Sam J. Miller's Blog

Wow wow wow – RED STAR HUSTLE / APPREHENSION became an instant USA Today bestseller, making the list in its debut week!!

The news came while Mary Robinette Kowal and I were neck-deep in an incredible tour to promote our Saga Double, which was an incredible and overwhelming whirlwind of events – nine cities, eight flights, twelve days – and I am still trying to process everything that happened. And catch up on sleep. Both will probably take me a while. But when I do, I will hopefully have more coherent meaningful thoughts to share.

For now, all I can say is – making this bestseller list is a first for me, and I’m deeply moved and grateful to all the excellent folks who bought copies and came out to our book tour events. THANK YOU!

I’ve been so deep in book promo land that I almost forgot: I have a new short story out!!

This one is horror, and like a lot of horror it comes from a particularly dark place deep inside me. Specifically: my rage at the way the world is treating trans and nonbinary folks and drag queens and anyone else who transgresses along the edge of gender.

It’s called Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead, and published in Nightmare Magazine. You can read the story for free online…

Courtney Lovecraft will be the first one to tell you—she’s an old-school, old-ass drag queen, and she does old-school drag. Her makeup is caked-on, dramatic and impeccable—the evil queen from a Disney cartoon made flesh. Her performances are offensive. She lip syncs torch songs. She’s not on TikTok, and she’s never done a clapback video. She’s never sent in an audition reel for a reality television drag competition.

and then check out this interview with me about it!

Watching the way the world has been going to hell lately, and the way that drag queens and trans folks have been used as wedge issues and boogeymen to scare people into voting against their own self-interest, I realized that Courtney Lovecraft had to be someone who came from that lineage of fierce radical freedom-fighter artists… In an interview, the iconic drag queen Sasha Colby said something like—drag for her was a tool to empower people who had been disempowered. And that sparked the essence of Courtney’s character and her journey.

This one spent a long time percolating. Seventeen years, to be precise – from the time the title first came to me to the time I was ready to start actually writing it. Seventeen years of inchoate rage condensing into something (slightly) more choate.

I hope you think it’s worth the wait. I know I do.

Less than a month until RED STAR HUSTLE / APPREHENSION drops, and I’m excited to announce that Mary Robinette Kowal and I will be hitting the road together!

Full tour dates are below. I’ll keep this page updated with live links as we get them, but for now – check out where and when we’ll be, and pencil us in to your calendars if you can! Many events will have options to attend virtually; follow the links for more info.

SAVE THE DATE(S), we’d love to see you.

I have a new short story entitled “WHAT DOES JOY LOOK LIKE,” included in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope.

The anthology will be published by Saga Press on December 2nd, but you can preorder the collection now!

From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transformative visions of the future, fantastical alternate worlds, and inspiration for the social justice movements of tomorrow.

In this collection, editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Exploring topics ranging from disability justice and environmental activism to community care and collective worldbuilding, these imaginative pieces from writers such as NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias center solidarity, empathy, hope, joy, and creativity.

Each story is grounded within a broader sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, including adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology. Using the vehicle of ambitious storytelling, We Will Rise Again offers effective tools for organizing, an unflinching interrogation of the status quo, and a blueprint for prefiguring a different world.

Lit Hub just dropped their list of the 33 most highly-anticipated science fiction fantasy / horror books of the rest of 2025, and I was super excited to see RED STAR HUSTLE / APPREHENSION on there! Here’s what they had to say:

Mary Robinette Kowal / Sam J. Miller, Apprehension / Red Star Hustle
S&S / Saga Press, October 21

I’m loving Saga’s decision to revive the old Ace Doubles format this year (following, it should be noted, in the footsteps of the fabulous Tenebrous Press Split Scream series—and, I suppose, Catherine Lacey’s The Möbius Book, although that’s kinda different)—the first was a Stephen Graham Jones double-header, then a Day/Night-themed Ellen Datlow-edited story collection, but this is where the rubber should meet the road for the format: two brand new novellas from absolute SF stars. I can’t wait to read them both, and to flip the book in-between! –DB

I know what you’re thinking! The world doesn’t need another author newsletter.

Don’t get me wrong – I love them, and I subscribe to TONS of them, but I couldn’t find anything meaningful or special that *I* could contribute.

And while I may not be able to write a newsletter, I CAN write an okay science-fiction story, and that’s what Undercover in the Apocalypse is. An ongoing narrative in installments, addressed to an army of shadow operatives, artists and warriors undercover in a hellscape. A field guide for writers who find themselves trapped behind enemy lines, struggling to make meaningful art amid what feels a lot like an apocalypse.

For you see, Sam J. Miller has come unstuck in time. He burns like screaming neon through the toxic spiraling labyrinth of spacetime. He frolics in post-human forests where ecstatic green has taken back the planet, and in the belly of smoke-stinking industrial hellscape futures. He rides dinosaurs. He issues dire warnings on fifties street corners.

