C.S.E. Cooney's Blog

There is No Lovely End, Only Lovely Here

For Patty Templeton
by C. S. E. Cooney
On the occasion of her November 5th 2025 birthday, however the hell years old/young we are

they will say of us, maybe nothing
we’ll be tree fodder, or thrift store jewelry by then
all our book collections gone to the dump
it’s possible the future holds no lasting legacy, no literacy
no cavorting like ghouls in the graveyard, no naughty pearls
no goblin concerts or burlesque, or maybe
it does, but we’ll never know it, because always
for such as us, the end means the end

but here and now, I say of us
we are a surpassing loveliness, a goofiness
a joie de vivre with a side of deviltry
you, particularly, are sharp-honed as carved bones
bare as the skelly onesies you wear
you grin like a jack o’ lantern, you write like wildfire
and you dance like giants stomping the world’s largest rain puddles

if you are sometimes bitter, you are also loyal
when you know you’ve failed, you apologize
as you live, you strive, and as you strive
you carve a space for yourself where you can also thrive
double-fisting your knives, guarding your edge jealously

and you send good goddamn gift boxes in the mail

we are none of us perfect, but our friendship is perfect
your hospitality like a hearth in my ribcage, however far away
were I a holy aspergillum, I’d shower you in blessing spunk all day
funky with radiance, in clunky black boots and torn fishnets,
you’d walk to some southwestern cafe, where you’d tip the barista
like a former barista, and order something warm as autumn leaves
and you’d think of me.

For those of you who missed last night’s livestreamed panel with some of the Shakespeare SlayFest’s creatives, please enjoy this listening whilst doing laundry, dishes, or going on walkies with your VERY GOOD DOG.

There’s a poetry festival in New Jersey I’ve never even heard of. But now I want to go to it. This big deal poetry festival. Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Carlos said he went once in the 90’s. I have FOMO. For something he did in the 90’s. I met a poet tonight who used to help run it. Looks like there’s a lot more to it these days: https://www.njpac.org/series/dodgepoetry/ Maybe there’s not even a festival like there used to be. But it does remind to me to see what the Nuyorican Poets Cafe is up to.

I’ve been having more thoughts like that recently. Things I want to do. Idle fantasies.

Like, I want to go bowling. It happened suddenly, like the way I hated salt and vinegar chips until one day, I just wanted them. Like, my mouth watered for them. Bowling. I mean, I’ve never actively desired to go bowling before. I’ve been a few times over my four decades, and I generally had fun, but I never actively sought it out. And now I want to.

But I don’t want to go Manhattan bowling. I want to go New Jersey bowling. Or Westerly bowling. (The last time I did that, we all got dressed up in costumes and face paint for my friend’s birthday, and bowled like that. Just a bunch of grown-up goofballs partying in bowling shoes.) I just want to go somewhere where they’ve had a bowling alley for, I don’t know, 50 years at least. And you take your kid there for a birthday party. And there are bowling leagues. And a cup of coffee doesn’t cost NINETEEN DOLLARS. Or whatever the going rate is. Not that I drink coffee. But you see what I mean?

A friend of mine’s husband was a part of a stand-up comedy night in Manhattan, and we went to see it while a friend was visiting a couple weeks ago. All three of us had had varying degrees of experiences with stand-up comics, very few of them good. But, you know. THIS time might be different. And we’d all been watching Dropout TV, which really gives you high hopes and expectations for improv and comedy and gaming and just joy in general.

And the stand-up night was… fine. Just fine.

My friend’s husband was the best part, we thought. Didn’t punch down. Wasn’t just flat-out depressing. Or mean. Or meh. He just talked about fun, queer, sexy stuff–the comedy of self, of family, of identity–and it was nicer than being made fun of.

That’s the thing about stand-up comedy: half of it is belittling the audience for not being a better audience, or for being weird-looking. More than half maybe. (Even Dropout’s new stand-up show “Crowd Control” is not innocent of this.) (Not that it needs to be; comedy is many things, many flavors.) (It’s just, I don’t like most of the stand-up that I’ve seen for the aforementioned reasons.)

