ceciliatan

BDSM for Romance Writers Class: April 29th

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 06:08:57 GMT

Coming up at the end of this month, I’ll be teaching an online class that should be lots of fun: BDSM for Romance Writers. As the official description reads: “BDSM is more than just a collection of toys or a list of kinks, it’s a whole world of intense relationship dynamics. In this workshop, RT award winning author Cecilia Tan will cover key elements of BDSM and kink that can spice up a novel, as well as myths and stereotypes to avoid. We’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A, as well.”

The class is being hosted by Passionate Ink, which used to be the erotica and erotic romance chapter of the RWA, but which broke off into an independent organization a few years back.

(Aside: It’s almost amusing to think that when Sylvia Day founded the chapter, it was partly because many people in the RWA at that time didn’t feel that explicit erotic “open door” romances were worthy of support. Not too long after that, Sylvia’s own super spicy romances (i.e. Bared to You) topped the bestseller lists, paving the way for 50 Shades of Grey, and permanently turning the acceptable heat level way up on the entire romance genre.)

The class is free for members of Passionate Ink, $45 for non-members, so if you have been thinking of joining the organization, and are interested in the class… guess how much it costs to join for one year? The same $45. 🙂

I’d love it if those taking the class filled out a brief survey first, which has a slot for folks to put their questions in advance: https://forms.gle/qJhg7mwrEcetEgNt5

The class is appropriate for experienced and inexperienced writers alike, at all levels of career. Whether you’ve published dozens of novels or zero, whether you write for fun or for publication, if you’re looking to expand your palette to paint with the BDSM colors, that’s what this class is for.

The folks at Passionate Ink made a lovely graphic:

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Feeling very knife-y today

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 23:02:39 GMT

Feeling very knife-y today. Not stabby, exactly, but man, the news has just been unrelenting war, death, and aggression lately, and although things have been relatively calm where I live (compared to Minneapolis, Portland, or Chicago) I can’t help but feel like we’re next.

I had an Uber driver a couple of weeks ago — white guy, trucker hat, flannel shirt, came in a big SUV, and I really wasn’t sure if I should talk politics since he very well *might* have been a MAGA sort — but we’re not in the car two minutes before we passed a bumper sticker or a sign or something that made him say, “dang, I just don’t know what to do with this country… do you think we’re going to have to fend off an invasion by the National Guard?”

Turns out he only looks like a lumberjack: he’s got a PhD in political science. He was thinking of taking a course in field medicine first aid, figuring that would be the most useful thing he could do on the front lines. “I can’t believe I’m even talking about this,” he said. “But here we are.” I encouraged him to take the course. More healers can only be a good thing.

Speaking of which, a list of “things you can do besides protest or vote” is going around, and one of the suggestions is get trained in “PFA” which is “psychological first aid.” The Canadian Red Cross offers online courses, one in PFA self-care, and one in helping others. Red Cross/Red Crescent has a whole curriculum built around the recognition that mental health is crucial for any kind of help providers as well as those being helped.

I’m thinking of doing at least the self care course…? It’s only $20 (Canadian!).

Meanwhile, you can see my mood reflected in the swag I just designed for my book launch next week. Photo below. (Skip the rest of this post if you want to skip the book biz stuff. I know it’s a weird-ass time to be trying to launch a book… )

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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New story at Sunday Morning Transport! rocket emoji

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 18:43:36 GMT

I’m still riding the creative high and queer community solidarity feeling that came from reading at Writers With Drinks in Seattle. Charlie Jane Anders was an incandescent host, Charlie’s Queer Books put so many books into people’s hands, all the readers were fire!

The story I read from, “Large Emotional Models,” is now live on the Sunday Morning Transport!

I’ve just spent the past five minutes trying to write a sentence describing the story, but the story is itself the best expression of the underlying ideas, so I keep throwing them away. The official description is “a story about fitting into one’s skin and the universe.”

I was motivated to write it when I was on my way to an academic conference, and I got ad-targeted on Instagram by a university in Europe offering positions to American academics fleeing the country. I started writing a story on the airplane to the conference, balling up all my feelings about the moment we are living through right now, with AI and LLMs and attacks on academia and science and the tidal wave of transphobia, and out came a story that is about Prince and David Bowie and grief?

It is their free story this month, so everyone can read it, but if you’d like to try getting a really great sf/f story from Sunday Morning Transport every week, here’s a signup link for friends and family to get two months free: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/smt2024

Collage of photos from Writers with Drinks (photos by Jo Sisodia/Charlie’s Queer Books):

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Seattle Worldcon Report

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 07:51:56 GMT

There is not just one Worldcon. In Seattle this year, there were 5500 registered attendees plus another 2000 or so bought single-day memberships, meaning there were ~7500 different Worldcons this year.

Worldcon is many things to many people, but the one thing it always is, is an intentional community. It’s an event that happens because people give their time, their energy, their skills, and their care to make it happen.

In this way, Worldcon is, and always has been, what we make of it. It is simultaneously the home of one of our genre’s most important awards, a premiere costuming event, a professional development incubator, a social structure, an important economic opportunity for some, a schmoozefest, and a celebration of all that the science fiction/fantasy genres have to offer. It’s also a microcosm of all the stresses and problems of our society, and really, how could it not be?

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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My Readercon Schedule!

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:48:37 GMT

Whew! I’ll be making my Guest of Honor run at Readercon this coming weekend in Burlington, MA! It’s me and P. Djeli Clark in the GoH seats, with legions of super-smart sf/f writers and editors on the program, including Max Gladstone, Rob Cameron, Catherine Lundoff, John Chu, Laura Antoniou, Erin Roberts, Sarah Pinsker, Shariann Lewitt and many many more.

As expected, my schedule will be PACKED. Of note: I added a second autographing slot because of concerns that the first one happens soooo early. I will not have a table selling books: you can get them in the bookshop from Sally at Larry Smith Booksellers and some will also be on the Broad Universe table.

