C.S.E. Cooney's Blog

September, and I’m lucky…

(…that I remembered to write at all)

Dear ones, this is mirrored from my newsletter, but it bears repeating; this month bodes to be full of excitement, with more shenanigans yet to come!

Live EventsCharm City Spec at Ivy Bookshop 

First off—it’s this week!

When? Saturday, September 6th, 6:30 PM Eastern

Where? The Ivy Bookshop. 5928 Falls Road, Baltimore, MD 21209

What? This month’s Charm City Spec is celebrating  Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, just lately published by Essential Dreams Press. (Read their newsletter here!) 

I missed this anthology’s launch at Readercon this last July, so I’m so happy to hop on an Amtrak train to Baltimore and read with some of my fellow authors!

(More details here at the event page: The Ivy Bookshop presents “Charm City Spec: September Edition.”)

If you haven’t gotten your copy of Storyteller yet, here’s a link to all the places you can order it—or ask your library to order one in! 

Here’s a bit from the reviews so far:

”…Packed with diversity, supercharged with emotional and philosophical revelation, and full of surprises and power, Storyteller is a special ‘must have’ acquisition for readers and libraries who have felt the power of Tanith Lee’s voice and will be delighted to find it mirrored by her most ardent fellow writers.” —Midwest Review of Books

“Storyteller is a brilliant tapestry of tales, elegantly illuminating and excavating fantastical worlds. The same fire – profoundly profane, yet almost holy – that lit Tanith Lee’s stories burns brightly here. A fitting tribute to the Queen of Word Witches.”—A.G. Slatter, award-winning author of The Crimson Road

“Sixteen authors, including big names like Martha Wells, Andy Duncan, and Nisi Shawl, celebrate the late World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Tanith Lee in this passionate and playful anthology of stories inspired by her work…The result is both a fitting tribute to a master and an enchanting compendium in its own right.”—Publishers Weekly

Book Launch for Martin Cahill’s Audition for the Fox

Our dear friend Marty is debuting his novella Audition for the Fox, and I get to be in a book talk with him ! 7 PM! Astoria Bookshop is hosting the event, and you can buy your tickets and book here!

When? Tuesday, Sep. 16th, 2025, 7:00 PM–8:30 PM

Where? Thespis Theater at Hellenic Cultural Center of NYC, 25-02 Newtown Ave, Astoria, NY 11102

Here’s what I wrote about Marty’s  Audition for the Fox :

“Fox-fleet and brazen, merry and mischievous, haunted by mercies: Martin Cahill’s Audition For The Fox has the trick of doling delight. The language leaps and laughs, teeming with a trickster’s teasing. This book made me happy: both while I was reading it, and long after I’d finished.” 

―C. S. E. Cooney, author of Saint Death’s Daughter

Awesome Virtual Stuff Monday, September 16th, 7 PM–8 PM Eastern
Fiction: Impossible

Our Fiction: Impossible program is back at my Twitch channel, The Phoenix Quill Tavern, after our summer break! 

This time, we’re hosting guest star Matthew Kressel, author of recent release Space Trucker Jess! You can subscribe to Matt’s newsletter here! I will do another newsletter introducing him and his book more fully. But for now—ready your calendars!

Both Carlos and I read his SF novel and ADORED it, so we can’t wait to chat with Matt about his book, what he’s reading, what games he’s playing, and also hear a bit from the novel itself.

Stream us live on twitch.tv/csecooney, Monday, September 16th, 7 PM – 8 PM Eastern!