But I don’t regret going. It broke the pattern of NOT going out. It was something new. Something at night. I like that.

I’m off to a friend’s wedding in New Orleans this weekend on a whirlwind visit, then taking an early, early flight back, and–if all goes well!–hopefully be in time to see the Shakespeare SlayFest that my play is in. Mine is the last show in the line-up, so I may even have some wiggle room to be late. But I hope I’m not.

I was telling Carlos that there are times I feel like I’m having a very “New York Moment.” And I can never tell when I’m going to have one, usually. It often has to do with seeing a show. Or, in this case, being in one. I say this as I’m having a Queens moment: writing in my blog at night, looking out the window, thinking of the city that never sleeps, about 7.1 miles to the west.

Tonight! 7 PM! On my TWITCH TV channel–https://www.twitch.tv/csecooney–I’m hosting guests of the SHAKESPEARE SLAYFEST! (@shakeslayfest on Instagram, if you want to follow!)

Our guests tonight will be playwright Martin Jude Farawell, artistic director Grant Cartwright, & filmmaker Cheryl Eagan-Donovan!

We’ll be talking about this FREE FESTIVAL: Sun, Nov 9, 2-5 PM. As of now, it is SOLD OUT!

The Shakespeare Slay Fest is FREE! To donate to make future Slay Fests possible–and to mount the current iterations as full productions DONATE HERE!

I’m in! That is, my PLAY is being produced!

Dear friends, DEAR READERS, dear EVERYBODY, 

Happy eve of All Hallow’s Eve. It’s a blustery, silvery one out there today. 

I’ve been looking forward to this day for more than a month, because my best friend Mir and I have been trying to find a way to see each other in her busy, busy schedule and tonight is the NIGHT! 

We are going to the Great Jones Spa, which my friend Judy the Engineer introduced me to earlier this year. I love it because it has WATERFALLS. And a HOT TUB. And Mir is a MERMAID, so I like to give her water things whenever I can. Especially when she’s been working one billion hours a week.

Also, because… one of the reasons Mir’s so busy is that she’s DIRECTING MY PLAY! 

This is Miriam Grill. Isn’t she badass? Photo by Marie O’Mahony Photography.

Well, that and she ASLO works two incredible jobs: at LaMama Experimental Theatre Club as Community and Educational Coordinator; and at DVP—Dances for a Variable Population—as Program and Events Manager. (DVP, by the way, has one of my favorite mission statements of all time. I love what they do.)

Oh, Mir’s full name is Miriam Grill, by the way. The Notorious, Infamous, ILLUSTRIOUS Miram Grill. She’s a hotshot director. Yeah, baby. And a genius. So that’s awesome.

Mir and I went to high school in Phoenix together lo these 20 years ago. Then we both had many adventures and lived many places. Me, in Chicago and Rhode Island. Her, in China and Taiwan. 

Back in the 20-teens, Mir moved to NYC to go to graduate school at Columbia University for Directing, and I moved here to marry Dr. Doctorpants (Carlos Hernandez). So for the last eight years, we’ve FINALLY been living in the same city (and country). We even lived together during the heart of the pandemic, which was hilarious—in its idiosyncratic, often difficult, but very dear way.

But even living in the same city, it’s STILL super hard to see each other, because these little islands with their little boroughs are actually QUITE VAST and MISCHIEVOUS, and they often like to tangle with the space/time continuum IMHO.

But back to my play!

I wrote Hey Nonny Nonny! off a prompt from the Red Bull Theatre short play festival, on the theme “Defiance.” While it didn’t make the cut there, it still brought me great delight to defiantly take the only four female characters from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and give them a little something more to do. 

(Something more interesting than wallowing in virginal victimhood and furious helplessness.) 

Call it a missing scene. Call it a feminist revision. Call it an invocation of Diana the Huntress 400 years later. As you like it.