And yes, there will be some copies of the new shiny beautiful Magic University Collectors Edition hardcover. (And if you ordered a copy via Kickstarter, check your email for an update about picking up the book in person if you want to! Or just come to a party!)

FRIDAY
2:00 PM Bisexuals in Science Fiction: Still Hip After All These Years?
3:00 PM Autograph Session #1
4:00 PM Cecilia Tan GOH Reading
7:00 PM Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
9:00 PM Levels of Interiority (in Narrative)

SATURDAY
12:00 Noon The Works of Cecilia Tan (I’m not on this, I’ll just be listening!)
1:00 PM Divination in the Writing Process
4:00 PM Guest of Honor Interview: Cecilia Tan by Charlie Jane Anders
6:00 PM Erotica, Horror, and the Fear of Visceral Fiction
9:00 PM Patrons & Kickstarter Supporters Get-Together

SUNDAY
12:00 PM Noon Beyond the Bio: Weird Jobs & the Worlds They Inspired
1:00 PM Harry Potter and the Undeath of the Author
2:00 PM Autographing Session #2

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Disney, my Dad, and the Very Bisexual T-Shirt

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 18:00:04 GMT

So, between Pride being yesterday here in Boston, and Father’s Day being today, I thought I’d tell you a story today of what Being Queer in the Nineties was like, and also (another) story about Dad.

To be clear, being queer in the 1990s was definitely not always a joy. But in this case… well, you’ll see.

When I was in my early 20s, my parents decided to take me and my brother on a cruise vacation. This was exciting for a number of reasons, not least because my parents were awesome to hang out with. It was always fun to spend time with them and my brother, who was then 16 and had at that point gotten into the Grateful Dead. (Jerry Garcia was still alive, then.)

If you’re new here, my Dad was a Chinese-filipino immigrant who came to the States to be a doctor (and send money home to support his 9 younger siblings). Mom, meanwhile, was born in rural upstate New York, spent her teens in Florida, and then moved to NYC after college. Mom was the one who raised my brother and me to be the progressive humanists we are, while Dad often seemed a little bit baffled by “American” attitudes.

Also, it was our first time on a cruise ship.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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MAGIC UNIVERSITY is launched!! Read an excerpt…

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:13:38 GMT

It’s here!!!! The digital edition just launched, and paperback to come.

And “it” is MAGIC UNIVERSITY, the erotic fantasy novel I have been talking about forever! The one I was writing every single night between midnight and 3 a.m. because that was the only time in my schedule I could find to write!

I worked so hard on this book. It’s the first of a four book series, so a lot of things had to be planned out, considered, and weighed, but like just about everything I’ve written, part of the magic was in how things I hadn’t realized were important took important turns in bringing it all together.

I had lots of support from my friends in HP fandom. It’s no secret that this book is, in many ways, my take on a Harry-Potter-ish scenario. J. K. Rowling didn’t invent the trope of the neglected orphan who suddenly discovers previously unknown magic either in himself, in his heritage, or in the world (thank you Cinderella, Frodo, et. al.), nor did she invent magic wands, spells, flying brooms, or even the concept of a magic school (precedents too many to name, but I’ll give a nod here to Wizard’s Hall by Jane Yolen) or learning magic as a metaphor for coming of age (tip of the hat to A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, which was one of my favorite childhood books).

MAGIC UNIVERSITY is the book (series) I’ve been wanting to write to satisfy the cravings that the Harry Potter books brought up in this adult reader, but which couldn’t be satisfied in a “book for kids.” So I get have my openly gay characters, my sex magic, and my moral ambiguity. Magic does not come as easy in my universe, either; wands cannot be used like guns.

As the marketing copy goes: “Kyle Wadsworth arrives at Harvard eager to start his new life as a college student away from the cold and distant great-aunt who has raised him. But he walks into a building that only magical people can see, confusing both himself and the administrators of Veritas, the secret magical university hidden inside Harvard. There he first sees a beautiful girl who seems magical to him in every way.

Soon Jess is tutoring Kyle in the ways of magic, sex, and love. But trouble is afoot at Veritas. Rumors abound that a siren is haunting the library, and when Kyle’s best friend is attacked, Kyle is determined to use his newly learned skills in erotic magic to catch the culprit. But which is more important, his quest for justice or his search for true love?”

Without further ado, here’s the first chapter, for your reading enjoyment! And I sincerely hope that you do enjoy it!

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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“A magic school book, but make it queer”

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:46:21 GMT

Here’s what’s keeping me super-busy this month… Can you believe it’s been 15 years since Magic University hit the (digital) shelves?

It feels like a different era of history. In 2010, Obama was president, the Kindle was still a newfangled thing, and Twitter still felt niche (at 40 million users). And the final Harry Potter book had come out only 3 years earlier, and the final movie was still to come…!

At the time I didn’t know that writing a trans-inclusive magic school book was going to become such a political statement. I mostly wanted to write a magic school series where we knew up front lots of the characters were queer and that would actually pay off a rivals-to-lovers trope/plot line. I wanted to write original fic that my fanfic-loving friends would love to read.

I didn’t include a trans mentor for my hero to spite J.K. Rowling. At the time she hadn’t yet voiced her anti-trans views. I included trans characters because trans people exist.

I also include some characters who change gender magically. While I wouldn’t call that “spite,” it did always feel like a missed opportunity to me (and many fanfic writers) that none of the many ways a wizard could change gender in the Harry Potter books (Polyjuice, animorphmagus, etc) are ever explored.

But here we are, in 2025, with JKR leading a brigade of anti-trans voices in the UK, and the USA devolving fast into a book-banning fascist nation trying to legislate trans people out of existence.

It’s why now seems the right time for me to produce a hardcover omnibus edition of Magic University. So I’m running a Kickstarter to do just that.

