Veronica Roth's Blog

The cover for the first book in my new romantic dystopian fantasy series, Seek the Traitor’s Son, is HERE and she is GORGEOUS. The art is by the fantastic Pablo Hurtado de Mendoza (who also did the art for Arch-Conspirator!) and the design is by the talented Katie Klimowicz. Check it out!

You can pre-order it from your favorite retailer here:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Bookshop.org

Indigo

About the book:

Elegy Ahn—daughter of a bounty hunter, now committed soldier—is the unwilling subject of a prophecy. She’s fated to bring victory to her people against their powerful enemies: the Talusar, who worship a Fever that brings death to everyone it touches…except those it resurrects, forever changed.

But she’s not the only one with a destiny. Rava Vidar, fearsome Talusar general with a reputation for cruelty, is also fated to lead her people to triumph. And critical to both of their fates is the same man.

A man who—Elegy is told— will bring her death.

A man she’ll fall in love with.

Less Formally:

You might like this book if you…

…Liked my other books

…But especially Carve the Mark

…Have found yourself craving dystopian fiction again

…Have ever looked for hurt/comfort fics on Ao3 (or perhaps…Angst)

…Wished Zelda and Link would make out

…Liked Star Wars, but more “Rogue One” and “Andor” than “Return of the Jedi”

…Are intrigued by the idea of technology that runs through your veins

…Were into the “now we live in the ruins of a previous civilization” part of Divergent

…Enjoy the vibes of this song or this song or this song

V

Senior year of high school, I read 1984 by George Orwell for the second time. It was for an AP Literature class called “Logic and Rhetoric,” to this day one of the best classes I’ve taken. What I remember is analyzing the language in the novel, considering words like “doublethink” and “thoughtcrime” and whether simplifying vocabulary can restrict our capacity for complex thought. It was a revelation, and because of that class, even two decades later, I see Newspeak all around me in political rhetoric, in casual conversation.

It wasn’t my first time encountering dystopian fiction, though. The first time was in fifth grade, when we read The Giver by Lois Lowry. I remember less about that. We had to consider what our own utopian worlds would look like, if we got the chance to build them. We talked about why someone might build a “utopia” like the one in The Giver, and what exactly its system took from people. It was maybe one of the first times I understood what science fiction was— though I wouldn’t have articulated it that way—and we studied the novel with curiosity and a sincere desire for understanding.

When I stepped out into the world with a dystopian novel, I was told something a little different about what dystopian fiction was for. Dystopian fiction is a warning—that was the prevailing opinion. And people asked me what my warning was. What were they supposed to learn from my dystopian world? What was I trying to critique?

For someone fresh out of college, who had only ever studied dystopian fiction in two ways—as a thought exercise that taught me about human nature (The Giver) and as a way of seeing the world around me more clearly (1984)—this was a bit of an odd question. It’s not that I didn’t think dystopian fiction was concerned with the future—I obviously did. It’s more that I had never thought “warning” me about the future was dystopian fiction’s highest priority.

This is a bit of a fine distinction. But George Orwell once said, “1984 was based chiefly on communism, because that is the dominant form of totalitarianism, but I was trying to imagine what communism would be like if it were firmly rooted in the English speaking countries.” The book’s primary concern is Orwell’s present, not his future—his observations of Stalinist government (right down to Big Brother with his big mustache a la Trotsky), and of his own. That doesn’t mean the book can’t also be a warning about the future, but it’s not a step by step guidebook on resisting totalitarianism. It makes us open our eyes to now. It said (and still says, which is why it’s so brilliant), this is already happening. This is what the world is like now.

Lately I’ve been seeing sentiments like “Dystopian fiction failed us” and “what’s the point of dystopian fiction now?” here and there. They’re primarily an expression of grief, and I’m not here to critique them or the people who say them—I understand the sentiment and have felt it myself. For example, last year, Elon Musk shared a graphic on Twitter basically aligning himself with dystopian heroines like Katniss and yes, Tris. That’s right, the world’s wealthiest man thinks of himself as a scrappy teenager fighting against oppression. (Oppression by whom, I wonder, when he’s one of the most powerful people alive and has aligned himself with the people who have total control over our government?) It seems impossible to me that he would believe he’s like the hero of those stories. I saw that graphic and yeah, I for sure felt like I’d failed. But I reminded myself that I can’t control what people take away from their reading. And if he didn’t catch the “you are not the hero of this resistance narrative” vibe from The Hunger Games, well, that’s not because Suzanne Collins wasn’t clear.

If you believe the primary purpose of dystopia is to warn us and steer us, then I guess you’re right—we’ve fallen into all its traps all over again, and it’s not doing its job. I’m not sure I agree, though. I think dystopian fiction’s highest priority is the same as most literature: to express something true about now. It simply does so in an exaggerated way. The “warning” is a side effect of that. But if you believe that now is the genre’s highest priority, rather than the future, it does change whether you think it’s still worth something, whether you think dystopian fiction is “doing its job.”

I recently made a list of dystopian recommendations. Those books exist on a spectrum of “blistering” to “less blistering” in terms of social critique. Some of them were dreamlike, more fable than realistic. Some put the “dystopia” in the background, with a different plot— cat and mouse pursuit, locked room thriller, or even romance—in the foreground. Each of them, without exception, expresses something true about now.