Hey Nonny Nonny! is one of six new works in this year’s Shakespeare SlayFest—Season 2: SKULLDUGGERY. 

In 2024, the SlayFest won New York City’s “BEST SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL” award. This year, it’ll be held at the Atelier at TheatreLab NYC.

It’s sexy. It’s subversive. It’s SKULLDUGGALICIOUS. What can I say? 

It’s also free. Tickets have SOLD OUT. This is great. You know what’s also great? DONATIONS! If we get enough, we can mount FULL PRODUCTIONS, not just staged readings, NEXT YEAR. 

Here’s the SlayFest LinkTree, for all information plus donations!

Now, I know you’re sad that you won’t be able to make it this year. Well, some of you can’t. Probably most of you. That’s okay. Like Delia Sherman likes to say, “We cannot live all lives”—a phrase I’ve found VERY USEFUL as an adult, and also as a New Yorker. 

But I wanted to say that one of the other playwrights from the SlayFest—Martin Jude Farawell—as well as Grant Leopold Cartwright, the SlayFest’s Artistic Director, and the FABOOSHIEST Carla Kissane, Producing Director—will be joining me on my TWITCH CHANNEL this coming Monday FOR A PANEL!

You know all the info from our previous invites—but Imma tell you anyway!

WHEN: Monday, November 3rd

WHAT TIME: 7 PM – 8 PM EST

WHERE: twitch.tv/csecooney

This is Carla Kissane’s and Isaac Raz’s “Sonnets and the Self” show, another jewel of the SlayFest—and NOT to be missed!

I can promise you the panel will be be lively and informative, and possibly HILARIOUS. I’ve not yet met ANY of my fellow playwrights, so it’ll be a treat for me to chat with Martin. 

Also? I ADORE Carla and EVERYTHING she does. And I’m pretty sure I love Grant too, though I’ve only met him a few times. But I mean, come on. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE???

I hope to see you there on Monday night! If not, I’ll report back after the SlayFest and tell you ALL!

Yours Truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney

so I thought, no more blogging.
no more poetry, no flights of fancy.
no enchantments posted Puck-like
to put a girdle round the earth in record time.

too many machines scraping it. no escaping it.
don’t want to feed it. don’t need it.
our books, stories, verses. the work of our lives–
Pac-Manned by not-quite-AIs?

so, I thought, just stop it.
I was taught handwriting. use it
privacy. sensuality. the lick of pen to paper.
obsolete and lovely as a rapier.
a hobby indulgence. yet, the refulgence.

but oh, those scraps of heart.
slivers of our vulnerable ineffable.
offered as alms to birds, as words of air.
not for legacy. for our here, not there.

for you, when you get to it.
when you click to it.
like a flower in your window.
like a lamp in your hand.

and you said: if you want it, do it.
blog’s your beauty? don’t refuse it.
gives you pleasure? let is please you.
fear of theft? don’t let it bereave you.

make it. share it. move like a wind through the world.
like a poet, barefoot, walking the winding world.

eight years ago, I married you.
eight years is ceramics. and so I say to you:
how you glue the broken pieces back again–
the Pac-Man potshards, the Humpty Dumpty bodyparts–
the DIY kintsugi of all your mending ways–
you make every day ceramics day.

by C. S. E. Cooney
October 27th, 2025
for Carlos Hernandez

Dear Reader, 

LOL WAHOO YIPPEE WHEE WOAH HOTDANG HOT DIGGITY DAWG! 

Um. 

I get to tell you now. 

Book 3: Saint Death’s Doorway is a GO! 

In fact, I’m writing it now. 

In fact, I’m a 1500 words short of ONE FIFTH DONE. And I hope to get there by the end of today! 

And so, this will be brief!

But if you want to read the OFFICIAL SOLARIS BOOKS UPDATE, here it is!

And here’s my screencap of its picture!