I launched last week and it took off like a rocket! The more people who back it, the fancier I can make the hardcover edition, too, so if I can nerd out about books for a minute: it’s already slated to have a really nifty fore-edge design on the pages, a Wibalin buckram binding, and a foil-stamped or debossed title on the cover. If the campaign continues to do well, well reach the custom designed endpapers goal next, and at $10,000 we can add a ribbon bookmark! (I really really want to get to the ribbon bookmark…!)

The link, if you want to read more about it or become a backer:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceciliatan/magic-university-collectors-edition-hardcover-omnibus?ref=depv7q

(Mock-ups of the hardcover design and such below the cut…)

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Arisia 2025 and Capricon 45 Schedules

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 06:52:33 GMT

I can hardly believe 2025 is already here, which means we are only a few weeks away from Arisia, the “big tent” science fiction/fantasy fan convention in Boston. Well, this year in Cambridge! And in early February I’ll be in Chicago for Capricon, as well.

Arisia has relocated from their longtime home on the Boston waterfront to a hotel on the Charles River, the Cambridge Hyatt Regency (sometimes nicknamed “the ziggurat”). The author Guest of Honor is Moniquill Blackgoose, and if I haven’t already gushed at you to read her book To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, consider this your exhortation to do so (buy it at Bookshop or Amazon or your local bookstore).

It’s basically… what if there was an anti-colonialist, feminist “magic school” book but with dragons?

The worldbuilding is so great, and the characters are sharp, and smart, and caring. I’ve been beating this book’s drum for a while, partly because I published some books of hers back in the day with Circlet Press, but also because it’s so damn good. Awards seem to agree: I’ve lost track of all the ones it has won, but they include the Nebula and the Lodestar, and it made the Locus Awards, BFAs, and Astounding finalist lists.

The new Arisia hotel is smaller, and VERY close to my house, so I decided not to get a room this year and let folks coming from farther away have the rooms. This means I’m not throwing a party this year (unless someone with a party suite wants to lend it to me for a tea party on Saturday afternoon?)

Here’s my schedule of panels, as well. As of right now, it does not appear that I’ll be doing a Friday night erotica reading. (I’ll make up for it at Readercon this summer, where I’ll be GoH.)

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Writing and career news

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:43:31 GMT

Finally getting around to posting this update. I’ve been so busy with so much writing-related stuff, but not much actual writing… !

The biggest writing news this month is that I finally launched the Vanished Chronicles via Patreon. That’s right, after nearly 10 years of hearing me talk about it, and after the whole saga of Tor Books putting me through endless delays and reversals (and in the end having to give me the rights back…) you can finally start to READ the dang thing.

I’m so pleased with how it reads now. I was worried that I wouldn’t like it anymore, but I really love the characters and the story, there’s so much great going on in it… and it’s only gotten more relevant, not less, with time.

What was once entitled “Initiates of the Blood” is now “Bound by the Blood,” it’s book one, and the first two posts are up (the prologue and chapter one). New chapters appear every Friday. Here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/886649?view=condensed

If you’re not already a paying patron, you can also read chapter one for FREE over on my blog: https://www.ceciliatan.com/archives/4849

I know one post per week is going to feel slow to some folks… especially since this is romantic suspense, with a lot of cliffhangers. So I have pledged that if the patreon monthly pledge amount climbs to $500 a month, I’ll double the number of chapters per week to two. So if you’re intrigued, want more, and want to jump on the bandwagon, you can join the patreon for as little as $2 a month. (You can also “follow” for free, but patreon doesn’t let us show any of the naughty bits — they have to go behind the paywall.)

I’ll also give patrons some chances to “earn” an extra post sometimes, because I’m generous like that. 🙂

DGC VOLS 1-10 ARE IN KU

Another month, another new edition! And book 11 is going through a final proofread before I upload that one, but it’s imminent. Cover art is also done for books 11 and 12, and sketches have been approved for the 13th and final book. Just waiting on the final art to come in! Can’t believe this massive project of re-releasing and re-doing will finally be finished!

Book 11 will be the first one that never had a book edition of any kind before, not even an ebook. So I’m eager to get that one out. Another couple of weeks.

WIP Report

Confession time: I have not written a single new word of fiction since election night.

The dragon book is looming in the background, waiting for me to get my braincells back together enough to get back to it. I discovered a few days after the election that I’m B12 deficient, so that might also explain the recent lack of energy. And here I was, blaming politics?

Politics is still awful, but it’s especially difficult to face pronouncements like Project 2025 which (as I ranted about last month) literally states that anyone who creates or distributes “pornography” should be jailed. Pornography by their definition includes not only explicit erotica, but anything that includes queer or trans characters, gay relationships, or poly relationships (for example). And guess what I write? All of the above.

As I may have mentioned, I’m waiting to see if Patreon will hold the line if new anti-porn measures are enacted, and whether I’ll literally have to leave the country if they’re serious about jailing pornographers. It’s a little challenging to face into those headwinds and make any progress.

But I will be trying to re-establish my writing rhythm next week. Now that I have finished physical therapy for my knee, I should turn that into writing time, right? Instead of having to haul my ass to the PT gym, I’ll just haul my laptop into my lap without even getting out of bed, and try to put down a thousand words before I even put socks on.

Also, now that most of the production work on the DGC relaunch and the serial set-up are done. I do need to remind myself that those things were taking up the same creative hours that I would have spent on Windmark.

Dragons, I’ll get back to you shortly!

Tour Dates & Upcoming Appearances

2025:

January 17-20: Arisia, Cambridge, MA (new hotel: Hyatt Cambridge)
January 30, 8pm “How to Write a Sex Scene” Class: online for Passionate Ink
February 2, 2-4pm: Lovestruck Books, Cambridge, MA
February 6-9: Capricon, Chicago, IL
March 19-23: ICFA, Orlando, FL
June 2025: Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Pride Release Tour (details TBA)
June 25-29: SABR 54 in Dallas, TX
July 17-20: Readercon, Burlington, MA (Guest of Honor)
August 13-17: Worldcon in Seattle, WA
September 25: Writing Bisexual Erotica: online for Passionate Ink
NOTE: ICFA and Capricon are back on the 2025 schedule!
Also: the new romance bookstore in Harvard Square will be opening soon! Lovestruck Books has been building out a gorgeous space where Church St. intersects Brattle St. They’d been hoping to have an event with me and some other local writers in mid-December, but the construction isn’t quite done yet. So we’re looking to reschedule to February 2. Check their website for updates!