Here’s what Carlos wrote about Space Trucker Jess:

“If Philip K. Dick had a vision of a protagonist as gutsy Katniss Everdeen hyperdriving her way through a Gibsonesque cyberpunk galaxy, he might have imagined Space Trucker Jess—minus the humor and voice that are singularly Matt Kressel’s. Wild, philosophical, inventive and totally unpredictable, Space Trucker Jess is a recklessly paced slow burn that will take you on a journey through a warts-and-all universe where the stakes couldn’t be higher, nor nearer to the human heart.
— Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal & Gabi Break the Universe

Here’s what I wrote:

“Like its titular protagonist, Space Trucker Jess is foul-mouthed, funny, hungry, lonely, and tripping balls. It’s poetry and philosophy and science and religion and friendship, streaking by at light speed, a radioactive burn in the black. Matthew Kressel’s slangy prose sucks you in like a black hole, and like a black hole, is singular in the ‘verse.”
— C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Saint Death’s Daughter

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

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 of authors and editors.

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

Otherwise, here are the basics:

Who:

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

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!

(Sign up for a Twitch account if you want to join the chat! Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy!)

New Game

For fans of Carlos Hernandez (my beloved esposo and also the award-winning author of Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, various Marvel comics including the Strange Academy trilogy The Deadly Field Trip, and the absolutely awesome short story collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria), hark! PLAYERS OF GAMES, hear ye!

I wanted to let you know that Carlos has a new INTERACTION FICTION out. It’s called The Burger Meme Personality Test (Not an actual personality test). And it is BONKERS!

Anyone who wants to play it—and any of the other interactive fiction games on the Interactive Fiction Competition website—can do so here! Anyone who plays and rates five of the games can turn in a ballot!

(I got to help sing the theme song as the credits rolled. I got to use SO MANY VOICES. It’s one of my favorite feelings. That feeling of being a village of clowns. That feeling that Mel Blanc must have felt every day he recorded voices for a Looney Tunes cartoon.)

More soon, but farewell for now! Thank you for reading!

Yours truly,

C. S. E. Cooney

Octet at Hudson Valley Shakespeare

Well, we saw OCTET last night, by Dave Malloy (of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and Ghost Quartet), a chamber choir musical, produced by Hudson Valley Shakespeare and directed by Amanda Dehnery.

It was mind-slapping. Like, electric shock after electric shock. Like tapping into the smorgasbord of anxieties and tech addiction in the digital age and making it analogue AND a cappella and EMBODIED right there for your eyes and ears and muscles and connective tissues and bones.

There’s an original cast recording from 2019 on Spotify to listen to—please do!—but, if you can, also hop a train up to Garrison, flag a Lyft and see this cast, this director, this show.

You can even get a picnic box right there at the restaurant. The show’s under a tent outdoors, and they provide bugspray and everything. It’s the most summer-like and alive and astounded I’ve felt all year.

I want everyone to experience this thing, somehow.

https://hvshakespeare.org/production/octet/

How It’s Mid-August Already (mirrored from my newsletter)

So, first off, I’ll start with this week. Carlos and I are running a workshop—”Playful Storytelling: Fresh Ideas from Other Genres”—on Thursday with the fine people at Meet Your Apex, an offshoot of Apex Magazine. 

The code DOON10 will get you $10 off the registration for live or recording-only, if you’re interested. Find us at reachyourapex.com/playful.

Coupon for our “Playful Storytelling” workshop.

The description is thus:

No matter what genre you’re writing, one of the hardest things to do is to come up with ideas that editors haven’t seen a thousand times before, written with language galvanized by verve, novelty, and identity. Join award-winning authorsCarlos Hernandez and C. S. E. Cooney as they explore writing in different genres through exercises that will show you the transferable skills you already have while giving you delightful new tools to add to your repertoire.

C.S.E. and Carlos will cover forms you may never have tried, such as game writing and comic book writing. Even if you never intend to work within these forms, experimenting with different genres will give you fresh perspectives on your writing and creative new ways to re-envision it.

In this class, you’ll get an overview of different genres and conventions, and learn about the underlying skills that connect them all. You’ll engage in exercises that:

invigorate your language on the sentence levelcenter solid worldbuildingexperiment with different genre structures

Claire and Carlos have over 50 years combined experience in fiction, poetry, comics, game writing, and drama. They have won awards for their writing and have published with major publishing houses. They’re also very different writers from each other. This unique dual perspective provides a wide panoply of ideas applicable to your own writing practices.

