june 2026: joggin on

Howdy, y’all!

I am here with the monthly missive and while I will not bore you overmuch with my personal goings-on, suffice it to say that it was a full month with a lot of really cool things and big things and cool big things. As I did my monthly reflection (yes, that’s something I like to do before I set up the next month of my bullet journal, no I don’t do it all of the time), I realized that May was a grand month of hanging out with friends.

I don’t have anything especially profound to say about friendship. There are things that I notice, though. Like how many people say it’s difficult to make friends as an adult. I’ve never had that problem, really, and I think it’s because I still have hobbies. That’s not a dig at anyone; it’s just true. Online, but most importantly, in the meat-space, I have hobbies. I read. I run and I swing swords.

Running is often a solo activity, but it does give me an easy communal activity with other people who run. If I were to go to a city, and an acquaintance says, hey, join me for a run? That would be great. As it is, I run with my friends in London, pause for a coffee, and that’s a bit of shared struggle that brings you much closer for all your suffering. With swords, I have, essentially, a standing weekly appointment with my friends to hit them with steel, and sometimes go out for a drink after. And if you have goals in that arena, there’s something convivial about someone else supporting you to improve, too.

(I have missed swords badly in my recovery, and without the standing date, have even found it difficult to make the time to see them. So I know the difficulties are there in that treacherous adult life full of “obligations” and “schedules” and god forbid, “bills.”)

As we grow more and more isolated by the internet, I urge you as often as possible to meat (heh) in the real world—even your pocket friends, even your fellow fandom freaks. To remember as often as possible that we’re all fucking real for better or for worse. To GET real, and I don’t mean that stupid app I SWEAR TO GOD I DON’T NEED ANOTHER APP—

Ahem.

All of that to say, you simply cannot do everything, but I did do quite a lot of good friendship things in May.

1. There was, of course, the Prague marathon in the first weekend, which I mentioned in the previous newsletter.
2. Then I went to Poland, where I hung out in Kraków with my main TTRPG crew where we reunited for our first in person game in over a year. It coincided with some surprise party moments that our DM had prepared a video for (also over a year ago) and it left us all very emotional. We also went to Kraków Castle, ate pierogi, saw a dragon, drank some vodka, and learned one (1) Polish swear word (feel free to teach me more).

3. I hung out with my London writer crew! One of them, anyway. We all got together and complained (a little) and wrote (a lot). Sometimes, it is the other way around. (Actually, that is the day I ran to the coffee shop and my running backpack rubbed a hole in my back, so I complained a lot.)
4. My friends all got even older, and what a lucky thing that is. One of them had a birthday cheesecake that is one of the most divine cheesecakes I have ever tasted. It came from Belle Epoque in London. That’s all I know.
5. Holy shit, I saw Dracula. My friend Njeri (who some of you might know as ONYXPages, a Black booktuber) and I went to see Cynthia Erivo’s Dracula performance and I cannot tell you in words how amazing it was. She SANG to us. I heard her live voice and GOD wow—it took everything in my power to not do something stupid. We spent the next hour after talking about what it means the be enthralled/in someone’s thrall.
   

6. At the Dracula performance, we also ran into an acquaintance I’d always meant to hang out with more, so as a capstone to Njeri’s visit, we had a bunch of friends over that weekend, including the acquaintance, and kiki’d, and I made whipped butter with chopped shallots and now Sara calls me Marty Stewart.
7. Then I went to MCM ComicCon London and hung out with some MORE friends, like Nina Elian J. Morgan of Princeweaver fame. We bought dice, TTRPG one-shot subscriptions, and other things we probably didn’t need but that brought us joy. I also ran into Jane Perry again, who I met at Dutch ComicCon. You may know her by a variety of other names (including Mystra). She’s an utterly lovely human.

8. Then more hang-outs with the usual suspects, which entailed me, Marty Stewart, making my current favorite pasta dish, Whore Pasta (aka Puttanesca), and getting escorted to get fitted for a real suit (😮). I tell you what, it’s a much better experience with no boobs, and I am not surprised I put it off this long.

So here’s to May, my month of mates! If you are one of my mates, even if I didn’t see you in May, I love you! And if I haven’t told you recently I’ll be telling you soon. You make this world bearable. (And yes, that includes you readers!)