“I wouldn’t call The Seep ‘dystopian’,” someone in Chana Porter’s comments section said (in a nice way). They had a point—The Seep is about the world’s best alien invasion, where the aliens just want us to be happy and at peace, and give us endless possibilities. But the lovely, true thing about The Seep is its gentle exploration of how getting what we want, whenever we want, sucks some of the marrow out of life…and doesn’t spare us from grief. I look around myself now and I see certain parts of our world exhorting me to pursue constant pleasure and to avoid any and all discomfort, and I think about that novella, about the emptiness on the other side of the constant, immediate satisfaction of my needs.

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew is a dystopian romance. I’ve seen some scornful comments online, not about this book, but about the very idea of “dystopian romance.” I want to encourage people to see that this isn’t an either/or situation— you can’t either have meaningful social critique or romance. It’s a both/and. The Dividing Sky describes a corporate nightmare world where people outsource their meaningful social and emotional connections so that they can increase their productivity, which…listen, that’s a little too familiar, right? And in the midst of this too-real system, two people find each other and fall in love.

“Dystopia” is now. The value of dystopian fiction is in showing you what’s already around you. And you know what else is now? You and your spouse, going on dates. You and your kids, laughing at the dinner table. You and your friends, going to see Superman and discussing David Corenswet’s dimples. You singing along to KPop Demon Hunters’ soundtrack in the car. These stories—these precious stories—also have a place in dystopian fiction. Reading about people falling in love in a dystopia is not me trying to escape my reality. It’s me trying to believe that goodness still exists and is worth fighting for in my right now.

I want to see the world expressed back to me truly— yes. I want to see the capitalist hellscape, the totalitarian hellscape, the technological hellscape, revealed to me in fiction, yes. Because that fiction says, what you see is real. It’s a relief for a book to acknowledge your reality and to communicate to you that it sees what you see.

But let’s not underestimate the power of other stories emerging from that expression of truth. A love story. An adventure. A quiet tale of grief. It’s okay for a book to acknowledge that these smaller, or lighter, or softer stories exist in the midst of hardship. Because those are our stories. Those, too, are our now. And if the job of dystopian fiction is to reveal us to ourselves—a more expansive, inclusive definition of “dystopian fiction”—then there has to be space for that kind of “now,” too.

Every book doesn’t have to do everything. That’s why we have so many of them. There’s a place for Hum by Helen Phillips, showcasing the horrors of constant noise and distraction, among other things. There’s a place for The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien, creating a parallel to our collapsing world as it takes you on an adventure. There’s a place for the gentlest shades of dystopia, there only if you squint. There’s a place for mysteries, adventures, and romance. There’s a place for our harrowing Hunger Games and our “what if love was outlawed? what would we lose?” thought exercises. And yeah, there’s a place for Divergent, too. It doesn’t have to do every job that a dystopian book can do, and it doesn’t have to be as solemn and incisive as the most solemn and incisive dystopian books on Earth; I release myself and all other authors from that charge. And I release you, too, from only thinking of this subgenre as a collection of guidebooks that tell you what not to do. That is not the job of fiction.

I’ll finish with a quote from Ursula LeGuin:

I’m not saying fiction is meaningless or useless. Far from it. I believe storytelling is one of the most useful tools we have for achieving meaning: it serves to keep our communities together by asking and saying who we are, and it’s one of the best tools an individual has to find out who I am, what life may ask of me and how I can respond.

But that’s not the same as having a message. The complex meanings of a serious story or novel can be understood only by participation in the language of the story itself. To translate them into a message or reduce them to a sermon distorts, betrays, and destroys them.

This is because a work of art is understood not by the mind only, but by the emotions and by the body itself.

Who are we? We are the highs and the lows, and we are sometimes both at once.

V

Hello everyone from still-summery Chicago!

I am delusionally wearing warm clothes in an attempt to summon fall weather and finishing copyedits on a project I can’t tell you anything about yet. (Yay?) But today I have news about a new, fancy edition of Divergent, some quick recs, a giveaway of Seek the Traitor’s Son, and some events I’ll be doing in NYC.

First things first:

A Deluxe Limited Edition of Divergent will be available early at BookCon 2026!

If you’re coming to BookCon 2026 and you like your books extra pretty, I’ve got some great news for you— you can be the first to grab a deluxe limited edition of Divergent, on sale early. There’s a redesigned jacket! A gorgeous foiled case! Unique endpapers! Stenciled edges! Bonus content! AND I’ll be making an exciting announcement at the con. 🤐

*Edit: I want to note, because I think this has been unclear (my fault!)— this edition is available to everyone, not just people attending BookCon. You can find the various retailer links on the right side of this page if you’d like to preorder. Sorry for any confusion!

Some Quick Recs

I had a very stubborn stomach bug that really took me out of commission, and I didn’t feel up to doing much work. Here’s what I did instead:

I killed robot animals with arrows in Horizon Zero Dawn. If you haven’t played this game yet…it is worth pushing through the occasionally-tedious beginning. The first time you go through a Cauldron, you will be hooked, hooked I say!

This book would be good in any format, but I particularly recommend the audiobook, since the narrative chapters are interspersed with excerpts from a podcast. It was funny, twisty, and engaging— definitely worth a listen, if you like mysteries and are looking for something new.

I’ve watched this show before but never finished it (particularly because Andre Braugher died, and what a loss that was). But come for Captain Holt’s general everything, stay for Jake looking lovingly at Amy as she unleashes the full force of her Type A nature— that’s what I call romance. (Also, the one who makes me laugh the most is Boyle. Not what I expected!)

Apart from that, I ate saltine crackers and created a cocoon out of linen blankets.