You’ll leave this workshop inspired, brimming with ideas, and with the spirt of play that is bound to feed your creative self.

DATE: August 14, 2025 – Thursday

TIME: 1PM ET | 12PM CT | 11AM MT | 10AM PT | 17:00 UTC

I also started a different newsletter, what was it, a week ago? Two weeks ago? But I never finished it.

I was going to tell you all about how our summer con circuit went. I’ll attempt a quick summary now.

We attended the Origins Game Fair, CONvergence (where I was a Guest of Honor!!!), CONfluence (where we were MUSICAL guests, in our band-persona of “Brimstone Rhine”), and GenCon.

C. S. E. Cooney at CONvergence 2025, Minneapolis, MN

Highlights of Origins? I got to sell my books, talk to a lot of readers, but my favoritewas a young person named Trinity, maybe 11 or 12 years old, who had an imagination as big as the sea, and who stood at my table for two hours telling me about sirens and mermaids. She came to one of our panels on Worldbuilding and asked the most interested questions. I was so glad to have met her!

Highlights of CONvergence? SO MANY! Everything! 

My mama flew out for that one, as did my friends Patty Templeton and Brett Massé. My friend Sara Logan, who is local, was also there! And darling Carlos. So I felt surrounded with community.

Also? The CONvergence volunteer staff is the number one staff of anystaff anywhere, and my handler Kyle Dekker was a dream of care and solicitude. He was also a great moderator for all my “solo” panels. 

Also! Tina Connolly and Dr. Mary Crowell came, and we gave our first public review of some of our “The Devil and Lady Midnight” musical theatre podcast! 

(Left to right: C. S. E. Cooney, Dr. Mary Crowell, and Tina Connolly onstage at CONvergence 2025 for the “The Devil and Lady Midnight” concert.

GenCon—where our TTRPG, Negocios Infernales—had its debut! People who pre-ordered through the store have already gotten their games, and Outland is working on fulfillment for our Kickstarter backers. We found five of our backers at GenCon and gave them their games and neoprene maps!

C. S. E. Cooney and Negocios Infernales backer Kathy Brown, making the game fulfillment at GenCon 2025

All copies of our game sold out. Next time, we’ll bring more. Studio 2 Publishing is Outland Entertainment’s distributor, and they were amazing!

Carlos ran three Negocios Infernales games at GenCon through Games on Demand, who were also wonderful, as usual. Games on Demand is an “open gaming event” organization that facilitates finding players for indie games at conventions such as Origins, GenCon, Pax Unplugged, and many more.

“Every game begins unwon,” as the Deck of Destiny likes to say. This is a Negocios Infernales table before the game is played.

We’ve had so many houseguests this summer, including Mike Allen of Mythic Delirium, on his book tour for Black Fire Concerto, and WorldCon’s first Poet Laureate Brandon O’Brien. 

I got to see my beautiful mama several times (she flew out for TWO of my cons!) And my brother Jeremy, who sang with us at CONfluence. And my dad and stepmom, whom we visited in Chicago on our way home. And my brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephews in Pittsburgh, though we did that masked, outside, and from a distance, due to a minor illness on the poor kiddos’ part.

The band Brimstone Rhine at CONfluence 2025, Pittsburgh PA. Left to right: Jeremy Cooney on vocal and guitar, C. S. E. Cooney on vocals, and Carlos Hernandez on ukulele and cajon.

This is day four of being back, day two without houseguests, and the first day I get to sit down and write. So I’m here. 

And now I will go to my fiction. More soon for you, I hope!

This Weekend at Gen Con

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoon/evening, from 4 PM to 8 PM, Carlos and I will be running NEGOCIOS INFERNALES at Games on Demand. That’s in the Westin Grand Ballroom 3, on the Second Floor.

If Carlos or I are in a panel at that hour, the other of us will start the game, but we’ll both join in as soon as we can.

NEGOCIOS INFERNALES will be AVAILABLE to purchase at Gen Con! Studio 2 will be distributing the game in HALL H, at Booth 1929-2029.