Imaginary Friends (aka Books)

Despite all of my travel in May, I was also working pretty hard to get things done and dusted, scooting everything off my plate so that I could really buckle down and get started on revising Warmongers come June. That’s still the current plan, though I’ll have my residency teaching duties to contend with as well. (I’ll be teaching a workshop on “Muddling through Your Middle” for novels!)

Warmongers is a big book and the work ahead is—oof!—daunting. But that’s half the fun. I’ve already had some fun breakthroughs. I’m not foolish enough to think anything is settled yet. It’s a long time before the sailing is smooth, though.

A secret project is also starting to pick up, so I am having fun playing with a lot of new ideas in the evening after I put my Revision Brain to bed. I like to double fist my writing because when something stalls in one project, I can noodle on something else for a little while and not abandon the whole aim of creativity. For me, the whole point is that it should still be fun—even the frustrating puzzle making aspects of it.

Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf received a lovely review in Strange Horizons. Coincidentally, I also wrote about writing Arcane IP, a post I promised long ago but took my sweet time getting to.

Fate’s Bane has the great honor of being shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award along a stellar line-up!

And finally…

Fortune’s Wake

And so, just in case you’ve forgotten, or never seen, or you’re new here—

I HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT AUGUST 24, 2026!

The cover is done, so expect a reveal soon. I love it. My partner said, “That looks like two butches about to get in trouble” and nothing could be more true. The tagline for Fortune’s Wake? Bad moms and butch mentors.

I find myself fascinated these days in intergenerational queer relationships, especially mentorship. Particularly relevant to me, butch mentorship. How much of my queerness did I learn from interacting with older lesbians? So, so much. And did I have inappropriate crushes on them? Oh well!

Several of you have expressed concerns about how to pre-order this book without doing it from Amazon and I finally have news!

You can go to your local brick and mortar store and they’ll have access to ordering print copies. They will likely be available also on Bookshop.org (US). There will also be an audio edition; one of my May tasks was recording all the weird fantasy names for the reader and suggesting what kind of voice talent. And it will be for sale one other place yet to be announced… 😘

More Imaginary Friends (that I didn’t write)

I haven’t been reading a lot because I am on a mission (aka trying to get to Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 80-whatever—IYKYK).

HOWEVER.

Shout out to Emily A. who told me to read The Incandescent by Emily Tesh for Chief Marshal Laura Kenning! Because I love her and I am in fact loving the book. It completely absorbed me on the couch for hours in a way I haven’t been in some time.

So I highly recommend, and I hereby put her on the Butch List.

Events

•  Cymera Festival - Heavy is the Crown with Elian J. Morgan - In Person - Sun, June 7, 2026 - 1.30 PM BST - we will be coming out on stage to the Arcane version of the Linkin Park song, I have been assured. Check out Elian’s debut, Princeweaver.
• Toppings Bath - Fierce Female Rage with Soraya Bouazzaoui - In Person - Weds, July 1, 2026 - 7 PM BST - Looking forward to talking about the various rebellions of North African history with Soraya at this one in support of her new book, Aicha.
• (maybe possibly secretly—MCM Brighton??? Stay tuned for more details!)

All the events above are ticketed, so make sure you buy your tickets if you want to see me in conversation with these other rad writers.

Anyway, it’s also pride! So happy pride, everyone! If you’re new here, welcome, you can see just how gay my books are on the Graffiti Wall, with thanks to just a few of the artists who have brought my books to life.

And don’t forget that pride is a riot and there is much to fight these days, so go stick it where you can do the most. In particular, the US continues to give Israel carte blanche to eviscerate and invade Lebanon, a direct repeat of what they’ve done in Palestine. We cannot grow numb to it now.

While I was in Poland, I visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. I didn’t list it in my journey of friendship because I went alone. It was, for me, the way to do such a thing. Solitude. Contemplation.

There is a room dedicated to the collected hair of the women whose heads were shaved before they were led to gas chambers. It was, according to the guide, the main evidence that the atrocities even took place.

Today, we have so much more evidence of the crimes taking place. Each of us is a witness. We witness so many who, in the name of “Never Again,” repeat, again, the Holocaust. Certainly, at least, that pretense is gone. It is only racism and greed, as it was before.

“I do this almost every day,” said the guide with a soul-weary look in her eye when I spoke to her alone.

We must do this every day.

Change happens from person to person.

Pick a fight and don’t give it up.

Stay sharp,

C. L.