Seek the Traitor’s Son : Galley Giveaway

Sooo…if you want to be one of the earliest readers of my next book, Seek the Traitor’s Son, there’s a Goodreads giveaway you can enter! Seek the Traitor’s Son is a big romantic dystopian fantasy about the daughter of a bounty hunter, the Knight sworn to protect her…and the prophecy that ruins both their lives. Out in May!

Enter Here

Upcoming Events

The tour has been a whirlwind so far–I’ve eaten quite a few Baked Lays (Dymitr’s (and my) favorite airport snack), stood beneath two arches (St. Louis and Vandalia, IL, naturally), and generally loved talking writing, reading, and all things books with all the lovely people who attended. THANK YOU so much for coming out. If you’d like to catch me in NYC, I have two more events coming up:

New York Comic-Con: October 10 - 11

I’ll be at NYCC signing books on both days, talking about bending genres and To Clutch a Razor.

The Traveling SFF Book Festival 2025: Oct 13

I’ll be at P&T Knitwear with Micaiah Johnson, Matthew Kressel, Yume Kitasei, and Julia Vee! The event starts at 6:30pm. Tickets here!

All right, that’s all I’ve got for you this week! If you haven’t yet, go, order a copy of To Clutch a Razor! I’d really appreciate it if you left a review on Goodreads or Amazon.

V

He says, “Come on, I want to see if the shop has Baked Lay’s,” and she decides to save the brainstorming for another time.

Instead, she makes a face. “The entire array of American snack foods is in front of you, and you’re on a quest for Baked Lay’s? They taste like almost nothing.”

“No, they taste both salty and bland,” he says. “All the comfort of a saltine cracker but with the satisfying snap of a chip.”

“Are the Lay’s people paying you to say this? Blink twice if you’re being blackmailed.”

Dymitr just grins, and leads the way to the store. Ala ignores the gnawing in her stomach. It feels a lot like dread.

In this scene, Dymitr is me.

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To Clutch A Razor, sequel to When Among Crows, is out today! It’s been awhile since I had a sequel to anything come out, and I’m pretty excited for this one. Since I’d already built the sandbox, I just got to play in it, and in To Clutch A Razor, everything is deeper— the relationships, the worldbuilding, the characters’ histories and personalities. TCAR is like the dark chocolate to When Among Crows’ milk chocolate— still a treat, but a little more complicated flavor-wise.

Last night at the event in Los Angeles we talked about this book being about family—it’s like the worst family gathering…ever was my joke. And that’s true. I think most people understand the feeling of hiding parts of yourself away around family, or certain family members. For some people, that’s just run-of-the-mill stuff like not swearing around Grandma; for other people, it’s all the best, most genuine, most interesting parts of them that have to be tucked away. And that can be painful—the pain of not being known, and not being seen.

But sometimes you find friends who do know you, and who will walk with you through the hardest moments. And that’s what To Clutch A Razor is about— the (exaggerated through fantasy) hardships of reuniting with a family that doesn’t really see you, and the wonder of friendship in the midst of it.

I hope you love it.

Sometimes people ask me what’s actually helpful for an author when it comes to supporting their book. The biggest answer is just to buy it or request it from your library, of course! But if you’re feeling particularly enthused about this or any other book, here’s some things you can do that authors really appreciate (and they really do make a difference):

Order a copy for yourself or a friend. Grab it from your local independent bookstore, of course (I suggest The Book Stall or The Book Cellar!) but if that’s not something that’s available to you there’s also Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Walmart

Share the cover reveal on Instagram, Facebook, or Threads with your network.

Mark the book “Want to read” on Goodreads. Yes, believe it or not, this does help a book get some visibility!

If you’ve read it already, leave a review wherever you bought it, or on Amazon or Goodreads.

And hey, if you’re in a book club, consider suggesting the book (To Clutch A Razor, in this case!) for your next read. Spread the wonderful agony to your unsuspecting friends and neighbors! They’ll love it!

No matter what, dziękuję (that means “thank you”) to everyone who has offered up their enthusiasm for this book! I so appreciate you.

Just Some Goodies

A TCAR Playlist:

Some songs I listened to while writing. Spotify link to a playlist for both books in the series here.

ANIMAL - PVRIS

ANXIETY - Lilyisthatyou

Lonely Dancers - Conan Gray

Eat Them Apples - Suzie Wu

Shine - Collective Soul

Forest - System of a Down

Zegar Bije - Albert Pyśk

A Tear In Space - Glass Animals

Hellhounds of the Deep - Karliene

Simmer - Hayley Williams

Smoke & Retribution - Flume, Vince Staples, Kučka

Ghost - Saint Mesa

A Starred Review:

(From Publisher’s Weekly. Some spoilers ahead!)

In bestseller Roth’s equally emotional and action-packed second Curse Bearer fantasy (after When Among Crows), series hero Dymitr contends with the consequences of his actions. Once a monster-hunting Knight of the Holy Order, Dymitr doomed himself to life as a zmora, a creature that feeds on human fear, when he gave up his prized bone sword to Baba Jaga. Baba Jaga agrees to give back Dymitr’s sword, but only if he completes a horrifying task: killing 33 Holy Order knights, his own kin. Dymitr balks and seeks a workaround, hoping that stealing a spell book from his family home will be enough to appease the witch. The death of his uncle gives Dymitr the perfect excuse to return to Poland, despite his apprehension about facing his family. His friend Ala tags along apparently to help Dymitr with his quest, but really for secret reasons of her own. Meanwhile, Niko—Dymitr’s love interest and a strzygón, a creature that feeds on anger—travels to Poland in hopes of killing a Knight known as “The Razor.” As the trio’s tasks become intertwined, Roth ratchets up the stakes—with bloody consequences. Roth’s darker sequel maintains the seamless worldbuilding of the previous book while giving each member of the main trio a distinct and well-developed character arc; probing themes of intergenerational trauma, familial duty, and morality; and setting the stage for the finale. It’s impressive work.