Claire’s ScheduleThursday

Remembering Howard Andrew Jones, Thursday, 11 AM

Book Signing and Meet & Greet, 2 PM
C. S. E. Cooney, Richard Dansky, and Shveta Thakrar

For the Loving of the (Writing) Game, Thursday 5 PM

Friday

Coffee Klatch, 11 AM
With C. S. E. Cooney and Johannah Simon

Infernal Salon Writers Workshop, 1 PM

Saturday

Reading Aloud for the Writer or Poet, 1 PM

The Joys of Speculative Poetry, 3 PM

Carlos’s ScheduleThursday

Remembering Howard Andrew Jones, Thursday, 11 AM
Featuring Bryan Young, C. S. E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez, Chris A. Jackson, Erik Scott deBie, Erin M Evans, Gregory A Wilson, Sean C W Korsgaard, Seth Lindberg

Friday

Character Creation 101, 10 AM

Infernal Salon Writers Workshop, 1 PM

Why Writing Middle Grade is Fun, 3 PM

Saturday

Who’s Telling this Story Anyway? 10 AM

Reading Aloud for the Writer or Poet, 1 PM

CONvergence Coupon!

Hey friends! I’m a Guest of Honor this week at CONvergence in MN!

I’m so excited to see people & do MANY panels & signings & concerts & readings & workshops & games!

Not registered yet? Use code SAINTDEATH to get $20 off your 4-day adult badge! cvgcon.org/register

My schedule:

CONvergence: July 3-6Thursday

Infernal Salon, 14:00 (2 PM)

Opening Ceremony 19:00 (7 PM)

Writers Meetup 20:00 (8 PM)

Live D&D RPG! 22:00 (10 PM)

Friday

Concert: The Devil and Lady Midnight: Selected Readings and Music 11:00 AM

Panel: Crafting Characters Readers Care About: 12:30 PM

Panel: What the Filk? SFF Theatre and Music 15:30 (3:30 PM)

Meet and Greet: C. S E. Cooney 17:00 (5 PM)

Game: Negocios Infernales 19:00 (7 PM)

Saturday

Panel: World Building and Mythmaking: 11 AM

Reading: C. S. E. Cooney: 12:30 PM

Filk and SFF Musical Theater Concert: C. S. E. Cooney 15:30 (3:30 PM)

Panel: Swiss Army Writer: The Art of Multidisciplanary Writing 17:00 (5 PM)

Sunday

Brain Hacks and Burnout: an Author’s Musing on the Writing Craft: 12:30 PM

Closing Ceremony 17:00 (5 PM)

This Friday: Poets for World Central Kitchen

THIS Friday, June 27th, 8-10 PM Eastern, is our poetry reading: POETS FOR WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN.

Streaming live on twitch.tv/csecooney

Our goal is to raise $500 for World Central Kitchen! To my delight and gratitude, we’re already halfway there, and we haven’t even begun dropping verse!

Please join us: donate.wck.org/poetsforwck

Schedules: Origins, Convergence, Confluence, and GenCon

Some of this is still fairly loosey-goosey, and I will add more information as I know it!

Origins Game Fair, June 18th-22ndThursday

12:00 PM
The Intersection of Games and Novels
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Kelli Fitzpatrick, C.S.E. Cooney, Jeri Shepherd

Friday

11:00 AM
Networking as a Writer
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg, Addie J. King, Jeri Shepherd, C.S.E. Cooney

4:00 PM
Fantasy+Romance=Romantasy
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Sarah Hans, C.S.E. Cooney, Tracy Ross, James Daniel Ross

Saturday

12:00 PM
Superpowered Characters
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Kelli Fitzpatrick, Mary Fan, C.S.E. Cooney

2:00 PM
Effective Worldbuilding
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Daniel Myers, Cat Rambo, C.S.E. Cooney, Jeri Shepherd