Let’s End with a Book Recommendation

I get sent a lot of books to “blurb.” Publishers and authors really rely on the testimonials of praise from other authors to say things about a book they can’t say themselves. After all, if the publisher just prints “This book is effin great, just buy it,” on the back cover, the reader is going to think well, sure you would say that, you’re the publisher.

But if they see a quote from an author they like saying “No really, this is great!” it carries a lot more weight.

Usually the art of crafting a blurb means you have to come up with a way to say “this is great” that is unique and punchy and clever. You want to say something truthful and specific, but not give away spoilers. Doing blurbs also means getting a sneak peek at not-yet-published books.

But a lot of the time I don’t actually have time to give a blurb. I want to actually read the book, you know?

Well, I got sent a book to blurb recently and I’m now at something of a loss for what to say because what I think is “THIS BOOK IS EFFIN GREAT, JUST BUY IT.”

The book is Lee Mandelo’s latest anthology, AMPLITUDES: STORIES OF QUEER AND TRANS FUTURITY and it it just packed with awesome. I haven’t even read every story in the book, yet, because now that I tore through about half of them I’ve been slowing down to savor them.

There are 22 stories in the book, nearly 100K words, and my intention when I sat down to give a blurb was to cherry-pick the stories by authors I know (Sam J. Miller, Meg Elison, Sunny Moraine and others …) but I found myself just starting at the beginning and then being unable to put it down.

These stories are science fiction so sharp you could cut yourself. The strength of the collection showcases not only what a terrific editor and anthologist Lee is, but how much trans, queer, and nonbinary talent there is in the genre, and what vital stories these voices bring. There’s a LOT of resistance and revolution and joy in this book, and seems like we’re going to need it.

I know it’s a bit unfair to tell you how great a book is when it’s not even going to be published for months, but you can pre-order it (Amazon, Bookshop).

Okay, that’s enough of my blather. Next newsletter we’ll be in 2025. I’m sure there’ll be things to say about it then.

Until then, take care, if you have loved ones in reach, hug em, and I’ll see ya in the new year.

-ctan

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Not my usual monthly update… (got married)

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 10:40:54 GMT

Yeah, so… biggest news of the week is that corwin and I got married.

You might be surprised to find that, given all the romance I’ve written, I considered myself “anti-marriage.”

I’ve never been anti-love, of course. I’ve always been a fan of soulmates finding each other. It was just “marriage” that made me itch.

When I was a teenager I rebelled against most things that required me to perform femininity. So I never fantasized about wedding dresses or diamond rings or being a bride. (I fantasized about swordfighting and bonding with dragons and piloting a starship.) By my twenties, I didn’t want to participate in any institution that my same-sex coupled friends were barred from.

By my thirties, gay weddings were becoming fashionable but not yet legal, and I was against the state having a say in my relationships.

But then same-sex marriage was legalized here in Massachusetts, the first state to do so, in 2004, thanks to a decision by our supreme court. My city, Cambridge, flung open the doors to City Hall at midnight, sat a marriage clerk right in the lobby, and started welcoming couples in. Hundreds of people gathered outside to cheer every time a newly married couple emerged from the building.

That’s the City Hall where corwin and I got married this week.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Announcing: new Cecilia Tan paranormal series to Tor Books

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 07:03:12 GMT

Whew! At last I can tell you all the news! We’ve been working on a project for quite a while now and I can finally officially announce that my upcoming new paranormal series, THE VANISHED CHRONICLES, will published by Tor Books!

I’ve long admired Tor as a publishing house. When I founded Circlet Press back in 1992, Tor founder Tom Doherty gave me some of my first and best advice about book publishing. Over the years I’ve only remained impressed with the quality of Tor’s list and if you look on my shelves you’ll see many of my favorite books bear the Tor logo, like Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart and Steven Brust’s The Phoenix Guards. To be joining them is beyond exciting.

THE VANISHED CHRONICLES will be a paranormal/urban fantasy series where I play with two of my favorite things: 1) BDSM, and 2) the idea that magical world co-exists with our own but non-magical folks have gotten the details wrong. In THE VANISHED CHRONICLES I’ll explain where all those myths about vampires come from. “Vampires” may not be real, but an ancient cult of blood magic? Yes, please!

If you read my Magic University books you know I like to mix ancient prophecy with modern sexuality. So there will be passion, power, eroticism, magic, love, et cetera. The first book is tentatively scheduled to come out in Spring 2017, so you’ve got a while to anticipate it.
If you’d like to keep up to date on my progress, and maybe even get sneak peeks of some sexy scenes, there’s always my monthly email newsletter. Sign up here:
Cecilia’s Mailchimp List

(P.S. Note about the term “paranormal” — I’m using it somewhat interchangeably here with “urban fantasy.” The series will have a romantic pairing in each book, but will have an overarching plot, so some might count that as paranormal romance, some might count that as urban fantasy. I count it as both, basically…)

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Book news: Initiates of the Blood publication delayed

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 07:00:26 GMT

Oh, the ups and downs of publishing. I figured I better post about this since some of you are starting to wonder… hey, weren’t you supposed to have a book come out around now?

If you’ve been following me any time since 2013, you might have heard me mention The Vanished Chronicles, my sex magic urban fantasy series, that Tor Books bought back then. At one point the first book was slated for release in 2016, but that turned out to not be a realistic target. However, I really didn’t expect it to take an additional three years for it to see the light of day. But that seems to be what’s happening.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

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Let’s Talk About Fear (and erotica)

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 21:36:46 GMT

Thinky Thoughts: Let’s Talk About Fear

Welcome to the spookiest month of the year! I figure this is a great time for some thinky thoughts about fear—specifically how crucial fear is in erotic fiction. For me, at least.