I’m headed to Des Moines today and St. Louis tomorrow and Indiana the day after that! Come see me if you can!

<3,

V

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I’m going to start with a big TL;DR because this newsletter will have a lot of INFO. The places I will be this year are: Los Angeles, Des Moines, St. Louis, Franklin (IN), Naperville (IL), Salt Lake City (for FanX), and New York City (for NYCC, but also another event!).

If you are in none of those places, you can tune into a Q&A with Maude’s Book Club on October 1st— info here!

But if you can make it out to an event, please do! It’ll be a great time to chat with me and other readers and (for the most part) support your local independent bookstore, which is very important for the overall book ecosystem.

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MIDWESTERNLY-BIASED TOUR TIME! Ope, sorry to the coasts, I’m (mostly) staying in casserole country for this tour. But I’ll be traveling for my upcoming book next year, too, so if you miss me this time around, I might be closer to you in May.

Monday, September 15th: Los Angeles, CA

at 7pm, with Olivie Blake!

Event Info

Tuesday, September 16th: Des Moines, IA

at 6:30pm, with Kali White VanBaale!

Event Info

Wednesday, September 17th: St. Louis

at 7pm, with J.R. Dawson!

Event Info

Thursday, September 18th: Franklin, IN

at 6:30pm, flying solo!

Event Info

Thursday, September 25th: Naperville, IL

at 7pm, with Holly Black!

Event Info

Friday, September 26th and Saturday, September 27th: FanX in Salt Lake City, Utah

My schedule isn’t confirmed yet, but if you’re attending the convention, you can check for updates here.

Friday, October 10th and Saturday, October 11th: New York Comic-Con

I’m on two panels, with a signing after each one.

Monday, October 13th: New York City

I’m doing an event with Cassandra Khaw, Micaiah Johnson, Yume Kitasei, and Julia Vee! Details TK but check this site for updates.

I hope to see you here, there, or somewhere!

<3,

V

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Hello!

First:

NEW BOOK OUT IN MAY.

Like a whole, full-length book! That starts a short series!

This announcement has been a long time coming. I sold SEEK THE TRAITOR’S SON almost exactly two years ago, and I started writing it in September 2019. So when I say I’ve been sitting on this for a long time, I really mean it.

I’d really love to tell you the behind-the-scenes story of this book, because I’d also like to talk about books of the heart, books of the mind, and books of the gut, as I think of them— but basically, about how some books feel different from others when you’re writing them. It’s going to be a bit longer, so if all you want to know is the quick rundown of this particular book announcement, read the above ^ but also, this is my quick pitch:

SEEK THE TRAITOR’S SON is a big romantic kinda-dystopian kinda-fantasy story about the daughter of a bounty hunter, the knight sworn to protect her, and the prophecy that ruins both of their lives. It comes out in May 2026!

And now, to dive in.

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You hear writers talk about “the book of my heart” sometimes; they mean a book that’s dear to them in some special way. That has always sounded lovely to me, but the phrase has never resonated. It feels at odd with my general ruthlessness. I maintain a little more distance from my writing; I will straight up cut 100 pages without batting an eye. (I know! I’ve seen me do it!)

But I think the phrase “book of my heart” expresses something important, which is that not every book feels the same way while you’re writing it. So here goes.

BOOKS OF THE MIND

Even though I started it in 2019, the story of SEEK THE TRAITOR’S SON is very 2020. My adult debut, CHOSEN ONES, came out April 2020, the second week of lockdown, and listen: that’s not the environment any author wants for a book release. I was constantly refreshing that scary map of Covid spread and then putting on my lipstick for online events, what the actual fuck. It kind of broke my brain, which is why I nixed my plans for a Chosen Ones sequel (not necessary; the book stands on its own) and wrote Poster Girl instead. And Poster Girl reflects the solemn feeling that had settled over me during that time.

This pretty much covers it. My island was called “Doom”

Chosen Ones and Poster Girl are books of the mind. I don’t want you to think that means I didn’t love them. What it means is that what got me excited about them was their ideas. I knew what they would explore (alternate history, for Chosen Ones, and deprogramming/indoctrination, for Poster Girl) and what shape they would take. I put their outlines together like I was putting together puzzles. Poster Girl, in particular, came to me clear and crisp. I’ve never had that kind of clarity while writing before.

But while writing this duo of standalones, I found it difficult to write a lot in one sitting. I’d also write two paragraphs and delete one, write two and delete one. This may sound very typical to some of you, but it was not typical for me— in general, I write fast and I write many drafts to find my way through a story. This lurching pace was really unsettling to me.

When I reread sections of those books now, hot damn, I am so pleased with how they turned out. I’m proud of me for rising to the challenge of both of them. I assume that throughout my life, I will write certain books this way, books of the mind. But not all of them. Because for me, there’s another kind of book, and I just can’t call them “books of the heart,” because that feels too tender for what they are to me. Instead, I call them…

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BOOKS OF THE GUT

While I was writing Chosen Ones and Poster Girl, I was also cheating on them with another project, nicknamed “A&A.”