CONvergence: July 3-6
(I’m one of their GUESTS OF HONOR!)Thursday

Infernal Salon, 14:00 (2 PM)

Opening Ceremony 19:00 (7 PM)

Writers Meetup 20:00 (8 PM)

Live D&D RPG! 22:00 (10 PM)

Friday

Concert: The Devil and Lady Midnight: Selected Readings and Music 11:00 AM

Panel: Crafting Characters Readers Care About: 12:30 PM

Panel: What the Filk? SFF Theatre and Music 15:30 (3:30 PM)

Meet and Greet: C. S E. Cooney 17:00 (5 PM)

Game: Negocios Infernales 19:00 (7 PM)

Saturday

Panel: World Building and Mythmaking: 11 AM

Reading: C. S. E. Cooney: 12:30 PM

Filk and SFF Musical Theater Concert: C. S. E. Cooney 15:30 (3:30 PM)

Panel: Swiss Army Writer: The Art of Multidisciplanary Writing 17:00 (5 PM)

Sunday

Closing Ceremony 17:00 (5 PM)

Confluence: July 25th, 26th, 27thSaturday

Saturday Noon: Infernal Salon [Equinox]

An Infernal Salon is a fun, low-stakes writing workshop. Participants are given spooky card prompts, and then we set a timer for 25 minutes. Everyone writes something (or draws! Or composes!). Then everyone who’s comfortable with it shares their infernally-inspired works!

Saturday 2-2:50 PM, Brimstone Rhine Concert

With Carlos Hernandez and Jeremy Cooney

Saturday 5 pm: Writing SF and Fantasy Poetry [Commonwealth East]

Mary Soon Lee, Herb Kauderer, Mary Turzillo, C.S.E. Cooney

GenCon: July 31st-August 3rdThursday

Remembering Howard Andrew Jones, Thursday, 11 AM

Book Signing and Meet & Greet, 2 PM
C. S. E. Cooney, Richard Dansky, and Shveta Thakrar

For the Loving of the (Writing) Game, Thursday 5 PM

Friday

Coffee Klatch, 11 AM
With C. S. E. Cooney and Johannah Simon

Infernal Salon Writers Workshop, 1 PM

Saturday

Reading Aloud for the Writer or Poet, 1 PM

The Joys of Speculative Poetry, 3 PM

Poets for World Central Kitchen

Logo for C. S. E. Cooney’s Twitch channel created by Brett Massé

Dear Community,

Recently, my friend Liz Pino Sparks and I slid into our DMs to share some of our local joys and goings on, and also to lament the world horrors we all have been witnessing. We wanted, so badly to do something.

So we decided to host a night of poets reading their work: to raise our spirits, and more: to raise awareness and funds for World Central Kitchen, which does such great and good and beautiful work in communities “impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises.”

We named a night: Friday, June 27th, from 8 PM to 10 PM.

I’ve known Liz and their spouse Ethan since our high school days at Arizona School for the Arts. Ethan and Liz know many poets from their years of art and education. I, too, know many poets–mainly speculative ones!–and we reached out broadly to ask them to read with us.

I’m so happy to be meeting some of these wonderful people for the first time on Friday, June 27th, and so excited to introduce my poet friends to Liz and Ethan and their poet friends!

And I am so, so fiercely glad that we are setting a goal: to raise $500 for World Central Kitchen that night.

I set up a page–https://donate.wck.org/poetsforwck–since WCK is so kind and made it so easy, both through their website, and a lovely responsive email to my query.

Look! We’re already a 10th of our way to our goal!

We will stream this event live on my twitch channel: twitch.tv/csecooney, and you don’t need a twitch account to stream us. But! If you want to join the chat, and applause in words and emojis, and type out all your favorite lines as you hear them (I love doing this), please grab yourself a twitch handle, and join us!

And now, I am pleased to introduce you to our poets!

Erik Amundsen is an author and poet whose work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Apex, and Jabberwocky. He has been removed from display for being biologically improbable or terrifying to children.