I was a fraidy cat as a child. I was one of those kids who would see Godzilla on television and then not be able to get to sleep for weeks, because I was convinced that Godzilla was definitely coming out of the sea that very night to step on our house. Or that space aliens were coming to kidnap me. Or whatever other horrible thing I could imagine.

What was extra-confusing to my parents is that things other kids were afraid of—like talking to adults, or jumping into the deep end of swimming pool, or snakes—didn’t bother me at all. My mom talked to the school psychologist about it and was told that “gifted” kids with vivid imaginations were prone to such terrors.

Tell her it’s just her imagination, they said. That went okay, I guess, when the reason I couldn’t sleep was my fear of “giant germs that could come through walls.” (No idea where I got that idea from…Star Trek, maybe? Or Space 1999?)

The “just your imagination” strategy failed, though, when …

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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"The Bonds of Love" Erotic Romance Novella now out from Cecilia Tan

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 08:30:18 GMT

At long last, SILK THREADS, my romance project with Midori and Laura Antoniou (which we Kickstarted last year) is now available to the public widely for the first time! All three erotic romance novellas, one by each of us, can be bought either as one collected book under the title SILK THREADS, or you can buy the novella(s) separately.

Jiro‘s lineage once proudly served the nobility as samurai: protectors of royalty with a legacy of sword and rope. But though rich in tradition, in the modern age the family is penniless. And after cataclysmic events, Jiro has lost everything, including everyone he ever cared about and maybe even his mind. He is kept in a hospital amnesia ward, catatonic and unspeaking until a charity visit from the Crown Princess rouses him miraculously.

Ami is the sole heir of the Emperor, fresh out of Harvard and looking to both sow her wild oats and create real change for women in her role as a public figure. But her father and his head of security want her kept safe and sound: caged like a bird for her protection.

Ami will do anything to get out from under their control. Little does she know there are true dangers waiting for their chance to strike, a chance that comes when the princess slips away from her bodyguards and disappears in disguise into the underground world of sex clubs and rope bondage performers. Will the disguise be enough to keep her safe from the assassins on her trail? And what about this mysterious stranger, this Jiro, who seems fated to meet her again? What will she receive when she surrenders herself, bound and helpless, to his rope bondage: unbearable pleasure or ultimate pain?

Silk Threads: Three Tales of Passionate Japan
by Laura Antoniou, Midori, and Cecilia Tan
$6.99 ebook
ISBN ISBN: 9781626015296
Download Silk Threads from: Smashwords | Riverdale Ave | Amazon | Apple | and more!

Three authors, three erotic romance novellas.

Bound together by a common magical thread, each novella tells a story of romance and passion unlike any other, exploring both paranormal and BDSM themes. Set in a Japan of the mythic past, the paranormal present, and a cyberpunk future, the three novellas showcase the imaginations of three pioneers of sexuality in fiction.

Focusing on women’s erotic power and desires, each story features individual quests for love, intimacy and the discovery of far-reaching potential within the central protagonists. From the legendary creatures of traditional Japanese fables to an atomic age embodiment of existential anxiety and into a cultural paradigm shift, magical silk weaves each generational story into an exploration of romantic cravings.

It was truly fun to work on this project together, and the Kickstarter was a blast, but now it’s time to have the book in the capable hands of a publisher, who can put it into many stores and outlets that we couldn’t do ourselves. They’ve also put it onto NetGalley and are publicizing throughout the trade. The joy of having a publisher means they do so many things that an indie author would either have to do themselves or pay someone to do, but they pay us!

So if you missed the Kickstarter or have just been waiting for one of the novellas to be available as a separate piece, your moment is here! Enjoy!

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Resigning my Membership in RWA

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 08:25:09 GMT

It has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me since December 23rd when the news broke that Courtney Milan was being censured by RWA, for reasons that were quickly revealed to be bullshit, opening a Pandora’s box of institutionalized racism, machiavellian social climbing, manipulative staffing, tails wagging the dogs, and so on. I pulled my book from the RITAs–but they later cancelled the awards and refunded all entry fees anyway. I then went to resign my membership, but realized it was up in February anyway. So I kept access to the forums and emails just in case things really turned around.

They haven’t. I was mostly happy to see the communique from the recently hired DEI consultant, Michelle Silverthorn of Inclusion Nation, but there is still so much to be done to regain my trust… I’m not sure the organization ever will at this point. And this is what I told them in my resignation letter, emailed today when a renewal notice popped up that said:

“Dear Cecilia, Thank you for another year as a member of Romance Writers of America. We know it has been a challenging one, and we appreciate you sticking with us. We have already begun building RWA 2.0, and in the year to come (and beyond) we are embracing a new chapter as an inclusive and equitable organization. We value your voice and your vision, and we hope you choose to remain a member to join us in this important work.”

I really want to believe those words. I do. But I feel burned by the ways that RWA has performed in the past.
I wrote:

Thanks for the reminder, but I’ve decided to resign my membership. I just can’t be a part of RWA any longer.

I didn’t join when I pivoted my career from erotic science fiction/fantasy into romance back in 2008-2009 because of all the garbage I had heard about racism, bigotry, and small-mindedness in the RWA. I had heard stories from other authors about how if I was writing anything erotic, kinky, queer, or featuring non-white characters (*all* of which I do) I could expect to be condescended to and that the information and contacts I would make would be of limited use.