September 2019! We were so young then…

A&A started with me rediscovering a snippet of a discarded project, and rewriting it with new characters and a new world that I invented by feeling my way around in the dark. In November 2019, I was done with the Chosen Ones manuscript and starting to do very early promotion for it. I remember coming back from a visit to my publisher to an empty house, my husband on his own trip. I started writing and I didn’t stop for six hours. No eating, no drinking, no sleeping. Full-on fugue state.

Around that time.

I had no plans and no ambitions for this project. I was looking at it with the cynicism of the industry at my back, looking at it like it was silly because it was romantic and indulgent and full of wish fulfillment. But whenever I was between drafts, between events, between whatever, I would get it out again, and usually I would start over.

Yes, really: I would start over from the beginning over and over again, with some change, big or small, that I wanted to experiment with. I’d write in a new POV (first person? third person?) or create a new love interest (a woman? a man?) or play with genre (science fiction? fantasy? somewhere in between?). I’d make the main character harder or softer, soft-spoken or bitter. Once I even tried to write it as YA (that did NOT work).

These early drafts (all of them written in the same Scrivener file) amount to 429,214 words. For those of you who don’t think in words, that’s about four Divergents.

Or approximately all four of these circled books combined.

Eventually I told some writer friends about this project that kept stealing my focus. But I made sure to emphasize that it was just a silly project I worked on to let off steam while I was writing this difficult-but-rewarding, moody book of the mind, Poster Girl. I wasn’t taking it seriously. One of them replied to my big explanation of the book with the comment, “V, it kind of seems like you ARE taking this book seriously.”

Now, why would you attack me like that, unnamed friend?

Once Poster Girl was released, I thought, why am I limiting this book in advance? Why am I treating it like people so often treat romance— like a guilty pleasure? Why can’t my next book be as fun as humanly possible? So I decided, fuck it. I’m gonna make it as fun as humanly possible. 1

I’ve written other books this way. Divergent, most notably; but also Carve the Mark, which I wrote with no one watching simply because I wanted to, and most recently When Among Crows, which I wrote when I was supposed to be working on another Greek tragedy retelling. Those are my books of the gut—the books I wrote because I felt a hunger for them.

“Book of the Gut” works for me because it communicates the desperation I feel when I write them—but also the ruthlessness with which I shape them, gutting them and ripping them to shreds as I work on them so that the very best version of them can emerge from the carnage. Carve the Mark is the book I cut 100 pages from without batting an eye; Divergent is the book where I chose the agent who gave me nine single-spaced pages of notes over the one who didn’t think it needed that much editing; and Seek the Traitor’s Son is the book I found through repetitive and rigorous experimentation.

With Seek the Traitor’s Son, I set out to invent a completely new universe that I could live in for a long time—a container for a wide variety of stories, which I’d never done before. I replayed the Mass Effect games again and thought, this, this is what I want. I want everything I like. I want the wonder and mystery of space, and I want something that feels like magic; I want Earth and I want places that feel nothing at all like Earth.

I took my characters from 429,214 words of experiments and I put them in a new world. A world that I created out of pure creative greed. I want, I want, I want—like a ravenous creature with an empty stomach, I stuffed my story with everything delicious. Fancy outfits and mysterious rituals and swords and armor and special powers and magical fevers that kill you for days before resurrecting you as something else; a space station packed with languages from an Earth that no longer exists, a planet of ruins, a glowing plant that connects people across space.

And at the center of it all: Theren—quiet and resilient and strong, but definitely not an alpha male. And Elegy—sharp and funny and afraid of herself, afraid of how big and powerful and important she can be.

I have loved every single second of working on this book. All together, I have written over a million words of this story— and that’s not even counting the sequel (which, by the way, is already finished, I just have to do another round of edits). Every time I get to sit down with Seek the Traitor’s Son again, I experience that all-consuming feeling—the feeling of a story buzzing inside me, alive in my entire body.

But this is the lesson, for me: not all books feel the same. By the time they reach readers, though, the differences may not be obvious at all. For a writer, the key is not to panic when one project feels distinct from the others—just because you felt all-consuming obsession with one and had to really push yourself through another, that doesn’t make one more valuable than the other. It just might make one easier to write.

Seek the Traitor’s Son is a romantic dystopian fantasy epic—all of those words are accurate, but they’re also just my best attempt to describe this book of my gut, this thing I created out of pure creative joy and experimentation and Id and hunger. I can’t wait to share it with you.

-V

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1

My version of fun, anyway, which means: deliciously angsty.

Hello!

It’s been awhile, guys! I have to be honest with you, the reason for the delay is…the world. There’s so much going on every day that I’m having trouble parsing it all. Or any of it.

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” is one of my favorite writing quotes (E.M. Forster). Writing is how I make sense of myself, so if I find my mind empty (or, say, blank with panic) I sometimes look at what emerges from my writing. So instead of trying to say something new, I’m just going to give you this quote from Poster Girl, which came out in 2022.

"I did this because I don’t think anyone should have this data. Because I believe in creating stable systems. […] Just because you're not committing a crime now, by going where you go, by seeing who you see, doesn't mean that another government, another set of people with another set of priorities, won't come along and call you a criminal one day. The players change, the rules change, that's an inevitability. The most we can do is build a board that restricts what's possible. We can create limits to power. Understand?"

Hm.