Oh! And if you wanted to see Tachyon’s 30th Anniversary Reading but MISSED IT, fear not! I have uploaded it to the YOUTUBES! Have Master SFF authors read to you whilst you do dishes or put your garden to bed. WHY NOT? Tis the season, tis the century.

Here’s the YouTube link, yours truly hosting!

Yours truly,

C. S. E. Cooney

Only 2 days till Tachyon Publication’s big 30th Anniversary Virtual Reading: one of their beautiful celebrations for their 30th anniversary year!!!

Author readings! Editor Q&A! GLITTER-CONFETTI FOR INDIE PRESSES!

Thursday, October 2nd, 8 PM Eastern!
Live on Twitch.TV/csecooney

FEATURING: Samantha Mills, Mary G. Thompson, Naseem Jamnia, Auston Habershaw, Josh Rountree, Kimberly Unger, Mia Tsai, Pat Murphy, Sam J. Miller, and editor Jaymee Goh.

More information on Tachyon, all the authors, and editor Jaymee Goh on our Event page, found HERE!

www.eventbrite.com/e/tachyon-30th-anniversary-virtual-reading-tickets-1607238005139?aff=oddtdtcreator

Plus: Plus a “Catch-Up” date, Upcoming Appearances, and William Alexander in New York!

(This is mirrored from my newsletter, so please forgive the repetition if you get both of them.)

Dear friends—

Goodness, how the month has flown! 

The Storyteller event in Baltimore’s Ivy Bookshop, and Marty’s launch of Audition for the Fox at the Thespis Theatre. were equally really lovely. 

Baltimore

I took the Amtrak in to Baltimore and walked from there to the Baltimore Museum of Art . The onboarding experience there was very ludic, with “social sculptures” of usable gaming spaces, encouraging interaction and participation, all while being surrounded by images and objects from the history of human games. 

But my favorite thing was the special exhibit there called Black Earth Rising. There’s an article about it here: https://artbma.org/exhibition/black-earth-rising, if you’re interested! I loved the work of Firelei Báez and Teresita Fernández particularly, but everything made me stare until my eyes hurt.

There were also two side-by-side exhibits: one, Malcolm Peacock’s “A Signal, A Sprout” (it looks like a massive redwood trunk made of all hand-braided synthetic hair); the other, “Heavy with History: Devin Allen and the Baltimore Uprising,” featuring the throat-catching, heart-hammering photography of Devin Allen. 

I followed all kinds of new artists on their various platforms after my visit! And I left the musuem incredibly impressed by BMA’s collection: their beautifully and ethically curated African art room, especially.

The Fox LAUNCHES

Marty’s book launch took place at the Thespis Theatre—which is SUCH A PLACE! It resides within the Hellenic Cultural Center, which has so many statues of Greek Gods—anatomically correct, ahem, except for those few missing a few… pieces—a Greek Orthodox chapel the size of a parlor, completely with full stained glass windows, a theatre, and a black box! I loved this place. I want to live there.

Marty himself was wonderful; he said he’d been nervous all day, but had decided to view the book launch as a warm hug. He actually knew everyone in the audience by name—except for our friend Ben, whom Carlos and I had invited. We read an annotated section of his novella together, and then I did a Q&A with Marty before we opened it up to questions from the audience.

Oh, and we had Matt Kressel as our virtual guest on Fiction: Impossible, which is now archived on YouTube here! (In case you missed it and you want company some night while you’re, you know, doing dishes.) (Dishes are endless. Good news is: so is short-form entertainment!)

THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER!!!

My darling, beautiful, wonderful BRILLIANT FRIEND, Caitlyn Paxson, has her DEBUT NOVEL out NEXT YEAR, and this week they did the COVER REVEAL!

BEHOLD IT AND TREMBLE! (Tenderly!) (Ardently!) (Amorously!) (For it is a ROMANTASY! With Necromancy! So it is, as we like to call it… NECROPANTASY!)