Then Sylvia Day was elected president. Sylvia was important to me for multiple reasons, including the fact she wrote kinky erotic romances and that she, like me, is half-white/half-Asian. Talking with her at a book conference and then reading some things she had written as president convinced me to stick my head into RWA National in 2011 and attend my local conference. Shortly after that Courtney Milan–who, like me, is an outspoken advocate for diversity on Twitter and also half-white/half-Asian–joined the board, and I was convinced that things were truly changing. I joined. I entered the RITAs. I taught workshops at RWA national and for various regional chapter conferences, even keynoting a few. At the most recent conference in New York, between the diversity represented by the incoming board members and the statement made by the 2019 RITA award ceremony, I really believed the needed changes were truly taking root and that RWA was an institution that I could be invested in for a long time.

I don’t believe that anymore. That magical RITA night is forever tainted. It now feels like that ceremony used the voices of those trailblazers like Sandra Kitt and Radclyffe to paste a “politically correct” image onto a deeply racist, bigoted organization. And I don’t want to be used that way.

It’s going to take a lot to bring me back at this point. To borrow a phrase from Elizabeth Warren, it’s going to take “big, structural change.” RWA needs to be proactive on many fronts, not just regarding equity and inclusion within membership and its structure, but to be the powerful advocate for authors that it truly should be. RWA should be taking strong stances against delinquent publishers, against monopolistic practices by Amazon, against rights grabs by the Big 5, and many other issues facing romance authors today. I’ll be watching and hoping for that change to come. If it doesn’t, it’s not in the best interest of my career (or my mental health) to uphold a rotten status quo.

Thanks for listening.

-Cecilia Tan, Writer & Editor

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Re-live the magic of the Harry Potter films with Cecilia Tan

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 08:23:25 GMT

It’s no secret how much I love Harry Potter. Heck, for years I’ve been featured in many publications talking about my fandom and how after 15 years of being a professional fiction writer I started writing Harry Potter fanfic for fun. (Like this one or this podcast or this one, or this one…)

So when I heard my longtime literary agent and now publisher of Riverdale Avenue Books, Lori Perkins, was going to try to launch a line of books called The Binge Watcher’s Guides, and she was going to want to sign up many writers to each do their favorite TV and film series, I jumped on the chance to be the one to write the book on the Harry Potter movies!

To get the book and series off the ground, we’re running a Kickstarter, which will help to not only pay me a good rate, but raise the money needed for the kind of promotion and publicity necessary to compete in today’s book publishing market, which is tougher than ever. The campaign launched Wednesday, topped its first thousand dollars by Friday, and is well on the way to not only making the initial goal but hopefully reaching the all-important stretch goals, too!

To back the campaign: https://bit.ly/HPbingewatch

Among the rewards, which of course include the book, I’m also offering some virtual tarot card readings, and some other really fun stuff, like recipe cards for foods and drinks to make and serve at your Harry Potter movie marathon party!

The book includes tons of research I did, including dozens of fascinating casting stories, film-making innovations, and analysis of the place of the film series as a force in modern pop culture.
I’ve also got tips for throwing a binge-watch party, and advice on how and when to introduce the films to children for the first time. And of course recaps of each film, and a section for film fans on things you might want to know from the books.

Among the things I had forgotten until I went and looked back at it was the fact that the first film debuted right after the September 11th attacks. I think we were all ready for a little escape into a magical world at that point…

And I think during the pandemic people are looking to escape again, only this time from the safety of our own living rooms. There’s never been a better time to do a binge watch of a series, really.

So if you’d like to re-live the magic of discovering the Harry Potter films for the first time, or if you ARE discovering the films for the first time, come along with me to Hogwarts and beyond!

All backers get a discount off the regular retail price of the book and/or ebook, as well as exclusive rewards that can only be gotten through the Kickstarter.

Click to support: https://bit.ly/HPbingewatch

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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English is Weird, Man…

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 03:25:12 GMT

I started drafting this entry while traveling in the UK. And while I am a “native English speaker,” I’m an American, and so hearing the English speak English always comes with some wee disconnects in my brain.

For one thing, posh British accents are so often used in Hollywood to indicate villainy. Have you noticed that? I’m not sure how much of that is the historical reliance on all those theater-trained British actors to play the heavy, and how much is a kind of Revolutionary War holdover here in the former colonies?

This was in my mind when we went to see some Shakespeare at The Globe: a production of Richard III with an all-female/AFAB cast which characterized RIII as a Trumpian womanizer. (“When you’re king, they just let you do it.”) I quite enjoyed the cognitive dissonance of the cross-gendered casting and the way it highlighted the theme of the many female characters in the story opposing him. But I had to remind myself that the British accent wasn’t one of the affectations to make Richard seem even more evil!

The other thing is that so much British English sounds, well, vaguely smutty? I think maybe that’s because so much of the British English that survives in American carries with it a kind of Victorian repression or understatement in it, where non-dirty words are used to stand in for the vulgar ones. The result is that sometimes a station announcement on the Tube produced snickers from not only me, but also, for example, drunk Australians. (“Cockfosters…! Wherezzat!”)

You could play erotic Mad Libs with the names on the National Rail. “He dropped his Hassocks to reveal Burgess Hill. Her Hayward Heath tingled.”

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Blogging BookExpo America, Thursday night

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 00:49:39 GMT

I arrived a bit late to NYC today, thanks to much traffic along the Bolt Bus route. Still, $14 one way to get me to a major trade show was too good a deal to pass up. In these tough economic times, if it weren’t for the $14 bus, I’d probably be skipping the convention completely.

For those who don’t know, BookExpo America is the annual gathering of the business side of book publishing. Years ago it was known as the ABA Convention, and was run by the American Booksellers Association, and handing out catalogs and chatting up mom & pop bookstores was the order of the day. Now that there are hardly any independent bookstores left (when I went to my first ABA convention there were about 5000 indie bookstores in the USA, and now there are about 500), the show is more about subsidiary rights, and connections between all the inter-related businesses of publishing, including printing and marketing and multimedia and on and on.

