Just look at my new website! It’s stunning.

Clockpunk Studios, run by Jeremiah Tolbert, has built the most incredible website for me. (He did the old one, too, which was such a great site it lasted me for–what–13 years? I think?) But this new site is better in every way. It’s beautiful, I think it really reflects my “vibe” and it has special stuff to show off my books, my shorter works, and my manga work.

The look of the site is thanks to Jenn Reese at Tiger Bright Studios. Both Jenn and Jeremy worked closely (meaning, patiently…) with me to help me figure out what I wanted, and what it might look like. I really had no idea until for some reason I was looking at old backgrounds of the 1990s Sailor Moon show, which…like…is there anything prettier than those images of Tokyo? I can’t think of much, and I’m really happy to have that “feel” here in my new home.

So, what else has been happening? Because this is my first post of 2025 and it’s mid-late September. Well…

I’ve had two stories come out this year, one in the anthology 120 Murders, edited by Nick Mamatas. My story, “The Best in Basement Radio,” is a crime story about my time at Rollins, with a few (uh, a lot of) embellishments. The whole anthology is cool, full of writers like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Paul Tremblay, Selena Chambers, etc. It’s quite a cover, too. I asked my mother if she liked it, and her only reply was, “No.” Fair! My other story, “The City of Tears,” is up for free over at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a new market for me.

Later this year, I’ll have an all-new Jirel of Joiry story in New Edge Sword & Sorcery #5. This one is called “Jirel Meets Death,” a riff on the classic C.L. Moore Jirel story, “Jirel Meets Magic.” Three novelettes in one year?! It’s almost like I’ve been trying to get my career back on track.

Why would I do that? Why a new website? Well, it is good to look like I’m alive and still working, which the other site did not fully convey. But also, I have a new novella out next year! That’s right, in May of 2026 my novella And Side by Side They Wander will be out, from Tordotcom. It’s been an honor to work with my first “Big Five” publisher and I couldn’t be happier about the look of the book. It’s a real eye catcher…it’s even been singled out by BookRiot as anticipated release!

“This book had me at “intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group of underqualified misfits.” It sounds wild! Humanity has somehow decided it was a good idea to lend Earth’s greatest works of art to aliens? And now three hundred years later, they are due to be returned, but the aliens won’t give them back??? LOL. Cue the motley crew of thieves, who will be headed off into the stars to get the art back.”

It’s nice to see some early enthusiasm!

As for what I’m working on, I have a few irons in the fire. I was beyond privileged to attend Sycamore Hill again this year, and I’m considering revising the novelette I brought into a novella. I’m working on a different novelette now, which must remain secret for secret reasons. I’ve been asked to write a story for Three-Lobed Burning Eye magazine, so I’ll need to look into that, and I’ve been asked to write another story for a potential anthology project. And another thing I can’t even discuss the size or length or anything about, because of similar secret reasons to the aforementioned secret project for secret reasons.

Finally…the big news is, I finished a draft of a novel. My agent is reading it currently, and I admit I’m anxious about what she’ll say. It’s a new type of book for me, a “literary novel” (must put in quotes or all of BlueSky will be angry at me for invoking the concept of literary novels). It’s about science fiction/fantasy, but there are no speculative elements…it’s somewhere between a “slice of life” story and a Molièreian farce. My two first-readers loved it, I think it’s safe to say…it’s a short book, but both of them read it over the course of one day because they didn’t want to put it down. That seems like a good sign, but it’s a departure from my usual stuff in form/style if not in themes. (“Don’t have sex with THAT person, omg” etc.) Then again, I haven’t published a novel in, uh, well. A long time. Since 2020. So do I even have a “usual” anymore?

Oh, one more image…look at this little hand that graces the bottom of my home page on the website! A few months ago, I saw this icon pack for those of us who are still actual artists…meaning, those of us who refuse to surrender to the Moloch of LLMs/”AI” slop. I liked the encouragement to “DIY” a similar logo, so I sketched up a hand riffing on the original, and the cool little magic hands that show up all over this site. Then I asked Jenn of Tiger Bright to make it look like something aesthetic/actually usable in this way. She did an amazing job and I’m so proud to have another way to subtly advocate for humanity/against the earth-destroying slop machines. Or rather, one way to subtly advocate for humanity/against the earth-destroying slop machines, because usually I’m screeching at the top of my lungs about it.

Thanks for reading this, and for visiting my new and beautiful website. I do plan to update the “news” section here more frequently than once every eighteen months now that I have a site that doesn’t fight me tooth and nail every time I use it. I also have a newsletter, if you scroll down to the bottom of the home page…and of course, if you want way more frequent updates, please sign up for my Patreon. I send out a monthly writing update to all my donors, I take pictures of my houseplants, I sometimes post excerpts from works in progress (when they aren’t secret for secret reasons), and I dunno, I justreally get a kick out of my patrons. Feels like I have a posse.

Ciao, more soon!

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