Here are the two covers: one is Canadian and one is United States. It’s also coming out in the UK but I don’t know what cover goes with that. DON’T YOU WANT TO EAT IT UP! WITH THE SKULLS AND EGGS AND THE POISONED MUSHROOMS AND THE CANDLES AND THE PISTOLS OF IT ALL???

Here is the synopsis: 

Here’s some alt-text for that description from Del Rey:

“In this witty fantasy romance, a widow blackmails her rakish necromancer neighbor to bring her husband back to life and save her home-only to find herself falling for him instead.

“Witty, whimsical, and deeply kind, A Widow’s Charm is beyond charming—it’s wholly enchanting.”—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting

Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he drops dead quite unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde from her malevolent brother-in-law die along with him. What’s a widow to do?

Fortunately, potential salvation arrives in the form of Lord Erol Elmwood, who is fleeing the consequences of using his forbidden Charm to raise the dead and save his own life. Now he’s injured, destitute, and miserable, stuck hiding out at the neighboring estate.

For Hilde, blackmailing Lord Elmwood to resurrect Thorgoode seems like the perfect solution. For Elmwood, beautiful Lady Croft seems like the ideal distraction from his troubles. The problem is, all she wants from him is the horrifying power he knows he can never use again.”

AAAUGGHHH I CANNOT WAIT OMG OMG OMG! And Alex frikkin HARROW blurbed it? Couldn’t you just GOAT FAINT??? I could!!!

Upcoming Virtual Appearance

This Saturday, September 27th, I get to be a guest poet for the Science Fiction Poetry Association! I shall read you SO MUCH POETRY! But I won’t be the ONLY ONE! It’s an OPEN MIC, yo!

Here’s the event link for that: https://events.sfwa.org/events/speculative-poetry-open-mic-4/ 

I think you need a membership to Nebula Conference 2025 online, or be a SFWA member!

Tachyon’s 30th Anniversary Virtual Reading and Q&A

Oh, and I wanted to remind you of THIS, coming up on Thursday October 2nd! ALSO VIRTUAL:

ACCLAIMED GENRE PRESS TACHYON PUBLICATIONS CELEBRATES 30 YEARS IN 2025

Join us for a night of virtual readings and Q&A on Twitch TV with some of Tachyon Publications’ team: Jaymee Goh (editor), and authors Auston Habershaw, Josh Rountree, Kimberly Unger, Naseem Jamnia, Mary G. Thompson, Mia Tsai, Pat Murphy, Sam J. Miller, and Samantha Mills. 

If you want more information about Tachyon and these amazing authors, check out the Eventbrite link here!

When?  October 2nd, 2025, at 5 PM (Pacific), 6 PM (Mountain), 7 PM (Central), 8 PM (Eastern) (etc)

Where?  Live on Twitch TV! Hop onto https://www.twitch.tv/csecooney and stream us live!

Will Alexander in the HOUSE 

We’ll be hosting our friend, National Book Award Winner William Alexander for the New York leg of his tour. He’ll be doing one virtual and three in-person events that I know of. 

Who is William Alexanders? 

Well, you probably already know Will, but for those of you who DON’T: 

William Alexander is the author of Goblin Secrets (McElderry) and other unrealisms for young readers. His work has won the National Book Award, the Eleanor Cameron Award, the Librarian Favorites Award, the Teacher Favorites Award, two Junior Library Guild Selections, and two CBC Best Children’s Book of the Year Awards. Most recently he wrote Sunward—his first novel for grownups, forthcoming from Saga Press in September of 2025—and co-edited the middle grade anthology Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities. As a small child he honestly believed that his Cuban-American family came from the lost island of Atlantis.

Will’s New York Tour!

Monday, October 20th, 7-8 PM: online, on Fiction: Impossible!

Carlos and I will be hosting Will Alexander as our Guest Star on Fiction: Impossible. Will will read a bit from Sunward, we’ll ask him some LEADING QUESTIONS, and then we’ll all talk about books and games we’ve liked recently. Join us on my Twitch stream twitch.tv/csecooney

After that, Will’s coming down from Vermont, and we get to HOST him at our HOUSE! “The Week of Fantastic Fish” we’re calling it, since we’ve decided to ONLY EAT SUSHI while he’s here.