There is still much catering to booksellers and librarians, but also a lot of other stuff.
My evening started at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund party/fundraiser at Hudson Terrace. As I Tweeted when I arrived, the venue was way swank. I had fun chats with lots of folks including my old friend Glenn Haumann, who was possibly the very first person to try to get me into ebooks like 10 years ago. He’s no longer in the ebook biz, but in comics, in a very web-presence-driven company called ComicMix. Also shook hands with Charles Brownstein, the head honcho at CBLDF. The party was lively but the main topic of conversation running through the room is the “Handley manga case“–specifically the very recent news that Handley, an Iowa man charged with child porn for owning manga, has pled guilty.

In short: the fact that the government can see fit to enter your private home, look through your private library, and declare ownership of a piece of fantasy literature you have as illegal, label you a pervert and send you to jail for it, is UTTERLY CHILLING. “Sets constitutional law back by generations,” Brownstein said.

By the way, the CBLDF takes DONATIONS.

I then caught a cab over the the Lambda Literary Awards to try to arrive in time for the after party, since I am far too poor to consider attending the actual awards reception and ceremony. While there I caught sight of Judy Grahn, whom I had never met but had spoken to on the phone back in the days when I worked at Beacon Press (twenty years ago… yeah). Caught up with Michael Lowenstein, Ron Suresha, Michele Karlsberg, and a few other folks. Ironically, Lowenstein and Suresha are New Englanders, so of course I had to come all the way to NYC to chat with them…

The actual after party was at the W Hotel nearby but by then I was pooped and wanted to get on the bus headed to the Bronx where I am couch surfing. (Did I mention we’re doing this trip on the cheap?)

I logged in to post this blog and couldn’t help but see the most recent Publishers Lunch newsletter had arrived, with coverage from today’s BEA sessions! (If you’re not subscribing to Free Lunch, you’re missing out.)

I was most annoyed to see the following from author Sherman Alexie, who spoke on a panel of top selling authors talking about the book business.

When talk turned, as it inevitably does now, to electronic reading [Lisa] Scottoline believed the effect of the Kindle and other electronic devices is additive; but Alexie was blunt in his objection: “I saw a woman in the audience with a Kindle and I wanted to hit her.” He also explained why his work is not available digitally: “I think [electronic reading] is the opposite of the Gutenberg press, and that machines promote elitism”, while adding his opinion stemmed from growing up poor with “limited access to technology.” It isn’t that Alexie is a Luddite, but that the “physical presence of book – turning pages, sitting in the bathtub, the relationship to book won’t be the same. It distances us from the book. Only a certain kind of book sells well electronically and thus limits what publishers will make available in that format. Eccentric writers will have even more difficulty getting books published. As a result the Kindle will homogenize literature even more.”

He is SO WRONG. But then again he is a heterosexual man (I think) whose issues are wholly different from mine. Ebooks are the bastion right now of all the genres that people want to read but which have been categorically and consistently excluded from the bookstores and the mainstream publishing channels. Where else is male/male fantasy erotica written by women for women thriving? Eccentric writers have a better chance than ever of finding their niches and no longer rely on being banged into the round holes that the publishing business insists the square pegs fit into or be ignored entirely.

For too long the book publishing industry’s only customer who counted was not the end reader, but the bookstore. Now that the indies are greatly reduced, and the chain stores rule the roost, what gets published is driven by the tastes (and guesses that publshers try to make about the tastes) of a small handful of individuals.

Ebook publishers cut the bookstore’s tastes and preferences out of the chain and go straight for the people who really matter, the actual readers.

More tomorrow. I will be tweeting as the show goes along from https://twitter.com/ceciliatan.

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Starting August 1: an erotic steampunk adventure

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 14:41:48 GMT

So….. I’ve been threatening to start publishing some erotic fiction over on my Patreon for a while now and I’m finally organized enough to get it going.

As a kind of test run before we do anything longer, I’m going to start with an erotic steampunk adventure entitled The Blossoms of Summer, which is an epistolary tale of an airship adventure told through a brave adventuring botanist’s letters and diary entries.

It’ll run every day for six days, starting on August 1.

Here’s the official description that will go on the book, which will launch after the serial runs:

Botanist Robert Meriweather has been tasked by the Continental Occident Company to travel beyond the known lands of Canton to search for the “the Blossoms of Summer,” secret and hidden specimens of such breathtaking beauty that the mere sight has caused men to forsake their homelands. Robert’s orders are to bring these “forbidden flowers” back to England, where all of society’s rewards—and his betrothed, Livia—await him.

Robert soon finds himself on an unexpectedly erotic adventure, in which he must abandon all his Victorian social moires to succeed in his mission. But he will never abandon Livia and his dream of marrying her as a gentleman of standing.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Are we in a Golden Age of Queer & Trans SF/F?

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 08:36:00 GMT

Hello and welcome to another ctan monthly updatet! It’s Pride Month, so today let’s talk about queer science fiction and fantasy.

First some housekeeping: Mailchimp has been driving me nuts, with the newsletter sometimes displaying so tiny on mobile devices it was illegible. I’m trying on a new template today, with new fonts. Please let me know if this one looks better to you (or worse!) than before so I can keep improving it.

Second, my apology this is a bit later than I intended, but I had knee surgery on Wednesday and as you can imagine it’s put a bit of a cramp into my schedule. I’ve discovered I would rather have my knee hurt and my brain work than be “pain free” but feel seasick from narcotics. Apparently opioids are not my friends! Bleah.

And now to my slightly linkbait-y topic: are we in a “Golden Age” of queer and trans SF/F? Yes, yes we are, end of essay.

Just kidding, of course I’m going to explain WHY my answer is yes.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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I went chasing the aurora… and caught it!

Sat, 18 May 2024 05:01:13 GMT

Last night we went seeking the wonders of the world. And we found them.

I had read on Twitter early in the evening that a “geomagnetic storm” was going on and that there would likely be amazing auroras to be seen, but corwin and I both had to work until 9pm and I didn’t even think of going hunting for it. But after we’d finished dinner, around 11 o’clock at night, I saw a photo on Twitter taken from the bay in Salem, Massachusetts, that looked spectacular. Sure it was a long exposure photo, but Salem does not exactly have dark sky conditions and is very far south of where one normally thinks of seeing auroras.

