and that idea is sometime in 2023. Disappointing, I know, but better for the book in the long run. You can’t rush art. Or publishing.
However, it is more or less finished and the next steps are probably copyedits and then first pass pages.
If you want to catch a small glimpse of some sentences on those pages, check out the thread below…
And if you want some art to hold you over until the cover reveal, Denimcatfish has blessed us:
Award Season - Locus Voting Open to All!
- I’m so thrilled to announce that The Unbroken is a Nebula Finalist! It’s a longstanding dream and I’m overjoyed to be recognized by my peers in such a way, and I’m in excellent company.
- I’m also a Hugo Finalist again with PodCastle, nominated for Best Semiprozine! This includes the whole team of editors, including the new co-editors who took over for Jen and me after we left. If you have an attending or voting membership to the Hugos, you’re eligible to vote!
- Nominations for the Locus Award close April 15, and this is open to all readers! If you enjoyed The Unbroken or my short story, “The Captain and the Quartermaster” (a queer, war-torn love story), or any of the work I’ve put out this year, you can vote for it here! The Unbroken is eligible for Best Fantasy Novel (a write-in) and Best First/Debut Novel; I’m also eligible under Best Anthology (We’re Here: The Best QUeer Speculative Fiction 2020); Best Editor (Cherae Clark and Jen Albert); and PodCastle is eligible for Best Magazine.
New/Upcoming Pubs!
- Get ready for a short story from me, coming out in Uncanny Magazine in a couple of months! It’s about a shipwrecked sailor who’s nursed to health by a lonely lighthouse keeper. Yes, it’s gay.
- I was also asked to contribute a story to Jonathan Strahan’s Book of Witches, and that’s also been turned in.
- I published an essay about one of my all-time favorite but also devastating tropes, the Sacrificial Butch Lesbian. I have a lot of complicated feelings and this essay only scratches at the surface, but tada! I’m so so proud of it. My Tor.com debut!
- I published an essay about worldbuilding using texts internal to a story’s world in the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding vol. 2!
- Some exciting news about Codename: Warmongers! That I’m going to have to sit on for a little while. Maybe I’ll share a snippet or two of the WIP in the near future.
- A secret thing!
Misc.
- I ran my half marathon in Paris and it was an amazing weekend! I PB’d the race and felt strong throughout. Now, I’m switching gears to focus on lifting again, which is my kind of physical ‘home base’. My comfort zone. I love lifting and I love my muscles and I love getting stronger. I even bought a new kettlebell to celebrate. Might even buy another one, I dunno, let’s go crazy.
I discovered some fancy non-alcoholic liquors! Wow, delicious and perfect as I go into more focus on strength training. Some highlights include: Highpoint Amber (mix with ginger ale or on the rocks) and Three Spirits Night Cap. Pentire Adrift is also excellent with a grapefruit-ish soda.
For reading, I’ve been binging romance novels on one side while reading a classic trilogy I’ve never read before—Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. As I try to figure out how to nail the Magic of the Lost trilo, I thought it best to go back to some of the masters and people seemed pretty adamant about this one. I also have a few ARCs I’m excited about, all open for pre-orders:
As always, thanks for being here. Stay sharp, friends. Have some muscles and a sword.