This is not a newsletter.

When I was lucky enough to teach at the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Workshop, I realized that while I don’t have all the answers – I DO have all the questions . I’ve grappled with the same challenges so many writers are up against, trying to create meaningful art in a time and a space where art isn’t valued, where the end of the world feels extremely fucking nigh. Whatever’s stumping you or holding you back, I have probably had to figure out my own solution, and I might be able to help you do the same.

Okay YES it’s totally a newsletter.

It’ll have news and updates and events. All that stuff. But it’s also a work of speculative fiction, a story spoken directly to artists and activists making art (and change) in a dystopian future where it feels like all is lost. If you’re trapped in the same nightmare dystopia as me, I hope you’ll opt into a story that centers hope and creativity and resistance and community.

I’m a winner, baby! The French translation of KID WOLF AND KRAKEN BOY took home the ActuSF Award for Alternate History! I wrote a book about how two men in 1929 daring to love each other could change the course of history, and I’m profoundly moved that it resonated with the award jury.

And I am so grateful to my French publisher Le Bélial’, and my incredible translator Michel Pagel!

This award goes out to all the people who lovingly (& not so lovingly ) called me out for the doomed queer love stories in my previous work, & challenged me to write something unapologetically joyful. As a reader & a writer I love a heartbreak tale, but joy and hope are ALSO essential.

And bien sur it goes out to my magnificent husband, who taught me all I know about how love can change the world.

I was interviewed for episode thirteen of the awesome podcast Futureverse!! According to the episode summary:

In this episode of Futureverse, Molly Wood and Ramanan Raghavendran sit down with acclaimed author Sam J. Miller. They explore themes of dystopia, activism, and the intersection of technology and nature while reflecting on the realities of marginalized communities, the impact of AI governance, and the hopeful resilience of people in the face of adversity.

And I had a full fanboy moment halfway through when I realized that I was being interviewed by the same Molly Wood, who I’ve admired since CNET’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast circa 2005 ish!!

The finalists for the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire have been announced, and my novella “Kid Wolf & Kraken Boy” is on the ballot in the “NOUVELLE ÉTRANGÈRE / FOREIGN SHORT FICTION” category!

It’s the oldest and biggest French prize dedicated to the “literatures of the imaginary” – I am so moved and grateful to the awards jury and to my incredible publisher, Le Bélial’! I don’t read French so I can’t appreciate the quality of the translation, but I have gotten so much love from French readers of this book that I know it is amazing.

merci merci merci!

HUGE MAGNIFICENT WOW MOMENT NEWS:

My next novel RED STAR HUSTLE will be published in 2025 by Saga Press, an incredible imprint of Simon & Schuster.

It’s about Aran, a far-future outer-space rent boy who gets framed for murder, who is on the run and trying to clear his name (pursued by a bad-ass bounty hunter pursued by her own demons), and his life gets even more complicated when he falls for the beautiful damaged clone of a puppet monarch. Some of you might have met Aran already – he was the protagonist of my novelette “Planetstuck,” which was a finalist for the Asimov’s Readers Award.

And Saga is releasing the book as part of the launch of its new line “Saga Doubles,” an homage to old-school pulp paperbacks that would publish two short novels or novellas together, back to back – a format I’ve long been super obsessed with. And my bookmate here is the brilliant APPREHENSION, by Mary Robinette Kowal – who isn’t just one of the best writers in the genre, she’s also just an all-around joy.

The book drops October 21, 2025, and you can preorder it already! Here’s what the publisher has to say about it:

Two expertly crafted crime stories set in a far-future science fiction universe, from two award-winning authors known for their gripping plots and unforgettable characters—a short novel and a long novella that will thrill fans of space adventures, mystery, and intergalactic intrigue in this Saga Double

Red Star Hustle
Aran, an optimistic, high-class escort, is on the run after his famous filmmaker client is assassinated. With an ace security contractor (read: bounty hunter) trailing—who is also running from her own boss who happens to be both her mom and the head of one of the most powerful groups in the galaxy—Aran is running out of time. This science fiction thriller is a crisscross of heartbreak, addiction struggles, and trauma which comes together in a fast-paced space-hopping fight with the whole damn galaxy by Nebula Award–winning author Sam J. Miller.

Apprehension
A family vacation arranged by Bonnyjean, a grieving mother, her son-in-law Jax, and her six-year-old grandson Tristan, quickly becomes disastrous as Tristan is kidnapped by a terrorist operation that is hoping to affect the planet’s upcoming elections between rival parties. They believe Bonnyjean was given a secret by the double agent who died in her arms. However, not only is this a deadly misunderstanding, but it’s also a dangerous one as Bonnyjean was last on Nahatanau when she was a special forces operative. Unfortunately, that was over thirty years ago, but she won’t let the years nor her bad hip get in the way of rescuing her grandson. Beloved Hugo Award–winning author Mary Robinette Kowal has crafted an intricate mystery of mistaken identity on an alien planet.