Simon and Schuster describes Sunward thus: 

A cozy debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning writer William Alexander, this story of found family follows a planetary courier training adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth’s moon.

Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her family’s illustrious business in politics. Set in humanity’s far future, hiring a planetary courier is essential for delivering private messages across the stars.

Encouraged by friends, Tova begins mentoring baby bots, juvenile AI who are developmentally in their teens, and trains them how to interact within society essentially becoming their foster mom. Her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, named herself on their first run from Luna to Phoebe station. But on their return, they encounter a derelict spaceship and a lurking assassin, igniting a thrilling chase across the solar system.

Tova and Agatha’s daring actions leave Agatha’s mind vulnerable, relying on Tova’s former AI pupils for help. As Tova starts gathering her scattered family around her, she is chased through the solar system by forces who want her captured and her family erased. This debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning author William Alexander is a must-read for fans of Becky Chambers and Ursula K. Le Guin. Lovers of poignant science fiction, where the bonds of found family, the evolution of AI, and the building distrust of centuries of bias, come together in this visionary look at humanity’s future.

Meet Will Live!

Thursday, October 23rd at 7pm
Kew & Willow Books
Authors Will Alexander, Carlos Hernandez, and C. S. E. Cooney discussing Will’s new SF novel Sunward, as well as writing in the SFF genre ! (More info on this as it comes)
81-63 Lefferts Blvd. 
Kew Gardens, NY 11415-1728

Friday, October 24th at 6pm
Books of Wonder
Authors Carlos Hernandez, Eliot Schrefer, and Will Alexander discuss Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities.

Saturday, October 25th at 2 PM-3:30 PM
King’s Bay Library: authors Carlos Hernandez and Will Alexander discuss Sunward, Starstuff, the state of adult SF and kidlit, for the edification of ALL OF BROOKLYN!
3650 Nostrand Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11229

For NON-New Yorkers who love Will’s work, he’ll also be at the Green Mountain Book Festival in Vermont on October 18th, and the Twin Cities Book Festival in Minneapolis/Saint Paul on November 8th.

Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities is a new SF Middle Grade anthology , co-edited by Wade Roush and William Alexander. It features authors: William Alexander, A. R. Capetta, Maddi Gonzalez, Carlos Hernandez, Kekla Magoon, Jenn Reese, David A. Robertson, Wade Roush, Eliot Schrefer and Fran Wilde. Penguin Random House describes it: 

In a thrilling follow-up to Tasting Light, ten best-selling and award-winning masters of the form use the possible—and the premise of hope—to explore how science and technology can reshape our world and defy assumptions.

At once a collection of hard science fiction for curious middle-graders and an antidote to despair in the face of dystopian uncertainty, these ten horizon-bending stories may seem unreal, but all follow the rules of physics and biology as we understand them today. These tales of space junk, multiverse navigation, an asteroid named Doomsday, and bees and marmots in space pulse with honesty and optimism. Whether home is a planet, a moon, a space station, or a fleet starship, relatable protagonists of different genders, classes, nationalities, ethnicities, and orientations face challenges—some harrowing, some hilarious—true to their moment in time and space. Brisk plots, resonant themes, and scientific rigor define these forward-facing stories by leading middle-grade authors. Taken together, the tales champion youth agency through characters who approach science in adventurous ways, underscoring that we are all, indeed, made of the same luminous stuff.

That’s all for today’s newsletter, friends! Beautiful work is pouring out into this world. “Something,” to quote Charlotte Gray, “to set against all this.”

Yours truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney

For those of you who missed the amazing Matthew Kressel in conversation with Carlos Hernandez & yours truly on Monday night, it now lives in perpetuity on YouTube!

View the rest of the “Phoenix Quill Tavern” videos, including virtual book launches and other episodes of Fiction: Impossible here.