I showed it to corwin.

“Want to go?” he asked.

“I’ll put on pants,” I replied.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Going to Great Lengths to Definitely Not See the Sun

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:06:48 GMT

The total solar eclipse as seen from Colebrook, New Hampshire, with Venus visible in the sky and the sunset effect through bare trees.

In this newsletter

Thinky Thoughts: Going to Great Lengths to Definitely Not See The Sun
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles new vols 1, 2, and 3 are live!
Free read: my oldest story on the Internet
Book rec: The Night Eaters
RomCon in Ashland, May 18th! Neon Hemlock live on May 22!
Photos from ICFA!
WIP Report: dragons are eating my brain!
A recipe: Scones!
One Featured Backlist Book: Wild Licks

Thinky Thoughts: Going to Great Lengths to Definitely Not See the Sun

After seeing the total solar eclipse in 2017, and noticing that a 2024 eclipse trip would land on my birthday weekend, we started planning to see it right then. A year ago we booked our hotel, rental car, and flights to Austin, Texas, which would normally have the highest chance of being sunny in early April of anywhere in the country. By contrast, New England typically has the highest chance of being cloudy. So it made sense to plan well in advance to go to Texas.

However, Mother Nature had other ideas.

Our flight TO Texas was cancelled because New England was experiencing a nor’easter with ice pellets being driven by 60 mph wind gusts. Because we were going to be delayed by a day or more, we lost our rental car reservation. AND for the entire week leading up to when we were supposed to leave, we’d been watching the cloud cover predictions and Texas was looking like it might be entirely clouded over along the path of totality.

Well. I took the cancelled flight as a sign. We did not go to Texas.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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Occam’s Razor is Wrong, Sharang Biswas is Right (my March newsletter)

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 15:17:03 GMT

In this newsletter:

Thinky Thoughts: Occam’s Razor is Wrong
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles new covers live at LGBTQ Reads!
Newsletter Guest: Sharang Biswas! And an actual cover reveal!
Book recommendation of the month: The Radiant Emperor Duology by Shelley Parker-Chan
See you in Orlando, FL, later this week! In Ashland (MA) on May 18th! And at the SFWA Nebulas conference in June!
WIP Report: *muahahaha* (I got bit by a dragon romantasy plot bunny)
Would you like a free book?
One Featured Backlist Book

Thinky Thoughts: Occam’s Razor is Wrong

This has been bugging me for years now, but especially in the world of social media, arguments are most often “won” by those who can make the shortest, most direct case for their point of view. Simplicity is king.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a punchy encapsulation, like PennyRed’s recent essay on why we don’t love Harry Potter anymore, (from Realms of the Imagination, the companion book to the British Museum’s recent Fantasy exhibit) which contains the nicely nindblowing insight that it isn’t just that JK Rowling went “full TERF,” it’s that the promise of the Wizarding world itself was that a neoliberal status quo would save us, when that’s actually led to Brexit, new rise of right-wing fascism, wage disparity, etc. As she writes:

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from cecilia tan.

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I am having "book hangover"

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 00:09:42 GMT

I am having that kind of book hangover where I just read such a good book I don't want to start another book that might be inferior to it? It sounds funny, I'm sure. I don't necessarily want a book that is anything like the same tone or genre, it just has to be as good, as enjoyable, to keep the "loving reading" feeling going.

(The book was LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by Ryka Aoki, btw, and I feel like I've been on a nice streak of reading awesome books since my brain started to work again this year...)

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ceciliatan

BDSM for Romance Writers Class: April 29th

Feeling very knife-y today

New story at Sunday Morning Transport! *rocket emoji*

Seattle Worldcon Report

My Readercon Schedule!

Disney, my Dad, and the Very Bisexual T-Shirt

MAGIC UNIVERSITY is launched!! Read an excerpt…

“A magic school book, but make it queer”

Arisia 2025 and Capricon 45 Schedules

Writing and career news

DGC VOLS 1-10 ARE IN KU

WIP Report

Tour Dates & Upcoming Appearances

More About Readercon

Let’s End with a Book Recommendation

Not my usual monthly update… (got married)

Announcing: new Cecilia Tan paranormal series to Tor Books

Book news: Initiates of the Blood publication delayed

Let’s Talk About Fear (and erotica)

"The Bonds of Love" Erotic Romance Novella now out from Cecilia Tan

Resigning my Membership in RWA

Re-live the magic of the Harry Potter films with Cecilia Tan

To back the campaign: https://bit.ly/HPbingewatch

Click to support: https://bit.ly/HPbingewatch

English is Weird, Man…

Blogging BookExpo America, Thursday night

Starting August 1: an erotic steampunk adventure

Are we in a Golden Age of Queer & Trans SF/F?

Just kidding, of course I’m going to explain WHY my answer is yes.

I went chasing the aurora… and caught it!

Going to Great Lengths to Definitely Not See the Sun

Thinky Thoughts: Going to Great Lengths to Definitely Not See the Sun

Occam’s Razor is Wrong, Sharang Biswas is Right (my March newsletter)

In this newsletter:

Thinky Thoughts: Occam’s Razor is Wrong

Daron’s Guitar Chronicles new covers live at LGBTQ Reads!

Newsletter Guest: Sharang Biswas! And an actual cover reveal!

Book recommendation of the month: The Radiant Emperor Duology by Shelley Parker-Chan

See you in Orlando, FL, later this week! In Ashland (MA) on May 18th! And at the SFWA Nebulas conference in June!

WIP Report: *muahahaha* (I got bit by a dragon romantasy plot bunny)

Would you like a free book?

One Featured Backlist Book

Thinky Thoughts: Occam’s Razor is Wrong

I am having "book hangover"

New story at Sunday Morning Transport! rocket emoji

WIP Report: muahahaha (I got bit by a dragon romantasy plot bunny)