September 2025

Hello readers,

I’m back! Somehow summer has dwindled and with it my newsletter hiatus comes to an end. I put the time to good use by puzzling my way further through book 2 (it’s going well!) and doing some other things, I think? It went by so fast I’m hardly sure. It was definitely a writing heavy summer and that will continue into the fall, but I’m happy to be back here with a few updates. Nothing huge! I know everyone is eager for a title or a date and I don’t have those yet, but some fun things have happened for SASM, and I also read a whole bunch of books that I’m excited to talk about.

Let’s get to it!

• Sorcery and Small Magics is shortlisted for a prize! The New Adult Prize is being launched by the Bookseller this year and I’m delighted and honored that SASM was one of the books chosen for their shortlist. I had no idea this was happening so it was a lovely surprise when my editor reached out with the news. Check out the shortlist here.

• The updated cover for SASM is out in the world! I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about this switch but there isn’t a huge story behind the change. Orbit wanted to tweak the cover a little bit when it went into it’s second printing and so now we have this pretty green version! Everything inside is still the same.

• Since I’ve gotten some new subscribers lately I figure it’s worth reminding everyone that you can get signed copies of SASM from River Bend Bookshop. If you want your book personalized just leave a note in your order with the name exactly as you would like it to be written.

Books: We have three month’s worth of great books to talk about! First up was Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. This was a reread and it held up very well! Marillier has a lyrical style that I really love (check the content warnings though). I remember when I read this as a teen there was one particular character that I felt very drawn to but also frustrated by and now as an adult I can see that what I really wanted from that character was some canonical queerness, but aside from that this one hit a lot of high notes for me. And fortunately I followed it up with A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland, which provided all the queer yearning and romance that I was looking for! This is such a fun read if you like loyal knights bodyguards and their princes being absolutely ridiculous over each other. Which I do. I also enjoyed An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder by K. Valentin, which comes out this fall. This book is fast-paced and quippy, but there’s also real depth to the relationships and I didn’t want to put it down. I wrapped up June with Copper Script, which was, of course, wildly enjoyable because KJ Charles always manages to write romances that have exactly the right ratio of plot to smut, as well as characters with all sorts of interesting sharp edges.

Moving on to July, I read The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, which was quite good fun in a “wow, a lot of bad things sure keep happening to these people” kind of way. Vigga won my whole heart and the running gag about dumplings made me chuckle. Then, because suddenly all my friends were talking about it, I read Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This was a very fast and enjoyable read for me and I can definitely see why it’s so beloved. I ordered the second book immediately. While on vacation I read Single Player by Tara Tai, a wonderful queer romance with all sorts of delightful gaming references that made my nerdy heart very happy. I also read The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson and GOOD GOD! Believe the hype on this one. I haven’t had so much fun reading a chonky epic fantasy in ages.

In August I continued my Vorkosigan saga journey with A Civil Campaign and it was a delight. I laughed out loud. I also cringed many times at the comedy of errors that is Miles’s dating life. This series covers so much ground, everything from tense space opera battles to regency style romance. You never know what you’re going to get from book to book. And then my hold on the second DCC book, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario came in and I liked that one even better than the first! Carl and Donut are absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to read more. And that’s it. I kept going in and out of a reading slump this month, picking stuff up and then putting it down because I was in a weird mood, or because I was too busy to really focus. Ah well, that’s how it goes sometimes.

Shows: Back in June I spent one very enjoyable day binging Dept. Q, which is just the sort of twisty, snarky detective drama I love. Like pretty much everyone else, I watched Kpop Demon Hunters and spent a solid week with all the songs stuck in my head (enjoyably so). Then I spent the next month and a half making my way through The Apothecary Diaries. It’s been a while since I watched anime and it felt nice to find a new one I enjoyed so much. Maomao is a fantastic character. I loved her deadpan delivery. I loved her weird obsessions. I loved how smart she is while also being completely oblivious. I also really liked a bunch of the side characters, and the overall mystery structures. It was great fun.

There are also two shows I’m currently in the middle of watching. The first is Shine, a historical Thai drama that I am loving it so far (I’m two episodes behind and no one is allowed to spoil me on anything). The visuals are great. And yeah, that definitely means that the cast is very attractive, but it’s also just filmed in a very appealing way.

And lastly, I’m rewatching one of my favorite shows of all time, Nirvana in Fire. This is a cdrama from 2015 and it has basically everything I love: angst, a huge cast of characters, confusing plot lines that lead to incredibly satisfying revelations, angst, secret identities, family drama, revenge, and more angst. This is my fourth time watching and it never gets old. I adore it and I think everyone should watch all 54 episodes and then come talk to me about it.