I am content...are you?
Hello hello, my tough and tender folks and welcome to a new year! Not even a month in and it already proves to be one of change and upheaval, and no one can truly predict what’s coming. But, like any busy person with things I want to accomplish, I sat down at the beginning of the year to reflect upon the last and try to predict the future! Or rather, to make some brave attempt to plan for it. Or more foolhardy, to control it. Bold, indeed.
But we cannot control anything but what we do, and so I’ve been thinking about the things I want to do this year.
Some of that is how I want to move through the world. How I want to react to people, how I want to protect my peace, live my life, engage my time and attention. But some of it is also related to my work, thoughts of career.
For example, I have three books coming out this year! Which is amazing, and exciting, and I am thrilled for you all to have access to them all. They’ve been alone with me for far too long. The writing and publishing of them alone is a worthy feat! But as tranquil as I want to be, I’m not above feeling the pressure to do more, to do better, to sell more books, go viral, make a bestseller list, all of those outer markers of success that will prove—to whom? oh, everyone—that my books are good, worth buying more of, worth spending more on. That there-and-gone twinkle of fame and attention.
But this is always at war with my hatred for the content-ification of the self, which includes the art.
Hatred is a strong word.
I meant it.
“Content” is just so much noise. Whenever people I follow—book people, kettlebell people, runner people, all of them—say they’re stuck and don’t have any ideas for “content,” I can’t help but think, then you have nothing to say! You can simply be quiet! You do not have to contribute to the noise machine! We have forgotten that it’s okay not to speak when you have nothing to say; our media overlords don’t like it and encourage otherwise. And so many of us say nothing, loudly, ad nauseum, when we would perhaps do better listening or thinking or living life in a more present fashion, and focusing deeply on those things so that we can feel them more deeply. We can feel more contentment in our lives. And then, when we’re replete again, we might have something worth sharing.
And yet! There are things I like to share! Just because! My swords, the books I’m reading, bits of my process. I like to have conversations with people on these social media streets! They’re meaningful, and I know some of the things I share help people, just like I find motivation listening to an instagram ultramarathoner before I go on my little five mile jog. It’s human to want to share pieces of ourselves. But I don’t want to trap myself in the endless churn to fake my own relevance. I don’t want my time doing my hobbies to be subsumed with camera angles and video editing unless I’m really enjoying that part, too.
(However, if you are a sword company and want to sponsor me and send me free swords, I take it all back, I will be an influencer for you.)
I’ve always preferred genuineness and genuine enthusiasm in all of my social media dealings, including the recommendations I give you—for books or workouts. Maybe that’s why you stay, or maybe you’re just here for the giveaways (that’s okay, too).
I’m not sure what this newsletter will look like this year. I like longform essays, and hope to write more of them, but I don’t think they’ll always take the shape of something publishable. But I do want to think more deeply this year, and share some of those thoughts—in ways that aren’t conducive to Twitter. (I really love how Hanif Abdurraqib uses his instagram; follow him for a week or so and have your life changed.)
At the very least, this is still where you should come to get any updates on the latest work, especially as all the social media platforms are in flux. I may also take some time away from them this year. I’d like to escape from the repeated nothingness shouted in my ear every time I pick up my phone. I would like not to pick up my phone. I’d like to focus on my work. To improve my craft. To have fewer advertisements telling me I don’t have everything I need (I do—except, perhaps, more swords). I would like to study the blade.
So. What next?
University of Kansas-area folks: I will be giving the Gunn Memorial Lecture on February 4 @ 6 PM in Watson Library 3 West. I’ll be talking about War and Fantasy, a bit of an expansion on my Fiction of Peace essay.
Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf (US/UK) comes out February 18. Final copies are with my publishers and I should have a box soon.
Winners of the ARC giveaway have been notified (I took one entry from social media and one by random number selection from newsletter subscribers—surprise!)
Stay tuned for various events and podcast appearances! I’ll share more about those as I have the details. If you have a bookstore or podcast and want me to show up, let me know! I can connect you to the powers that be.
The Sovereign (US/UK) and Fate’s Bane (US) are both currently scheduled to come out on September 30, 2025! Twins! Hopefully there will be cover reveals in the near future. In the meantime, both books have started popping up on retail sites, so you can get your pre-orders started!
Yes, if you are clever, you’ll notice the lack of UK links for Fate’s Bane—don’t worry, it will indeed be sold worldwide.
Creatively, I’m focused on Warmongers right now. I would probably need a new post entirely to talk about that, as it’s a unique feeling I’m dealing with as I come off of the more regimented projects that I’ve finished, especially Ambessa, which was very strictly outlined. With Warmongers, a new world, new characters, I’m finding myself wading through the kind of mystery I haven’t had in some time. Sometimes, it’s exhilarating. Sometimes, it’s terrifying. I’ve been getting through the blocked days by playing with the suite of Story Engine cards, specifically the newest Lore Deck. (No, I’m not paid to say this. I just really do find them helpful.)
What I’m Reading, Etc.
- Some of you know I have a reading presence on goodreads. I also have one on storygraph, now, though I don’t know how much I’ll use it. (Follow me; I won’t accept friend requests unless we’re actually friends.) I’m already chafing at more instead of less social media, so one will go soon, probably. More important is the little moleskine I started. It has 63 pages, not including the title page I made. I want to fill it with 63 books this year.
- I started the year by reading Robin Hobb’s Fool’s Errand. I am a latecomer to her work and so I’m savoring every trilogy. There is something magical in her patience, her attention to detail. I can only hope that it influences me. It’s beautiful. I’m afraid we are losing the art of reading books like that. I hope that I’m wrong. If you are equally new, start with Assassin’s Apprentice. Or even Liveship Traders (it’s a bit more…vivacious…than Assassin’s Apprentice, but technically is the second trilogy).
- I recently saw Wicked the movie. As a diehard fan in high school (I begged to see it at the West End with Idina Menzel for Christmas), I was admittedly skeptical. But it was just as amazing to see it appear on screen as I’d always dreamed it would be, and I have since regressed twenty years and can’t stop singing the soundtrack around the house. I’ve even considered singing lessons, much to my partner’s chagrin. I also forgot how much it is about complicity and capitulation to fascism it is! Wow! For no reason whatsoever, I hope everyone is paying attention!
Okay, that’s enough for now.
Stay sharp, my friends.
We’re all going to need it.
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