Allisa Cherry, author of An Exodus of Sparks and the 2024 Wheelbarrow Books poetry prize winner, has work in journals such as EcoTheo, The McNeese Review, TriQuarterly, and The Penn Review. Based in Portland, she teaches classes and workshops for immigrants and refugees and is a poetry editor at West Trade Review.”

Drs. Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman are folklorists, teachers, and writers who co-founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, where they teach creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. They also write an absurd amount of poetry together, which you can read in Uncanny, Star*Line, Clarion, and many others.

Gerald Coleman is a philosopher, theologian, poet, Science Fiction & Fantasy author, and Co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets. His poetry and essay collections include Incendiary, Nappy Metaphysic, On the Black Hand Side, and his novels include the epic fantasy trilogy, The Three Gifts. Follow his Patreon at and his website.

C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author whose books include Saint Death’s Daughter, Saint Death’s Herald, Dark Breakers, Desdemona and the Deep, The Twice-Drowned Saint, and Bone Swans: Stories. Her Rhysling Award-winning poem is found in her poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes. She is also game designer, an audiobook narrator, and the singer-songwriter Brimstone Rhine. Find her on social media via her LinkTree https://linktr.ee/csecooney.

Jennifer Crow‘s poetry and prose have been published in a wide range of venues over the past quarter-century. Her poems have appeared in Analog, where two were finalists for the AnLab reader awards; Asimov’s Science Fiction, Uncanny Magazine, and others. Curious readers can learn more about her and her work on Patreon, where she posts under “Poetry from a Crow.”

McKenna Deen (she/her/hers) is the Editor-in-Chief of boats against the current, a poetry magazine that highlights the voices of women, LGBTQ writers, and poets from underrepresented backgrounds. Her chapbook Ever Yours, Vincent — about the life and art of Vincent van Gogh — was published by dancing girl press. Her poems have been published in several journals and poetry magazines, including The Poet, The Los Angeles Review, and Ekphrastic Review, among others. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two cats and loves photography, fresh flowers, and wine.

Adam Deutsch is the author of a full-length collection, Every Transmission (Fernwood Press). He has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Puerto Del Sol, Alchemy, Broken Lens Journal, and South Dakota Review, and has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He’s a Professor in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives with his spouse and child in San Diego, CA. AdamDeutsch.com

Blas Falconer is the author of Rara Avis (Four Way Books 2024); Forgive the Body This Failure (Four Way Books, 2018); The Foundling Wheel (Four Way Books, 2012);  A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007);  and The Perfect Hour (Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2006).  He is also a co-editor for The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity (University of Arizona Press, 2011) and Mentor & Muse:  Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010).

Gwynne Garfinkle lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of a novel (Can’t Find My Way Home) and two collections (Sinking, Singing and People Change), all published by Aqueduct Press. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in such publications as Strange Horizons, Fantasy, Uncanny, and Escape Pod.

Tina Hyland holds a Ph.D. in Literature, an MFA in writing and teaches at the Culture, Art & Technology program at UCSD.

Grant Leuning is a poet and essayist.

Caitlyn Paxson is a writer, performer, and historical interpreter. She has worked as an artistic director of storytelling performances, a book reviewer for NPR Books and Quill & Quire, a fiber arts consultant, a legal document and poetry transcriber, a 19th century jack of all trades, and a shepherdess. She currently interprets haunted historic house museums on Prince Edward Island and moonlights as a fake spirit medium. Her debut novel, A Widow’s Charm, is forthcoming from Del Rey, Doubleday Canada, and Quercus Books in 2026. You can also find her on Instagram or join her monthly newsletter, Book & Bramble.