Well, here’s what’s within my control: any space of mine will be as kind and welcoming as I can make it. If you are looking for suggestions on how to handle *gestures* all of this, may I recommend 5calls.org as a resource, as well as mutual aid orgs in your area. In Chicago you should check out Brave Space Alliance - which is not necessarily mutual aid? I don’t know the exact definitions. But it does good work. Also: Market Box!

With all that said, let me tell you about something fun. I think we could all use it.

Today I’m going to talk to you about a reality of publishing— at least, traditional publishing, which is the world that I occupy— that I’ve never been in the position to discuss before, which is: working on multiple projects at once, and how that goes. Like, in your brain.

It’s like a relay race, only 50% of the people passing the baton are…you.

First, some terms: I use letter codes for my works-in-progress. I’m currently at different points in five projects: TCAR (To Clutch A Razor, out September 16th), A&A1 and 2, and HDB 1 and 2. I can’t tell you about four of them, yet; luckily you don’t need to know to understand this newsletter. But here’s what my schedule has been for the past year-ish.

November 2023 - April 2024: Rough Drafting A&A-2

May 2024: Promoting When Among Crows

June - July 2024: Rough Drafting TCAR

August - November 2024: Rough Drafting HDB

two-week break in there for revising TCAR

December 2024: Revising A&A-1 (from my own notes)

one-week break in there for revising TCAR

January 2025-February 2025: Revising HDB (from early reader’s notes)

few-day break for TCAR copyedits

March 2025: Revising A&A-1 Again (from edit notes)

few-day break for TCAR proofreading notes

April 2025: Revising HDB (from edit notes)

That’s a lot of back and forth, right? So let’s talk about how it works.

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First:

WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF?

Short answer: because it offers certain career advantages. In the industry we like to say that nothing sells backlist like frontlist— to translate, nothing sells your old books like a new book. Basically, you use the attention you get for something new to remind people you exist and have other books. For me, it’s a little different, because my backlistiest backlist is Divergent, and it still sells. But! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people tell me they had no idea I wrote anything other than Divergent. This is always slightly deflating and slightly encouraging at the same time. Deflating because, you know, no one wants to ONLY be known for the work they did when they were twenty-two years old. But encouraging because if they’re saying it, that means that thanks to some new book of mine that caught their attention, they now know not only about that new book, but every book I’ve written in between Divergent and now. Victory!

Usually (but not always), these projects occupy slightly different (or very different) places in the market. One might be for a different age category (middle grade, young adult, or adult), or in a different genre (romance, fantasy, mystery, etc.), or in a different format (graphic novel, regular novel). If they’re too wildly different, they don’t always help each other. But even books that occupy the same general area can take up a slightly different space in the market.

For example: Poster Girl was a more “grounded” science fiction read, so it ended up in a lot of places that are for “general fiction” readers instead of sci-fi readers; it was also a mystery, so I was welcomed into a couple mystery-oriented spaces, too. But When Among Crows is urban fantasy that doesn’t feel unfriendly to the YA crowd, so I went to a few YA events and to an assortment of Comic-Cons. See what I mean? There’s some overlap there, but the overlap is not perfect, so in theory, I catch slightly different people each time.

A BRIEF CAVEAT

People get all weird when creative types admit they do things like…strategize. It doesn’t fit that well into the whole “I do this for the pure love of it” sensitive artist vibe that people prefer from creative people. But I…hate that. So my caveat is that just because you do something on purpose and as effectively as possible doesn’t mean you don’t love it or have passion for it. It means that because you love the thing, you want to give it the best possible chance of reaching the people you want it to reach. Creativity and strategy and practicality can all join hands and be friends. And actually, the more you can let them do that, the better off you’ll be as a whole human being in the publishing industry.

OKAY BUT LITERALLY HOW, THOUGH

A lot of people find it hard to switch rapidly between different projects. I used to be one of them. But here’s what works for me (your mileage, as ever, may vary). First, on a grand scale: make a calendar.

If you’re at a traditional publisher, you can ask your editor when they’re anticipating particular stages such as: working backward from the release date, roughly when will you get first pass pages? How about copyedits? How about line edits? How about…your editorial letter? Like authors, not all editors have highly organized minds— but there is a rough timeline that each book has to follow. As long as you’re willing to be flexible, they’ll probably be willing to give you some sense of the timing.

Making a calendar helps prepare your brain for what’s coming. It also makes it easier to see when you have wiggle room in case something goes wrong. (Note: something will go wrong.)

I’m a big fan of walks. Here’s the first flower I found on one this spring.BUT LIKE, TELL ME ABOUT GETTING YOUR BRAIN ON BOARD

The actual process of getting myself to switch gears between projects might be what you’re wondering about, so I’ll get to it. Here’s my basic process once I’ve turned in a draft and need to switch to a different story:

Stop telling myself it’s hard. I don’t believe I can fully think my way out of hard things, but it takes the difficulty down to 70% when I tell myself I can figure this out, because I have to. It works for me, I don’t know.

Take some time. I believe you should always rest once you’ve turned in a draft. Rest, see some friends, watch something you like, read a book that has nothing to do with your book, go on walks, take good care of yourself. How much time you take depends on how much you CAN take. But take some.

Go on a walk and listen to your book’s playlist. I make playlists for every single book I write, so for me, this is easy. If you don’t have a playlist, try making one. Just fill it with songs that remind you of your book or make it easier to picture things from your book. On the walk, let the images play out in your mind (if you’re someone who can picture things). Think about why you’re writing this story, what your favorite parts are, what you’re looking forward to working on most.