Silvaticus Riddle (He/They) is a 4x Rhysling-nominated Dark Fantasy/Speculative Fiction Writer & Poet haunting the bones of an old amusement park on the edge of New York City. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in: Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Enchanted Living, Eternal Haunted Summer, Spectral Realms, and Creepy Podcast, among others. He combats despair and entropy with his newsletter, The Goblin’s Reliquary. For all available works, please visit: http://linktr.ee/silvatiicusriddle

David Sklar is thrilled to have survived this long but isn’t sure what to do next. His work has appeared in some journals you’ve heard of, some journals you haven’t, and some that might somehow be both. You can learn more about David at http://davidsklar.blue

Ethan W. Sparks is a graduate of the UCSD writer’s graduate program, a graduate of the USC Rossier School of Education, and a public school teacher practicing inclusive and activist methodologies of teaching.  They are a father of five, a published poet and musician, and a survivor of homelessness spanning the cityscapes of Los Angeles, CA, Cleveland, OH, and Phoenix, AZ.  Their writing focuses on the human diasporic moment of separation from safety in personal and collective apocalypses, on the injection of love as decolonizing affect into education, and on the personal growth that surviving traumas inspires. Ethan’s work has been featured in The Allegheny Review, UCSD’s New Writer’s Series, Now That’s What I Call Poetry reading series, Amor Forense: birds in shorts city, una antologia de cuerpos escribiendo en san diego, and is the author of the chapbook, How to Home from Boats Against the Current magazine.

Liz Pino Sparks is a cross-genre writer, legal scholar, teacher, musician under the name Liz Capra, and a parent of five. They have made homes in: Post Soviet Russia, next to the steel mills of the Cuyahoga River, in the Sonoran Desert, and next to the Pacific Ocean. Liz is a proud grandchild of an Isleta Pueblo grandmother, a Sicilian immigrant grandmother, and generations of New Mexican Rancheros. They hold an MFA from San Diego State University, a JD from CWRU School of Law, and an LLM from CSU. Find their recent collection Generic American Household at Boats Against the Current.

Adam Stutz is a neurodivergent poet whose work has appeared in various print and online publications including The Equalizer: Second Series, White Stag, The Cultural Society, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, Prelude, Be About It, Deluge, Dum Dum Zine, The Pinch, Where is the River, Dream Pop, Cover, and Ghost Proposal. He is the author of the chapbook Transcript (Cooper Dillon Books, 2017) and The Scales (White Stag Publishing, 2018). He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Hanna Tawater is the author of the poetry collections VOID (White Stag, 2022) and Reptilia (Ayahuasca, 2018). She completed her MFA in writing with focus on interdisciplinary poetry at UC San Diego, where she now teaches. Her work has appeared in various publications, both online and in print. She lives in San Diego with entirely too many cats.

Jessica P. Wick is a writer, poet, and editor. She co-founded Goblin Fruit with Amal El-Mohtar, a quarterly e-zine of fantastical poetry, and is a passionate advocate for the reading aloud of poetry and fiction. Her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award and received honorable mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. Her short fiction can be found scattered across the internet, and her experience as an editor runs the gamut, from full-length novels to short fiction, poetry collections to magazine articles, academic papers to audio works. She also reviews books for NPR. She currently lives in Westerly, Rhode Island.

VOD of Mary Soon Lee Interview!

Carlos and I had a wonderful, wonderful time talking about poetry, books, and games with Mary Soon Lee.

The Twitch stream of our chat will be available for the next few weeks, and hopefully I’ll remember to download this one to YouTube for, like, you know, perpetuity!

Watch and listen here, if you need some company on a walk, or when doing dishes, or folding laundry. All the little things.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2463238350

Infernal Salon: UP FOR GRABS!

Carlos & I donated a cache of Infernal Salons to help the LOCUS MAGAZINE CROWDFUND.

What is an Infernal Salon?

It’s a fun, low-stakes writing workshop, high on community, ix-nay on the essure-pray. Participants are given spooky card prompts, and then we set a timer for 25 minutes. Everyone writes something (or draws! Or composes!). Then everyone who’s comfortable with it shares their infernally-inspired works!

If you want us to run a night of artistic writing (or music, or poetry, or art) prompts for you and your friends, your writing or gaming groups, your library, or your classroom (18+), check out this perk on the Locus Magazine fundraiser!