Do some rereading. Don’t go back and edit— I mean it, even if you’re someone who edits as they go! Just this once, try reading it just to read it, not to pick at it. It’s a different mindset. Whether it’s your outline or a scene or a whole section, just remind yourself what the voice sounds like.

Don’t expect it to feel good right away. When you get started right after the switch, you’re probably going to feel weird and detached from the story and it may take you an hour to write a paragraph that’s worth a damn. So just stop expecting to be in the flow right away. Press on. Sometimes writing feels like scrubbing a toilet, as I’ve said before (and will say again). Even if you have to delete the scene the next day, you got over the first hump, and that’s great.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT RULE

No cheating, basically. I don’t let myself think about the other project, even if my mind tries to return to it. I don’t listen to the songs on that project’s playlist, I don’t talk about it— it’s as if the other project does not exist.

The interesting thing about that— pretending the other project doesn’t exist, with as much mental discipline as I can muster— is that when I have to tag back in on the other project, I find that the forced mental distance has given me some good perspective on that story’s problems and challenges. Not thinking about it is like relaxing a muscle that you’ve been flexing. If you rest that muscle, it’ll be a lot better at flexing again when you need it.

So! Next time it seems like your favorite author is talking about three different projects…they probably are? In my particular sphere of exposure, there are more authors doing this ^^^ than working on one book at a time. (But it depends on what kinds of books they write. “Beefy tome” writers tend to have a longer-term writing strategy.)

And I can’t wait until I can ACTUALLY TELL YOU ABOUT THESE PROJECTS FOR THE LOVE OF—

V

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Hello!

Right off the bat, if you didn’t know there’s a sequel to When Among Crows coming out on September 16th, I have great news for you: there’s a sequel to When Among Crows coming out on September 16th. It’s called TO CLUTCH A RAZOR, and the cover looks like this:

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I have been obsessed with it since it first landed in my inbox months ago. The art is by Eleonor Piteira, who also did the art for When Among Crows, and the cover design is by Katie Klimowicz and Shreya Gupta.

If you’re wondering “hey, why are there two Dymitrs on that cover?”, trust me, you will understand once you read it.

The title comes from the Polish expression, tonący brzytwy się chwyta, which roughly translates to “a drowning man will clutch at a razor”—basically, a drowning man is so desperate that he will grab anything to save himself. It’s often translated in English as “a drowning man clutches at straws,” which I feel loses the entire element of desperation that the original expression communicates. You have to be pretty damn desperate to grab a razor blade to save yourself from drowning. Straws, not so much.

It’s the perfect expression for this story, and here’s the synopsis:

A funeral. A heist. A mission born of desperation.

When someone in Dymitr’s family dies, he’s called back home for the Empty Night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay.

The secret Dymitr is keeping from them makes returning home downright dangerous, but if he wants to get his hands on a book of curses that might appease Baba Jaga’s blood lust, he has no choice. And when that same funeral brings ferocious creature-of-legend Niko to town for his own bloody purposes, Dymitr’s charade becomes impossible to maintain.

Family gatherings can be brutal. Dymitr’s might just be fatal.

If you remember what happens to Dymitr at the end of When Among Crows, you’ll know that returning home to his family is…definitely the choice of a desperate man. What if they find out what he’s really like? And how will they seem to him, now that he’s made such an important decision about himself?

Writing this was so much fun. And the great thing about a sequel is that I could work on deepening and complicating the character relationships now that they’ve already “met” and chosen each other. Plus: new creatures you may not have heard of (and some you likely have!).

Preorder it here or at your favorite retailer.

<3,

V

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 2024 edition of Book Recs for Very Specific Moods, a thing I did last year and really enjoyed and decided to do again. The theme this year is “reading to cope,” because of course it is.

Hope you enjoy your holidays and the end of 2024. May these books buoy you through difficult times.

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I’m Tired of Making Decisions

So just, like…recommend something good. Please.

The City of Brass - S.A. Chakraborty

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

This book has been out for awhile and I’ve seen it recommended by approximately one billion people, and I was like SURELY THEY OVERSTATE HOW GOOD THIS IS. Well, shows what I know. Stop resisting! Just read it!

The City in Glass – Nghi Vo

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

Nghi Vo’s particular magic is that she makes things feel old and brand new at the same time. Like a story that’s always existed and has been retold for centuries, but also something you’ve never heard before. She’s so good I’m honestly a little mad about it. (Not really. But maybe?!)

Numb and Desperate to Feel Something

A book that will sneak up on you with feelings.

Asunder – Kerstin Hall

We choose our own gods here.

Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch entity—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.

Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.

And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.

I have unleashed my thoughts about this book on Goodreads, as I am wont to do, but I’ll do it again here: what got me to pick it up was the feeling that this book might end up being about someone falling in love with the person they’ve unwittingly bound to share a body with themselves, and I found that possibility to be desperately tragic and romantic, and let me tell you— it IS about that, and it’s also about a hundred other interesting, creative, fun, achy, dark, cruel, touching, horrifying, wonderful things.

Screw the Village, I’m With the Monster

This is kind of self-explanatory, no?

Someone You Can Build a Nest In – John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.

However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.

Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.

Again, I must direct you to my gushing, but basically I found this to be a very fun read that puts you in the alien-yet-familiar headspace of a monster. (About spaghetti, the monster observes: “Slightly strange. It's like an evasive bread.”) And like, who among us has not felt monstrous and murderous from time to time. Hashtag relatable.

On Kupala Night, Dymitr arrives in Chicago’s monstrous, magical underworld with a perilous mission: pick the mythical fern flower and offer it to a cursed creature in exchange for help finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga.

Ala is a fear-eating zmora afflicted with a bloodline curse that’s slowly killing her. She's just desperate enough to say yes, even if she doesn’t know Dymitr’s motives.Over the course of one night, Ala and Dymitr risk life and limb in search of Baba Jaga, and begin to build a tentative friendship… but when Ala finds out what Dymitr is hiding, it could destroy them both.

Listen, it’s my newsletter, I get to recommend my own book. When I pitch this really quick I say it’s The Wizard of Oz meets The Witcher, in the sense that the monsters are mostly from Polish folklore with the accompanying darkness and brutality that lore implies, and it’s about people who find each other along their journey to see the wizard AKA Baba Jaga— and form a meaningful bond quickly. Do you want to feel the good kind of ache that comes from clicking the “hurt/comfort” box on ao3? Well, here you go. (If that question makes no sense to you, you probably leave your house more often than I do.)

I Listened to “Simple Times” by Kacey Musgraves and Really Took It To Heart

I need to step away/If I don't, I'm gonna go insane/'Cause being grown up kind of sucks/And I'm really just missing the simple times, uh huh

Twelfth Knight - Alexene Farol Follmuth

Viola Reyes is annoyed.

Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.

But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.

As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…

This book transported me, not just back to high school (though: yes, I did identify with Vi’s overly intense buzzkill tendencies, as I was definitely like that as a teenager and sometimes I still am), but also to a kind of golden age of well-written, character-focused, mostly-lighthearted contemporary YA. If you’re feeling really overwhelmed at the end of this year, I invite you to escape…into this.

Read if you like anything by Maurene Goo, and if you haven’t read any Maurene Goo, you should also do that.

Curled Up On the Couch Watching Police Procedurals For Comfort

Let’s face it: all police procedurals are fantasy because they always catch the bad guy. This one’s also got magic in it.

The Tainted Cup – Robert Jackson Bennett

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.

I know I’m having a hard time in life when I find myself binge-watching police procedurals (may I recommend: Elementary). The familiar beats of crime-solving are really satisfying to read—you know what will happen ultimately (investigator will find the answer, duh) but the mental puzzle is a delight. The Tainted Cup offers you that puzzle, but it puts the puzzle inside a truly excellent world that will light up all the fantasy-loving parts of your brain.

Born to GO! Forced to Stay

When you feel the call of adventure but you have to, like, go to work, and stuff.

The Stardust Grail - Yume Kitasei

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations—until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.

Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren’t the only ones hunting for it.

Maya sets out on a breakneck quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.

I sort of pitch this book casually as “Indiana Jones in SPACE” and I think, per my conversation with Yume at ALA earlier this year, I’m not alone— this is a wild ride of a book that still manages to be emotionally resonant and meaningful. Here’s what I said about it.

Mad At Everything and Ready to Rumble

*cracks knuckles*

Those Beyond the Wall – Micaiah Johnson

Faced with a coming apocalypse, a woman must reckon with her past to solve a series of sudden and inexplicable deaths in a searing sci-fi thriller from the Compton Crook Award–winning author of The Space Between Worlds.

Scales is the best at what she does. She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in Ashtown; a rough, climate-ravaged desert town. But that fragile peace is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed within Ash's borders, right in front of Scales's eyes. Even more incomprehensible is that there was seemingly no murderer.

When more mutilated bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause—and putting an end to it. She teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist in order to uncover the truth, delving into both worlds to track down the invisible killer. But what they find points to something bigger and more corrupt than they could've ever foreseen—and it could spell doom for the entire world.

This is the second book in a duology, the first of which is The Space Between Worlds. Micaiah Johnson infuses her futuristic world with Mad Max vibes and rage against the machine (the machine in this case being an unfair system with a huge class and privilege disparity, helloooo). So if you currently feel an anger that craves expression, well, you’re welcome for telling you to read this.

Kindness Persists and So Do I

For when you want to remember that there’s goodness in the world.

Paladin’s Grace - T. Kingfisher

Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair.

Feel like reading a story about two deeply kind yet wounded people who find love while also solving a murder? I feel like I don’t really need to pitch this book harder than that.

Also: psst, next fall you’re gonna get a sequel to When Among Crows.

Happy reading! And happy end-of-2024! I GUESS!

-V

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I’m not sure, because I didn’t take any pictures of my own, but I think the last time I was across the pond was for the Insurgent movie premiere in London. Apologies to whoever took this photo; it’s the only one I found saved on my computer and I don’t know where it came from.

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Aw.

Also, I loved that skirt.

Anyway, I am very happy to be going back! I hope you can come out and join me! I’ll be in conversation at each stop, I believe, but we’re still firming up those details. Here are the links to more details for each stop:

October 25-27 - MCM Comic Con

Tickets to the convention here.

I’ll be doing two panels and three signings at the convention. You can see the details of my schedule .

October 28th - Liverpool

7pm. Tickets and info here.

October 29th - London

7pm. Tickets and info here.

November 8th - Edinburgh

7:30pm. Tickets and info here.

I solemnly promise not to attempt any accents while I am visiting your region. Unless it’s while quoting my Polish grandfather. (I’m also bad at that one but you’re less likely to notice.)

Cheers! (JUST ONE, SORRY.)

-V

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